AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Eleven
The SUV pulled into the parking lot of a crappy strip mall. Samantha said she needed supplies and a place to do her thing. So, we’d headed out in the wee hours of the night to kill both birds, but this wasn’t what I’d pictured when she said shopping. Everything was locked up tight.
A boarded-up laundromat took up the majority of the block-long building. The ever ubiquitous but unique to LA combination Chinese fast food restaurant and donut shop took up the last storefront. From the painted hand and tarot deck on the widow of one of the middle stores, I figured that was where we were heading. It didn’t have a name, but it was pretty clear that it was a place to get your fortune read. I used to avoided those places like the plague. I never was sure what someone else with the sight would see when they met me, and I didn’t want to find out. But if this was where Samantha was heading, then that’s where I’d go.
“Are you sure it’s safe here?” Claudia asked, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Define safe,” Samantha said as she squatted down to undo the lock on the security grille that covered the front door. “Here we go.” The metal groaned and clanked its way up, but no one would notice. It was nearly three. Cars were moving up and down the road, on their way to who knew what, but not even one person slowed down to check what we were up to.
If someone had told me that I was going to end up in an apartment above a tarot shop in South Central LA having some sort of a séance today, I would’ve totally called bullshit. But apparently, it was happening.
Samantha swung the door open and five lawn chairs crashed on the ground. “Come on in,” she said as she kicked the chairs out of the way.
“What is this place?” Adrian asked.
It could’ve been a little mercado with all the racks of goods crammed in here, but instead of groceries there were crystals and herbs and candles and who the hell knew what else.
Chris sneezed. “Sorry. Can’t handle the sandalwood. Gets me every time.” His eyes were looking red and starting to water. The way my eyes were burning, I was sure mine looked about the same.
“We won’t be down here long. Angie set some stuff aside for me. Just gotta grab it and then we’ll go on up.” Samantha disappeared from view and I started to check out the shop. A pack of tarot cards caught my eye, but Claudia slapped my hand away.
“You don’t want to mess with that, prima.”
“Why?”
She raised a brow. “While you’re tied to a demon? You think that’s smart?”
“Point taken.” I turned away from them to check out a rack of candles. They were shoved haphazardly on the shelves in a rainbow of colors. Some were loose and looked handmade. Others were religious with saints on them.
From the various types of candles and dried herbs and incense, not to mention all the other junk crammed into the store, it was hard to concentrate. “We couldn’t do this at your house?” I shouted toward where Samantha had disappeared.
“No way!” She yelled back. “No one should ever live where they do magic, let alone mess with realms there.”
“Why not?” Claudia said. “That’s how our whole compound was set up. We all have a craft room in our houses.”
“I know. And it was a dumb.” She came out from the ba
ck of the store hauling a large canvas tote bag. “Anything you do between realms thins the veil and makes it so bad things can happen. Like a demon taking over the head of a coven.”
Claudia’s face went pale. “And you never said anything?”
“I was thirteen.” She shrugged. “No one was going to listen to me, and it was already too late to matter for Luciana.”
Over dinner, it’d gotten super awkward between Claudia and Samantha. The fiery scent of anger kept wafting off of Samantha, and if we had any chance of this working, they needed to get their drama sorted. So, while we waited for it to get late enough to come here, Dastien, Chris, Adrian, and I had gone for a hike in Griffith Park, while Claudia and Samantha talked it out. When we came back, things between them seemed a lot better.
Now, Claudia was the one smelling fiery, but it didn’t seem to bother Samantha. “This way.” She motioned for us to follow her to the other side of the store.
Yikes, I said to Dastien. Still not going well between them.
Might take more than one conversation, but it seems better to me. Dastien gave me one of his half-shrugs.
I nearly rolled my eyes. Sometimes guys just didn’t get it.
What don’t I get?
Nothing. I gave Claudia’s shoulder a squeeze as I moved past and followed Samantha.
A beaded curtain covered the entrance to a darkened stairwell. I pushed through it and went up the stairs.
