When Eric and Holly pulled into the thrift store parking lot, Paul was standing in the shade of the building, near the donations entranceway. It was immediately clear that he was agitated. He was fidgety. He kept looking around to make sure no one was coming.
Sitting on the ground next to him was Kevin. His broad shoulders were slumped. His face was buried in his hands. And he looked grimy, as if he’d been out working all day.
“What happened?” asked Eric as he jumped out of the vehicle.
“Hell if I know,” replied Paul. “We were following that weirdo, keeping our distance like we said we would. He never showed any sign that he saw us. But then he got real interested in the alley between the tobacco store and that barber shop. That was where we lost him.”
“He must’ve gone out the other side,” reasoned Kevin. He was speaking clearly enough. He certainly didn’t sound like he was in pain.
“It was a big cloud of black smoke,” said Paul. “I have no idea where it came from. It just started gushing right out of the ground, right at his feet. Scary shit.”
That explained why he looked dirty, Eric realized. It was soot from that smoke.
Holly knelt down beside Kevin and gently pried his hands away from his face. “Easy,” she said.
“Holly?”
“That’s right. Does it hurt?”
He shook his head. “It stung a little at first, but it doesn’t hurt now.”
It would’ve fooled Eric. Both eyes were red, swollen and watery. He looked like he’d taken a face full of pepper spray.
“Little itchy,” he admitted.
“Aw…” She squeezed his hands. “Poor guy…”
Eric glanced down at her. Her eyes were shimmering again, as if Kevin’s plight were breaking her heart. She was a sympathetic and comforting girl by nature, but this felt like another of those odd mood swings she’d been having all afternoon, like it was out of proportion with who she really was.
Besides, she usually kept her distance from Kevin. In addition to all the magical skills taught to her by Delphinium and her grandfather, she also possessed one very useful natural talent: She had the ability to see people for who and what they really were. It had served her well when she was living on the streets because she always knew who truly wanted to help her and who merely wanted to use and abuse her. And when it came to Kevin, she knew that he was a good person, but she also knew that he harbored a deep and somewhat immature fascination with the knowledge that she used to be a stripper.
“I didn’t know what to do,” said Paul. “I almost called an ambulance, but I had no freaking idea what to tell them. So I called you first.”
Eric knelt down beside Kevin and Holly. “Ever see anything like this before?” he asked her.
“Not from mystery smoke,” she admitted. “But I know of a spell that has the same effect.”
“You know a spell to blind someone?” he asked.
“I know of a spell to blind someone. I don’t know the spell. Only Del knows it.”
“I’m already blind,” Kevin reminded them. “Do you have a spell to un-blind me?”
“Del might know a counter-curse. But that’s to undo a spell. I don’t even know if this had anything to do with magic.”
Eric looked at his cell phone. “Anything?”
I DON’T FEEL ANY MAGIC ENERGY. OR ANY ENERGY, FOR THAT MATTER. IT COULD BE ANYTHING
He turned and looked at Paul. “Tell me exactly what happened. Every detail.”
“There’s not much detail to tell. Like I said, we saw the weirdo go into that alley.” He gestured back toward Main Street. “But we were almost a block back and on the other side of the street. By the time we reached it, he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. We went in to try to pick up his trail.”
“There was something on the ground,” said Kevin. “I never saw it. Stepped on it. Felt like something broke. Like peanut shells or something. Next thing I knew I was choking on that black smoke.”
“It was like a geyser,” recalled Paul. “I was a few steps behind him, so I didn’t get suckered by it like he did. I held my breath and closed my eyes and yanked him out of it, which must’ve worked, because I’m fine. I thought he was, too, by looking at him, but he wasn’t. He’s completely blind.”
“Not completely,” said Kevin. He lifted his head and blinked up at the sky. “Everything was black when it first happened. Now everything’s kind of whitish.”
“Could be temporary,” hoped Holly.
“Or it could cause some serious long-term damage,” said Eric. “We have no idea what was in that smoke.”
“I like Holly’s attitude better,” decided Kevin. And he did seem to be enjoying the extra attention, even if he couldn’t see.
“Any clue what the creep was up to?” asked Eric.
“None,” replied Paul. “All he was doing was walking around and looking at stuff. We figure he’s using those glasses to chart all the invisible places you and Aiden found last year.”
It made sense. By now, he was sure to know about most of Creek Bend’s unseen, including the old schoolhouse.
He stood up. “Take me to the alley. Show me the spot.”
“What about Kevin?”
“I’ll stay with him,” promised Holly.
“You don’t think we should get him to the hospital?”
Eric looked at his nephew, concerned. “I don’t know, honestly. It’s like you said, I don’t have any idea what to tell the doctors.”
“If it does turn out to be magic,” said Holly, “a doctor won’t be able to do much for him anyway. We need to figure out what that smoke was.”
Paul nodded. He didn’t say anything else. He turned and led the way back to the scene of the crime. Eric could tell he was troubled, and he didn’t blame him one bit.
The alley was narrow and empty, but dark, even in the daylight. The weeds had taken over. It was no wonder Kevin didn’t see what was on the ground in front of him. It was difficult to even see the ground in most places.
“It was right there,” said Paul, pointing to a place where the weeds had turned black under a layer of thick soot. It was undoubtedly the spot where Kevin was standing. It looked like a smoke bomb had gone off there.
Careful not to get anything dangerous on his hands, he knelt down and examined the ground. There were several small, plastic capsules scattered in the weeds, like the ones he remembered getting out of those quarter vending machines that used to be in every store lobby when he was a kid. Put a coin in the slot, turn the knob and get a tiny, useless toy.
But these didn’t have toys in them. They had some kind of grayish powder. Several were crushed, what little powder remained was burned black. Those would be the ones Kevin stepped on.
He looked closer. The ground here was soaked with some kind of oil. The whole area had a very unpleasant, pungent smell about it.
It didn’t take much to deduce the logic behind this trap. When the capsules were broken, they spilled the powder onto the ground, where it mixed with the oil, leading to some kind of chemical reaction. Isabelle was right. There was no magic here. Only science.
Or was it?
Carefully, he picked up one of the unbroken capsules and peered through the clear plastic at the powder within. He’d never heard of a chemical reaction that produced a thick, black smoke that could blind a person.
Maybe there was some magic involved after all.
Or maybe the science was not of this world. Maybe this stuff came from one of those other worlds like he kept running across. Maybe there were different chemical reactions on the other sides of fissures and portals.
The possibilities were truly endless when it came to the weird.
He gathered up a few more of the intact capsules. If all else failed, they could send these to the hospital with Kevin so that they could at least try to deduce what caused his blindness.
“What’s this guy’s deal, anyway?” asked Paul. “Why’s he here? What’s he after?”
Eric stood up, careful not to break any of the capsules. There was oil on some of them. Some of it had transferred to his fingers. If one were to pop open now, it might burn his hand off, for all he knew. Fortunately, the oil itself didn’t seem to have any immediate effects on its own. Although he still intended to wash his hands as soon as possible. “I’m not sure, but they might be trying to summon another jinn.”
“Why the holy hell would anyone want to do that?”
He held out the capsules. “Why would anyone want to do this?”
“Point taken.”
“I think I met this guy’s partner while you were following him.”
“Another freak?”
Eric nodded. “You have no idea.”
“Any idea how you’re going to stop them?”
“Not a clue.”
They walked back to the thrift shop parking lot, where Kevin and Holly were waiting for them.
“How’s he doing?” asked Eric.
“I’m optimistic,” said Holly.
“You usually are.”
“I am. But I really think this is only a temporary thing.”
“I think I can see some shapes now,” reported Kevin.
“How many fingers am I holding up?” asked Paul.
He squinted in his father’s general direction. “I don’t need to see for that. The answer’s always one when you ask that question.”
Paul grinned. “He’s right. It is.”
“Come on,” said Holly, taking one of Kevin’s hands. “Let’s get you into the car.” But as he started to get up, she let out a startled yelp and then smacked him hard on the top of his head.
“Ow! Sorry! I’m blind, remember?”
That sweet sympathy was gone. Back again was her lightning-fast temper. “You’ll be worse than blind if you don’t keep your hands to yourself!” she warned, smacking him again.
“I was reaching for your other hand! It was an accident! I swear!”
“Don’t think I won’t curse you!”
“It was an accident!”
Eric looked over at Paul and caught him grinning again.
“What? He’s blind, remember?”