I nodded, forcing myself to believe in the control Patrick thought I had. My hands were still trembling from the shock and horror of having those words snake into my mind, but the thought had calmed me some. Apparently I wasn’t ready yet for male contact, though. When Patrick touched my hand I flinched and pulled away. I gasped, realizing what I’d done, but didn’t know what to say to make it better. Patrick’s face fell.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s just... It’s weird. I can’t explain it. Everything I heard. I know you’re not like that guy at all, but...” I shivered. “Just give me a minute, okay?”
He nodded but his face was stoic. I tried to use my inner light to relax me. I didn’t want to freak out every time Patrick touched me. But I couldn’t harness my aura. Trying to grasp it was like trying to thread a needle with shaking hands.
Sirens blared and we both twirled around to see a police car turn down the street everyone had disappeared into earlier. It wouldn’t be long now. I eyed Patrick as I toyed with an idea. “Do you think you could get your aura going and then hold me? I need…something. I just…I don’t know what else to do.”
His hardened eyes softened immediately. He nodded in consent as a warm glow covered his body. But when I leaned my back against him, his embrace felt awkward or forced. Maybe he wasn’t sure how much of him I could handle.
By the time Gregory and Kyra made their way back to the car, I was composed and much more relaxed.
As they hopped in and slammed the doors, I sat back up in my seat. “So how did it go?”
Gregory smiled as he peered over my head to back out of his parking space. “It went well! The policeman got him. According to an angel friend I’d talked to earlier, he was wanted for a previous rape and a few other crimes. So they handcuffed him and he’s going to jail.”
“Awesome! What happened to the girl though? Did she freak out when you caught up to her?”
He laughed. “Why don’t I let Miss Melodramatic here explain that one to you.”
Kyra spun around so her head peeked over the side of her chair. She was grinning from ear to ear. “Well, Gregory turned into his angel form so the girl couldn’t see him, and then I ran up to her saying some guy was following me from the club. I told her I was really freaked out and I thought he was going to try to rape me. So she said she lived nearby and we ran to her house together. I pretended to call the cops on my cell, knowing you guys already had. Then we waited until we saw lights flashing and the guy was picked up. She didn’t want me to leave, but I told her I lived on the next street over and that I’d be fine. After I left, I found Gregory and we came back.” She shrugged as if it were no big deal. Just a typical night out with the gang.
“Nice.” I nodded my head in appreciation. “I guess it worked out perfectly.”
As we drove by that same street, Gregory did a double take and then stared out his window longer than what would normally be considered safe while driving. Curious, I automatically turned to look for myself and found an ink-black, wavering fog loitering on the corner. With Gregory picking up speed, I didn’t get a good glimpse of it, but I could tell the huge black mass was more of a dark storm than a silhouette, yet defined enough so that its limbs were visible. The shadow’s gaze followed our car as we drove past. Without knowing why, I squeezed my eyes closed and shuddered.
Then it hit me—the reason for my strong, impulsive reaction—I knew that shadow. “Lucas.” I said his name aloud without thinking, still staring out the window at the blur rushing past us.
“What?” Kyra shifted in her seat to peer out all of the windows.
Patrick wrinkled his forehead and glanced out the window beside me but didn’t say anything.
“Lucas,” Gregory said. “Lucas was in the street we just came from.”
Kyra faced forward again and slumped in her seat. “Well, that’s…great.”
For a split second, I wondered if I could ever possibly listen to my old leech to help us figure out his intentions. But it was a fleeting thought that died the second it was born. I didn’t want anywhere near Lucas. Could I really handle his thoughts inside my head?
So, since we still didn’t know why Lucas was there and his presence at the shadow hunt didn’t help enlighten us, there was nothing more to say. So we rode the rest of the way to Kyra’s house in silence.
Patrick’s black car was waiting in her driveway. He was supposed to take me home. As Patrick opened his door, though, he put his hand on my leg to stop me from getting out. Without even looking my way, he asked Gregory, “Could you take Iris home for me?”
He squeezed my leg once and then stepped out of the car, got into his, and drove off. In the silence that followed, my face grew hot. His question to Gregory seemed so random. Had he even said anything since Gregory and Kyra had come back? I couldn’t remember the last thing he’d said. What was wrong with him? Had I hurt his feelings?
“What’s wrong with him?” I blurted out, my voice faltering.
Kyra reached around to place her hand on my knee. “It’s not you, Iris. He just needs to let go of his past.” Her mouth tightened as she withdrew her arm to open her door and get out.
That wasn’t exactly the clear-cut answer I was hoping for. What on earth did tonight have to do with his past? And why was it bothering him so much?
Chapter 12
I bit my lip as I sat in Patrick’s car, staring across the street at Mike’s house. With the help of a nearby street lamp, the porch light lit up the front yard. A few people from school stood around smoking cigarettes and talking. The plastic cups and bottles in their hands reminded me of that night at Patrick’s house. I shook my head. The last thing I needed was to relate that night in any way to our current mission: crashing Mike’s party.
We could’ve called the cops on him, but that would’ve been too easy. Not to mention, no shadow-slaying practice for me. Only a day since our last escapade, and it already seemed so long ago. I wanted more.
“Are you ready yet?” Patrick smiled hesitantly. He had texted me earlier to say he was sorry for last night, but I could tell something was still bothering him.
Was I ready? This would be my first shadow-hunting expedition without Gregory. Of course, there was no way he could come to this party. All the students would recognize him as Mr. Delaney. But that wasn’t what concerned me.
I breathed deeply and exhaled out my mouth to psych myself up. But then my shoulders slumped and I let a whimper escape my lips. “It’s just that Josh, Nicole, and Tyler and Sam will probably all be in there. I mean, I know they’ve been going to his parties and everything. I just kind of wanted to keep playing ignorant by avoiding the truth all together.”
“It’ll be fine,” Kyra said from the back seat. “We’ll be with you the whole time. Besides you still have Patrick and me. And you’re finally hanging out with Lexi tomorrow, right? Focus on the good.”
I groaned. “You’re right. You’re right. At least that relationship is getting better. Just give me a moment to take off my rose-colored glasses and put them away before we walk in there and they shatter.”
Patrick grinned. “That’s the spirit.”
I rolled my eyes as we opened our doors and stepped out onto the pavement. The air was cold and raw but it hadn’t snowed recently. The loose bits of asphalt on the road scraped under our feet.
Most of the kids out front knew Patrick from when he’d hosted parties of his own. The sight of him prompted several waves and high fives. They barely cast Kyra and me a second glance as we followed closely behind, but I was okay with that.
Once inside we did nothing but stand for a full minute in the middle of the crowded living room. I observed what I could of the upscale home, attempting to act unaffected by the loud, harsh rock music, drunken laughter, and dizzying mix of shadows. I ended up feeling out of place and awkward instead. Not that we were the only ones standing. Like most high school shindigs, the number of guests greatly outnumbered the available seats.
I
continued to scan for anyone I might recognize, particularly Nicole. Luckily, my search was fruitless. However, I did have the dreadful privilege of seeing someone else I knew. Her glistening black hair and perfectly flawless face stood out in the shady crowd like Snow White’s poisoned apple in the old woman’s gnarled claws.
Lila was sitting on a love seat excessively close to a cute sophomore. In addition to her usual shadow accessory, she was dressed to the nines. Her chest was hanging out of her low-cut top, and her long legs stretched out of her skirt and against his jeans. Whenever she giggled (which was a lot), she lightly shoved or touched him in some inappropriate way. In fact, her hands were all over him. Naturally, the little swirling funnel cloud over the boy was growing exponentially. He’d probably never had a beautiful junior girl pay attention to him, let alone practically throw herself at him. He didn’t stand a chance.
Kyra and Patrick saw where I was blatantly glaring. “Ugh!” Kyra complained. “Her again. From the disgust in your eyes, I’d assumed Hitler had risen from the dead and had wandered in to the party.”
“Not too far off.” I chuckled.
Patrick rolled his eyes looking cynically unsurprised. “What did you expect? This type of filth is where she thrives.”
He’d meant all the evil at Mike’s house, but, for some reason, the word “filth” made me think of only two people: Lila and Mike. “I’m surprised she and Mike don’t just get together. They’d be perfect for each other.”
“Yeah,” Kyra said. “But she’s not going to waste her time trying to corrupt someone who’s so utterly corrupted already.” She cleared her throat. “Speak of the devil.” She motioned with a slight nod of her head.
Mike was propping his arm against a doorway over a cute girl’s head, attempting to act smooth. He leaned in close. The girl held a drink in her hands but was sloshing the liquid everywhere as she laughed.
Of course he’d be flirting shamelessly with some random girl at his party. Just like the jerk Mike was, he’d dumped Claire soon after he’d discovered she was pregnant with his baby. I couldn’t believe girls were still talking to him, much less flirting. I supposed he was cute, but I couldn’t get past his “I’m-God’s-gift-to-women” attitude.
Patrick narrowed his eyes as he watched Mike and his latest conquest. On my other side, Kyra looked at me and wrinkled her nose. “Don’t suppose you would try to listen to Mike’s shadow for us, would you?”
I sighed. “Honestly, the last thing I want to do is to listen to Mike’s sleazy thoughts. But, I know it will help us, so...”
I expected Patrick to protest, but instead he simply continued to stare in Mike’s direction with loathing in his eyes.
I focused on Mike’s shadow once more and then closed my eyes, exhaling slowly. I basically hated Mike, but if I could hear Lila’s shadow then I could hear his. All I had to do was concentrate on the imagined horrible past he’d probably had that’d made him turn out the way he did. Little by little the abhorrent image I had in my mind of Mike whittled away to a sad little boy in a lonely house with uncaring people. That’s when the voice found me.
The sound was smooth like cascading chocolate, even while the message itself was crude and revolting. “Easy lay. So easy.” Each word snaked towards me at a crawling pace. “She’s so trashed and so into you, she’ll do anything you want. Use the spare room upstairs. Nobody will even know you’re both gone. She probably won’t remember a thing anyway.”
I shook my head, lifting my hands to my temples as I backed up into Patrick. The connection broke, and I opened my eyes. Mike and the girl were nowhere to be found. Panic began to set in.
“They went that way.” Kyra pointed to the right, which disappeared into another room. “We would’ve said something, but we didn’t want to interrupt you. Bad news, I’m guessing?”
“Uh, yeah. I’d say so. He’s leading her to the spare room upstairs. He’s going to try to take advantage of her.”
Kyra opened her mouth but Patrick cut her off with one of the fiercest, most infuriated tones I’d ever heard come from his lips. “I’ll handle it,” he growled. With his firm jaw locked into place, he marched in the direction where the two had retreated. I was almost worried for Mike’s safety. But then I remembered he disgusted me. I was more concerned about Patrick and his sudden hostility.
I faced Kyra. “Did he seem a little overly emotional there, or was it just me?”
“Maybe.” Kyra avoided my eyes. She was watching Lila but sounded as though she was purposefully evading my question by giving me a generic answer.
I fumbled with the zipper on my jacket. I had my own ideas on the matter but wasn’t quite sure how to say it out loud. Or if I wanted to. “Kyra, do you think he’s upset because what Mike’s doing reminds him…of that night at his house with me?”
I was too ashamed at the memory to look up. I was ashamed of myself, even though that night hadn’t been my fault. But I was also ashamed for my boyfriend, even though he’d been blackmailed and had done a complete one eighty since then.
I managed a quick peek at Kyra. She was staring at me thoughtfully. “That’s a good theory.” She cleared her throat and glanced back at Lila. “But, he’ll get over that.”
Theory? Did that mean there were other theories? What else could have caused him to become so belligerent all of a sudden?
“If you’ll excuse me...” Kyra’s gaze remained locked on Lila and the poor boy that was melting under her aggressive charm. “My services as a buzz kill are needed.”
She grabbed some drunk guy’s drink with a polite thank you that left him confused and speechless. Drink in hand, Kyra marched straight over to the two sitting on the love seat. They didn’t even see her coming. But they definitely felt the aftermath. Kyra’s pretend trip over the ottoman in front of them sent the cup flying. The majority of the cup’s contents spilled into Lila’s lap.
The resulting scream was priceless.
I couldn’t hear much but could see Kyra melodramatically apologize as Lila jumped up, flailing her arms and pointing to her skirt. The boy seemed more embarrassed than anything. Possibly the effect of being around Kyra’s aura, which was blazing full force now.
Lila eventually gave up. She threw her hands in the air with one last groan and stomped off toward the bathroom, dragging her ink-black shadow with her. Before disappearing behind the corner, though, she paused and turned back to search the room. Once she spotted me, she rolled her eyes and muttered to herself loudly enough for me to hear, “You are so not worth all this.”
Worth what? It’s not like Kyra did that for me. I sighed and turned away from the doorway back to Kyra. Lila was just messing with me. Like always.
Kyra had stayed to chat with the boy, probably to give him some perspective on boy/girl interactions, and Patrick was still occupied. I was determined to somehow be productive as well.
I scouted the room and quickly found someone who needed my help. A tall girl wearing expensive name-brand jeans, three-inch heels and a form-fitting top sported a hideous ink-black shadow accessory on her back that had nothing to do with alcohol. She bumped into another girl on her way to her group of friends, sending her plate of chips tumbling to the ground. The bump was no accident.
“Oops. Sorry.” The first girl’s fake nails covered her half-open mouth as if ashamed.
The second girl sighed as she bent over to pick up the chips off the carpet. The bully laughed, sauntering off to her friends.
I hated mean girls. As far as I could tell, nobody else liked them either. They only pretended to. So how did they get away with so much? And why? It wasn’t right.
The poor girl hurriedly tried to clean up the mess without drawing any attention to herself. A newly formed gray cloud hung over her.
Which shadow do I go after?
I grinned. Why not both?
I pulled out my prism from my purse. I needed the practice anyway.
I strolled over to the victim first, casually swinging both of my
arms out by my side a couple of times as if I were stretching. Once I reached the crouching girl still busy with the chips, my left arm flew over her with prism in hand. The glass sliced through the fog like butter.
When I glanced back, the shadow was gone. Time for number two.
I shifted my focus to the girl laughing it up with her so-called friends. Her vicious leech was still attached to her. Thinking of the millions of bullied victims in the world, I targeted all my righteous anger on this one culprit in front of me. I may not be able to solve the problem. But I can win this battle.
The fake stretching maneuver had taken care of the first shadow, so I went to swinging my arms back and forth again. As I neared her group of friends, I made sure my path led directly behind her with easy access to her parasite. One more swipe and her shadowy accessory was gone. When I looked back, the bully’s head tilted to the side, and a perplexed expression distorted her face as though she was supposed to be doing something but couldn’t remember what.
That was too much fun. I wanted to do it again. I scanned the room once more but couldn’t find much of anything other than drunk shadows. They were better than nothing. I selected what seemed to be an easy target—a thick, dark fog hovering behind some guy’s back as he stood behind one of the couches. His back was facing the walkway to the kitchen. I could easily swing my lethally-armed hand through its murky flesh as if I were on my way to get some food. The shadow was so big I couldn’t miss.
I could, however, misjudge the proper depth needed to cut through the shadow without grazing the guy’s back. As my hand swung forward through the dank shadow, some slight resistance caused my swing to slow down. I soon realized the problem. The point of my prism had accidentally caught the guy’s shirt and dragged it to the side.
But then I had another reason to be stunned and embarrassed. As the shadow disappeared, the guy I’d almost maimed turned around to see who’d touched him. It was Josh.
I nearly dropped my prism from shock but managed to stuff it back in my purse without him noticing.
Luminous Spirits (Shadow Eyes Series Book 2) Page 11