Luminous Spirits (Shadow Eyes Series Book 2)

by Dusty Crabtree

  Chapter 6

  “So, we’re on for tonight then?” Kyra asked Gregory, or Mr. Delaney given we were in his classroom. I frowned at her. The question seemed a little conspicuous for the growing number of students arriving early to our first hour. I scanned the room. Surprisingly, no one had noticed we were planning a Friday night with our teacher.

  “Yep,” Gregory replied, more quietly than Kyra. “The spirit-world grapevine, so to speak, is almost always right on when it comes to this stuff.” That part was directed at me. Kyra was already familiar with the ways in which light warriors heard about the shadows’ plans. “The dad has beaten his wife and kids in the past, and the shadows have been hanging around inside the house all night and all morning. Plus, they say he’s planning on hitting the bar after work.”

  “Sounds like a bad night’s brewing.” Kyra’s confident smile in no way matched such an ominous statement. If I hadn’t known we were planning on crashing the alleged “bad-night” and saving the day, I’d have thought she was deranged.

  She clapped her hands. “Yea! Iris’s first real shadow hunt. Well, if you don’t count the bar brawl the other night.” She nudged me playfully.

  I tried to match her enthusiasm, but my nerves got in the way. And my nervousness had nothing to do with my conversation with Patrick the day before. I’d already been coming to terms with that.

  This was a new type of mission. We weren’t just playing around anymore. This time our success or failure could have serious repercussions.

  My smile must’ve come out flat because she rolled her eyes. “Iris, you’ll do fine. And we will all be there, so don’t worry.”

  I opened my mouth to reply but stopped short. Lexi had just walked in.

  Gregory calmly strolled back to his desk, and Kyra and I shifted in our seats, trying to appear indifferent. I nonchalantly brushed back my bangs and attempted a smile at Lexi.

  She scrutinized Kyra and me and then rolled her eyes on her way down the aisle. “You guys are so weird.” She dropped her bag and slumped in her seat. Her words were harmless enough and could have easily been delivered in a lighthearted manner, but there was resentment lingering underneath. “I swear it’s like you guys are Mr. Delaney’s pets or something.”

  I glanced at Kyra nervously, but Lexi wasn’t done. “I mean, what do you guys talk about that I can’t hear?”

  My heart ached with guilt.

  Even though Lexi didn’t appear to expect an honest answer, Kyra answered for us. She was always better at coming up with excuses having had more practice. “I don’t know. I guess for some reason we are kind of teacher’s pets. We don’t mean to be. He just ends up talking to us about stuff for class to see what we think.”

  Lexi nodded her head as her lips became a thin line across her tightened face. She looked as though she had in no way bought Kyra’s explanation. The sharp okay she muttered in retort stung as painfully as if she’d called us despicable liars to our faces.

  Instead, she sat perfectly still and stared straight ahead. “Don’t suppose you guys are free tonight, seeing as how you never are. Even though it’s a Friday.”

  I sighed and sunk deeper into my seat, raising my hand to cover my face. As if my hand could hide the fact that I was about to lie. Again. “I’m sorry. My mom wants to take all of us girls to the movies tonight. She says going out will be good for Jenny…and Hanna, I guess. Now that she’s starting to feel better.” I surprised myself at how natural my lie sounded. Not something to be proud of.

  “Yeah,” Kyra added. “We have to go out of town this weekend to see my aunt and uncle. Tomorrow is his birthday. Sorry.”

  Lexi sighed loudly and crossed her arms, her eyes glued to the front of the room where nothing was happening as though she was intent on ignoring us for the rest of the hour.

  She got her wish. No group work or class discussion for the day. Gregory passed out a vocabulary packet that would take the rest of the hour. I poured all my effort and concentration into the work, thankful myself for the distraction.

  Near the end of class, the wood surrounding the hint of remaining lead in my pencil scratched my paper. I would have to get up and sharpen my pencil. Reluctantly, I tore my eyes away from my paper and swiveled in my chair. It was the first time I’d looked anywhere but my desk since beginning the worksheet. And the scenery had changed drastically. I staggered back into my seat and fought to close my gaping mouth.

  A thick charcoal-gray cloud hung over Lexi, wrapping parts of its nebulous self around her arms and caressing her skin. The resulting look on Lexi’s face was heart wrenching. The temp shadow was a simmering mixture of loneliness and jealousy. The cloudiness and texture gave that part away. But more importantly, I knew my friend and what we were putting her through. The two differing emotions revealed their permanency in her face through a clenched jaw and hollow eyes that threatened to spill the tears she was fighting so hard to hide.

  It was all my fault. Lexi was my friend, and I’d been treating her like dirt. Putting myself in her shoes, I knew exactly how she must’ve felt. Out of the loop, alone, lied to, rejected by her friends. I needed to do something.

  My empathy for her was so strong her emotions practically consumed me as if they were my own. Gregory had told me my gift of passion was powerful. This must have been what he’d meant.

  With such strong emotions flowing through me, my glowing aura easily came to me. Without thinking, I reached out my hand to touch Lexi’s arm and smiled more sympathetically than I ever had before. “Lexi, I just wanted to say I’m so sorry for not being there for you lately. I know it’s been hard on you.”

  She turned to glare at me, but her expression progressively softened and her fog started to shrink as my aura did its magic.

  However, something else was happening, too, as I held on to my friend’s arm. Something way less pleasant and extremely disconcerting. At first I thought my ears were playing tricks on me. But the louder the hissing and whispering became, the wider my eyes grew with alarm and panic. The sinister hissing and incoherent whispers were so disturbing I pulled my arm back to cover my ears.

  But the voices still got through. The bell rang through the speakers, and even that loud noise wasn’t enough to drown out the voices.

  “Don’t worry,” Lexi snapped.

  I lowered my hands. The foreboding fog had grown to almost twice its original size. Through the menacing hisses and whispers, Lexi’s words sent venom through my bloodstream. “You won’t hear me complain anymore.”

  She got up, grabbed her bag, and walked out. The voices trailed off with her.

  I was too much in shock to go after her. Once Lexi and the rest of the class were out of sight, Kyra and Gregory rushed over to me. The only audible sound was the distant commotion of the hallway.

  “What was that all about?” Kyra asked.

  I looked back and forth between the two of them. “Didn’t you hear that?”

  They glanced at each other. Their hesitancy assured me I was the only freak show.

  “Um, we’re not exactly sure what you’re referring to,” Kyra said. “I mean, we saw Lexi’s shadow and how you shrunk it with your aura—”

  “Really great job with that by the way,” Gregory added. “I’m proud of you.”

  I was too rattled to appreciate his compliment. “Okay, wait a minute. So…you didn’t hear the hissing and whispering?”

  Kyra’s eyes narrowed as she turned to Gregory who was already sitting up straighter and arching his eyebrows to the sky. I waited for the light bulb to materialize above his head so I could yank the string and share in his insight.

  He crouched down until his fervent eyes were level with mine. “Iris. What happened right before you heard these voices? What was going on in your head?”

  I thought back. “Well, I’d just noticed Lexi’s shadow. Seeing her like that was making me realize how awful she must feel. And that made me feel horrible. I hate all that we’re putting her through. I almost started to
feel her emotions myself.”

  “So you were channeling your passion to feel empathy for your friend?” Gregory’s eyes were still eager like he was on the verge of unlocking a treasure chest if he could only find the right key.

  “Yeah. I guess.”

  He laughed and stood back up. “This is great, Iris. We just discovered another gift!”

  “What? I’m schizophrenic?”

  He smirked. “No. You can hear the shadows!”

  Kyra gasped. “That’s what that was? You can hear shadows? I knew you had another special gift! I mean, not that being able to touch the shadows isn’t enough, but—”

  “Wait a minute. Wait a minute.” I stretched out my hands in front of me and shook my head. “You’re telling me...you guys can’t?”

  They both shook their heads. “Well,” Gregory corrected himself. “I can when I’m in my angel form, but even then, if they know I’m around, they’re pretty good about being secretive.”

  I thought back to the other times I’d heard them. The time one cackled demonically as it had pinned my mom on the floor of her bedroom. The time recently at the bar when I’d heard whispers behind Jenny. I hadn’t understood what I was hearing.

  All three instances were with people I cared about.

  “So...” The gears in my brain shifted until they fell into the right spot with a resounding click. “Is empathy my trigger for hearing them?”

  Gregory’s smile widened so that his white teeth glistened. “Bingo! This gift was tailor-made for you, Iris. And it’s such a valuable skill. If you can learn to not only hear the shadows but also decipher what they’re saying, you can help us figure out what they’re planning. We can get quite a bit of information from the spirit realm, but to have someone right there who can get the information on the spot? Well, it’d be like having an interpreter on-hand in a foreign country of hostile natives.” He chuckled. “Now will you believe me, Iris, when I tell you you’re important?”

  I suddenly felt inadequate. I would never be able to meet the expectations that were just set before me. “But I had no idea what that shadow was saying. None of the sounds made any sense! And how am I going to have empathy for people I don’t know?”

  Gregory put his arm on my shoulder. “In time. You will learn. I have faith in you. You just need to have faith in yourself.” I closed my eyes and breathed in his familiar scent. The warmth from his glowing touch calmed my nerves and gave me confidence.

  But then I remembered Lexi and my eyelids flew open. “What about Lexi? We have to help her.”

  “We will,” he reassured me. “Just to be safe, I did get a good look at her shadow, and we at least don’t have to worry about her doing anything rash. You’ll obviously need to do a better job of making time for her, but…”

  “But you’re worried that won’t be enough?” I finished for him. Was he thinking what I was thinking? “I know we’re not supposed to tell anyone about our identities, but…couldn’t we just make an exception?” Even though I already knew the answer, I needed to hear it again to help justify the damage I was doing.

  “Iris, I wish we could.” Gregory hesitated. Somehow the sadness in his eyes made me feel better—more assured. This was almost as hard on him as it was on me. He wasn’t being mean and unreasonable. He cared about Lexi. “The truth is, we’d be putting her in a lot of danger if we revealed who we are. She’d become a bright, flashing, neon target to the shadows. Just like we are. Except she’d be defenseless against them. I mean, we could help protect her somewhat. But it’d be difficult. We can’t be with her 24/7.”

  I lowered my head. “I understand.”

  “But we’ll do our best to help her, okay?” Kyra nudged me until I met her eyes.

  Gregory cleared his throat. “In the meantime, we need to develop this skill of yours as soon as possible. How about during tonight’s escapade?”

  I smiled. “Sounds perfect.”

  Chapter 7

  “Why didn’t we park closer?” I shut the car door quietly and shuffled across the street to join the rest. We’d parked half a block from our target’s house. “The guy’s been at the bar all afternoon, right? He’s probably too drunk to notice our car.”

  “We’re not trying to hide from him. There’s something much more menacing than a raging, intoxicated man in that house.” His crisp words cut through the night air and gave me chills.

  Nobody spoke. As we followed Gregory down the sidewalk, everything was silent. Until my phone buzzed.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled as I pulled out my phone. The rest of the group continued on at the same pace, but I hung back a little. When I saw who the text was from, my chest fluttered with a strange mixture of excitement and anxiety. Josh.

  I HEARD YOU AND PATRICK BROKE UP. IS THAT TRUE?

  What? Was he referring to my little fight with Patrick the day before? I hadn’t stopped to think about how we must have looked to anyone walking by.

  NO, WE’RE STILL TOGETHER. WE HAD A LITTLE ARGUMENT YESTERDAY, BUT WE’RE FINE NOW.

  I typed the words but hesitated to hit send, as if sending the message would sever any chances of a relationship between Josh and me. Why on earth did that bother me so much?

  I glanced up and gasped. Everyone was several feet ahead of me, already stopped in front of the house. I pushed send and shoved the phone back into my pocket before rushing over to join the group. That’s when I realized Patrick and Kyra were glowing, standing side by side and looking at Gregory. Probably waiting on instructions. My newbie status might as well have been stamped on my forehead. I quickly fell in line and cranked on my glow.

  “Okay,” Gregory whispered. “This is our house.” He pointed to the two-story on our left with a large but bare porch. Lights illuminated two windows on the main level. Along with the one lone street lamp, the light was enough to reveal the run-down, paint-chipped condition of the house.

  “Shh!” Kyra put her finger to her mouth and cocked her head to the side. “Do you hear that?”

  At first, I couldn’t hear anything but my heart pounding in my ears. Then an enraged yell tore through the black sky. It had to have been the father. As more screams followed, a desperate female voice occasionally cried out in reply. How could the neighbors let this go on? Surely they could hear the yelling.

  Then another voice. Younger, but still firm. A boy. I couldn’t tell what he was saying, but by the end, his determined tone had wavered into tears.

  I walked toward the house like a zombie, spurred on by the burning passion in my chest to help that kid. But Patrick grabbed my shoulder and stopped me with one word: “Wait.” Then he turned to Gregory. “What’s the plan?”

  I frowned at him but he was right. Plans could make or break a mission, and this was as serious as they came.

  “I don’t see any shadows around the house, so they must all be inside.” Gregory said. “The windows on either side of the front door have blinds, but I can see through the glass on the top of the door. You guys follow me to the porch and wait for my cue. I need to see what we’re up against.”

  We did as he said. The muffled screaming was harder to stomach once I could decipher their words.

  “Quit lying to me! Who was it? I know someone was here earlier, Maggie. I’m not stupid!”

  “I told you. Nobody’s been over today except Jill.”

  “I don’t even know who in their right mind would sleep with you anyway. You’re nothing but an ugly whore. You’re a worthless piece of trash, and everyone knows it!”

  “Stop. Please, just stop.” The wife was sobbing now.

  “Dad, stop it. Put the bottle down. Please!” The boy’s voice again.

  I swallowed hard. The burning in my chest was getting unbearable.

  Gregory was still peering through the glass at the top of the door. “Besides the mother’s, all I can see is the one PDS shadow on the dad. The others must have already left.”

  PDS. PDS. I racked my brain, fighting through the screams and sobs to r
emember my training. That’s right! Stage Three: Permanent and Dangerous Shadows. My excitement faded as I realized what that meant. These shadows almost always needed an angel to finish them. I wouldn’t be practicing my hand skills tonight. But my listening skills? Maybe…

  Gregory’s eyes narrowed. “This shadow looks bad enough.” He faced us. “Guys, I’m going to have to take this one. He’s far too dangerous for you to be messing with. You get the mother and kids out while I take care of the shadow. And Iris?”

  I raised my eyebrows expectantly.

  “You can try to listen to this one, but I’m not sure how easy it will be for your first try.”

  I nodded solemnly as he returned to the window.

  “Daddy, don’t!”

  The sound of glass shattering cut off the boy’s plea. Gregory’s eyes widened. “Let’s go.” Gregory shoved open the unlocked door and the four of us barged in.

  Three faces inside turned to stare at us in varying degrees of surprise. But the formidable shadow in the center of the room kept its back to us, barely moving.

  The shadow’s shape was nearly as defined as a human’s, but its insides rippled. Vapors of darkness scattered from its sinister silhouette as if the leech’s own substance was desperate to be freed. The black figure stood behind the trashed father like a puppet master manipulating a limp doll. With one ghostly long limb raised, the shadow gripped the man’s hand, which clutched a round, jagged object. A broken beer bottle.

  The dark figure finally twisted its head a full one hundred eighty degrees to face us and glared.

  I shivered and looked away. Gregory was right. Listening to this shadow would almost be impossible. I didn’t know how to empathize with the abusive father, I had no desire to listen to the creepy shadow, and I couldn’t concentrate with the weight of the situation pressing in on me.

  “What do you want?” the father shouted. “This is none of your business.” He pointed the broken beer bottle at his son, as if to prove we weren’t going to stop him.