by Ching, G. P.
"People her age drink, mom. She's nineteen; she's away at school. She got drunk."
"Well, I'm going to offer to sleep on the couch tonight. I know it stresses her out to share a room with me."
"I can sleep on the couch. You can have my room."
She smiled in his direction. "That's sweet Jacob, but honestly, I don't mind. And I want to extend the olive branch to her. If you do it, it won't mean the same thing."
Jacob frowned but nodded his head. They climbed out of the truck, slamming the doors behind them. Jacob didn't bother locking it. The population of Paris was just over three thousand. If it were stolen it wouldn't take much investigation to find the culprit. On the off chance an outsider drove the hundred miles to come to Paris to steal a car, he suspected it wouldn't be his dumpy blue truck.
They joined the Laudners' at the door. The smell of grilling meat and grease hit him head-on as he entered the wood paneled glory that was Andrew's Steakhouse. They were seated at a large round table. Instinctively, Jacob took a seat next to his mom and was surprised when Katrina flopped into a chair next to him.
He turned his face toward his mom and murmured under his breath, "Huh." Katrina never voluntarily sat next to Jacob...ever.
"She's in trouble. You're the other kid in the household. It's only natural," his mom whispered with a hard undercurrent of be polite.
He looked straight ahead, toward the waitress who'd approached the table. Katrina's cold, dark, stare burrowed into the side of his head.
"What'll it be, hon?" the waitress asked him.
"Um, the sirloin, medium," Jacob said.
"And you," she said turning to Katrina.
"The Branson ribeye, rare."
"Katrina, that's a twenty-eight ounce piece of meat and you've never liked your steak rare. Stop messing around and order something you're actually going to eat," John said.
"I changed my mind. I like my steak rare now and I'm really hungry. Isn't this a welcome home dinner for me?" she countered.
"You know what? Fine. I suppose they can throw it back on the grill if they need to."
Katrina leaned into her chair, a smug half-smile creeping across her face. As much as Jacob thought he had hated her before, there was something more sinister about Katrina this time. She'd changed and he didn't think it was for the better.
When the food came, the waitress set what looked like half a cow in front of Katrina. It was barely brown on the outside and bled across the plate when she cut into it. Everyone stared at her as she ate her first bite.
"What?" she asked.
Uncle John changed the subject. "Did you hear about Stephanie Westcott?"
"What about her?" Lillian asked.
"She's missing. Was supposed to come home from school today and never showed up. Fran Westcott is beside herself "
"What about her roommate?" Jacob asked, his fork and knife poised over his steak.
"She says she left Indiana University yesterday morning," Carolyn said. "They've called the police and everything."
Lillian placed her hand on her chest. "How horrible. Any chance this might be a social thing? Taking off with a friend for spring break?"
"We can only hope." Carolyn's eyes darted accusingly in Jacob's direction, an obvious jab about his supposed joyride with Malini last year.
"Who the hell cares," Katrina said, forking in another bite of steak.
"Katrina!" Carolyn gasped.
"Oh, come on, Mom, like you ever said 'boo' to Stephanie Westcott. Besides sucking down Fran Westcott's blueberry pie at every church social, you have no relationship."
"Don't you think that's a little callus?" Lillian said.
"Whatever." Katrina chugged her water.
"The least we can do is pray for her safe return. Carolyn, maybe you and I could offer to bring by some meals. I'm sure with the stress, Fran isn't eating well." Lillian said.
Katrina snorted. "Have you SEEN Fran Westcott? That woman has never missed a meal."
Uncle John grunted. "That's enough, Katrina"
Lillian furrowed her brow in Jacob's direction. He shrugged and returned to his plate, taking a bite of his steak. The table grew quiet aside from the clink of silverware. The pause in conversation allowed his mind to wander and his thoughts marched directly back to Malini.
He wondered how she was doing. He'd never seen her so upset. He couldn't blame her. She was thrown into all of this with no proof that she was really ready. Maybe she did have a gift that would surface at any moment. Maybe she didn't. Either way she wasn't ready for the kind of confrontation that happened today. Malini had seen Nod. She'd seen the way the Watchers there tortured human souls. He couldn't imagine how terrifying it must have been for her to be pinned to the dirt like some kind of animal, knowing that her life could end in a heartbeat. And wasn't he a wuss to not follow her home? That's what he should have done. If he was any sort of a boyfriend he would have followed at a distance and made sure she got home okay.
"Are you finished? Do you want a box?" the waitress asked.
He'd been so caught up in his thoughts about Malini he hadn't noticed that everyone else was done eating. Half his steak remained on his plate. "Yeah, a box would be great," he replied.
The woman tucked her pen behind her ear and lifted his plate in one hand and Katrina's in the other. That's when Jacob noticed her plate was empty. In surprise, he looked over at her just in time to watch her lick a bit of blood from her lips.
"I guess you were hungry," he said.
"Yeah, like I said." She leaned back in her chair.
Uncle John paid the check and they filed out into the parking lot. "Maybe, I could ride with you, Jacob?" Katrina said. Her voice was too sweet, poisoned honey.
"Sorry, no space. There's not much room in the cab and my mom is riding home with me."
"Maybe she could go with mom and dad," Katrina said.
"Uh..." Jacob tried to think of some excuse to put her off. Luckily, Lillian came to the rescue.
"I get car sick riding in the back seat. I better stick with Jacob."
Katrina's eyes darkened. "Fine," she said. She backed away, only breaking eye contact when she'd reached the car.
Jacob and Lillian climbed into the truck. As soon as the doors were closed, Jacob couldn't keep it in any longer. "There's something wrong with Katrina. I can feel it."
"I sense it, too," Lillian said. "I don't need Malini to know she reeks of Watcher."
"Do you think she met one at school? Maybe, she's been influenced," Jacob said.
"I don't know, but we can't trust her until we figure it out," Lillian replied. "I'm going to see if I can get my hands on her phone and check her records. If a Watcher is manipulating her, it will have to meet with her regularly to maintain its influence."
"Auriel only visited Dane once a month."
Lillian turned surprised eyes toward him. "What?"
"He told me she would leave a thermos full of tea. That's how she got him, with the tea."
"We need to look for a source. Something she's taking in. Until then don't trust her," Lillian said.
"I didn't trust her before," Jacob said. "Maybe it's a good thing you're sleeping on the couch tonight."
"And maybe you should lock your door."
Silence crept between them, as thoughts of Watchers, Katrina, and what was to come, drained any hope of lighter conversation.
* * * * *
It was late by the time they returned home, which was good because it gave Jacob a reason to avoid Katrina. He ascended the stairs and locked the door to his room behind him just as his mother requested. But he had no intention of going to sleep. Malini must be a basket case by now and he wasn't going to leave her alone a minute longer. Besides, if Katrina was being influenced by a Watcher, that was information Malini needed to know.
He retrieved his staff from his closet but knew he couldn't use it immediately. The staffs made a sound like a firecracker when used, and he didn't want to call attention to his de
parture. It was inconvenient, but when he stopped to think about his molecules being channeled through the air to somewhere else, it seemed only fitting that the process happened with a bang.
To be safe, he formed his pillows and blankets into a Jacob-sized heap on the bed. The old fashioned lock on the door wasn't exactly foolproof and the Laudners had a key. If they came in, it wouldn't hurt to have a decoy.
An old pull string bag made an excellent sling for the staff. He loaded it onto his back and carefully climbed out the window. Perching on the rose trellis, he slid the glass panel closed behind him. He descended on shaky toes, and jogged quietly from the house. When he was a respectable distance, he stopped, concentrated on Malini's terrace and tapped the staff on the concrete.
Jacob arrived outside Malini's window. For a moment he held perfectly still, hoping he hadn't woken her parents or a neighbor. Once he'd determined all was quiet, he knocked lightly on her window. The lace curtain moved aside. Malini's face lit up when she saw him and she unlocked her window to welcome him inside.
"I'm so glad you came," she said, folding herself against his chest.
"I've been thinking about you since you left Dr. Silva's. I had to make sure you were okay."
Malini walked over to her bed and sat down near the pillow, pulling her legs up underneath her. She wore a butter yellow t-shirt and some flowered shorts Jacob knew she slept in. Without a hint of make-up and her hair loose around her shoulders, Jacob thought she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. He crossed the room and took a seat on the bed next to her.
"I wasn't okay when I got here, but I'm doing better now. I had a talk with a friend and I realized that what I'm feeling is perfectly natural considering the circumstances."
The muscles of Jacob's shoulders and neck tightened. "What friend?" he asked.
"Dane."
A red tide washed over Jacob, a feeling of possessiveness that he didn't quite understand. "Dane?"
"Yes, I ran into him on the way home. I needed someone to talk to and he's the only other person who knows about the Watchers."
"I'm not sure it's a good idea to trust Dane, Malini. He's been manipulated by the Watchers before."
"That's precisely why I do trust him. You should see how upset he was when he heard what happened. He fears them as much as we do, Jacob. He would be the last one to allow himself to be manipulated by one."
"Huh," Jacob said. He'd like to think the frown he gave her was out of genuine concern for her safety but part of him could feel the jealousy lurking behind it. "So, tell me what you and Dane talked about."
"Dane and I are the same. We're a part of this now because we know about the Watchers but we're not really Soulkeepers. We're helpless against them. It made me see that he was as scared as I am. We both have to trust that God will look out for us."
"All of us have to trust in that, Malini. But why do you say you're not a Soulkeeper? Did Dr. Silva tell you she was wrong?"
"No, but it's obvious. I was completely helpless against that Watcher today, Jacob." Her eyes swam as she said it. "I'm lucky to be alive.
"It was a bad situation. I know why you did it, but I wish you'd stayed on the other side of the fence."
Malini became intensely interested in the corner of her comforter.
"And, if you need someone to talk to, talk to me. I'm your boyfriend. I want to be who you come to."
Malini's mouth opened on an intake of breath. "You're jealous," she stated firmly.
"No," Jacob retorted, "I simply want to be there for you."
"Bullshit. You don't want me to talk to Dane because you think he wants me...a little."
"Should I be worried, Malini? Do you want Dane, even a little?"
"Do you want Mara, even a little?"
"Mara? When did this become about Mara?"
"Since you couldn't take your eyes off of her from the moment she walked through that portal."
Jacob shook has head and scoffed in her direction. "Not true. And this conversation is so not what I had in mind when I came over here tonight."
"Hmmphf," Malini replied. Her arms had worked their way across her stomach.
He reached out and drew her into his chest, separating her hands in the process and wrapping them around his neck. "I love you, Malini. Only you."
Eventually her chocolate brown eyes softened. His lips found hers and she welcomed his kiss, eager for more. Lowering her head to her pillow, he stretched out over her.
"What did you have in mind, Jacob?" she asked.
"I'm not exactly sure but this is more like it," he said into her mouth.
She reached up for his face and it was a long time before they said anything else.
* * * * *
At dawn, Jacob returned to the Laudner's, feeling a pang of guilt that he'd spent the night at Malini's without permission. Nothing had happened except for some serious making out. They'd decided last year that they weren't ready for anything more. He'd simply wanted to stay to protect her and ended up falling asleep with her cuddled against his chest.
He scaled the rose lattice. Pushing open the window, he slid in carefully. It took a minute for his eyes to adjust to the dim room. the first thing he noticed was that his door was cracked open. Had he locked it after all? The second thing he noticed, as his line of sight passed over the bed, was the handle of a large knife protruding from the Jacob-styled pillow decoy.
The blade was positioned exactly where his heart should have been.
Chapter 7
Investigation
It was his mother's idea to call in Dr. Silva and Mara. Once Jacob had crept down to her makeshift bed on the Laudner's couch and told her about the stabbing, she'd texted the news to Dr. Silva. The next second, he was holding hands with Mara in the living room. They'd ascended the stairs hand-in-hand to the place where Jacob would be dead if he hadn't been at Malini's.
As Soulkeeper powers went, Mara's had to be the most mind blowing. The only thing keeping Jacob animated were her fingers linked with his. He couldn't stop looking at the bird outside his window. It was frozen mid-flight, suspended open-winged in midair. Everything was paused. Everything but the four of them who were connected to Mara by linked fingers.
"Remember, if you break contact with me, you'll stop like everything else," Mara said.
"Jacob, I'm happy to see you are not the one under the knife, but where the hell were you last night?" Lillian asked. Her voice had changed from a Soulkeeper's to a mother's and Jacob blushed as every eye in the room fell on him for an answer.
"I was with Malini."
"All night?" Lillian snapped.
"Yes. I was worried about her after what happened yesterday. I wanted to make sure she was okay."
"And you needed all night to do that?"
"Considering there's someone in Paris trying to stab us in our sleep, I'd say yes."
Dr. Silva interrupted. "Perhaps it would be beneficial if we focused on the task at hand. Jacob, was the window unlocked the entire night?"
"Yeah. I went out the window so it was unlocked."
"So, it could've been someone from the outside."
Dr. Silva waved her hand and a purple light shone on the handle of the knife. "No prints."
Jacob shook his head. "The door to my room was open when I came home. I'd locked it before I left."
"Are you certain?"
"Yes."
"It's Katrina," Lillian said.
Dr. Silva turned a quizzical eye toward Lillian.
"We think she's under a Watcher's influence. She's been acting strangely since the moment she came home. I can't figure out how it's getting to her though. To make her do something like this, it would have to be feeding her large quantities of elixir."
"I agree," Dr. Silva said. "If it was Katrina, a Watcher must be very close."
"If it is her, what do we do?" Mara asked. "We can't take her out and if we get the police involved it could be a disaster. We don't need a bunch of people snooping around right
now. Our cover is more important than ever."
"Plus, if we incapacitate Katrina, we'll never find the Watcher. We need to use her to lead us to it," Dr. Silva said.
"This is my niece we're talking about," Lillian said. "She's no sweetheart but she's also not a killer. I couldn't stomach the pain it would cause John and Carolyn if anything happened to her."
"Once the Watcher is dead, Lillian, Katrina will return to normal as soon as the elixir wears off. Dane Michaels was influenced last year and he lost the drive to hurt Jacob almost immediately once Auriel couldn't reach him anymore."
"How do we know a Watcher didn't come through the window, stab Jacob's bed, and then open the door to search the house when he realized it wasn't him?" Mara asked.
"Well, I'm still alive, so it didn't reach me," Lillian said.
"Maybe it didn't know what you are," Dr. Silva said.
"Maybe it was scared away by something else," Mara added.
Dr. Silva tilted her head. "Good point. Let's pay Katrina a visit and see if there are any clues to how the Watcher is influencing her. For the Watcher to be effective there has to be a source, something to maintain its influence over her when it returns to Nod. Look for an elixir or pills."
Hand in hand they walked to Katrina's room and slipped inside her door. She was curled under the covers, frozen in a state of peaceful sleep. Dr. Silva scanned the room.
"I can smell Watcher here. It's strong. It's very possible it just left, but I don't see any obvious signs of what it was doing in here."
With a flick of Dr. Silva's hand the drawers pulled out, the closet opened, and the bed-skirt flipped up.
"Shit, she folds her socks!" Mara said.
"Yeah, Katrina is a total neat freak," Jacob added.
"There are worse habits to have," Lillian added.
"There's nothing here," said Dr. Silva. "I don't see anything that could hold an elixir."
She waved her hand and the room righted itself.
"So, do you think it was Katrina who tried to stab me? Or was it the Watcher?"
"I'm not sure, Jacob. But I think we must all be very careful from this moment forward. There's a Watcher in our midst and it knows who you are. If it was your cousin who stabbed those blankets, she might try to finish the job," Dr. Silva said. "How long is she here?"
