“Kyle, you can’t come back.” Tears dripped off my own chin. “You’d be like Amy, not like me.”
He picked up the strings I had thrown and unraveled one of them. The gray held bits of energy around the metal, glints of not-gray. He stared longingly at Paula and sighed. “I belong here now. And maybe it will be better now that I have the strings. I haven’t been able to play.”
“We’ll listen for the music,” I said softly. “The music is still here. We’ll find it.”
He smiled. “Yeah. That’s good. Never forget the music.”
Roberto’s hands clenched once, and the guitar nearly slid off his lap. The weave drifted closed, slowly.
The ticking of a clock on the wall broke the silence, but none of us spoke.
Kyle must have restrung his guitar quickly because within seconds, the music floated through.
Paula put her fist against her mouth. “He’s not coming back, is he? Not ever.”
I shook my head. “And the weave is dangerous for him. Make your peace with him. That will make things easier for him for as long as he stays In Between. He needs to know you’re okay.”
“Will he always be there? Waiting for us?”
I hesitated. “No one knows. There might come a time after you let him go that he moves on to a better place.” I stared over at the crib. Lisa’s eyes were wide open and her little hand waved. “You’ll know when that happens.”
We didn’t stay, but part of my heart was lodged somewhere In Between.
Damn. Sometimes living hurt almost as much as being dead.
Chapter 39
It took us nearly a week to clean up the mess in The Monastery and the tunnels, but the free food was fabulous, and Tino paid us for the work. I wasn’t certain the exchange was fair, but being low on cash, I didn’t turn down the offer.
Adriel reset the spells, including illusions, on the exits, but she muttered a lot about, “No real way to stop a demon.”
The gargoyle seemed content with his new circumstances, and Tino certainly didn’t complain about having a new resident. Horacio not only helped clean up, he worked a side deal to perform security by perching on the roof at The Owl. He was there more than once when we left there after eating. Anyone else who saw him probably assumed he was a new statue.
Who knows what people thought on the days he was missing, or when they saw me waving at him like an idiot?
Adriel had discovered that the most important books and notes were hidden under a floorboard in what was left of Julia’s bedroom. She took them to someone she called Granny Ruth. The gist of the records revealed that Julia and Amy had studied the occult hoping for a cure for the cancer. Sometime after they started studying, Amy became attached to the idea of not just bargaining for a cure, but for capturing the power of a demon.
The notes became increasingly desperate and rambling after the demon call.
One morning before we started our clean-up chores, Adriel handed me a piece of paper. “Blood donors from the center where Amy worked. Your name might be on the list.”
I stared down at it. Before I could read any of the names, a very small spider skittered across the page.
“Oh, sorry. One of Granny Ruth’s. You get used to them.” Adriel put her finger back on the page, allowing the tiny spider to crawl onto her fingernail. She carefully released it on a nearby statue.
She turned back to me. “Granny Ruth and I copied that page from a printout we found stuffed inside one of Amy’s grimoires. Near as we can guess, Amy was keeping track of blood donors as possible victims to possess. She noted athletic, healthy people in particular, men or women.”
“You think I was there to give blood?”
Adriel rubbed her bracelet. “You were attacked at the park nearby. Maybe you stopped in to donate, and Amy liked your stats. You were in good shape when you were first admitted, according to Patrick.”
“I didn’t have my staff or any other weapon. I must have felt safe. A hospital seems like a secure place.”
White Feather, carrying pieces of hardwood flooring, paused on his way by. “And a blood bank probably wouldn’t be too keen on your walking in there with a weapon for knocking heads.”
“Or maybe I wasn’t as paranoid as I am now.” My staff was never far from me these days. I scanned down the list, but none of the names called to me. Some names had been crossed out. There were doodles and stars next to others.
“Gordon is running background checks on all the names. I’ll let you know what he finds out,” White Feather promised.
“Based on the notes, I’m almost positive Amy died when she tried to possess you. She lived in her own corpse until it started to turn zombie, which wouldn’t have taken more than about three days. Then she hopped over to Ted.” Adriel shivered. “It appears they tried another demon calling to learn the secret to opening and closing the portals. She used that knowledge to travel back and forth. Her mother knew the danger of allowing Amy to possess her so they hunted for other victims instead.”
“And Amy spent her time hiding behind Troy and helping Julia prepare Espy. I hope Espy was the only other victim.”
Adriel clutched her bracelet harder and rocked on the balls of her feet. “Yeah. You were probably the first. Ted was the second. The notes didn’t indicate anyone else helped them, but Amy or her mother stole the two grimoires from somewhere. The original owner might have been a victim too. By the time Amy possessed her mother, it was a last resort for both of them.”
“Did the grimoires really promise that Amy could keep herself alive by calling a demon?” I asked.
Adriel shook her head. “Grimoires can’t be trusted. Their text doesn’t change exactly, but there’s a magical element that allows some people to read certain things. Another person might not see the text at all or see only parts of it. From the notes I saw, Amy dreamed of more than just a healthy body. She had copied text that described demons with flames of gold. There were a lot of dollar signs next to that note and a line that said, ‘Who needs college when you can have a free lunch?’”
“Crap.” I could have told Amy that anything burning along that soul-sucking blackness might be golden in color, but that didn’t mean it would buy you lunch. It might invite you to lunch as the main course, but it wouldn’t be the one paying.
At three in the afternoon the next day, Lynx decided the monastery storage room was close enough to merely “dusty and decaying” as opposed to “requires more repair or it will fall down.” He didn’t bother to tell the others we were leaving. He just took my hand and squeezed my fingers. I followed without releasing his hand.
He drove to Martin’s canyon, the one I’d seen In Between.
Spook came with us. According to the updates Espy had been texting to Lynx, Spook had been over to visit her several times.
After we hiked less than a quarter of a mile, Lynx loped off to check the trail ahead.
Walking across the sand, I felt Kyle and Martin grin with approval. I didn’t miss Martin’s crooning, but every now and then, when the breeze swirled a certain way, picking up the heat of the rocks, maybe I could hear him mixing it up with the earth he so loved. Of course, it was completely possible that he was peeking through the edge, watching. I’d done it enough times, wishing I could cross, seeing people who could not see me.
I smiled and saluted the big blue sky. “Don’t worry. I’m not wasting a single day.”
Lynx reappeared behind me as suddenly as he had disappeared. He moved fast, especially in the desert. “You talkin’ to yourself again?” he asked.
“How do you shift and stay in your clothes?” I asked, ignoring his teasing.
His eyes lit up with the supreme smugness only a cat possessed. “I learned the trick just last year. Tara,” he hesitated, but then continued. “She’s White Feather’s sister. The healer.”
“I remember.” Lynx never seemed comfortable around her, but he’d tell me about it in his own time if it was important.
“She did thi
s thing with tat ink, extracting it from White Feather when he was infected with a bad spell. She figured out how to do it after studying the way I shifted. But I figured if something foreign could be expelled, I could grow through it too.”
“So you just grow hair through your clothes?”
“Pretty much. Took some practice, and there’s a few tricks to it. Only works on cotton and hemp; earth stuff. Silk blocks magic, plus the weave in it is too tight.”
“No wonder your clothes look stretched out all the time.”
He shrugged. “I buy a lot of t-shirts. Doesn’t work with shoes either, so I have to go back and get them all the time.”
That explained why he was often barefoot.
Lynx stared off into the canyon. “Were you talking to Martin? I don’t see him.”
“I haven’t seen him either, but he might be here. The weave thins without opening. I said hello to him and Kyle and maybe Troy just in case they were around. You can’t abandon people just because you’re on a different side of the weave. They’re part of my family.”
Spook trotted over and put his head under my hand.
“And you had to adopt a three-legged dog, too? You couldn’t adopt a cat instead?” Lynx’s whine didn’t hold any real heat.
I smiled. “I adopted one of those too.”
His eyes locked with mine.
Cats can out stare anyone, but he did blink. Lynx made a grumbling noise that was more purr than bite. As he turned his body, he brushed against me. “You planning on staying around for a while?”
I didn’t know if he was asking whether I planned on staying alive or staying with him or staying in the canyon. “As long as you let me?” I guessed.
He leaned close again. “Right around forever then.”
I put my head on his shoulder. “I can live with that.”
Acknowledgments
For my nephew Kyle: You left this world too early and you are missed. Thanks to all my readers who have stuck with me, especially my beta readers. April, thanks for the gargoyle. John Levitt, you added some much needed sanity with your suggestion to streamline the plot. Scamper, you supplied all the rules for feral cats. A special thanks to LeAnn for spending so much time enhancing my simple words.
And to my husband who sticks with me, not only through the books, but the dirty dishes as well.
Other Works
The Moon Shadow series is contemporary urban fantasy: Under Witch Moon, Under Witch Aura, Under Witch Curse, and Ghost Shadow. Adriel is an earth witch working hard to make an honest living. When she finds herself on the wrong end of black magic—it’s either solve the crime or die trying.
The Sedona O’Hala series (Executive Lunch, Executive Retention, Executive Sick Days) is a series of humorous cozy mysteries: Sedona must solve a few crimes while fighting her way up the corporate ladder; mostly she dangles from her fingertips just trying to survive.
Catch an Honest Thief is a stand alone mystery, combining a stealthy caper in the New Mexico desert with high-tech gadgets. Alexia must try to save her career—and her life.
Dragons of Wendal and DragonKin: fantasy adventure with a touch of romance. In the first, Zoe intends to learn magic, but the mages at the university might not be willing to teach her what she needs to know.
Soul of the Desert is an historical adventure of a boy on the run from the mafia. Which is worse, the guns of New York or the dangerous desert of New Mexico?
Tracking Magic (Max Killian Investigations) contains the first story about Troy and Cinderspark. Sage and Black-Tie Bingo are also anthologies. You might also enjoy Year of the Mountain Lion, a short story available in ebook form or as part of the print book, Magical Mayhem.
Ghost Shadow (Moon Shadow Series Book 4) Page 23