Joyce & Jim Lavene - Taxi for the Dead 02 - Dead Girl Blues (17 page)

“You mean this as in being here scraping zombie ghosts off the ceiling?” My heart was pounding furiously. I was afraid he’d give away the fact that I had used Lucas’s magic. I figured if Lucas could smell Artemis’s magic on me, Artemis could probably smell Lucas’s too.

“That is precisely what I mean.” He glanced at the house. “He had no right to do this to you.”

“Abe? I made the choice. My daughter is worth it.”

“There was never a choice you needed to make. Abe is holding this over you, but you are not
one of his people. I assure you of that.”

I had no idea what he was talking about. Maybe it was a thing with sorcerers. One of the first words that Lucas had spoken was about freeing me from Abe’s evil influence. It was probably a territorial thing, the same reason they had to challenge each other as soon as they met.

I stepped back from him, and he dropped his hands from my face.

“I don’t see anything right now, except that what you did worked for that woman. I’m sure Abe is extremely grateful. I gotta go.”

There was genuine anguish on his face. “I wish we could get to know one another better. There are things you should know.”

“I’m sure we will until this ghost curse is over.” I laughed as I walked around to the other side of the van. “See you later, Artemis. Don’t spend all that in one place.”

The engine started quickly, and I was gone. My hands were trembling. It wasn’t bad enough that I was Abe’s zombie. Now I was afraid he’d find out I wasn’t his zombie anymore.

Life was so much less complicated when I was alive.

Chapter Twenty-one

I wanted to stop at Debbie’s house on the way home, but I really didn’t want to see the mess their lives had become. It was awful of me not to support my partner. I just couldn’t handle one more thing.

Instead, I went home and grabbed a scythe out of the garden shed. I could hear Lucas working on the path behind the property. For once, doing something outside sounded good. It was hours before Kate would be home from school. Cutting down small trees and pulling up vines seemed like perfect therapy.

Lucas was surprised to see me—and I was surprised to see Addie on the path.

“I didn’t know you could leave the house.”

“I can do what I want.” She was defensive with me right away. “Lucas taught me how to go other places. It wasn’t hard.”

“That’s amazing. You’ll be driving again in no time.”

She tossed her head. “What about you? Since when do you work outside, or inside, for that matter? I thought yard work wasn’t your thing?”

“It’s not. I really wanted to talk to Lucas about some stuff, and he was out here.”

“That’s what I thought.” Addie vanished.

“I guess she went inside.” I shook my head. “She and I won’t ever get along. I don’t know what it is.”

Lucas had been snipping vines that were hanging in the path. “It could be that the two of you are very different people who happened to have loved the same man.”

I listlessly moved the scythe from side to side across some weeds. “I suppose that’s it.”

“What did you want to speak about?”

I told him what had happened with Abe’s new ghost and the sorcerer. “He took care of the problem really easy. I was surprised. But I think there might be something wrong. I think he changed the mark on the zombie. The tattoo turned bright red. The initial was close to being the same but not quite. And it was red instead of blue. Like you did with mine.”

“Basically it was the same process. Why were you so surprised?”

“Because I was the only one who could see the mark was red.”

He stopped cutting vines. “You could see Artemis’s magic?”

“I guess so. I didn’t say anything. I just wanted to get out of there before somebody guessed that you’d changed me.”

“That’s interesting.” He took the scythe from me and handed me the snippers he’d been using. “It’s not surprising that the new sorcerer’s magic would change Abe’s mark, but it should have been visible to everyone. They surely agreed on what was acceptable in the transference.”

“Artemis talked to me again privately. He was all about saving me from Abe and how I didn’t deserve to be a zombie. I’ll have to figure out a way to keep my distance from him. I have a feeling he wants something from me.”

“Yes?” He used broad swipes of the blade to hack down tall grass growing in the path. “What do you think he wants?”

“I don’t know.” I sat on one of the benches. My need to garden was over. “But he should’ve been able to tell your magic was on me, right? If that was the case, why didn’t he say something or tell Abe?”

“I agree that something else is going on with Artemis Elkheart. I’m not a seer, so I can’t tell you what it is. But be wary of him, Skye. Whatever game he is playing with Abe could be disastrous if you are caught in the middle.”

I watched him work for a few minutes. It was hot and humid again with thick clouds holding water bringing out mosquitos that buzzed by my head. Not a single mosquito ventured near Lucas. He didn’t swat or try to evade. They just ignored him. Maybe it was a side benefit to having magic. If so, I wouldn’t have minded having some of that too. If Lucas was right and I had some magic, it wasn’t anything useful.

“What about the werewolf?” I asked him after a while. “Can it be stopped with magic? Can you do that magic?”

“I’m not sure. It would have its risks. I might be able to stop him, or I could make him stronger so that no human being could kill him.”

“That doesn’t sound like an option. You have to use a wood stake to the heart, right?”

“That is folklore for a vampire.” He looked up and smiled at me. “You really are an innocent, aren’t you? Folklore for a werewolf is silver. But that doesn’t really work either.”

“What about bullets or a grenade? If I blow it up, will the pieces come back together again?”

“That’s doubtful, but you would have to get close enough to blow it up. A werewolf moves faster than the human eye can observe. If you are close enough to shoot it, you’re already dead.”

We talked about all things werewolf, including tracking one. I took in the information like the proverbial sponge. I wanted to know everything about my enemy. When Gerald and I fought it, I wanted to win. When I felt like I’d exhausted the subject with him, I asked about sorcerers—especially Artemis.

“What would it take to kill him, hypothetically? Would I have to use a sword? Could I just shoot him?”

“Why are you asking? Do you fear him enough that you want to kill him?” The look in Lucas’s eyes didn’t bode well for the other man.

“I’m not asking you to kill Artemis.” I hoped I was clear on that. “There’s something odd about him. I’m not sure what it is, but he keeps acting like he has some secret interest in me. It makes me uncomfortable. If he gets any worse, I’d like to know what I could do to keep my distance.”

He sat beside me. “Your best bet is to ignore him. He may sense my magic about you. He may even sense your magic, untrained as it is.”

I swatted a mosquito feasting on my neck. “He must be desperate if he wants my help with something.”

“Is that what you sense about him? That he wants your help?”

“I don’t know. There’s just something about him. I can’t describe it, but it bothers me.”

“Trust your instincts, Skye. As you were able to ignore his magic, you may be able to sense other things about him”

“And you know that how, since you don’t remember being a sorcerer?”

“Call it intuition and common sense.”

The whole conversation made me more than a little uncomfortable. “I don’t like this whole belonging to other people. We outlawed slavery in this country a long time ago.”

“What do you think Abe is doing with his workers?” 

“Giving them an extra twenty years of life. And he still pays us a decent wage.”

“So you’re saying you’d be all right belonging to me if I pay you?” He was angry and skeptical.

“No! That’s not what I’m saying.” I stood quickly and glanced at my watch. “I’m going to get Kate early from school. We’re going to hang out and eat ice cream. I’ll see you later.”

He nodded and started working again. I didn’t extend an invitation for him to join us. I needed some alone time for me and Kate.

She was thrilled when I picked her up. It was always exciting not riding the bus home. I got to hear all about what she did at school that day and all the latest kid gossip.

“Mary is submitting a poem to the school writing contest,” Kate confided over huge root beer floats at the ice cream parlor. We sat outside and looked at the lake across the road.

“What about you? You like to write.”

She shrugged. “I’ve been working on a short story. It’s about my life.”

That struck me like a death knell. “What are you writing about your life?”

“You know—you and daddy died—but you came back. Grandma died, but she came back. Lucas moved in with us until he can figure out what happened to his magic. That kind of thing. I think it would be interesting, don’t you? I might even win.”

“You might,” I said carefully. “But maybe you could write fiction instead. Or you could say your story about us is fiction.”

She wrinkled her nose. “I’m not sure what that is.”

“Fiction is like superheroes and cartoons. Those things aren’t real. Non-fiction is writing about things that really happen.”

“Why would I write about superheroes when I could write about Grandma learning to use her magic ghost powers?”

I tried to think of a way to explain why her story, and what she told other people about us, needed to be less than truthful. “People don’t like strange things they don’t understand.”

She slurped ice cream from her spoon. “You mean like ghosts?”

“That’s what I mean. People like to think that everyone lives like they do. They don’t like the idea of little girls being raised by ghosts and mothers who are already dead.”

Kate swung her feet under her chair as she considered the matter. “I understand. It’s why I can’t have friends come to the house, right? I know you said I’d be a grownup before you really died and went away with Abe, but are you sure? You could get into another car accident or another sorcerer could come that Lucas can’t cut his head off. What then?”

How could I answer those questions? I didn’t have the answers, but I could see the trusting look in her face as she waited for me to respond.

“Lucas won’t let another sorcerer come to the house. I promise. And I can’t die until you’re a grownup.”

“Even if you turn into a ghost again?”

“You see too much.” I kissed her soft cheek. “Things happen, Kate. None of us know when they’re going to happen. We do the best we can. Some day when you’re a grown up, you can write all about your unusual childhood. It will have to be fiction because no one will believe it could be real. But maybe you’ll make a million dollars and be on all the talk shows.”

“Okay. I like that idea.” She seemed to consider the challenge. “Maybe I’ll write about Daddy instead for the contest. There’s nothing weird about him, right? He was a hero.”

“You’re right.” I swallowed hard over the lump in my throat. “Daddy was a hero. He died trying to save my life. I think that would be a great thing to write about.”

We went home, and Kate did her math and reading. She worked on her short story after that until dinner was ready. Lucas had made spaghetti. Addie made toasted garlic bread and even banana pudding. Kate and I set the table and poured sweet tea into tall glasses filled with ice.

Addie sat at the table with us, somehow holding herself in a chair. After my experience being in that shapeless form, I appreciated how difficult it was. I could see the determination written on her plain, worn face. I noticed how clearly defined her features had become. No more wavering lines or blank spaces. She was learning a lot from Lucas.

After supper, Kate and I did the dishes and then watched
The Princess Bride
on DVD. It was one of our favorite movies. Lucas watched too. I wondered what he thought of the humorous romantic comedy.

It was great being home at bedtime. I brushed Kate’s hair as we talked about the story she was writing. We took turns reading a book of nursery rhymes that Jacob used to read to her. I’d taped a picture of them together reading the book on the inside flap so she’d remember him.

The evening was a lovely end to a day that had been troubled and scary. I knew it wouldn’t last, but I was happy not to get a call from Abe until after Kate was asleep.

“I have an emergency pick up, Skye. Artemis says this person is going to become a ghost next. Please see to it. He’ll meet you there.”

As always, he never waited for me to answer or even acknowledge that I’d heard him. His end of the conversation was over.

“Are you going out?” Lucas asked. “Is it another ghost problem?”

“Yes and yes.” I pulled on jeans and planned to wear boots. I never knew where the pickup would take me until I was there.

“Artemis will be there?”

“Yes. That’s the way this works. “

“I could go with you.”

“I’m fine.” I stuffed my wallet into my pocket and pulled on my holster. “I can handle him.”

“Shooting him isn’t the answer.”

“And I don’t plan on doing it unless things get really bad. Don’t worry. I’ve dealt with worse things than this sorcerer.”

He stood close to me. “Careful. You know nothing about him.”

I smiled. “I knew nothing about you either when we met. Whatever it is with him, I can take care of it. See you later.”

I had to stop for gas as I was going into Nashville. The address that Abe sent as a text was back in the city again. It was a good place to stop anyway. Gas was cheaper here.

As I was pumping, Tim Rusk pulled up in his highway patrol car. He got out, carefully scanning the area around him. He didn’t put on his flat-brimmed hat as he would normally have done if he’d been working.

“Hey there,” he said with a slight smile. “Where are you off to this time of night?”

“Part of my job. It happens at all times. You know how it is.”

“What was it you said you do now, Skye?”