Revenant's Call

by Rain Oxford

  “There’s no blood or signs of magic,” Henry said.

  “There are some notes on potions and spells, but nothing that raises a red flag,” Darwin agreed. He held up an empty potion bottle he found on one of the desks. “Healing potion.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked.

  He rolled his eyes and licked the rim of the bottle. “Bro, I can tell you the exact proportions of what ingredients were used. It’s a healing potion. Not a good one, mind you.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind. Let’s search Leon and Turner’s room.”

  We left the room and saw Kita in passing. “Hi, Mr. Sanders,” she said. “Why were you in Patience’s room?”

  “I am trying to find out why she’s in a coma. Did you know her well?”

  “No. We were kind of friends last year, but this semester, she started hanging out with different people. Kat, Jessica, and Jasmine are bitches and they make fun of my hair, so I don’t hang out with Patience any more since she started doing everything with them.”

  “So you hadn’t noticed anything odd with her before she fell into a coma?”

  “No.”

  “What about other students? Have you seen anyone acting strange since the semester started?” Darwin asked.

  “Yeah… a lot of people. A lot of my friends have seen things that weren’t there or talked to someone who wasn’t there. Things in our rooms go missing. I got in trouble because one of my books was missing. It was on my shelf when I went to bed and then it was gone when I woke up. We’re being pranked, but we don’t know who’s doing it. The teachers are being pranked, too.”

  “Have any teachers talked about it?”

  “Not with us, no. They blame all of us, and none of us would rat out anyone even if we did know.”

  “Thank you for telling me. Did you see Ms. Bell?”

  She smiled. “Yes. I didn’t want to because she works with fae, but she was actually really cool. She showed me how to distract myself, but she also wants to try a bunch of tricks and see if that will help. I’m going to try martial arts and yoga. She also gave me a diary to write down everything about my anger every day.”

  “That sounds good. Let me know how it works for you. Do you know where Leon’s room is?”

  “Down the stairs, first door on the left.”

  “Thank you.” We headed for the stairs. “Why didn’t you send her to Addison if she has anger problems?” Henry asked. “Kita is a shifter and so is Addison.

  “Because Amelia’s ability is to control emotions. Addison’s ability is to shift into a small cat. Kita is a hyena, not an Ocelot shifter.”

  As we reached the second floor, the door to the right burst open and a student ran out. “Imp!” the boy shouted. Behind him, I saw flames. I pushed him out of the way and entered his room in time to see a shadowy figure retreat under the bed. I ignored it and focused on the fire, which was consuming one of the desks.

  Dousing flames weren’t as easy as creating them. Any element could be used to put fire out, but water and earth weren’t always accessible and wind could make the fire spread. When fire was getting out of control, it was the most prevalent element.

  I focused my mind on the fire and visualized an invisible bubble of magic around it. Instead of feeding the bubble with my own energy, I drew energy from the fire. Fire was furious and passionate, and as purifying as it was destructive. As I mentally pulled the furiousness from the fire into the bubble, I made myself feel peace and love, which was contrary to fire. I pictured Astrid, because I loved her and she was the first person I’d ever healed with magic.

  This weakened the fire slowly, but as my bubble grew stronger, it suffocated the flames. It took ten minutes, but the fire was finally doused without damaging anything except the desk and what was on it. I checked under the bed for the shadowy figure, yet the only thing under there was rotten-smelling sneakers.

  I joined Darwin, Henry, and the boy in the hallway. “What happened?” I asked.

  “It was an imp,” the boy said.

  “Can imps disappear into darkness?” I asked Darwin.

  “No. They’re relating to goblins and associated with fae. They exist to cause mischief and are often hired by wizards to attack their enemies. It’s widely believed that they don’t actually exist, though, because there is no proof of them. Children have been known to blame their mistakes on them.”

  “I saw it! I’m not making it up!” the boy insisted

  “An imp wouldn’t be able to vanish. Was the window open?” Darwin asked.

  I looked at it, and I could tell it didn’t open even from across the room.

  “The windows in the West don’t open,” the boy said. “But I know what I saw.”

  I released my power to invade his mind and saw a small creature standing on his desk. It was a pale, malformed being that almost resembled a baby-doll with horns. It drooled and grinned, displaying yellowed, crooked teeth an instant before it leapt off the desk, which caught fire behind it.

  “He’s not lying,” I said, retracting my power. “Whatever it was, though, it’s gone now.”

  “If there’s an imp on the loose, causing fires and shit, we need to talk to Remington,” Darwin said.

  “Darwin, you go do that. Henry and I will search Leon’s room. Meet me in my room when you’re done.”

  “Speaking of Leon, you were picking on him really hard in math last Friday,” Darwin said to the boy.

  “So? Leon is a wuss.”

  “Darwin, go.”

  He did, so I approached Leon’s door. When I raised my fist to knock, my instincts fired up, warning me not to announce myself.

  “What’s wrong?” Henry asked.

  Instead of answering, I pressed my ear to the door.

  “You can’t do that. We’re going to get in trouble,” Leon said. There was a long pause before he continued. “I don’t care what he did. I just want to make it through the school year alive and make some friends.” He paused again. “No, I don’t want you to get me a friend.”

  I gently turned the knob and found it unlocked. As quietly as I could, I opened the door, but apparently, I wasn’t quiet enough, because Leon was alone when I opened the door. Unlike Patience’s room, Leon’s room was clean. He was sitting on a chair at his desk, facing the bed.

  “Who were you talking to?” I asked.

  His eyes widened when he noticed me. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he lied.

  “You were talking to someone. I heard you.”

  “I was talking to myself.” When I released my power to read his mind, I felt a blank. I saw him sit down at my desk and then saw myself through his eyes. The entire conversation was inaccessible.

  This can’t be just because of the chain. “We need to search your room for clues on what happened to Turner.”

  “Is he getting any better?”

  “No.”

  Darwin and I searched the room, I was looking through Turner’s dresser when Darwin said, “Dev, look.” I turned and saw him pointing to a drawer in one of the desks, which was full of potions. He uncapped one and sniffed it. “Healing potions. They’re all healing potions. What do you need that many for?” he asked Leon.

  Leon looked nervous. “We learned to make them in class. Turner went a little hog wild with them.”

  “Did Patience and Kat each have one?”

  He shrugged. “Patience got hurt in martial arts and Turner offered her one. Kat had one when she got in a fight with Kita. Kita broke her nose and she didn’t want to get in trouble.”

  “Did Kita have one?”

  “No. Kat couldn’t even get a shot in.”

  “What about you?”

  “I know better than to fight a hyena.”

  “I mean, did you have one of Turner’s potions?”

  “No.”

  “Has anyone else had one of Turner’s potions?”

  “Not that I know of.”

  “We need to take these potions and have them tested.�
�

  “It’s not the potions, mate,” Darwin said. “They’re legit.”

  “I believe you, but we’d be stupid not to have Dr. Martin test them.”

  “You think Turner’s potions caused the comas?” Leon looked honestly horrified.

  “No,” Darwin said.

  “We don’t know yet,” I said. I borrowed a black tote bag from Turner and filled it with the potions. Darwin and I took the potions to the infirmary and explained the matter to Dr. Martin. Fortunately, Rhonda wasn’t there.

  By the time we made it to my room, Henry was waiting for me. I let him and Darwin in. Not to my surprise, there was a stack of messages on my desk. Darwin told Henry about the potions and how the lead was wrong while I skimmed through the messages.

  The first one was from my mother, saying that she was having a great time in Hawaii with Vincent. The second was a client accusing her husband of cheating on her. I had no interest in taking the case, because I had worked for the client many times for the same accusation and her husband was never cheating on her.

  He was a wolf shifter, but he wasn’t cheating.

  The third message was from another repeat client asking me to find her missing sister. Since Stefanie Kuchler refused to pay me the first time for finding her missing sister, Ruby, I wasn’t about to take another case from her. Ruby kept getting as far away from Stefanie as she could, because Stefanie was heavily into gambling and drugs and stole money from Ruby to pay for her addictions. My favorite part of the job was that I could refuse cases.

  The fourth message was from Luma, informing me that Hotreo and Zondel escaped. The last message was from an old friend of mine named Becky, who was working on the new wizard council.

  To: Devon Sanders

  From: Becky Adams

  Date: Sunday, August 28

  Message: I know you’re busy, but if you can spare a day, a friend of mine needs your help. I can’t tell you her situation in a message, so please trust me that she needs your unique abilities. Actually, bring Henry and Darwin, too.

  “What is it you wanted to tell us?” Henry asked.

  I opened my mouth to tell them about my ability to see the ghosts… and my instincts stopped me cold. After a moment, I said, “First, let’s go help the wizard council.”

  * * *

  It was John Cross who had brought me into the paranormal world. If it hadn’t been for him, I never would have taken Vincent’s case and gone undercover at the university. I didn’t learn until later that John was a wizard and member of the wizard council. The council was a group of thirteen corrupt wizards that governed all of the wizards in North America.

  They believed wizards to be superior to all other paranormals and when John was killed, they actually got worse. They finally bit off more than they could chew when they challenged Hunt and the entire University.

  A few months without any rules, consequences, or protection for wizards was enough to tell us that wizards did need a government of some kind, though. A functioning council was needed to stop wizards who were a threat to others, as well as the paranormal hunters that were becoming more common. Thus, a new council was being formed.

  Henry and Darwin readily agreed, so I went to inform Remington. When I knocked on her door, she told me to go away. “It’s me,” I said.

  “It’s not a good time.”

  My instincts warned me of danger and I opened the door, almost without control of myself. Remy was standing in the middle of her room, surrounded by fist-sized, brown recluse spiders. They covered the floor, furniture, and walls. There was a ring of blue fire around her, which was protecting her from them.

  “Please tell me this is an illusion,” I said.

  “Someone sent them after me. Someone who knew what John Cross did to me. They’re not natural, but they’re deadly, so you need to slowly close the door and let me handle this.”

  I stepped inside and closed the door so that they couldn’t get out. “What makes you think I’d leave you alone in a dangerous situation?”

  “Devon, I don’t want you getting hurt.”

  “The feeling is mutual. What do I do to help?”

  “They’re after me, not you, so they shouldn’t attack you unless you threaten them.”

  “Use an illusion. Disguise yourself as someone else.”

  “Illusion magic doesn’t work that way. That takes really powerful magic. Use your mind control.”

  “I can’t right now.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’ll explain as soon as we’re done with this. Create a ward around yourself and I’ll set the spiders on fire.”

  “Hell no, you aren’t setting my room on fire. Plus, I don’t do defensive magic that well. You create the ward around me and yourself. I’ll burn the spiders.”

  I might have been able to create one ward, but not two. I hadn’t had enough practice. I slowly approached Remington, careful not to step on any spiders. I wanted to kill them but I didn’t want to get bitten before I could protect Remy. When I reached her, I visualized a sphere of magic around us, able to keep out magic. No matter how inexperienced I was in wards, I was completely confident in it, because I was absolutely determined to protect Remington. If I didn’t believe in it, it wouldn’t work. I pushed away every thought that wasn’t protection.

  The blue ring of fire turned yellow and spread outward. The flames grew taller, but they couldn’t pass through my ward. Unfortunately, smoke did. We covered our mouths and noses with our shirts, but that would only work for so long. Burning spiders flung themselves at Remy, only to die before they could bite her. Others tried to flee out her window, only to be caught in the flames.

  We were both struggling to breathe by the time they were finally dead. Remy doused the fire and I released the ward. The room was full of smoke and Remy was coughing. I held my breath, picked her up, and carried her to the door. The knob burned my hand, but a small burn was preferable to choking to death, so I turned it anyway. Smoke billowed out when I opened the door. I dropped down, below the cloud. We both gasped for breath for a few minutes until the air was clear.

  * * *

  After things calmed down, I took Remy to my room. We were alone, so I stripped off my smoke-stained clothes and reclined on top of my covers. Remy did the same and rested her head on my chest. It might have been a fast transition from a few kisses, but it was comfortable.

  I played with her hair as I explained the vision I had of losing control of my power and going to Vincent to get the chain. I even told her Hunt was teaching me. When I was done, there was silence for a few minutes.

  “I wish you had told me sooner, but I understand why you did it, and it’s not really any of my business,” she finally said.

  “It is your business because it affects my job. If I didn’t have the chain, I could have solved the kid’s case already.”

  “Maybe. Does that have anything to do with Rhonda Brown?”

  “No, that actually has to do with the key.”

  “The key to the tower?”

  “Yes. I haven’t told anyone this, not even Vincent, Darwin, or Henry… I developed the ability to see and sense ghosts as an effect of the key.”

  “How were you able to hide that?”

  “It went away soon after I gave up the key. At least, I thought it did. I can’t sense them anymore, but I can see them still, apparently.”

  “Okay.” She rolled onto her back, a few inches from touching me.

  “Is that too much for you to deal with?”

  She scoffed. “Please. I’m thinking of how best to use this. Not that I only want you for your abilities.”

  “You hired me for my abilities. You just mentally switched from girlfriend to boss, which was why you stopped touching me.”

  She smirked. “I like that.”

  “What?”

  “Girlfriend.” She rolled back on top of me and kissed me. “I like that you told me about the ghosts first.”

  “Well, I’m going to have to t
ell Darwin and Henry. I haven’t told them about the chain, either. The reason I came to your room is that I got a message from Becky on the wizard council, asking me to take a case.”

  “What kind of case?”

  “She didn’t tell me. It sounds like an emergency, though. I’m going to take Henry and Darwin, so they’ll need subs. Maybe a little distance will help me think of something on the coma case.”

  She nodded and kissed me again. “I’ll take care of the subs. Do you have any new information on the students?”

  I updated her on everything I knew. She agreed with me that the potions were probably related, even if they didn’t directly cause the comas. We fell asleep without coming up with any new theories.

  * * *

  I woke as Darwin poked me in the face with a pencil. Before I sat up, I realized Remington was still cuddled against my chest. I carefully got out of bed without waking her. “I thought you wanted to leave tonight,” Darwin whispered.

  “I do. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” I got dressed quickly, grabbed my supplies, and followed Darwin out to find Henry waiting in the hallway. The lamps were turned down low, as most if not all of the teachers were asleep.

  We didn’t say a word as we went outside to the parking lot and got in Henry’s truck. Only after we were on the road for ten minutes did Darwin say what was on his mind. “So, you and Remy are sleeping together.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yes, we fell asleep together. I’m not going to discuss it further.”

  “That’s okay; I can make up everything. In my mind, Remy is a dirty girl with no gag reflex.”

  “Henry, turn the truck around. I’m not listening to this for hours.”

  “Just open the door and push him out,” Henry said.

  * * *

  Monday, August 29

  By the time we finally arrived at the wizard council, we were looking for anything with which to gag Darwin. It was four in the morning and still dark when we pulled up the winding driveway of what looked like a renaissance mansion, which was likely a reconstruction of a real one. It wasn’t creepy like Hunt’s schools. In fact, my instincts didn’t warn me of danger. That, more than anything, told me that the new councilmembers were better.