Ann Aguirre - Shady Lady

With some effort, I corralled my visceral terror. The ghost wouldn’t hurt me. No ordinary specter ever noticed me, so long as Shannon beckoned like a lodestone. I wondered how she looked to its otherworldly eyes.

“You worked for a very bad guy,” she said softly. “And you died for him. Now I need you to do something for me.”

“Montoya,” the dead man whispered. “I remember him.”

Shannon’s voice took on the weight of a command. “Haunt him. And in the morning, tell me what you saw.”

“Yes. I will. And then you’ll send me home?”

“Certainly.”

Her power astonished and humbled me. The ghost bled away in a trail of icy tendrils, leaving us both shivering. Without being asked I hurried to the kitchen to fix twin cups of tea. I laced hers with sugar cubes and carried the mug to her.

“They’ll do anything for you,” I said, sitting down.

She played with the spoon, eyeing me somberly. “Within their power.”

“The ghosts in the Kilmer wood were uncommonly potent?” They’d killed for her, as I recalled.

“I think, because of the demon, they were different. They fed on the grief, fear, and pain there, just as it did.”

Yeah, the one I’d unleashed on the world with a partner in crime. “That makes sense. So this one can’t kill Montoya for us.”

“Not unless he takes fright and falls down the stairs.” She shrugged. “But not everyone can perceive the spirit world. The shade may spend its time following Montoya in impotent silence.”

“Since the guy tried to kill Jesse and me, I don’t feel sorry for him.” I paused, hands cupped around my mug. “Thank you.”

“Anytime,” she said, and her smile made her look younger. “We’re besties.”

’Cause, yeah, the way to prove a friendship is to raise the dead. But hell, I’d do it for her. If she needed me to, I’d summon another demon and not even ask why.

“Yeah. We are.”

“You wanna order pizza while we wait for the goons?”

“Secret safe house in allegedly abandoned building. I’m thinking no pizza.”

“Oh, right. This sucks.”

“You said it, sister. I’m going to lay some wards. Just for practice. You want to help?”

“Sweet.”

“I figured I’d start with the door. In the blue grimoire, there’s an exploding rune that’ll go off if anyone enters with ill intent.”

“Do we even have the components?”

“It’s energy work, actually. The more advanced stuff is.”

“Then I revise my objection—should you try that? I thought you wanted to start with the easy spells first.”

“These times do not lend themselves to simplicity. If someone comes to shoot us in the face, I’d rather not square off with Conchita’s Unstoppable Tickle.”

“You totally just made that up.”

I grinned. “Maybe. But I can try an easier spell first, if you want.”

“What did you have in mind?”

I explained my ongoing problem with law enforcement and how I thought a trust me charm might come in handy. Since it required far less energy and came from the simple grimoire, Shannon seemed more at ease with my attempting that one. She finished her tea while I set up.

After reading the spell six times, I said, “I need a token, something to invest.”

“Maybe a coin you could keep in your pocket,” she suggested.

“Great idea.” I dug in my purse and came up with a “lucky” penny.

Curling my fingers around it, I whispered the words and called the heat. It singed my fingers against the metal; this was far worse than using the touch. The magic poured out of me until the penny blazed like a live coal in my palm. Gradually, the pain became almost unbearable, but I didn’t stop until I’d finished, and then it cooled. When I opened my hand, the copper was misshapen, as if it had been run over by a train, and I wore a new mark. That was new; I didn’t gain scars from the touch, but certain spells would inflict them. Good to know.

“Did it work?”

“I don’t see how we can tell until we run across someone to influence. I mean, you trust me already. Right?”

She hesitated a little too long. “Right.”

Before I could address that pause, a thump from behind the sofa distracted me. With Shannon close behind, I went to investigate and found Butch. He’d toppled a Scrabble game off the shelf and was busily pawing at the letters.

I sighed. “Feeling ignored, little man?”

He barked twice and kept worrying the tiles. Brow raised, I knelt. He was spelling something. No shit. In a freaky world, things just kept getting weirder. Instead of picking up the mess, I watched the sentence take shape:

The bad man is coming.

“It has to be a coincidence,” Shannon said.

“Like a hundred monkeys writing Shakespeare?”

Butch cocked his head, disappointed in us. He scrabbled at the tiles until the letters made no sense. Then he barked twice. No. Not a coincidence.

She studied him for a minute. “You know, we could ask him actual questions. And see if he answers.”

Feeling like an idiot, I sat down on the floor. Shannon dropped down beside me. “What bad man?”

Butch went to work on the tiles. Wants to kill you.

“You mean Montoya?”

One yap offered the answer; he didn’t need to spell it out. But, Jesus, this couldn’t be happening. “How do you know?”

More tile work. U didnt see, but ghost came back.

“The one Shannon sent out? When?”

He rearranged them again. While U did spell.

I wondered how the hell the dog could see and hear ghosts, but it seemed like the most normal part of current events. “And he said Montoya’s closing in on us?”

Another affirmative bark.

Anybody else would think I was crazy, but I took Butch’s warnings serious as a heart attack.

I glanced at Shan. “We need to move. Get your stuff.”

Next I grabbed the dog, plus the Scrabble tiles. We might need them later. I had more questions, but this wasn’t the time. Within five minutes we’d packed and run for it. Laden with Butch, my purse, a plastic bag containing my grimoires, along with my suitcase, I didn’t move as fast as I needed to. Shannon fared no better. Her backpack, the antique radio, and laptop bag weighed her down. We made it halfway to the Forester before the weather hit.

Black storm clouds swelled overhead, and thunder boomed. The torrent came out of nowhere, pouring buckets so we could hardly see. Lightning split the sky, touching down perilously close to our location. I ran full-out, my stuff bouncing. This was a solid nature spell, and if we let the weather slow us down long enough for Montoya’s men to get here, we were so boned. Apparently, the sorcerer could do more than major sendings and summon demons. He was a damn jack-of-all-trades, this Vicente—and I wanted him dead almost as much as his brother.

It also meant someone had sold me out, either Chuch or one of Escobar’s men. I didn’t want to believe that of my friend, but if they’d taken him during his attempt to find a messenger for me, I wouldn’t blame him for giving me up to save his wife and unborn child. In fact, I’d be mad if he didn’t.

The wind made it hard to move; it pushed us toward the building like giant invisible hands. Head down, I shoved back, but each step felt like a mile. Blinded by wind and rain, I reached for Shannon’s arm. Then the hail began, the rain turning to ice. Big as golf balls, it pelted our skin and left giant welts.

Together, we fought to the SUV and managed to slide inside, but visibility was nil. Worse than that, the fence meant to protect us would have to be unlocked manually. I knew the combination, but that meant more time wasted. Still, it wasn’t like I had a choice. At least since it was magickal in origin, this storm couldn’t follow us. My amulet, tucked away beneath my shirt, should still be functioning fine, so we just needed to get out of here.