Hexed (10 page)

Isis peered at the screen, but her eyes went wide. “I . . . I don't see anything.”

“No?” Lucifer looked at her phone, feigning confusion. “Oh, sorry. I must have pressed the wrong button.” She tapped her phone's screen and held it up. “Okay, now tell me what you see,” she said, trying her best not to let her smirk show.

“I see spirals, too,” Isis said flatly.

“Why are you asking her?” Brooklyn asked.

“Because she looked inside the book, too.”

“Is
that
what this is about? That stupid book?” Brooklyn tossed the red hat back on the rack. “God, no one cares! Our parents were cool with us sneaking into the Worcester House because they knew we weren't drinking or getting high. We were just having fun trying to scare each other. But Gina's dad has to go sniffing around for something to get
us
in trouble with the 'rents so he doesn't look like such a fascist troglodyte.”

Brooklyn walked up to Lucifer and folded her arms across her chest. “Let me guess. You're one of his undercover cop buddies. One of those old people who only looks sixteen, right?”

“I can assure you,” Lucifer said. “I'm not a cop. I just want to know about the book. Where did you get it?”

Brooklyn was athletic and at least six inches taller than Lucifer. She leaned over, forcing Lucifer to strain her neck. “The library. You know. Where the
books
come from.”

“There's no way that book came from a library.”

“Are you calling me a liar?” Brooklyn's half-smile dissolved into a sneer.

Lucifer shrugged her shoulders. “Well, I don't know of many libraries that let people check out books bound in human skin.”

Brooklyn pulled back. “Shut up. It was not.”

“It was.” Lucifer leaned in close to Brooklyn and whispered, “And not from the nice pieces, either.”

Brooklyn started rapidly shaking her hands as if she were trying to dry them. “I'm going to retch. That is so foul.”

“You didn't know?”

“Are you retarded? Of course I didn't know!” Brooklyn looked at Isis and said, “How could you let me touch that?”

The rest of Brooklyn's friends were giggling to themselves as Brooklyn made a show of how disgusted she was having touched the book. Isis ignored her and said, “We
did
get it from the library. We just didn't check it out. We didn't want anyone to know we were reading that kind of stuff so we . . . we stole it.”

“But it was
at
the library? Do you remember which section?” Lucifer asked.

Isis shook her head, her blonde hair whipping back and forth over her tiny shoulders. “I don't know. Somewhere in the back with all the books that nobody ever reads.”

“Then what were you doing back there?”

“What's it to you?” Isis snapped.

“I know what she was doing back there,” the only boy in the group said.

“Shut up, Greg. It wasn't like that. We were just talking.”

“Well, you were using your mouths, anyway.”

Isis punched Greg in the arm. Then the two of them began hurling ugly insults at one another, trying to one up each other with just how disgusting and crude they could be. Lucifer wondered if they were really friends or not, but the way the others playfully joined in suggested that this was fairly common behavior.

Lucifer tried to break into the chaotic conversation to ask more questions, but the group talked around her as if she wasn't even there. It was like a game of verbal keep-away. They tossed clusters of words back and forth, keeping them just out of Lucifer's reach. She knew that she could get their attention if she really wanted to, but she doubted they had any more useful information for her.

Brooklyn led the boisterous gaggle of friends back into the general din of the mall, leaving Lucifer standing back at the kiosk like one of the colorful hats. She had been just interesting enough to notice for a moment, but once that interest faded, she was tossed aside and easily forgotten.

Lucifer stood at the calm center of the human cacophony swirling around her. For a moment, she pretended to be a part of it all, just another piece in the grand machine of ordinary life. But the illusion only lasted for a moment. She reached back and felt the imperceptible weight of the mark on her shoulder, the hex that stuck to her skin like the lifeless wing of a melted sparrow. As much as Lucifer hoped and dreamed otherwise, she knew she belonged to another world. She belonged to
another
. And there was no escape from it. At least, not for her.

But maybe, just maybe, there would be for Gina.

Lucifer readjusted her trick bag to a more comfortable position then left to find someplace a bit more quiet.

CHAPTER 10

The Yarsborough County library was at the corner of one of the city's busiest intersections, directly across from the modest Brisendine Art Gallery and a coffee shop bursting at the seams with the young and beautiful waiting for their morning dose of steaming energy potions. The library sprawled across most of the block with thick green vines winding along its marble walls.

Lucifer smiled when she saw the two granite griffins on top of the towering columns that flanked the library's doorway. She loved libraries. They were temples of knowledge, and this building looked every bit the part. Even inside, the silence was reverential. The shelves were dark and weathered from decades of use, and the natural light shining through the vast windows gave the appearance that the books were glowing.

She made her way past the front desk. A young librarian looked up from carefully inventorying returned books and gave Lucifer a quick smile. Lucifer took care to notice the woman's name tag and the titles of her personal recommendations displayed on the desk in front of her. She then walked to the far side of the first floor, where a row of computer screens sat on top of long tables in perfect alignment like tiny square soldiers awaiting orders. Since most people had laptops or tablets of their own, the library's public computers often sat empty and unused.

Lucifer picked the one most out of view of the people browsing behind her and started logging in. After a few minutes, she was able figure out the young librarian's username and password. It wasn't very hard. Most librarians used the title of their favorite books as passwords, and since Ms. Mendez was kind enough to give Lucifer a list to choose from, it was just a matter of trial and error before she figured it out. But hacking into the system as a librarian wasn't about hiding her tracks. It was about gaining access to restricted records.

The book was incredibly old, which meant it would have most likely come from the library's collection of rare books. And since libraries usually only let professors or academics have access to those books, the list of rare books out on loan should be short. If Lucifer had the titles of those books, it should only be a process of elimination to discover which one was the book Gina and her friends had used at the Worcester House.

But after an hour, she wasn't any closer to finding the book than when she walked in. None of the library's rare books were out. All were accounted for. And there was no indication that the records had been maliciously altered.

Lucifer entertained the idea that magic was somehow involved, that there might be a ghost in the machine hiding the information behind its pale and tattered rags. But if there was anything magical going on, Lucifer would know. Magic and technology didn't mix terribly well, so whenever someone tried, there were always telltale signs. But there was nothing. According to the records, the book just simply didn't exist. None of this made sense.

Isis said that this was where she found the book. But rare books were often tucked away in a room where the public didn't have access to them. Lucifer supposed someone might have accidentally shelved the book where anyone could just take it. That might explain why there was no record of it missing. Even though that was a possibility, it seemed highly unlikely. Was Isis lying? Now that was certainly a possibility, but Lucifer didn't think so. But if she wasn't lying, then what was that book even doing here?

“Hey you.”

Lucifer turned to see David smiling down at her, his perfect teeth glinting in the surreal sunlight beaming through the windows. But there was no joy in his expression, only the calm confidence of a mark standing over a Three-Card Monte game convinced he knew which card was the ace. He sat down next to her and placed his elbow on the table, resting his chin in the palm of his upturned hand. “I just had the most interesting phone conversation with Olivia.”

Lucifer rubbed her eyes, trying to ease the tension from having stared at a computer screen for so long. “What part of ‘keep it to yourself' does that girl not understand? What exactly did she tell you?”

David's mouth curled in slight confusion. “Well, let's see. She said you tied her to a chair and tried to poison her. Right before she . . . hmmm, how did she say it? Puked up a leprechaun with scoliosis.”

“Don't be silly. Leprechauns aren't real.”

“You don't say.” After a moment, David asked, “Is it true you were attacked?”

Lucifer nodded and gestured toward her face. “I normally don't look quite this hideous.” David only stared at her. Lucifer could feel her face getting even redder. “I'm a bit busy right now—”

“Gina's dad finally called me,” David said with an expression more worried than angry. “He wouldn't tell me anything, just that Gina's sick and she'll be fine in a few days. But I could tell he was lying to me. I don't believe any of this supernatural garbage you talked about, but I know that Gina really is missing. And I want to help find her.”

She stared at him in silence. Gina was his girlfriend and he had a right to know, but Lucifer absolutely hated this. There were few things worse than being the teller of this unfortunate truth: magic was real. Whether he wanted to believe it or not, it was real and it was often dark and ugly and people were always better off not knowing it existed. And short of a lobotomy, there was no way to ever un-know. But Lucifer knew from the pained look on David's face that being kept in the dark was even worse.

“All right. I'll let you help.”

“
Let
me?”

“Yes, let you. You want to help? Take me to the section where all the kids make out.”

David didn't move. “Lucifer, are you trying to tell me you want to kiss me?”

Lucifer could feel her face flush. Suddenly, all she could do was stare at David's mouth and the way the corner of his lip curled into a tiny wisp of a smile. She lifted her gaze and looked at his eyes, but that just made it even worse. Why did he have to be so damn pretty? It was distracting. “Most every library has a section where kids go to be alone together. And Isis said she found the book in a section where she was kissing somebody.”

David laughed. “Ethan. That's the only reason that guy would ever be in a library.”

“Oh, basketball guy.”

“He's Isis's guy friend,” David said.

“You mean ‘boyfriend'?”

“I don't know if I'd consider Ethan her boyfriend. They're not really dating, just sort of going through the motions. You know?”

“Not really.”

David shrugged his shoulders. “Neither do I, but I think it's because Isis and I used to go out.”

When Lucifer didn't say anything, David continued. “We dated for a little while, but we weren't really right for each other, so we broke up. And then one night, Olivia threw a party when her mom was out of town. Half the school was there. Anyway, Isis saw me there with Gina and got a bit jealous. So she kissed Ethan, hoping it would get to me. But it didn't. And since she'd never admit that that's why she kissed him, she's been kind of stuck with him ever since.”

The way David described it made it sound so mundane, but to Lucifer it was like listening to a fairy tale. Kissing, parties, jealousy . . . Lucifer had seen things and been to places that few people alive even knew existed, but David's world seemed more strange and alien to her than any of them. David's boring memory fascinated her. But Lucifer had to push that fascination to the back of her mind. There wasn't any room in her life for such things, and there was no point in wishing for something that could never be.

“That sounds . . . complicated.”

“Welcome to high school.”

Desperate to change the subject, Lucifer quickly logged off then slipped her trick bag over her shoulder. “I'm following you.”

“This way,” David said.

He led her through a maze of shelves that snaked around a small cluster of tables and chairs being used by a number of people who Lucifer assumed must be students at the university. Most of the library was well lit with plenty of room to browse the shelves without bumping into other people, but the deeper into the library they went, the darker and tighter the rows became. They came to an intersection with Applied Sciences heading off into one direction and General Reference in the other.

David said, “Over here,” then reached down and grabbed her hand. Her hand almost disappeared inside his, his fingers completely wrapping around her palm. The pleasantness of it surprised her. It felt as if a soft wave of electric current was running up the length of her arm. He gently pulled her between the stacks where the height of the shelves kept out the fluorescent light from overhead.

As they stepped into the shadows, Lucifer saw a couple leaning against the shelves, lost in a kiss. David looked down at Lucifer and said, “I think this is the place.” The couple looked up, surprised to discover they weren't alone.

“Oh, hey,” said the boy. His hair was long and wavy, and he had a bit of blond scruff jutting from the end of his pointy chin.

The girl he was kissing wiped the side of her mouth with the back of her hand and gave David a broad, toothy grin. “Hi, David.” Her gaze was locked on David, as if Lucifer wasn't even there. Lucifer couldn't help but wonder if she appeared just as idiotic as this girl did whenever she looked at David.