by D.L. Miles
Chapter 13
Yamuna’s house seemed even more dilapidated than I remembered, now that I was seeing it at night. Looking at it from Jared’s car made my stomach turn just a little bit and his lecture on the ride over didn’t help any. Wasn’t the dark supposed to make things look better or at least skew the perspective a little? Today it didn’t seem to be doing its job.
“Do you remember what I said?” he asked, turning to me from the driver’s seat. I thought back to how he took me from my apartment and shoved me into his car, explaining how he didn’t need my “help”. He really just needed my help though.
Yamuna wouldn’t help him unless I was there, apparently. I could understand her logic. She hated Jared, Jared disliked having me around, and therefore, to annoy him, she demanded I be present. I was thankful for that though, her distaste for Jared was allowing me to help out in what little ways I could and I didn’t think I could handle Luke at the moment; he was sleeping anyway, I hoped, trying to hide from the world.
“I remember,” I said, wondering if he was always going to be this…aggressive when asking for help. I imagined he would be, though he never admitted to needing my help; he strongly avoided the word in fact. We climbed out of the Charger and walked towards the gate. Just as the gateway creaked open I saw Yamuna opening the front door but quickly closing it again. We weren’t going to have to force our way in again, were we? Although that might give me the opportunity to see what Jared had shown her on his ankle…
“Open up,” Jared called as we came head on with the door. On the other side I heard a bolt click shut, ensuring us no entry. “Come on! You wanted her here, now she is.”
“You weren’t supposed to bring her,” Yamuna said from inside, “you never bring anyone…” I wasn’t sure I was supposed to hear the last part and I peeked at Jared; he didn’t react to it. Despite the commotion around me I noticed the scent of lilacs filling the air. I glanced around but couldn’t find the source; where could it be coming from?
“Well I did,” Jared said back, “so open up before I kick the door down!”
The lock clicked again and slowly creaked open. Yamuna looked through the tiny crack, blue hair hanging loosely over her grey eyes as a sliver of light hit them. Suddenly her hand shot out, grabbing me and dragging me inside, neither I nor Jared fast enough to stop her. It probably didn’t help that I was looking around the area, not paying attention to either of them. As I stumbled backwards into her hallway she locked the door again, leaving Jared to bang on it with a lot of force. He shouted, “What the hell are you doing?”
“Don’t like you,” she said to him, as if he was right beside her and not behind a heavy door, “I’ll talk to her…not you.” Yamuna’s eyes darted back and forth between the walls before they finally settled on me. “Tea?”
“Sure,” I said, not entirely certain why I was there. At least she let me into the house. Yamuna walked into the kitchen and set a kettle on the stove. I glanced at the door for a moment, listening to Jared’s curses and kicking, before finally going into the kitchen. It was still strange to see what the inside of her home, or prison as she called it, looked like; so new when the exterior was so…broken. I wondered why the porch was so torn apart when she was able to walk on it, maybe she just didn’t care enough to bother.
“Sit,” Yamuna said, gesturing to the same chair I had taken before. “I need you to get some things before we can do the spell.”
“Spell?” I questioned, looking up at her from the table.
“The summoning spell,” she said, turning to face me. She must have guessed by my expression that I was completely clueless. She watched me, thoughtful.
“What spell?” I asked. I already knew what she meant, to a certain degree, from what I had learned from Dr. Wineman. He told me that it was too dangerous to do the spell as well, so why was Yamuna willing to help us?
“If the thing that’s killing women is an ancient creature from Shadeland,” she explained, sitting down while the kettle boiled, she was careful not to look at me, “we need certain…ingredients to summon it into our realm.” It bothered me a little, how sure everyone was that this creature was committing the murders. Where was their proof?
“It isn’t…already in our realm?” I pondered. “How is it killing if it isn’t…here?”
“Shadeland is as old as the world itself,” she brushed her hair behind her ears and gazed out the black kitchen window, “it’s not just in the triangle like they tell the humans, it’s everywhere. It exists all around us; it’s just not visible to us.”
“So if something is in Shadeland,” I started, “and we can’t see it, can it see us?”
“Only if the thing in Shadeland is powerful enough,” she tapped her fingers on the sleek furniture, “which most of them are since they only allow purebloods in now.” We sat in silence for a while as I thought everything over.
“That doesn’t explain how it kills when it isn’t in our realm.” Yamuna twitched, annoyed by how little I understood from her explanation. I only knew what most humans knew, since I had never actually met another Eidolon besides Luke. It was unfair of her to hold that against me.
“It moves around in Shadeland,” she said, trying to stay calm but clearly losing the battle, “but when it kills it comes into this realm. It can only be killed when it is fully formed on this plane of existence.”
“So the smoke…” I said, allowing my thought to trail off.
“Yes,” Yamuna agreed with a nod, “the smoke that Jared mentioned is a partly formed Shadeland ancient.” The kettle began to whistle with a trace of steam coming from its mouth, its shape reminiscent of what I had seen recently hanging over dead bodies. She got up from her chair and poured the hot water into a teapot.
“How can it be killed?” I asked. She froze, her back to me.
“Sound like the hunter,” she mumbled to herself but the room was quiet enough for me to hear her. She prepared the tea in small white cups and brought them to the table, handing me one. “Don’t worry about killing it.”
“What should I worry about then?” I ignored her comment, partly because I knew how true it was. When this was over I would be sure to never ask how to kill something again. I didn’t like how it sounded coming from my lips; like a murderer.
“The spell,” she said, taking a sip. I jumped when Jared banged on the front door again but Yamuna didn’t seem bothered. “I need certain ingredients to make it work.”
“So what do you need?” it was my turn to take a drink. I hoped Jared wouldn’t bang again and make me spill it; I had been dangerously close only seconds earlier.
“A mermaid’s scale,” Yamuna said, making me almost spit out the tea. She handed me a napkin and I dabbed my mouth with it, setting down the cup. It would be safer if I didn’t hold onto it, it seemed.
“A what?” I asked, remembering Dr. Wineman’s previous lecture. “A mermaid’s scale? Aren’t those impossible to find?” Yamuna shook her head.
“They’re quite simple to find,” she said with another sip, “they’re just hard to hold in your hands.” A small smile curled her lips but I didn’t understand why.
“Where can we get one then?” Yamuna shook her head again, blue hair shivering on her shoulders. It looked spectacular against her dark skin tone.
“That’s for you and the bounty hunter to find out,” she said. I didn’t try to fight her, not wanting to risk changing her mind. “I also need the venom of a dragon, the dust of a pixie and the blood of the latest victim. I would suggest getting that one last, it will take time to get the other supplies.”
“Why get that last?” I watched her, curious.
“Because there will be more victims before you can get everything ready.” Her grey eyes were an unsettling calm. We sat in silence once more and I found I couldn’t look away from my teacup. Eventually the quiet began to bear down on me, twisting the atmosphere into something
uncomfortable.
“Why do you need these ingredients?” I questioned, wondering as to how they mattered. I could understand the mermaid’s scale, since it was so powerful, but everything else? I didn’t have a clue.
“Why does a spell need anything at all?” Yamuna questioned back taking a small tea spoon between her fingers and stirring her drink. She didn’t answer my enquiry or perhaps avoided it altogether. The scale, venom and dust were all magical properties…but why the blood? I asked her and she replied, “Connection.”
“Connection?” I repeated to her and she made a small disapproving noise under her breath. I had a feeling I was going to get this a lot, from just about everyone.
“Need a connection to it,” she explained, carefully controlling her tone and keeping her eyes down, “otherwise the spell would just summon the closest one. Blood will give us the connection to the creature.” I was about to ask why it had to be the latest victim and not just any of them when I came to my own conclusion; the latest victim would have the strongest connection. They would be the…freshest so to speak. I pursed my lips, thoughtful.
“Why do you think it’s doing it?” I asked towards my teacup as the witch picked up her own. “What does it want?” Yamuna set the cup down and continued to stare out the window. Her hand touched her face gently.
“To kill, I imagine,” she said plainly. There was a hint of boredom in her voice, as if I should already know the answer. Because killing something for no reason was just so common? This must’ve seemed so uninteresting to her, as I tried to figure out the why.
“But…why?” I couldn’t understand why it wanted to kill. I needed a reason, like most of the world, I needed to know why it chose these people, why it chose now to start killing. Another question occurred to me, and it seemed to stand out from the others. Has this happened before? Were Charlie and Rosa and the others not the only ones killed?
“Some things don’t need a reason.” She looked down at her cup and turned it back and forth on the table. She whispered, desire clear in her words, “Some things just like the power.” The tea began to bubble and swirl around. As I watched her I saw her eyes change; her pupils contracted to mere dots before exploding to erase her irises. It was only a second before they returned to normal along with the tea. I knew I was staring at her, but she didn’t seem to notice. Something about the way she whispered her words sent a shiver through my body.
“Is that all you need?” I asked, ready to leave and possibly find my own answers.
“Hmm?” Yamuna looked up at me, oblivious to what she had just done.
“A mermaid’s scale, the venom of a dragon, pixie’s dust and… blood of the latest victim,” I repeated, “that’s it?”
“That’s all I need you to get,” she said with a sigh. I typed the ingredients into my phone. It wasn’t that I thought I may forget them, I just wanted to play it safe; I doubted Jared would be very forgiving should something go wrong. And I would never be able to forgive myself if something went wrong because of me and we never caught Charlie’s killer. I doubted Luke would be able to forgive me too, despite his high threshold for mistakes.
“One more thing,” she said just as I was about to stand. “I won’t be doing the spell.”
“Then who will?” I asked, confused.
“I’ll show you how to do it,” she took a sip, an attempt to hide her devilish smile “but that’s where I draw the line.” Was this the catch? If we needed such a powerful witch to do the spell, why would she let me do it? Or maybe she meant Jared should do it? I was about to ask her another question when she waved her hand at me, telling me to leave. What was she thinking? What was she planning?
I stood up and made it to the kitchen doorway before thinking how strange it was that Yamuna was suddenly helpful. I didn’t know her that well, but she hated Jared, so why help him? Was it just to catch a murderer? Somehow, I doubted that. There was something else she wanted, something that might have to do with me helping Jared.
“Why are you helping?” I asked her, trying not to sound too insulting. Yamuna gave a low, almost menacing chuckle.
“Does that really matter so much?” She looked up at me, causing another shudder to run through my entire body. It was the same feeling I got when Luke used his abilities on me but her stare felt…dark.
“Sometimes,” I said, suddenly feeling the urge to flee. I walked out the door, my pace giving away my true feelings.
When I got outside I took a deep breath and found Jared pacing back and forth on Yamuna’s small walkway. He jumped on me the second our eyes met.
“What the hell was that?” he shouted, pointing at the door behind me. I made sure to shut it quickly, in case he wanted to go inside and give Yamuna a piece of his mind…or possibly a bullet.
“She didn’t want you around,” I stated, knowing it was the truth and ignoring my instinct to tell him everything. It was probably best he didn’t know everything.
“Don’t do that again,” he growled and stomped off towards the Charger.
“Like it was my fault? Yamuna just grabbed me and pulled me inside; I didn’t exactly have a choice.” Jared slammed his car door shut, making me a little surprised. His car seemed to be a large part of his life; I doubted he slammed the door very often.
I followed him into the car, leaving the crisp night air for the smell of leather. I made sure to be gentle with the passenger door. Jared sat gripping the steering wheel.
“So what do I need to get to summon this thing?” he questioned, not looking at me. I told him the ingredients and with each one his knuckles got a little whiter on the wheel. “Perfect.”
“I want to help,” I said fast, already knowing his reply.
“Not happening,” Jared laughed, starting the car. “You’ll get in the way.” I wasn’t about to win this argument so I went with what humans did best in this situation; I lied.
“Yamuna said I have to go,” I said, “otherwise she won’t do it.” Okay, it was a lie, but it was necessary lie.
“Oh, come on,” he groaned. Jared wasn’t about to talk to Yamuna and by the time he found out I lied, if he ever did, it would be too late. He was stuck with me, whether he liked it or not. Besides, Yamuna technically wanted us to do the spell. I mentioned that part to Jared and he took a deep breath in through his nose before pulling away from the broken house.