Lucy could feel a grimace slide over
her face. “You’re totally going ditch me, aren’t you?”
Gram frowned. “Ditch you?”
“
You know,” Lucy sighed.
“Leave me out here to walk home.”
Gram raised an eyebrow and smiled
wickedly. “That isn’t your punishment either. So stop worrying
about it. Right now I just need you to stand over there.” She
pointed to the guardrail.
“
Okay,” Lucy
said
. If
she leaves
me out here I’m so going to put Nair in her shampoo!
Lucy opened the car door and got out,
shutting it behind her. She looked around and didn’t see anything,
except a small blond pile of road-kill. She looked back to her
grandmother. “Now what?”
“
Just wait there. I’m going
to drive up about fifty feet. Just don’t move, alright?”
Lucy shrugged as her
grandmother moved the car away.
This has to
be the lamest practical joke I’ve ever seen.
She hoped her grandmother hadn’t just snapped. The stress from
having Lucy and her family living with her hadn’t seemed to take a
toll, but then adding vampires and werewolves to the mix had to
have its own impact.
Gram got out of the car and gave Lucy
a little wave.
After a moment or two of the only
sounds were the passing cars and the wind they caused. Lucy rubbed
at her eyes. The dry air was starting to irritate them. “What are
we looking for?” Lucy yelled to her grandmother.
“
We’re waiting.” Gram
hollered back.
“
Waiting for what?” Lucy
called, but then she saw her grandmother was holding her hand up
over her eyes like a visor. She was looking at something, and it
had to be behind Lucy. Lucy gulped and turned to look.
Nothing.
Just open road, sand, and oncoming
traffic. Then Lucy heard panting. She looked down, and peering up
at her was a golden retriever, just a puppy, and he was wagging his
little puppy tail and panting with his little puppy tongue out. His
eyes were full of excitement.
Well, one of his eyes was, the other
drooped out of its socket, and there was dried blood smeared from
its neck down its chest.
Lucy screamed and took off running
toward Gram and the car. Gram had her hands clasped over her chest,
a crazy look of pride on her face.
“
Drive!” Lucy screamed. Gram
just stood there, smiling like a lunatic, watching Lucy scramble
over to the car, yank the door open and throw herself into the
passenger seat. “Get in here and drive!”
Lucy’s grandmother started laughing,
looking happier and happier.
Lucy looked back and could see the
little bundle of dead dog dragging itself after her. She could hear
it whimpering and yapping for her to come back.
“
Now old woman… or I’m going
to drive off without you!”
Gram cackled and held up her hand. The
car keys were dangling from her index finger.
“
Please…” Lucy whimpered,
feeling like she was on the verge of tears and a nervous
breakdown.
Gram rolled her eyes and said,
“Alright.” She slid into the driver’s seat and started the car. A
moment later they were speeding out into traffic, making motorists
swerve to miss them.
“
Don’t kill us!” Lucy said.
But she felt better as they shot down the highway. She looked out
the back window again and saw the puppy fall over. Somehow she just
knew the poor little guy was dead again. “What the hell did you do
to that thing?”
Gram scoffed. “You mean, what did you
do to that unfortunate canine? That’s what you want to
know.”
Lucy felt a nauseating chill well up
inside her. “I did that?”
Gram looked over at Lucy, and abruptly
her expression changed to worry. “You look so pale.”
Lucy ran her hands down over either
the side of her face. “Oh, I wonder why?”
“
Just breathe…,” her
grandmother said, turning off the interstate and then pulling onto
the ramp leading back the way they’d came. “I’ll explain everything
when we get back home.”
Lucy was okay with that. She didn’t
think she could stomach an explanation right then, not with the car
moving and the image of that poor little dead dog still so fresh in
her mind.
Chapter 13
GRAM poured them both some homemade
lemonade and set out some sugar cookies she’d baked just the day
before. They were coated with pink and yellow sugar crystals, and
they smelled of citrus.
“
I’m shocked your brother
left any,” Gram said. “He usually eats cookies as fast as I can
bake them.”
Lucy knew the cookies were
delicious—she just couldn’t bring herself to touch one. Her stomach
was just so twisted in knots still. But she did take a few sips of
the lemonade. As usual it was a perfect mixture of sweet and
sour.
Finally she looked to her grandmother
and said the first thing that came into her mind. “We’re cursed,
right? The whole family has got some sort of curse on it… makes
everything turn to crap, right?” Lucy stopped and then felt tears
burning at her eyes, ready to well up and trickle down her cheeks.
“Or is it just me?”
“
Lucybean, sweetheart…
there’s nothing wrong with you, and you are certainly not cursed,”
she said the last word with prolonged scorn. Lucy looked up into
her grandmother’s smiling eyes. “You’ve been blessed.”
“
Blessed!” Lucy sat forward,
tears streaming down her face, her voice harsh. “Having road-kill
coming to life and wanting to play isn’t a friggin’ gift! It’s a
freaking catastrophe!”
“
What you did is called
necromancy. And it is what you are… you’re a
necromancer.”
“
I’m not anything!” Lucy
said incredulously, pushing back from the table and standing up.
She folded her arms around herself as she turned away from her
grandmother, her nails biting into her flesh. “I’m certainly not a…
whatever you just said.”
“
A necromancer.”
“
I’m not… and stop saying
that!” She turned, beseechingly saying, “I can’t be… it’s just so
disgusting.”
Gram looked upon her granddaughter
with love and empathy. “Necromancy is a powerful gift.” She stood
and put her hands on Lucy’s shoulders. “It’s your gift.”
Gift?
Suddenly she remembered something. Just a sliver of a dream,
and then the image of Jeff Haas holding a dead puppy in his arms,
saying it was her gift. Lucy looked up into her grandmother’s gaze
and felt a shock as she backed away from her.
“
I dreamed about
this.”
Gram’s expression grew concerned.
“You’ve dreamed about this?” She held out her hands, “This moment
in the kitchen?”
“
No,” Lucy shook her head
and turned toward the window over the sink, staring out into the
backyard. “Not this. Just…” She turned back to her grandmother. “I
dreamed about the dog. The one on the side of the road, but it
wasn’t there. It was back at my old school.” Lucy could feel the
same terror she’d felt in her dream, circling around her,
practically touching her flesh. “And my ex-boyfriend was giving the
puppy to me for my birthday.” She looked right at her grandmother.
“He said it was my gift.”
“
A prophetic dream,” Gram
said, “Impressive… anything else?”
“
What do you mean?” Lucy
said, incensed. “Isn’t that enough?” And then she looked at her
grandmother with accusing eyes. “Did you know this was going to
happen to me?”
“
I always knew there was a
chance. But your mother kept insisting that you had no
talent.”
“
That’s harsh.”
“
Dark talent, Lucybean. Lila
swore that you were like her. She never showed the slightest
mystical or preternatural ability. I never felt it from her, and
truthfully I didn’t feel anything coming off you… until
today.”
“
Lucky me.”
“
Yes… lucky you!” Gram
sounded angry. “If it wasn’t for your gift, that vampire last night
would’ve had you for dinner… literally.”
Lucy couldn’t argue with that. Delia
would’ve sucked her dry, or at the very least snapped her neck.
Lucy shook her head—the thought was just so disturbing. Being dead,
killed… it suddenly felt far too real a possibility for
comfort.
“
Okay. It saved my life...
but why me?”
“
The gift passes from
generation to generation. My sister and I both had it.
Unfortunately your mother didn’t. And I’m fairly positive your
brother won’t get it.”
Random thought, “If that’s
because he’s a guy, don’t be so sure. He’s…”
Should I let his secret out?
“He’s not
your typical teenage boy.”
“
Uh-huh…” Gram said. “You
mean, since he’s homosexual, he might get it?”
Oh crap!
“I didn’t say that he was…” Gram was giving her a hard look.
“Okay… but I didn’t tell you, okay?”
“
Deal. But no, that has
nothing to do with it. I just don’t feel anything in
him.”
“
But you said you didn’t
feel anything coming off me either.”
Gram frowned, and then clucked her
tongue. “Good point. We’ll both have to keep an eye on him. No
telling what kind of trouble a boy like him can get into with this
power.” She smiled. “Though, I would love to see him being chased
around by a zombie.”
“
Gram!”
“
Just a little one.” A
mischievous smile manifested on Gram’s lips.
“
You know he has a phobia of
little people?” Lucy said.
“
Seriously?” She chuckled,
covering her mouth with her hand.
“
Ever since he was five.
Unlocked the parental controls on the cable and lost it when he
flipped onto one of those leprechaun movies.”
“
Leprechauns?” Gram said,
her expression sobering. “You’re not joking, are you?”
“
It was a thing.” Lucy waved
it away with her hand. “Now he avoids the
Wizard of Oz
and
The Lord of the Rings
like the
plague.”
A goofy grin spread across Gram’s
face, turning into a smile, and then she just cracked
up.
“
You wouldn’t think it was
so funny when he freaks out at the mall when he sees a little
person. It’s embarrassing as hell.”
Gram whooped, holding her belly. “What
about little kids? Does he freak out over them too?”
“
No. Just little grownups.”
Lucy’s face fell. “Now, about all this dead-shit stuff.”
“
Language,
Lucybean.”
“
Sorry, but I don’t want
dead things coming to life and attacking me.”
“
They won’t attack you. They
won’t do much of anything unless you tell them to… as long as you
practice controlling your power.”
Lucy shot a finger up into her
grandmother’s face. “There, I knew it! There’s always a nasty
catch… just like in the movies.”
“
Lucy, dear, don’t worry.
We’ll take some time over the next few weeks and I’ll teach you to
control you power.”
“
Even better, why don’t you
take them away? You’ve gotta know a way.”
“
Lucy.” Gram sounded so
serious. “No one and nothing can take this from you. It’s a gift
and you need to embrace it.”
Lucy made a disgusted face.
“Gross.”
“
Gross or not, seems you’re
going to need it.”
Lucy frowned.
“
It’s already saved your
life. It will again.”
~*~
Gram gave Lucy a small, though rather
thick book to read. The cover was so faded and worn Lucy couldn’t
make out the title, but the title page was more than clear enough
to make Lucy’s skin crawl.
A Guide to Necromancy:
Harnessing Your Affinity and Power Over the Dead, Calling Spirits,
Animating Corpses, Fashioning Assorted Body Parts Into Zombies, and
Taking Death Into You.
Lucy dropped the book on the kitchen
table when she read that last part. The thought of putting zombies
together from spare parts was bad enough, but taking death into
her. That wasn’t happening.
“
Taking death into
you?”
“
That one’s a little
advanced, but seeing how strong you power is right out of the box,
as they say, I’ll have to teach it to you soon. It’s pretty much
the ability to draw strength and power from the dead.”
“
No offense, but I don’t
want to draw anything from the dead. I just want to keep them from
following me around, okay?”
“
Lucy,” Gram’s voice went
weary, “this isn’t something you can control enough to quell. Once
the power activates it doesn’t just go dormant, even if you don’t
consciously use it, it reaches out on its own and works its
magic.”
“
Magic?”
“
Yes. What we do is a form
of magic. A darker, older, and far more primal magic than your
common witch would practice… but magic all the same. And magic is
what makes vampires live, and werewolves… werewolves. It’s in
everything supernatural.”