much.'
'So what's with the shades?' the smaller woman asked as she walked next to me. 'You got an eye condition or you just like to look cool?'
'Roxy! Don't be so rude! You'll have to forgive her,' the pregnant woman said as we stopped before the in- store latte stand. 'She was dropped on her head when she was a baby. Several times, as a matter of fact. Two double tall skinny lattes, and… what would you like?'
'Americano,' I said, wondering just what sort of man attracted such strange groupies. And was that his baby the tall one was carrying? More important, why did I want so much for it not to be his?
She gave the order. 'And I'll take one of those lemon muffins, and that piece of pastry with the cherries on it, and… um… that mocha brownie.' She turned to us. 'Do either of you want anything?'
'You're going to explode if you eat all that,' the smaller woman said with a pointed frown at the pregnant belly. I shook my head, then allowed myself to be herded over to a nearby table.
'I expect you're a bit curious about this,' the tall one said, giving me a reassuring smile. 'First off, I'm Joy, this is my friend Roxy, and you are… ?'
'Allie. Allegra Telford.'
'You're American, too?'
'Yes.' I squirmed a bit uncomfortably in my chair, wanting for some reason to go back to Dante so I could stare at him a bit more.
'Cool,' Roxy said. 'The big question, of course, is do you believe in vampires?'
She turned to her outraged friend. 'What? It's important!'
'Yes, but you don't just blurt it out like that! You work up to these things cautiously, carefully. Most people get all weirded out if you start talking about vampires and Dark Ones and all that. You have to approach the subject with kid gloves. I'm sorry, Allie; she has no delicacy or tact.'
Delicacy? About the paranormal? Around me? Laughter burbled up inside of me until I couldn't keep it in any longer. I whooped until my eyes streamed, forcing me to grab a napkin and mop up under my glasses. Both women stared at me as if I had a ghost of a three-legged cat standing on my head.
'Sorry, it just struck me funny. What you said. In answer to your questions, Roxy, yes, I have an eye condition, although it's not sensitivity, if that's what you were thinking. If you really want to see, I'll show you, but most people find my eyes… unnerving. And I'm not weirded out by stuff like vampires, Joy, although I have to admit I've never seen any proof that they exist. You don't happen to know what a Summoner is, by any chance?'
Both women shook their heads, then Roxy, on my left, leaned in close and squinted to see in behind my glasses. I rolled my eye toward her. 'Oooh, cool, you have really light eyes. What is that, gray? Silver? Yeah, it's a bit strange to have eyes the color of a full moon with a dark ring around the outer edge, but I don't see what's so unnerving about them.'
Joy, on my other side, tipped her head to look in the right side of my glasses, then frowned. 'She doesn't have light eyes, you idiot! They're kind of a hazely gold with patches of a darker brown. That's interesting how the color varies within your iris. Still, I have to agree with Rox—it's different, but hardly unnerving.'
I sighed and made sure no one was near, then pulled my glasses off. Both women gasped.
'Oh, that is so totally cool! Your eyes are two different colors! Are those contacts?' Roxy asked, leaning close to peer at my eyes.
'No.'
'You were born like that? Very cool!'
I couldn't help but smile at her. She was the only person I'd ever met who thought my eyes weren't creepy. 'It's a condition called heterochromia irides. It's fairly rare, and most cases don't have the extreme variation in eye color that I have, but it's not, as some people believe, a sign that I'm marked by the devil.'
'Well, of course not,' Joy said. 'Personally, I like the effect. It makes you look… unique.'
I snorted. 'Unique, that's a nice way of saying it. The silver eye would be bad enough by itself, but coupled with the dark eye…' I shrugged and put my glasses back on. 'Most people get nervous around me when I'm not wearing my glasses.'
Roxy peered in the side of my glasses again until Joy smacked her arm and told her to behave. 'It's unusual, Allie, but not unnerving. Don't feel like you have to hide your eyes from us.'
'So what's a Summoner?' Roxy changed the subject abruptly as the waitress brought our drinks and Joy's food.
I chewed on my lip for a moment. Something was bothering me; some vague sense of unease was growing. I took a long look at the two women next to me, but the feeling wasn't coming from them.
'A Summoner has the power to talk to ghosts.' I turned my head to scan the people in the espresso area, my gaze moving beyond to the line of people visible waiting for Dante to sign their books. The line was smaller now, just twenty or so people left, but something nagged at me, pulled at my mind as if I were missing something important.
'Cool!' Roxy breathed. 'And you're one? You can talk to ghosts? Do you use a Ouija board or something?'
'Wait a minute,' Joy said, her brow furrowed as she tapped out a tattoo on the tabletop. 'I think I read something about that in one of Christian's books… isn't a Summoner someone who can raise the dead?'
I gave the line one last worried look, then turned back to shake my head at Joy. 'Not really, no. We can only call those spirits who are already present, tied to a location, not ones who have passed on to another existence. But once we call them, they stay bound to us until we release them. Summoners are used primarily in cases of hauntings that trouble the living, poltergeists and the like. The spirit is Summoned, then Released to move on to where they were meant to go.'
'We? So you're a Summoner?' Roxy asked, her eyes big.
I nodded.
'Wow. Can anyone do it? I mean, is it a matter of just a few magic words and voilà, you got yourself the ghost of Great-Grandpa Joe?'
'Don't be so flippant, Roxy; this is a serious matter. If Allie is Christian's—' She stopped and gave me a toothy smile. 'Well, regardless, I'm sure she is uniquely qualified to do what she's doing.'
'Oh.' Roxy eyed me. 'Yeah. I see what you mean.'
'I don't,' I replied, looking from her to Joy. 'I take it Christian is C. J. Dante?'
Both nodded at me.
'Would either of you happen to know if he's riddled with at least a hundred cuts on his torso, arms, and legs?'
As if they were in unison, both their mouths dropped open in surprise.
I sighed. 'I'll take that as a no. Right. So what does Christian have to do with me, other than—' It was my turn to stop in the middle of sentence.
'Other than what?' Roxy asked, just as I knew she would. 'Have you met him before? He never told us he met you, and I think he would, don't you, Joy?'
'Yes,' she said, her dark eyes considering me as she munched on a lemon muffin. She licked crumbs from her lips and glanced at Roxy. 'Christian is a very dear friend of ours. We promised last year to help him find… someone.'
'Someone? Like a blind date?'
Roxy snorted.
'Not quite,' Joy said, popping another piece of muffin in her mouth.
I didn't believe her. She was trying to match Christian up with someone; I could feel her concern about him. Still, that had nothing to do with me, nothing unless it turned out he really was in that inn last night, and then I had a few questions for him, questions like what on earth he was doing cutting himself up like that, and who were the people he was waiting for, and how did he get rid of everything so quickly without me seeing him… Suddenly the word
'Shhh!' both women shushed me, looking around to see if anyone was within hearing distance. Only one person was, and I unguarded my mind a moment to see if she believed what she heard. She didn't.
'You're kidding, right? I realize that he's a bit… well… intense, but a you-know-what?' They both looked back
