guy which drove the other pedestrians away. I wondered, but I didn’t slow down. I was afraid to look over my shoulder to see if he was getting closer. It wasn’t until Baxter and I burst through the wardings inside my piazza doorway that I stopped running. I collapsed onto the porch, heaving for breath, while Baxter tried to cheer me up by licking my nose.
For a little while, Bax and I sat on the piazza – that’s what Charlestonians call the side porches on single houses. My phone buzzed and I saw the text from Sorren, Be there as soon as it’s dark. Then Baxter and I went inside and I got dinner for both of us. Shortly after sunset, Baxter began to bark when a knock came at the door.
“Glad you could make it,” I said, opening the door. I’d given Sorren permission to enter long ago. He swore permission was a technicality that could be gotten around, and as a former jewel thief, I figured he would know.
“Such a good dog,” Sorren said in a calm, smooth voice as he knelt down and scratched behind Baxter’s ears. And just like that, Baxter stopped barking and sat down with a goofy expression. I sighed. Sorren’s ability to glamour the pup came in handy, but it always seemed like cheating.
“If you hadn’t already figured it out, something dangerous is brewing,” Sorren said.
Thank you, Captain Obvious. I didn’t say anything, but I did give him a look. “Come on in.”
Sorren had fed recently, which brought normal color to his skin. He doesn’t talk about how he feeds, and I don’t ask, but he did tell me once that he no longer needed or wanted to kill in order to eat, and that he was blood-sworn never to cause harm to me or my family. I assumed that included Baxter, and Teag by extension.
“You left me a rather cryptic message,” he said, settling onto the couch.
“A guy came looking for you. He was a real jerk.”
Sorren looked as if he would have let out a long sigh, if he had needed to breathe. “Daniel.”
“Yeah. Where do you dig these folks up?” I asked.
Sorren chuckled. “In this case, no digging was required. Daniel is indeed a Hunter. And if there is a Hunter in Charleston, then we’re right to be concerned. They don’t waste their time on rumors.”
“What’s a Watcher?” I asked.
Sorren frowned. “Where did you hear that term?”
“Daniel Hunter said to tell you there was a Watcher in town.”
Sorren’s frown deepened, and he looked lost in thought. “That is worrisome,” he said, in a tone that made me guess his comment was a gross understatement. “Watchers are supernatural creatures that judge – and eat – beings they believe to be flawed. That’s bad enough, but someone – a powerful wizard – has to bring the Watchers through from the Other Side.”
“But wait,” I said, doing my best imitation of a television commercial voice-over, “there’s more.” I filled him in on what had happened to Maggie over at Craig’s store. He listened intently as I told him about the missing assistant, and about what I had learned from Mrs. Teller and Lucinda. I finished up by telling him about the incident with the Ghost Bike and the weird guy.
“Did you feel odd before the incident happened?” Sorren asked.
“Odd how?”
Sorren shrugged. “Did you have any unnatural emotions that seemed to just come out of nowhere?”
I thought of the strange, crippling guilt that I had felt right before I stumbled into the Ghost Bike, and how it had happened before with Coffee Guy. “Yeah,” I replied. “If suddenly feeling like the worst person in the world and a total failure counts.”
Sorren nodded. “It counts. That’s exactly what I meant. And I’m afraid it means Daniel Hunter is correct. Watchers feed on guilt and judgment. When they’re around, people feel overwhelmed by negative emotions, and it’s worse if you’re paranormally sensitive.”
“What about the wraiths? The thing that attacked Tad’s ghost and the shadow that took a bite out of the ghost rider?”
“If Daniel is right about Watchers, if what you saw was really a Watcher, then the wraiths were Reapers, supernatural creatures that prey on ghosts. I’m inclined to believe that’s the case, but there are other monsters that can do similar things, and if we want to fight them, we have to be sure.” He leaned back and closed his eyes. “Have you heard it said that animals can sense a storm coming?”