Page 22 of Inked & Bloodbound
She gets up and moves to one of the altars, hastily gathering herbs and small items and stuffing them into a little pouch. “That’s enough for today. For now, practice listening against the window before you attempt to open it. Go slow. Light a black candle for protection, use salt around your space. Do it just a little at a time.”
“Okay, and then what?”
“Eventually, you’ll be able to tune in and out without all the need for ritual.” She hands me a small cloth bag tied with red string. “This is a bolsita—for protection. Carry it with you always. It is most important. What you are is very rare, and there are those who will try to harm you—and me—if they find out.”
“Why would anyone hurt us? I don’t understand.”
“No more questions tonight. You must go.” She’s rushing me now, ushering me out of the chair and toward the exit. She flings open the door and calls out, “Cassini! Time to pay. Cash only. Give it to Maria in the front.”
Cassini nods and heads toward the exit in search of the old woman who greeted us. When he’s out of earshot, Paloma grips my hand and whispers in my ear. Something in her voice sounds spooked, and it sends a horrible jolt of ice through my spine.
“He can help. You should practice with him, but you must be very careful, and you must tell no one else.” She gathers my face in herhands and kisses me on both cheeks. “Do not trust anyone, and do not trust him. Not completely.”
And with that, she nudges me out and slams the door shut behind her. Leaving me dazed and terrified in the hallway.
7
CASSINI
“How’s your head?” I ask.
Lily glances up from her burger, a smear of blood-red ketchup pooling on her bottom lip. It glistens when it catches the light, and I can’t stop thinking about reaching across the table and swiping it off with the pad of my thumb.
A pang of hunger gnaws at me. If that were blood and not ketchup, I don’t know if I’d be able to stop myself from pulling her face to mine and licking it from the corner of her mouth like a feral dog.
She’s lost in thought, considering the question, but then she smiles. “Actually…I’m feeling kinda great.” She prods her temple tentatively, like she’s testing for pain that isn’t there. “For the first time in months, I’m not in agony. It’s like someone turned off a TV that’s been playing static in the background. I’d gotten so used to it that I didn’t even realize it was such a constant.”
I nod. “That’s good. I hate to say I told you so, but?—”
“All right, all right.” She laughs as she dangles a limp fry in front of me. “I’ll admit it—this woo-woo hippie stuff works. You were right. Paloma was great, too.” She takes another bite and chases it with a sipof her pink milkshake. “So, how much did it cost? What do I owe you?”
I wave my hand. “No charge. Me and the witch go way back, so I get a deep discount.”
Back at the laundromat, I told Lily I forgot something inside and had to run back. When I burst into Paloma’s office, she wasn’t surprised to see me, but she was irritated.
“Si la lastimas, te mato, cabrón,” she warned, waving a wooden saint with a sharp point carved in the bottom toward the direction of my chest, but there was no real threat in it. “Be careful with that girl. I’m serious—she’s powerful, and if she pushes too hard, too fast…she’ll break. Go slowly, or you’ll put her in danger.”
“Got it. Proceed with caution,” I said, holding my hands up in mock surrender. “So it’s real? She’s a medium? A real one?”
Paloma confirmed it. Lily is a medium, and she’s the most powerful kind. The kind that can cross the veil and walk the line between the living and the dead. That’s why she can sometimes hear inside my head—tune into the unholy thoughts of an abominable creature like me.
“Can I stop her from hearing me?” I’d asked.
Paloma had rolled her eyes before reluctantly scribbling some instructions onto a scrap of paper. “Not that you deserve it,” she chided as she stuffed it into my jacket pocket.
Yes, there were incantations I could use, protection stones I could carry. Ways I could learn to hold Lily out of my head and push back against the intrusion. For now.
“As she gets more powerful, this may not work…but you can try,” she said. “If you care about her, I suggest you do. It will help her become stronger. If she meets resistance, she can learn to overcome it. Like training a muscle.”
“The other thing,” I’d asked, rolling up my sleeve to expose the swelling black vein underneath. “You’re positive nothing can be done?”
She shook her head. “No, Cassini. It’s a bloodbinding. That’s magiceven I can’t touch, you know that. The only way to end it is to fulfill your promise.” Her finger mapped the black line of my vein, dancing up my forearm before stopping at my elbow. “And I suggest you do soon.”
As I left, she told me one final time to go easy with Lily. “You have to protect her, Cassini. You know what will happen to her if anyone else finds out about this. Your dead little friends at the Hollow give me enough trouble as it is. Always asking for love spells and curses. I don’t want them sniffing around here asking questions about her. You were never here, okay?”
Lily swipes an onion ring through some repulsive condiment and studies me across the table, raising an eyebrow as she bites it. “You’re not eating.”
“Not hungry.” The deceit comes easily. I’m suddenly very, very hungry. My fangs are throbbing against my gums with each word she speaks, and the scent of her blood is making it increasingly hard to concentrate.