Chapter 17 – Celaeno #2
That seems to silence them. For several minutes we continue forward, and with each step my belly twists tighter and tighter. I fight the urge to run, clenching my fists. I'm ready to fight whatever is causing such pain to my babies.
When we leave the forest and reach the town, my jaw drops. Every single roof is lined with birds of every sort. I spot a few cars on the roads, but no one is outside.
“Fucking creepy,” Ender whispers beside me.
I can’t help but agree.
“Are we safe to walk through the town?” Journey asks, and all eyes turn to me.
Hesitation makes my pulse race. “If we walk slowly and talk softly, we should be okay. They won’t attack unless something frightens them.”
“Are you sure?” Grey’s dark eyes are glued to the rooftops.
“No,” I say. “But the only way we’ll stop whatever’s happening here is to find out the cause of it.”
Moving forward, I follow my own advice and head slowly toward the center of town. After several seconds, I feel the gargoyles following.
The birds’ heads turn and follow us as we move, and a tingling sensation moves down my spine. They’re wound so tightly that the smallest thing can set them off. Poor things.
When we come to the first shop with an open sign, I cautiously pull the door open. The little bell on the handle gives one lonely chime before I clench it in my fist and tear it free. Turning, several of the birds have spread their wings, but none of them take flight.
The men follow me into the little shop filled with candles and bath products. Behind the counter a young woman looks up, her eyes widening. She can't be much older than a teenager, with dirty-blonde hair and pale eyes.
When I hear the door whoosh shut behind us, I speak without looking back. “You guys do some shopping.”
Grey makes a sound of protest, but I plaster on a smile and ignore him. The girl watches us curiously, and her cheeks heat when her gaze lands on the sexy gargoyles behind her. I want to laugh—girl, I don’t blame you one bit!
“Hey,” I say.
She gives a shy smile. “Hi.”
“We’re just passing through,” I tell her.
She nods. “Yeah, I figured. I’ve lived here all my life, so I know pretty much everyone in Cherish.”
I go to the front and start smelling the candles lined along her counter. Something drops loudly behind me. I look back and see Ender sheepishly picking up a metal candleholder from the ground. All the guys are holding things, staring at them as if they’re alien products.
I laugh out loud. I can’t help it.
“What?” the girl asks, but the word holds a smile.
“Nothing, it’s just like seeing bulls in a China shop.” Her smile widens as I turn back to her. “Hey, I don’t mean to be insulting or anything, but what’s with all the birds?”
Her eyes widen and her smile vanishes. “I don’t know.”
“Has it always been like this?”
She shakes her head. “It started a few weeks ago and seems to get worse every day.”
Interesting. “Anybody know why?”
“The town brought in some bird experts. They even… even tried to… exterminate some of them, but that made things worse. A lot worse.”
I have to push down my rage at just the thought of someone hurting my birds. “What did the bird experts think?”
She nervously starts to arrange some things by her register, spending way too much attention on a tree with earrings. “They couldn’t find a reason for it.”
“So what, everyone’s just going to live like this?”
Her gaze meets mine, and she looks worried. “No, on Friday they’re going hunting. They plan to kill all the birds. All of us are supposed to stay inside away from our windows, so we don’t have a repeat of last time.”
“Last time?”
I see her visibly swallow. “The birds killed some of the hunters. Including my brother.”
Shit. “I’m so sorry.”
Her eyes fill with unshed tears. “Some people think it’s some kind of virus, like rabies, but I just know it’s because of—“
She drops the little tree of earrings on the ground and kneels down behind the counter.
I circle around and help her pick them up. “Why do you think they’re like this?”
She shakes her head. “It’s stupid.”
I smile. “I like stupid.”
We just keep picking up the earrings in silence, and I can tell she’s turning something over in her mind.
“Do you believe in… weird stuff?”
A little tingle moves down my spine. “Yes.”
“Because no one in this town does. My dad says if we can’t see something, it doesn’t exist.”
“No offense, but your dad sounds like he’s one of those annoying logical types.”
She frowns. “Yeah, Mr. Police Chief is all about the logical.”
I pick my words with care. “But I’m not at all. I think the world is full of things we can't understand or explain. Paranormal things.”
Her head jerks up. “Like ghosts?”
I nod. “Yeah, I believe in ghosts. Do you?”
She stands and puts the earring tree back on the counter.
I stand too, but don’t move away. Instead, I wait and look back at the guys.
All of them have moved on to other things.
Ender’s sniffing a candle. Grey swears when he accidentally spills some body glitter on his shirt.
He wipes at it with his hands, but it’s absolutely hopeless. I bite my lip to keep from laughing.
“Around the time the birds came, someone disappeared.”
My attention snaps back to the girl. “Who?”
“A woman I was friends with. She used to come here a lot. People… they didn’t think much of her, but she was always nice to me.
She was a dancer down at the club on Marlene Street.
She just vanished. They looked for her, but not very hard.
” Her hands are wringing together. “I think maybe the birds and her disappearance are connected.”
Her eyes fill with tears again, and I see she’s trembling. My heart gives a squeeze.
Reaching out, I touch her bare shoulder. A tingle moves through me and I freeze. This girl has witch-blood in her. No wonder she’s got her theories. No wonder she can’t just pretend this has an easy explanation. She senses something is wrong.
“Can I be honest with you?” I ask her.
She turns those tear-filled eyes onto me. “Yes.”
“My friends and I are ghost hunters and we came here just to figure out the solution to the bird issue.”
Her gaze snaps between us. “Are you serious?”
I nod.
“Are you guys any good?”
Smiling, I can’t help myself. “I am. They’re mostly here to look good.”
She gives a small laugh and wipes the tears from her eyes. “So you think you’ll be able to stop this before the hunt? Because, well, my dad is leading it. He’s angry about my brother. He doesn’t seem to realize that if things go wrong I’ll—I’ll have no one.”
My heart goes out to her. I know what it feels like to be alone. “We’ll take care of it, but anything else you can tell us about this woman would help.”
The gargoyles have stopped pretending to shop. Instead, they move closer and stare at her, waiting for her to answer.
She sweeps a nervous hand through her hair.
“Her name was Candy Spring. And… and she had a few boyfriends. Craig Olsen and Jack Calwin. She also had a regular at the club who made her uncomfortable… a Richard something. She lived on Drop Off Avenue, at the end. There’s a really broken down house there. ”
“Did she live alone?” I ask.
She shook her head. “She had a daughter… Angel… she’s in foster care with the Jensens now, until they can find her a permanent home.”
“Well, thank you. We’ll look into it. We might come back if we have any more questions.”
“Of course,” she says.
We tell her goodbye and head back out into the street.
Walking shoulder to shoulder down the quiet street, Grey leans closer. “So what now? What’s the plan?”
“We break the curse,” I tell him simply. “And if it wasn’t created by this woman’s disappearance, we keep looking.”
“This town definitely needs our help,” Ender says, glancing again at the birds.
“Before Friday,” I tell them. “That’s when they plan to kill the birds.”
Just four days.
“Celeano—“ Journey begins.
I whirl on him. “I know you guys don’t care about them, but I do. Every life is precious. We can’t let them be hurt because of something that’s not even in their control.”
All three men are looking at me in the strangest way, but I don’t care. They couldn’t possibly understand what it’s like to have seen as much death as I have.
I’ll do anything I can to keep more blood from staining this world.