I looked at that poor kid, knowing that he was an instrument, just an instrument, to get me to where I was. I hoped that my mother wasn’t behind his possession, too. I had to assume that she was, in fact, behind Olive’s possession, as she needed something to drag me into my calling. But this poor kid…
“Why were you chosen?” I said out loud, but I knew that this was just a rhetorical question. James wasn’t going to know why he was chosen. He was no doubt just as much in the dark as me. I didn’t think that he was the guy who Jordan hit on in the bar, either. I was surprised that Jordan assumed that it was that guy who shot me, but this kid looked way too young to be in that bar or any other bar for that matter. He couldn’t have been more than 16.
“I don’t know.” He started to cry again, and Olive, who was sitting next to him, put her arm around him. “I don’t know what I did wrong. I just know that I was in that truck, and then, boom! I’m down here. I was all alone until Olive arrived.”
I blinked my eyes at Olive, wondering why it was that these two were connected here in the Gloaming. They were both associated with me. I wondered if that was the deal – were spirits clumped down here according to earthly associations? At any rate, I was taking Olive away from poor James, who was looking like he was going to panic.
“Shhhh,” Olive said, looking down at the scared young boy. “Lyra will save you. I’m so sorry, I have to leave you.” She looked up at me, and I saw both gratitude and pain in her eyes. Olive had a lot of compassion, more compassion than anybody I had ever known, and I knew that her heart was breaking for poor James. Hell, even my cold heart was breaking, just looking at that poor kid, so alone and frightened.
I nodded and took Olive’s hand.
“Don’t leave me, please, Olive. Can you stay? Please?”
Olive looked at me and I shook my head. There was just no way that Olive could stay here with the boy. If she did, she couldn’t get back. Once her body went into rigor mortis, there would be no coming back. “No, I’m so sorry, James,” I said to him. “Olive has to come with me. I’m truly sorry.” And I was sorry. Deeply sorry. “But, hear this, James. I’m going to get your demon. I will. I will get him and then I’ll come and get you. I promise you.”
His lip quivered as he desperately held onto Olive’s arm. “Olive, if you leave me, I’ll be all alone again. I don’t want to be alone down here. I’m scared, Olive. I’ve been down here for so long. Please don’t leave me.”
Olive once again looked at me with pleading in her eyes. Let me stay, her eyes were saying to me. Let me stay with this poor scared kid.
“Olive has to come with me,” I said. “If she doesn't, she’ll miss her chance to come back. And, if she misses her chance to come back, she’ll move on from here anyhow. To her final destination.” Wherever that was. I was confused on what happened to tender souls such as Olive. I had always assumed that reincarnation was the thing that happened after we died. I also learned about Heaven and Hell, not that I ever believed in them. Now I was thinking that there was something else, something associated with the Celtic religion, because that seemed to be what was governing me at the moment. Whatever, Olive was going to go somewhere if she didn’t get out of this Gloaming, and that Somewhere wasn’t going to be back to earth. At least not in Olive’s form.
“What about me? Will I miss my chance?”
“No. As long as that demon is occupying your body, your heart is still beating and your body is still alive. Olive’s heart is no longer beating, so she has to get back as soon as possible. In fact,” I said, looking at my watch, “I have to tell you that Olive must get back within the next ten minutes.” I looked at Olive. “Jordan is soon going to find your body, and that can’t happen.”
“Why not?” Olive looked confused.
“He can’t know…” I was about to say that he couldn’t know that I was magic, but, then again, Olive wasn’t supposed to know about that either. Would her memory be erased once she got back into her body? The Gloaming was going to be something that she would forget all about? It had to be.
“He can’t know what?”
“He can’t know that we’re magic.” There, I said it. She had to know anyhow. After all, she was here, and so was I to save her. It was pretty obvious, really, that there was something up.
Olive only nodded. “I understand.”
Now, what does that mean? Did she know something all along? “You do understand? How?”
“I’ve known that there was something peculiar about Sybil and Maddy for many years. I haven’t been able to put my finger on it. But you…” She shook her head. “I haven’t seen that you have been different, like Sybil and Maddy have.” She smiled. “Sometimes I think that one or both of them are trying to be Wiccans or something of the sort, and they’ve tried to make me better socially. You know, they’ve tried to get me to get out more and things like that. Not be so insecure about everything. But it hasn’t seemed to take.”
I wondered about that. Olive was painfully shy most of the time. Not around us, necessarily, but around large social situations. Unless she was drinking. Then she could be a social butterfly, but she had to drink a lot to get there, which meant that she sometimes ended up acting a fool. She really couldn’t win, so, even though she was physically gorgeous, she didn’t date all that much. Hence her tight bond with Jordan – Jordan was the only man that she felt comfortable with.
“Why do you think that they’ve tried to practice spells on you?”
She lowered her voice into a conspiratorial whisper. “I saw them do it one time. They didn't see me, though. They were too engrossed in whatever it was that they were doing. There were white candles and chanting. I heard my name and then something about…” She shook her head. “The gist of what they were chanting was that I was going to be helped over my shyness. But, of course, it didn’t take.”
I wondered why it didn’t take. I guessed that spells didn’t work for everyone, but I would have thought that Sybil and Maddy, of all people, could make something work out.
James finally piped up. “Lyra, don’t you have to go? You said that you had to be back in ten minutes, and that was about…”
Oh crap. “You’re right, kid.” I gave him a kiss on his cheek. His skin felt surprisingly firm, as if he weren’t a specter but flesh and blood. “I’ll be back, I promise.”
“I know.” He tried not to cry some more, and I felt absolutely terrible about leaving him. It couldn’t be helped, of course. I had to leave him, and so did Olive. But that knowledge didn’t make any of it any easier.
I took Olive’s hand, and closed my eyes. My mother was going to give me instructions on how to get out of here. Just like before, the instructions came – truth be told, when they came to me, it was sorta in the form of a hologram. I could see the words in the air. “Touch your necklace, hold Sybil’s hand, and chant ‘there’s no place like home’ three times.” I had to laugh – mom apparently had a sense of humor.
I touched my necklace, chanted “there’s no place like home” three times and…
19
We were back in the tunnel. Lights and colors went whizzing by at top speed and, the next thing I knew, we were back in the apartment. Olive’s eyes flew open and she looked at me and at Peter. Peter’s eyes were the color they were on the street, which means that he looked normal. Those eyes were a beautiful shade of blue-green, which were perfectly accentuated by his long, dark eyelashes.
“Lyra,” she said. “What happened?”
I breathed a sigh of relief. She might have “caught” Sybil and Maddy carelessly practicing a spell on her, but she didn't really believe that any of us were magic. I think that this was how it was supposed to be, so I was relieved that she apparently had no memory of her being cast into that Gloaming place while that demon occupied her body. “You hit your head. We were very worried about you, but we’re really glad to see you back.”
She shook her head violently, as if she were trying to remember something, and that something just
wasn’t coming. “I guess. Boy, do I feel weird.” She gave me her hand so that I could help her up, and I pulled her to her feet.
I looked around the room, and, to my surprise, the China cabinet was perfectly intact. The figurines inside it were untouched. Our coffee table also seemed to be magically fixed. I nodded my head, satisfied that Peter or somebody fixed all of that. Thank god. If Sybil would have come home and seen all her priceless souvenirs shattered, she would have been heartbroken.
Jordan came through the door not one minute after we arrived in the apartment. Cutting it too close there, Lyra. Another few minutes and the jig would be up and he would be panicking once more. He looked at Olive, who was standing up, with her hand on her head, looking bewildered.
“Hey,” he said, pushing Olive a little. “I have a bone to pick with you there, girl.”
Olive looked even more bewildered. “Why? What did I do?”
Jordan crossed his arms and swiveled his head. “You know what you did. I missed my audition because of you. Now, you need to apologize. And kiss my ass while you’re at it.” He raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t seem to be all that serious.
“I apologize,” Olive said, clearly not knowing exactly why she was apologizing. She looked at me. “Did I miss something? I feel like I did after I’ve drank too much – like I had a blackout or something.” She shook her head. “I hate it when that happens. Sometimes I do stuff that I really can’t remember because I was too drunk. But this…I guess it was because I hit my head, huh?”
“Oh, it’s okay, girl.” Jordan’s face broke into a smile. “I mean, you were acting hella weird and all when I was here, and you wouldn’t let me leave the apartment. What’s up with that? I told you I had an audition, but you blocked the door there and wouldn’t let me out. I don’t know what bug got up your ass, but thank god Lyra came here to save me.”
You have no idea that saving you is EXACTLY what I did. “I’m really sorry that you missed your audition,” I said to Jordan. “Can you reschedule it?”
“Already did,” he said, looking at his nails. “Actually, I did go today. I was hella late, but I went. Turned out it was a good thing that I was late. The director told me that I was the last one to audition, so he was able to offer me the part on the spot!” He clapped his hands together with glee, and Olive and I got into a group hug with him. “He actually told me that if I had come earlier, he wouldn’t have been able to offer me the part on the spot, because, you know, there were other people in line behind me to consider. But, since I was last, I got the part.”
Olive started to laugh. “I guess whatever I did to make you late turned out to be…”
“The best thing that ever happened to me,” Jordan finished her thought. He kissed her on the cheek. “Thanks, Olive. I mean, don’t go acting weird on me like that no more, but thanks for being weird this time.” He stretched his arm above his head and made a fist. “I’m on my way, girlfriends. On my way!”
I suddenly remembered what Peter said to me about Sybil and Maddy detaining him. “Hey, did you happen to run into my sisters after your audition?”
“Why, yes. I had my audition and I was totes excited about coming up here and telling you girls all about it. And I ran into them downstairs at the Starbucks. I was bouncing off the walls, but they both told me not to come up here for some reason.” He shrugged. “I guess everyone’s acting weird. That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to come up earlier, too. I wanted to check on Olive and you. For some reason…” He shook his head. “I don’t know, girl,” he said to me. “I had a weird feeling about the two of you. Like there was going to be a gunman or something like that.”
Peter stood there and nodded his head, and I breathed in. I told you he was being detained. Why don’t you ever believe me? It was if I could read this thoughts, and maybe I was, but the message conveyed in his expression was clear. I shook my head. I was having a hard time believing him when he told me something. I was having a hard time with all of this.
“Why did you think about there being a gunman up here?” I asked Jordan.
Jordan shrugged. “I don’t know. It was so weird right before you came in. I mean, the temperature dropped to just about freezing. Maybe it was freezing. And there was something off. I hated to leave you when you got in, and I wouldn’t have, but I had to get to my audition, and my hunches have never been right before. If they were, I wouldn’t still be single.” He patted my hand. “I’m just glad that you’re okay.”
He went over to the thermostat. “There,” he said, adjusting it. “No more temperature changes. It felt like the heat had gone off, but the temperature outside wasn’t cold enough to make this place an icebox.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Ah, maybe there was a cold snap. It is October, so not unheard of.”
I bit my tongue, but made a mental note to myself to research why a room would get so cold whenever there was a demon around. Come to think of it, when I first encountered Peter, the room got cold, too. I distinctly remembered that. Then again, that was all…an alternate reality? It was Hell, yet it was my apartment. So, just because there was an issue then doesn’t necessarily mean that Peter was a demon.
Was he? I looked over at him, and I wondered if Olive and Jordan could see him as well. I knew that Sybil and Maddy could see him. Could everyone else as well?
“Hey Jordan,” I said, pointing to Peter. “Do you see this guy over there?”
“Of course. I was going to ask you who he was, but I kept forgetting to.” He smiled and raised his eyebrows. “He’s hot,” he said in a low voice. “Is he your new trick?”
“I don’t have tricks, I have...” I was about to say that I didn’t have tricks, I had boyfriends, but didn’t. Jordan was right. I did have tricks, more than boyfriends. At least “trick” in the way that he meant it, which was really fuck buddies. I had fuck buddies, I didn’t really have boyfriends that much. “And, no, he’s not. He’s a friend.”
“Friend,” he said, nodding his head. “Well, formally introduce us then.”
“Uh, Peter, Jordan, Jordan, Peter,” I said as the two men shook hands. “And this is Olive.”
Olive smiled at Peter and held out her hand. Peter kissed her delicate hand and raised his eyebrows. If I wasn’t mistaken, I saw a flash of interest running through his green eyes, and I immediately felt a pang of jealousy.
“You’re very lovely,” Peter said. “Your family is Italian, no?”
“Yes,” she said with a giggle. “They’re both from the old country.”
At that, Peter said something in fluent Italian. Show off. I glared at him, my jealousy rising even higher. I then glared at her. He’s mine and you can’t have him. I shook my head, wondering why I was jealous. Was it because Peter was my protector? Was I afraid that he would become interested in Olive and would take his eye off of his duty, which was to protect me? Or was it something else? Something that I wasn’t quite acknowledging?
Come on, Lyra, you can’t be interested in him. You don’t even know what he is. He’s not human. I didn’t know what he was, and I wanted to warn Olive not to get involved with him. After all, if he was vampire, which he insisted he wasn’t, but if he was, Olive should know that. Humans can’t mix with vampires, can they? I mean they did, all the time, in books and movies and stuff, but they weren’t supposed to. And, inevitably, the human would have to also become a vampire to be with their true love, and goddammit, I liked Olive the way that she was. Which was a human with flesh, blood and a beating heart.
Olive coyly spoke fluent Italian back to him and giggled some more.
“Hey,” I said to her. “How come I never knew that you spoke Italian?”
She shrugged. “It’s not important. Besides, I’ve never been around an Italian speaker when you’ve also been around. I speak Italian to my parents all the time.”
“Well, stop,” I said. “It makes me feel uncomfortable. Like you guys are secretly saying bad things about me.” I did know people who spoke Spanish around me, p
eople who also spoke fluent English, and they inevitably would point in my direction and say my name while they were speaking Spanish. That made me think that they were talking crap about me, right in front of my face, and didn’t want me to know about it. Hell, I even saw an episode of Seinfeld about that very thing – Vietnamese women in a nail salon spoke Vietnamese around Elaine, so she got Frank Costanza, who was a Vietnam vet, to come in and translate. Sure enough, those women were talking shit about Elaine and Frank. At any rate, I found it all very rude to speak a foreign language around people, when the person knows English very well.
Truth be told, I was feeling uncomfortable hearing them go on in Italian, but it was more that they were flirting in Italian that made me feel the discomfort.
“Okay, okay,” she said, and batted her eyelashes to a mesmerized Peter. “I’ll stop. Besides, we weren’t saying anything bad. In fact, Peter just said something very nice about you in Italian to me.” She lowered her voice, as if it was all a huge secret. “He said that you were a very funny woman. Which you are.”
“Funny ha ha or funny strange?” I asked. Yeah, I preferred it if he told her how sexy and smoking he found me, as opposed to funny, but I guessed I had to take what I could get at that point.
“Funny ha ha.”
I nodded my head. “Good.” Then I looked at Peter. “Well, Peter, you and I have to get going.”
He nodded his head back and smiled, still looking at Olive. “Yes, we do.”
“Where are you guys going?” Olive asked, looking at Peter. “You know, there’s a movie that I’d like to see. Maybe we could all go.” She turned to Jordan. “You can come too, of course.”
“Um, hm,” Jordan said, skeptically looking at the three of us while crossing his arms in front of him. “I’d be a fourth wheel, but thanks for the invite. I think that I have a date tonight with this cute chorus line boy.” He clapped his hands together. “And I hope to make him my own trick.” Then he looked at all of us conspiratorially. “Besides, I don’t really want to horn in on your threesome.”
Lyra's Magic: Witches of Manhattan Book One Page 13