Bone Dry: A Soul Shamans Novel (Volume 1) (14 page)

“No, Nathan Whitman told me that you were with him when he saw the guys break in. And he seemed to think it was related.”

I coughed and glanced toward the safety of the front door leading outside, to my truck where I wouldn’t have to answer questions about hanging out with Nathan Whitman.

“Is there something you want to tell me?” he asked, placing a hand over his heart. “You aren’t going to leave me, too, are you? Is this the reason I haven’t seen you around in awhile?”

“Don’t be silly.” I started moving down the aisles again. I passed a shelf full of dragon figurines and wondered if I could find a book in here that would instruct me on how to conjure one. Siccing a dragon on the shamans would definitely be one way to put an end to things.

“I think it’s great he finally got up the nerve to start hanging with you,” Jason said, catching up to me.

“What?” I jerked to a halt and stared at him. All the blood rushed to my head. Jason didn’t answer. His eyes were squinted into skinny ovals, the way they did when he was terribly amused by something but didn’t want to share why.

“Nothing.” Jason’s cell buzzed. He dug it out of his pocket and eyed the screen. “I need to run. So, can you stop by sometime this weekend and do your magic tricks?”

I narrowed my eyes, tempted to pry him for information about Nathan. He’d finally gotten up the nerve to hang out with me? I couldn’t think of any other explanation for what that meant other than the one I wanted it to be. But Jason’s cell buzzed again, and his feet shifted toward the door, away from me. He’d clearly checked out of this conversation.

“You know I’ll stop by, but I don’t know when.” I gripped the handles of the basket. “There’s a lot going on this weekend.”

Jason gave me an exaggerated frown.

“But I swear I’ll come by,” I said, shaking my head at another new commitment to banish even more spirits this weekend. But this was Jason. “I’ll take care of it.”

He gave me a bow and backed away. “Thank you, my lady.”

What a dork.

CHAPTER 14

T
he harbor looked just as it had when I’d left only an hour earlier, other than the sun dipping lower in the cloudy sky. Nathan leaned against the hood of his car, blasting some Green Day out of the rolled-down windows and scribbling furiously on a notepad.

“What are you doing?” I asked when I hopped out of my truck.

Inwardly, I groaned. I couldn’t have said
Hi
or
Hey, what’s up
, could I have?

He looked up, snapped his notepad shut and smiled. “Waiting for you.”

I tried to keep my expression normal, but my constricting chest was making that hard. Even though I’d known he was waiting for me, hearing those words spill out of his mouth made my heart thump with anticipation.

He handed me a paper from his notepad. The paper felt thick and rough between my fingers, and I held my breath as I looked down. He’d drawn a cute cartoon of the two of us hiding behind a refreshment cart and spying on two guys wearing trench coats and dark sunglasses. I laughed out loud. His art was really good, and I finally relaxed for the first time this morning. He’d drawn this just for me.

“Everything okay with Laura?” he asked, and my mood darkened again.

“Yeah, she found something disturbing in today’s newspaper.” I shrugged my backpack around so I could unzip it and pull out the article. Nathan grabbed the paper and read, corners of his mouth pulling down more and more with each second that passed.

“What are you thinking?” he asked when he was done reading.

“Shamans did it. This guy acted like he wanted to talk to me the other day, and I thought he was just being nosy. But now I’m certain he had spirit problems.” I closed my eyes after hearing my breath catch. “This means I have to help Jason and Megan and find out how to stop the shamans from summoning more spirits. I think it’s pretty clear what they’re doing here.”

“Killing off Seaport residents and then stealing their stuff.”

“Yeah, we just need some kind of proof,” I said.

“I’ll drive,” Nathan said. I glanced at my gas-guzzling truck and nodded, relieved I wouldn’t have to pawn my comic books for gas money.

Nathan opened the passenger door, and I slid into his car, the black leather seat creaking. Once he hopped in, the engine roared to life, and Nathan pulled out of the parking lot, following the directions I’d Google-Mapped this morning.

The highway stretched out before us, mile markers racing by. We had the windows rolled down, and I let my hand dangle out the side, feeling the wind whip between my fingers. As the ocean disappeared from view, the pungent scent of salty air faded away, leaving only the smell of leather, car fumes and Nathan—a mixture of clean laundry and cinnamon cookies that smelled like the ones my mom used to bake. My body involuntarily inched closer to his side of the car, and I saw him flash a smile in my direction as if he could read my mind.

“I liked that drawing you gave me,” I said. “You’re a great artist.”

“Thanks,” he said. “I know this whole thing is pretty serious, but I thought that drawing might make you smile.”

My lips quirked up just at the knowledge that he wanted to make me smile.

“Mission accomplished.” I stared at the street sign we passed to make sure we weren’t lost. “So, do you draw a lot? It looked like you were working on something in the parking lot, too.”

His eyes moved toward me. “Every day.” He turned his attention back to the road. “Actually, I run a web comic, too.”

I felt my face light up. “Really? That’s awesome. What’s it about? What’s the URL? How do you even do something like that?”

“Whoa,” he said with a laugh. “Question overload. It’s called ‘Converse and Capes’ and the URL is w-w-w dot converse and capes dot com.”

“I’m totally going to have to check this out,” I said. “What’s it about?”

“A superhero in high school,” he said.

“Speaking of superheroes, I noticed that stack of comics in your room that time I was over.”

“Oh, you mean that time you fainted on me?” He chuckled. “And I’ve noticed the Marvel t-shirts you like to wear all the time. I’m guessing you’re into comics, too?”

Nathan noticed what I wore?

“Yeah, my current favorite is
Invincible
, but I’m also a big Batman fan.” I eyed another street sign, but it wasn’t the right one.

“I love Batman. It’s classic. You know what I always thought about Bruce Wayne? The normal man is the costume. Batman is who he really is.”

I whipped my head around. “Oh my god, that’s exactly what I keep telling Laura.”

“It’s so obvious.” The car slowed as we approached a stop sign. “Bats are such a part of who he is.” Nathan stopped talking and pointed at the next street sign. “This is their road.”

I sobered up immediately. Here we were. Just knowing their home was somewhere nearby made my palms sweaty and my shoulders tense. I shifted uncomfortably on the leather seat.

“I’m starting to wonder if this is such a good idea after all,” I said, staring at the house numbers we passed.

Nathan didn’t respond, just silently pointed as we passed a white-paneled, one-story house with the numbers six-seven-two tacked to the front. We kept driving past it, down a long row of houses with small front yards and cars parked on the curb. This was more like the short strip of homes near my house than the mansions where most of my classmates lived. Once we were out of sight of the house, Nathan pulled into a driveway and turned around. We drove just close enough that we could see the house before parking behind a car in serious need of a wash.

“I guess now we wait.” I leaned back in the seat with my eyes trained on the front door. Red. Surprise, surprise. I ground my teeth together and prayed the door wouldn’t swing open to reveal shaman eyes zeroing in on me, fury and insanity churning through them. I realized I was holding the door handle like it was a life vest and tried to relax.

“I know a great way to pass the time,” Nathan said. “I just told you something about me. Now it’s your turn. We’ll go back and forth.”

I dragged my eyes away from the house and couldn’t help but grin. “No, now we’re even. I told you something about me yesterday, remember? A lot of things actually. If I recall correctly, they were big secrets.”

He laughed, the sound deep and soothing and genuine. “Come on, Holly. It doesn’t have to be anything big. We could even do a lightning round. Favorite movie?”

I turned my attention back to the house. “That’s easy.
Donnie Darko
.”

“Mine is
Pulp Fiction
. Favorite band?”

“Oooh,
Pulp Fiction
. Good one. Favorite band is harder. It’ll have to be a tie between Motion City Soundtrack and Minus the Bear.”

“Nice. Minus the Bear is definitely in my top ten. I’m hoping to see them in concert this winter,” he said.

“Seriously?” I turned back to him, temporarily forgetting the house. “I’ve been wanting to see them in concert for years. I am so jealous you’re getting tickets.” I would never be able to afford to see a band perform live unless they were playing for free.

“Well, hey, I’d love to have you go with me,” he said.

He cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. I had the sudden urge to roll down the windows again, wondering why the hell we’d put them up in the first place. The car was warm and suffocating, and I needed air, stat. At least I had somewhere to focus my eyes instead of on Nathan’s face. I was afraid if he saw them, he’d realize how much his words had sent thrills down my neck and arms.

“That’d be cool,” I said. My t-shirt was wrinkled, and I’d worn my jeans too many days in a row. And man, my hair needed to be combed. Summer might be fading fast, but the humidity was still making me look like an over-shampooed poodle.

“Look,” Nathan said.

The garage door rolled open and one of the shamans pushed a green trash can to the curb. So, even lunatics still needed to take out the trash. A moment later, the SUV pulled out and drove off, but I could see only one head through the back windshield.

“Damn it,” I said. “That was only one of them. I bet the other guy is still home.”

“Maybe not,” he said. “We could check.”

“No,” I said. “I don’t want to blow the one shot we have of sneaking in there.”

***

An hour later, we were still waiting for both shamans to leave. The one who’d left came back after only ten minutes had passed, and I’d been trying to force the garage door open again with my eyes, in the vein of Professor Xavier, of course.

Leaning back, I stretched my legs as far as they could go in the cramped sports car. Darkness was falling like a blanket over the sky, threatening a storm again, making the late morning seem like night. I rubbed the chill bumps on my arms. I wished I’d brought a hoodie.

“How much longer do you think we should sit here and wait?” I asked.

“At least a little while longer,” he said. “I feel like they might go prowling later to see if you’re interfering again.”

“Maybe they think they scared us enough to keep me from banishing any more of their spirits,” I said, squinting when I saw the garage door opening. “Or not.”

I held my breath as I watched the SUV pull out of the drive, and when it began squealing away, I saw two heads through the windshield this time. Bingo. They were gone.

“Okay,” I said. “They’re gone. Hopefully none of their neighbors will see me. I’m going to try getting inside. Call me on my cell if you see the SUV coming back.”

I got out of the car, and when I slammed the door, I looked over the roof to see Nathan’s curly hair popping up as he jumped out of the car, too. I wrinkled my forehead in confusion.

“I’m not staying in the car,” he said. “I don’t feel right about you going in there by yourself.”

“Seriously, one of us should be the look-out.” I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Holly, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go in there alone.”

“Fine.” I tried not to roll my eyes. And they say chivalry is dead. “Together we can take care of this quicker anyway.”

We trotted across the narrow street and walked up the lane past a couple of other houses, acting like we belonged here. Nathan walked leisurely by my side, arms swinging, pace slow and steady. I was glad he wasn’t trying to dart around and really glad he wasn’t dressed in all black again.

We turned into the driveway, and I went straight up to the blazing red door like I owned the place. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my keys, lifting the lock picking tools my dad had given me a couple of years ago. If any nosy neighbors were watching, it would look like I was using a key.

“What’s that?” Nathan asked, moving closer and darting a look over his shoulder.

“Lock picks,” I said, using one to jimmy the knob. The lock popped and I smiled, pushing the door open.

“Why do I feel like I don’t want to know?” He followed me inside and pushed the door closed. I fiddled with the doorknob, made sure it still worked correctly and locked it behind us. I held my breath and waited. Even though we’d seen the shamans leave, fear still pounded through me, making my skin jump to a beat I couldn’t hear. I didn’t want to think about what could happen if we were somehow wrong. After a moment, when silence still reined, my shoulders relaxed just a fraction of an inch.