Cards of Death Box Set

by Tamara Geraeds

  I shiver when Vicky brushes past me and sits down.

  “Good,” D’Maeo says, sporting his fatherly smile. “That means your power will be fully developed soon. You’ll be stronger.”

  “If he can control it,” Jeep says with a look over his shoulder.

  Vicky touches my leg under the table, sending electric pulses through my body. “I can practice with him.”

  Taylar, the youngest of the ghosts with his total of fourteen lived years, materializes in the seat opposite her, brushing a white lock of hair from his forehead. “Of course you can.”

  “That would be great,” I respond before anyone else can object. I look into Vicky’s dazzling blue eyes that hold the power to read and control other people’s feelings. “I also wanted to ask you to come with me to my house. I need some help with that protection spell. And since spells are your specialty…”

  “Certainly, master,” she says. Her words sound indifferent, but there’s a sparkle in her eyes.

  She bends towards me and whispers, “I need to talk to you.”

  I lick my lips that have suddenly gone dry. “Can it wait until we leave?”

  With a soft rustle, Maël fades into view, making the Shield complete. She looks as stunning as ever, in her royal black dress with golden flowers and her golden cape.

  Vicky leans back in her chair. “No problem.”

  I frown, but decide to let it go. We’ll be alone soon enough.

  Feeling like a magician revealing a trick, I lay the Cards of Death on the table. “Two new cards, so someone else to save, I guess.”

  D’Maeo holds out his hand. “What’s on them?”

  “I haven’t really looked yet.” I shoot him an apologetic look. “Too busy figuring out the world, sorry.”

  I point at the cards. “Swirling demon symbols on the back. Nothing new there. Except for the color.” The symbols on the first set were blue, these are black. “Oh great.” I wrinkle my nose. “Disgusting looking black stuff on the front.” I slide it towards the old ghost. “Maybe you can make out what it is.” I pick up the second card. “Well, at least this one is easy.” There’s a ten-pointed red star and a rectangle on it. “An explosion and a screen with some kind of code.” I hold the card up so everyone can see.

  Jeep squints at it. “Okay, so the Devil’s next victim will die in an explosion and has something to do with computers?”

  Vicky nods. “It’s a hacker.”

  “He coughs a lot?” Maël asks, shifting her gaze from Jeep to Vicky.

  Vicky and I snort. Then I see Maël’s surprised face and swallow my laughter. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh at you. A hacker is someone who sneaks into someone else’s computer and steals information or plants a digital virus.” I take in her pensive look. “I thought you all adjusted to the time you li… exist in?”

  “We do,” Vicky answers. “But we don’t have much experience with computers. Maël is the oldest. She knows about computers, but the internet is still a mystery to her.”

  I wonder why Vicky is telling me this, instead of Maël. The African queen never has problems speaking up.

  Vicky senses my confusion and falls quiet. She looks me in the eye, tries to make me feel something, but I turn my head before she can. I want to find out more about the Cards of Death first.

  “So we’re looking for a hacker that will die in an explosion,” I summarize. “What else have we got, D’Maeo?”

  The gray-haired man has taken out his sword and is trying to scrape the black stuff off of the second card.

  We watch him in silence for a while.

  “I’ve almost got it.” He pushes down harder and cuts through the substance.

  I lean closer. “It’s working.”

  He gives it one more swipe and holds up the card.

  We all gasp. It’s cut in half and there’s still so much dark goo on it that we can’t see the pictures under it.

  I drop my head in my hands and swallow a curse. “What do we do now?”

  “I guess we’ll just have to find a hacker with demon protection?”

  Waiting for other ideas, I look from one ghost to the other.

  Maël’s gaze is fixed on what’s left of the card.

  “Do you have a better idea, Maël?” I ask.

  She shakes her head. “No, look. It’s mending itself.”

  “Thank goodness.” I flop back in my chair.

  “I think I know what it is,” D’Maeo says. “The black stuff.” He throws the card back to me. “It’s pitch.”

  “Pitch? You mean like tar?”

  “Yes.”

  I touch the surface. “So how do we get rid of it?”

  Jeep scratches his tattoos. “Heat it up, I think.”

  All heads turn to him.

  “I used to help the clown in our circus to strengthen his barrels with pitch. You heat it up to liquefy it.”

  My mouth drops open. “You were in a circus?”

  He crosses his arms over his chest. “Is that so hard to believe?”

  “He was a puppeteer, if you know what I mean,” Vicky whispers from the corner of her mouth.

  Pictures of dancing skeletons form before my eyes. “I can imagine what that must have looked like,” I grin. “People trying to find out what the trick was.”

  He cocks his head and stares in the distance. “It was kind of fun.”

  My hand holding the card gets warmer. It’s like it wants to tell me I should hurry. I turn my attention back to it. “So we have to heat it up. But we tried a flame last time, and almost burned up the card. What other options do we have?”

  Vicky flips her black hair over her shoulder. The blonde tips almost touch my face. “You could use a hair dryer.”

  I smile at her. “That’s a great idea!” I get up, but swallow my enthusiasm immediately. “I don’t think we have one here, do we? It’s not like you guys need it anymore.”

  Maël pats the mountain of dark curls on her head. “No, we wake up like this.”

  I’m curious about this ‘ghosts that sleep’ thing, but I don’t have time to ask them about it now. We have another soul to save.

  “I guess I’ll have to go back home then. Are you still coming with me, Vicky?”

  She’s already on her feet. “Of course.”

  Taylar rolls his eyes, but I ignore him. “Maybe you guys can find out if there’s a way for us to communicate when we’re not together. Or even better, a way for me to summon you to wherever I am, when I’m in trouble.”

  D’Maeo bows his head. “We will do our best.”

  I thank them and leave the mansion with Vicky at my side and tingles running through my whole body.

  It’s a miracle that I don’t crash Phoenix, with Vicky sitting beside me and a whole new Blackford unfolding itself before me. I hit the brakes hard when a young woman flies out of the window of a house and over my roof.

  “What was that?” I yell.

  Vicky is in stitches. “You should’ve seen your face.”

  “Very funny,” I grumble, easing back onto the road.

  Vicky yawns and stretches so far that her hands go through the roof. “That was nothing to be scared of. Just a fairy.”

  I snort. “Oh right, nothing strange about that.”

  She cocks her head and shoots me her sweetest smile. “I’m sorry. I know it’s all very strange at first.” She taps my leg. New shivers run through me. My leg trembles so bad that my foot almost hits the brake again. Vicky pretends not to notice, but I know she can feel everything I feel. The twitch in the left corner of her mouth tells me she’s enjoying this. “You’ll get used to it, babe.”

  In an attempt to get rid of the overwhelming urge to jump the bones she doesn’t have anymore, I change the subject. “There’s something I don’t understand. We had to save Mr. Timson in order to prevent the Devil from escaping Hell. We did, yet here we have a new set of cards. Another person to save. Why?
”

  “Maybe the Devil needs more than one soul?”

  I sigh. “I knew it wasn’t over.” That angel could have told me though.

  “We didn’t know,” the voice answers.

  “Whatever.”

  “Huh?” Vicky turns to me with raised eyebrows.

  I wave my hand at her. “I wasn’t talking to you, babe. It’s that voice again.”

  My cheeks warm up when I realize I accidentally called her babe. Lucky for me she chooses to ignore it.

  “You mean that angel guy?”

  “Angel guy?” the voice responds.

  I pretend to focus on taking the turn onto Willow Lane.

  “Aren’t you going to correct her?” the voice asks.

  “Why?” I retort, turning right and pulling into my driveway. “As long as you don’t give me your name, I’m fine with calling you the angel guy. It’s a pretty accurate description, isn’t it?” I wink at Vicky.

  Chuckling, we get out and walk to the front door.

  A figure is moving from left to right in the living room. There’s the distant hum of an unrecognizable song.

  I turn to the beautiful girl next to me. “As much as I would love to introduce you to my mother, I think it would be better to keep you a secret.”

  Her eyes twinkle. “A naughty secret?”

  I cough. “Maybe.”

  “And how are we supposed to protect your house with your mom in it?”

  My hand, reaching for the front door, falls back down. “Right. Good point.” I think for a moment. “We can try to get the pitch off the card and wait until Mom leaves.”

  “Bad idea,” the voice interrupts. “Remember the premonition with the demon coming through your window?”

  “Yes, of course. How could I forget? That thing killed us both.”

  “You need to protect the house before that happens.”

  I look at Vicky again. “We’ll have to do the spell as soon as possible. Any ideas?”

  Mom’s singing carries through the door. Vicky smiles at me. “Leave it to me.”

  CHAPTER 6

  “Mom, I’m home!”

  She whirls around in surprise. “Oh, I didn’t hear you come in.”

  Vicky sniggers. “I wonder why.”

  Mom turns down the volume of the music. “The new floor is already done. You want to see it?”

  “Of course.”

  We follow her upstairs. The new floor on the landing is all shiny. No scratches anywhere. My bedroom has the same dark wood and to my surprise, all my furniture has already been put back in place.

  I walk through to the bathroom, where I suppress the memory of the person or creature trying to electrocute me. “This is very nice.”

  Mom is beaming at me. “It’s laminate. Much better for a bathroom they said.”

  I want to answer, but Vicky blocks my view. She steps in front of Mom and looks her in the eye.

  Mom falls silent.

  I turn around so I won’t have to watch her getting hypnotized, or whatever you call it when someone forces an emotion onto you. “It’s really great. They must have worked fast.”

  “They did.”

  I jump at Mom’s voice and peer at Vicky. Is she already done?

  Mom kisses me on the cheek. “I’m going to the bakery, honey. I have a sudden craving for chocolate croissants.” She notices my expression. “What’s wrong? You don’t want me to go? You can come with me?”

  “No, that’s okay,” I answer a bit too fast. “You should go have lunch with Mona. I’ll be fine here.”

  Her face lights up. “That’s a great idea! I’ll call her right now. See you later, honey.”

  She almost flies out of my room and down the stairs.

  I turn to Vicky, who has a smug look on her face. “I didn’t know you could also give people cravings.”

  “Sure, that’s also a feeling.”

  “How did you know what to go for?”

  She just taps her head with her finger.

  I stare at her, amazed at how awesome she is.

  “You helped, too,” she assures me. “By suggesting lunch. That will take her longer. We’ll have time to heat up the card.”

  I nod.

  Mom calls from downstairs. “Bye, Dante!”

  “Bye Mom, have fun!”

  As soon as the front door closes behind her, we run to the kitchen.

  I smack myself in the head. “Oh no, I forgot to take the herbs. Now we’ll have to go back to Darkwood Manor.”

  Vicky shakes her head and reaches into her pocket. She pulls out an impossible amount of stuff. Herbs, candles, incense, salt, a jar.

  I gape at her. “Where did that all come from?”

  “From my very deep pocket.”

  I take a step closer and move my hand towards her pants. “Let me feel.”

  The look on her face is a mixture of astonishment and delight. Before she can argue, I stick my hand into her back pocket. I can feel her butt through the fabric. It feels so real that I almost forget she’s a ghost.

  “So?” she whispers in my ear. “What do you feel?”

  Heat rises to my cheeks. She’s reading my feelings again. That is so unfair.

  I move my hand lower into her pocket and feel the bottom. “Nothing much,” I tease. “Just a normal pocket.”

  “That’s because it only works for the ghost itself. I can put an unlimited number of things into my pocket. As long as they fit into a normal pocket.”

  I’m so distracted by her proximity, that I hardly register what she’s saying.

  She brings her mouth closer to my ear and pushes her waist against mine. “How’s my ass?”

  I suddenly realize what I’m doing and pull back my hand as if she’s smoking hot.

  Actually, she is. Just not literally. I, on the other hand, am now burning with shame, so much that I probably resemble an Englishman on his first day on vacation in Turkey.

  I remind myself I really shouldn’t make out with a ghost. That just can’t end well.

  “What did you say about your pocket?” I ask, ruffling my hair.

  With a glint in her eye, she repeats her words and I burst out laughing.

  She puts her hands on her hips. “You don’t believe me?”

  I wipe a tear from my eye. “Of course not. Your name’s not Hermione, is it?”

  She grins. “I love Hermione.” She picks up all the things she pulled out of her pocket earlier. “And me and her have something in common, besides being unimaginably attractive.”

  “And besides the ability to do magic?”

  “Yes, that, too.” She waves at the space around us. “Give me something you could put in your pocket. Not too small.”

  I turn towards my desk and pick up my stapler.

  “Does that fit into your pocket?”

  I try it. “It sticks out a bit.”

  She holds out her hand. “That doesn’t matter. Look.” She turns her back to me and puts the stapler in her back pocket. It shouldn’t fit, but it does. She just drops it and it’s gone.

  My hand shoots towards the pocket. I touch it. “I don’t feel anything! How is this possible?”

  She looks shocked. “You don’t feel anything? Are you sure?”

  “It’s gone. The stapler, it’s just…”

  Vicky grabs my other hand and pushes it against her breast. “How about now? Do you feel anything?”

  Before I can answer, she pulls me closer. Her lips are on mine in a second. I want to pull away. We have to focus on protecting the house. We have someone to save. We need to… Oh my God, this feels so good.

  I lose all sense of time. I can’t keep track of what I feel, so I just go with the flow. Soft lips, skin under fabric, pulsing electricity. It’s like making out in a rollercoaster.

  I move my hand from her breast to her neck and cheek. Suddenly, there’s only air under my touch. I open my eyes. Vicky is gone
.

  My heart beats in a loud panic. “Vicky?”

  She reappears just out of my reach, swaying on her feet.

  I grab her arm. “Are you okay? What happened?” Gently I push her down onto the bed.

  “I’m sorry, this happens sometimes.”

  “What does? What happened?”

  She clasps her hands together. “Every time someone touches my grave, I get a glimpse of my past. A memory. It pulls me towards the Shadow World for a second.”

  I drop down next to her. “You mean a memory about how you died?”

  She shakes her head. “No. Yes. Sometimes.” She raises her hands. “It can be any memory, from any time in my life.”

  I push her hair behind her shoulder. “So what did you see this time?”

  She sighs. “Not much. I tripped.”

  “You tripped while you were pulled from here?”

  The corner of her mouth twitches. “No, I tripped in my memory.”

  “Were you able to see when it happened?”

  She stares into the distance, silent for a moment.

  “I think I was about the age I was when I died.”

  “So it could be just before that. Or even the moment itself. Maybe you fell and broke your neck?”

  She strokes the symbol on her neck with a pained expression.

  I kiss her cheek. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “That’s okay. I love how you’re trying to help.”

  CHAPTER 7

  After Vicky takes everything we need out of her impossibly deep pocket, she gets ready to cast the protection spell.

  She forms a square with four candles and puts all the herbs in the jar, which I take from her. She whispers the right words to me and I shake the jar nine times.

  “Smoke and herbs, nine times nine

  Guard well this home of mine.”

  I light the sage Vicky hands me. Then I call upon the elements, while lighting the candles.

  A rumbling in the distance tells me it’s working. After the last candle, I call out towards the ceiling.

  “Powers of High, listen to my plea.

  May I always be protected by thee!”

  I finish the spell and the flames are blown out by an invisible force.