“You’ll be fine,” he said reassuringly.
I blew out a breath and reached over my shoulder for his hand. How had he known I was stressing about the meeting? I wished Raine had come with us. She was good at this sort of thing. When the rest of the swim team had refused to volunteer to give a eulogy after one of our swimmers died, Raine was the only who’d stepped up.
“You want me to do it?” Echo asked.
I wished I could let him do it, but this was my problem. If I relied on him, I’d never face relatives of the souls I was trying to help. “Thanks, but I think I can do it.”
I let go of Echo’s hand and got out of the car. Gripping the envelope, I headed to the front of the house, rang the doorbell, and waited. When no one answered, I glanced toward the car and found Echo leaning against it, arms crossed, eyes watchful. He looked relaxed, but I knew he’d be beside me in seconds if I were in danger.
I pressed on the doorbell again.
The door opened and Victoria Burgess, the girl from my school, stared at me with puzzled eyes. “Cora?” she asked, frowning.
I smiled. “Hey, Victoria.”
She stepped outside, closed the door, and crossed her arms. “What are you doing here?”
“I, uh, was hoping I could talk to your mother?” It came out as a question, a telltale sign that I was nervous.
“Oh.” She glanced toward my car. “Why?”
I followed her gaze to Echo. He smiled. It was reassuring.
“I have something for her, but I’d rather give it to her in person.” I lifted the envelope.
She studied the envelope, but didn’t seem eager to invite me inside. “My mother is grieving right now, so if this is about school—”
“No, it’s not.”
The door opened behind her and an older hulk of a man peered at me. He looked wasted. “Vicky, what’s going on out here? Who is this pretty girl?”
“She’s a friend from school, Uncle Reed.” Once again, she glanced behind me.
“And who are you?” her uncle asked, following her gaze.
“Echo.” He sounded close. A glance over my shoulder showed him standing guard behind me.
Uncle Reed let out a loud belch. “What kind of name is Echo?”
“The kind a mother gives a son who’s so fast no one can see him coming or leaving,” Echo said. “All you hear is an echo.”
“It’s a stupid name. So are you fast on your feet or with your fist?”
There was silence, but I felt the change in the air behind me.
“You ask stupid questions,” Echo said, enunciating his words.
“And you are too smart-mouthed, boy.” Vicky’s uncle glared. He was tall and beefy and looked like he could snap Echo’s backbone in half, but I knew that Echo could hurt him with one blow.
I stepped back until my back touched Echo. I reached behind me and took his hand before he did something we’d both regret. My eyes went to Vicky. “Maybe we’ll come back some other time, Vicky.”
“Yeah, you do that,” her uncle said.
Vicky closed her eyes and sighed. “It’s okay. Come this way.”
She led us away from the front door, along the wraparound porch to the back, and into the kitchen. Several adults and kids were visible through a doorway leading to their living room. From the sound of the sportscaster, they were watching a football game on TV.
Once again, Victoria’s eyes went to the envelope in my hand. “Wait here.”
Echo and I stood awkwardly in the tiny kitchen. No wonder Victoria had appeared reluctant to invite us inside. The place was a mess.
“Was that true what you said about your mother?” I asked.
Echo grinned. “Nah. When we were living in the forest, we would run out of food at times and had to visit nearby villages in the dead of the night to steal some. We had to be fast.”
I stared at him with wide eyes. “You stole?”
“Day and night. When I got older, my routine changed. A little charm goes a long way with the ladies, especially the wealthy ones.”
Bet they couldn’t resist him either. I tried to imagine him in a Roman society, wearing a toga and tunica, and smiled. Echo wasn’t a conformist. He probably dressed like his priestly Druid master to piss off the Romans.
“So why were you named Echo?”
“I was named Eocho. After I became a Valkyrie and decided to help my people, I changed it to Echo. Because that’s all the Romans heard whenever I paid them a visit.”
Could he get any more fascinating? Victoria entered the kitchen and I stopped staring into Echo’s eyes like a besotted idiot.
“Come with me. Just Cora,” she added.
“I’ll be fine,” I reassured Echo. I untangled our interlocked fingers then followed Vicky. He didn’t look happy being left behind.
Vicky took me to a medium-sized bedroom with drawn curtains. A bedside lamp was on. Her mother sat up on the bed with pillows piled behind her. From her ravaged face, she must have been crying for days.
“Mrs. Burgess, I’m so sorry for your loss,” I started.
She nodded, blew her nose on a tissue, and crumpled it. “You go to school with my Vicky?”
I moved closer. “Yes, ma’am. My name is Cora Jemison.”
She gave me a shaky smile. “What can I do for you, Cora?”
Now that I was in front of her, the lie Raine had come up with seemed so lame. I scrambled to come up with a better explanation. “Uh, last weekend, I was at a bistro across the street when a man walked out of Key Bank and dropped a piece of paper on the ground. By the time I picked it up, he was gone. I didn’t know what to do with it until I heard about the accident and realized the man was your husband.”
Her eyes went to the envelope, so I gave it to her. She ripped it open and eagerly reached inside for the single sheet of paper. She read it and frowned.
“This is my Bill’s handwriting. He likes… He liked to send home greeting cards when he was on the road.” She waved toward a stack of cards. “But I don’t understand what these words and letters mean,” she said.
I moved closer. “I wasn’t sure what they meant either, but I think these initials, KB, stand for Key Bank, because he left the one on Main Street when he dropped the papers. The numbers must be for a safety deposit box, because they are written right next to SDB. And he wrote Clare Bear over and over again and PW. It is probably the password for the safe.”
She studied me as though I had morphed into a psycho. Then she sighed. I recognized the look on her face. A few nurses at PMI would look at patients like that.
“Clare Bear was your nickname, right?” I asked, desperate to convince her.
“Yes.” She smiled again. “Thank you for bringing this, but I don’t know how you’ve reached these conclusions about a safety deposit box. My Bill could not have rented a safety deposit box without discussing it with me first.”
She didn’t believe everything I had told her. “Will you at least check the bank to see if I’m right?”
“I will, dear. Thank you.” She smiled, sliding lower to rest her head on the pillows. “Could you close the door behind you and send my daughter to me.”
She didn’t believe me. What had I expected? I backed out of the room, almost bumping into Vicky. “She wants to see you.”
“I heard. I also overheard what you told her. If Dad opened an account…” she glanced toward the bedroom. “Wait for me outside,” she whispered.
While she disappeared inside her mother’s bedroom, I hurried back to the kitchen and practically dragged Echo out of there.
“She didn’t believe me. I mean, she looked at me like I was crazy. I would look at me like I was crazy. What was I thinking?”
“Whoa!” Echo gripped my arms and turned me to face him. “Don’t beat yourself so hard. If she doesn’t look into it, it won’t be your fault. You’ve done your part.”
“And I’ll do mine,” Vicky said, walking toward us. “Tell me again what you told my mother.”
I quickly went over my lie and what was in the paper as we walked to the car. “I know it might sound farfetched, but I know what the initials stand for.”
At least, Victoria didn’t look at me like I’d lost my marbles. “I’ll stop by the bank on Monday, so thank you for bringing the note.”
I shrugged like it was nothing then slid behind the wheel.
“You do know there’s no restaurant or café across the street from Key Bank,” Echo said as Victoria walked back to her house.
“Are you sure?”
He grinned. “I’m a reaper, doll-face. I know every city, town, farm, road, and back road in this realm. Once she finds whatever her dad stashed in that safety deposit box, she won’t care about your convoluted lie.”
“Oh, I suck at lies.” I dropped my head on the steering wheel.
“I’m an expert. Next time, let me come up with one.”
Next time? I glanced at him and shook my head. “I don’t know if I want to do it again. It was awful. Her mother looked at me like I had lost my mind. Maybe I should just tell them I can communicate with the dead people.”
Echo chuckled, but he didn’t say anything.
“You’re not going to say anything?” I asked.
“Nope.”
“Am I doing the right thing by quitting?”
“Are you quitting?”
He was no help. “Some friend you are.” I started the car. “I need to think.”
“Good. Can we stop by Kip’s Frozen Yogurt while you think?”
“Why?”
“Because I need to feed my sweet tooth and you refused to have lunch with me.”
“What does your sweet tooth have to do with lunch?”
“I had planned to take you to this amazing Italian restaurant that serves the best gelato.”
“There are no gelato shops in Kayville.”
He smirked. “Who said the restaurant was in Kayville.”
“Okay, we’ll go to Kip’s on one condition,” I said.
“Deal.”
“You don’t know what I want yet.”
“Getting you to agree to anything is a step forward, so I’m being generous.”
Not for long. “Okay. Remove Burgess’ soul from Torture Island and put him with the general public in Hel. He doesn’t deserve to be tortured when I’m the one who gave him the green light to possess me. And if I hadn’t, I would never have known how to help him.”
Echo chuckled. That sexy sound never failed to send shivers up my spine.
“A soul for frozen yogurt, hmm?”
“So will you do it?” I asked.
“For you, sure. And it’s called Corpse Strand, or Naastrand, not Torture Island.”
“Isn’t it an island where souls are tortured?”
“Yes.”
“Then Torture Island it is.”
Once I reached Main Street, I headed north, turned at the light on 5th North, and pulled up across from Kip’s. The place was packed.
“Come on. My treat.” Echo jumped out and stared at me expectantly.
I glanced at the crowded shop. This friendship thing just didn’t work for me. I understood and accepted he had to protect me. Knew he had to be around, but doing things like this together wasn’t smart.
My door opened, and Echo offered me his hand. “Please?”
“I can wait for you here—”
He squatted and studied me. “What’s wrong, doll-face? Have I done or said something to hurt you? Tell me and I’ll fix. I want this friendship to work.”
How could he be so blind? I wanted to scream at him. Shake him. But one look into his gorgeous wolf eyes and my reluctance melted away. Argh, he didn’t play fair. “It’s nothing. I’m just tired. You know, the swim meet and the fiasco at Victoria’s.”
He reached out and ran his knuckles up my cheek. Then he pushed a lock of hair behind my ear. “I’ll take you home.”
“No. We go in, you get your yogurt, and we leave. We don’t stay.”
The corners of his lips lifted in an irresistible, sexy smile. “Okay. We’ll eat in the car.” He stood and held the door. “You get some, too.”
I didn’t bother to argue. He’d win anyway. He grabbed my hand as we crossed the street. Eyes followed us inside. The tables and the counters lining the walls were all occupied, but my eyes found Drew, Pia, and Leigh. The fourth person at their table had his back to us, but there was something familiar about the wavy brown hair.
Silence fell in the room as most of them, majority of them girls, forgot about their frozen treats and stared. Echo seemed oblivious to the attention he was getting. He was back to wearing leather pants, a dark grey sweater underneath his coat, and boots. His chin was unshaven, and his hair messy as though he’d run his fingers through it. He stood out no matter what he wore.
He pulled me to the cups area and selected the largest. I chose a smaller one and cradled it with my injured right hand. The stainless steel yogurt dispensers covered one wall while the toppings were by the cashier.
He moved behind me, his hand resting on my hip. “What’s your favorite flavor?”
“Luscious lemon,” I said, trying to warn my heart to behave. Being this close to him really played havoc with my head.
“I try three to four new flavors every time and mix them up. You should try it some time.”
“No, thanks. Once I find something I love, I stick with it.”
He lowered his head and whispered, “Live a little, doll-face. I’ll even let you choose the flavors for me.”
“Cora?”
I turned, and my eyes widened. “Blaine? What are you doing here?”
Blaine Chapman had been the QB before Torin took over. Raine said his family had moved. He flashed his famous I-know-I’m-hot smile.
“I’m back,” he said. “The team needs me to take them to state.”
I chuckled. “We have a quarterback.”
“St. James is too flaky. Yesterday he took off in the middle of practice. Today, he didn’t even show up. Coach Higgins believes he might disappear during a game, so he called my parents and they said it was okay. Where’s my hug?”
He ignored Echo and gave me a hug. A long hug, which didn’t make sense because he and I had never been that close. Before his family moved, he’d been dating Casey Riverside. Before Raine and Torin, he and Casey had been Kayville High’s perfect couple.
I wiggled out of his arms, since he didn’t seem to want to let go, stepped back, and met a hard, immovable wall. Echo. His hand snaked around my waist, anchoring me to him. I wanted to lean back and savor the feel of him, but I didn’t dare let my guard down.
I glanced over my shoulder and groaned. His eyes were narrowed on Blaine like he wanted to snap his head. The last thing I needed was Echo going psycho on a human because of me. But it gave me hope. Maybe there was hope for us.
“Uh, Blaine, this is—”
“Echo,” Blaine said, the smile disappearing from his topaz eyes. “We’ve met.”
“Get lost, Chapman,” Echo said.
“Cora and I are old friends, reaper,” Blaine said, his eyes turning to me. “Can we connect later? I need to run something by you.”
“Uh, sure. Text me first.” Was Blaine a Valkyrie, too? And why was he acting like we were tight? We might have hung out a few times, but he never had eyes for anyone except Casey. “And, uh, sorry about Casey.”
Anger flashed in his eyes. “Yeah, she didn’t need to die.” He nodded and went back to join Drew and the others.
It was my fault Torin had missed practice on Friday and today. How could the coach call Blaine back after everything Torin had done for the team?
“How well do you know him?” Echo asked.
“Obviously not well enough. He was the QB before Torin, and his girlfriend, Casey, died during the last home game. You seem to know him well.”
“Our paths have crossed. He comes from a long line of Immortals, and like them, he thinks he’s better than us beca
use he serves the gods.”
So Blaine was an Immortal. It explained his prowess in sports. I tried to wiggle out of Echo’s arm, but he refused to let me go.
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
“Keeping you close. I’ll choose the flavors and you press the buttons.”
I was growing impatient with his behavior. Worse, I knew he was doing this because of Blaine. “You don’t need to hold me for that.”
He lowered his head, his cheek brushing mine. “But I do. I like holding you. You are my cuddlebunny.”
Instead of causing a scene, I gave in and pushed the dispensing buttons. When we reached the toppings, I chose fruit—strawberries and blueberries—while he piled candy, gummy bears, and crumbled Oreos on top of his.
“You have a serious sweet tooth,” I said.
“Guilty.” He chuckled, but he sounded distracted. We weighed the cups, paid, and headed outside, whispers following us. Blaine waved. I smiled and waved back.
“I don’t like the way he’s looking at you,” Echo said, following me to the car.
I ignored him and slid behind the wheel. I was not doing this jealousy thing with him. He’d made it clear we could never be together.
“Did you hear what I said?” he asked, sliding beside me.
He wasn’t going to let this go. “I didn’t think you wanted an answer.”
“Why are you agreeing to meet with him?”
“Because he asked me to.” I scooped my yogurt and tried it. Tart. Perfect.
Echo watched me with a frown. “I don’t trust him. Don’t like him.” He glared through the windscreen as he ate his yogurt. “His eyes are too shifty, his hair too gelled up.”
I laughed. “You are being ridiculous. Blaine is a handsome guy.”
He rolled his eyes.
“Try this.” Echo fed me a scoop of his treat.
“What flavor is that?”
“Chocolate macadamia.” He licked his spoon. His eyes narrowed. “Chapman walks kind of funny, doesn’t he? And his ears stick out of his head like that elephant… uh, you know, the one that could fly.”
“Dumbo? Seriously?”
He smirked.
“Yeah, Dumbo. He’s probably stupid, too.”
I tried hard not to laugh. “Blaine wants to discuss something with me, Echo, not date me. Besides, it’s none of your business who I date.”
Runes #03 - Grimnirs Page 21