Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

S edona

“We’re doing what?” I demanded as I stumbled from the rough way my best friend Mattie was jerking me onto the sidewalk.

Great. It would be a perfect birthday if I fell flat on my face. That would be two for two. Two birthdays in a row I spent mostly in the hospital.

“Come on. It’s going to be fun. An experience. You need to live a little.”

“Live a little? I’ve been dragged around to several places today. All your ideas.” I jerked my wrist from her death grip and winced. She had sharp yet perfectly shaped nails, scarlet in color to match her personality. I had poor excuses for uneven nails and chunky cuticles, according to the girl who’d given us a manicure.

A birthday present.

I wasn’t into girls’ days out, but Mattie had basically kidnapped me.

“You call having your palm read fun?” I huffed and brushed my hands down my dress. That was new too. So was my way too fluffy hairstyle. Both compliments of my bestie who was a wild child at heart.

A responsible pediatrician by day. A crazy girl by night.

“You’re not having your palm read, goofy. It’s tarot card reading.”

“Same difference. And why today of all days?”

Her tall heels clipped on the broken sidewalk. I had trouble keeping up with her given her long legs. Her stilettos didn’t bother her, while I was still pretty certain I was going to have a slip and fall accident.

“Because it’s your birthday, sweetie. Don’t you want to know your fortune?”

“If we hadn’t just experienced eating an entire cow for lunch, I’d recommend getting Chinese food. That way I could get that happy little fortune.”

“As long as you add between the sheets to the end.” She laughed in her subtle yet provocative tone. It was the very one that attracted every red-blooded male this side of the Mississippi. She was the resident bad girl that had managed to attach herself to me shortly after my arrival in Cartersville. I was the good girl who kept to herself and liked it that way.

What was wrong with sobbing over old movies?

“What?”

“Yep. You’re supposed to end every fortune with between the sheets afterwards. It would do you some good since you haven’t gotten laid for half your life.”

“You’re such a bitch.”

“I know,” Mattie cooed. “Which is why you love me.”

She was outgoing. I was a wallflower. She was beautiful. I was plain. Although I had to admit today, I’d gotten a few looks from passing men. I chalked it up to the ridiculously tight dress she’d made me buy. The fruffy—her favorite word—material probably made me look like a water buffalo.

“Not today. Likely never again. I don’t like the occult.”

“It’s all fun and nothing else. You know that. You keep telling me you’re a scientist and don’t believe in the paranormal.”

She had a point like she always did, but my grandmother had read the cards much to the chagrin of my mother. I’d begged the woman to read mine when I was ten years old. She hadn’t wanted to, but I was an excellent beggar. She’d stopped midway through, refusing to finish or tell me what she’d seen.

But I’d seen the card. As a kid, it had terrified me even if I hadn’t known what it meant.

A wolf.

I noticed the sign up ahead and groaned. “I don’t like this.”

“You don’t like anything outside of your comfort zone, which consists of dead bodies, slimy internal organs, draining blood, and cartons of chocolate ice cream topped with hot fudge.”

For most people, describing the work of a medical examiner wouldn’t be done alongside remarking on a frozen treat. But Mattie wasn’t most people.

“I’m perfectly comfortable.”

“Uh-huh. In gray scrubs and nasty tennis shoes. That sounds comfy to me. Humor me and I’ll take you to get some ice cream.” She even had the nerve to use a funny voice at the end like she was bribing a child to be good.

If I didn’t truly adore the woman, I’d walk home. After changing back into my beloved tennis shoes.

“We’re here. Suck it up,” she said.

“Mattie.”

“Don’t Mattie me.”

She looked at me and rolled her eyes, which she usually did at least twice whenever we got together. Sadly, our work ethics and long hours prevented us from doing that very often.

“Fine. But I will get you for this.”

“There you go,” she cooed. “I love it when you get angry.”

The woman had no idea just how angry I could get.

She threw open the glass door and a small bell jingled in the process. The small shop faced a busy downtown street on a bustling Saturday, but there were no other customers inside. Just creepy music and a round table covered in a blue, gauzy-looking tablecloth that had stars on it.

“This is a joke,” I told her. My teeth were gritted. The place was freezing.

“Oh, come on. Look around you. It’s quaint.”

“Quaint? The pink building with pretty little flowers in flower boxes across the street is quaint. This is hokey-pokey fake.” There had to be two dozen candles lit and flickering. My guess was whatever the horrific scent was, it was meant to be soothing.

“Just don’t embarrass me.”

“Me with you? I think you mean the other way around, darlin’.”

My bestie didn’t have a chance to quip her sarcastic response. A draped doorway was suddenly thrown open, a girl with long raven hair walking out with a bit too much flair. She was right out of the stuff I’d seen in the movies.

“How may I help you?” She had a lovely voice and she was so young it threw me. At least she wasn’t dressed like a gypsy, wearing jeans and a flowered top like a teenager would. Wait a minute. I was going to have my future read by a girl who was much younger than me?

“I don’t think so,” I said as I tried to turn around to flee. There was something about the moment and even the thought of going through the experience that troubled me tremendously. Maybe it was about the warning my grandmother had given me after ceasing her session.

“The cards are evil for you, my child.”

Evil.

I’d never thought I’d hear my grandmother say something like that.

“Oh, no, you don’t,” Mattie barked like a drill sergeant.

She jerked my arm again and I just knew I was going to have bruises come tomorrow. “Ouch.”

“I’ll bop you in the face next time. We’re here for a reading. It’s my friend’s birthday. I’m paying for it,” my bestie announced, like it was something important.

And the girl couldn’t care less. She simply motioned me to the table while speaking to Mattie. “That will be thirty-four fifty.”

“Ouch,” I said again. I gingerly sat down on the chair. I don’t know what I was afraid of, but my teeth were definitely chattering. Maybe it was because the air conditioning unit was on full blast.

Mattie glared at me and pulled out her wallet.

When we were all paid up, the girl pulled a set of cards from behind the small counter. I could tell she was bored with her work and wasn’t taking the reading any more seriously than I was. Still, with the gothic music and the stench in the shop, I half expected to see mist coming from the shadowed corners of the walls.

“What is your name?” she asked.

“Sedona.”

“Powerful yet innocent.”

“And yours?” I could almost feel Mattie breathing down my neck. She was way too excited with this while I was ready for a nap.

“Lucia.”

“Beautiful name.”

Her eyes flicked up to mine and it felt as if she was able to look straight into my soul.

As she selected one card, Strength, explaining something about kindness and tolerance being needed to guide my chariot, I almost nodded off. I must have reacted badly because Mattie punched me in the arm.

The second card was a little happier. Lovers. Yeah. Maybe Mattie would get her wish after all. She’d been bugging me for weeks to find a hunky older man and have sweaty, rough, and filthy sex.

Not in this girl’s lifetime.

The next one was Justice and Lucia seemed perplexed. She even used the term retribution more than once. I slowly glanced over my shoulder at Mattie who shrugged.

When the Devil card was followed by Mr. Death himself, I’d had enough. “Oh, come on. This is fixed.”

The girl shook her head and I could swear she was shaking.

“Not fixed. True.”

I started to get up and Mattie’s hard shove almost made me show her that anger she said she adored via my middle finger.

“Stay,” she hissed.

“I do not think we should go on,” Lucia said.

“Oh, go for it,” I chided her. I wasn’t irritated with her, just with my soon to be ex best friend for dragging me into this shit.

Lucia was clearly out of sorts, her entire mouth twisting like she was an extra in a horror movie, the one where the victims always suffered a horrible death.

My, wasn’t my imagination working overtime?

Lucia finally swallowed and pulled another card. She was clearly despondent now. While she was a damn good facial actress in showing fake horror, there was also confusion in her eyes.

“What is it?” Mattie asked.

“The Wolf.”

“O-kay. What does Wolfie boy mean?”

Lucia continuously shook her head and she was pale as sin. Was the girl going to pass out too?

“It’s not supposed to be here. Not this deck.”

“They were accidentally mixed together.” Mattie’s suggestion was decent enough, but the girl wasn’t buying it.

“A dangerous man is going to change your future. Be careful. Be very careful.” She gathered the cards and immediately jerked up from the table.

She walked off, which was a clear indication we were finished.

“Was it something I said?” I asked.

“Clearly it was. But you were a good girl.”

Now I gave her my middle finger, which sent her off into hysterics.

Meanwhile, the reading stuck in the darkest part of my mind.

And I didn’t like it one bit.