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Declan said “Sure” even
though he didn’t sound it; she pulled out the cards, had him split
the deck. “I'll tape this for you so you can remember everything we
say.” She said pulling a recorder off the shelf from behind her,
set it on the table and pressed a button. Declan and I looked at
each other and shrugged.

She flipped over a few cards
and said “A guy with light colored hair is a good and trustworthy
advisor and his name begins with a ‘T’ but not a common name like
Tim or Tom.” We looked at each other and said “Topher.” She also
said he had more to tell. She went on, “You have already found your
soul mate.” Declan agreed and said he already knew that. He blushed
a little too. Then the death card came up – she told us not to
worry though, it doesn’t necessarily mean death. She was having a
hard time reading the card but had a feeling it was about Jett and
that he would continue to change and struggle. She also told Declan
he’d be going on a cruise in the near future, you’ll also get
married quickly. Declan raised an eyebrow at that one intrigued.
After that she cleaned up all the cards.

She looked up at me “We're
going to have to read your cards too.” Sheila put her hand on top
of mine. “Don't worry I'm not going to tell you anything you don't
already know,” raising an eyebrow as she said it. She pulled her
hand away. I felt calm and thought she's right, what's the big
deal? “I'll see if I can get a better read on you regarding Jett.
Since you're both connected to him, signs or messages about him
will show on your cards as well.”

Declan said “So what we're
done? He asked pointing his finger back and forth between Sheila
and himself. “Aren't you going to tell me I’m going to be
successful, what college I‘m going to, how many kids I'll have and
all that stuff.” Shelia started shuffling the cards. “It doesn't
work that way.” She looked up and to the right “an in-state
university not too far away. You asked me about a specific endeavor
so that's what we are looking for and I can't see that far into the
future, plus I would have to read your palm for more personal
information, if you’d like.” She pointed to the sign that told us
how much everything was “at least you know who your soul mate is.”
She said with a calming smile. “…and to book a cruise.”

She went on and explained
that all we needed was a needle, thread, a sharpened pencil and a
steady hand to find out how many kids we would have.
We
looked at her puzzled “You haven't heard about that yet? Probably
because you're not thinking of having kids yet. All you do is put a
threaded needle in the end of the eraser side of a sharpened
pencil, wrap the thread around your index finger, not tightly
either. Then someone holds it over the palm side of your wrist, the
wrist you write with, and not your own, someone has to do it for
you.” She pointed to the most tender part of her wrist nearest the
joint.

She continued “You hold it so it's completely
still and the pencil will start to move on its own; if it moves
back and forth in a line it means a boy and if it swings in a
circle it means a girl.
In between kids it will
stop and twist and then start swinging again and when it's done
moving – there are no more kids. It’s a fun activity to do at
slumber parties and it works on men and women.”

“Hmm, that’s interesting
I’ll try it sometime.” I looked at my watch and it had only been
twenty minutes but felt longer. This was intense stuff. Declan
looked at me and said “Your turn.”

“Okay, okay” I looked up at
Shelia from the top of my eyes trying to tell her mentally let's
not get into any psychic stuff about me in front of Declan.
Somehow, I felt like she knew what I was after. She had me split
the deck and started flipping cards. She flipped a lot more before
she said anything.

Declan noticed too. “Aren't
you going to explain any of those,” he asked.

“Oh yes, sorry. I couldn't
wait to see what happened next.” She said slowly.

“You have a blonde
admirer."

I looked at Declan and said
“Shame on you." He laughed and put his hand on my shoulder “I
do admire you Addie, but that's as far as it goes, you're like one
of the guys to me.”

“Ahhh thanks, I am teasing
you don’t even have blond hair.” I smiled back at him and patted
him on the shoulder. We both chuckled.

Shelia interrupted our
chuckle, “Just because I said blonde doesn't mean he has blonde
hair now some have blonde hair when they are kids and it turns to
that dirty blonde color or brown later,” she continued. “It is
someone you know, and he's proud of you for doing something,
breaking someone...breaking up with someone or breaking the ties –
he is one of a pair. He is not alone and one of them is evil and
the other is good, trying to help.”
She flipped another card
– “You are going to fall, I think it’s a physical fall it must be
significant, I can't get a location
or if you get
hurt it’s fuzzy.” She looked up at me “Does any of this make
sense?”

“I think so, the breaking up
part does” I replied, I assumed she was talking about Cale and
Topher.

“Sometimes a second reading at a different
time can clear things up.” She flipped a couple more cards,
“someone gets lost or kidnapped, hmmmm, you don't know that person
very well but you help them, her.” She looked up “kidnapping seems
harsh and rare so someone probably gets lost or they feel lost
emotionally.” She flipped another card and I could tell it was not
good. “You know the person trying to take someone from a crowded
location, like a restaurant or store.” She said very slowly, I knew
exactly what she was talking about, the last dream I had was about
a girl getting kidnapped at a bar. Now I was freaked out.

She flipped over three more
cards I didn’t have a good feeling. “Wow Addie lots of action in
your life. She started to explain that kidnapping and lost are big
words that they may mean someone steals their heart away from you
like a lovers quarrel, but I knew better.

I sat back in my chair and
took a deep breath and then let it all out. I felt my eyes get big,
looking at her. I glanced over at the cards again and then looked
at Declan whose eyes were big too. We looked back at the cards
saying nothing, I pointed toward a card and asked her what it
meant. “Yes, yes your friend… is sick…or has been poisoned....”
Sheila said so matter-factly. I looked up, I noticed a slight
tremble in her voice like she was lying. She cleared her throat and
continued. “I believe he's been poisoned, ingested something
poisonous to him and it just has to work through his system.” She
cleaned up all the cards suddenly.

She got up and leaned on the
counter behind her. She seemed to be nervous, worried all of a
sudden. I think she just told us a white lie or didn’t tell us
everything she read from me. To keep her talking I asked her how
her move went. She relaxed a bit and told us she was all moved into
their house. The office was an easier move they had everything done
in a day with the help from Nic and me. I asked her if she had
tracked down her family yet, the ones they moved here for. She
looked up at me terrified and said “Ahhh, as a matter of fact I am
going to see one of them today.” She wasn't smiling when she said
it. She crossed her arms tightly across her chest.

“I would love to hear more
stories or legends of your ancestors sometime.” I told her. We were
all standing around, things felt a little tense.

She crossed her arms across her chest
tightly, “I heard my daughter told you about how the ‘rumors’ of
vampires came about in the early 1900’s.”

“MmHmm, vampires and werewolves.”

“Ooh, now that sounds interesting.” Declan
sat back down.

“They were really just rumors, like my
daughter told you,” she said nervously.

I looked at her seriously and said “Yes, it
sounds very interesting, let's hear more.”

“Well” she hesitated “Dr.
Sal Rewtnic was a scientist that was never mentioned in the history
books. He had the right intention but a few of his experiments on
humans went badly. He was probably one reason why the FDA is so
anal about NOT testing on humans. He had experimented on a
man who had been ill his whole life and was already partially mad,
living with an illness that long can make you that way. Dr. Rewtnic
was way ahead of his time, at least a lot of people thought so
then. Until this one man was thought to have been cured of his
disease, the treatments seemed to have been successful for a couple
of weeks. His illness and symptoms we
nt away, he
looked younger and was full of energy. A month after several
treatments he became sensitive to light and his blood cell count
started to diminish. Rewtnic started giving him weekly blood
transfusions, which seemed to be working, but then the man went
completely insane. Instead of showing up for his next blood
transfusion, the man disappeared. He made his next appearance one
evening by trying to suck the blood out of several people in town
and inadvertently killing one young woman, he was acting like a
succubus or vampire.
That's how the vampire rumors started
during that time period. They tried killing him but couldn’t catch
him. He was fast and strong, until they tracked him down in his
sleep, during the day of all things.... And I know you know it as
folk lore but vampires were real but killed off by an influential
and famous vampire that found his conscience and knew his race and
ours couldn’t survive together and so he demolished his race and
then killed himself.”

“So you think Jett’s a
vampire.” Declan said casually.

“There are no such things as
vampires!” Sheila yelled. “Well there were but now there’s not
anymore, they were all destroyed a century ago, he promised our
family!”

“So why are you yelling at
us?” I yelled back. “Because werewolves and vampires do exist?” I
said in a calmer voice. Calculating that Dr. Rewtnic’s patients
needed blood transfusions just like Jett.

Sheila shook her head and
gave me the strangest look. “Well, I hate to cut it short but like
I said I'm going to visit my relatives and I don't want to be
late.”

On the way out Declan said
“That ain’t right, it just ain’t right… what just went on in
there?”

“I have no idea…”

He asked me, “Do you want a
candy bar? I'm buying.” I gave him a weird look but then replied,
“I sure need something but I think I need a Skyway cheeseburger, do
you wanna go?” My voice more excited at the end.

“Not with you.” he said
“Isn't that what got you into trouble a while ago, cruising Skyways
with other guys.”

“I guess you're right but
the whole thing was a big joke and you know it.”

“Yeah, but if Jett really
has poison in him, let's not get him any more excited than we need
to.”

“Good point.” I opened the
door for him to exit and I followed.

“You can pick it up!” …..”
and we'll eat it at my house...if my parents are home they'll
pay!”

“We'll let's hurry up then.”
Declan said excitedly.

I think he was mocking me
but I didn't care I thought it was humorous. I ran across the
street and he hadn't followed. So I yelled to him, “I guess I have
a head start!” I ran all the way home, Declan caught up to me at
the top of my driveway; we were both huffing and puffing. I had to
put my hands on my knees.

“Are… you...always...this
excited about ...f...ood.” He blurted out between gasps.

“Some…times” and we both
started walking down the drive.

“Jett gets that way too.” he
said.

I was glad to see my
parents’ home. Declan flew to get us lunch from Skyway so I got on
the phone and called Nic and told her the whole story about Sheila.
“Do you remember when her daughter said they moved here for friends
and then changed it to relatives?” I asked her.

“Ya, I do and I thought it
was very weird.”

“Well, Sheila told us that
she was going to see her
'relatives'
today.”

“What's weird about
that?

“Nic, I can't come over
today because I am going to my relative’s house... Would you really
say relatives, or would you say aunt, uncles or family?”

“Hmm.” She said, “I think
you may be right.”

“Anyway, I think she's
hiding something about her relatives and about the past and we need
to find out what.”

“I agree, let's make a
plan.” Nic suggested.

“Well, I'm sure Jett won't
go to Sheila's voluntarily. So someone in our group should make an
appointment to go see her. All of us will go in as a group, we’ll
say we’re going out to eat right after.” Nic thought it was a great
idea. “And I'll check it out with Declan when he gets
back.”

Declan, Nic, Rae and I had
decided that Rae would pretend to want to get a reading done for
her birthday. We all met at my house, including Jett of course. We
walked over for Rae's appointment late that afternoon there was a
slight breeze, the sun was out and only a few clouds in the sky. It
seemed like the perfect day.

We walked into Sheila's
through the back door and she and her daughter were waiting there
with their arms crossed. “I had a feeling you were up to
something.” Sheila said looking directly at me.