by Cady Vance
He shook his head. “Yeah, I was worried that was the case.” He clicked his mouth in some sort of tsking noise. “No one has heard from her. And she’d been getting really paranoid right up until the time of the accident.”
I narrowed my eyes. I didn’t like him talking about my mom that way. Like she’d done something wrong.
His mouth turned up into a half smile. “She stopped trusting everyone, and I’m not surprised she hasn’t gotten in touch with anyone to fix it. I think she was getting into something a little more than she could handle.”
“I’m going to fix it.”
His eyebrows shot up. “And that’s why you’re here?”
“One of the reasons, yes,” I said. “I can get her back. All I need to know is who did this to her.”
His mouth set into a thin line. “I’m not going to stick my nose into it. Whoever did that to her is dangerous, and I want nothing to do with it. You’ll have to find another shaman to help you. A few of her other old friends might be willing to put their sanity on the line.”
“You don’t have to help. I just want someone to give me the name,” I said. “If my mom didn’t trust any other shamans then she had a good reason for it.”
A full-on grin spread across his face. “Your resemblance to your mother doesn’t stop at those eyes of yours.”
Ugh. I didn’t say anything to that. I wanted to show him I was serious. He hadn’t said he didn’t know who the shaman was. He knew something, and somehow, I was going to make him tell me.
He glanced away and sighed before turning back to look me dead in the eyes. “I don’t know who did this to her, but I can tell you how to find out. I’ve got to warn you, though, if it’s been a year and she’s still sick, then I don’t think she has much longer.”
I jerked back as if I’d been slapped. Red dots stormed my vision. I don’t think she has much longer. I wanted to cover my ears and block out his words, but all he was saying was something I already knew and just wanted to ignore. Mom was dying.
“Please,” I said, trying not to sound like I was pleading, but not really caring either way.
“You’re not going to like it. Have you ever had any experience summoning spirits, Holly?” He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “I know your mother hated that particular brand of magic.”
I felt my stomach drop out of my feet. “No, she didn’t teach me.”
“Well, you’re going to get your first taste of it.” He stood from his chair and moved behind his desk. It was then I finally noticed this was an actual office, and with the door propped open, I could see a waiting room just outside. He opened a drawer, rustled around some papers and brought out a small purple bag.
“This,” he said, “is all you need. The rune, the name and the blood are all inside.”
He brought me the bag and dropped it into my lap.
“I don’t understand what you mean,” I said, fingering the silky material.
“A spirit was there,” Dr. Lombardi said. “I know because she told me the name of the spirit she was going to banish on that trip. Summon that spirit, and you can ask who attacked your mother.”
Something inside my stomach was doing flips, prancing around and sinking teeth and claws into my guts so that I felt like I wanted to double over in pain. “I can’t…summon a spirit and talk to it.”
A kind smile lit his face. “Yes, you can. The hard part is what comes next. That spirit won’t give you anything unless you pay him.”
“Pay it?” I squeaked, silently cursing myself for how weak I knew I sounded and looked.
“Yeah, you’ll have to summon him in a human’s place of rest to let him feed.”
I knew my eyes must have been as wide as my mom’s vinyl records. He couldn’t be serious. “There’s no way I can do that.”
He shrugged. “Then, I’m sorry I can’t help you.”
“I don’t understand though,” I said. “Why do I have to summon the spirit to feed? I thought they could go around feeding wherever they wanted.”
“Of course not,” he snapped. “Some wild ones do, but I trapped this one earlier this year. He can’t feed unless I let him.” He leaned forward. “I’m giving you an enormous responsibility by letting you have his packet of summoning. Only allow him to feed in payment.”
I sat there, staring at him, letting the full weight of his words knock me down. I whispered, “I have to let it feed on someone to fix my mom?”
“Now you see why I don’t want to get involved.”
I clutched the material in my fist. “I can’t. People die from that.” But Mom will die if I don’t.
He blinked. “Die? That’s a little dramatic. It would take months for someone to die from spirit exposure, and you won’t be leaving the spirit there for that long. In a day, a spirit will eat a year or two tops of someone’s life. Just give him his payment, and then banish him. Then, bring the bag to me. I understand how you feel. I don’t want to do it either, but if you can hold yourself together, it should be over quicker than you think. And the human will be fine.”
“Why are you calling people humans? It’s not like they’re some sub-species we can sic spirits on!” The two bouncer guys shifted closer to me at the sound of my raised voice. I glanced up, huffed and leaned back into my chair. I jutted out my chin and crossed my arms, not caring how much I looked like a kid having a hissy fit. This wasn’t right.
“Because we aren’t humans, Holly. We’re something else. Our blood is different. Haven’t you ever wondered about that?”
“I am human,” I said. “Not everyone has the same skin color, the same eye color, the same hair. Just because my blood is different doesn’t make me any less human.” I stared him down. “And because I’m human, I know it’s not okay to summon a spirit into someone’s house to munch on them while they’re sleeping.”
“I’m not telling you to do it. I’m just telling you what needs to happen if you want to find out who attacked your mom.” He held out his hand, palm up, just like I always did when I was conning someone. “If you don’t want to do it, by all means, hand me back the summoning packet. I don’t want this spirit out any more than you do.”
And just like how it always worked on whoever I was conning, it worked on me, although I trusted him a little bit less than I had before. I didn’t know if it was paranoia or instinct, but I couldn’t bring myself to believe everything he said. It didn’t stop me from holding the packet closer or from making me feel like I was losing a little bit of the humanity I’d claimed to have. “No, I’ll take it.”
He nodded. “Okay, now it’s important you don’t use only your blood. Also use the blood in the summoning packet.”
“That makes no sense,” I said.
“I told you I trapped the spirit,” he said. “He can’t be summoned unless my blood is used.”
“Your blood is in here?” I held up the bag. Somehow that made it even more disturbing. I didn’t want to be carrying around this guy’s blood. “And I have to mix mine with yours?”
“Yeah, there should be enough in there for you to summon him to ask the questions and then again for his payment. And then just enough to banish him after that.” He nodded as if this were some business transaction, serious and professional. “Now what is this about a shaman named Mark Sampson?”
I hesitated, and then decided to tell him as little as possible while still giving him enough information to do something. “I heard through the rumor mill that this shaman guy was summoning spirits into people’s houses. And I heard one of those people died because of it.”
The warmth fell from Anthony’s eyes. “And you said he’s in Berrytown?”
“That’s right,” I said. “I have the address of his house, too. I mentioned it because…I guess I thought you could do something about it or find someone who could?”
“Of course.” He strode back over to his desk and grabbed a notepad. “Give me the address, and I’ll call a meeting with the Congress. I’m not
a member, but I can still get everyone together. We’ll decide how to take care of it.” He handed me the notepad. “It will probably take a few days to get everything finalized.”
A few days? That seemed like way too long, but I found myself nodding and scribbling the address I managed to recall from memory. His eyes roamed the paper when I handed it back over, and he tapped one thin finger against the pad.
“Don’t worry. We’ll take care of it.” He slid a business card into my fingers. “If you need me for anything, give this number a call.”
I stood to go. Before I reached the door, Anthony touched my arm. I shivered where his skin met mine. “Good luck with your mother.”
CHAPTER 18
I shuffled onto the front stoop with the purple bag clutched to my chest, mind whirring, hopeful half-smile pulling up the corners of my mouth. Nathan sat one step down with elbows on his knees and head in his hands. When he saw me, he leapt up and threw his arms around me.
“They came out and told me you were okay and that you were talking to Anthony Lombardi, but I was freaking out.” He pulled away. “I was getting ready to call the cops.”
“Yeah, they were fine,” I said, not meeting his eyes. I didn’t want him to know what I was thinking about doing. He would think less of me, realize I was a bad person, someone willing to hurt people to get what I needed.
“What’s wrong?” He grabbed me by the shoulders so that I was facing him.
“I found out what I have to do for my mom, and it means summoning a spirit and talking to it.” I shuddered. “I am not looking forward to that conversation.”
He pulled me to him, my face resting low on his chest. I could smell his deodorant, thick and musky, as well as the hint of cinnamon cookies again. It made me want to snuggle closer and sniff, but I thought that might be a little obvious. At least he made me feel better about what had just happened.
“What about the shamans in town?” he asked.
“I gave him the address in Berrytown. He said he has to call a meeting with something called the Congress to discuss how they should be dealt with. He said it will probably take a few days for them to meet and come to some sort of decision.”
Nathan grabbed my hand and started walking down the short path to the sidewalk. “Congress?”
“Yeah, apparently, there’s a Shaman Congress to take care of this stuff,” I said. “Anthony says he isn’t on it, but he can call a meeting.”
“After what happened to Mr. Collier, a few days seems like a really long time.”
“Yeah,” I said. “It does.”
He squeezed my hand. “But this is good. Things are looking up. How about we go do something normal now before we head back home?”
I sighed. If he’d been hanging out with any other girl on the planet, he wouldn’t be running into a crazy, scary, near-death experience every single time he hung out with her. This was something I was going to have to work on.
I smiled at him. “Normal, completely not dangerous day in Boston coming right up.”
“Yeah, you saying that worries me it won’t turn out quite so normal.”
We turned onto the sidewalk, and I swiveled my head to look at the building again. No one was following us. No one was watching us through the blinds. Maybe my suspicions were a case of over-paranoia. Or maybe Anthony Lombardi really was hiding something. Whatever it was, it didn’t involve him tailing us for the rest of the day, and that was the only thing that mattered to me right now. I needed to show Nathan he could hang out with me like any normal girl.
***
“Here it is!” Nathan announced, stopping in front a large store-front, the glass windows doodled with brightly-colored cartoon artwork. The name was painted in different hues of blue and gold. “Jimmy’s Comics and Coffee.”
“A coffee and comic book store?” I raised my eyebrows. “That’s different.”
He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the open doorway propped open by a concrete slab. “Come on, I think you’re going to love this place.”
We passed by the front coffee-shop portion of the store—a scattering of tables and couches full of kids slurping on caffeine and absorbed in graphic novels. Light, funky music played over the speakers, swirling through the air with the roasted scent of coffee beans.
“Hi, Nathan!” Kylie hopped up from one of the tables we passed. “Oh, and Holly, too.”
Nathan looked at me, alarm quickly replaced by instinctual politeness. “Hey, Kylie. What are you doing here?”
She smoothed down the front of her trendy maxi-dress. “Oh, Brent said you were coming into Boston. And since I stayed in town last night with my brother, I figured I'd come here, too. I knew you wouldn’t let the day go by without making a stop at your favorite place.”
I looked from Nathan to Kylie and back to Nathan again. Were they still a couple? Had I been completely wrong in my interpretation of the almost-kiss-in-car moment?
“Yeah.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I wanted to show it to Holly.”
Her face flushed when he mentioned my name.
“Are you guys…” I pointed my finger at both of them, not sure what I was asking.
“Um,” Kylie said, taking a slurp of her iced coffee. “We’re kind of talking again, I guess.” She looked up at Nathan with a happy smile, and I felt like I wanted to vomit right on her pretty black ballet flats.
“Well, we’re friends now,” Nathan said in a firm voice like there was no room for argument. Not that Kylie noticed.
“Oh okay,” I said.
Nathan shifted on his feet, not looking either one of us in the eyes. Awkward? You betcha.
“So,” I said, grasping for a new topic, “your brother lives here?”
“Yeah,” she said. “He’s a grad student at Harvard.”
“Cool,” I said, nodding, glancing around, specifically not looking at Nathan.
Kylie glanced from me to Nathan, eyes narrowed. “You guys came up here together?” The way she spit out the word together made it sound like a curse word.
Nathan cleared his throat. “Yes. We did.”
Oh my god, I had to get away from here. I could go buy a round of espressos, but I didn’t exactly have the cash for that. Jason Harris taught me how to fake-faint when we were kids, but that would still leave me here where things were weird. Maybe I should make a timely exit to the bathroom. And then crawl out the window.
I couldn’t be the only one thinking this was the most awkward situation on the planet.
I jumped when Kylie’s cell phone started blasting some generic pop song. I wanted to answer it and offer presents to whoever had decided to call.
Kylie answered her phone with a relieved smile, but her face quickly clouded over, the smile falling into a frown. She said a few quiet words to the person on the other end and then shoved a magazine into her purse.
“I’ve got to go.” She shouldered her purse. “That was my brother. Something has come up.”
“Everything alright?” Nathan asked.
“Oh yeah. Sure,” she said, but the fear in her eyes told a different story. “He just needs my help on some things. See you guys.” Her forehead crinkled as she gave us one last look. “Call me later, Nathan.”
She bustled away and disappeared out of sight too fast for me to say goodbye.
“What was that about?” I asked.
“I’m as lost as you are,” he said. “Something has been going on with her, but she won’t tell me what it is. She comes to see her brother every weekend.”
“So, you guys used to come here together a lot?” I asked, kicking myself for bringing it up. Should have kept my mouth shut.
“Just a couple of times last year,” he said. “Lately she’s been acting like she wants to get back together.”
“Oh,” I said. “So, you want to show me the rest of the store or are we just going to keep standing here in the middle of the coffee shop? That guy over there looks annoyed that we’re talking while he’s trying to typ
e on his laptop.”
The guy glanced up, scowled, took a long gulp of his coffee, and then went right back to pecking at the keys.
“But I don’t want to,” Nathan said.
“Oh, um, okay,” I said. “So, what do you want to do, then?”
“No, I mean that I don’t want to get back together with her.” He met my eyes for the first time since we’d run into Kylie, looking almost scared.
“That’s…” Good? Fantastic? Crazy awesome? Perfect, since I’ve developed this little crush on you, and I want to go out with you myself? “Fun.”
Fun? I gave my brain a mental slap and closed my eyes. I couldn’t believe I’d just told Nathan Whitman that not wanting to get back together with his ex was fun.
He squinted and shook his head. Maybe he thought he’d heard me wrong. “Anyway, I feel like our normal Boston day started out on the wrong foot. Let’s go get some comics.”
The store opened up into high-vaulted ceilings, walls lined with racks of newly-released comics. In the middle, bookshelves held graphic novel trades, hardback and paperback science fiction and fantasy novels. We browsed through the aisles before heading upstairs where the figurines and racks of back issues were held. By the time we were done, Nathan held a stack of books and comics in his hands.
He looked at my empty hands. “You aren’t getting anything?”
“No, not today,” I said. “I might read that Runaways issue you picked up though. If you don’t mind.”
“Not at all,” he said, moving forward in the checkout lane.
After he bought the comics, we settled into a table in the coffee shop. I was starting to think coffee-and-comics was a genius idea. The place was packed with people who had just bought new books, and I saw a couple of guys heading back for more since they were done reading what they’d bought.
Nathan picked an X-Men: Legacy comic and set the rest of his pile on the table with a wave of his hand. “Read whatever you like.”
I grinned and snatched up the Runaways copy I’d been eyeing earlier.
***
A few cups of coffee and a lot of comics later, I noticed it had gotten dark outside and that rain was splattering the sidewalk. Big gusts of wind howled through the streets, and all I wanted to do was snuggle further into the couch we’d grabbed halfway through our stack of comics. But the color of the sky had me bolting up straight.