Seeker (Shadows) (9 page)

Her voice comes through as clearly as if she were speaking out loud.
Being caught doesn’t seem like the best plan. 
She tries to sort of laugh, but she’s not at all convincing, and I know she understands it’s the best idea we’ve got.

What Landon hasn’t told either of them is that he has a connection here that he’s meeting up with. Some guy he found online who I think is probably pretty damn shady, but that it seems we might need if we’re going to learn anything new. He kept the girls out of it trying to protect them, but I think we might be the ones in need of protection when they figure out what’s going on, which they will do.

What?
Addie asks.

Oh. Right.
I always forget you can hear my brain’s ramblings.
I give her another squeeze.

Should I be worried about this guy?

I have no idea.

“I don’t want to be Daphne,” Addie leans further into me. “Because right now I definitely feel like we’re in a Scooby Doo movie.”

I love that she’s obsessed with that show and take her in my arms, glad we’re so close to the same height. Her slim body slips against mine, and just like every time we’re this close, I sort of lose the edges of myself in her and the way she feels against me. I had no idea love was this intense, but I wouldn’t change it for anything.

“Daphne’s hot, and she always gets rescued in the end.” I stop and slide my lips against hers, loving the salty taste of her in the heat.

Her mouth pulls into a smile as she brings us together again for a much deeper kiss. The kind that makes me want to forget whatever it is we’re trying to do and spend the night in our small cabin on the boat. We’ve both lost sleep to be together—even though we’ve been pulling shifts so someone’s always awake. It’s worth it. I swear we were made to fit together.

“Okay.” Landon slaps my back. “I’d really like to find this little shop before we’re wandering these streets in the dark.”

“What shop?” Micah asks.

Landon gives me just enough of a look to know I should keep my mouth shut
. He’s about to feed the girls some BS so they don’t freak out that we’re about to meet some guy who’s recommended in a million different circles for his dealings in not only Voodoo but talking to the “passed on” or almost passed on.

At the very least, though, I say something to Addie.
Landon’s got this, just try to act pissed when it comes out later, okay? So Micah’s not mad to be the only one left out. She’s been through some pretty crappy stuff because of her visions, and sometimes I think Landon goes too far to protect her, but he really is trying to help.

I block my thoughts from Addie as well as I know how and
hope
Landon’s trying to help. We share the fact that we have talents, but Micah and I are in a whole different realm of people than Addie and Landon (the kind that doesn’t take yearly trips to exotic countries), and sometimes I wonder if he rushes into things too fast because he hasn’t had to be as careful in life as I have.

I love you, Dean.

Love you, too.

We’re headed up the street now, but it’s really quiet here this time
of year. Way too hot for tourists, and we’re in the middle of hurricane season.

I don’t know where Landon gets his information, because this guy we’re looking for flies under the radar like no one’s business. But like Landon said over and over—
those are the people who actually know their stuff. The other guys are all smoke and mirrors and we need the real thing.

Yeah. The real thing. Two months ago Voodoo was a joke and part of Addison’s love of Scooby-Doo. Now Voodoo changes lives, gives people gifts, and locks shadows into a world that shouldn’t exist.

“There’s a guy I want to talk to,” Landon explains as we stand at the foot of the stairs inside a small trinket shop. I figured we’d either be headed to some hut in the middle of nowhere or a back alley filled with rats. Not a random shop filled with crap made in China for the tourists who aren’t really here this time of year.

“A guy.” Micah shifts to one leg as she crosses her arms and gives Landon exactly the kind of look I knew he’d get for leaving the girls out of this.

“Just.” He glances toward me for help, but I stand silent, not wanting to be kicked out of bed tonight.

“Fine.” Micah steps back. “Go. We’ll stay here like good little girls.” Her smile is ridiculous, wide and full of pent-up anger.

Addison gives me a thin smile and I don’t have to touch her to know that she’ll talk to Micah while we’re up there.

“Well, hell,” Landon whispers as we start up the stairs.

“Told you, man.”

“I really didn’t think we’d be followed this closely by The Middle Men and thought I’d be able to run to the grocery store or something and check this guy out alone.” Landon gives the “Office” door a quick knock.

“Come in!” A soft, low voice seeps into the dingy hallway.

I’m expecting some withering old Bahamian man surrounded by smoke and shrunken heads, but instead the guy can’t be more than a few years older than we are. He’s broad with a smile almost as wide as his face and skin like black coffee. His dreads hang past his shoulders and his shirt looks like the cheesy ones in the shop below. Definitely not what I was expecting.

“Tevin?” Landon asks.

“Sit young friend.” Tevin laughs. “And don’t look so scared. You have money. You have questions. I might have some answers. This is what I do.”

His Bahamian accent is so thick I have to concentrate to understand but Landon doesn’t seem to have any trouble—though, he apparently has spent a lot of time in this part of the world. This is my first time outside of New York or Jersey.

“So. I can just ask away?
” Landon takes a seat in one of two worn out grey chairs, but I stay standing. The office looks totally normal—bulletin board, file cabinets, family pictures, but the feeling in here is heavy. Dark. Sets me on edge.

“Ask away.” The wide smile again. Crookedish teeth. Like Morgan Freeman’s younger, broader, more Ba
hamian cousin, and now that the thought has gone through my head, I feel like an idiot for even thinking it.

“What do you know about the shadows?” Landon asks.

“That’s too broad a question. Try again.” He sits back a little smug, but then his dark eyes are on Landon as Landon struggles to come up with another question to get us where he wants to go.

“I was wondering…” Landon starts but Tevin is leaning over his desk toward Landon now, staring into his eyes.

Perfectly creepy.

I’m trying to disappear into the back wall, but Landon’s holding his gaze.

The man reaches his thick fingers out and touches Landon on the forehead, never breaking eye contact. They sit there for a minute, maybe more, without either of them moving. It feels like a small eternity as the walls close in around us.

“Stupid boy. You went in there, didn’t you?” He sits back in his chair, looking at Landon with curiosity. “With the shadow people.”

Landon nods once. “I want…” But he stops again, which is very unlike him and they continue staring at one another.

I’m suddenly wondering if I should be in here at all, but at the same time, I just met Landon and am still not sure if he knows at all what he’s doing.

“You don’t know if you can trust them,” he says.

“Yes.” Landon nods. “I guess. Yes.”

“They’s jus’ like people. Some you can. Some you can’t.” His massive shoulders relax into a loose shrug as he leans back in his cheap office chair.

If it wasn’t so damn creepy feeling in this normal looking room, I’d think this guy was full of shit.

Landon clears his throat a couple of times before speaking again. “Is that shadow place somewhere that anyone who burned as a doll would go? Or…”

“Jus’ from da woman who put em there. Her world she build without pro’bly knowin’ that she did.” He pauses with a smile. “But maybe she did. No matter, it was hers. The door to open it died with her, unless you got enuff of her magic.”

Landon and I both pause for a moment, because Landon got in
and
out.

“Let’s just say for argument’s sake that they were trustworthy, and I tried to free them. Would they come back to this world or go beyond?”

Now Landon’s really getting into the heart of it because now I know what he’s after. He wants to get rid of those shadow things, only he’s not afraid of them. Less so after joining them for a day. I’m not sure how I feel about it. My brain keeps going back to the idea that you keep your friends close and your enemies closer and that’s why his trip to where the shadows live went so well. But I guess that’s why we’re here. Like Landon said, we don’t know if we can trust them.

Tevin laughs, a full-on belly laugh. “Boy, you know nothin’ about Voodoo.”

“No.” Landon shakes his head. “Only what I saw when I was there.”

“How long was you there?”

The man’s dark eyes shift almost imperceptibly, but it’s like he’s trying to look inside Landon. Through him. And not just at him. I’m grateful again I’m the one standing and not the one questioning—or, I guess, being questioned.

“Micah says a day. About 24 hours.”

He waves a hand between them. “Eh… You probably didn’t lose too much off the end of your life, then.”

“What?” Landon half jumps out of his chair.

“Sit down.” Tevin waves as he chuckles again. “Pullin’ your leg.” He shifts a few times in his seat. “Dey can’t come back. They got no bodies to come back to. They need a little somethin’ to move on. We talked about that on the phone.”

“How do you know?” Landon asks. “How do I trust you?”

“Your gut. I have no magic to show you so you know to trust me. I could be playin’ tricks anyhow. I know the legend. I know it’s real. You not the first ones a comin’ to see if they can undo this change.”

“When were the last ones?” Landon asks.

“You really wanna know?” His brows go up as he presses his fingertips together and leans back again. It’s a little “criminal mastermind” kind of a move, but I’m not about to crack a joke.

“Yes,” I say.

His nearly black eyes shift to mine. Hard. “Seven years ago, and the time before that was before you was born.”

I’m afraid to ask, but do anyway. “Were you here?”

There’s an odd glint in his eye before he nods once. “And the time before that, too. Best not ask how old I am, son.”

Right. Every cell in my body is tense, just waiting for this guy to grow horns, or for Landon and I to disappear in a puff of smoke.

“What happened?” Landon asks, and if I didn’t know him as well as I think I do, I wouldn’t know he’s nervous, but Landon’s definitely on edge.

Tevin laughs again. “It didn’t work, fool.”

Landon and I give each other a glance but I can’t read him well enough to know if he’s buying any of this or not.

“You got to learn to control energy if you wanna do what ‘dey ask.” Tevin folds his hands in his lap like we’re talking about ordering a hundred ridiculous shirts from his shop.
“If you do it well enough, I think da good ones would help ya keep the bad ones away, but it’s magic and strength and timing and specifics you won’t be able to get.”

This whole thing sounds riskier by the moment, and I’m wondering how far I’ll follow Landon before I go home. But even as the thought passes through my head, I know I won’t. There is something in me that I can’t make myself ignore, telling me I need to be here. To be doing what we’re doing, even if I want the hell out of this creepy too-normal looking office.

“And do you think I should?” Landon asks.

Tevin shakes his head. “I’m not here for advice, only to tell you what I know.”

“Let’s just say that my group decided to help these shadow people.” It’s Landon’s turn to lean forward now, holding Tevin’s gaze.

“Okay.”

“How would we even begin to know what to do?”

“Your smoky friends will tell you.”

“But I can’t trust them all.” Landon waits for confirmation.

I’m waiting, once again holding my breath, for Tevin to say something that I might not even believe.

“Nope.”

“So…”

“You will know.”

Landon sighs and I’m sure he’s feeling as frustrated as I am.

“Okay.” I step forward. “What
can
you tell us? Give us something concrete. Anything.”
Because there’s a girl I can’t lose, and I have to know how to keep her safe.

Tevin smiles. “You will need one of each gift. At least. More could be better. But at least one of each to make what she gave complete. You will need a way to focus energy so they can get it from you to move on. Unless they mean and use your power against you.”

Oh, hell. Now I wish I was back in New York dealing with Addison’s father and the shadows on my own.

Tevin pulls open a few desk drawers, muttering. “Here.” He thrusts what’s obviously a photocopy of a page from what looks like a witchcraft book—something I’d definitely make fun of if we were somewhere other than this guy’s office.