Bone Dry: A Soul Shamans Novel (Volume 1) (28 page)

“Can I help you?” the woman asked. She gave us a smile and opened the door. Her eyes were kind, her smile warm, but I saw a hint of suspicion in them.

She didn’t know. She didn’t look like a mother who had just lost a son.

I opened my mouth, unsure of what to say. I hadn’t worked it out beforehand, and I should have.

Nathan cleared his throat and gestured to the wallet I still clutched. “We found this.”

The woman looked down at my hand and gasped, reached out and plucked it from my fingers. “Where did you find this?”

“In the city.” I shifted in my sneakers. “In Boston. On the street. There’s a driver’s license in there. We were coming back this way so we thought we would return it.”

She nodded her head, and her eyes went distant. “Thank you. Where in Boston was it?”

“Um,” I said, grasping for an idea of what to say. I didn’t want to tell her where, but maybe I should.

“At the corner of Belleview and Lark.” Nathan said, saving me.

“And is it just a coincidence that you’re a shaman?” she asked me.

"Actually,” I said, taking the plunge. “I saw in his wallet something about being a shaman, and I was hoping to meet him. I’ve been kind of isolated from the shaman community, but I want to know more about it. Meet some other kids like me.”

Not a total lie.

She puckered out her lips. “Well, I’m sorry, but Tyler no longer lives here. He’s run off to be in that shaman community you speak of. Joined some cult or something. I haven’t heard from him in weeks.”

"A cult?” I asked, frowning, meeting Nathan’s gaze for a moment before turning back to her. He looked as surprised and concerned as I felt.

“Yes,” she said. “Our family doesn’t practice shamanism, and Tyler wasn’t very happy with me or his dad because of it. He wanted to learn all the voodoo. Someone from that community contacted him a few months ago and said they’d teach him their ways if he’d come away and join them.” Her eyes started watering, making the blue of her irises look like pools. “We tried to talk him out of it, but he just disappeared one day. Anyway, I'm sure you don’t want to hear about this. You say you found his wallet in Boston?” She fingered the leather, face etched in sadness.

“Yeah,” I said. “So, you don't practice the magic?”

“Goodness, no,” she said. “Our family hasn’t for three generations now. It’s just too dangerous, getting involved in the spirit world. And now there are cults!”

“Okay, thanks then.” I shifted on my feet some more and stuffed my hands into my pockets.

“Why are you looking for other shamans?” she asked. “You don’t want to become involved in these cults, do you? And bringing a regular boy into it?” Lines formed around her mouth when she frowned at Nathan. “Do either of your parents know you’re looking into this?”

“No,” I said. “And we don’t know anything about any cults. I was just hoping to talk to someone my age about it.”

Her frown disappeared. “Oh, I understand, honey. I remember feeling confused about all of this,” she said, waving her hands around, “magic stuff. Even though we don’t practice, we still feel it surging through our veins, don’t we?”

I just nodded.

“Well, I have to say that I don’t know any other shaman families since we’ve kept away from all that. Tyler did go to high school with a shaman girl. Her name is Audrey.”

“Do you think she would mind talking to me?”

“I’m not sure, hon.” She rubbed her lips together. “She doesn’t practice shamanism either. But she and Tyler were good friends until he left. I know she tried talking him out of going into that
cult
.” She spit out the word like it was a rotten piece of meat.

If only she knew how dangerous that cult really was. My heart ached to tell her, but I didn’t know how. I’d call the police….eventually, and give them a tip on the building. It hurt me to think of the look on her face when she found out exactly what had happened to her son. I looked down at the ground and scuffed my shoes on the stoop.

I think she took my expression as disappointment because her voice softened into a cooing only moms can truly do. “Listen, honey. She might be at church, but I can call to see.”

“Okay,” I said. “Thanks.”

She ushered me and Nathan inside and left us sitting on a small loveseat in the entryway of the house. We sat there awkwardly, neither of us feeling at ease even surrounded by the cheerful yellow wallpaper. A pitcher of lemonade was on a table by our side, and I wondered if it sat there only in hopes that Tyler would come back, and when he did, the lemonade would be there ready for him. I opened my mouth a few times to say something to Nathan, but I didn’t want Tyler’s mother to overhear. A few moments later she returned with a kind smile on her face.

“No church today for Audrey. She’s home watching her little brother who has a bit of a cold,” she said. “She said to have you go on over to her house. She’d be happy to talk to you.”

I nodded my thanks, and Nathan murmured polite words of goodbye. Neither of us could get out of there fast enough.

“Oh, and kids?” she called out as we pushed through the screen door. “Thank you for returning my son’s wallet to me.”

“No problem,” I said, and then hurried to Nathan’s car, fighting back tears.

***

Audrey’s house was only a few minutes away from Tyler’s. The whole way I gripped my backpack and leaned forward in the leather seat, like tensing my body could make things okay.

Everything was not okay.

“Why are we even going to Audrey’s house?” I asked Nathan, even though I was certain he didn’t have an answer to that question any more than I did. She wouldn’t know anything, and her parents probably wouldn’t either.

“Because we’ll do whatever we have to do. Explore every option.” He made a left into a typical suburban neighborhood dotted with basketball hoops, box houses and discarded bicycles. “Follow every lead. Maybe she knows something.”

“Not likely,” I mumbled.

“Hey,” he said in a soft voice. “Remember in
Astonishing X-Men
, Issue 24, when it seemed like it was all over for Kitty Pryde and that she wasn’t going to make it? Everyone lost hope. But you know what? That wasn’t the end of her.”

I turned sideways and leaned my cheek against the seat, looking at Nathan’s profile. It was funny how the smallest thing like that could make me feel better. I knew it was fiction and that the
X-Men
story didn’t change a thing for me and my mom, but just hearing it, I got a little bit of hope back. Nathan’s eyes met mine, and I saw a burning in them when he looked at me, a reflection of the burning I felt, too. But with everything going on, I couldn’t give into the feeling that all I wanted was to kiss him again, to feel his lips on my skin.

I cleared my throat. “Thanks, Robin.”

He tilted back his head and laughed, his deep voice echoing in the car. A moment later, the car slowed and he pointed out a one-story brick house, yard littered with an odd assortment of jumbo-sized dinosaurs. They all stood in a row like some sort of plastic T-Rex battle line.

Nathan angled the truck into driveway just as my phone beeped with a text message from Laura.

Dad let me out of the house. Checked on ur mom. Will stay here 4 a few hours.

I closed my eyes and sighed. Laura rocked. I sucked for getting her into trouble with her dad, but I was really glad she was there to be with my mom. It made me feel a little better about leaving Mom there by herself, during her last hours while I ran through the state searching for answers.

Audrey stepped outside just as I slammed the passenger-side door. I recognized her as the girl from the picture. Her reddish hair glistened in a flash of rare sunshine from the sky, and her lanky frame shifted nervously in a loose-fitting t-shirt and jeans.

Nathan and I waved and walked closer. She cocked her head and stared at me, like she wasn’t sure what to think. Her eyes moved to Nathan; she scanned him from head to toe. We must have passed some sort of test because she motioned us over and walked back inside, holding the front door open.

Once inside the house, she led us to a back room. Toys were scattered across the floor and mounds of DVDs were stacked next to a large-screen TV. She pointed to a spot on the couch next to an XBox controller. Nathan and I settled in, sinking into the microfiber that looked like it had survived a slew of food spills and pet stains. I placed my elbows on my knees and cleared my throat. I had no idea what to say.

“So, why are you guys really here?” She lifted her eyebrows and sunk into the fluffy cushions of a recliner.

I quirked my mouth. “You’re a lot less believing than Tyler’s mom.”

Her eyes narrowed, eyes flitting back and forth between me and Nathan.

“Okay, we’re here because my mom was attacked by a shaman a year ago, and I’m looking for him. I don’t know anyone in the shaman community, but I found a guy who gave me some information, and it’s taken us on this trail. It led to Tyler. Apparently, he ran off to join a weird cult or something, and his mom gave us your name.”

Nathan gave me a reassuring smile and placed his arm around my back to give me a quick squeeze. I was glad when he didn’t pull away after.

Audrey blinked. I guessed she hadn’t been expecting me to be as honest as I was. I hadn’t even expected me to be that honest.

“A shaman attacked your mom?” she asked, folding her legs underneath her.

“Yeah, and I think he’s somehow connected to Tyler,” I said. “Since following that shaman’s trail led me to your friend.”

“Wow.” She drummed her fingers against the arm of the recliner in a hectic beat. “I knew that cult had a bad vibe.” She glanced at me, and then at Nathan again. “He okay?”

“Yeah, I’ve told him all about shamans.”

“Okay.” She nodded. “I’ve come into my Intuition lately.”

I stared hard at her, at her skinny frame and youthful face. She had to be younger than me. “Already?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m only fifteen, but I’ve already got it. And I’ve barely touched shaman magic.” She lowered her voice and glanced behind her at the empty hallway. “My parents don’t want me touching it at all, but I experimented, you know?”

“I totally understand,” I said with a sad smile. “Same thing. And I’ve got it, too.”

“Isn’t it weird?” she asked. “It’s like spiders are crawling all over me when it happens. And the headache sucks.”

“Yeah,” I said, hating to change the subject back to Tyler, but I needed to find out what I could. “So, can you tell me anything?”

She sighed and nibbled on her bottom lip for a moment. Her eyes darted up to the ceiling, and then back to my face.

She drummed her fingers again and jiggled her foot. “I didn’t tell his mom about anything because he asked me not to, but if you think he’s in real trouble…”

“We think he’s gotten into something dangerous,” Nathan said.

“He’s right,” I said, trying not to picture Tyler’s dead eyes. “There’s something really bad about that cult.”

“Are you going to do something about it?” Audrey asked. “No offense, but what’s a regular guy going to do against a psycho shaman?”

“I’m no regular guy,” Nathan said in a half-serious tone.

Audrey raised her eyebrows and looked hard at him again, like she was reading his soul. When she finally pulled her eyes away, she nodded and leaned back into the chair. “No, a regular guy wouldn’t be dumb enough to get involved in this, even if he was lovestruck.”

My entire face turned the color of Nathan’s red polo. “Anyway, we’re going to find the guy responsible for all of this and stop him. Or try to anyway. We don’t have a solid plan yet.”

Or any plan.

“I don’t know much about shamanism.” She picked up a guitar pick and flicked it against the couch like it was the most natural action in the world. “My parents don’t practice and neither do my grandparents. None of them know anyone either. They’re real weird about it. I think they're scared of spirits.”

All my hopeful breath whooshed out of me. Another dead end. I tried not to let Audrey see how disappointed her words made me, but I didn’t think there was any way to hide the pain I felt. I needed something. Anything. Mom needed it.

“But I know where Tyler went when he joined the cult,” she said. I looked up sharply, sucking back in the hope. “He told me where the headquarters were. I tried going by there several times to talk to him, but they wouldn’t let me in to see him. It was like…a dorm or something. They were really weird about security.”

I leaned forward, finding my second wind, ignoring the hunger pains in my stomach and the spots dancing in my eyes. I was so close. I could feel it. Something inside of me knew that if I went to this cult place, I’d find the shaman who attacked my mom.

CHAPTER 29

W
here is it?” Nathan asked when I didn’t respond. I was too busy clutching his hand with such raw hope, I couldn’t force my brain to form words.

“I’ll tell you guys where the building is if you promise you’ll let me know if you find anything. I’ve gotta warn you though. They probably won't let you in to talk to anyone.”

“I know a spell. It’ll get me in,” I managed to say over the roar in my ears and the jackhammer of a heart in my ribcage. We were another step closer. Maybe this step would actually be the one to save Mom.