The Sixth Ghost: a supernatural urban fantasy action adventure (Cards of Death book 6)

by Tamara Geraeds

  When I turn my attention back to Dad’s notebook, the symbols have all disappeared, and the spell is on one page again. At the end of part one, there’s a new sentence.

  If you’re low on energy after this part, stand in the middle of the pentagram, turn left three times and repeat the following words threefold.

  I shake my head incredulously. This book is amazing. It knows exactly what I need and when I need it. Or is this also part of the spell? It could be designed to keep the spell caster safe.

  With the book in my hand, I step to the middle of the circle, which is also the middle of the pentagram.

  “Circle of power, three times three,

  refill the power that was taken from me.”

  Turning makes me even dizzier, but as soon as I finish my last turn, my muscles all lock. I can’t move, and for a second, I’m convinced I was tricked. Then, a blue flickering trail of light crawls from the points of the pentagram to my feet. A buzz goes through me like a thousand volts. My teeth chatter, and my fingers stretch by themselves. It’s like being electrocuted, but somehow… in a nice way. All the little pains I didn’t even notice anymore, stiff limbs, bruises, small cuts, they all vanish. Suddenly, I have so much energy that I could run a marathon. Even my eyesight and hearing seem to have improved. Control over my body is returned to me, and I flex my arms, that seem bigger.

  “Thanks!” I say to the book.

  I half expect an answer to appear on the page, but all the letters stay where they are.

  I hop up and down to get the blood flow in my legs going again, and once the tingling of the blue light has left me, I read the next part of the spell.

  Use thyme, acacia leaves and althaea roots to form a strong connection between the worlds of the dead and the living. Add basil leaves as a symbol for extending your family. Take some black candle tobacco to help you reach someone you don’t know the whereabouts of. Crush all of the above and mix it with agrimony oil to keep evil entities from clinging to your ghost. The blood root will tie the ghost to you, but you need it later. Orange candles will help you attract the ghost you want.

  I take a look at all the herbs spread around me. It’s a good thing Mona handed me those bottles too. Too bad I have no idea what blood root looks like.

  My phone buzzes, as if to remind me there’s a thing called Google. I pull it from my pocket and grit my teeth when Charlie’s number flashes across the screen. I swipe him away, muttering an apology, and open Google. Thankfully, the blood root pictures are clear. To make sure I don’t mix the wrong herbs, I google all of them.

  I swap the yellow candles for the orange ones I bought and repeat the words of the spell a couple of times in my head.

  Before I continue, I check for Mona’s glass globe. It’s still in my pocket.

  After a deep breath, I turn to the candles one by one.

  “Powers of north, south, east and west,

  please fulfill my one request.

  For my fight to save the world,

  I need another boy or girl.”

  I repeat the lines four times, lighting an orange candle after each verse and placing three dots of herb mixture on each one. The flames flicker when I return to the middle of the circle and draw a miniature herb circle there, around my feet.

  “Powers that be, hear my call.

  Send me a ghost that can help us all.

  Complete my Shield with a sixth addition,

  to increase the chances of our mission.”

  I rub some of the mixture under my shoes, on my neck and onto my eyelids and spread the remains onto my hands. I take out the glass ball and hold it between my smudged palms.

  Now is the time to focus on the power I want, the gift this ghost must have. Doubts rise in my mind again. What we could really use is more than one ghost, but since I haven’t got all day, I’ll have to choose one power. I’m still convinced that a shapeshifter will be very helpful, so I repeat that word over and over in my head while I think of all the things it could turn into. I guess it could even mimic a demon or Satan himself. How convenient would that be? We’ll have a ghost with almost limitless powers.

  I grin at the thought and lift the glass ball above my head.

  “Powers of all, hear my plea.

  See the wish that lives in me.

  Send me the ghost that I desire,

  make it rise from the flaming fire.”

  I raise the ball higher and crush it between my fingers. The glass shatters easily but doesn’t cut my hands. Warmth floods down from it, covering me from head to toe. The sparks are so brilliant that I narrow my eyes. I don’t close them, because I don’t want to miss what comes next. My heartbeat speeds up in anticipation. Mona’s sparks touch the outer circle, and all the herbs go up in golden smoke that surrounds me. Through it, I can see the flames of the candles rising high. The crackling gets louder, and the light brighter. I have no other choice now than to squeeze my eyes shut.

  A loud bang reverberates through the corridor. The tiles in the wall rattle, and a strong, hot breeze hits me. I sway but stay upright. Carefully, I open one eye. The candle flames have settled. The sparks are gone. In front of me lies a girl, dressed in a short, leopard skin dress that hugs her curves.

  “Ahem,” I say in a half-cough.

  “Wow.” The girl wipes her bleached locks from her face and scrunches up her forehead. “What the heck happened? Where am I?”

  I’m wondering if I should help her up when her gaze locks onto mine, and her eyes grow wide.

  “Wow!” she says again. Then she scrambles to her knees and lowers her head until it touches the ground. “Master. It’s an honor to meet you.”

  When I stand there speechless, hardly able to believe it worked, she continues to talk to herself. “I can’t believe someone chose me for a Shield.”

  “Ehm… miss?” It sounds silly, since she can’t be more than a year older than I am, but I don’t know what else to call her. “You can get up now.”

  She does, and when she’s done smoothening her dress, I hold out my hand. “My name is Dante Banner. I’m sorry to have summoned you here, but we have an important task to fulfill.”

  “Oh, my gosh,” she gasps, and she takes my hand and kisses it.

  I pull it back and shuffle uncomfortably. “You don’t have to do that. We’re not in the middle ages anymore.”

  She giggles. “Oh, I know.” She waves her hands around uncontrollably and laughs. “It’s just such an honor.” She shakes her head as if she still can’t believe it.

  I shoot her a reassuring smile. “Well, I asked for a shapeshifter, and here you are.” I scratch my head, unsure of how to continue this conversation. In the end, I bend down and start picking up everything I used for the spell.

  “Let me help,” the girl says, squatting so fast that she loses her balance.

  I frown at her attempts to get back up. “Are you okay, miss… I still don’t know your name.”

  She pauses her struggles and smiles brightly. “It’s Kessley, but you can call me Kess. Everyone does.” Her forehead wrinkles again. “Or did.”

  “Okay, Kess.” I smile back, although I’m starting to think that something went wrong and that I got a handful instead of more help. “Did something happen on your way here?”

  She leans closer. “I might have peed myself from shock.”

  I stare at her, unsure what to think of that answer.

  She bends over, laughing hysterically.

  “I’m sorry,” she pants when the corners of my mouth don’t even twitch. “I’m really sorry, I can’t help it.” She wipes her eyes and straightens up. “I died drunk.”

  I must have heard that wrong. “You what?”

  “Yeah, it’s a sad story. I was drunk, tripped, got knocked out and froze to death.”

  I gape at her. “You’re kidding.”

  “Wish I was!” she says with a sad smile. “But on the bright side… your spell seems to
have made it better.” She points at her head. “I can think straight again.”

  With my eyes on the ground, I try to hide my frown. “Are you sure?”

  She slaps my shoulder. “Yes, I’m a bit wonky on my best days. Hey! I can touch you. Brilliant!” She rubs my back and squeezes my shoulder. “I can feel again!”

  Quickly, I step away from her. “Please don’t do that.”

  She pulls back her arm and presses her hands against her chest. “I’m sorry.” Her eyes dart to the ground. “Please forgive me, master. This is all a bit strange for me.”

  “Strange for you?” I hold back a snort. Maybe I should find a way to send her back. Maybe this was a mistake after all.

  Kessley shapeshifts into a hairy monster with a wide mouth, gets down on all fours and starts gobbling up all of the salt and herbs. In the blink of an eye, everything is gone. There’s no trace of the spell left.

  With a shake of her ugly head, Kessley turns back into herself. She licks her lips and burps. “Excuse me.”

  Okay, maybe I should give her a chance.

  I put the rest of the stuff in my backpack and smile at her. “Are you ready to go to your new home? I’ll tell you as much as I can about why I summoned you on the way there.”

  She nods and follows me to the stairs. When we reach the plastic curtains, I come to a halt.

  Kessley waits patiently for instructions as I turn to her. At least she seems to take her duties seriously.

  “Can you make yourself invisible?” I ask her.

  Hope flickers in her eyes. “I don’t know. Should I be able to do that?”

  “Yes. We don’t want to freak out the non-magicals.”

  “Of course.” She flexes her arms and hops around excitedly. “So how do I go invisible?”

  “Eh… no idea. I think you just concentrate on it?” I shrug. “I know from the rest of the Shield that they need a lot of energy to hide themselves. Concentration too, I think. They can’t fight and stay invisible at the same time.”

  Kessley’s eyes grow wide. “Wow.”

  “What?”

  She grins. “Sorry, I still can’t believe I’m part of a Shield. I mean, I have a purpose now. I can make up for all the stupid shit I did in my life.”

  “Yes, you can,” I say patiently. “Starting by learning how to become invisible. It’s only for the ride home. Once you meet the others, they can give you tips and fill you in on everything you need to know about being a ghost.”

  “Brilliant. Give me a sec.”

  She scrunches up her nose and breathes in and out deeply. “Here I go.”

  It shouldn’t be funny but looking at her pulling a face as if she’s having a hard time on the toilet without any effect makes me laugh.

  “What is it?” she asks, genuinely surprised. “Did I make my head disappear?”

  “Actually…” I try to wipe my smile from my mouth, but my lips keep moving up. “Nothing changed. Try again, but maybe not so hard. You’re a ghost. This should come naturally to you.”

  She places her hands on her hips. “Are you pulling my leg?”

  “No.” I wave my hands defensively. “I promise I’m not. I’m sorry I laughed.”

  She grins. “Don’t worry about it, it happens to the best of us.”

  She shakes the tension from her shoulders and tries again, a lot calmer this time. But still, nothing happens. “Great, I suck at being a ghost.”

  “Come on, don’t be so hard on yourself. I summoned you from Heaven ten minutes ago. You’re not used to being a ghost. We’ll just have to come up with another solution.” I look around, searching for ideas. The plastic curtains give me one. “Okay, stay here for a minute while I search for some clothes to cover you up.”

  I’m about to walk through the gap when Kessley speaks up. “You mean something like this?”

  My hand flies to my forehead when I turn back to her. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?”

  She twirls around, dressed in a long gray coat, a cap and shawl covering most of her face.

  I tap my finger against my lips. “Still, I can see your hands and chin, and even your hair is see-through.”

  The clothes disappear and she tilts her head in thought. “Maybe I can disguise myself as a human? A living human, I mean.”

  “You can do that?”

  Her shoulders move up. “I don’t know. Let me try.”

  She closes her eyes, wraps her arms around herself and performs a graceful ballerina turn. When she comes to a halt again, she’s a thirty-something woman with dark hair and solid skin, dressed in jeans and a pink top. “How’s this?”

  The only answer I give her is a wide smile. She looks down at her hands and copies my expression.

  “Well done!” I compliment her. “Your powers will be very useful to us. Are you ready to go?” I hold out my arm, and she pushes her hand through it.

  “Yes, master.”

  “Please, call me Dante.”

  CHAPTER 12

  Of course, the ride home is too short to tell her everything, so I start with what’s most important. “Do you know what our mission is? Who we’re fighting against?”

  She shakes her head. She obviously hasn’t been following the news of the Underworld.

  “You’ve never heard of me?”

  “No, why? Are you famous?” she asks eagerly.

  I blush. “Sort of. But not in a good way.”

  “Well, tell me!”

  “Okay.” I brake to let some pedestrians pass. “Lucifer is trying to escape from Hell so he can rule the Earth. I’m the one chosen to stop him.”

  She nudges me in the side so hard it hurts. “And that’s not a good thing? Are you kidding me? I’m going to fight the Devil side by side with the chosen one? That’s brilliant!” She puts up her hands and shakes her upper body. “We’re gonna rock this!”

  I chuckle. “Well, I’m glad I finally found someone who’s happy about this instead of worried.”

  “So,” she says as I pull up again, “who else is in your Shield, and what are they like?”

  I tell her the basics. Who the others are, what they can do. I tell her what happened to D’Maeo and Jeep and that Mom is missing. I also mention Mona and Charlie and Gisella, which brings me to my other friends. “Me and Charlie used to be part of a group of friends who turned out to be a lot different than we thought.”

  “Different how?” Kessley asks. “You mean evil?”

  “Two of them, yes. Paul and Simon were working for the Devil. They tried to get me to join them, and when I refused, they tried to kill me.”

  “Oh my gosh, that must have been hard on you both!”

  I nod. “It was. It still is, actually. When I think back to all the good times we had together, it’s hard to wrap my head around it all. We had so much fun, and they seemed like good people.” I rake my hand through my hair as I turn onto Oak Street. “We had to kill them both.”

  I clench my jaw to hold back the tears. Deep inside, I still think Paul and Simon couldn’t have been all bad. They were probably manipulated, brainwashed. If only I’d had a way to reverse that.

  Kessley pats my leg, which feels awkward and normal at the same time. Could that be because she’s now part of my Shield?

  “You had no choice,” she says.

  I shake my head sadly. “How do you know?”

  Her gaze bores into mine when I turn my head. “I can see the pain in your eyes. It tells me you’d do anything to get them back in one piece. But you can’t. Some people are evil, no matter how much we want them to be different.”

  “Are you speaking from experience?” I ask before I can stop myself. Immediately, I raise one hand. “Sorry, you don’t have to answer that.” I frown. “Unless you have unfinished business. Then I need to know everything.”

  She throws back her head and laughs so hard I almost drive Phoenix into the forest.

  “What’s so funny about
that?”

  “You don’t have to worry about unfinished business. My life was a sob story, but there’s nothing to finish.”

  I slow down, giving us both some more time to chat before we reach Darkwood Manor. “Do you want to tell me the short version? We can talk more about it later if you like.”

  “That’s sweet. I dealt with my problems after I died, so I’ll be fine.” She sighs. “I guess I could tell you the very short version of it.”

  I drive even slower and wait for her to continue.

  Even though she says she’s processed what happened to her, her body language tells me otherwise. Her fingers fidget with the hem of her shirt, and she blinks rapidly. I stop the car and turn off the engine. “Take your time.”

  She gazes into the forest where a squirrel jumps from tree to tree. “I grew up in a normal, happy family. That is, until my grandfather moved in with us. He was a tyrant. A drill sergeant with a hunger for domination. He never touched us in front of my father and threatened to kill him in his sleep if we told him. So, at first, we didn’t. But my father wasn’t stupid. He knew something was wrong and pressed me until I told him.” She breathes against the glass until it fogs up, and draws two stick-figures. “They fought, only with words at first, until my grandfather hit my father. I was surprised when my father remained calm. He just grabbed him by the collar, dragged him to the front door and threw him outside. He promised to kill him if he ever came back.”

  “And did he?”

  “He didn’t get the chance. My grandfather kept harassing us, threatening us, but from a distance. Setting up traps in our back garden, leaving bloody packages, calling us in the middle of the night. It drove us all crazy, and the police couldn’t do anything about it.” She smirks at me. “No evidence.”

  “What a horrible man.”

  “Yes, he was. And since we couldn’t stop him, my parents decided to move. It was a hard time for us. We all had to leave our friends, and my father was diagnosed with a heart condition.”

  I shoot her a sympathetic look. “And did it help? Moving?”