One Kiss: An Apocalyptic Urban Fantasy (Transmissions from The International Council for the Exploration of the Universe., #1) Read Online Free PDF

be afraid," she said shuffling forward, her movements accompanied by a jingle. Bracelets on her wrists, gold, copper, and silver, all tinkling against each other. “Stay," she said. "You are here for a reason."
    The woman stood in front of Suki's mausoleum with her back to me as she reached up to the roof's edge and placed a fresh candle there. She struck a match, the scratch of the sulfur head against the rough grain on the box satisfying. "I can help you," she said, raising the match above her head to the candle's wick. The flame melted the wax and grew larger as it caught the cotton fabric. She shook the match, a puff of smoking emanating when the fire died.
    She turned to me; her movement produced more jingles. She clasped something close to her side so that it was partially hidden in the folds of her skirt, but I could see black feathers and a strand of beads hanging down. "What do you mean?" I asked her. "How can you help me?"
    "I can help you find your friend."
    "What do you know about her?" I asked, my voice uneven, as I took an involuntary step forward.
    The woman smiled, her teeth yellow in the candle's flickering glow. "I can help you," she said and her smile grew larger. "For a price."
    I nodded and pursed my lips. "Of course," I said and reached for my violin case again, figuring she'd been listening in on Emmanuel and me. She was a fraud.
    "Because I ask to be paid for my services you think I'm a liar," she said to my back, her voice louder, almost angry. "Do you play for free?"
    I turned back to her, my violin case in hand. She was closer, almost touching me. "I don't know what your game is," I said. "But I'm not interested." She grabbed my bicep. "Let go," I said as my body began to shake with adrenaline and fear. I struggled to pull free of her but the woman's hand was like a vise. "You don't want to find your friend anymore?" she asked. "Or are you afraid maybe she left you on purpose?" she cooed.
    I stopped struggling and looked into the woman's eyes. They were dark and deep-set. Impenetrable. She held up the object in her other hand. I broke eye contact to look at it. A plume of black feathers surrounded a black and green chicken foot, the skin looking almost like scales. A string of red beads was tied around what was left of the ankle, holding the feathers in place. "Pay me twenty and I will find your friend," she said. "That's much less than you've spent already."
    "How do you know?" I asked.
    She smiled, her teeth shiny. "Magic," she said as she let go of me, releasing a laugh that ricocheted off the gravestones around us, bouncing back, and sounding almost like a flock of crows. She walked over to the Suki crypt and squatted in front of it, her long skirt bunching on the ground. She placed the chicken foot at the center of the makeshift shrine on the path and then looked over her shoulder at me. "You pay in advance."
    I reached into my purse and pulled out a twenty. There was one more in there, and I knew that it represented a larger portion of my total assets than I liked to admit. Bending forward, I passed it to her. She reached over her shoulder, still in a squat at the base of the mausoleum, not bothering to look at me, and snatched the paper from my fingers. The candle threw light around our corner of the cemetery, flickering against the old structures, making their cracks and shadows dance in the little flame's light. Above us the clouds hung low, the lights from the city reflecting off them as a burgundy glow.
    "Put down your things," she said. I placed my violin back on the ground. "Your purse too," she said. Pulling the thin strap over my head, I put my small leather purse next to the case, hoping she wasn't about to knock me on the head and take them both off into the night with her. She began to chant, her head rocking back and forth on her neck. Smoke rose up in front of her, big billowing gray smoke that smelled of sage and something else, something slightly rotten.
    She stood up quickly,