by Zoe Arden
I tried to imagine wearing this necklace every day for the next twelve years. I couldn't.
"I wonder if he ever took it off," Lucy said.
"I bet the only time he took it off since he found it was when he realized he had to get rid of it," Colt said. "Or at least hide it. He knew someone was after him because of this necklace. Whoever it was killed him for it."
My eyes widened. "And now they're after me."
Melbourne called to Lucy, asking her to get back to work. Lucy waved at him and told him one more minute. Melbourne scowled but said nothing. He may have been a vampire, but he was also kind of a pushover.
Colt suddenly stood up. "Let's go," he said, taking my hand.
"Where?" I asked, following along behind him.
"You can't wear that thing forever, but if you wear it just a little bit longer maybe we can use it to our advantage."
My eyes rounded as his thoughts came rushing at me. "You want to look for the killer," I said.
He nodded.
"I want to go," Lucy said, but Melbourne was watching her.
"Lucy!" he yelled, an exasperated tone to his voice.
"Shoot," she said. "Call me if you find anything out." Then she hurried back to the counter to give Ben a break and ring up some more customers.
Colt ushered me out the door and into his car.
"How well does that thing work?" he asked.
"The necklace? I'd have to say it works pretty well. I was able to read people's thoughts as soon as I put it on."
In Mack's journal, he'd mentioned that when he'd first started wearing it, he could only read people's thoughts here and there. And not the whole thought, just portions of them. He said it had taken him a while to get to the point where he could easily read a person's entire thought.
I didn't know if that was because of his age or maybe because of the odd mixture of paranormals he came from, but so far, I'd had no problems reading anyone's thoughts in their entirety. Except Melbourne's.
"Good," Colt said. "Then that means we should be able to drive around and you can pick things up."
I looked at him. "You mean, you just want to drive around the neighborhood and see what I get? Like I'm a satellite or something?" It sounded like a terrible idea to me.
"Do you have a better idea?" he asked.
"Yeah, arrest Dean Lampton."
Colt sighed. "Ava, I checked on Dean after what happened to you. He was in meetings with COMHA all morning the day you thought you saw him."
"It wasn't morning when he attacked me," I pointed out.
Be reasonable, he thought.
"I'll be reasonable if what you’re saying makes sense," I snapped. "Right now, it doesn't." Colt looked frustrated, which only served to irritate me further. Hearing his thoughts was irritating enough. "Why don't you think I'm right about Dean?"
He pressed his lips together and shut his eyes, concentrating. I gasped. "You're trying to stop me from reading your thoughts!"
He smirked but didn't contradict me.
"You know something, don't you? Something about Dean and Mack and this whole situation," I said.
I had to admit that whatever he was doing to block me out was working, at least a little. I kicked myself for not probing his mind about Dean sooner.
"Let's just try driving around for a little while. If nothing happens, I promise you that I'll take another look at Dean." He would never have killed Mack. He needed him too much.
My eyes widened. "Dean needed Mack? For what?"
"Ava, for witch's sake, stop reading my mind!"
I sighed. "Fine, let's drive around and see what we can find."
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CHAPTER
THIRTY-SIX
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We drove up and down the streets of downtown Sweetland. I found that Colt was right and that if we went slowly enough, I could, in fact, pick up on people's thoughts like a radio antenna picking up signals. I listened for anything sinister, anything a killer might be thinking. After a half hour, though, I still hadn't heard anything remotely useful.
"I'm sorry," I told Colt. "I'm just not getting anything. Maybe the killer's not here."
"Maybe we just haven't gone down the right street yet. Or maybe he was inside somewhere eating. He could be finished now. Let's take one more roll around the block. If you don't hear anything, I'll drop you off at the bakery. For all we know, he might be one of your customers."
I crinkled my nose. "I hope not." I didn't much like the idea that Mack's killer shopped at our store. Our baked goods brought joy to people, and I was pretty sure that Mack's killer didn't deserve any joy.
We drove past Knobs and Broomsticks. There was a cluster of people on the sidewalk peering into the front window. Something in my head exploded and a flash of thought came racing at me.
...I'll kill them both... Should've been dead already... Mack deserved what he got.
"Stop the car!" I yelled.
Colt slammed on the breaks. The tires squeaked so loudly it drew the attention of the people who'd gathered around the window. Several of them turned their heads and watched as Colt looked for a parking space.
"What is it?" he asked.
"The killer. He's here."
I jumped out of the car before we had even come to a complete stop.
"Ava, wait!" he called after me, still unfastening his seatbelt. But I had no intention of waiting. Dean Lampton was here in Sweetland, and he was planning to try killing me and Natalie again. There was no way I was going to let that happen.
I ran to the window of Knobs and Broomsticks.
"Where are you?" I shouted. "Show yourself!"
Several people glanced at me then backed steadily away. My head was still thumping and that feeling of bliss I had gotten from putting on the necklace seemed to be diminishing. It was being replaced with overwhelming anger.
"I know you're here!" I yelled, looking all around me for Dean. Only he wasn't here.
I paused. I'd been so certain it was his thoughts I'd picked up on just now. It had to have been him; he was the one I'd seen in the shadows the other day outside Coffee Cove. I was positive of it. If only I'd found the necklace sooner, I could have proven it.
My mind knew that it was Dean I was looking for, yet some other, perhaps more rational part of me insisted that I had better check. I began grabbing hold of people's shoulders, turning them toward me so that I'd have an easier time focusing on their thoughts alone. Most of these people were tourists whose sole thought at the moment was all about me and how crazy I was being.
She's nuts.
On drugs.
What is she doing?
Someone needs to call the police.
Gill Fields, the owner of Knobs and Broomsticks, looked out his window at me, furrowing his brow. What's the matter with Ava? he thought. I'd better call Eleanor.
He hurried away from the window to make his call.
"Great," I muttered, moving away from the shop. Colt still hadn't found a parking space—the tourists were out in force today and they loved to drive. He finally abandoned his car in the middle of the road, forcing everyone behind him to go around. I hoped he didn't get towed. There weren't too many cars, but there were enough that it was causing a congestive scene on an otherwise normally quiet road.
She's got the necklace!
The thought hit me so hard that it nearly knocked me over. I looked around, trying to catch a glimpse of whoever had thought it, and saw a man who could've been Dean turn the corner at the end of the block. I took off after him.
* * *
CHAPTER
THIRTY-SEVEN
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"Ava!" Colt called after me, but I couldn't slow down.
I couldn't lose Dean. My own thoughts intruded. Are you sure it's Dean? some par
t of my brain asked, and I told it that I was, even though I knew deep down that wasn't entirely true. It was difficult to fool yourself, but I was trying the best that I could. For some reason I didn't understand, I just refused to accept that I might be wrong about Dean. It almost felt like the necklace was egging me on, feeding off my frustration.
I rounded the corner and saw the same man disappear around another corner, heading toward the ferry docks. It was late afternoon and the docks would have been crowded right now. I had no idea what he was thinking—maybe he didn't know either. If his goal was to get away and return to COMHA headquarters, then getting to the ferry docks was probably a good idea.
"Ava!" Colt's voice called from behind me, but it was farther away now.
I raced to catch up to Dean. I managed to keep him in sight, even though it was difficult. My head was pounding, and my heart was racing. I was breathing too hard and too fast. Last time I'd run like this, I'd promised myself I'd start exercising so that the next time I had to run after someone, or away from someone, it would be easier. Yet I hadn't exercised once since then.
Maybe I'd start exercising tomorrow. If I got out of this alive, that was.
"Dean, stop!" I yelled, purposely using his name, thinking that maybe if he knew I was aware he was behind this, he'd give himself up. The only result was that instead of running onto the ferry docks like I'd thought he was going to, he changed course and ran toward one of the warehouses not too far from the docks instead. I watched him run into the building and disappear.
I followed him in, stopping once I was through the doors, which had been unlocked. Whether they had been unlocked when Dean first tried them, or he'd used magic to open them, I couldn't say. I bent over at the waist, trying to catch my breath.
During the week, I knew this warehouse was packed with employees. On the weekend, though, it was deserted. It was one of the few warehouses on the island. Since Heavenly Haven was so small, we didn't require a lot of places to store goods, but that didn't mean we didn't require any.
Along with the ferries, which transported people to and from the island, there were also docks for large freight ships that carried supplies to us. They set up at the docks and stocked the goods up inside the warehouse for later transportation to the shops around the island. The docks and the warehouses near them were used for both Sweetland Cove and Mistmoor Point, so even though there weren't many of them, the ones that were here were quite large.
This warehouse, in particular, had been cast with an expansion charm so that it looked like a normal-sized warehouse on the outside, by on the inside it was three times what it appeared. I searched the room I was standing in with my eyes, looking for Dean. The space was large and open with boxes everywhere. He could have been hiding anywhere.
"Where are you?" I shouted and heard my voice echo off the walls.
I heard laughter come from behind some boxes up ahead to my right and hurried toward them. When I got there, though, I found no one. I closed my eyes and concentrated, listening for his thoughts, and was rewarded with the angry hiss of Dean Lampton's voice in my head.
Finally, I'm going to get that necklace. One dagger to the back of the head is all it should take...
I ducked just in time. A dagger went sailing right over my head and I heard Dean curse.
"Give it up," I yelled, my voice reverberating in the empty space. "I know what you're thinking. You can't kill me."
Footsteps echoed loudly as Dean stepped out from behind a pile of boxes.
Only it wasn't Dean.
* * *
CHAPTER
THIRTY-EIGHT
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"I know you," I said to the man who'd just stepped out from behind some boxes. A second dagger sailed past my head. It missed, but I was alarmed at how close it had come to hitting me. I'd gotten distracted and hadn't been listening to the man's thoughts like I should have been.
"You ought to know me," he replied. "I've been following you and your friend around for the last two weeks."
I was biting my bottom lip, trying to figure out where I recognized him from. It was infuriating that I couldn't place him. I knew I recognized him, but from where?
He moved to his left; I moved to my left. We were circling each other like vultures. I stared at him. The warehouse wasn't well lit, but there was enough afternoon light coming in through the windows that I was able to make out his features. His hair was dark, and he had a goatee that suited his angular face quite well.
"Mack's Bar," I said, snapping my fingers. I'd suddenly realized where I knew him from. The day after Mack had come to see me at Mystic, I'd gone to see him at his bar, wanting answers. He'd acted like he was too scared to talk to me. Now I knew why. This man had been there. He'd been playing with his phone and had only shown me the barest of interest.
"By George, I think she's got it," he replied sarcastically. "Took you long enough to get there, didn't it? If I was in your place, I'd have figured things out last week."
"Good for you," I said. "Next time, we'll switch places. You can play the role of victim, and I'll play the role of psycho killer."
He laughed. It was an oddly light sound. He had a nice laugh, which made it all the creepier. I could feel his desire to kill me emanating off of him along with his thoughts. I wondered if that was part of the necklace's power—the more you wore it, the more you were able to sense from others. You didn't need to read thoughts if you could read emotions.
If that were the case, this necklace really would be dangerous in the wrong hands. Mack hadn't been exaggerating about that. I imagined this necklace belonging to someone with real power, someone like Dean Lampton. What would he do with it? Would he use it to help people?
No way. Dean was too selfish for that.
If this was in the hands of the paranormal military... wow. What would they do with it? I had no idea, and I wasn't sure I wanted to find out. Thinking about Dean using it to his own advantage was bad enough.
"I don't suppose you'd care to make this easy on yourself?" the killer asked. "Give me the necklace and I'll let you go?"
I shook my head. "I can read your thoughts, remember? You'll just kill me once you've got it."
We were still circling each other. He sighed. "That's what I was afraid you'd say."
"Oh, my roses," I said suddenly. It hadn't just been Mack's bar I'd seen him at. "You were at Coffee Cove the day Dean tried to kill me. Are you two partners?" I searched his mind, but all I was getting was amusement.
He laughed again. It sounded like he was watching a funny movie that had just come to a really good part.
"Y-Y-You think Dean Lampton is trying to kill you?" he said, bending over at the waist and slapping his thigh. He was laughing so hard his face was turning red.
Silly girl! She really believes what she's saying.
I suddenly felt foolish.
"You mean, Dean wasn't behind any of this?" I should have listened to Colt. I'd been so certain, though... Part of me still was. I know it was Dean I'd seen in those shadows that day.
"You mean you don't know?" the murderer chided, taunting me. "Oh, my, how marvelous that I get to be the one to tell you."
"Tell me what? Who are you, anyway? Why did you kill Mack? Why have you been trying to kill me and Natalie?"
He smiled. It would have been a nice smile if I hadn't known he was a killer.
"Frank Lowly, at your service," he said, clicking his heels together and offering a little bow. "I've been a regular patron of Mack's bar for several years, but it was only recently that I realized how special Mack was, or rather, how special his necklace was." He paused and began walking leisurely around the space we were in rather than circling me.
"So, when you learned about the necklace, you decided you wanted it for yourself," I said, finally starting to put the pieces together.
"Am I so different from you?" Frank asked. "T
he second you found it, what did you do with it? You put it on."
I touched the ball pendant dangling around my neck.
"It's not the same thing," I told him.
"Sure it is."
"I haven't killed anyone to get this necklace," I told him.
"Not yet," he said with a sneer.
I shivered slightly. The necklace definitely messed with my emotions, I knew that. I'd been testy all day since putting it on, snapping at people and yelling for no reason. Was it so difficult to imagine that, given enough time, I'd kill someone because of it? A violent shudder ran through me at the thought.
"Did Mack ever kill anyone?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Not that I know of, but you'd have to ask Dean Lampton about that one just to make sure."
"Dean?" I asked. "So you mean he was involved with this?"
Poor girl, she still doesn't get it. I hated hearing Frank's thoughts. Even more, I hated that he was right. There was still something that I was missing.
I screwed my face up, thinking. A sudden flash came to me. "I was right, wasn't I? When I guessed that Mack was working for COMHA."
Frank nodded. "It took me a while to piece it together myself if I'm honest about it. Mack started working for them about two years ago, once he realized how powerful the necklace could be if put to good use instead of just the things he was using it for." He shook his head. "Do you know what that fool did with its power before helping COMHA? All he did with that necklace was use it to win money from gambling or get a good deal from his suppliers. He hardly did anything of consequence with it. It was just going to waste on him."