Alexandra Sokoloff - Book of Shadows

Garrett felt there was something odd in the dynamic of the room, but at first couldn’t identify it. Then all at once he realized the C.O.s at the security checkpoint were paying Tanith no attention whatsoever, even as she pulled off her coat, bent to take off her shoes. True, she had changed her clothes at Selena’s house and had dressed more plainly than usual for the visit, in a boxy navy suit that was too large for her without calling undue attention to itself, and her dark profusion of hair was pulled back in a severe knot. But she would have had to have a bag over her head—a body bag—to conceal that she was a spectacularly beautiful woman.

And yet these male officers, who were not as a whole known for their feminist sensitivity, were acting as if she was not even in the room.

Garrett suddenly recalled a similar lack of attention by male patrons of the bar when he’d met Tanith at the inn, several weeks ago. How the hell does she do that? What kind of trick is it? he found himself wondering, and then pushed down the thought. No time for doubts. They had gotten this far.

They stepped through the metal detector, Tanith, then Garrett, and then the C.O. pushed their shoes and coats and equipment through to them to put back on.

The C.O. took them through a steel door and they walked past the officer’s station, a cage in which more unsmiling C.O.s sat before panels of controls, and then down a long hallway with the hollow sound of opening locks echoing against the walls, as a series of barred gates opened before them and slammed shut behind them. At the end of the gauntlet their guide opened a metal door into the visitation room, divided by a scratched and dirty Plexiglas wall, with counters on both sides and phones at each seat.

Garrett and Tanith seated themselves at the counter in front of the wall to wait, in plastic chairs with annoyingly rounded bottoms. Now that they had stopped moving, Garrett felt his pulse elevated, sure that at any moment they were going to be busted and detained. Tanith sat completely still, a pillar of calm; he could not even detect her breathing.

Unable to contain himself, Garrett put his hand on Tanith’s arm, leaned in close to her.

“How do you do it?” he mouthed, against her ear.

She stiffened slightly, said nothing.

“You know what I mean.” His voice was low, urgent. “They don’t see you.”

She was silent, and his fingers tightened on her arm. She didn’t look at him as she spoke; her eyes were fixed straight ahead. “Don’t you know how to blend in? Can’t you make people not notice you? Isn’t it your job?” She paused, and then said flatly, “Isn’t it survival?”

Garrett had worked his share of undercover, and she didn’t have to explain further. “Not like that,” he answered, finally. “I can’t do it like that.”

She turned her head and looked at him. “But you could.”

They both twisted forward as a door on the other side of the wall opened and a guard led Jason into the room. He wore the standard toxic orange jumpsuit and his face was pale and hollow, the pallor of confinement, his features seeming sunk into his face. He was passive in the guard’s grasp.

But his eyes, as he slumped down in the chair, were active and watching, and Garrett caught a glimmer of recognition as he took Tanith in. She reached for the telephone receiver on their side and Jason reached for his own.

The guard stepped away and assumed an “at ease” stance beside the door.

“Hi there, Counselor, ” Jason said from behind the wall, in a crawling, insinuating voice. “Long time no see.”

Tanith just looked at him through the barrier for a minute. “If you ever want to get out of here, Jason, you’re going to want to drop that act,” she said, her voice low and level. “We are your absolute last hope.”

Garrett glanced toward the guard at the door. “He doesn’t see,” Tanith said softly. Garrett saw that the guard was standing with open but unfocused eyes; he seemed asleep on his feet.

Jason’s eyes shifted, and he licked his lips. “The Master will take care of me,” he said, and the feral slyness of his voice shot adrenaline through Garrett’s veins. The sound was not quite human.

Tanith looked at the teenager steadily. “That’s a good trick,” she said softly. “I can see that it’s keeping you fairly safe in here. But your ‘Master’ is who dropped you into this shithole to begin with and he will leave your ass hanging out for any and all to use, if you don’t pull yourself together and start thinking.”

Garrett saw Jason flinch, and for a moment his face trembled. Then the sly cunning was back on his face.

“You dare order me, witch?” he hissed, with a sibilance that sounded like more than one voice, many voices.

Tanith’s eyes blazed… Garrett felt her tension like electricity beside him. “Be gone,” she commanded.

Jason blinked, and his face trembled again.

“You stupid child,” Tanith said softly. “If you play with Darkness, the Darkness will play with you. You called on this monster and it used you for its pleasure and it will take more pleasure in watching you fry.” Her voice cut like a steel blade. “Do you hear me, Jason Moncrief? Focus yourself now and come out of there, before it’s too late.”

Garrett felt his blood turn to ice… as Jason’s eyes went dull and his face seemed to blur, like a wave of bad reception on a television screen. Then his face cleared and he looked human again, but disoriented. He swallowed several times, then rasped, “What do you want?” in a voice as hoarse as if he’d been screaming for days.

Tanith pressed the phone to her cheek, her hand clutching it so tightly her fingers were white, but her eyes never left Jason’s face. “Erin’s dead, do you understand that? You brought her into this and she was ripped to shreds by that abomination you’ve been courting. She was stabbed, mutilated. He cut off her head.”

Garrett stared through the Plexiglas and saw Jason’s mouth working, his eyes shifting back and forth. And then the young man shuddered through his entire body, and the look on his face was suddenly just a boy’s, hollow-eyed and frightened.

“I didn’t know. I didn’t know,” he choked out, and Garrett was startled to see tears in his eyes. “Oh, God… Erin.”

Tanith whispered to Garrett, “Talk to him. Now .”

Garrett leaned forward, and spoke in as low a voice as he could manage. “What happened that night?”

Jason swallowed. “I don’t know. We were making out in the car… we were tripping, and we had sex, and then I passed out. When I woke up I was alone in the car. I didn’t know where she was… I thought maybe she just took a cab home.”

“You didn’t see anyone, hear anyone?”

“We were so out of it—”

“You didn’t go looking for her?”

“I was sick. I… I passed out again. I called her when I woke up, but her phone was off.”

Garrett glanced back toward the guard, who was still standing, staring ahead. “Have you ever been to the Pine Street landfill?”

The boy looked confused. “No. Why?”

“Do you know a John McKenna?” Garrett asked him sharply.

“No.”

“Your prints were at his house.”

Jason stared at him.

“A farmhouse in Lincoln?” Garrett demanded.

Jason shook his head. “Lincoln? No way.”

“All over some CDs?” Garrett snapped.

Jason stared at him, bewildered… and then something flickered on his face. “Someone took the band CDs. That night we were at Cauldron. I had a couple of Current 333 CDs in the console of my car…” He stopped, lifted his hands helplessly. “When I got back to school, they were gone.”