Bone Dry: A Soul Shamans Novel (Volume 1) (29 page)

“A spell?” Her eyes lit up. “Nevermind. I don’t want to know. But before you go, do either of you want a sandwich or something while I print out directions? Someone’s stomach sounds like a tow truck.” That would definitely be mine.

“That’d be awesome,” Nathan said. I agreed when another hunger pang lurched inside my belly, although a part of me just wanted to run, run, run.

A moment later, Audrey strolled into the room balancing a couple of Cokes and two paper plates that held the biggest turkey sandwiches I’d ever seen.

“Wow.” I took the plate from her and handed the next to Nathan. “Did you make this?”

“No.” She grabbed a monster-sized laptop from the corner desk while I sunk my teeth into the food. The bread and meat were so soft, the cheese and mayonnaise adding the perfect amount of extra flavor. It was all I could do not to moan in pure, delicious bliss. “My mom makes a bunch and then sticks them in the fridge. She and Dad work late, so my brothers and I have to fend for ourselves after school.”

“That sucks,” Nathan said around a mouth full of food.

“Nah, it’s not so bad,” Audrey said, clicking the mouse button. “It only sucks when my brothers decide to act like morons. Which is kind of often actually.”

We sat in silence while Audrey tapped on the keyboard. Once I was done inhaling the sandwich, I washed it down with a long gulp of Coke. Outside, I heard the patter of rain on the roof and the crackle of thunder overhead.

“So, this building is in Charleston, the next town over,” she said over the hum of the printer. She grabbed the paper from the tray and handed it over.

I glanced down at the map and smiled. This could be it. This could be where the shaman was.

Nathan and I stood while I pocketed the map. “Thanks again.”

“No, thank you guys for looking into this,” Audrey said. “I wish I could go with you, but my youngest brother will eat Tylex if he’s left alone. He claimed he’s sick to get out of church, but I know better.”

“Well, it’s probably better to go into this with as few people as possible,” I said. “I’ll call you as soon as we know something?”

“Sure.” She nodded, looking relieved.

Audrey walked me and Nathan to the door and waved us out. “Good luck with your mom. I hope she ends up okay.”

I stood under the cover of the porch roof and looked up at the dark sky. “Me too.”

***

It was a fifteen minute drive to the building. Nathan zoomed down the street as I recited the detailed directions Audrey had printed. The cult headquarters was located in a very residential area, sandwiched between a Bed & Breakfast and a house with a sunny wrap-around porch. I peered at the building as we passed by, straining to see through Nathan’s streaked windows. The rain had started coming down in windy gusts, big droplets pounding the roof, large puddles pooling on the pavement.

It was clean and unmarked—a red-brick, four-story building that looked kind of like the dorms on Harvard campus. The windows were shaded, but I could see yellow light shining through the cracks. The placed looked alive and occupied, quite the contrast to the abandoned building in downtown Boston.

Nathan did another loop past the building so we could get a better feel for the place. I hoped my Intuition would kick in and let me know how dangerous it was to go inside.

Nothing.

Nathan parked the truck at a closed pizza parlor down the street and shut off the engine.

The roar of the rain surrounded us as I counted to ten and pictured the single sage leaf to center myself. After what we’d found in the last building connected to all this, I was a little bit wary of what we'd find inside this one. Especially since this was where Tyler had gone before he’d ended up dead and under someone’s floorboards.

“So, what’s the plan?” Nathan watched me pull the blue candle from my backpack.

I ripped a piece of parchment from my notebook. “We need to get in there and look around, so I figure being Shadowed is the only way that’s going to happen.”

Nathan placed a hand on my parchment to slow down my hurried preparation. “Shadowed might work for looking around, but I don’t think it’ll help you get inside. Audrey said this place has high security. So, the deadbolts are going to be pretty complicated, right? Can you pick that kind of lock?”

“No, probably not.” My hair fell into my face as I shook my head. “Do you have a better idea?”

“Maybe.” I looked up to see his grin. “Superhero Technique number four. The Distraction.” He tapped the parchment with his forefinger. “So, you could Shadow by yourself, and I’ll do the distracting. You do the sneaking.”

“Not a bad plan. Let’s try it.”

After performing the Shadow incantation alone, I stepped out of the truck, invisible to the world. Rain washed over me, soaking me almost immediately. Big droplets pounded my head, and the sky flashed white with lightening.

Nathan and I ran down the sidewalk, me following just behind. His polo clung to his back and shoulders. Wet hair plastered his neck. My sneakers splashed water and drenched my pant legs. Cars zoomed by on the road, shooting more water up around us. I felt like I was swimming through a pool of dirty city water.

Panting, I stopped in front of the building and gave Nathan’s arm a quick squeeze to let him know I was there. I eyed the solid door and watched Nathan twist the doorknob. It was locked, and the two deadbolts barring our entry was more than a match for my flimsy lockpicking tool. Nathan had been right.

He buzzed the doorbell and waited. A few moments later, a middle-aged woman in a nursing uniform opened the door and looked outside. I stood there, holding my breath, trying to be as silent as possible as she eyed Nathan with a frown.

“Can you help me?” he asked, running his fingers through his drenched hair.

“What is it, young man?” She half-closed the door like she was protecting herself from him. “This is a private care facility, and we don’t admit strangers from the street.

Private care facility? Interesting.

“No, no.” Nathan looked down at his shoes and clenched his jaw.

Oh no. We hadn’t gone over what to say to whoever answered the door, and I realized he had no idea how to get the nurse out of the way so I could slip inside unnoticed. I pinched his arm, and his head jerked up fast.

“Well?” she prodded.

“I just, um, well,” he said. “There was a kid I saw. Out in the road. Drenched, kind of like I am.” He laughed nervously. “He seemed to be coming from here, and he looked sick. I…thought he might need help?”

The nurse’s forehead wrinkled, and she stepped out into the rain, using her arm to shield her head from the downpour. She left the door open a crack, and I slid inside, hoping she wouldn’t notice the weird shadow sneaking past her.

Quickly, I slipped down the hallway, my wet shoes flicking water onto the tiled floor. I turned and glanced behind me and saw I'd left a trail of rainwater. I could hear Nathan mumbling more lies to the nurse as I snuck along, and I crossed my fingers that she wouldn’t figure out his stories were false until after I’d gotten out of here.

I moved underneath muted florescent lights down a long hall of closed unmarked doors. Light spilled from the cracks, and I wondered what or who was behind each one. Shaman kids thinking they’d found the key to getting away from their parents and into the exciting world of shaman magic? Or was the guy who had done all this, the guy responsible, sitting behind a desk and looking for his next victim?

Was he somewhere in here plotting against me? Against Audrey? Against Laura?

I shook aside my thoughts and kept moving forward, glancing over my shoulder at the front door. The nurse had come back inside now and was locking the bolts with trembling fingers. She started hurrying down the hall toward me, and I breathed a silent sigh of relief when she didn’t notice the little puddles sprinkling the floor.

Had she found out Nathan was lying? Did she know I was inside? I froze at a fork in the hallway and pressed myself up against the cold concrete, forcing my body not to shiver. The air conditioning was on full blast even though the temperature outside was cool. With the wet material clinging to my skin, I felt a little hypothermic.

The nurse’s shoes clacked on the floor as she passed me. She turned once to look at the front door again. I hoped she wasn't going to report Nathan’s odd visit to anyone. Not that they would be able to find me even if they did suspect someone was inside. I was basically invisible. Even with the drip-drip-drip of the water from my shirt to the floor.

I followed her at what felt like a safe distance, stepping carefully so my shoes wouldn’t squeak. One slow step after another. The building might have seemed alive from outside, but inside, it seemed like an almost-empty cave. Tiny sounds echoed in the deserted halls, and I heard nothing other than the occasional muted voice.

What was this place?

There were obviously other people in this building. I just had no idea who or what they were, or what they were doing here.

Just then, a door a few feet in front of me swung open. I stopped mid-step and watched a skinny girl with matted brown hair, who was a couple of years younger than me, slip into the hall and close the door very gently behind her. She tiptoed across the hall and knocked on another door. For some reason, I’d been expecting only shamans here. The nurse wasn’t one, and neither was this girl.

The girl didn’t see the nurse come back around the corner and cross her arms over her chest.

“What are you doing?” The nurse’s shrill voice bounced off the walls.

The girl jumped and put her hands behind her back. I could see them shaking. She didn’t answer. Instead, she ran back across the hall and darted into her door.

The nurse strode forward with a deep frown and followed her inside. The door slammed shut behind them, and I cringed as I listened to the nurse yell, even though I couldn’t make out the words. The door was too thick for that. When the nurse came back out again, she took a ring of keys out of her pocket and locked the door.

I felt my face flame up in anger. She was locking the poor girl inside her room?

Only after the nurse had disappeared around the corner did I think about following after her. I paused at the girl’s door and looked at the lock. I could pick it. I wondered if I should. If the girl got out again, she’d probably just get into more trouble.

But maybe she would run away if I did it. Get away from this place. Whatever it was.

I took out my pick and fiddled with the lock. It clicked, a loud sound in the silent hallway. I wanted to tell the girl to leave, to run away, but I didn’t know how she’d react to a disembodied voice. I had my supplies in the backpack slung over my shoulder. I could cancel out the Shadow spell but not until I'd found out more about this building and who these people were.

On the way out, I told myself. On the way out, I’d become visible and get her out of here. Maybe even the others if this place was as creepy as I thought it was.

I turned the corner and found myself in some kind of lobby. There was an oval center desk, like at a regular hospital, with several nurses flittering around with clipboards or carts of food. A few couches sat nearby around a small coffee table covered in medical magazines. It looked like a waiting room, minus the patients waiting for their yearly checkups.

There were no signs, no pictures, no identifying tags. The white concrete walls were blank and lifeless. Dead.

I watched for a few moments as the nurse from the front door tittered in excited whispers with another woman who looked like she was in charge.

“Well, he isn’t here, Luanne,” said the nurse she was talking to, in a loud enough voice for everyone to hear. “And you know he won’t be very happy if we call him up about something like this.”

“Well, I just hope that boy doesn’t come back,” the nurse said. “He made up that story. He must know something. What if he’s in league with spirits?”

“He must only suspect something or he wouldn’t come creeping around here,” the other nurse said in an exasperated voice. “Plus, the wards are strong. You know that.”

So, they knew about spirits here. And who was this “he” they were talking about? It had to be the shaman.

“Can’t you at least log it in his books and have him check into it when he gets back?”

The head nurse tsked but nodded her consent. She moved past a row of doors and unlocked one that had several deadbolts. She disappeared inside, leaving the door open. The other nurses glanced over but continued on with their business, one disappearing down the hallway with a loaded food tray, humming a tune that sounded familiar.

I snuck along the wall and toward the open door. When I got there, I peered inside. It looked like a very fancy office complete with a curving oak desk, a wide-screen monitor and a high-backed leather chair. The nurse was scribbling something in a large notebook, bottom lip tucked under her tongue.

I held my breath and pleaded with my body to stay quiet while I slipped inside. I stood there waiting, barely breathing in the musky cologne that permeated the room. Finally, the nurse closed the book and walked back out into the lobby.

The locks tumbled, and I was alone.

For a few moments, I just stood there with my back still pressed against the wall. I was in his office. I held my hand in front of me and watched it shake. Fear coursed through me, along with an incredible burst of adrenaline. And this time it had nothing to do with a spirit feeding on my neighbor. It was all me—from just being here in this office and so close to the answer. His name had to be in here somewhere.

I moved around to the other side of the desk and glanced at a photograph propped up in a silver frame.

My heart jolted in my chest, and I stumbled in my steps. I dropped to my knees and leaned closer. I had to get a better look. My eyes were wrong. Deceiving me.

Holy shit
, I mouthed.

It was a photo of a pretty woman in the arms of Anthony Lombardi. And the woman was my mother.

CHAPTER 30