Fuck my life. I immediately turned to Brandon. “Morenci isn’t part of the case, but I can’t leave the school in this state. It’s too dangerous. The kids are probably getting it from all sides.”
Brandon shot me a glance as he made the turn into the parking lot. “How many bad trails?”
“I’m seeing a lot of yellow. Too much yellow. I’ll have to call Eli. There’s just too damn many.”
“And you’ve already exorcised two today, so you’re done.” Brandon growled a little, the sound much like a fed-up Doberman. “This is not a case where you can justify overdoing it.”
“Trust me, I don’t want to overdo it.” I never did, but sometimes circumstances demanded it. I called up Eli immediately because fuck doing this by myself. Fortunately, she picked up fast. “Eli. I’m at Gwyn’s school. Can you join me here?”
“I can. How bad is it?”
“One look at this place and my soul made the Windows shutdown noise.”
She laughed like I was being funny. “That bad, huh?”
“Plus, I had to exorcise two ghosts about thirty minutes ago, so I’m kind of tapped out for today.”
“Well, shit, that’s not good. All right, text me the address. We’re on the way.”
“Merci.” I disconnected and scanned the area some more as Brandon searched for a parking spot near the school’s front doors. Like most schools, it had interesting architecture, almost like the designer had tried for modern and edgy but kind of missed. The roofline especially was weird, with these trapezoid shapes jutting upward in a dark maroon. Most of the school was a dusty sandstone, or adobe of the same color. Made sense, being in the desert. It was a windy day, both the American and Arizona flags flapping in the breeze, and it took some of the heat off. I was grateful, as apparently I’d be working in and out of here today.
Brandon parked before turning to me. “Do you want to wait on Eli?”
“I think we can get the paperwork started while waiting on her. I’ll handle anything that comes near.”
“Okay.” Turning to Gwyn, he asked, “Anything you want out of your locker?”
“Yeah, a few things.”
I’d forgotten about her locker, but she would have one. This was another reason I was grateful for Brandon. He thought of the things I missed. Actually, come to think of it—“Any friends you want to say goodbye to?”
Gwyn hesitated before shaking her head, eyes falling. “I’ve always been the weird kid. And danger stalked me because of the damn ghosts. I can’t really keep friends.”
I unfortunately knew this all too well, having lived it myself. It wasn’t until I was fully trained, really, that I was able to make and keep friends. It was part of why, when Eli, Quinn, and Booker had made friendly overtures, I’d latched on. I loved having them as friends.
“That’ll change now,” I promised her. “Where you’re going after this, everyone understands your talent, so you’ll be able to make good friends.”
She lifted her head and grinned shyly. “Looking forward to it.”
We clambered out and Gwyn stuck very close. She was visibly nervous, eyes darting all over the place, and stayed right in my shadow. I remembered being like her as a teen. Scared, no matter where I went, as I had no safe harbor. Exhausted from constantly being on my guard. God, I remembered those feelings all too well and I hated seeing her expression.
I paused right in the middle of the sidewalk and looked at her. “Gwyn. Nothing will touch you.”
She turned her eyes up to mine and something softened in her. “I know.”
“Then don’t be scared, ma petite chère.”
She nodded. “It’s habit, I think. Being here has never been good.”
“I understand. Still, today is the last day you’ll be here.” Leaning in a little, I made my tone go wicked. “Which means it’s the perfect day for revenge.”
A fire lit in her eyes. Her grin was unholy too. “Bet.”
Such a good little hellion in the making. I nodded. “All right, let’s get this started and over with.”
Brandon held open the door for us as we came on through. The front office was immediately to our right, and we trooped in there. It had the usual setup of a long counter, a few chairs to wait in, and four ladies behind the counter at their desks, doing various tasks. I saw the principal’s and vice-principal’s offices farther down, the signs jutting off the walls to give you an idea of where to go.
It was always a little funny when people first met Brandon. They instinctively tilted their heads back, back, and back somemore, the realization spreading over their face ofoh, he’s a big boy. Brandon was used to it, but it still tickled my funny bone every time.
