Dark Secrets (Dark Heritage #1)

  *****

  I kept my head down as I passed my old house, unwilling to look at the rundown state of it, and finally stopped in front of Nancy Puckett’s home. It looked a lot nicer than my old home, with its light yellow pain, bright white shutters, and porch swing. The yard was green and taken care of and it looked like she had the perfect home. I remembered passing by it every day on my way to school, and I always wondered who lived there. My mother had told me that she was a friend, but wouldn’t tell me more than that.

  Now I knew why.

  I knocked on the door and had to wait patiently for a few minutes. I could hear shuffling around inside, and I knew that someone was home. I was just about to knock again when the door opened, and I saw a woman standing there. Her hair was long and blonde, and pulled back in a tight ponytail. She was wearing a bright yellow sundress. Her eyes were wide-set and gray beneath slightly bushy eyebrows.

  “Can I help you?” She smiled at me in a way that made me think she already knew who I was and why I was here. She waited patiently for an answer, but I was too busy staring at the woman in front of me. She looked the exact same as she did the last time I saw her more than six years ago. There wasn’t one line on her face, or any indication that this woman was older than thirty, though she was probably closer to forty-five.

  “Can I help you?” she asked again.

  “Are you Nancy Puckett?”

  Her smile widened, and she nodded her head. “Yes, I am. And you’re Veronica Parker. I’ve been waiting for this day for many years. You’re just in time, because I’ll have to be moving on very shortly. I had thought you’d come visit me right after you stared seeing those ghosts.” I flinched, and she laughed. “You’re not the only one who sees them you know.”

  I took a deep breath. “You see them too?” I asked. “I’m really not the only one?”

  “Of course you’re not,” she said, stepping aside. “Come in, and we can talk. Your mother told me that you probably wouldn’t know much, or understand any of it, so this might take a little bit.”

  “When was the last time you spoke to my mother?”

  “A few years ago. It was right after she died.”

  “After?” I asked, looking at her. “You spoke to her…” I couldn’t finish that thought.

  “Her ghost? Yes, I did. She came to me and told me that I’d need to inform you about some things, because she wouldn’t be around to do it. I hope you brought that pendant she left you.”

  I lifted the pendant up and showed it to her. “I took it out of a box of my mother’s things this morning.”

  Nancy shook her head in disapproval. “You should have put this on the moment your mother died, and never taken it off. It would have helped you a great deal.”

  “What does it do?” I asked, looking at the necklace for the first time since I put it on. The stone was small, about the size of a half dollar, and it was a teardrop shape. It was normally dark purple, but right now I noticed a faint silver glow around the stone. “Why is it doing that?” I asked. “It was solid purple earlier.”

  Nancy looked at it. “It’ll do that whenever another supernatural being is around. It’s warning you. Not all of us are so friendly. Remember that.”

  “You said another supernatural being,” I said slowly, unsure if I wanted to know more. “How many of us are there? Are there different kinds? If there are, how can you tell them apart without asking?”

  Nancy smiled. “One question at a time, and I’ll answer as best as I can. First off, there are many of us, and there are several species of supernaturals out there. With practice, you can usually tell what a supernatural being is without having to ask. There are slight differences, but we’ll get into that later. Right now, I want to explain to you what being a necromancer entails.”

  “What it entails?”

  “Yes. Being a necromancer does not have to be as morbid and disturbing as it has been painted to be. We can help the souls of those that have died to pass on to the afterlife. However, not all necromancers use their powers for good. There have been some in the past that have tried to raise an army of the undead to take over the world.”

  I gasped, and she continued.

  “They have not been able to succeed, because the amount of power it takes to accomplish such a feat is beyond the reach of necromancers. We can raise a few dozen at a time, but no more. It doesn’t stop them from trying though. Thankfully, there are very few crazy enough to attempt such a feat. It usually ends in disaster, because the necromancer will burn themselves out, and they die.”

  “Could that happen to me?”

  “You’ll be fine as long as you stay away from the more powerful forms of our power. Do not attempt to raise more than one body at a time, if you have to do it at all. You shouldn’t have to, but if it does happen, try to limit the damage. Understand?”

  I nodded. “Yes, I think so. Nancy, can I ask you something?”

  She nodded. “Of course.”

  “Are there any types of supernatural beings that have glowing eyes?”

  She frowned, and looked at me for a minute before answering. “Werewolves have eyes that tend to glow, especially at night. They’re also on the larger side, not only taller, but more muscular. They’re very agile, fast, and strong, and they tend to be very temperamental. They can go from laughing to shouting in an instant. I’ve always considered them to be the most unstable of the different species. Have you met someone like that recently?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, he snuck into my room while I was asleep and started looking through my things. Then he cornered me outside my school earlier, and he said some weird things, so I did some internet research. That’s what made me come see you today.”

  She sighed. “I wished you’d said this sooner. That werewolf was a tracker, and he was sent to search for you. This is not good, Ronnie,” she said, surprising me with the use of my nickname. “Have you been doing anything you shouldn’t have? Like communicating to loved ones for money? Have you been poking your nose where it doesn’t belong?”

  I shook my head. “No! Of course not. All I do is talk to the dead people that visit me. I try to help them move on or whatever. I’ve never hard of necromancy before today, let alone charged people for it. Why would someone send him to search for me?”

  “I’m not sure,” she said, looking very upset. “You may just have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, or they might have gotten the wrong person. If they’re looking for you, it means there’s a necromancer out there doing something she shouldn’t be doing. Things could get very dangerous in the next few weeks, Ronnie. Be careful.”

  “Who is this werewolf working for?”

  “It doesn’t matter. For right now, I want you to go home and think about everything I’ve told you today. I want you to continue doing your own research. Surprisingly, most of the information about our kind that’s on the internet is actually correct. If you have anymore questions, you can call me anytime.”

  “Thanks, Nancy.”