Nightmare Stalkers (Magic Trackers Book 2)

by Michael La Ronn

  “Line for what?” Allegra asked.

  “To get you checked out,” Darius said.

  Allegra gasped.

  “Don't take it the wrong way,” Darius said. “But maybe there's something medically wrong with you too. It could explain why you're having these dreams. It doesn't hurt to have all the facts, right?”

  “You don't believe me,” Allegra said.

  “I believe you like I believe in the good Lord,” Darius said. “But I'm a wizard. I study wizard tech. I also believe that traditional medicine can help us in a time like this.”

  “And what’s it going to prove?” Allegra asked. Her tone was rising. I didn’t think she was capable of anger, but she was proving me wrong.

  “We want to help you,” Darius said.

  “You can help me by taking me to The Leather Skull,” she said.

  “And what if we don’t find anything there?” Darius asked. He softened his tone, trying to appeal to her gentler side.

  “Then we’ll keep searching,” Allegra said. “I can’t stand by while other people…while they—”

  “I get it,” Darius said. “But you came to us for a reason. We all have our skills. Let me use mine, a’ight?”

  “Darius has a point,” I said. “We’ve already eaten breakfast. Leather Skull’s not open for another four hours. You have health insurance, right?”

  Allegra nodded and rested her head against the glass.

  “I just didn’t think you guys would tell me I was crazy too,” she said.

  “You ain’t crazy,” Destiny said. “Maybe we the ones that’s crazy. But’s it’s pretty strange that a person who doesn’t have magic is suddenly having magical dreams, ain’t it?”

  Allegra folded her arms and closed her eyes.

  “Okay,” she said. “I trust you guys. But if they try to refer me to the psych ward—”

  “I won’t let that happen to you,” Darius said, grinning. “If they try, I’ll break you out of there, promise. Besides, you ain’t gonna tell them the truth anyway.”

  “You want me to lie?” Allegra asked.

  “That’s an ethical no-no,” Darius said. “I just need you to…uh…stretch the truth. Just trust me, will you?”

  I wasn’t sure what my cousin had planned, but when it came to wizard tech, he knew what he was doing.

  7

  The waiting room at Kemiston Memorial Hospital was surprisingly empty.

  A giant Christmas tree with white lights stood in the center of the lobby, almost tall enough to touch the clerestory windows that let in cloudy morning light.

  The place smelled like antiseptic.

  I hated hospitals.

  A nurse passed by, pushing a man in a wheelchair. Both the nurse and the man had face masks on. The man coughed.

  After they passed, I coughed.

  I felt myself getting sick with whatever that guy had.

  Immediately, I wanted to leave.

  My Nana always said, if you want to get sick, go to a hospital.

  So I stayed away from them.

  I doused my hands in hand sanitizer from a nearby station. Rubbing my hands, I jogged to keep up with Darius and Allegra, who were leaning on the reception desk.

  The receptionist, an African-American woman with red hair tied into a ponytail, greeted them.

  “How you doin’, ma’am,” Darius said. “My girlfriend needs to be seen. She’s having really bad migraines.”

  “Has she seen her primary physician?” the nurse asked.

  “Naw,” Darius said. “They’re so bad we had to come to the hospital. She insisted on coming here.”

  “Can your girlfriend speak for herself?” the nurse asked, annoyed.

  “My migraines are terrible,” Allegra said. “What’s the wait time?”

  “We’re sitting at about an hour,” the nurse said.

  “An hour?” Darius said. “Ain’t nobody in here. She’s gonna need an MRI.”

  “You’ve got people ahead of you,” the nurse said. “We’ll determine what she needs.”

  Darius sighed. “A’ight. Thanks, miss.”

  The nurse handed Allegra a clipboard with a sapphire charm indented on it. Allegra waved her hand over the clipboard, and the charm flashed.

  A screen behind the nurse blinked and populated Allegra’s information.

  “We’ll call you when it’s your time,” the nurse said.

  “Excuse me,” I said. “Can I ask why the hospital staff is wearing masks?”

  “Lot of colds and flus going around,” the nurse said.

  “Fantastic,” I said.

  We took our seats in the middle of the waiting room.

  A television played a morning talk show. A woman claimed that the man across from her was the father of her child. I rolled my eyes as I pumped more hand sanitizer from a stand next to me.

  “Paranoid much?” Darius asked.

  “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to stay here with you guys,” I said. “I already feel like I’m coming down with the plague.”

  “You and your hypochondria,” Darius said. “You know you’re not really sick, right?”

  Seriously.

  The goosebumps on my arms felt like they were crawling.

  Not only was it COLD in here, I felt sick.

  And on top of that, my hands were starting to turn ashy.

  “I don’t do hospitals,” I said.

  “Amen,” Allegra said. She was sitting next to Darius, glancing at her phone. We hadn’t been able to get many responses out of her since we agreed to go to the hospital.

  “Every time I come to one of these places, I feel like I’m going to catch whatever the guy next to me has,” I said, looking around nervously. A door to the interior of the hospital opened, allowing a glimpse at a long aisle of beds. A doctor wearing a mask passed by. He coughed.

  “Jesus, even the doctors are sick,” I said, shuddering.

  “You so irrational,” Destiny said.

  “Okay,” I said. “Let’s talk about how you came to me scared of the dark, little girl.”

  “That was three years ago!” Destiny said. “And somebody almost broke into the shop, thank you very much.”

  “I didn’t see any signs of entry,” I said. “I think you were being irrational. So step off.”

  Destiny shook her head.

  Darius whistled to break the tension. The nurse passed by, adjusting magazines on the table.

  Darius grabbed Allegra’s hand and patted it, putting on his best boyfriend impersonation.

  “Hey, baby, how are you feeling?” he asked. “How’s your head?”

  Allegra pulled her hand away but then stopped when she saw the nurse.

  “Could be better,” she said.

  When the nurse walked away, she pushed Darius’s hand aside.

  “I’m not your baby,” she said.

  “You’re taking this roleplaying a little too seriously,” I said.

  I stood and stretched.

  “I think I’m gonna get out of here, guys,” I said.

  “We ain’t even been here fifteen minutes,” Darius said.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I can’t do this.”

  “Maybe you ought to ask them for a pill or something,” Darius said. “You can’t just leave us.”

  I punched him on the shoulder.

  “Ow!” he said.

  “A pill? Seriously?” I asked.

  “You got problems, cuz!” Darius said.

  “No more than you,” I said. “Besides, I’ve been thinking about something. It’s about this case. I want to do some more digging.”

  “What kind of digging?” Darius asked.

  “I was thinking of seeing Aunt Letty,” I said.

  “You crazy,” Darius said. “Her crazy ass will tell you all kinds of wrong stuff. She can’t even guess the right tarot cards half the time.”

  “But her intuition is good,” I said. “Besides, you two are going to be here a while.”

>   I started to walk away.

  “I’ll go with you,” Destiny said, jumping up.

  “Just leave me alone,” Darius said. “A’ight. I see how it’s gonna be. Real cool.”

  “What’s the matter?” Destiny asked. “I thought you said you would protect Allegra at the first sign of danger, you big strong punk.”

  “I don’t need protecting,” Allegra said, smiling. “I’ll probably end up protecting him.”

  “Y’all got jokes,” Darius said. “Too bad they’re not hilarious.”

  “You guys get that MRI and then call me,” I said. “We should be back well before then, though.”

  “You tell Aunt Letty to take her pills,” Darius said. “She the one that needs them.”

  “How ‘bout we not do that?” Destiny asked.

  I waved.

  “You two love birds try not to have too much fun, okay?” I asked. “We’ve got some dreams to solve.”

  Destiny and I left them and passed through a pair of automatic doors into the cold, cold morning.

  8

  “Just can’t stand hospitals, can you?” Destiny asked.

  I shivered as the cold wind blew through us. It started to snow as we walked under the covered entrance to the emergency room and headed toward the subway terminal connected to the hospital.

  Destiny huddled close to me to keep warm.

  A black Mitsubishi pulled up, and two nurses met a woman who climbed out of the passenger seat, coughing. They helped her into a wheelchair.

  “Lot of stuff going around, huh?” I asked.

  “Wouldn’t want to be a nurse right now,” Destiny said.

  Destiny almost went to school for nursing. She had even worked part-time in a hospital serving meals until she realized that the twelve-hour shifts and constant sight of blood and shit weren’t for her.

  A doctor in an orange arctic coat walked by carrying a sack lunch. I smelled eggs and sausage. My stomach churned. Hospital food. Smelled awful.

  We reached a covered walkway that snaked up and around the side of the hospital. Above, a subway car passed overhead.

  “How long until Darius stops speaking coherent sentences to Allegra?” Destiny asked.

  “Right about now,” I said, elbowing her and laughing.

  “He really needs a girlfriend,” Destiny said. “It's startin’ to get pathetic.”

  The subway platform was full, and we were among a crowd of people for a change. Mostly doctors, nurses, and hospital techs off work, tired from having worked all night. I wouldn't have minded going back to sleep right now, myself.

  Destiny rubbed her hands together and blew into them as we checked the arrival times.

  “At least this quest is taking my mind off my acceptance letters,” she said.

  I had almost forgotten.

  Destiny had applied for college. Her number one (and only) pick was Lakeway University, the city’s premier Magical Historically Black University. With a perfect GPA, crazy good standardized test scores, and a kickass “why me” essay, her acceptance was all but assured, but that didn't stop her from talking herself into the myth that they wouldn't take her.

  She was going to get in.

  How we were going to afford the city’s most expensive tuition? Different story.

  “You're totally gonna get in,” I said, putting my arm around her shoulder.

  “Tell that to the admissions department,” Destiny said. “I left them three messages already. They haven't returned my calls.”

  “I wonder why,” I said. “Be cool, cousin. A few months from now, you're going to be moving into the dorms, startin’ your first classes, and calling me all stressed cuz you don't know how you're going to maintain your perfect GPA.”

  “I ain't gonna be stressed,” Destiny said.

  “Yes, you are, because I know you,” I said. “And I'm gonna tell you the same thing then that I'm gonna tell you now: it'll be all right. Just keep livin’, fam.”

  Destiny laughed.

  “Ain't never stopped livin’,” she said.

  “Then ain't nothin’ to worry about, is it?” I asked.

  A symphony of car horns started in traffic below.

  A crunch!

  Then yelling.

  Sounded like a car accident. And it didn't sound pretty.

  Whish!

  Crack!

  Sounded like two wizards in a spell fight.

  Even worse.

  I had seen too many of those to even want to be interested in watching. There was nothing gratifying about seeing two people hurt each other.

  Soon, sirens.

  They were so loud, it was hard to hear anything else.

  “Do you really think Aunt Letty’s gonna be able to help us?” Destiny asked as the sirens faded.

  Aunt Letty.

  Not really our aunt, but a family friend. Anybody that comes to your house once a week and sends you gifts on your birthday and Christmas is practically family.

  She was a psychic. If anyone could give us some insights into Allegra’s situation, it was her.

  “Even if she can't,” I said, “it'll give us an excuse to see her.”

  “God knows she won't forgive us for not stopping by for Christmas last year,” Destiny said. “Betcha fifty cents she brings it up.”

  “No bet,” I said. “Because you would win.”

  The terminal intercom beeped as a subway car entered the station.

  “Let's hope Auntie can help,” I said as we climbed aboard.

  9

  The ride to my Aunt Letty’s was long, uneventful, and blindingly snowy.

  Gave me a lot of time for reflection.

  About how I could help Allegra. If she could be helped.

  About the mysterious Harriet Shadow, and how she had a way of showing up in my life when she wasn't needed.

  About money trouble. How the hell I was going to pay for Destiny’s college, because she wasn't going to be able to do it alone, no matter how much she tried to hide the financial aid papers from me.

  And Darius’s wizard tech classes. Those were priced more reasonably.

  Allegra was paying a nice price for our services. The money we'd make would be enough to last a couple of months. Meant we could go out for dinner at Wizmo’s Fried Chicken when this was all over, and that was something to look forward to.

  As the subway car bulleted through a dark tunnel, I thought about my Nana.

  I closed my eyes and wished for her back, for all the lost time.

  I could see her dark face, wrinkle-lined and high cheekbones, pulling into a wide smile. Her gray hair pulled back into a bun, red scarf around her neck.

  She was my Nana. The woman that raised me.

  She didn't have to take me in that wintry night when my mom decided to abandon me on her doorstep.

  She was a professional woman. A demon hunter. With crazy potential.

  Nana could have really been something. Someone.

  But she gave up that promising career to take care of me, resorting to working part-time as a demon hunter at night, and working full-time in a subway booth by day.

  And when Darius and Destiny’s parents decided they didn't want to do right…well, they took advantage of Nana’s good nature too.

  “Don't ever pay me back,” Nana always said to me when I made the mistake of telling her I would find a way to pay her back for all she'd done for me. “Pay somebody else, baby. Pay it forward.”

  Pay what forward? Shelter? Love of family? Sacrifice?

  Nana would have laughed if she could see the three of us now.

  Dream Readers, a Limited Liability Company!

  Helping people.

  Doing something that nobody else would have thought of—solving people’s problems through their dreams.

  And we made a living doing it.

  And man, we kicked ass at it.

  I thought about Harriet Shadow and what she had said.

  “I can assure you that very little of her time was
spent demon hunting, though she was good at it,” Harriet said.

  Nana was a shifter. She excelled at being a wolf. I'll never forget her snow white fur, her mahogany eyes, the way she bounded into shadows and moonlight at the same time every night, after I put Darius and Destiny to bed.

  She hunted demons.

  At least that was what she told me.

  What if I was wrong?

  What if everything I had assumed about my grandmother had been wrong?

  Shit.

  It was too hard to take.

  I couldn't do this.

  Not right now.

  The subway car slid to a stop.

  I opened my eyes and Destiny pulled me into the cold, into Latin Town, a colorful section of town where the storefronts were painted in the colors of flags of Latin America, and the streets slanted upward and downward, like we were in another continent.

  Latin Town, the hood 2.0. When all the white folks moved out, the Hispanics moved in, and the place never smelled better—the air was always filled with the smell of fried something—and it never sounded better—those Spanish songs were bumpin’, even though I had no clue what they said.

  There was something more endearing and lovable about Latin Town than the hood. Where we grew up, you always had to watch yourself. Neighbors were always struggling. You never knew if the dude walking past you was all right or trying to make money to support the family. Desperation was in the air, in the water.

  Here, people stuck together. Took care of their own. If you did some shit, shit happened to you. Otherwise, people let you be.

  Destiny and I bought two fish tacos from a tiny bodega and stood in the cold drinking mugs of Mexican hot chocolate to warm ourselves up.

  Then we walked with our faces tucked into our chests for two blocks. The snow had picked up and was blowing in great gusts now.

  We fought through it until we reached the Twin Harbor Assisted Living Retirement Community, a twelve-story high-rise sandwiched between two storefronts painted pink and purple.

  An egg-shaped gate protected the premises from the public. The building stood hidden behind snow-covered oaks. Christmas lights covered the balcony railings. Almost all of the lights in the apartments were on—it was prime time in the senior community around eight o’clock in the morning.