“Scarlett, thanks so much for doing this.” Kayla’s eyes were reddened as she greeted me, but that might be because of whatever she was on.
“It’s Scar,” I reminded her sharply, knowing it was useless. One of the things I loathed most about her—and the list was long—was the fact that she refused to call me by my nickname because she didn’t consider it a real name. As if Kayla was any less made up. “I’m doing this for Matt,” I added, feeling like a shit doing so. Whatever I felt about this woman, her son was missing. I could only imagine what kind of hell that was. “I’m sorry, Kayla, about Danny being missing.” I gentled my voice, not wanting to get off on the wrong foot.
“Do you want to see Danny’s room right away? I’m not sure how this sort of thing works.” The way she said it indicated the she considered it just this side of witchcraft, which was actually quite useful. I wasn’t a witch, but I knew a few who had helped me out with a spell now and then. I didn’t respond to Kayla’s comment as Matt and I followed her into her modest home.
“I don’t know how it works, either,” I said honestly, not wanting to give any false hope. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“But Matt told me that you had ESP!” Kayla protested, her eyes darting back and forth. Her right hand was trembling, making me suspect that she was on coke or heroin. No, I’ve never done either, but I had friends who did drugs. No, not the witches—they were more into dandelion wine and things like that. “You have to find him!” Kayla clutched my arm with her red talons so hard, I winced.
“She’ll do her best,” Matt said, detaching Kayla’s claws from my forearm. She immediately transferred her grip to his arm, and he took it like a man.