Chapter 13
Rayna blinked away the afterimage of graffiti-shaped light, hand still half-raised like she’d been about to cast something at a target that no longer existed. “Well,” she said, “that was different.”
The boy slumped to the ground, breathing like a dying accordion. His hoodie hiked up above his waist, his glow dimming to a faint shimmer. Katie crouched beside him, unsure whether to comfort him or slap some sense into him.
“You okay?” she asked.
“I think I un-existed part of the wall,” he mumbled.
“Yeah, you almost launched us into our next lives,” Rayna added, scanning the now-silent tunnel. “Thanks for that.”
The boy flinched. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to. It just happens when I get scared. Or mad. Or really anything emotional.”
Katie helped him sit up. “Hey, I get it. Puberty hit me like a freight train too. Only, instead of breaking reality, I just wore a lot of eyeliner and threatened to join a coven. Which I guess I have now. So…”
Rayna knelt, eye level. “What’s your name?”
He hesitated. “Eli.”
“Well, Eli, you’ve got a serious power surge problem, and we need to get you somewhere safe before you light up another electrical grid. Is that okay?”
He looked between them, wariness bleeding through the exhaustion. “You’re not gonna hurt me?”
“Maybe verbally,” Rayna said. “But that’s just my charming personality.”
Katie stood. “You’re coming with us. And because Rayna drives a Barbie-sized missile disguised as a car, that means we’re getting cozy.”
Eli blinked. “Wait, what?”
Katie didn’t love the logistics of the next ten minutes. Mainly because they involved blindfolding a kid and seat-belting him onto her lap like a very confused teddy bear.
Rayna tossed Katie the blindfold. “Put that on him.”
Katie raised an eyebrow. “You do realize this looks sketchy as hell, right?”
“Trust me, it’s for his own safety, and ours. The mansion’s wards don’t take kindly to unvetted guests.”
Eli didn’t protest. He just muttered, “This is so weird.”
There was no legroom. Eli’s knees were up to his chin. His hoodie smelled like subway dust and teen panic. Rayna revved the engine like she was drag racing.
“Everyone secure?” she asked.
“No,” Katie grunted. “My spine just filed a complaint.”
“Too late,” Rayna chirped. “We’re off.” The car launched forward.
Eli yelped.
Katie hung on. “Rayna, if we die, I’m haunting you.”
Rayna just grinned. “You’re welcome to try.”
The L.A.W. mansion loomed into view, looking like it had been designed by a committee of Gothic and Victorian architects. The wrought-iron gates opened before them with a shiver of blue wards, crackling faintly like static as they passed through.
Rayna didn’t bother slowing down. She just zipped through the gate like a woman whose security deposit meant nothing to her.
Inside the mansion, Joell was waiting in the foyer, arms crossed. Rayna tossed her keys into a floating bowl and gestured at Katie, who was unfolding herself and Eli awkwardly from the car.
“Package acquired,” Rayna said. “Came with bonus graffiti, cryptic dream trauma, and a minimal reality check after saying he’d been in the Between.”
Joell’s eyes narrowed. “Did you blindfold him?”
Rayna rolled her eyes. “Yes, we’re following protocol. Even if it feels like we’re violating ethics guidelines and maybe child labor laws.”
Katie and Eli entered the mansion, and the doors automatically closed behind them.
Joell approached Eli slowly, crouching a little so she didn’t loom like an evil headmistress. “You can take it off now.”
Eli peeled off the blindfold and blinked at the chandelier overhead as if he’d just woken up in Versailles. “Whoa.”
Joell gave him a quick, neutral once-over. “Name?”
“Eli. Don’t ask me my last name. That’s all I remember.”
“Age?”
“Fourteen? Maybe fifteen?”
Joell muttered, “Can we please check the birth certificate next time we pick up a youth hazard?”
Katie was already steering Eli toward the meeting room. “C’mon, buddy. Time to get grilled.”
“Interrogated,” Rayna corrected.
“Interviewed,” Joell said, pointedly. “He’s not a suspect.”
“Yet,” Rayna added.
Joell shot her a look. “Behave.”
The meeting room had been hastily repurposed: whiteboard, magic sensors, a pitcher of water, and a tray of cookies that looked suspiciously like bribes.
Victoria was already on the monitor, arms folded, elegant in an impressionistic blazer that made her look like she should be running a Paris fashion house instead of remote-viewing paranormal hotspots.
Magda’s square blinked on. The Australian time zone must have woken her out of a sound sleep, making her hair look like Bill the Cat.
Sahara’s screen flickered on last. She looked vaguely annoyed to be summoned during a dig.
Katie sat beside Eli. “Don’t worry. They’re scary, but mostly in a ‘we contain unidentified evil’ kind of way. Not like, ‘looking for places to bury a body’ scary.”
Joell started. “Eli, we need you to tell us everything you remember about how you got out of the Between.”
Eli looked nervous. “I didn’t mean to come out. I was hiding. And then she grabbed me,” he said, pointing to Rayna, “And I woke up. I think? Only it was somewhere else, and people could see me.”
Magda leaned forward. “How long were you in the Between?”
“I don’t know. There’s no time in there. Just dreams. And walls. And sometimes graffiti that moves.”
Katie stiffened.
Rayna noticed. “Does that mean something to you?”
Katie didn’t answer right away. Her voice was low when she finally said, “I saw the graffiti too. Before I met him. It knew my name.”
Joell turned to Eli. “Did something mark you before you entered the Between?”
Eli hesitated. “Yeah. This guy. He didn’t have a face. He told me I was ‘ripe.’ Like I was a fruit or something. And then everything went gray.”
Victoria spoke for the first time. “The faceless one. I’ve found references to him. He’s a harbinger. A chooser.”
“Of what?” Rayna asked.
Victoria looked grim. “Of people who can rewrite the rules.”
A beat of silence followed.
Eli shrank back in his seat. “I don’t want to rewrite anything. I just want to go home.”
Rayna sighed. “Kid, that ship sailed the moment you tripped our sensors and lit up a subway tunnel with mystic graffiti. Home’s going to have to wait.”
Joell nodded. “Good work, Victoria. Sahara, Magda, did either of you turn up anything in your research?”
Sahara held up something that looked like a shrunken head. “I turned up this. I’m not sure what it is, but it definitely should not be here.”
“Bring it in. You’re coming for Ostara, right?”
“Yes. I wouldn’t miss it.”
Joell smiled. “How about you, Magda? You have the furthest to travel. Do you need any assistance to get here?”
“Nah. I’ll catch the next flight out. It should be easy to get one since it’s the middle of the freakin’ night here.”
“Hey, you don’t have to leave the mansion at all, if you don’t want to.”
“You just don’t want to be responsible for watering my plants.”
The others chuckled. “You’d hex us if we let them die,” Rayna said.
Eli seemed to relax a bit after seeing how these powerful women teased each other. “Can I have one of those cookies?” he asked.
“Sure,” Joell said, sliding the plate of triple chocolate goodness over to him.
He grasped three of them and started chowing down like he hadn’t eaten in a week.
Joell let him eat for a bit before continuing. “Eli, you said the faceless man told you that you were ‘ripe.’ Do you know what for?”
He swallowed a massive bite, leaving a smear of chocolate on his cheek.
“I think he meant I was ready to leave. Or break through the Between. Or something.” He glanced around the room like the walls might be listening.
“He said it was time to wake up. But I was already awake. Or dreaming. It was like both.”
“Classic Between,” Magda muttered. “Half sleep, half reality, all cosmic weirdness.”
Sahara added, “Some shamans describe the Between as a kind of pressure cooker. Time and identity break down until something or someone cracks through.”
Victoria raised an eyebrow. “And it’s almost always someone marked. Someone chosen.”
Eli dropped the last cookie. “I didn’t ask to be chosen.”
“No one does,” Rayna said quietly. “You think Katie applied for this job? There wasn’t exactly a LinkedIn listing for ‘marked victim of unknown origin.’”
Katie leaned forward. “Hey. You’re not alone anymore, Eli. Whatever this is, we’re all going to help you figure it out. Okay?”
He nodded, eyes shimmering, like he was about to cry. “Okay.”
Joell stood. “All right. That’s enough for today. Rayna, Katie, show him to the guest suite.”
“The one with the stained-glass windows and the anti-dream wards?” Rayna guessed.
“Exactly.”
Eli stood too, clearly trying to look tough, but not fooling anybody. “Are there, like, monsters here?”
Katie grinned. “Only if you count Rayna before coffee.”
“Hey!”
But the tension had broken, and Eli smiled a little.
As they started to lead him out, Victoria’s voice stopped them. “One last thing…”
They turned back to the monitor.
Victoria’s expression was grave. “If the graffiti knew Katie’s and Eli’s names before they met, and the faceless man who picked Eli and stashed him in the Between, we might start looking for a pattern. It almost sounds as if they need certain individuals for something.”
“A ritual?” Sahara offered.
Joell frowned. “You think someone, or something, is marking them for some kind of ritual?”
Victoria nodded. “Yes, possibly. And I think the next one is coming soon.”
Katie glanced over at Rayna and whispered. “Is this going to get in the way of your date with Major Hottie?”
Joell’s ears perked up. “Rayna has a date? With the Major?”
Rayna shrugged. “It’s only our second date. Nothing to tell Raoul about yet.”
Joell grinned. “Second date! That means the first one went well.”
“Yeah, I guess…”
“So, you’ll be staying in the city, if all goes well again?” Joell guessed.
“I’ll be staying in the city tonight, no matter what happens. I have to feed my pets.”
“I thought they fed you?”
She grinned. “Either way. I’m staying in my townhouse, unless you need me here.”
“No. Go have fun. You deserve it.”
Magda groaned. “Don’t we all?”
Rayna’s Brooklyn brownstone was the kind of place that made real estate agents salivate. Clean lines, warm lighting, and just enough dark wood to remind you it was built more than five minutes ago.
Major Payne stepped inside and gave a slow, impressed nod. “This is not what I expected.”
“What, no cauldron? No jars of bat spleens?” Rayna dropped her keys into an artisan’s blown-glass dish by the door and kicked off her boots.
“I thought at least a crystal or two,” he murmured.
“There are a few,” she said, gesturing casually to the back-lit shelves. “Hidden in plain sight. I was going for Brooklyn witch chic.”
He glanced around. The clean lines met high-end eclectic touches, like a vintage Victrola, a smart little bar cart, a framed photo of her man-pets posing with swords on Coney Island…
“Michael and Daniel are out for the night,” she added, moving toward the kitchen. “Some bar crawl-slash-costume-themed karaoke event. I didn’t ask questions.”
He arched an eyebrow. “You live with them?”
“They live with me,” she corrected, pulling out a bottle of red wine. “They’re my familiars and my chaos support system. Don’t worry, they’re usually too busy arguing about kombucha to care what I do in my off-hours.”
She poured them both a glass of wine. The music system obeyed a whispered charm and cued something smooth and low-key. Less seduction, more ambiance with potential.
“So,” she said, handing him a glass. “Is this the part where we talk about our feelings, or the part where we pretend we’re just having wine?”
“I don’t pretend well,” he said, setting the glass down untouched. “But I’m good at strategy.”
Rayna smirked. “Then you know the best offense is a sudden, overwhelming attack.” They launched themselves at each other simultaneously.
Their kiss was a deliberate collision. Strong hands, soft mouth, no hesitation. The kind of kiss that made the wine completely irrelevant. She backed him into the sleek, ivory couch, tugging at his jacket with one hand and triggering a discreet privacy ward with the other.
“You sure they won’t come home early?” he asked, breathless between kisses.
“If they do, they’ll turn around and go right back out. They’ve been well-trained.”
He groped her breast and kissed a trail down her neck.
Third base peeked out, wondering if it was time to make an appearance. Rayna threaded her fingers into his hair and bit his lower lip, just enough to make him groan.
“I should warn you,” she murmured, “I don’t do one-night stands.”
“Neither do I,” he said, voice rough.
She raised an eyebrow. “Good. Because if we do this, it’s not just a fling.”
“Understood.”
“Also, I steal the covers and talk in my sleep.”
“I’m military. I don’t sleep.”
She laughed and then kissed him again, deeper this time.
Upstairs, the wards adjusted themselves to “do not disturb” mode.