The Doorknob Society (The Doorknob Society Saga) (8 page)

“Chloe, there you are, I’ve been looking all over for you. I tried to follow you when the gremlin chased you but my goggles couldn’t get a fix on your location. Are you alright?”

The words sprung out of him like air out of a fast leaking tire. He took ragged breathes when he finished and I pictured him running all over the store frantically searching for me.

He yanked up his goggles to stare at me with wide eyes.

“She’s fine,” Detective Inspector Emory said. “Your friend here took on the gremlin by herself. She even helped me take him down with a nice display of power.” He winked at me.

“That’s awesome!” Edgar said with a huge smile.

While he was thrilled for me I was still trying to figure out just what I had done. I know I’d accessed my abilities but I had not one clue to how I did it.

“It’s no big deal,” I said nonchalantly. It really wasn’t. I hadn’t even thought about what I was doing. A fault my dad continues to warn me about. But it’s hard, often impossible, for me to do nothing when I see that someone needs help. I don’t want to see anyone get hurt, so I react before I think. Or as Dad reminds me... leap before I look.

“DI Emory, what took so long to get rid of that beastie? You know this isn’t the first gremlin to get through into the Portico this summer?” An older man with a wealth of wrinkles on his weather-beaten face and his long white hair pulled back in a ponytail asked. The lapping of his flip flops against the wood floor competed with the soft timbre of his voice.

“I know, Judd, and the HVO is working on it. Don’t worry I wrapped this one up for you with a little help from young Miss Masters here.” he said with a wave toward me.

“Maybe I should put her on the payroll,” Judd said with a laugh and walked over to me, his hand outstretched.

I took it and shook it firmly like my dad had taught me to do.

“And a firm handshake, you’re my kind of lady. I take it you two are here for supplies?” Judd asked as he grabbed Edgar and me each by the shoulder and steered us toward the school supply department.

Emory followed behind us. He placed what looked like a large ear bud in his ear and then tapped it. It opened up and slowly constructed what looked like an antenna and a microphone for him to speak into. I could barely make out what he was saying since Judd was talking to us about jobs at the Arrowhead.

“I’m always looking for young talent, anyone willing to take on a gremlin in my store can have a job here whenever they like. What do you think?”

My question was direct. “How much do you pay?”

“I’ll give you a dollar over minimum wage and a discount on everything in the store except for the backroom. Sound fair?” Judd asked as he walked behind one of the counters and started placing objects wrapped in cloth on it.

“Seems fair to me,” I said smiling at the prospect of having my own money.

“Then you’re hired. Now let’s get down to business. Just what supplies will you two need for school?” Judd unwrapped the items; a doorknob, a skeleton key, a map parchment and quills, something that looked like a cross between a wrench and a screwdriver and a badge similar to Detective Inspector Emory’s, except it was bronze.

“I need a new set of quill’s and inks for my maps,” Edgar said eagerly.

“And you?” Judd asked with a smile.

Without thinking I moved my hand toward the doorknob and suddenly felt nauseous. All the objects on the counter began to glow an array of colors: the doorknob shimmered blue, the skeleton key red, the map hummed and gold lettering began appearing above it, the tool twisted and turned changing its shape over and over and the badge began to shine. My body began to tremble, like when I had fought the gremlin, I squeezed my hands together trying to calm myself. Judd tossed a cloth over the items covering them when he saw my reaction and DI Emory wrapped his arm around me and held me steady.

“Chloe, are you okay?” I heard Edgar but he seemed at a distance. I saw Judd remove everything from the counter and the uneasy feeling quickly passed.

“Sorry, all the excitement must have upset my stomach.”

“No, Chloe, you activated all the vessels, you’re undeclared.” Edgar said excited.

“Interesting,” Detective Inspector Emory said.

“What’s undeclared?” I asked trying to regain my focus.

“That’s what we call a student who has shown ability but has yet to follow one path at the Paladin Academy. You could be a member of Doorknob or the Mapmakers or any of them really,” Judd explained staring at me with what I could swear was admiration.

“But every Masters is a member of the Doorknob Society, why wouldn’t I be?” I asked annoyed that I might be the first in my family to not follow in the footsteps before me and upset my dad.

“True, every Masters is a Society member. But that doesn’t mean you declare right away. It might take time before your powers select the path you’ll travel, that’s all.” Judd stopped as if he was about to add something else but thought better of it.

“I’ll tell you what,” Judd reached underneath the counter and produced a small yet simple brass doorknob. “This is a training knob. Use it to start focusing your power. It’s a good sturdy vessel and will help you learn.”

I reached out and took it. The power inside the knob connected with me immediately and I grasped it tightly... it felt just right.

“Thank you.”

“No problem, I’ll just deduct it from your first paycheck.” He said with a wink. “You two better get going. I need to clean this place up anyway.”

We thanked Judd and Detective Inspector Emory again and headed for the door when I chanced one last look and saw Emory and Judd lean in close to one another The acoustics in the old building made it possible for me to hear them if only in whispers.

“A guy in a black overcoat came in right before the Masters’ girl. I can’t be sure, but I think he opened the portal.” Judd kept his voice low and I strained to hear him.

Emery nodded. “He let the gremlin in on purpose.”

A chill ran through me when Emory glanced in my direction. Edgar and I kept walking and they kept talking. Their voices faded as we got further away until I couldn’t hear them anymore. I thought back to running through the store and seeing the man in black, the same man who had attacked us in Paris. He’d followed us here and now he was after me.

“I better head home. Once my mom hears about the gremlin, she’ll be worried. I’ll text you later,” Edgar said and with a wave ran off.

I headed to where we had started... the Portico entrance. My mind was spinning with gremlins, training knobs and the thought that Dad was holding back a lot more than he was saying. It wasn’t just me being paranoid. A little voice in the back of my head was screaming at me asking if maybe this was what happened to Mom.

I stepped out of my strange new world and back onto the Washington Street Mall. The sun was high in the sky and I realized it must be passed lunch time and Dad was probably getting worried.

“There you are!”

I heard Val before I saw her like most times. I turned to see her rushing toward me.

“I almost called your dad. I was worried that weird Edgar kid had kidnapped you.”

I’d completely forgotten that Val had been waiting for me and really didn’t even know what to say to her after what I’d just been through.

I settled on the most normal thing that had happened to me. “I got a job.”

“Shut up really? My mom won’t let me get one she says I have to concentrate on school. But I tell her, Mom, I’m the top of my class and a good multi-tasker. I can handle it.”

I let Val keep talking as we walked without paying much attention to her. All I could think about was this odd world I was now a part of, and why it seemed that everyone knew more about my family then I did. The man in black stood at the edge of all my thoughts his words replaying over and over in my head.

You better keep running girl or you’ll get caught.

Chapter 7

Status: I meet the most frustrating person of all time.

Dad wasn’t happy about the gremlin incident, so I didn’t even consider mentioning the man in black. He wasn’t the only one who was going to have secrets from now on. I wanted to find out everything I could about my family and our enemies. The Arrowhead seemed like a good place to start my research. Dad agreed that I could work there for the remainder of the summer but he wanted me focused on school when it started in the fall. That was fine by me since I intended to delve head first into my studies. It was the only way for me to learn about my abilities.

When I wasn’t practicing to channel my energy and focus my powers on using the training knob, I was either working or hanging out with Edgar and Val, even though Val was annoying and never stopped talking about herself. She also had the uncanny ability to find us wherever we went. So she became a member of our odd little group. I had thought about getting in touch with Slade and asking him to hang out but I stopped myself.

Slade was a good guy and I worried that I would bring him nothing but trouble. With that tempting smile of his I was afraid I might make a fool of myself around him. Relationships weren’t my thing. I’d learned that the hard way and anyway, I had enough to worry about. Yet that didn’t stop us from texting every day and me constantly making excuses for why we weren’t getting together.

Dad had begun a new tour that was moving through the Southwest and though he would use a portal to come home most nights I had free reign, and I really started to enjoy myself for the first time in a while. I tried asking Edgar what he knew about my family history but he could only tell me what he’d read. He did know that my dad had been kicked out of the Society and that it was a real big deal. But other than that he didn’t know.

He explained that each society group keeps records that are available only to their own members and that the Doorknob Society would have the ones on my family. That made me focus even harder so I could be declared for the Society and get access to the records.

On days off from work, like today, I spend at the Cape Beanery. It’s down the block from Mission Way, a European style café with tables, couches and booths so you could lounge and enjoy yourself. It smelled of fresh caffeine and had bistro tables set out front for the summer. Val waved franticly as I walked up and I sat next to her. Edgar was tinkering with his goggles, attempting to get one of the gears that were stuck to move.

“Why do you wear those silly things?” Val asked.

“I need them to help me with my maps to see cracks in space time,” he answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“Whatever,” Val said rolling her eyes. “I got you a frozen coffee,” she said cheerily as she pushed it toward me.

Frozen coffee was Val’s favorite and it seemed that she wanted it to be mine as well.

“Thanks.” I took a quick sip off the straw knowing that Val would watch me like a hawk until I did. Happy that I had taken a drink she turned her attention back to Edgar.

She continued on about his goggles. “They make you look like a weirdo.”

He laughed. “I don’t care.”

“People will make fun of you.”

“Yet again, I don’t care,” he said not bothering to look at her or stop from tinkering with his goggles.

I wasn’t sure if Edgar tolerated Val or enjoyed antagonizing her. But either way he was very good at both.

“You’re so frustrating,” she said crossing her arms and her face twisting in a frustrated scowl.

Little did I know that frustrating was about to become an all too frequently used word.

“Edgar!”

I heard the shout from across the street and Edgar’s head popped up from his work for the first time since I’d arrived. I turned to see a young man walking toward us. I didn’t know the guy. He had a mess of light brown hair that spiked in all directions. He wore a battered Rockadore’s concert t-shirt and jeans with holes in the knees and his pewter belt buckle had a skeleton key carved into the middle of it. He was our age or slightly older. But it was his eyes that really caught my attention. One was bright blue while the other was light gray. I had never seen anything like it before. I tried not to stare but it was difficult not to, so I had no choice but to turn my attention back to Edgar.

“James,” Edgar said in greeting.

“Do you have that map we talked about?” James asked.

“I do, and the money?” Edgar asked patting his satchel full of parchments and maps he carted around with him.

James dropped a couple of bills on the table. “My map.”

With Edgar rifling through his satchel, James gave a glance at Val and me. His strange eyes didn’t linger on me, they settled on Val. I realized why when I turned her way. She looked like a deer caught in headlights, her eyes wide and her mouth agape.

“Can I help you?” he asked with a smirk.

“Um well...”

“Well what?”

“Um... I uh... sorry,” Val said and lowered her head down until her chin almost touched her chest.

I got annoyed and when I get annoyed I can’t hide it. It shows on my face and the next thing you know I’m usually saying something that more often than not gets me into trouble. You think I would learn, but hey, Val may be irritating but she’s the closest thing I have to a girl friend and I couldn’t let his snarky attitude pass.

He looked my way. “Problem?”

“Yeah, do you treat everyone so rudely?”

“Your friend can’t speak for herself?”

I grinned. “What? Not used to girls with brains who call you on your attitude?”

“You must be, Masters, I heard about you. You might have taken on that gremlin, but I’m not that easy to conquer.”

“Why? What are you going to do, talk me to death, tough guy?”

His eyes flared with a hint of anger. He braced his hands on the table and leaned in close to me, so close that his mint-scented breath tickled my nose.

“You think your pretty bad for someone who is undeclared. I sure hope I get you in the guild. I’d enjoy telling you what to do.”

I laughed. “Not gonna happen.”

“We’ll see about that, Masters.”

He leaned in closer, his lips near enough for a kiss, our noses almost touching and his eyes even with mine. The two different eye colors intrigued me even more up close, though they smoldered with anger at me or perhaps in general, I didn’t know.