Chapter 34
Chapter
Thirty-Four
“Kate, where the hell are you?” Prue’s voice crackled over Kate’s cell phone. “I’ve left you, like, twenty messages! When you didn’t show up at the BART station, I freaked out!”
“Things came up,” Kate said, her voice sounding distant to her own ears.
It was close to eight o’clock, and getting dark.
She’d recovered as best she could at The Havens, but when Thomas left to handle something business-related, she’d thrown on a pair of large sweatpants and a T-shirt that she’d found, and fled.
“Things…went wrong. I’m taking a rideshare to Nan’s. I’ll be there in a few minutes, okay?”
“Okay,” Prue said. “But you’d better tell me everything when you get here. Are you all right?”
“No. Not remotely,” Kate said, then stopped, realizing that the driver was listening in over his easy listening station. “I’m almost there, and I’ll tell you everything.”
She hung up, feeling wrung out. She’d done her best to fix things. She’d tried to warn that old guy that he was going to get killed. That had backfired spectacularly. She shuddered at the remembered pain.
If Thomas was just killing assholes like Victor, she could totally get on board. She might even help, she thought, gritting her teeth.
Then she realized—for all she knew, it was included in her new job description.
Schedule conference room. Send receipts to accounting. Arrange for murder of asshole number two.
Ugh.
Prue would help her, Kate thought, biting her lip. Nan was some sort of supernatural badass, and Prue appeared to be a mystical force in her own right. Even if she wasn’t, nobody brainstormed like Prudence Mikai.
Kate started feeling some of the fear and panic recede. They’d talk it over, figure it out. And Kate would get her life—and her soul—back.
After ten minutes, the car pulled up the winding dirt road that lead to Nan’s house, in the middle of the grasslands a little ways from Pleasanton, “out in the boonies” as her mother would say. The lights were on, casting shadows of Nan and Prue, who stood waiting on Nan’s wraparound porch.
She got out of the car gingerly. Her body was healing—Yagi wasn’t wrong there, she was recovering remarkably quickly—but she still felt off, like she was getting over a really bad cold or a wicked sprain or something. She stood there, taking a deep breath, as the driver pulled away.
Prue rushed off the porch and down the path to her, arms open. “Girl, you shaved about ten years off my life,” she scolded, starting to hug her.
“God, Prue, it’s been the worst day,” Kate said, hugging back. “I’m in trouble. I’m in serious...”
Before she could finish, Prue shrugged out of her hug, jerking her arms back. “Kate?” Prue said slowly, staring at her. “What did you do?”
Kate blanched. She’d never heard that much disgust in Prue’s voice before—not even when talking about Tad, whom Prue out-and-out loathed. “Well, let me preface it with, I was doing what we’d talked about. I was just trying to...”
Prue took two large steps back. The revulsion in her eyes was horrific, and she held her hands up. “You signed your soul over to the Darkness.”
“It’s kind of a long story. I had to—” Kate said, taking a step forward, only to have Prue retreat even more, stumbling onto the porch.
Nan came through the front door, holding up her cane like a sword, pointing it at Kate before she got too close to the house.
Kate huffed. “I was dying, Prue! That guy I was trying to save? Total psycho, and he...he...” She swallowed hard against a wave of nausea.
“I was hurt. My skull was crushed, I was dying—”
“So that boss of yours made you a deal,” Nan said, and her voice was tinged with sadness...and irritation. “Lord, child. You are just made of bad decisions, and this might be your last one.”
“Hey, it wasn’t my idea to go back in there and find out what was going on,” Kate said, feeling defensive, and hurt. “Prue, you said—”
“You signed your soul.” Prue’s voice sounded strangely like a growl. Not just a metaphor, either. A real growl, like something an animal would make. “You signed your soul over to Hell.”
“Hello, I was dying!” Kate snapped. “I wasn’t thinking straight! Would you rather I was dead?”
Prue’s silence spoke volumes, and Kate felt it like a stabbing wound in her chest. She didn’t think anything would hurt more than the beating she’d had at Victor’s hands.
Apparently, she was wrong.
“Prue,” she pleaded, her eyes welling up with tears. “I came over here to find out what I could do to fix this. I want to make it right. I want to get my soul back.” She paused, as the tears spilled onto her cheeks. “Aren’t...aren’t you going to help me?”
Prue’s expression was anguished. “I don’t think I can.”
Nan made a little clucking sound against her teeth. “Don’t know if anything can help you,” she said. “You don’t get in trouble by half, missy.”
“I was just doing what I thought was the right thing, and now I’m getting hosed for it?” Kate asked. “Prue, you’re my best friend. I’m sorry I did this, but I thought…Really? Is this it?”
Prue closed her eyes for a long moment. When she opened them, they had changed. Their rich amber color was now yellow, like a cat’s eyes, or a fox’s. In fact, her already thin face had turned a little fox-like.
“Ah, shit,” Nan said, and jumped in front of Prue, just before Prue leaped at Kate.
There was no way the tiny woman should have been able to stop her tall, lithe, muscular granddaughter, but she held Prue at bay.
Prue snapped at Kate, her now noticeably pointed teeth clicking out loud as they snapped shut.
Kate gasped, stumbling backward and falling on her ass. “What the fuck, Prue?” she yelped.
Prue shook her head, then staggered back herself, hitting the door. “Oh my God,” she said, taking deep, gulping gasps. “Oh my God.”
“You, in the house,” Nan ordered, shoving Prue in the doorway before turning back. “Kate, you’re gonna have to leave.”
“What? Why?” Kate asked, reeling. “What just happened?”
Nan sighed deeply. “You might say that Prudence’s heritage finally decided to show up,” she said cryptically. “For now, the hint of your demon taint—signing your soul—is triggering something she’s not ready for. Until she learns to get a grip on it, you need to stay far away from her.”
“So that’s it, then?” Kate said hollowly. “I’m just screwed?”
“I’ll look into it,” Nan grumped. “When I find out something, I’ll call you.”
“What am I supposed to do until then?”
“Right now, I don’t give a damn. You got yourself into this.” Nan’s wrinkled face grimaced. “Try not to die, first off. You die, you’re going to be well and truly screwed.”
“Don’t die. Great. Fantastic advice.” Kate swallowed hard. “Is Prue going to be okay?”
“Go on home, Kate,” Nan said, a little more gently. “I’ll take care of Prue.”
Kate felt terrible. She didn’t want Prue hurt, and whatever had happened had shaken them both. But she’d never imagined her best friend attacking her. She’d certainly never thought that this could happen.
For the time being, it looked like she was on her own.