Bone Dry: A Soul Shamans Novel (Volume 1) (18 page)

“That’s right,” I said. “I have the address of his house, too. I mentioned it because…I guess I thought you could do something about it or find someone who could?”

“Of course.” He strode back over to his desk and grabbed a notepad. “Give me the address, and I’ll call a meeting with the Congress. I’m not a member, but I can still get everyone together. We’ll decide how to take care of it.” He handed me the notepad. “It will probably take a few days to get everything finalized.”

A few days? That seemed like way too long, but I found myself nodding and scribbling the address I managed to recall from memory. His eyes roamed the paper when I handed it back over, and he tapped one thin finger against the pad.

“Don’t worry. We’ll take care of it.” He slid a business card into my fingers. “If you need me for anything, give this number a call.”

I stood to go. Before I reached the door, Anthony touched my arm. I shivered where his skin met mine. “Good luck with your mother.”

CHAPTER 18

I
shuffled onto the front stoop with the purple bag clutched to my chest, mind whirring, hopeful half-smile pulling up the corners of my mouth. Nathan sat one step down with elbows on his knees and head in his hands. When he saw me, he leapt up and threw his arms around me.

“They came out and told me you were okay and that you were talking to Anthony Lombardi, but I was freaking out.” He pulled away. “I was getting ready to call the cops.”

“Yeah, they were fine,” I said, not meeting his eyes. I didn’t want him to know what I was thinking about doing. He would think less of me, realize I was a bad person, someone willing to hurt people to get what I needed.

“What’s wrong?” He grabbed me by the shoulders so that I was facing him.

“I found out what I have to do for my mom, and it means summoning a spirit and talking to it.” I shuddered. “I am not looking forward to that conversation.”

He pulled me to him, my face resting low on his chest. I could smell his deodorant, thick and musky, as well as the hint of cinnamon cookies again. It made me want to snuggle closer and sniff, but I thought that might be a little obvious. At least he made me feel better about what had just happened.

“What about the shamans in town?” he asked.

“I gave him the address in Berrytown. He said he has to call a meeting with something called the Congress to discuss how they should be dealt with. He said it will probably take a few days for them to meet and come to some sort of decision.”

Nathan grabbed my hand and started walking down the short path to the sidewalk. “Congress?”

“Yeah, apparently, there’s a Shaman Congress to take care of this stuff,” I said. “Anthony says he isn’t on it, but he can call a meeting.”

“After what happened to Mr. Collier, a few days seems like a really long time.”

“Yeah,” I said. “It does.”

He squeezed my hand. “But this is good. Things are looking up. How about we go do something normal now before we head back home?”

I sighed. If he’d been hanging out with any other girl on the planet, he wouldn’t be running into a crazy, scary, near-death experience every single time he hung out with her. This was something I was going to have to work on.

I smiled at him. “Normal, completely not dangerous day in Boston coming right up.”

“Yeah, you saying that worries me it won’t turn out quite so normal.”

We turned onto the sidewalk, and I swiveled my head to look at the building again. No one was following us. No one was watching us through the blinds. Maybe my suspicions were a case of over-paranoia. Or maybe Anthony Lombardi really was hiding something. Whatever it was, it didn’t involve him tailing us for the rest of the day, and that was the only thing that mattered to me right now. I needed to show Nathan he could hang out with me like any normal girl.

***

“Here it is!” Nathan announced, stopping in front a large store-front, the glass windows doodled with brightly-colored cartoon artwork. The name was painted in different hues of blue and gold. “Jimmy’s Comics and Coffee.”

“A coffee and comic book store?” I raised my eyebrows. “That’s different.”

He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the open doorway propped open by a concrete slab. “Come on, I think you’re going to love this place.”

We passed by the front coffee-shop portion of the store—a scattering of tables and couches full of kids slurping on caffeine and absorbed in graphic novels. Light, funky music played over the speakers, swirling through the air with the roasted scent of coffee beans.

“Hi, Nathan!” Kylie hopped up from one of the tables we passed. “Oh, and Holly, too.”

Nathan looked at me, alarm quickly replaced by instinctual politeness. “Hey, Kylie. What are you doing here?”

She smoothed down the front of her trendy maxi-dress. “Oh, Brent said you were coming into Boston. And since I stayed in town last night with my brother, I figured I'd come here, too. I knew you wouldn’t let the day go by without making a stop at your favorite place.”

I looked from Nathan to Kylie and back to Nathan again. Were they still a couple? Had I been completely wrong in my interpretation of the almost-kiss-in-car moment?

“Yeah.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I wanted to show it to Holly.”

Her face flushed when he mentioned my name.

“Are you guys…” I pointed my finger at both of them, not sure what I was asking.

“Um,” Kylie said, taking a slurp of her iced coffee. “We’re kind of talking again, I guess.” She looked up at Nathan with a happy smile, and I felt like I wanted to vomit right on her pretty black ballet flats.

“Well, we’re friends now,” Nathan said in a firm voice like there was no room for argument. Not that Kylie noticed.

“Oh okay,” I said.

Nathan shifted on his feet, not looking either one of us in the eyes. Awkward? You betcha.

“So,” I said, grasping for a new topic, “your brother lives here?”

“Yeah,” she said. “He’s a grad student at Harvard.”

“Cool,” I said, nodding, glancing around, specifically not looking at Nathan.

Kylie glanced from me to Nathan, eyes narrowed. “You guys came up here together?” The way she spit out the word
together
made it sound like a curse word.

Nathan cleared his throat. “Yes. We did.”

Oh my god, I had to get away from here. I could go buy a round of espressos, but I didn’t exactly have the cash for that. Jason Harris taught me how to fake-faint when we were kids, but that would still leave me here where things were weird. Maybe I should make a timely exit to the bathroom. And then crawl out the window.

I couldn’t be the only one thinking this was the most awkward situation on the planet.

I jumped when Kylie’s cell phone started blasting some generic pop song. I wanted to answer it and offer presents to whoever had decided to call.

Kylie answered her phone with a relieved smile, but her face quickly clouded over, the smile falling into a frown. She said a few quiet words to the person on the other end and then shoved a magazine into her purse.

“I’ve got to go.” She shouldered her purse. “That was my brother. Something has come up.”

“Everything alright?” Nathan asked.

“Oh yeah. Sure,” she said, but the fear in her eyes told a different story. “He just needs my help on some things. See you guys.” Her forehead crinkled as she gave us one last look. “Call me later, Nathan.”

She bustled away and disappeared out of sight too fast for me to say goodbye.

“What was that about?” I asked.

“I’m as lost as you are,” he said. “Something has been going on with her, but she won’t tell me what it is. She comes to see her brother every weekend.”

“So, you guys used to come here together a lot?” I asked, kicking myself for bringing it up. Should have kept my mouth shut.

“Just a couple of times last year,” he said. “Lately she’s been acting like she wants to get back together.”

“Oh,” I said. “So, you want to show me the rest of the store or are we just going to keep standing here in the middle of the coffee shop? That guy over there looks annoyed that we’re talking while he’s trying to type on his laptop.”

The guy glanced up, scowled, took a long gulp of his coffee, and then went right back to pecking at the keys.

“But I don’t want to,” Nathan said.

“Oh, um, okay,” I said. “So, what do you want to do, then?”

“No, I mean that I don’t want to get back together with her.” He met my eyes for the first time since we’d run into Kylie, looking almost scared.

“That’s…” Good? Fantastic? Crazy awesome? Perfect, since I’ve developed this little crush on you, and I want to go out with you myself? “Fun.”

Fun? I gave my brain a mental slap and closed my eyes. I couldn’t believe I’d just told Nathan Whitman that not wanting to get back together with his ex was
fun
.

He squinted and shook his head. Maybe he thought he’d heard me wrong. “Anyway, I feel like our normal Boston day started out on the wrong foot. Let’s go get some comics.”

The store opened up into high-vaulted ceilings, walls lined with racks of newly-released comics. In the middle, bookshelves held graphic novel trades, hardback and paperback science fiction and fantasy novels. We browsed through the aisles before heading upstairs where the figurines and racks of back issues were held. By the time we were done, Nathan held a stack of books and comics in his hands.

He looked at my empty hands. “You aren’t getting anything?”

“No, not today,” I said. “I might read that
Runaways
issue you picked up though. If you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” he said, moving forward in the checkout lane.

After he bought the comics, we settled into a table in the coffee shop. I was starting to think coffee-and-comics was a genius idea. The place was packed with people who had just bought new books, and I saw a couple of guys heading back for more since they were done reading what they’d bought.

Nathan picked an
X-Men: Legacy
comic and set the rest of his pile on the table with a wave of his hand. “Read whatever you like.”

I grinned and snatched up the
Runaways
copy I’d been eyeing earlier.

***

A few cups of coffee and a lot of comics later, I noticed it had gotten dark outside and that rain was splattering the sidewalk. Big gusts of wind howled through the streets, and all I wanted to do was snuggle further into the couch we’d grabbed halfway through our stack of comics. But the color of the sky had me bolting up straight.

“Holy crap, what time is it?” I clicked the button on the side of my phone to light up the display.

“Only five,” Nathan said. “The storm is making it look later than it is.”

I closed the comic in my hand. “I’m having a great time, but I really need to get back home.”

“No problem,” he said. “Didn’t expect to stay this long anyway.”

We packed up the comics, got a couple of extra plastic bags from the front desk and stepped out into the rain. Neither of us had an umbrella, so we tried our best to protect Nathan’s books while we ran through the rain-soaked streets.

My feet splashed into a puddle, and I started to slide. I reached out and grabbed Nathan’s arm to catch my fall. He wrapped his arms around my waist, holding me up, and my feet found the ground again. The way his hands brushed against my skin sent a spark of desire through me.

“Thanks,” I whispered up to him. My heart skipped a few beats. All I could focus on was the way the water dripped down his lips.

Rain beat my head, snapping me out of my daze. I turned to keep running, but Nathan didn’t let go.

“I wouldn’t let you fall,” he said in a hoarse voice.

Warmth spread through my entire body at the look in his eyes, at the way he held me like he didn’t ever want to let go. I didn’t care about the rain pouring over my face, my hair and my clothes, or about the cold seeping into my skin. I didn’t want his arms to fall away from my body. I wanted to press myself up against his chest until not even a breath of air could fit between us.

I kept staring at the fire in his eyes, the rain blurring my vision and making me feel like I was looking through foggy glass. His arms clutched tighter around me. My thoughts were crowded with one single thought.
Kiss me
. I rolled onto my tiptoes and reached my arms up around his neck. His fingers were hot coals on my back, even through my soaking wet shirt.

My face inched forward until Nathan lowered his head, forehead knocking mine. His lips brushed against my lips. My heart jumped wildly inside me because Nathan was kissing me. His lips were now firmly on mine, and I felt myself opening up to him and moving my mouth against his. His lips crushed harder against me, urgent and hungry for more.

When he finally pulled away, my heart pounded so hard I felt like it shook my entire body. My breathing was ragged. And I’d been right. Kissing Nathan was nothing like kissing Eric two years ago. This was different—so different my insides burned with the yearning to do it again. Now. I wanted to spend hours away from the world, just kissing Nathan.

He smiled through the water streaking down his face, and my heart felt so huge it could burst. “So, as much as I want to do that again, we probably shouldn’t keep standing here in the rain.”