by Cady Vance
“That’d be cool,” I said. My t-shirt was wrinkled, and I’d worn my jeans too many days in a row. And man, my hair needed to be combed. Summer might be fading fast, but the humidity was still making me look like an over-shampooed poodle.
“Look,” Nathan said.
The garage door rolled open and one of the shamans pushed a green trash can to the curb. So, even lunatics still needed to take out the trash. A moment later, the SUV pulled out and drove off, but I could see only one head through the back windshield.
“Damn it,” I said. “That was only one of them. I bet the other guy is still home.”
“Maybe not,” he said. “We could check.”
“No,” I said. “I don’t want to blow the one shot we have of sneaking in there.”
***
An hour later, we were still waiting for both shamans to leave. The one who’d left came back after only ten minutes had passed, and I’d been trying to force the garage door open again with my eyes, in the vein of Professor Xavier, of course.
Leaning back, I stretched my legs as far as they could go in the cramped sports car. Darkness was falling like a blanket over the sky, threatening a storm again, making the late morning seem like night. I rubbed the chill bumps on my arms. I wished I’d brought a hoodie.
“How much longer do you think we should sit here and wait?” I asked.
“At least a little while longer,” he said. “I feel like they might go prowling later to see if you’re interfering again.”
“Maybe they think they scared us enough to keep me from banishing any more of their spirits,” I said, squinting when I saw the garage door opening. “Or not.”
I held my breath as I watched the SUV pull out of the drive, and when it began squealing away, I saw two heads through the windshield this time. Bingo. They were gone.
“Okay,” I said. “They’re gone. Hopefully none of their neighbors will see me. I’m going to try getting inside. Call me on my cell if you see the SUV coming back.”
I got out of the car, and when I slammed the door, I looked over the roof to see Nathan’s curly hair popping up as he jumped out of the car, too. I wrinkled my forehead in confusion.
“I’m not staying in the car,” he said. “I don’t feel right about you going in there by yourself.”
“Seriously, one of us should be the look-out.” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Holly, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go in there alone.”
“Fine.” I tried not to roll my eyes. And they say chivalry is dead. “Together we can take care of this quicker anyway.”
We trotted across the narrow street and walked up the lane past a couple of other houses, acting like we belonged here. Nathan walked leisurely by my side, arms swinging, pace slow and steady. I was glad he wasn’t trying to dart around and really glad he wasn’t dressed in all black again.
We turned into the driveway, and I went straight up to the blazing red door like I owned the place. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my keys, lifting the lock picking tools my dad had given me a couple of years ago. If any nosy neighbors were watching, it would look like I was using a key.
“What’s that?” Nathan asked, moving closer and darting a look over his shoulder.
“Lock picks,” I said, using one to jimmy the knob. The lock popped and I smiled, pushing the door open.
“Why do I feel like I don’t want to know?” He followed me inside and pushed the door closed. I fiddled with the doorknob, made sure it still worked correctly and locked it behind us. I held my breath and waited. Even though we’d seen the shamans leave, fear still pounded through me, making my skin jump to a beat I couldn’t hear. I didn’t want to think about what could happen if we were somehow wrong. After a moment, when silence still reined, my shoulders relaxed just a fraction of an inch.
“My dad gave it to me,” I whispered, moving quickly down the short hallway and into the very familiar kitchen. “He has a knack for breaking and entering. I should warn you. If we get caught, we’ll probably end up in jail, especially since I’m the daughter of Hank Bennett.”
“Is that why he went to prison? He broke into someone’s place?” Nathan asked.
I paused inside a very bare living room with a ratty couch and a flat-screen TV mounted on the wall. “More like, he broke into a lot of someones’ places.” I peered down a short hallway behind Nathan. “Nothing is in here. There’s a few more doors down that hall.”
I made my way over to the first door, opened it and found a messy closet full of clothes, a deflated basketball and grungy pillows.
“Here we go. This is an office.” Nathan poked his head out from behind another door.
I followed him inside and scanned the cluttered room. Papers were piled on every surface of an old mahogany desk, and boxes of books were stacked up in every corner. Envelopes and other papers were tossed on the floor, and I had to stay on my tiptoes as I moved over to the desk. A computer monitor sat in the midst of the jumbled papers, its screensaver scrawling images of fish and bubbles across it.
I eased into the leather chair as quietly as possible. Nathan leaned his face over my shoulder while I brought the screen to life. I tried not to pay attention to how close his cheek was, and how I could almost feel his skin brushing against mine. If I moved my head just a fraction of an inch to the right, our faces would be smooshed up against each other.
The desktop flashed up in front of me, covered in dozens of icons for folders, files and programs. I let out a long sigh. “This might take awhile.”
CHAPTER 15
Nathan started going through one of the stacks of papers while I pushed open the hard-to-budge window leading into the backyard. I grimaced when it screeched against the frame. We needed to be out of here way, way, way before the shamans returned, but just in case, I wanted an emergency escape route ready.
I jiggled the window screen and let it fall onto the grass before moving back over to the desk. Nathan was leaning against it, face serious, all focus on the papers in his hands. The way his lips pursed made the lines of his face look chiseled and defined. My eyes went south, drinking in the biceps that slightly stretched the fabric of his t-shirt.
He looked up and caught me staring. Whoops. Glancing away, I slid into the chair. I didn’t know what was going on with me today. It wasn’t like I’d never appreciated hot guys before, but I’d never felt so completely unnerved by one. All I wanted to do was stare at him.
But this was certainly not the time or place for that.
I clicked around the computer, first looking at the browser history. Lots of hits for Gmail. I tried loading the page, but it looked like they were both signed out of their accounts, and I didn’t know enough about hacking to get into their e-mail that way.
I looked through more of their history but didn’t find anything that spelled out why they were attacking citizens of Seaport. Articles, blogs, Facebook accounts. The usual. I scanned their list of bookmarks to see if anything jumped out at me. I didn’t want to go to each and every website listed. We shouldn’t stay in the house very long, and I still needed to look through the files on their computer.
Nathan shifted in the corner of my eye, and I looked up to see him craning his neck around the door. I gripped the arms on the chair. Had he heard something? Were the shamans back already? I waited, nibbling on the inside of my cheek, ready to bolt at the slightest noise. When he turned around, he shot me an uneasy thumbs-up to let me know everything was okay, but the pace of my heart didn’t slow a beat.
I resumed my scan of the bookmarks on the computer. One website snagged my attention. It was for a Dr. Lombardi of Astrology. I clicked the link and watched the page load. At first, it came across as the usual astrology stuff. Special horoscope readings and signs guided by stars. But there was something more going on here. The icons for page navigation were bones, and his “About” page listed his favorite plant as sage. Not to mention the hobbies list where he’d added “astral pr
ojection” and “drawing runes” at the bottom. The coincidences were too much to ignore.
The “Contact” page gave an address in Boston, and I committed it to my faulty memory. To be safe, I also clicked to print out a copy for my file. This could end up being nothing, but my instincts told me I needed to talk to this guy.
“You find something?” Nathan glanced up at the whirring of the printer. I willed it to be silent, afraid the shamans could hear the sound wherever they were, even miles away.
“Not sure.” I grabbed the page from the tray when it spun through. The paper felt warm in my hands before I folded it and stuck it in my back pocket. “It’s worth checking out.”
He set down the stack of papers he’d been going through. “Nothing useful here. It’s all mostly photocopies of books about antiques and collectibles.”
Something went snikt! in the house, and we both froze, staring at each other with wide eyes. The muffled sound of male voices came from somewhere down the hall. I hissed and pointed to the open window.
Ohmygod, they’re going to kill us.
“You first,” Nathan mouthed, and we both scurried over to the window. I propped one leg over the sill and tumbled onto the grass. All light had seeped from the sky by dark gray storm clouds while we’d been inside, and the backyard was full of shadows.
Nathan landed beside me, breathing heavily. I stood and listened through the open window. I could hear the shamans laughing somewhere inside the house. I gritted my teeth. Here they were as happy as could be, while they were ruining lives a town away.
I started pulling at the window. We needed to close it before we left. I didn’t want to leave any evidence at all that someone had been inside their house. Nathan stood and started pulling with me, our fingers brushing. The voices grew louder, and I pulled harder on the window, my nails snagging on the rough ledge. Finally, the window began to move, and we forced it down.
The light clicked on inside.
Nathan and I flew down. He reached over and grabbed my hand. I squeezed, my heart hammering hard inside my chest.
No exclamations of surprise or anger.
I started to move away, but Nathan held me back and pointed up. Craning my neck, I peered up at the window while keeping my head down low. They were standing right there, shadows cast on the glass, and if we moved, they’d probably see us.
We squatted there for a good ten minutes, tense and uncomfortable. I never loosened my grip on Nathan’s hand, and he didn’t show any sign of wanting to let go either. I met his eyes, and he gave me a grim smile. I knew what he must be thinking about. The last time we were here. I was thinking about it, too.
If they found us, they would kill us.
A loud crash, like a cymbal falling on concrete, clanged inside the house. I jumped what felt like ten feet in the air, and I closed my eyes to pray they hadn’t seen me. Yelling followed, and I bit my lip hard. But the yelling wasn’t for us. They were arguing about something. Loud. And they were moving away from the window.
“Go,” I hissed, taking that as my cue to get us the hell out of there.
Crouching low, Nathan and I moved to the side of the house, our backs pressed against the paneling. I squeezed his hand tight. In the other hand, I held the screen that I’d snapped from the window.
Nathan’s eyes flicked to the rectangular shape in my hand, but he didn’t say anything, his mouth still taut and grim.
We eased our way around the side of the house, and the street was in clear view. But if we moved out into the street now, anyone who was at their windows would see us creeping along, leaving a yard with a window screen that was clearly not ours.
Unkempt hedges lined the edge of the yard, separating this one from the next. Keeping low, I dashed the short way over and stuffed the screen into the bushes, leaving only an inch of the metal peeking out. Hopefully no one would notice it for awhile.
When I rejoined Nathan, I glanced toward the backyard with the dancing shadows. I swore I could feel something stirring in the air. It pricked my skin like a thousand tiny needles. Like a magic dark and deep. I decided to take my chances getting seen by people who didn’t have dangerous magic running through their veins.
Still holding tight to Nathan, we headed toward the street. I straightened out of my hunched position and kept my pace steady just in case. Everything inside me screamed to run. The adrenaline swirling inside me made me feel like I was a miles-deep into a marathon, right at the point where exhaustion leaves and all you can feel is the exhilaration of the race.
When we got to the pavement, an older man stepped out onto the porch of the house across the street.
“What are you kids doing?” he asked.
I let go of Nathan’s hand, smiled and waved. Nathan kept his head down, eyes trained on the pavement. I elbowed him, and he looked up with fear in his eyes. Then, he sent the man on the porch a tight smile.
The man waved back but stayed on his porch, watching us as we climbed into Nathan’s car. As soon as the doors slammed shut, Nathan peeled away from the curb.
The entire way back to the harbor, we were silent. I kept peeking over my shoulder, watching the road behind us, sure the shamans’ SUV would appear at any moment.
When Nathan pulled beside my truck, he turned to me and grabbed my arms in his hands.
My breath caught in my throat, and I stared into his emerald eyes. He sat there gazing at me, eyes flickering from my mouth, to my nose, to my eyes, to my arms. Then, he reached up, placed his hands on both my cheeks, leaned forward and rested his forehead against mine.
My insides felt like they were made of shifting sand. It shouldn’t have been possible, but my adrenaline kicked up another notch. All my blood felt as if it were rushing to my head, right to the spot where our foreheads touched. Right where Nathan’s skin was melting into mine.
I didn’t breathe at all.
He was going to kiss me. I was sure of it. His mouth was right there, only inches from my lips. Our faces were touching, his hands were on me, and all I could do was sit there with my arms dangling in my lap, fear and excitement pounding through me. It was like I was a frozen statue, a shocked dear in the headlights of a hot guy who might actually like me. I wanted to lean forward, wrap my arms around him, move into whatever it was we were doing.
But I couldn’t move. I just sat there.
I’d only ever kissed one other guy in my life, and that had been two years earlier when I’d had my only real boyfriend. It was weird, sloppy and I’d never liked it, no matter how many times we’d locked lips. For some reason, I thought it was impossible I’d feel that way about a kiss from Nathan.
He must have been waiting for me to do something, anything. And when I didn’t, he sighed and pulled away. His hands fell from my face, and my forehead felt cool where he’d been touching me. I wanted to reach out and pull him back. Tell him I wanted him to be that close again.
But I didn’t do that either.
We sat there for a few more moments before I had the nerve to speak.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, that was kind of scary but also kind of exciting,” he said. “I’m wondering if it was such a good idea now, but you found something, right?”
“I did,” I said. “A name and address in Boston for someone who might be a shaman.”
“An address? I’m taking you don’t want to just call this mystery person.”
“No,” I said, starting to relax now that we were on familiar ground again. Talking. I could do this. “How do you ask someone over the phone if he’s a shaman? Besides, one look at him, and I’ll know.”
“How?” He tugged a strand of my hair, and I felt the lump return to my throat.
“I don’t know. It’s this thing. I know a shaman is a shaman when I see him. It’s like instant recognition.”
“So, when are you planning on going to Boston?”
“Now. ASAP. I’m hoping I can find out something on what these guys are doing or maybe get some h
elp. If this Mr. Astrology is a shaman like I think he is, he might be able to send some experienced shamans to take care of these guys and the spirits in town.”
“And he might know who hurt your mom,” Nathan said what I’d been thinking the entire time I’d been telling him why I wanted to go. The core reason. All that other stuff was important, but it wasn’t the real reason I was going to Boston. We’d only been hanging out for a couple of days, but already he knew me too well.
“Right,” I said.
“But what if this astrology shaman is somehow involved with these guys?”
“I thought about that, too,” I said. “But it’s not like I’m going to barge into his place and start lobbing questions at him. I’ll do like we did just now. Scope things out. See what’s going on before talking to him. Get a good look at him. If he seems dangerous, I’ll walk away.”
“I’m coming with you.”
CHAPTER 16
Nathan followed me to my place. When I turned off my truck, I stared at the little farmhouse that squatted on the small lot. This was my home. This was where Mom had instructed me on the finer techniques of astral projection and bone magic, where Laura and I had spent many weekend nights full of thriller movie marathons, massive popcorn ingestion and epic prank phone calls, and where I’d last seen my dad. Mom never found out he’d given me lock picks the day she’d told him she couldn’t handle his museum art thefts and Beverly Hills break-ins any longer.
I couldn’t imagine being forced to leave here. I couldn’t image what would happen if the repossession trucks pulled up, their big tires forcing muddy ruts into our front yard, and I didn’t want to think about how everyone would finally know what was really going on with my mother. We’d have no place to go.
I jumped when Nathan knocked on the driver-side window. His eyebrows were crinkled together as if he could tell something was wrong. I hadn’t told him about the foreclosure notice. Even though I’d spilled so much, there were a lot of details about my life I hadn’t shared. I took a slow, deep breath that reached all the way to my toes before I opened the door and stepped out into the chilly, early fall weather. I couldn’t believe I was introducing Nathan to my mom.
