Grave Witch

by Kalayna Price

Page 11

  Author: Kalayna Price

  “You get inside. I’ll run interference,” Holly said as she killed the engine. Her eyes darted to the rearview mirror, and her fingers brushed down the front of her immaculate courtroom power suit.

  I only nodded. Holly was a lawyer: spin and PR were staples on her resume. We opened our respective car doors simultaneously. The assault of questions poured over us. Holly’s smile was already working at full wattage as I ducked around the front of the car, headed for my loft.

  “Miss Craft, do you have a statement about—”

  “—first learn Coleman—”

  “—you describe the pattern you saw on—”

  “—fae responsible for the spell?”

  I ground to a halt. I was catching only bits and pieces of questions, but it sounded as though they knew about … Whirling around, I spotted Lusa’s face in the crowd. I pointed at her. “What did you ask?”

  Lusa stepped forward, separating herself from the field of mics. “Can you guess the origin of the spell on Coleman’s body? Is it fae or witch magic?”

  The world tilted, and I could only stare at Lusa’s perfect smile as my lips parted, my jaw going slack.

  “Alex, go inside,” Holly yelled.

  I snapped my jaw shut and blinked at Lusa. How the hell did Lusa know about the spell? My gaze traveled over the mass of reporters. How did any of them know?

  The recording.

  I turned on my heel, running around the side of the house and all but plowing over our friendly neighborhood gargoyle, Fred.

  Fred wasn’t the gargoyle’s real name, but like most fae creatures, it wouldn’t share its name. I’d started calling it Fred several years ago in an effort to irritate it into telling me something else to call it. To my dismay, the gargoyle seemed pleased with the name, or at least didn’t care enough to object to it.

  Though I’d never seen Fred move, it traveled the house perimeter, always staying near the garage. I typically left it a saucerful of milk, which the gargoyle seemed to like.

  I got the distinct impression it was guarding the yard from other gargoyles and that ours was a sought-after bit of territory. Magic called to magic, and Caleb used a lot of it. Of course, most of the diminutive fae living outside of the Faerie Knowe congregated in the Glen.

  “The green man will not like this attention,” Fred said inside my head.

  “Tell me something I don’t know,” I muttered. “The green man” was what the gargoyle called Caleb. Without pause, I swerved around the stone creature. Then I took the stairs two at a time.

  PC jumped at my feet—which he probably shouldn’t have been doing no matter how well his leg was doing—but that didn’t prevent him from begging for attention as I dashed inside. I didn’t even pause. Crossing the room, I wiggled my finger in the hole where the TV’s power button should have been until the screen buzzed and filled with color.

  Lusa Duncan appeared on the screen, with my house as a backdrop. “—where Alex Craft has just arrived home. As of yet, we have received no answers about Alex’s shocking revelation about the late governor in the video that appeared only hours ago on multiple Internet sites. ” The screen cut, and my face appeared. My eyes glowed with grave magic as I stared down at the bared head and chest of Coleman.

  The TV image of me looked up at someone offscreen, voicing my words from the morgue the day before, but I could barely make them out. The static of panic filled my ears, drowning out sound. The screen changed again, this time showing the steps of Central Precinct as Detective Andrews stormed up them, lifting his arm to buffer the barrage of microphones.

  “—As of yet, the Nekros City Police have issued no comment as to the validity of the video,” Lusa’s voiceover said as Falin reached the top step.

  He looked back, and the cameraman zoomed, focusing on Falin’s face. Icy blue eyes dominated the screen.

  Really pissed-off eyes.

  Eyes I could have sworn were looking right at me.

  Chapter 5

  “You stupid Web page. ” I typed another command, but it was no good. I couldn’t hit the back door into the site. Disgusted, I tabbed over to a new page. I’d been attempting to find the original version of the leaked video for almost two hours, but the file had spread like a virus over the Internet. News stations, blogs, boards, torrents—it was everywhere.

  My phone buzzed beside my laptop, and I glanced at the display. The number wasn’t familiar. I hit the button to send it straight to voice mail, which was probably full by now. Every reporter in the nation had apparently found my number. I was surprised I hadn’t heard from Casey yet. With any luck, it would be a couple of more hours before she saw the video. I wanted more information before I talked to her.

  PC, who’d been asleep in my lap, lifted his whitecrested head and looked at me, clearly annoyed with my outburst. He stood and circled, but apparently couldn’t get comfortable. His back legs bent as he prepared to launch himself from my lap.

  “No, you don’t,” I said, almost absently, as I grabbed him and gently set him down on the floor. His nails clicked and his cast thumped on the hard wood as he moseyed over to check his bowl. His empty bowl—he’d already eaten all the chips I’d snagged from Mac’s.

  “Dinner later,” I told him, then turned back to the computer. A chilled wind danced over my exposed shoulders.

  That damn ghost.

  I’d had about enough of his haunting gig. I flipped around. The ghost stood directly behind me, leaning forward as if he’d been reading my computer screen. My knees brushed his leg as my chair spun, and he jerked back, his eyes flying wide.

  I expected him to disappear, to hide deep in the land of the dead as he had a half dozen times in the past twenty-four hours. Right now I was irritated enough to follow him across the chasm.

  But he didn’t fade. His gaze flicked from where my knees had brushed him, up to my face. Then his lips shot into silent motion. I shook my head. Oh, so he’s finally ready to talk?

  His hand shot out, and grave-cold fingers wrapped around the bones of my wrist.

  I yelped, leaping off the barstool. It swayed and crashed forward through the ghost, slamming into my calf as it clattered to the floor.

  The ghost’s grip never wavered. He stepped sideways, out of the rungs of the stool. His mouth never stopped moving.

  Not that I could hear him.

  “Get your hands off me before I exorcise your ghostly ass. ” Okay, so I lacked the magic to back up the threat.

  But he didn’t know that.

  Or maybe he did. His grip tightened, his fingers pressing into my flesh. His lips moved in slow, exaggerated words, and he pointed at me with his free hand.

  Right—he wanted me to do something. Well, I wanted him to let go.

  I concentrated on my mental shields, focusing on the wall of living vines that enclosed my psyche and separated me from the land of the dead. There were always gaps between the vines, small holes that let me gaze across the chasm and interact with ghosts and soul collectors.

  Sealing my shields completely was exhausting and rather like closing my eyes and sticking my fingers in my ears. But it wasn’t impossible.

  I visualized the vines slithering tight around each other. In my mind’s eye, dagger-length thorns sprouted from the green tendrils, the red-tipped barbs a clear warning.

  The ghost’s fingers slipped through my wrist, leaving grave-chill clinging to my bones. His shimmering form faded to translucent. He frowned, staring at his hand. He reached out again, and again his hand passed through my arm.

  I smiled. Judging by the way the ghost backed up, it wasn’t my most welcoming smile. He held up his hands, palms forward, and mouthed something, which could have been anything from “I’m sorry” to “please help. ”

  One day I had to learn to read lips. But not today.

  I crossed my arms over my chest and took a step b
ack.

  “Let’s establish some ground rules. First of all, I’m not in the business of helping wandering souls exact final revenge or pass messages from beyond the grave to loved ones. Got it?”

  His frown deepened, but he nodded.

  “Good. Now, I’m guessing you started following me at the morgue. Do you know something about one of the bodies?”

  His lips parted and he nodded vigorously enough that he had to push his shimmering glasses back up his nose.

  Okay; I was starting to get somewhere. “Which body?”

  His mouth fell into motion, his arms emphasizing what was obviously a lively explanation. I held up a hand to stop the silent rant, and the ghost slumped his shoulders, an inaudible sigh disturbing his shaggy hair.

  Right—yes-or-no questions, Alex. Duh. I cleared my throat. “Do you know something about Governor Coleman’s death?”

  The ghost cocked his head to the side, as if considering my question. Then he nodded, one slow rise and fall of his head.

  Well, that wasn’t the most reassuring or enthusiastic response, but it was better than nothing.

  A drop of sweat dripped from my hairline, the moisture carving a line down to my chin. I couldn’t keep my shields locked this tight for long. I nodded to the corner of the room and motioned for the ghost to follow as I made my way to the circle etched in the floor. Residual power buzzed at the edge of the circle, despite the fact the barrier was currently dormant.

  “In you go,” I said, pointing at the ghost.

  He scowled at the etched line and shoved his balled fists into the front pockets of his baggy jeans.

  “Hey, you want to talk to me? You go in the circle. That, or you find some other grave witch to haunt. ” I seriously hoped he didn’t take me up on the latter if he honestly knew anything about Coleman, but he’d already learned I was tangible to him, and if I dropped my shields enough to hear him, we’d be very real to each other. I wasn’t risking it if he wasn’t trapped.

  His inaudible huff made his shoulders slump farther, but he trudged into the circle. I channeled magic from my ring into the barrier before he could change his mind. As the translucent blue wall materialized between us I smiled and eased back on my shields. My mental vines uncoiled, and I coaxed them into opening more gaps than normal, enough so that while I wasn’t straddling the chasm between the living and the dead the way I was when I raised shades, my psyche was still reaching pretty far across it.