WeirdNights

by Rebecca Royce

  Her heart slammed against her ribs. “You didn’t feel so invested in protecting me this morning.”

  “That was before,” he hissed, pulling her with him until they headed for his car.

  “Before what?”

  He shook his head before he opened his car door. Jonah stopped and motioned for her to get in. “I don’t want to talk about this on the street. If it’s all the same to you.”

  Mindy supposed she could give him that much. He had after all just called her his and her stupid girly side had loved that. She’d pushed him and he hadn’t even mentioned it.

  She slid into his car and he closed the door behind her. In a few seconds, he’d come around the other side and climbed in the driver’s side. She opened her mouth but never got to say anything because Jonah kissed her. Hard. Anyone else would be hollering at her for shoving him and yelling. But all Jonah did was press his lips to hers and turn her insides into mush.

  Finally he pulled back. “I shouldn’t have done that. I’m not safe.”

  “I shouldn’t have shoved you. Totally not okay.”

  Jonah smiled and her heart turned over. “I like to know I inspire that much passion from you. How could you think I was ending it?”

  “Because I don’t understand what’s going on and you make me feel vulnerable. I never did that particular emotion very well and now I’m clearly a mess over it.”

  Jonah shook his head. “I don’t want you vulnerable. I want you strong, safe and away from me until I’m not dangerous anymore.”

  “How are you dangerous?”

  All levity disappeared from his gaze and he swallowed, clenching his jaw. “Something has attached itself to me.”

  “What?” She shook her head. “Something has attached itself to you?”

  “The restaurant caught on fire. Things are moving that shouldn’t be. I have something either following me or attached to me or else things have really gotten fucked up.” He pounded on the steering wheel. “I can deal with this. It’s my job, my passion. But I need you safe. So you stay away from me while I work it out.”

  The man could be so pigheaded. She shook her head. “Alone? You think it makes sense to try to handle this by yourself if you are somehow being haunted?”

  He shook his head. “Hauntings are places, not people. I’ve really got to get you to read one of those books on the subject. I think we are still dealing with the poltergeist from before. Only now it’s attached itself to me.”

  “How did it do that?” This was not how she’d imagined the evening ending. Of course, she probably should have considering everything they had been through together.

  “I don’t know. I think it must be the kids. Damian and Mary. They’re the only ones I’ve encountered who could have placed something on me.”

  “Then we have to go to them. Figure out what they’ve done and stop it.”

  “Foy has incredible connections.” Jonah leaned his head against the back of the seat. “But I’m not getting to those kids—connections or not—until at least tomorrow. And in the meantime, I think it would be safest for you if you would stay away from me.”

  The car jerked forward. Jonah looked left and right. “Shit.”

  Mindy gripped the door. “Did you do that?”

  “No.” He looked up at her. “Mindy, get out of this car.”

  “But I….”

  He interrupted her, hollering as he reached over her to open her door. “Get out of the car.”

  Jonah pushed her arm and she fell to the right until she had no choice but to grab the door and pull herself out of the car. She gasped when the door closed and the car took off down the street.

  “Jonah!” She screamed his name. He did not have his hands on the wheel. The car screeched down the street, nearly colliding with a motorcycle before rounding the corner away from her.

  Mindy rubbed her arm where he had shoved her. She’d be bruised but it was a small price to pay considering she was pretty sure he had just saved her life. Tears welled up in her eyes. Where had the thing controlling that car taken him?

  She grabbed her cell phone and dialed his number. It rang and then he picked up. “I’m okay. Shit. I have no idea where I am going but I’m not dead yet. The thing seems to have figured out how to drive it so we’re not likely to have an accident.”

  “That’s good. Listen, stay on the phone with me. I’m going to get in my car and follow you. I’m…” The other side of the line went dead. He wasn’t there. “Jonah.” She screamed into the receiver just for good measure and then hung it up. Shit. Shit. Shit.

  Mindy needed help. One way or another she was going to get the person who could give it to her to help. Whether he wanted to be lost in meditation or not.

  * * * * *

  Mindy stormed into Foy’s residence. After this, he’d likely revoke her key privileges. Hell, he’d probably fire her. She didn’t care. One way or another she was going to find Jonah. Foy could find him. That much she knew.

  Her hands shook and she put them in her pocket. He would probably be able to know she was nervous even if she hid it completely. The man had psychic powers or something. He’d helped to bring Christian, Dodie’s fiancé, back from the dead. Or near death. Or whatever.

  She shook her head. For now she’d settle for him giving her an address. Whatever she had to do to get the poltergeist away from Jonah she would. It was her damn fault it had targeted him to begin with. Since she hadn’t been able to leave good enough alone.

  If she hadn’t gone into that house alone. No. She bit down on her lip. What-ifs didn’t help anything. What happened, happened. Now she needed help fixing it.

  And if she had to kick Foy awake from his extended meditation, she would do just that.

  She raised her hand to knock on Foy’s private study—she could give him the courtesy of that much manners before she busted through—when the door flung open.

  Braxton stood in front of her. He stared at her hair and then shrugged. Mindy groaned and pushed past him into the room where Foy sat in a swivel chair behind a desk. He faced away from her, staring out the window into the night.

  “If I knew where he was,” Foy spoke without looking at her, “I’d go get him myself.”

  “But you do know what happened? Why let it then? Why let something attach itself to one of your students?”

  Mindy’s phone rang and she looked down. Why was her friend’s husband returning her call so late at night? She wanted to know about Jonah’s parents but it warranted a return call at midnight?

  Foy turned around then and faced her. His skin was pale, his eyes red-rimmed. “Jonah thinks something has attached to him?” Foy shook his head. “I think you’d better take that call.”

  * * * * *

  Jonah rubbed at his head. He must have hit it the last time the car came to an abrupt stop. Pushing off the floor where he’d been lying flat on his face, he had no idea how he’d come to be wherever it was that he turned out to be.

  And somehow he’d have to figure out a more specific answer than somewhere with a wooden floor and the sound of water dripping in the distance to answer that question.

  He stretched his hands over his head to try to relieve some of the ache in his muscles. The last thing he remembered was talking to Mindy on the phone. Then…nothing.

  Whatever this turned out to be he was going to send it so far back to the gates of hell or wherever it came from that it would never bother anyone again. He shook his head. Unless it turned out just to be something that happened because Damian had mental issues thanks to his parents.

  For that, the kid could be forgiven. They’d find him some help.

  This place seemed really familiar. He stopped and looked around. Nothing on the walls, no furniture. Just a really empty room in what he presumed, because of the low ceilings and exposed piping on the ceiling, was a basement.

  Had he been here before? This wasn’t the place where he’d rescued the woman from the Satan-worshiping granny. So why did h
e know it?

  Jonah walked around the room. One low-hanging light swung from the ceiling, casting shadows on the ground. A slight breeze traveled through the room thanks to a slightly opened window to the left.

  He’d have to travel up the stairs to do that, most likely. As if becoming aware of the ajar window caused the reaction, goose bumps broke out on his arms. He rubbed them away and made for the stairs.

  Whatever entity had taken him must have a reason for wanting him there. He just had to figure out what that was.

  Certain aspects of Foy’s training had stuck more readily in his mind than others. If something attacked, they were to strike back—over and over until they defeated it. If a paranormal problem was better solved by working out a puzzle then they needed to do that too.

  This seemed like the latter situation. Or at least he hoped it was. Jonah didn’t have one weapon on him. He felt his pocket. And apparently his cell phone had been taken away from him as well.

  Damn it.

  Jonah heard a whisper behind him. He whirled around.

  Daddy?

  Nothing. No one was there. “I fucking hate hauntings or whatever’s going on here because this is not acting like any particular poltergeist I’ve ever been around.” Jonah headed for the stairs. He didn’t know why he’d shouted that last part. Maybe he wanted the thing to know that it wasn’t acting the way it was supposed to. What were rules for if not to be followed?

  He tore up the stairs and stopped at the top. There were voices outside the door. A woman laughed and someone sneezed. The overwhelming buzz of conversation filtered through the door.

  Jonah tried to make out exactly how many individual voices he could hear but there were too many to distinguish. This was getting worse and worse. A pissed-off ghost he could handle. Even the demons didn’t bother him. He’d tangled with a demonic clown in Austin and managed to walk away relatively unscathed. Hellhounds were no big deal.

  But a group of people could be a really big problem.

  Well. He had two choices. Break the window and somehow shove his large form through it, probably cutting himself up in the process, or he could walk through that door and see who gathered in the house.

  Assuming he could avoid getting shot by anything, he could fight his way out of there pretty easily.

  Jonah turned the door handle and walked out, expecting to collide with a person immediately.

  He caught his breath. The hall was empty and from the peeling paint on the walls this part of the house looked as abandoned as the basement. “Okay. What the fuck?”

  His voice echoed in the hallway. Jonah turned left. Exactly how much haunting was going on here? One second, he was being kidnapped by a random poltergeist and the next he’s dropped in a house filled with so many spirits that it sounded as if there were a party going on.

  Mommy?

  The same whisper from earlier resounded around him but this time calling for the other parent.

  Jonah blinked and for a second he could see the house as it had been before it was dilapidated. The walls were bright colors from floor to ceiling. Gas lights, used for decoration, not purpose, sat in the corner of each room. Expensive furniture that wasn’t supposed to be used except when company came over stayed under plastic.

  He backed up two steps. Where had that thought come from? Was something possessing him?

  Quickly, he ran through all the physical signs of possession to see if he had any of them. No foul taste in his mouth. No rashes that he knew about. No dryness in his mouth or throat.

  Nothing that told him a ghost had taken over his body or his thoughts. That didn’t mean it wasn’t happening anyway. He needed Foy. His Master always knew. There had been one time, when they were younger, that he knew a parasitic demon had latched on to Ivan, one of the other blood-oathed. Foy had gotten it off. He’d know what was happening now.

  Jonah. Come over here. Meet the guests.

  A man walked into the suddenly furnished, painted, lively room. Tall, dark-haired, with thick eyebrows and a crooked smile. He held out his hand to someone before blinking out of existence as if he was never there.

  Jonah hollered out into the night. He knew that man. He was… He was… He was…no one. No matter how much he racked his brain he couldn’t bring the man’s identity into the forefront of his mind.

  The door to the house flung open and a gust of wind burst into the room. Jonah was blown backward, hitting the wall. His back stung and for a second he lost the ability to breathe.

  Jonah.

  No. He wasn’t going to stand around and let himself be beat up by whatever the fuck was going on. Unable to stand because of the wind, he crawled forward. Although nothing seemed to fit with the proper definition of anything he knew he could battle evil and win. There was a weapon somewhere that would make this go away.

  All he had to do was get back to Foy’s place and find the right tool.

  Of course, he wasn’t going to make it if he couldn’t get out.

  He’d made it almost a foot toward the door when a second gust, stronger than the one he’d already been battling, flung him backward as if he were a bag of feathers. This time he slammed into the wall and saw stars.

  “Not getting up,” he whispered, closing his lids to stop the onslaught of colors swirling in front of his mind. The world tilted and it occurred to him in a vague way, like an afterthought, that he was probably concussed.

  When had the world gotten so bright?

  Mindy would be terrified of what happened to him. No way would they be finding him in this strange place. Unless he died. Christian had been brought back to life by the Blood Oath when he had passed away. Would it do the same for him? The only problem was he didn’t actually think he was in danger of death.

  More likely he still had plenty of hours to have the crap beat out of him by this house of horrors.

  Jonah, you know the rules. A woman’s voice this time. You stay upstairs during the rituals.

  But, Mama, I want to see.

  Not yet. Jonah felt as if someone were stroking his face. There will be plenty of time for you to learn our ways.

  A woman was dragged into the room. She had bruises all over her body, which had been cuffed. She was naked and when she tried to pull away from an unseen captor, he got a glimpse of her breasts. They were red with welts on them.

  “Please,” she screamed at him. “Please get help, little boy. Please help me.”

  His stomach twisted. “Can’t help you, lady. All of this happened a very long time ago. And in someone else’s life.”

  Because it couldn’t have happened in his. People didn’t just forget this kind of thing.

  Tears swam in his eyes. He had fought down countless numbers of monsters since he’d taken his blood oath and never once had he wept. Why was this happening?

  “Shit.” He screamed out into the empty house.

  Chapter Nine

  Mindy disconnected her call. She’d never really understood the expression to see red before but right at that second she understood it perfectly. Sometimes in life things could take on a reddish hue apparently. All it required was the right type of anger.

  “Is it true? What he just told me?”

  Braxton walked to Foy’s desk carrying a coffee carafe. He poured the black liquid into the other man’s cup before offering her some. She shook her head. As she currently felt, caffeine would make her head explode.

  “It’s true.” Foy nodded, folding his hands on the desk. He stared into her eyes. Others might look away from such a probing stare but she wanted to reach over and deck him. No way would he intimidate her out of her fury. Jonah could revere the man. As far as she was concerned, all signs did not point to him being a wonderful guy.

  “And you never thought to tell him? It wasn’t—what—important? Not something he should have known about his life?”

  “Mindy.” Foy cleared his throat. “People come to their truth at the right time or they don’t come to it at all. You had your
awakening on the other side of a knife. The day that demon showed you true fear he transformed you into the version of yourself you will now always be. You know yourself even if you are still finding your feet. Jonah now has to do the same.”

  She walked over to his desk and stared down at him. “And the only way to do this was to leave him vulnerable to this? A conversation anytime in the last fifteen years wouldn’t have gotten the job done?”

  Foy held up his hands. “All I can wish is that all my students find protectors like you.”

  “Oh. Don’t be so damn condescending.” She shook her head.

  “Sorry to interrupt,” Braxton spoke through clenched teeth. “But if something is going on with Jonah I’d like to be able to help. He’s family to me.”

  Mindy turned to Braxton. She didn’t know him and it wasn’t fair to judge before she got better acquainted. Still, she’d made some assumptions about the man who had been alternatively friendly and rude to her since they’d been introduced. She never would have anticipated his feeling as if Jonah were his family. He’d always seemed so remote.

  Foy looked away from her to Braxton. “What do you remember of Jonah from when he came here? You were here first.” Foy looked back at her. “Braxton was my first student.”

  “He was quiet. His parents weren’t dead, but he didn’t know where he came from. Bright. Loyal. Athletic.”

  Foy leaned back in his chair. “Brilliant, actually. Intuitive. Empathic. Jonah could anticipate a move before it was made.”

  Mindy’s shoulders sagged a bit; some of the tension fled her spine. Foy did care about Jonah. She could forgive a lot from him knowing his feelings.

  “That’s what he was like in Austin. I’ve never seen anyone fight like him. Before the Hell Hound got me, Jonah had taken out nearly all of them single-handedly.”

  “Not surprising.” Braxton nodded. “Could always count on him to have my back.”

  Foy stood up and walked to the window, giving them his back again. “He used to weep at night. In his sleep. We would wake him and he would have no idea what had happened.”