Page 70 of The Vanishing Bookstore
Sephy jumped in the front of the van and Dora the passenger side. Dora left the door open long enough so that her shadow dog could also climb in with them. Sephy, who never usually drove fast, sped out of the street towards the shop. She mounted the curb and abandoned the car at the same time as Ambrose came pelting around the corner, almost colliding with the small white van. Dora was already out of the van and pushing the front door of the shop open.
‘Lenny, are you here?’
She prayed her aunt would answer her and make the pair of them realise how wrong they were, but she was greeted by silence and the earthy smell of rotting compost. Sephy came in behind her and her nose twitched.
‘He’s been here, I can smell him.’
‘That’s his smell? He came into my shop, and I thought he smelled of expensive aftershave. I never smelled anything like this.’
‘You couldn’t, dear, you were just a mortal back in London with no prior knowledge of your heritage and previous lives. Now you’ve awakened your magic you can smell him for what he really is. Nothing but a fetid, decomposing piece of shit.’
Dora smiled at Sephy, tickled despite the gravity of the situation. Since she’d arrived in Salem, she’d hardly ever heard her swear.
Ambrose sniffed the air and shook his head, then he squeezed past both of them. ‘Sorry ladies, I know you are both in charge but let me check the shop out first. I need to feel as if I’m of some use to you.’
He looked around then went through the curtain leading to the back room and stopped.
‘Sephy.’
Sephy rushed to where he was standing. There was a pile of shattered glass jars on the floor and a streak of red along the corner of the whitewashed shelf. She strode towards it then leaned forwards to smell. ‘Blood. He’s hurt her – that doesn’t smell of decay like he does. Damn him, please Lenny, be okay, don’t fight him too much, we’re on our way.’
The back door was unlatched and Ambrose pushed it open, Dora following him. The pair of them stood there surveying the area but could see nothing in the street.
Sephy joined them. ‘He’s gone, there’s no scent, no trace. He had to have had a vehicle.’
‘What do we do, call the cops?’ Dora asked.
‘No,’ both Sephy and Ambrose said in unison.
‘They can’t help us,’ Sephy added. ‘They never have been able to and probably never will. It’s too much for a mere mortal’s mind to accept. I’m sorry, Dora, but that’s the way it is and always has been. We fight our own battles. Win or lose, it’s what we do.’
A look of pain crossed Ambrose’s face. ‘I hate him, I wish I’d never been born to the same family as him. My father was bad enough, but my uncle was always so much worse, always waiting around behind closed doors to make his move when he thought no one was looking. Only I could see him, I saw the blacknessinside of him. I just wish I’d been brave enough to do something about it before he got this strong.’
Dora stared at Ambrose. With his floppy fringe and dazzling smile he did have a look of George Corwin. But whereas Corwin wore an air of cruelty around him like a cloak, Ambrose wore one of friendship and loyalty. She reached out and touched his arm and Sephy turned to him.
‘You are nothing like him. You were also a child, he wasn’t your battle to fight.’
‘I feel as if he was, that I could have made the difference for you all, Sephy.’
She reached out and hugged him briefly. ‘You have been here for us all since that terrible day and for that we’ll always be grateful, Ambrose.’
Dora felt her heart fill with warmth watching her aunt soothing Ambrose when it was her who needed the soothing.
‘Well then, I guess we go home and wait for Hades to report back.’
‘Or we could go to Boston? Lenny said that was where he was, we might be able to use our powers to track him down. It has to be worth trying.’
‘We can’t, darling, we are unprepared and emotionally wrung-out. We could be wasting precious time driving around in circles. Boston is not Salem; everyone doesn’t know their neighbours.’
Sephy ushered them back inside and bolted the back door behind them. She glanced at the mess on the floor and ignored it. Then they were out the front of the shop, where Dora was surprised to see the van still there parked across the pavement with the engine running. If this had been London, Sephy would never have seen it again, it would have been stolen and on its way to the other end of England. Once Sephy had secured the front door, all of them piled inside and they drove back toSephy’s fairy tale pink house. They clambered out of the van and down the garden path, Dora scanning the sky for a sign of Hades and his friends, but there was nothing. Sephy led them inside where they took seats around the kitchen table. Ambrose took in the offerings and smiled.
‘You invoked Hecate, you brought out the big girl?’
Sephy nodded. ‘I fear I had no choice; she came and answered our prayers. Maybe a little too late for Lenny, but she is here and Dora is well protected.’
Ambrose stared at Dora, with her long black hair pinned in a messy bun, her grey linen dress with the tiny pearl buttons and high lace collar. ‘Dora, you look so beautiful. You look just the way you used to. I remember you when I saw you walking through the woods to get to the village with your book under one arm and a handful of freshly picked daisies. I fell even more in love with you than I had when we were children.’
Dora smiled at him. ‘I feel like that girl too. She was so innocent but there is something raw and untamed inside of me waiting to be unleashed. I need to find Lenny and Corwin then maybe we could start all over again, Ambrose.’
