Modern Sorcery: A Jonathan Shade Novel (15 page)

“What happened to the crystals?” Kelly asked.

“Destroyed.
 
Just like I said.
 
Ravenwood isn’t going to be recaptured that way.”

“So you let us waste time looking for the Alyshian?”

“I told Jonathan the crystals were destroyed.
 
I’m letting Al and Frank waste time on that.
 
The only reason I even called Frank was because I figured Lina would call him.
 
It’s best to have them searching for the crystal because they would be liabilities if they came in contact with Ravenwood.
 
Al already knows this, or he wouldn’t have cleared everyone out of DGI.”

“And why did you send us there?” I asked.

“I didn’t.
 
You and Kelly just left me here with your pretty, little ghost.
 
Silly me, I figured if I told you Al was at DGI that Kelly wouldn’t want to go anywhere near there.”

“You think I’m afraid of them?” Kelly asked.

“If I were you, I would be.”

“You’re not me.”

“Hold on a second.
 
You said Al knows this, but he doesn’t think Ravenwood is actually free.
 
He was worried about the possibility.”

Naomi sighed.
 
“When I called Frank about the Sekutar, Al was with him.
 
So I figured I’d best come clean about Ravenwood being free.”

“I think you’re all in this together,” Kelly said.

Naomi sighed.
 
“Think what you want, Kelly.
 
Al and Frank didn’t want to believe Ravenwood was free, but they agreed to take precautions anyway.”

“So are they still wasting time looking for the crystal, or did you tell them about that part too?” I asked.

“I didn’t tell them about the crystals,” Naomi said.
 
“The only person at DGI who knows about that is Anselma, but so far as I know, she’s still in Zurich.
 
So yes, I think they’re looking for the crystal.
 
What else would they be doing?”

“Working with Ravenwood, perhaps?” Kelly said.

“Oh, that’s priceless.
 
Next you’re going to accuse me of working with him.”

“Wow, and you’re psychic too.”

“Ravenwood killed my parents!”

I looked at Kelly.
 
“To work with him, she’d have to be able to see him or at least hear him.
 
Right?”

Kelly shrugged.
 
“How the hell should I know?”

“She couldn’t see Esther, so how could she see Ravenwood?”

“Maybe she uses the crystals.”

“How many times do I have to tell you that the crystals were all destroyed?” Naomi said.

“And who told us that?” Kelly asked and gave Naomi an accusatory look.
 
“Why should we believe anything you say?
 
Why shouldn’t I just kill you now?”

I stepped between them and grabbed Kelly by the upper arms.
 
She could have tossed me aside, but she simply stared past me at Naomi.
 
“There’s been enough death for one day,” I said.

Kelly nodded.
 
She looked over at the bodies still sprawled on the floor.
 
“She’s playing us, Jonathan.”

“I know you think so, but I’m not convinced.”

“You could be standing on the gallows and she could be putting the noose around your neck and you’d still be, ‘Oh no, Naomi would never do anything to hurt me.’
 
When are you going to wake up?”

“Can we deal with this tomorrow?”

“Far better to deal with it now.”

“No, right now we should deal with the bodies of your students.”

She grew silent for a moment.
 
“You’re right.”

I looked at the fallen women.
 
“What do we do with them?” I asked.

“I’ll handle it.
 
Just help me get them to the back room.
 
I’ll notify their families.”

“And tell them what, exactly?”

Kelly didn’t answer.
 
I wasn’t not sure the magnitude of the situation had hit us until that moment.
 
I think we were all in shock.
 
We couldn’t tell anyone the truth.
 
Nobody would believe it.
 
But how could we explain twelve women dying—one with a broken neck and the others who simply stopped living?

“I’ll have to think about that,” Kelly said.
 
She shook her head, and for the first time since I’d met her, Kelly Chan looked completely lost.

We all started toward the bodies, but Kelly spun and shoved Naomi back.

“You aren’t worthy enough to touch them,” Kelly said.

Naomi just nodded.
 
“I’m sorry,” she said.
 
As she stared at the bodies, I thought the ramifications of what she’d helped to set in motion were weighing on her.
 
I saw tears in her eyes as she turned away, and I wanted to go to her, but Kelly and I had other business to handle.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

That night, I tossed and turned on Kelly’s couch.
 
We agreed that it was best to stay close together.
 
Esther stood in the center of the room, keeping a watchful, if ghostly, eye on everything.
 
Should Ravenwood put in an appearance, she would wake me.
 
I couldn’t get the image out of my mind of Ravenwood pointing and having eleven women drop dead.

Naomi slept in a sleeping bag on Kelly’s bedroom floor.
 
Kelly refused to allow her to use the bed.
 
I figured we’d done a great job getting Kelly to let Naomi stay there at all.
 
Meanwhile, Kelly walked patrols around the building.
 
She wouldn’t be able to see Ravenwood, but she could spot any Sekutar warriors who might want to pay us a visit.
 
It made her feel proactive.

Instead of sleeping, I ran questions through my mind.
 
How deep was Naomi involved in this mess?
 
Did it include other wizards?
 
Since Ravenwood was so powerful, why was he wasting time checking me out, and why was he interested in Naomi?
 
Did he think she had the crystal or crystals?
 
Had they actually been destroyed?
 
If not, could they be used to trap him again?
 
If that wasn’t an option, could he be killed?
 
My first thought was that if he possessed someone, maybe we could kill that person and he would die too, but I knew that was crap because Margie died and he wasn’t affected.
 
How do you stop someone who can simply point at people and make them die?
 
How do you kill something that’s already dead?

Sadly that last question was one that I often wrestled with in my line of work.
 
So many questions.
 
My head felt about to explode.
 
I sat up and rubbed my temples.

“You should be sleeping,” Esther said.

“I wish I could.”

“You didn’t ask me, but I want you to know that I agree with Kelly.
 
I think that Dumb Dora in there is trouble with a capital
T.
”

“Noted.
 
But I think she’s on our side.”

“You would.”
 
Esther moved closer.
 
“Why don’t you walk away?”

“I don’t think that’s an option anymore.”

“You think that creep who slapped me will come after you?”

“I don’t know.
 
Maybe.
 
He called me a necromancer.”

“Some palooka who can raise the dead?
 
Maybe he thinks that because you can see him.
 
And me too.”

“But necromancers control the dead.”

“He doesn’t know you can’t.”

“I don’t see how that helps us.”

“It might be berries for later.”

“I doubt it.
 
Too many things don’t make sense to me.”
 
I leaned back on the sofa.

“At least you’re thinking about them.
 
Now get some shut-eye.”

“I think I’ll check on Naomi first.”

I rolled off the couch.
 
The bedroom door stood slightly ajar.
 
I pushed it open a bit farther.
 
Naomi sat up in the sleeping bag.

“You can’t sleep either?” I asked.

“Not a wink.
 
You talking to the ghost out there?”

“Yeah,” I said and entered the room.
 
I closed the door behind myself.

“I thought I heard you speaking.
 
Seemed kinda odd hearing only one side of a conversation.”

I sat down on the edge of Kelly’s bed.

Naomi looked up at me with sad eyes.
 
“You think I’m out to hurt you,” she said.
 
It was not a question.

“Don’t confuse Kelly’s accusations with my beliefs.”

“You did stand up for me a bit.
 
That was nice.”

“Don’t call me nice,” I said.

“I like nice.”

“Nice is boring.”

She smiled and rose to put her arms around my neck.
 
“I could use a healthy dose of boring right about now.”
 
She kissed me.

“My kind of bored,” I said.

She kissed me again then pulled off her shirt.
 
“Let’s see how boring we can be.”

I shook my head.
 
“Sorry.”

I pushed her back a bit.
 
There was no way I could make love with her until I knew the true reality of our situation.

“Really?” she said.

“Get some sleep.”

I left her there and returned to the living room without looking back.

“You all right?” Esther asked.

I didn’t answer.
 
I stretched out on the couch and went to sleep.