Chapter 4 #2
“You and everyone else thought it was an accident. And you and Grandma had me and Nic to deal with. You can’t blame yourself.
” I stood and pulled Annamae into a hug, giving her time to pull herself together.
“But now that I know it’s a possibility, we should give this guy’s name to Boone. Maybe he can see where he is now.”
“Just be careful, okay? I don’t want you to get hurt because I was a stupid teenager.” Annamae wiped her eyes and sipped her tea.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Lilac shook her finger at Annamae. “Women always get blamed for men’s bad behavior. You went to a high school dance with a guy who wasn’t who you thought. None of that is on you.”
Annamae shook her head. “I’m not beating myself up for not being wary of Marvin. No, baby, I am furious at the younger me who didn’t believe her best friend when she told her the truth. That’s what I’m mad at myself for.”
“Again, teenage Annamae gets a pass on this.” I finished my tea.
“I’m pretty sure I did some stupid stuff when I was that age.
I didn’t pick up on the fact that David was cheating on me until the visions were screaming at me.
Maybe when you’re in love with someone, you start to question your sight. ”
“Or the emotions blur the vision. Sometimes the visions are a possible future, what will happen if nothing changes. I thought I could tame the bad boy inside Marvin. And maybe, given some time, I could have. But his demons were too strong for me to have time to try.” Annamae looked at her watch.
“Oh, my, is that the time already? You all get out of here so I can get dinner started.”
“We could help,” I glanced at Lilac who nodded.
“Lilac can stay. She has the gift, but you can go work in the den on this puzzle. Your brother just pulled in the gate so maybe this would be a good time to update each other.” Annamae stood and gently shoved me out of the kitchen.
Before I left, I gave her a hug. “Thanks for trusting me with that memory. I appreciate you.”
“You and your brother are the lights of my life,” Annamae squeezed me. “Now go find this guy before he hurts someone else.”
I grabbed a bottle of water and headed to the den. Alexander was already there. “Oh, I should have known you were back since Annamae was here. Where’s Kirk?”
“I dropped him off near your shop in the Quarter. He said he had some check-ins to do tonight but that he’d meet us in the morning at the store. He’s very dedicated to helping others, isn’t he?” Alexander set the book down he’d been reading.
“He tries to make sure the runaways have someone to talk to and somewhere to go. I had to ban him from bringing them home to his apartment, but I think he still sneaks in kids occasionally. In emergencies. I just don’t want him to be put in a bad spot.” I curled up on a chair near the fireplace.
“Maybe the Knights need to look into sponsoring a shelter here. Especially with the way the city pulls people with talent to come here.” He pulled out his phone and sent a text message.
“We’ll get something going. Maybe Kirk would like to work with us on making sure the word gets around once we open. ”
“I’m sure he’d love it. He’ll probably bring your first customer.
” I opened my water and took a drink, trying to hide my smile.
I loved it when my people worked together.
“Annamae says Nic and Esmeralda are close by. I’ll run up and get Rory when they get inside, and we can talk about what we found out today. ”
It took about thirty minutes before all of us, minus Lilac and Annamae who were still getting dinner ready, to gather in the den.
I went first, updating them on finding Catherine and her condition. Then I told them the story that Annamae had just told me about Mom.
Alexander was nodding his head. “I wondered why your mother’s family moved to the area, this makes sense. I figured it had something to do with the schooling. Kids with talent don’t do well in normal schools. Especially high schools. I’ll do some checking on this Franklin Day. See what comes up.”
He wrote something down in his notebook, then addressed the group.
“Since Eddie’s group didn’t follow the rules and found our target instead of their assignment, I don’t have a lot to report specifically on Catherine’s disappearance, but if I might, I wanted to tell you what we found out about the Florida killings.
I’m almost certain this is the same perpetrator. ”
“If it’s not, the paranormal adjacent world has more to worry about than we thought,” Esmeralda added.
Rory looked scared. “I shouldn’t have come. What if they go after Deek while I’m gone?”
“Deek’s fine. His talents have been covered well. No one knows about his gift.” Esmeralda said as she reached for her friend’s hand and squeezed it. Then she looked around the group. “Except for our friends here in the circle, which means you all can’t tell anyone anything you hear.”
“I’m not sure who Deek is,” Bubba admitted. “But I’m not a snitch.”
“Snitches get stitches,” Lilac said coming in from the kitchen. “Annamae says dinner will be ready in an hour. She’s busy or she’d come in but she said I was done. What did I miss?”
“Esmeralda threatening all of us,” I smiled and moved over on the couch. “Other than that, not much. Alexander was about to tell us about the Florida killings.”
She fell backwards on the couch. “Cool. Well, not cool, but well, I guess I’ll just shut up now.”
Alexander laughed, “I love having youth in the discussion. They tend to state their minds.”
“Like I’m going to be seen and not heard? Not in this lifetime.” But Lilac smiled at the knight and motioned for him to continue.
Alexander then started telling us about the three fortune tellers killed earlier in the year near Miami.
“The deaths were made to look like an accident, but the killer forgot one thing. We don’t leave when we’re dead, unless we want to.
So after the first killing, the victim spoke to a talented friend, and everyone took precautions.
A few months went by, and then with no additional deaths, people got complacent.
Two women were killed the same day. After that, everyone locked up and the killings stopped.
Until Mercy’s death here. The society has been watching globally for a repeat, but no new deaths were reported or found until this last week. Now, we’re in a pandemic again.”
“I’ve warned all the seers not to take private clients until future notice, and I’ve increased security at all locations where we do readings. However, he could be hitting the private seers and we’d never know.” Nic rubbed his temples in frustration.
“Don’t worry, the society would know. We have a record of anyone who has ever even had a vision.
No one in that group has been killed, so far.
Our killer must be waiting, maybe hoping that someone would be trying to clear the energy from a reading room and get clumsy and invite someone in without an appointment. ”
“I’m thinking about closing down the shops,” Nic admitted.
“Don’t do that. We have security in place. He’s going to slip up and do something we can track.” Alexander leaned forward. “No one else is going to die, I promise you.”
“Unless you have a talent of raising the dead after they’ve been killed, I’m not sure you can make that promise.” Nic leaned forward as well.
The two looked like rams, waiting to charge each other. Waiting for the first to make a mistake and move.
“Okay, tone down the testosterone. Nic, if Alexander says he has protections in place, we should believe him.” I touched my brother’s shoulder and he visibly relaxed. “Alexander, you better be sure that you do have those protections in place. No screwups.”
Both men nodded and leaned back in their respective chairs. I looked around the room and wondered what to bring up that wouldn’t get these two going again.
I didn’t have to wait long. Annamae came in. “Dinner’s ready.”