Dark Spirits (8 page)

“I do have faith in you.” He lifted his head, and his eyes were red and glassy. I swallowed against the thickness growing in my throat as he continued. “But it seems like you don’t have faith in me or us.”

Okay, this was b. s. He wasn’t going to turn this around and shift the blame on me. A flash of anger whipped through me, loosening the tightness in my throat and quickening my heart. He must have heard it and sensed the change in my mood because he spoke before I could open my mouth.

“Hear me out before you get pissed.” He paused, and after I nodded he went on. “I have over a century of experience in this dark world and both Brayden and you are just fledglings.”

“Yeah, but--” I started to say, but then stopped when he held his palm up and threw me a look that clearly said he wasn’t finished.

“I understand you need experience in order to get good at protecting humanity, but now is not the right time to delve into it and get your hands dirty.” Suddenly he was beside me, taking my hand. “You were very lucky tonight nothing happened to you, and it bothers the shit out of me that you won’t take me seriously.” He looked down, then back at me again. “You say that ring”–he nodded to the coffee table– “doesn’t represent us anymore, but it does. At least, for me it does.”

He looked so sad that it made my stomach hurt. I touched his face. “I want to be with you. Honestly, I do. However, I can’t be in a one-sided relationship and have my feelings hurt every time you leave me.” I took a deep breath and dropped my hand, hoping we could work this out because I really didn’t want us to break up. But I had to say it. “I hate to give you an ultimatum, but if you won’t include me in on what you’re doing, then”– I took another deep breath and rubbed my temple– “I think we should go our separate ways for a while.”

His glassy eyes turned hard, and his expression instantly froze in stubbornness and determination.

He shook his head, and his lips tightened. “No, Paige. I will not--”

There was a loud bang on the door. I glanced at the clock on the wall, wondering who it could be at 1:20 in the morning. The knocking continued, and I had a sudden flashback to when the last time this happened.

Nathan and I had been in the kitchen when we heard a pounding on the door. It’d turned out to be a police officer who had told Nathan my mom had been killed in a car accident. That was one of the worst nights of my entire life and now the same thing was happening. I felt sick, wondering who it could be and if something terrible had happened to one of my friends.

I clutched my stomach, feeling the color drain from my face. “Nathan,” I squeaked and didn’t need to continue because he knew exactly what I was thinking.

He cupped his hands on my shoulders and kissed my forehead. “It’ll be all right.” In a flash he was at the front door. He shot me an apprehensive look, then opened it.

Chapter Eight

“Sorry to stop by so late, but I saw your light on,” Anwar said in a rush, stepping inside, carrying in a tide of anxious energy with him. I released the breath I was holding and caught Nathan swiping at his eyes as he closed the door. Anwar paused in the middle of the room and looked at Nathan and me in turn. “Was I interrupting something?” he asked, his voice thick and rich with his African accent peeking through. I loved the sound of his voice. It was almost hypnotic.

“Um,” I said, staring past him at Nathan, standing by the door with his arms across his chest, his shoulders slouched forward. Our eyes connected, and he looked emotionally drained. My gaze shifted back to Anwar. “Sort of, yeah.”

Nathan took a deep breath and cleared his throat. He turned to Anwar. “What’s going on?”

Anwar was scrutinizing us and frowned. “Your energies do not look good.” It didn’t surprise me when he said that because Anwar could see people’s auras and had a keen awareness of the energies in this world. But the next thing he said did surprise me. “Zeruel is outside.”

“Really?” I said, suddenly excited, jumping to my feet. The last time I’d seen Zeruel was right before I turned immortal and that had been five months before. “Why is he here? I thought Zeruel only protected the houses of mortals who are marked for immortality.”

“Dat’s true, Ms. Paige,” Anwar said with a warm smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes like it normally did. “But like I had mentioned to you before, he is very fond of you and feels the need to once again, protect your house.”

Something wasn’t right about Anwar’s eyes. They seemed skittish to me, and my gut twisted into a knot. I glanced at Nathan, but he was staring at the Claddagh ring as if it was his last hope for survival, and he blew it. I knew then, I had to take some quick action before Anwar suspected I sensed something about him, and I needed Nathan to pay attention to what was going on.

“I’m going to go say hi to him,” I said, grinning. I snatched the Claddagh ring from the coffee table and took Nathan’s hand. “C’mon. You should say hi to him too.” I squeezed his hand in short and long spurts, hoping he’d realize I was doing Morse Code, saying “something isn’t right about Anwar.”

We stepped out into the cool night. Thick clouds blotted out the moon, but the black sky was heavily dusted with bright stars that were winking at us. I saw a silhouette of a cat facing the desolate street at the edge of the front yard. To my relief, Nathan realized I was doing Morse Code and signaled to me that he understood. I glanced up at him, and he smiled. I returned his smile and released his hand.

“Zeruel,” I called, hearing Anwar stepping right behind me, so close I could feel his body heat on my back. The black and gray cat glanced over his shoulder and then trotted toward me. I kneeled and opened my arms. “Come here.” He hopped on the porch and into my arms. “Hey, boy. How are you? I’ve missed you,” I said, hugging him.

“It looks like he’s happy to see you too,” Nathan said. “His purr motor is really going.”

“I have known Zeruel for more than six hundred years, and I have never seen him take to somebody like he does with you,” Anwar said with a shadow of resentment in his voice. “I think he wants you to feel safe at home and know dat the dark spirits will not come near your house,” he added, changing his tone to an endearing one.

I held Zeruel against my shoulder, and he rested his head in the crook of my neck. He was such a cool looking cat. His face and paws were black, and he had a gray body. I remembered when I’d first got a really good look at him how I’d been amazed when I noticed the huge black star on his back, but of course it was bent over his sides.

Nathan reached out and petted Zeruel. “Well, I’m glad he’s here. One less thing we have to worry about.”

Anwar moved to the door. “I would like to speak to you both inside, if you do not mind?” He stepped in the house.

“Don’t trust him,”
a voice said in my head. And then, strangely enough, an image of Anakin Skywalker turning into Darth Vader entered my mind. I could feel Nathan curiously regarding me as I lifted Zeruel off my shoulder and held him in front of my face. His shiny green eyes were steady on mine, and he nodded. Silently, I thanked him and then set him down. Nathan was staring at me with his lips slightly parted in shock. He turned his back to the house and covertly pointed at Zeruel, then at me. He made a fist with both hands and knocked them together. I smiled and reached for his hand when he mouthed the word “wow.” I squeezed his hand in code again, telling him not to trust Anwar.

I had to admit I was just as stunned about Zeruel communicating with me as Nathan was, but it also made me very happy. I wondered if Zeruel still communicated with Anwar. Maybe that was why Anwar had sounded perturbed earlier. I’d have to bring that up to Nathan later.

“What did you want to talk to us about?” Nathan asked, closing the door behind us. I moved to my spot on the couch, and Nathan sat beside me, resting his hand on my knee. Anwar sat in the recliner across from us.

He folded his hands in his lap, and as he did so, I slipped the Claddagh ring back on my finger. Nathan squeezed my knee and grinned. I flashed him a half-hearted smile because I wasn’t sure if he would include me in on his plans now. If he didn’t, I’d take the ring back off, and it’d stay off. That was for sure.

“I have been tracking the ‘old one.’ At least, trying to,” Anwar said. “He has been in Europe all summer.”

“What have you found out?” Nathan asked.

“What do you mean about ‘trying to’?” I asked, closely watching him.

He raised a hand, and even though I’d seen them like a thousand times, it still amazed me at how huge they were. They were like a giant’s hand. Seriously. But then again, he was almost seven feet tall. “I can answer both of your questions at once,” he said, dropping his hand. “I found out the ‘old one’ is too clever to keep a constant visual on, so I do not know what he is up to.”

“Like, how?” I asked, wondering what the “old one” was doing to outsmart the immortals.

“He switches bodies a lot, and rumor has it dat he has had quite a bit of rings made up to duplicate the actual one.”

“That’s crazy,” I breathed, not hiding the fact I was impressed by his wit, which sparked something in Anwar’s soulful eyes.

“His cleverness charms you?” he asked me point blank. I detected a hint of amusement in the shallow part of his deep voice. Then an idea sprang at me.

I looked him square in the face. “Yes, it does,” I said. “You have to remember that I hung out with him for three months thinking he was Matt, and we did have a lot of fun times together.”

“He tried to kill you,” Nathan said, his voice raised, looking at me like I’d lost my mind.

“Actually, Aosoth did. He just set the stage.” I shrugged. Out the corner of my eye I caught Anwar smiling before his fingers went to his lips, smoothing them out.

Nathan made a disgusted sound. “It doesn’t matter,” he said, annoyed. “He’s a monster and has the blackest heart of them all.”

“Well, I’m not afraid of him, and I think I know him better than you.” I raised my chin, trying not to burst out laughing. It was kind of fun agitating Nathan. I knew which buttons to push, and he was easily following into my plan. It was like taking candy from a baby.

“What?” Nathan said, aghast, his wide eyes on my face. “I can’t believe what you said.”

“Why?” I looked at him and acted like I hadn’t a clue as to why he was so upset. I plastered confusion on my face and allowed Anwar to get a good look at it before turning back to my poor clueless boyfriend.

“Wh-why?” he echoed my word like it was the nasty thing ever. “Because he’s a conniving, self-centered, evil, bastard is why.”

I yawned. “Yeah, okay,” I replied in a bored voice, knowing I was getting underneath Nathan’s skin because I could hear a low frustrated growl rumbling in the back of his throat.

“Have you worked on discovering your gifts?” Anwar asked me right when Nathan opened his mouth to say something.

 “Not really,” I admitted, lamely. I didn’t want him to know about the vision I had of those dark spirits in the barn, and I knew I had to be tricky about it because Anwar might be able to detect the lie in my aura. I then made a mental note to study up on auras to find out if he could or not. “I did do a rite of consciousness, but the vision came out fuzzy,” I said, deciding to only focusing on this insignificant vision because all my energy and thoughts would connect to it.

Anwar thoughtfully tapped a finger on his lips. He stared at me and had a distant look on his face, and then he blinked. I noticed the faraway look in his eyes had faded, and they were now alert to the present.

Interesting.

“Was there anything else dat accompanied the vision?” he asked.

“It was of a dark place, and I heard water dripping off of some surface,” I slowly said, as I thought about it.

 He looked past me again. The distant look returned, but then he snapped out of it and came back to the present. “Anything else?”

My gut twisted again, and I had a weird, creepy feeling. I scooted closer to Nathan, and he placed his arm around my shoulders. I searched my instincts and knew I had to finish it.

“I felt pulled toward it, but then the vision vanished,” I said, locking my gaze with Anwar, confused at the way he was looking at me. Several emotions were flipping through his eyes, like a poker dealer turning up cards and laying them on the table. For a second, I saw the goodness in him. I swallowed the lump forming in my throat not understanding why in that instant, an intense emotion slammed against me, causing my chest to ache. His eyes became apologetic, then flat–emotionless.

“Have you worked with the elements at all?” he asked.

I shook my head. “No. You haven’t really taught me much about that, which reminds me,” I said, the lilt in my voice hardening. “How come casting out a dark spirit wasn’t part of my training?”

He raised his eyebrows, as if struck with a revelation. “Brayden must have told you about his training with Cassondra.”

I nodded and felt Nathan flinch, as though Anwar’s words physically burned him. I knew it bothered Nathan that I had spent time with Brayden and wanted more practice in casting out dark spirits, but I couldn’t stop the desire I had to do it. I mean, I’d have to learn sometime, right? And although Nathan thought with everything going on it wasn’t a good idea to practice now, I didn’t care. I still wanted to.

“Well,” Anwar said, crossing his long legs. “I want you to be a strong fighter, physically and mentally, and dat is why we did not do much else. However, I do agree dat you need to practice casting spirits out.”

“You do?” I said, delighted he said that, ignoring how tense Nathan instantly became.

“Not now, Anwar,” Nathan said in a deep voice that carried a warning behind it.

Anwar’s eyes shifted to Nathan, and I could have sworn I saw a cockiness flash across them. I wondered if Nathan saw it too or if I’d imagined it.

“Nathaniel, I am older than you and know what is best for Paige.” He looked at me and spoke before Nathan could get a word in. “I know of the perfect place to go, but we have to wait for a few days in ord--”

“Not happening,” Nathan said, shaking his head. His ears were red, and I wanted to tell him there was no way I’d go anywhere with Anwar, but he was on his feet before I could take his hand and tell him. “Paige is going to be with me.”

Anwar raised his eyebrows again. “Are you going to teach her then?”

Nathan stepped in front of Anwar and crossed his arms over his bare chest. “Yes, I will.”

Anwar stared at him, his expression challenging. “When?”

“None of your business,” Nathan hissed.

Anwar gestured toward me. “We should let Paige decide. After all, she is her own person, and her feelings should be considered.” He paused, then smirked, which was totally uncharacteristic of him. “Oh, I forgot. Lately you have not considered Paige’s feelings.”

Nathan drew himself up and pointed at the door. “You need to leave.”

Anwar rose, shadowing Nathan, but Nathan didn’t waver one bit. I was afraid to find out what would happen next, so I blazed between them, laying a hand on each man’s chest. Well, actually with Anwar, my hand rested on his stomach. He was so damn tall!

“Stop it, you two,” I said, looking at Anwar, while I pushed Nathan back. “I don’t know what’s going on with you, but you’re not acting like yourself.” I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost three o’clock. No wonder I felt so exhausted.

Anwar raised his hands, closed his eyes, and bowed his head. He took a deep breath. “I am sorry,” he said, dropping his hands and looking at Nathan and me. “I am not myself because dread has seeped into my heart. There is unrest among the dark spirits, and Ms. Paige is their focal point.” His face crumbled, and I suddenly felt sorry for him. “As shameful as my behavior was, dat is what prompted it.” His eyes settled on mine. “I fear for you. I think you should practice casting out spirits, awake what powers slumbers inside you, learn what they are, and how to work with them, and then we should go find the incantations before the ‘old one’ or Aosoth gets hold of you.”

“Absolutely not!” Nathan barked. “Paige and I will--”