Chapter Six.

They agreed to split the distance and meet Awan at a restaurant in a truck stop off I-15 in North Las Vegas. Awan was already waiting at a table when they arrived.

He looks a little more dressed up than last time, Deem thought. Maybe he's trying to impress me. Or Winn.

They related the events of the past day. Awan listened with interest.

"They often make little treasure piles," Awan said. "It's the bird in them. But I've never heard of using banker's boxes. That seems a little a.n.a.l."

"He's a banker in Hurricane," Deem said. "His day job. Maybe it's just what he knows."

"Does it weaken him," Winn asked, "since we took the boxes for Deem and her aunt?"

"No," Awan said. "It'll just make him more determined. He'll try to get more hair and objects. Once they fix on you, they don't stop."

"Great," Deem said. "So I just p.i.s.sed him off."

"Probably," Awan said.

"Well, I can stand watch tonight," Deem said. "And my friends found an object like your grandfather's, so that should be here tomorrow. Once we use it, we'll be permanently protected from him?"

"Supposedly," Awan said. "I never saw the thing myself. It was stolen from my grandfather before I was born. But his writings say it's a permanent protection."

"Well, that should solve it, then," Deem said.

"Have you decided if you're going to take down the shaman who created him?" Winn asked Awan.

Awan smiled at Winn. "I don't think I have the resources," he said. "I've taken down rotten belly shaman before, and they're tough. Everything I've heard about this guy, he scared the tribe so bad they exiled him. And he's unique; he's figured out how to manipulate the mutations to spin out these skinrunners quickly. It'd take some research and then a lot of firepower I don't have."

"How does he find candidates?" Deem asked. "Does he recruit them?"

"It's all word of mouth," Awan said. "Becoming a skinrunner means you don't die, at least not in a normal lifespan. So it attracts people who want to live forever, who aren't afraid to lose their souls in the process. There's plenty of people who fit that criteria. Once they've changed, they tell other people. So it kind of sells itself. The shaman charges them a ton of money to transform them."

"He had a tub of body parts in a refrigerator in his garage," Winn said. "If there's a lot of these skinrunners being made, where are they getting all the bodies for corpse poison?"

"No child grave anywhere near here is safe," Awan said, "even ones going back decades. They're only after the bones. And then there are abductions, which happen routinely."

"Horrible," Deem said.

"I wish I could take him on," Awan said, "but right now I'm trying to stop a group of extortionists who use Callers to scare innocent people into paying protection money."

"Maybe we could help you?" Winn said. "Pay you back for you helping us."

"It's dangerous work," Awan said. "Do you have much experience with Callers?"

Deem smiled. "We do," she said.

"So you know how they are," Awan said. "There's this half-gifted guy in my town, and his brother. They figured out how to manipulate some Callers. They started picking normal people in town to target. They'd go to their house and demand protection money. If they didn't get it, Callers would show up that night and scare the s.h.i.t out of the family. Then the brothers would come around again the next day and tell them the hauntings would continue until they paid up. It's been going on for weeks now. They're preying on poor families who have little in the first place, demanding thousands of dollars, and getting it. Some people approached me about putting a stop to it."

"Sounds interesting," Deem said. "You know the brothers?"

"Oh yeah," Awan said. "Everybody knows them."

"Well," Winn said, "Callers get wrapped up in a lot of things, but the one thing it usually comes down to is blood. They must be paying the Callers somehow."

"That's what I haven't cracked yet," Awan said. "I haven't been able to locate the Callers to find out what the agreement is. I suspect you're right; the brothers are supplying them blood, probably by killing dogs and cats. If I could find the Callers, I could try making them a better deal, but I don't relish the thought of hauling carca.s.ses from the slaughterhouse out to them on an ongoing basis. But I can't find them to make an offer anyway. So I'm taking a different approach, going after the brothers instead."

"How are you going to do that?" Deem asked, intrigued.

"I found something in my father's journals, something that might work if I can get the ingredients I need."

"What is it?" Deem asked.

"Blood souring," Awan said. "Ever heard of it?"

"No," Deem said.

"Once I do it to the brothers," Awan said, "the blood of any animal they touch will be tainted. Most cave spirits will reject an offering that's been soured. The Callers will stop doing business with the brothers if the cave spirits won't accept the corpses they're trading."

"What do you have to do to the brothers?" Winn asked.

"That's the hard part," Awan said. "I use this object my father gave me. It looks like a little thimble. You fill it full of the ingredients, then you place it upside down on the skin, right over a kidney. The stuff inside the thimble is drawn through the skin and into the organ. It permanently infects their blood, makes it go sour. They turn yellow and need dialysis for the rest of their lives. And any animal they touch, a little of the infection pa.s.ses through the skin to the animal. It doesn't make the animal sick, but it sours their blood just enough that a cave spirit will reject it."

"What if they figure it out and work around it?" Winn asked. "Have someone else handle the animals?"

"Then I'd sour them, too," Awan said. "But I don't think they're that smart. They're both big and stupid, and the brighter of the two, he's the one I called half-gifted, he can barely enter the River. They're both high most of the time. I think if the Callers stop helping them, they'd drop the extortion tactics and return to being the b.u.ms they are. Plus they'll have the dialysis to contend with. Fair payback for the grief they've caused and the money they've stolen."

"What help do you need?" Winn asked.

"I'm missing two ingredients," Awan said. "One I haven't been able to locate, and the other will take a trip to get."

"What are they?" Deem asked.

"Alocutis and ghost chalk," Awan said. "Have you heard of them?"

"I know of them," Deem said. "I have a couple of people I could try, see if they have any."

"You won't be able to get the kind of ghost chalk I need from friends," Awan said. "It has to be harvested from a specific kind of ghost north of here. Hence the trip."

"Have you ever made ghost chalk?" Winn asked Deem.

"No, but isn't it just ghost matter that you condense and bake down?" she asked.

"Essentially," Awan said. "It takes a while. There's no problem making the chalk if we can get the matter. The hard part, according to my father, is that it's gotta come from ghosts at the Broken Hills mine."

"Why there?" Winn asked.

"Something about the mix of minerals there," Awan said, "makes it potent enough to work for this purpose. I suspect you could try it with other ghost matter, but I'd rather go with my father's recipe and not experiment. Needs to work the first time, especially since we'll have to capture the brothers and incapacitate them while the souring takes."

"Let me get started on the alocutis," Deem said. "When were you going to go up to Broken Hills?"

"It's a six hour drive one way," Awan said, "so I wasn't planning on going until the weekend. I got a full time job. I was gonna go up Sat.u.r.day, collect it, stay in Fallon overnight, and come back Sunday."

"Want us to come with you?" Winn asked. "We could help you collect it, and help you administer the mixture to the brothers."

"That'd be a great help," Awan said. "Sure, if you want to come, I'd enjoy the company."

"You up for it, Deem?" Winn asked.

"We'd go up the day after tomorrow?" Deem asked. "Up on Sat.u.r.day, back on Sunday?"

"Right," Awan said.

"Well, as long as the object from Eliza works tomorrow, I don't see why not," Deem said. "I wouldn't mind putting some distance between myself and that skinrunner, if even for a night."

"Alright, it's a plan," Awan said. "I'll email you directions to my place. Let's plan on leaving around nine a.m. Sat.u.r.day morning. Can you make it that early?"

"Sure," Winn said.

"Yes, we'll be there," Deem said, looking forward to a change of scenery and an opportunity to leave the skinrunner problem behind.

Deem selected another movie on pay-per-view. She'd been up most of the night, determined to stand watch in the house. She considered trying coffee to keep herself awake, but decided against it, opting for chocolate and movies instead.

Earlier, after her mother and aunt had gone to bed, she duct taped a cardboard cover over the fireplace in the living room, using most of the roll to ensure it was a tight seal all the way around.

Deem checked her watch. It was three a.m. She stared at the television, trying to become engaged in the movie, but it wasn't grabbing her. She found her mind drifting to the skinrunner, wondering if he might be prowling outside the house at that moment. He's going to try something, she thought. Thank G.o.d that object will be here tomorrow. Staying up late is a b.i.t.c.h. She pulled up her phone and checked the time for sunrise five forty a.m. Three more hours to stay awake. She was going to be useless tomorrow.

She awoke with a start. She knew she'd let her eyelids close, just for a moment, completely sure she would be opening them again in a few seconds, but they'd felt so good to leave closed. She checked her watch. Three-ten. Better move around, she thought, or I'm going to fall asleep for good.

She got up and walked to the bathroom. She sat on the toilet, resting her head on her hands.

She awoke and shook her head. d.a.m.nit! she thought. Fell asleep again! She finished on the toilet and washed her hands, splashing water onto her face. She examined her face in the mirror, thinking of ways she might keep herself awake. Diet c.o.ke, she thought. But there's none in the house - Mom won't allow it. I can't drive off to 7-11.

She noticed something in the mirror above the sink. She turned to look behind her. The bathroom was small, and the wall behind her was only three feet away. Nothing there. The thing she'd noticed in the mirror had been near the top of the reflection. She looked at the ceiling nothing. Everything looked normal.

She turned back to the mirror. The reflection showed something behind her. It looked like a tail. From her angle, standing in front of the mirror, she could only see a few inches of it. She wondered if it was a defect in the mirror that she'd never noticed.

Then the tail moved. She jumped.

There's nothing behind me! she thought. I must be dreaming. I've fallen asleep.

She lowered her head and looked in the mirror, trying to change the angle of her view so she could see higher in the reflection. The tail belonged to a large lizard, attached to the upper wall and ceiling behind her. It was watching her, hanging a couple of feet over her head.

She freaked. She bolted from the bathroom. Once outside, she turned to face the door, waiting to see if anything emerged. Nothing did.

She ran her hands over her arms and neck, and she felt it just under her right armpit.

G.o.dd.a.m.nit! She thought. I should have tried coffee.

She walked upstairs to her bathroom and turned on the lights. She checked in the mirror for any unexpected creatures, and finding none, began examining the blister under her arm. She used a sharp nail file to open it and remove the bone.

Eliza said the package would arrive by ten a.m., she thought. I'll set the alarm for nine. When it arrives, I'll use it on myself, then I'll use it on Virginia.

For all the angry scenarios she'd imagined the skinrunner might pull, he'd just infected them again the same way he'd done it the past few nights. He hadn't marched in with a machete screaming b.l.o.o.d.y murder. He just followed his pattern.

Except for the lizard, Deem thought. Then again, the lizard might have been in the house last night, while I was asleep. Is the lizard how he plants the bone?

She walked back downstairs and turned off the TV, then walked back up to her bedroom, set her alarm, and turned out the lights.

Awan was right, she thought as she drifted off. He won't stop.

Deem awoke to the sound of the doorbell. She checked her alarm clock it was five to nine, and the alarm hadn't gone off yet. Three loud knocks on the front door.

It's here, she thought, throwing herself out of the bed and grabbing her robe as she ran downstairs.

She opened the front door and saw a FedEx sticker hanging near the handle. The delivery man was walking back to his truck.

"Wait!" she yelled, running out onto the walkway in her bare feet. The cement was already hot and she decided to step onto the gra.s.s instead.

The FedEx guy stopped, turned, and seeing her, returned to meet her on the gra.s.s. He handed her the package and the electronic signing board. She scribbled her name, thanked the driver, and ran back into the house.

She took the package back to her room, not wanting her mother or aunt to see her unwrap it.

The box was small, and she had it open within minutes. Inside was a thin piece of tin about six inches square. Symbols had been stamped into the corners. It looked exactly like the picture she'd sent to Eliza. She dropped into the River and looked at it again it transformed into a thin piece of white linen, about the same size. There were two small black beads woven into the material on one side. It glowed a light green.

Awan said to wet it, she thought, place it over my nose and mouth, and breathe through it.

She took it into her bathroom and ran water over it, and shook it a little to remove the excess water. Then she walked back into her bedroom, lay down on the bed, and placed the linen over her face. She drew in a breath.

Hmm, she thought. I don't feel anything. Maybe I'm not supposed to.

She let the linen sit on her face for a while, breathing through the moist cloth. After several minutes, she dropped out of the River, and the cloth reverted to the square tin, sitting on top of her face. It began to slide off, so she grabbed it.

Let's try Virginia, she thought. She put on clothes and walked downstairs to the guest room. She knocked lightly on Virginia's door, then opened it.

Virginia was sitting up in bed, reading. She turned to Deem.