Torn From the Shadows (12 page)

I sighed. “Okay then, why don’t you tell me what this place is for?”

Penny looked away, her curly ponytail swaying behind her. “You already know what this room is for.”

“But why is it hidden?”

“Every Catcher kept their personal space private, and Pepita had more reason to.”

I took another step. “So she was still catching spooks after she got married?”

“It’s not my place to answer that question.”

“Then who can tell me, because Grandma has been lost for years. So I definitely can’t ask her about any of this.” Getting answers from Penny had never been a problem, so I was surprised we were going around in circles. Then again, I still didn’t know why she was trapped inside this room.

Penny’s eyes shimmered, but she didn’t reply.

“At least tell me why you’re here,” I said.

“I’m the guardian.”

“The guardian of Grandma’s secret?”

“I’m sorry. I can’t tell you.
You
need to find the answers.”

I nodded knowingly. “There are answers in her grimoire.”

“It’s not just her grimoire that holds the answers to your questions—this room has answers everywhere.”

“Who are you?” Papan asked.

For the first time, she turned her focus in his direction. “I’m Penny.”

“Penny’s a ghost,” I said, feeling like an idiot for not introducing them. “She was my childhood friend.”

She shook her head. “I’m not a ghost, I’m a deliberate imprint.”

A spiritual imprint was usually left behind by a dead person’s energy and replayed the sequence of their choices over and over again, but a
deliberate imprint
? I had no idea what she meant.

“Sierra, where are you?”

My heart sank because Willow had the worst timing in the world. Actually, I couldn’t believe so many hours had passed since she’d left for school this morning.

Penny stepped back, blending into the darkness.

“Come on, Papan. I don’t want Willow to find us in this room.”

We raced up the stairs, back into my bedroom, and rushed to get dressed before my sister busted us half-naked.

Chapter Five

As soon as I spotted both Ebony and Oren standing beside Willow while the dog sniffed around the hallway, I couldn’t help but sigh. It looked like our quiet time together was over.

The only way to deal with this was humor. “Willow, you’ve really got to stop bringing strays home with you,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “We don’t have room for all of them.”

Papan stepped up beside me, eyeing the dog. He raised his nose in the air but didn’t say a word. The canine seemed to notice him though, because he stopped his curious sniffing long enough to turn and face Papan. He lowered his caramel eyes, slowly made his way towards him and settled down near his feet, whining.

“What’s going on? What’re you doing to my dog?” Willow frowned then slapped her thigh a few times while calling, “Come here, Freddy. Come on.”

The dog wouldn’t budge and instead gave Papan furtive glances—displaying submissive behavior.

Papan crouched down and patted the dog’s head. “You don’t have to bow down to me, boy.”

“Why is Freddy bowing down to you at all?”

“Because Papan’s the big, bad wolf,” Ebony said with a grin. “I think it’s just natural canine behavior, right?”

Papan flipped her off and then nodded, before turning his attention back to Freddy. He ran a hand down the doggie’s spine.

As far as I could tell, Freddy looked cleaner than he had yesterday but just as skinny. His eyes remained downcast, but his tail was wagging furiously.

“So he’s okay, then?” I asked my sister.

“He’s healthy, clean, and ours—if you let me keep him.” She flashed me her version of puppy-dog eyes. “
Please
, can we keep him? Look how much he likes Jason!”

“Did you find out what breed he is?” If Freddy had a breed, I might be able to separate him from my memory of Mauricio. It wasn’t that he looked much like the
Perro Negro
, though there was
something
about Freddy.

“You’re not like other dogs,” Papan said to Freddy, still patting him. “I can’t put my finger on it, but you just don’t smell like other canines.”

“Oh, that’s probably because we stopped by a doggie salon to get him all cleaned up before coming home.” Willow was beaming. “I wanted him to be as clean as possible. Didn’t want him stinking up the place and have Sierra change her mind.” The excitement in her eyes looked genuine, and I hoped she wasn’t just trying to replace Stitches. “He’s an Australian Kelpie.”

“A sheep dog,” Ebony added.

I looked at Papan interacting with Freddy. “Is there anything malevolent about him?”

Papan patted him one last time before straightening. He looked thoughtful. “Not really. There are conflicting smells coming off him that I can’t pinpoint, but he’s not a danger to anyone. He seems like a placid dog.”

“Sierra, can we keep him? Please, please,
please
—”

“All right, okay! You can keep him. But he’s your responsibility and not mine. I’m not going to feed him, take him for walks, or pick up any dog poop, okay?”

“Yay! Don’t worry. I’ll take care of everything.” She leaned down and petted Freddy’s back while he circled her legs. “I’m going to take him for a walk.”

“You don’t even have a collar for him.”

She raised a plastic bag I hadn’t spotted. “I’ve got everything I need.”

“How much money did you spend on him?”

“You don’t want to know,” Ebony answered.

“Yeah, what she said.” Willow gave me a quick peck on the cheek and a rushed hug. “Thank you, thank you!”
 

“Be careful, and don’t go too far,” I called as she headed for the kitchen with the dog in tow. “Change out of your uniform. Use the cloaking spell outside!”

“You’re such a pushover, and a nag,” Ebony said with a grin. “Hey, Papan, how’s it going?”

“Hi Ebony, I’m fine. And you?”

“Yeah, I bet you’re
fine
.” She snickered. “Sierra, I just popped in to let you know that I got full payment—bonus included—from Mr. Evans. He deposited the money straight into our account. I just checked.”

“So he didn’t give you any trouble?”

She shook her head. “He felt bad about what happened to Juliet…”

My stomach lurched at the reminder. “I hate that it happened on my watch.” But what I hated more was that Mace was responsible for hurting so many innocent people because of me.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Ebony said.

I glanced at Oren, who stood near the wall, watching the exchange and not contributing. He seemed impatient but was letting everything play out. What did he want? After yesterday’s uncomfortable conversation, I thought he’d try to avoid me.

“I also came to tell you that they’re doing an autopsy on Juliet, so we won’t be able to bury her yet.”

“Did Roe track her parents down?”

“Yeah, I found all of the girls’ parents for him,” Papan said.

“You did?” This was the first I’d heard of it.

A cheeky smile crossed his lips. “Y’know, confidentiality and all that.”

Such a convenient excuse. “Of course,” I said with a nod.

“I’m gonna miss her.” Ebony’s eyes shimmered with unshed tears. “She was a sweet kid.”

“Yeah.” All three teenagers were great spook catchers, and lovely kids. I’d miss her too, and would carry the guilt just as I carried Benita’s.

“Roe cancelled his weekend meeting in Perth.”

I nodded, not knowing what else to say. I’d already spoken to him last night and given him my condolences, after profusely apologizing. Of course he claimed it wasn’t my fault, blamed it on the risk factor of our job.

An uncomfortable silence filled the hallway and Ebony wandered into the next room.

Oren uncrossed his arms and pushed off the wall. “I’m sorry about the young spook catcher, but I’m afraid that my news isn’t happy either.” He looked at Papan instead of me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, dreading his response.

He took his time answering, and lowered his artic-blue eyes to focus on the floor. “Jason, I know you didn’t get along with your father, but I just found out some very unfortunate information.”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Papan said, shaking his head. “I washed my hands of the Pack years ago.”

“I realize that, but he was still your father so I think you deserve to know.” Oren glanced at me quickly before turning his attention back to Papan. “Your father is dead.”

“What?” I couldn’t believe this.

“Are you sure?” Papan looked calm, though a vein twitched along his clenched jaw.

Oren nodded. “I’m sorry to be the bearer of sad news, but they found his body a few hours ago.”

“Where? Do you know what happened?”

“He was found stabbed to death in bushland not far from here.” Oren remained where he was standing. “I haven’t seen him but felt the alpha power rolling off him yesterday, so whoever killed him must have used some pretty heavy-duty silver.”

Papan ran a hand through his blond hair. “What the hell was he really doing here?”
 

“I thought the same thing, son. He was a long way from home and although he didn’t threaten Sierra, he seemed agitated about something—on edge.” Oren looked at me. “I could feel the strength of his wolf just below the surface, fighting to get out.”

“It’s the full-moon week.” I reached for Papan’s hand and squeezed his fingers. “I’m so sorry, Papan. He seemed like a nice man.”

“My father seemed like a lot of things and most were carefully constructed charades.” Papan entwined his fingers around mine. “One thing he wasn’t was an easy target. It doesn’t make sense that someone could get close enough to stab him to death. He’s the strongest wolf I know. There’s no way anyone could overpower him…”

“How did you find out about this?” I asked Oren.

“Your friend Gareth called to tell me as soon as the body was ID’ed.”

I couldn’t help but wonder why Gareth hadn’t called me directly. Then again, the constable knew we’d suffered the loss of a friend and catcher last night. Maybe he didn’t want to add to the pain and loss.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Papan whispered.

Ebony waltzed back in from the kitchen. “That girl is totally smitten with the cute doggie.” She looked at us before saying, “Did I interrupt something?”

No one answered.

“Okay. I’m heading out.”

“I think I’ll leave too, see if I can find out anything more.” Oren placed a hand over Papan’s shoulder and squeezed. “I’m really sorry, son.”

Ebony’s eyes widened but she didn’t ask any questions. Instead, she grabbed a hold of Oren’s jacket sleeve and said, “Hey, can I speak to you about something?”
 

“Of course, you can talk to me about anything.”

“What do you need to speak to him about?” I blurted.

“That’s none of your damn business,” she said with a wink, and I got a sinking sensation in my stomach.

“I’ll see you both later,” Oren said.

They walked out the front door together, leaving us alone in the darkened hallway with our good mood shattered.

“Hey, are you okay?” I asked Papan, letting go of his hand so I could wrap my arms around his middle.

“Yeah, Fox, I’m fine.” He exhaled. “But I don’t understand how this happened to him.”

“Maybe the police got it wrong—”

“No, they probably didn’t.” He pulled me tighter against his chest. “Ever since you mentioned he’d come over, something felt wrong. There’s no way my father would venture so far from his territory to give me a letter. Something else was going on and I wasn’t around to speak to him about it.”

“You were busy, but you do have that envelope. I think you should read whatever’s inside.”

Papan inhaled and exhaled slowly. “You’re probably right.”

“Do you need a minute alone?”
 

“No, I need to be with you.”

I wrapped my arms tighter around him and pressed my cheek against his chest, listening to the sound of his heart and feeling the heat of his skin. He always felt warmer during the full moon. “I’ll always be here for you.”

“I appreciate that, Fox.” He kissed the top of my head. “I don’t want to, but I guess I better read the letter.” He looked sad, even if he was trying hard to make me believe the murder of his father didn’t affect him.

I slowly untangled my arms from around his midsection, and wrapped one around his waist. We headed upstairs, clinging to each other. Once inside the bedroom, we sat on the bed. I didn’t say anything, just waited for him to grab the envelope and slowly tear it open. He pulled out several pages of folded paper. From what I could see, the top sheet was a letter.

He read it before passing it to me.

Jason,

I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye, but I never stopped looking out for you or considered you the lone wolf you were so eager to become. You might have shunned your family’s responsibility for years, but your time of running is over.