5. Rory
CHAPTER 5
RORY
Garfield and the blonde ghost reappeared. “This is Mercy.” Garfield gestured at his companion. “She was in the box before me.” I was still digesting that when he went on. “The way’s clear. I fried the cameras while Chamberlain and the other guy were in the room. It’ll freak ‘em out when they look at the footage later. Let’s go.”
I’d deal with Uncle Hugo after the girl was safe.
I hurried to follow Garfield and Mercy, Grandfather muttering to himself behind me. “Later,” I hissed at him.
He huffed but fell silent.
At the end of yet another hallway, Garfield pointed at a closed door. It had a keypad lock.
“4321,” Mercy supplied helpfully.
I rolled my eyes at the idiocy of middle-aged rich guys and punched in the numbers.
The door swung open, and my heart broke.
Other than a floor drain and a rubber hose on a reel in the corner, the room was empty except for a clear Plexiglass box, about five feet wide and three feet deep. It was taller than I was, and it sat on four wheels. The young girl inside stood facing me. She was emaciated, her bones prominent. Her skin reminded me of a dying leaf, all brown with yellow spots, and her hair looked like withered vines. She was wearing what was probably a sleep outfit, blue tie-dye shorts and a matching tank top with a drawing of a shark on it.
The only other items in the box with her were a covered bucket, a bowl of water, and a plate containing an uneaten peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
A ghost, a stunning woman with long greenish-brown hair and bark-like patches here and there on her skin, stood outside the box. When I stepped inside the room, she bared her teeth at me, and the girl inside did the same. Their teeth were noticeably sharp.
Garfield held up a hand. “Lorraine, this is the Medium. He’s here to help.”
I waved a hand awkwardly. “I’m Rory. I’m here to get you out. Um.” I spun around. “Where’s the key?”
Lorraine said, “It’s not locked from the outside. Just flip the latch. There’s no way to open it from the inside.” She clenched her fists and floated to my side. “I can’t manifest enough to flip the latch myself.”
I nodded, stripping my jacket off. “I understand.” The girl must’ve thought I was talking to myself. I was used to it. “I’m a friend of your mom’s.”
Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t speak.
Oh, shit. “Um, what’s your name?” I could’ve slapped myself. Way to destroy my credibility. The girl glared harder, so I looked pleadingly at Lorraine.
“Her name’s Pia. ”
“Pia. Right.” Pia held her hands up, and fucking thorns popped out of her skin all up and down her arms and legs and across her forehead. Shit, I was doing the best I could. “Okay, I’m going to open this door, and let you out, but I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t attack me.”
She didn’t move.
I twisted the latch, and two-thirds of the front panel swung open. She moved then, scrabbling back into the farthest corner of the box. She pulled her lips back, and her teeth seemed even longer and sharper.
I crouched down and held out my jacket. “I’m a Medium. It means I talk to ghosts. Your mom, uh, she’s a ghost now.” Pia’s eyes went wide. “Uh, she’s fine. She’s just worried about you. She sent some of her ghost friends to find me so I could get you out of here.”
She stayed right where she was.
I looked at Lorraine. “What’s something only you and Pia would know?”
Lorraine closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them. “When Pia was six years old the cherry tree in the park was hit by lightning. She and I were in the tree for days helping it heal.”
“Got it.” I turned to Pia. “Your mom told me how when you were six, the cherry tree in the park got hit by lighting and the two of you spent days helping it get better.”
“Mama?” Pia clapped her hands over her mouth, and her eyes filled with tears.
“She’s here.” I held my coat out to her again. “I hate to hurry you, but we really need to leave before that jerk who put you in here comes back. ”
Slowly she reached out and took the jacket, and the thorns subsided back into her skin. She put the jacket on, but she looked unsteady on her feet.
“Can you walk?”
Pia took a step toward the door of the cage, but she crumpled. Lorraine cried out as I caught her, barely in time.
“Okay, I’m going to carry you, and we’re going to go fast.” I swept her up in a bridal carry. She hardly weighed anything. I’d have preferred her to hang onto my back or my front so I could have my arms free, but I didn’t think she had the strength. Up close her skin was dried and puckered.
I turned, but Garfield was between me and the door, holding up a hand. “One sec.” He spun around and poked his head through the door—I never got used to that—then pulled it back inside. “Hallway’s clear.”
I shifted my grip on Pia until my right hand was freed up to turn the doorknob. I eased the door open. No sense making more noise than I had to. As promised, the hallway was empty.
I exited the room and shut the door quietly behind me. I shifted Pia more securely in my arms and walked as fast as I could the way I’d come in. Garfield and Mercy took turns scouting ahead and reporting back. Once I had to dodge into what turned out to be a bathroom for about sixty seconds, but then we were on our way again.
I slowed when I heard the sound of the service staff. “Put your face to my chest,” I told Pia. She did it without question.
The first staff member we encountered, an older Latino man carrying a tray of dirty glasses, stopped in his tracks when he saw us. He blinked at Pia, whose mottled-leaf legs and feet were on full display, but he didn’t speak. I didn’t say anything either, just continued on my way out. I heard him follow me, but I decided to ignore him unless he did something.
The other people we ran into behaved similarly. Their eyes would widen, they’d look closely at Pia, and they’d either go on about their business, or they’d follow us. My back was stiff with tension, waiting for one of them to do something.
I walked through the laundry room, then into the mud room. Mercy came through the back door and said, “Patio and yard is clear. Security guards are on the side of the house.”
My skin crawled at the thought of crossing the back yard, exposed under those lights. But needs must.
“Hang on, Pia, we’re going to run for a minute, okay?” She nodded her face into my shirt.
“Wait,” one of the people behind us said.
I spun around. It was the first man, the older guy, who had spoken. Five more people ranged behind him, all with worried expressions.
“Yes?”
He pointed to the wall next to the door. “Those three switches control the lights to the backyard.”
I frowned. “But won’t turning them off draw the attention of the people inside?” I jerked my head downward. “The lights from the house will still be on. My shirt’s going to be visible.”
A young woman in the back said, “One second.” She opened the clothes dryer and pulled out a black rectangular tablecloth. She approached me with it. “May I?”
“Um, sure. ”
She snapped the fabric out to its full length and draped it over my head and body. Then she tied it in front, covering Pia.
“Why are y’all helping me?”
The woman scowled as she stepped back. “We all know when he brings in a new one. But we don’t know the code for the door, and there are cameras.” She shrugged. “Most of us are not in the country legally, and jobs are hard to find.”
“Understood. The code to the room is 4321.” That brought out even more scowls. “If I give you my phone number, will you contact me if he brings in someone else?”
They nodded, and I rattled off my number. Three of them, including the first guy and the young woman, put it in their phones. One of them, I wasn’t sure which, texted me. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket.
The older guy asked, “Is the camera in that room dead?”
“Yes. And the hallways.”
He smiled. “We will make it look like the little miss escaped.”
I frowned. “He’ll know she didn’t have the energy for that.” Then I grinned. “She’s a dryad. They live in trees. Can you get your hands on some dead branches, or even just a pile of dead leaves?”
His eyes lit up. “We’ll put it in the cage in her place. Chamberlain is stupid enough to believe it.” The others smiled.
“Okay, now I really need to go.”
“I’ll turn the lights on as soon as you’re at the gate.” The older man put his hand over the switch plate .
I took a deep breath before opening the back door. The lights went out, and I ran. The ghosts zipped ahead of me, and their faint translucence provided a small bit of light for me to see by. I crossed the putting green in three strides, then I ran through the grass.
Pia, who’d seemed so light when I’d picked her up, was getting heavier.
“The key!” Grandfather cried out.
Fuck. The key was in my pocket. My left pocket. I’d have to put Pia down. Unless.
“Pia, when we stop at the gate, the first one’s unlocked, but I have a key to the second one. Can you reach into my pants pocket with your right hand? I don’t want to have to put you down.”
She nodded.
I skidded to a stop next to the gate, and I loosened my hold on Pia and slid her to my left so she could reach into my pocket more easily. Then she turned in my arms and reached through the knotted tablecloth to turn the handle on the first gate. That done, she held the key out toward the lock on the second one.
“Good idea,” I praised. I held her so she could reach the lock, and she had no trouble turning the key. We were through in an instant, and Pia pulled it shut and locked it behind us.
“Garfield, should I put the key back where I got it or take it?” I was too tired and stressed to decide for myself.
“Take it. You’ll lose too much time putting it back, and these rich assholes can get another made easily enough.”
Nodding, I ran around the pool. Pia opened the side gate for us, and I bolted as fast as I could down the driveway .
Grandfather shouted, “No one’s on the street. The car’s clear!”
I ran to the SUV. Thanking the manufacturer for keyless entry, I still winced at the beeping sound as the doors unlocked. I put Pia on the floor behind the driver’s seat. “Hang tight. We’ll get out of here then figure out where we’re going next.”
I sure as fuck couldn’t take her back to my apartment building with its dozens of security cameras.
I whipped off the tablecloth and threw it on the passenger seat as I got in. I had the car in gear and moving before I’d put on my seat belt. Mindful of the security guards who roamed River Oaks, I made sure my headlights were on and I was traveling just above the speed limit. Grandfather commandeered the front passenger seat, with the other three ghosts in the back with Pia.
“Okay, Lorraine, what does Pia need? Where can I take her?”
“She needs trees, plants, but not a park or anywhere random people will go. Even a potted plant will help right now.”
Mercy said, “Is there a Wonder rescue here? Or who’s the District Monitor?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what any of those words mean.” Then I saw something. I turned off my headlights and pulled over to the curb. “Hang on.” I flipped off the interior lights and got out of the car, leaving my door open for a quick getaway.
I ran around the rear of the SUV to the curb. There, flanking the white brick mailbox, were two topiaries pruned into weird spirals about four feet high. Muttering, “Sorry,” I grabbed the nearest one and opened the rear passenger door to shove it into the footwell. It was heavier than I’d expected since the pot turned out to have been made of concrete. After shutting the door as quietly as I could, I ran back to the driver’s side and jumped in. I peeled away from the curb with a squeal of my tires, only turning my headlights back on when I’d turned the corner.
I heard rustling leaves. “Did that help?” I glanced over my shoulder, but I couldn’t see down onto the floor.
Pia didn’t reply, but Lorraine said, “Yes. The plant is helping renew her magic. Thank you.”
“Good. Um, Mercy, can you explain what you were saying a few minutes ago? Something about a District? Can we go there?” It was past 1am, but I’d wake up the entire city to get Pia the help she needed.
Mercy appeared next to me, sitting in Grandfather’s lap.
“I say!” he harumphed.
She ignored him. “You’re not part of the campaign?”
I stopped at a light and turned to stare at her. “What campaign?”
“Crap. I’m from Canada, but I’m sure the campaign exists down here too.”
Garfield asked, “Did you have a District Monitor up there? Maybe Rory can call them for help.”
She shook her head. “No, my pack preferred to be unaffiliated.”
“Same with my pack,” Garfield said.
I turned west on San Felipe, relieved to be among more traffic. “What is a District Monitor, please?” I tried not to sound aggravated, but it was fucking late, and I was stressed beyond belief .
“Sorry,” Mercy said. “They’re a magic carrier who basically looks after the magical beings who live near them. The area is their District.”
I let off the gas. “I’m sorry, did you say magic ?”
Grandfather pointed at the green light ahead, so I started driving again.
Garfield patted me on the shoulder. “Yes. Didn’t you see my wolf? And Pia’s a dryad, remember? Not to mention you can talk to ghosts. Magic, Rory. It’s all magic.”
I did not give in to the impulse to pull over and have a lengthy argument. “I.... Okay. I grant you all have magic. But me? I thought I was psychic. Wouldn’t I know if I had magical abilities?”
Grandfather pointed at me. “Is that what that swirly thing is? I’ve been wondering about it since I died. Pia’s got one too.” He hiked a thumb toward the back seat.
The ghosts all nodded. Fucking hell. I could not deal with this right now.
“You can’t cast any spells or anything, Rory,” Garfield told me. “You just get to talk to ghosts.”
“And this District Monitor?”
Mercy said, “They connect with Wonders, keep them safe.” I opened my mouth, but she anticipated my question. “A Wonder is one of us.” Her gesture included herself and the back seat. “Non-humans.”
I wanted to ask what the hell she’d been in life, but I figured it was rude. And who were all these magic people who had nicknames for supernatural creatures?
I stopped at another light. “I’ll ask more questions tomorrow. Right now, we need to figure out where we’re going. ”
There was a Target up ahead on the left, so I turned on my blinker. Once we were in the parking lot, I stopped and pulled out my phone. “Okay. How do we find a District Monitor?”
The ghosts all looked at each other but didn’t have any suggestions. I tried googling it, but didn’t get any results.
Mercy said, “We need to find some Wonders. They’ll know.”
I looked at her, then at Garfield. Lorraine was only paying attention to Pia. “Where do you hang out when you’re not in Randolph Chamberlain’s house?”
Mercy gave me a scathing look. “We’re not from here.” She left the idiot unsaid.
“What about a cemetery?” asked Grandfather. “I mean, you die, obviously. At least some of you need to be buried, right? Maybe there’re ghosts.”
Mercy and Garfield agreed it was worth a shot, so I started googling again. The only cemetery I was familiar with was Glenwood, which was where the rich people got buried. Not the most likely spot to find any dead non-humans. But the internet told me Glenwood had annexed a smaller cemetery which was home to many working immigrants and other less well-off dead folk. It was worth a shot.
I plugged Glenwood Cemetery into the GPS and got back on the road. Twenty minutes later we were there. Except when I turned off the road, the entrance was gated. Because it was fucking closed at night.
I slammed my hand on the steering wheel. “Fuck!” Then I cringed. “Sorry, Pia. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me the cemetery would be closed.”
Grandfather patted my knee. “We can take it from here. You play on your phone or something. ”
He, Mercy, and Garfield vanished. I peered through the gates, but I couldn’t see them anywhere. I couldn’t see any ghosts in fact. I rubbed my eyes. If this was a bust, I could always find a motel with rooms that opened onto the parking lot so I could sneak Pia and her plant in. I needed sleep.
Oh, shit. I was supposed to be at work in the morning. But Pia was more important. I fired off an email telling my boss I’d be out sick, most likely for more than one day. If he was mad, he could fire me. Pia was worth more than any job.
I twisted around and looked in the back seat. She’d twined herself around the plant. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was regular. It was hard to see in the darkness, but her skin didn’t appear as mottled as it had been before.
“She needs rest and food, but she’ll be okay.”
I grimaced at Lorraine. “Physically, you mean.” No doubt the poor kid could use some serious therapy.
Lorraine sighed and stroked her hand through Pia’s hair. Not that Pia could feel it.
Suddenly the car was full of ghosts.
“Fuck!” I jumped in my seat.
Grandfather chuckled. “That never gets old. Rory, this is Dimitra. She goes by Dimi.”
Dimi, who was squeezed in the back seat between Garfield and Mercy, looked to have been about Grandfather’s age when she’d passed. She was tiny, maybe five feet tall at most, with bright black eyes, a strong nose, and a round face. Her white hair was pulled back in a bun.
Dimi completed her inspection of Pia, then finally gave me her attention.
“Hi, I’m Rory. ”
She made a show of looking me up and down before making a dismissive hmmph sound. Okay then.
Grandfather chuckled. “We lucked out. Dimi heard us asking around about Wonders and District Monitors. Her grandson is the current District Monitor for this area. She can take us to him.”
I blew out a breath. Thank fuck. “Fantastic. Thank you, Dimi.” I started the car then twisted around to look at her. “Which way should I go?”
She gave me a stink eye. “You think I don’t know my own grandson’s address? Especially when it was my house first?” Dimi’s accent sounded Greek, possibly? She waggled a pointer finger at my phone in the cupholder. “You put it in your phone so I don’t have to tell you where to turn like you’re a baby.”
My head started to pound. “Great idea.” I made a show of picking up my phone and unlocking it. “Okay. What’s the address?” She told me, and I typed it into the maps app. I connected the phone to the car, and our route was displayed on the dashboard.
I got the car turned around, and we were on our way. Dimi’s grandson—I could not make myself care about his name right then—lived in Houston’s Second Ward. It wasn’t a great neighborhood, so being a District Monitor must not pay very well.
It only took fifteen minutes to get to our destination, which was fortunate, since it was pushing past 2am.
The house was original to the neighborhood, probably less than 1500 square feet, with white wooden siding, and a covered front porch. The carport on one side contained an older sedan with a brand-new SUV right behind it. Someone in the house had money .
I parked at the curb. “Hey, Pia, I’ll come around and get you, then we’ll go meet the District Monitor and see if he can help us.”
“Of course he’ll help you,” Dimi sniffed. “He’s a lunkhead, but he’s a good person.”
I got out of the car, wondering if I’d have the energy to drive home after this. Maybe Dimi’s grandson would let me nap on his couch. Maybe he’d also offer us snacks, since I’d forgotten to stop at a drive-thru.
I went around to the rear passenger door, where Pia was attempting to become one with the plant. Didn’t dryads live inside trees or something? Hopefully the District Monitor would know.
I opened the door and considered my options. Pia was essentially sitting in the pot, with her arms and legs wrapped around the plant like a koala. Her face was tucked into one elbow. My jacket was still covering most of her.
“Okay, Pia, I’m going to try picking up the pot with you staying where you are. But if you feel off-balance, you grab onto me, okay?”
She didn’t look up, but she nodded.
I crouched down and got my hands around the cement pot. I couldn’t lift it straight up without slamming both of our heads into the roof of the car, so I tilted the pot toward me and backed up, dragging the pot and Pia out of the footwell. When I had the pot resting on the doorframe, I lifted the pot, Pia and all. Which made Pia’s right knee jab me in the stomach, so I shifted the pot around until we were both more comfortable. After shutting the car door with my butt, I headed up the walkway. Slowly .
Pia wasn’t at her full weight, but I’d carried her a good distance earlier. My gym routine didn’t include cradling heavy items in my arms, and I was straining with the combined weight of Pia, the pot, and plant.
“You should spend more time working out,” Dimi advised. She drifted along on my right, with Lorraine on my left. The other ghosts brought up the rear.
“I’ll keep it in mind,” I wheezed. There were two steps up to the wooden porch. I dreaded them more and more the closer I got, but ultimately I had no choice. I took a deep breath, gritted my teeth, and went up one step at a time. I let out a big whoosh of air when I got to the porch, leaning over to better fill my lungs again.
I hobbled to the front door, which had a screen door covering it. There wasn’t a doorbell. Shit. I really didn’t want to put Pia down.
“Pia, could you reach the door handle for me, please?”
Without looking, she shook her head and squeezed herself tighter around the plant.
Got it.
Big breath again. Then I heaved the pot and Pia up so the bottom of the pot could rest on my hip. My hand shook as I reached for the handle on the screen door. I pulled it open and stepped forward so my body prevented it from closing.
Not wanting to wake the neighbors, I knocked at what I thought was a considerate volume. Then I waited. Nothing.
“They’re in there,” Garfield said. “Two people. But I can hear the shower running.”
“Two!” Dimi scowled and put her hands on her hips. “Shane better not have one of those app hookups over. ”
Fuck. I did not have time for this. I banged my knuckles as loud as I could against the door. It made a satisfying echo. They had to have heard it.
For good measure, I did it again.
“Shower’s off.”
I nodded my thanks at Garfield, then I shouted, “Hey! I need some help out here!”
The air suddenly became warmer on my right side. The ghosts shrieked, and I whipped my head around to look.
A giant green reptilian head was peering at me under the roof of the porch.
“Aaaaaaaah!” I clutched Pia to me and ducked, moving back against the railing on the other side of the porch. The screen door slammed closed.
Keeping my body between the creature and Pia, I stared at it over my shoulder. What the fuck was it? It looked like a fucking dragon from a movie or something. But I could smell the smoke coming out of its nostrils, so this was real. Pia had lifted her head from the plant and was trying to peek around my arm. Her teeth were long and sharp again, but I was grateful she didn’t have any thorns.
Lorraine materialized between me and the dragon. “Get away from her, you, whatever you are!” She shook her fist at it.
Dimi joined her, shouting, “Shoo! You’re not welcome in my house!”
The dragon pulled its head back slightly. Its eyes darted around the porch. Could it see the ghosts?
The other ghosts moved to stand with Lorraine and Dimi, exclaiming about not knowing what that thing was, though it wasn’t a shifter .
I couldn’t run down the porch steps without getting too close to the dragon’s mouth for comfort. I shot a quick glance over the porch railing to gauge the distance to the ground. There were some bushes to break my fall, but I wasn’t confident I could keep Pia safe if I jumped. Maybe I could lower her and the pot first?
The front door swung open, and two men wearing only towels around their waists rushed out.
Too bad I had to keep my eyes on the dragon.