Page 27 of A Shade Too Far
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Laurent furrowed his brows. “Miriam?”
Wrangling my annoying shadow back to the ground, I brushed my bangs out of my eyes, ensuring I forced the right note of nonchalance into my words, because I felt steamrollered by my attraction to him. “Save the apology for after breakfast.”
“As you wish.”
Oh God. He quoted The Princess Bride at me. I crossed my legs tightly and swallowed hard. “Mmm, food,” I said with a ridiculous amount of enthusiasm.
Laurent put two massive pancakes on my plate and handed it over, our fingers brushing.
A zing shot through me. “Thanks,” I mumbled.
Luckily, Tatiana was too focused on drowning her food in syrup to comment on my weirdness, and Laurent mistook it for apprehension because he assured me that whoever had placed the curse wouldn’t get to me.
I was happy to enjoy the pancakes, which were cooked to a fluffy perfection, the tartness of the blueberries cutting through the sugar of the syrup and cream. Men who could cook or bake were so sexy. Eli had won me over the first time he’d made me dinner. It was ramen noodles, same as I’d been living off, but his offering had fat chunks of tofu, tiny spears of broccoli, and spinach leaves all steeped in a spicy broth that was topped off by a fried egg. I’d put my attraction to guys in bands aside once and for all and decided this shy boy with the sweet smile was my new bar for hotness.
Laurent was off to a good start.
I speared a blueberry too hard, sending it flying off my plate. My friend had made brunch for his aunt and me because we had work to discuss. This was nothing like the situation with Eli.
Even so, it was a delicious meal. The only thing that could have made it better was a text from my daughter, though she’d be busy with the camp kids right now.
“Are you sure that Ghost Minder didn’t have the ability to control dybbuks and that it was destroyed?” I recounted the dybbuk attack on the island for Laurent. “Without a host body, hell, even with one given how violent that attack was, that ring is the only thing that makes sense.”
“Positive on both accounts. Ghost Minder is no more.” Laurent spooned more berries onto his plate. “We can ask Naveen if they found another body.”
“You sound doubtful,” I said.
“Because the host corpse should have been close to the dybbuk.”
“Then what was going on?”
“I don’t know.” He loosened his death grip on his fork.
“What about magic?” Tatiana said. “I once met an Ohrist with the ability to expel air from his lungs like a forceful gust of wind. What if this is similar and this woman’s powers allow the dybbuk to leave her body at will?”
Laurent rubbed his forehead. “That’s even worse.” His eyes darted up, flicking from side to side like he was visualizing how to combat this dybbuk.
My fork clattered to my plate. “Shit. She was just standing there while it attacked Santiago and I didn’t sense the dybbuk at all. That’s why I believed she was enthralled, but Tatiana, if you’re right, it’s even more imperative to find this woman and stop this madness from going further.”
“We stop it no matter what, if this is in fact the case,” Laurent said. “A dybbuk getting hold of those gloves?” He shook his head.
“Yes.” My employer grimly pushed her food around. “They inflict a lot of pain and would be pretty irresistible to a dybbuk.”
“And it’s far less work to use the gloves than have the dybbuk constantly leave the host’s body to kill its target,” I said.
“Or it’ll do that and use the gloves,” Laurent said. “Two different ways to inflict misery upon people.”
“How likely do you think Tatiana’s theory is?” I dumped a liberal amount of whipped cream on my plate, hoping the woman was merely enthralled and could be saved.
“It’s plausible.” He nodded. “And it’s a simple, clean explanation. It makes sense to pursue this line, but I don’t think she’s enthralled. I think she’s possessed.”
“Why?” Tatiana said.
“Can’t be.” I wiped syrup off my lip. “Her shadow was normal.”
“I can’t explain that,” Laurent said, “but if she was merely enthralled, how did the dybbuk stay in control while it left her body to attack Torres? No, she would have cried out for help at that point, not stood by and watched him die. An Ohrist who knows they’re enthralled will grasp at any straw to save themselves,” he added in a dark voice.
