Cara laughed, despite her lingering embarrassment. She liked Lex immediately. He looked quite a lot like Mal, but with all the dangerous edge removed. He had the same coloring, though his eyes were much lighter. He wasn’t musclebound, and he didn’t have Mal’s smoldery gaze. He must be the good brother.
“Where’s Mal?” Lex asked, looking vastly relieved that she was dressed.
She looked at the kitchen island, the scene of the crime that led her to say yes to everything Mal suggested last night. The bottle of wine was still there, open and probably gone bad. The cherries sat in their package and mocked her for being a damn idiot and letting one spectacular kiss get in the way of all rationality and common sense. “Um, actually, I don’t know.” Lord, she sounded stupid. “He was gone when I woke up. I know that sounds weird, but…”
Lex was already shaking his head in a way that made her heart sink into her feet. “Nope. That actually sounds pretty spot-on for him.”
“Oh.” Oh.
“You’re staying here?” Lex asked in a very carefully neutral tone.
“Yes? For a few nights. Because across the street is sort of…”
“Haunted.”
“Yeah. Mal said it was ok for me to stay.” But then again, Mal said a lot of things. And he wasn’t here anymore.
“I’ll text him,” Lex said. “Maybe he’s got a good reason and he’s not being a total dumbass. I mean, we do get emergency calls.”
“He’s responding to a demon-hunting emergency?” Wow, she sure sounded hopeful about that absurd scenario.
“It’s possible.” Lex flashed her a sweet smile. “Don’t worry. Everything will make sense eventually.”
“Look, I, uh, have to go to work in a little bit. Which is right across the street.”
“Yeah, I know. Mal’s been keeping us informed.”
“Right. Is it ok for me to come by after I’m done and pick my stuff up then?”
“Is that what you want to do? Where will you stay?”
“Got any recommendations?”
“I’ve only ever stayed here,” Lex admitted. “Look, I know this is awkward, but maybe there is a good explanation. Don’t jump to conclusions, ok?”
“I’ll do my best,” she muttered.
Cara started a pot of coffee and tried very hard not to overhear Lex on his phone. “Dom, hey. You guys about done over there? Because I think you both need to get back here now. No, I don’t have any idea where Mal is.” A pause, then Lex giving a little sigh. “Ok. Hurry.”
By the time Cara was pouring coffee into a mug, Lex was hunched over his phone, texting furiously. She would never be happier to get to work.
Chapter 16
Mal rode the motorcycle for hours, trying to outrun his own mind, which was impossible to do. He’d not just gone into the otherworlds, he’d stumbled into a legit vision of Cara’s future, or futures. Mal was not even slightly trained for such events. And he’d always been terrified of stepping too deeply into the otherworlds, especially when it was mental, not physical. Dancing on the edge of the otherworlds, keeping one foot in and one foot out…that was fine. He could do that as easy as breathing. But giving up his link to his body and wandering into the strange, illogical reality beyond his own gave Mal the creeps.
And he’d done it by accident.
Because getting close to Cara had lowered his defenses.
Dawn was streaking the sky by the time he got his head out of his ass and realized that he’d messed up on a whole lot of levels. Mal had never aimed to be the Perfect Boyfriend, but he knew that running away from your partner while in your own house was not a good move. Cara was going to be confused and probably pissed, and if he was smart he’d get home to explain…what? That he saw her die?
He returned home with a nearly empty tank, a headache, and the sense that things were about to get a lot worse.
Lex was sitting on the porch when he rolled up. He had a mug of coffee in his hands and judgment in his eyes as Mal approached.
“She went to work,” Lex said before Mal got out a hello. “You want to give me a report on what’s going on?”
“I need coffee.”
“I need answers.” Lex held out the mug to Mal. “You drink this one and I’ll get another.”
“No way, you put sugar and cream in and it’s gross.”
“Malachy East de Silva Salem. Every human and cat around is pissed at you right now, so drink the coffee you’re given and start talking.” Lex went inside to get another mug, but yelled out, “Talk! I can hear you!”
“I don’t know where to start.” He stared into the mug.
“Start with why I ran into a strange girl in our hallway at five in the morning!”
“I invited her.”
“Yeah, I got that. And based on the fact that she was wearing your bathrobe and nothing else, I assume that you didn’t just want to give her a safe space out of the goodness of your heart.”
Mal took a sip of the creamy coffee and immediately regretted it. “Things…kind of progressed.”
“You don’t say.” Lex reappeared on the porch, a fresh mug in hand.
“I didn’t mean for it to happen. Exactly.”
“Going to bed with her? Or leaving your own bed afterward?”
“I freaked out.”
“About her? She seems nice.”
“She is,” Mal said. “It’s complicated.”
“Hope you’re more articulate when you talk to her. Speaking of, shouldn’t you be getting ready?”
“I’m not sure I still have my job. Cara might have fired me already.”
“It’s only eight in the morning. Get your butt to work so we don’t lose our access to that hellhole. Ok? Think about someone other than yourself for once.”
Lex was normally an easygoing guy, so seeing him angry was a novelty, and a novelty that felt particularly bad. Mal decided that he didn’t want to pick a fight with his little brother on top of all his other problems today. He drank down the coffee and stood up.
Mal dressed in his usual uniform of heavy-duty jeans, tank top, and hoodie. At Egan House, he went directly to the parlor room and saw Cara on her hands and knees, absorbed in her work.
“Cara?” He waited. No response. “Cara?”
“I’m not talking to you right now,” she said coldly, not even raising her head. “Go find Dan and do every little thing he tells you to do.”
“Can we talk later?”
“Get to work, Mal Sa—East.”
“Ok.” He didn’t like the way she was staring at the design of the floor, but he didn’t have a lot of leverage now, considering that he’d just ghosted her.
Thankfully, Dan was his normal self, and Mal spent the day doing mindless jobs like carrying materials around, which was all he was good for anyway, considering the limited amount of sleep he’d gotten.
He was doing all right until he paused for a break after hauling up more plumbing fixtures. He leaned against a wall in an unoccupied room and closed his eyes.
He’d screwed up. In a major way.
If he’d known that sleeping with Cara was going to result in a vision, he wouldn’t have done it.
Oh, yes I would. And I’d do it again if she let me.
His skin prickled as a cool draft swirled around him.
All I wanted was a chance to prove myself. And I failed. And I’ll be stuck here forever, always waiting for the fire to get me.
Wait. What?
These weren’t his thoughts.
“Stop it,” Mal hissed. “Get out of my mind right now, you little creep. Or I will hurt you a thousand times worse than before.”
The sensation intensified briefly before fading away, leaving Mal tired but in possession of his own thoughts again. He made a mental note to bring up some rowan and scatter it around. Pushy ghosts generally hated it.
First a vision, and then a drive-by haunting? Today sucked.
He glanced in the doorway after lunch. Cara was still there. She hadn’t
taken a break, judging by the crumpled silver wrappers of granola bars and the empty corpse of one of those disgusting diet shakes.
Mal didn’t say anything, and Cara didn’t acknowledge his presence. After a second, he left and took a detour to the office trailer, where he hefted up the crate of diet shakes and walked out to the dumpster. He tossed the whole crate in. One good deed to edge his karma into a slightly better direction.
At the end of the day, Mal had to move like molasses to allow the other guys to get ahead of him and drive off. He’d managed to keep the fact that he lived across the street a secret. There wasn’t a need for it, but he didn’t want to get into it.
Naturally, Cara was still hard at work on her fun hellhole restoration project. She had big goggles on to protect her eyes and she wielded a thing that looked like a space weapon but was in fact a very expensive nail gun.
He assumed she was ignoring him, but then he noticed how intently she was staring at the floor, how still she was.
“Cara?” Mal walked into the room and immediately felt a frisson of creepiness, the feeling he got when he knew he was being watched. But in this room, there was no cold draft or little ghost girl. No one but them. The feeling must be coming from the proximity of the hellhole, and the rapidly growing design of the summoning circle Cara was building piece by piece.
“Cara?” he repeated once he got closer to her. “Cara, you doing ok?”
“Darkness is coming as a cloud to engulf the stars.”
“What?” He touched her shoulder, intending to help her stand up.
What happened was that Cara recoiled, her head snapping up as she rolled back onto her heels, looking for all the world like a cornered animal. She even brought the nail gun up as if to squeeze the trigger at him.
“Whoa, there,” he said. “Just asking if you’re all right.”
Cara’s breathing was rapid. “How about getting my attention first before pouncing on me, ok?”
“I called your name three times.”
Her brow wrinkled. “You did?”
“Yeah. Why did you say darkness is coming as a cloud to engulf the stars?”
“Why did I say what? What does that even mean?” Cara frowned at him. “Is this some weird joke? Like your vanishing act last night?”
“Look, can we talk? It’s cool, everyone’s gone. No one will see you chatting with me.”
She stood up, the nail gun hanging at her side. Her eyes narrowed. “Sure, let’s talk. Why’d you leave last night? Why’d you leave me alone in your house?”
“I’m sorry.”
“I didn’t ask for an apology, I asked for an explanation.”
“Hey,” he said, suddenly unwilling to reveal any more of himself to this woman who he barely knew. “What I do is my business. If I want to go for a ride at night, then I do it. Just because we hooked up doesn’t mean I owe you anything.”
Cara’s eyes widened and her mouth formed a little “o” of shock.
He should not have said that. He didn’t even mean it. It was just the sort of cavalier, casual shit he’d say to a woman who was getting too clingy.
But before he could backpedal, Cara’s expression reverted to the icy calm she’d worn when he met her the first day of work.
“Yeah,” she said. “You’re right. Sorry I asked. Tell you what. I’m just going to get my stuff from the spare room and then you won’t have to worry about me anymore.”
“Cara. That’s not what I meant.”
She was already past him, walking down the now painted hallway. Mal could easily intercept her, but he instead trailed after, uselessly trying to get her to stop so he could talk to her.
That was what screwups did, and Mal was a total screwup. He deserved this.
Cara made it all the way down the hill and to the Salem house. Lex sat on the porch and wisely made himself scarce the second Cara crossed the property line.
Mal didn’t make himself scarce, because he was not the smart brother. He followed her as she went upstairs and threw her things into a large duffel bag. From the bathroom, she retrieved her few toiletries and added them to a little pouch. She was very efficient, prepared for a life on the move.
“Cara,” Mal said, trying again. “I was just trying to clear my head. I thought I’d be back before you woke up.”
“Clear your head of what?” she asked, suddenly pinning him with her gaze.
“Uh…” A vision of your death. No, he couldn’t say that. “A nightmare?”
“Oh, it was a nightmare.” Cara shook her head and gave a strange, bitter laugh. “Figures.”
Mal moved to the doorway. “Not what we did. That’s not what I meant. What we did was great.”
“You mean the hookup?”
“Yes. I mean no.” He stopped, confused. “Wait. Was it a hookup to you?”
“Hey, look at you,” Cara said, with a shrug. “Why would I turn that down? Even fat girls need to get laid occasionally.”
Stunned by her words, Mal just stood there like an idiot as she more or less shoved him out of the way and went downstairs.
He caught up to her in the living room, and only because she’d taken a moment to pick up Pumpkin and cuddle him. “I don’t know if I can take you along, buddy,” she was whispering. More longing for the cat than for Mal. Ok. Maybe he really didn’t know Cara.
Lex, who was standing nearby, said, “Pumpkin can stay here while he gets stronger. You’re welcome to stay too.”
Cara’s jaw tightened, and she replied, “Thanks for the offer, but I think I’ve had more than enough Salem hospitality for now. I’m going to find a decent hotel.”
She pulled the chain around her neck in an absentminded way, then suddenly stopped. She reached to take off the necklace.
“Keep it,” Mal said. “It’s useful. Even if I’m an asshole, vampires are still real.”
Next to him, Lex nodded. “Yeah. Both of those things are true.”
Cara rolled her eyes but returned the necklace to its place under her shirt. “Ok. I’m going.”
“You’ve got my number now. Text when you decide where you’re staying,” Mal said.
“I’ll text when I damn well please.”
“It could be really important to reach you,” Lex pointed out.
Cara looked at him, and her expression softened. Mal was deeply annoyed that Lex was able to get through to her when he couldn’t, but then again, Lex hadn’t badly screwed up…everything.
“I’ll let you know where I end up,” she said at last. “And Mal, you’re still on the job, so show up on time.”
“Whatever you say, boss.”
Chapter 17
After calmly getting into her car and calmly driving away—without bursting into tears once—Cara pulled to the side of the road and proceeded to absolutely lose it.
A hookup. A hookup. That’s all it was to him.
Even though she should have seen it coming, the truth still slammed her sideways. She grabbed the box of tissues in the back seat and wiped her nose, letting the hot tears flow for a while.
She’d really let him get to her. Cara chalked it up to the long gap in her relationships and the extra weirdness of a ghost and also to, yeah, Mal’s smoldery eyes that seemed to be way deeper than he evidently was.
She knew he couldn’t be for real. When he’d seemed interested, she’d let things get out of hand. Mal never said anything more than that he was into her, and well, by the end of the night he was into her, so that line must be really effective.
“Idiot!” Cara hurled the wadded-up tissue toward the windshield, but the aerodynamics were way off, and it just fell into her lap. “Damn it.” She grabbed another tissue, not at all done with crying her eyes out.
She liked him. That was the worst part. Cara wasn’t just taking advantage of a hot guy taking advantage of her. She’d really gotten to like him. To want to get to know him, his strange ghost-hunting hobbies, his sad family history, his delightful cat Mr. B.
But right
after he’d gotten what he wanted, he was out of there. Literally.
Cara took a deep breath. “This is not the end of the world.”
She had options. She could fire him. She could quit the job herself. She could suffer through the last few weeks of working with him…ugh.
“First things first.” She couldn’t stay in her car all night. She blew her nose, wiped her eyes dry, and pulled out her phone.
Cara found the name of the Calendar Inn among the depressingly short listings of lodgings in the county. It was in town, which was great, although the price made her want to faint. She drove there to check it out, and found a large, all-white Victorian home that had been converted to an inn.
The front porch was both wide and deep, with the sort of tasteful lighting that magazines implied was easy to do, but was in fact an expensive proposition. Rocking chairs sat on the porch, just waiting for a guest to while away an hour or two. The place was decorated with pumpkins and corn shocks for the season, harvesty without being Halloweeny.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be a guest, to be someone who could afford a room at the Calendar Inn without blinking, who could sit on a rocking chair for hours without worrying about where her next job would be?
Before Cara quite knew what she was doing, she’d parked, walked in, and handed over a business credit card to the perky girl behind the front desk.
The place was technically a bed-and-breakfast, but it wasn’t twee and fussy like Cara had expected. The building was a Victorian, but the interior had been updated to a more modern, clean aesthetic. Lots of blond wood and white walls, accented with good art that Cara would bet her last dollar was local.
Her room was one of the larger ones the inn offered. The king-size bed looked incredibly inviting, with a fluffy duvet and lots of woven pillows stacked against the midcentury headboard. Cara peeked into the bathroom, and found that it was entirely modernized, with a walk-in shower and a glass wall to keep the water mostly in. The only nod to the house’s age in here was an oversized mirror with fancy molding. The blend of styles should have been jarring, but it worked.
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