Bone Dry_ A Soul Shamans Novel - Cady Vance Page 0,3

your mother doing?”

I paused and swiveled to face him. “Same as always. Off on one of her work trips.”

“Can you tell her I asked about her? I’d like to stop by and see her once she’s back.” He scratched a spot just above his ear. “Tell her I…miss having her as a friend.”

“No problem.” This wasn’t the first time he’d asked about her, and I didn’t see it being the last. I’d told my mom she should call to say hi, just for a moment, before pretending to run off to do something important. But she’d been stubborn about not making contact, so I’d stopped mentioning it.

“I didn’t expect to see you today,” Laura said when I strolled into her elaborately decorated room. Green was everywhere. On her walls, on her rug, on her lampshade, along with little black cartoon cats lining the edges. Her bedspread was a swirl of green and black, forming a cool abstract graphic. A mountain of green-and-black plaid pillows rose high on her bed. It was a pretty normal room, for a rich kid into pop punk. Whenever I walked in here, I realized just how odd my house was with all the beads, the masks and the Siberian drums crowding every spare corner.

“No?” I plopped down on Laura’s king-sized bed. Papers were scattered around where she sat with a laptop propped on her outstretched legs. “Got another case today. Kylie Wilkinson.”

“Really?” Laura absently spun her nose ring.

“Yeah, the usual. She thinks she’s being haunted. Objects levitating, strange markings left in her room.”

Laura placed the laptop on the bed, leaned forward and peered through a curtain of red-and-blond highlights. “That’s not me, Holly.” She gave me an evil smile. “Wish it was, but I haven’t done anything since last week with Dean. You know I’d tell you ahead of time if I planned on ‘haunting’ someone.”

I blinked once, and Laura let out a light laugh. “Looks like you have a real case on your hands this time. How many does this make now?”

“You’re serious about this.” My heart sped up. Real cases were few and far between since we lived in such a small town. Usually, Laura used her shaman powers to make victims from school think they were being haunted, and once someone came to me, we both made off with the cash after I swooped in to get rid of the problem. Sure, it was super unethical, but I needed the money. I tried to tell myself that made it okay.

“Completely serious. I had nothing to do with it this time.”

“Crap. Someone with real problems.” I shivered. Everyone who came to me thought spirits were ghosts, but I knew better. I was pretty sure ghosts didn’t even exist, but if they did, at least they used to be humans. Spirits were more like demons than anything else, and their realm was so devoid of humanity, it made haunted houses seem as lame as our high school’s mascot. What football team wants to be The Schooners?

“Well, good thing you’ve handled a real case before.” She nibbled on the end of a black-painted fingernail.

“Yeah, but not many,” I said, ticking them off on one hand. “This will only be the third real case I’ve done. Want to help me?”

She held out her hand without hesitation, like she’d wanted me to ask her. “I think it’ll be fun to be on the other side of things for once. Count me in.”

I’d been hoping she’d be up for it but hadn’t expected it. Laura might be able to levitate objects, but banishing spirits was a lot more intense than making a TV remote float. I pulled Laura's half of the cash from my pocket and dropped it onto her open palm. “Good, because I want to try the anchor thing this time. Wasn’t psyched about doing this by myself again.”

“Are you nervous?”

“No. Yes. I don’t know. The first time I tried to take down spirit, it attacked me. And then I fainted.”

Laura smirked. “That only happened because you were distracted by Nathan Whitman.”

I crossed my arms and met her laughing eyes. I’d gotten attacked because I hadn’t taken authentic shaman supplies with me. Because I hadn’t expected a real spirit in Seaport. So, naturally, its appearance in Nathan’s nerdy bedroom had taken me by unfortunate surprise. It attacked me. I passed out. And effectively ruined any chance of Nathan Whitman ever thinking of me as anything other than the weird girl who had fainted on him, even