Closer: Bay City Paranormal Investigation book 4

by Ally Blue

  “That’s true.” Dean chewed his lower lip. “Actually, it seems kind of strange that there haven’t been any reports of portal-type activity, if the place has the potential for it. There’s no way other people with your abilities haven’t been through there before.”

  “Another mystery,” Sam said, sounding much calmer than he felt.

  “Yeah.” Dean’s brow furrowed for a moment, then smoothed again. He smiled. “I better get back to work. See you later.”

  “Yeah, see you.”

  Dean strolled off, hands in the pockets of his shorts. Sam sat there for a while longer, trying to arrange the puzzle pieces of the last two days in a way that made sense. When his growling stomach finally forced him back inside a couple of hours later, he still hadn’t figured it out.

  ***

  Bo didn’t stir from bed until nearly six o’clock that evening. Sam was just starting to wonder if he should check on Bo again—he’d looked in on him several times during the afternoon—when Bo shuffled into the living room, wearing Sam’s pajama bottoms and nothing else.

  Pausing the video he’d been reviewing, Sam jumped up and hurried over to his lover. “Hey, Bo. You okay?”

  “Mm-hm.” Bo yawned and pushed a hand through his hair, which hung unbound and tangled around his bare shoulders. “Sorry I slept so long.”

  “Don’t be sorry, you needed to rest.” Sam slipped an arm around Bo’s waist and led him to the sofa, savoring the feel of Bo warm and sleepy against his side. “You’re not as hot as you were earlier.”

  “Thanks a lot.” Tilting his head up, Bo raised his eyebrows at Sam. “Maybe I should’ve fixed myself up.”

  Sam laughed, relieved that Bo felt like joking. “You know what I meant.”

  “I do.” Bo sat beside Cecile and folded his legs beneath him. “My temperature does seem to be back to normal, or close to it.”

  Cecile gave him a surprised look. “Didn’t you check it?”

  “We don’t have a thermometer,” Bo explained, looking embarrassed.

  Pausing his video, Dean pushed his chair back from the kitchen table and turned his attention to Bo. “But you feel better, huh? You feel like your fever’s gone?”

  Bo nodded. “Pretty much.”

  “Sam’s still gonna make you stay here,” David said, glancing up from the thermal with a teasing grin.

  The look Bo gave him in return was less than friendly. “I know. And yes, Sam, I’m going to stay out of it tonight, just like I said I would.” Taking Sam’s hand, he pulled him down to the sofa and curled up against him. “You’re staying here with me, by the way.”

  “Nowhere else I’d rather be.” Sam tucked his arm around Bo and planted a kiss on his forehead.

  “Hey, Sam,” Dean called. “Did you want to ask Andre and Cecile about the, uh…the thing?”

  Sam couldn’t decide whether to be amused or annoyed. Amusement won. He chuckled. “Subtle, Dean.”

  Dean let out an exaggerated sigh. “It’s not enough that I’m smart, resourceful and devastatingly sexy, now I have to be subtle too. Will the pressure never end?”

  Cecile threw a sofa cushion at him. “Ask us what?”

  Sam glanced around the room. Andre had turned off the video he’d been watching and was staring at him with the same curious expression as Cecile and David. Bo’s face revealed nothing, but the sudden apprehension in his eyes said he’d guessed what Sam was about to ask.

  “I felt something last night,” Sam began. “Right before Bo passed out. It was a change in the fort’s energy field, and it felt a lot like a portal trying to open.”

  Cecile’s face went dead white. “Oh, my God.”

  “What did it feel like?” Andre asked, breaking the silence he’d kept most of the afternoon. “I mean, was it localized and controlled like the one at South Bay High, or more random like the one at Oleander House?”

  Andre’s unflappable calm eased some of the tension which had knotted Sam’s insides all day. “It felt like it did at Oleander House more so than South Bay, although it wasn’t precisely like either one.” Sam paused, going over the event in his mind with what he hoped was a dispassionate eye. “It was sort of in between the two, I guess. It felt more controlled than at Oleander House, but without the intense focus I felt at South Bay. It seemed to be triggered by my anger—”

  “Sam and I were arguing again,” Bo interjected, looking sheepish. “My fault, of course.”

  “It takes two to fight.” Tilting Bo’s chin up, Sam brushed their lips together. “Anyway, I sort of equated it with the Oleander House portal because it felt to me like I triggered it. If that makes any sense.”

  Cecile nodded. “It makes sense to me.”

  “Me too.” Andre scratched his jaw, his expression thoughtful. “Anything else?”

  “Not really. Of course whatever it was, it only lasted for a second. If it really was a portal, it never did open. So it’s sort of difficult to be sure of anything.”

  “But you did feel as if whatever it was, was connected to your emotions in some way, right?” Bo curled a hand around Sam’s knee, thumb caressing the old scar from a childhood bicycle accident. “So if you and I stay here, everyone else should be able to finish the investigation without unnecessary risk.”

  “Right.” Sam scowled. Even though he was relieved that he and Bo would be staying at the house, it was galling to be reminded that he could be a source of danger to the people who mattered most to him in the world. “Andre, I think we should talk to Joanne about this. If there’s even the slightest potential of a portal ever opening at the fort, they should know about the danger.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right.” Andre let out a deep sigh. “She’s not going to like it. She was hoping we could help her business, not hurt it.”

  “Well, there’s no need to break the bad news just yet, is there?” Uncurling his legs from where he’d been sitting on the floor, David stretched out on his back with both hands behind his head. “I mean, we can see what comes up tonight, can’t we? The fort’s closed tomorrow anyhow. If we run into anything freaky tonight, we can call Joanne tomorrow and let her know.”

  “Andre, you and I should probably do a thorough psychic run-through tonight.” Cecile brushed her bangs out of her eyes. “We both felt the energy of the potential portals at Oleander House and at South Bay. If there’s anything like that at Fort Medina, we should be able to sense it.”

  “For that matter, we should’ve been able to sense it before, if the potential is there at all,” Andre pointed out. “But we weren’t really doing the full-out psychic sweep, so maybe we just missed it. We’ll plan on spending some time concentrating our attention on that tonight. If it’s there, you’re absolutely right, we should be able to pick up on it.”

  “And if Sam’s not there, there’s no danger of the critters getting loose.” David shot an apologetic look at Sam. “No offense, man.”

  “None taken.” Feeling morose and out of sorts now, Sam stood and headed toward the kitchen. “I think I’ll start dinner. What do y’all want?”

  “Let’s get pizza,” Dean suggested. “There’s a place up the road that delivers. Kyle says it’s quick and really good.”

  “Who’s Kyle?” Bo asked.

  “Dean’s new boy-toy.” David grinned. “Speaking of which, Dean, you never did give us the scoop on the kid yesterday. Was he good?”

  Dean smirked. “Sorry, David, I don’t suck and tell.”

  “Oh my God,” David groaned. “I just had to ask.”

  A grin tugged at Sam’s lips. Having Dean and David in the same room always felt like being in a buddy movie. Their teasing banter never failed to lift Sam’s spirits.

  Sam reached for the phone book sitting on the counter between the kitchen and breakfast area. “What’s the name of the pizza place, Dean?”

  “Mimzi’s.” Tucking a leg beneath him in the chair, Dean restarted his video. “Get a veggie one.”

  “And one sausage and onion,” Da
vid said, sitting up to start the thermal video again. “No black olives.”

  “I like black olives,” Cecile protested.

  “Maybe they’ll do half with and half without,” Andre suggested, already watching his own video once more.

  Bo leaned over to grab a notepad and pen off the coffee table and held it out toward Sam. “Here, you might need to write all this down, Sam.” He smiled, brown eyes sparkling with amusement.

  “No kidding.” Shaking his head, Sam skirted the dining table, took the notepad and pen from Bo along with a brief kiss, and went back to the phone. “Okay. Let’s see if we can work out what to get.”

  It took several minutes of argument, negotiation and frantic note-taking, but eventually they agreed on three medium pizzas with a bewildering variety of toppings. It took several repetitions on Sam’s part for the girl on the other end of the phone to get their order right when he called it in. He was pleasantly surprised when the pizzas arrived twenty minutes later perfect to the last detail.

  Cecile and Sam were cleaning up the plates, napkins and leftover slices when someone tapped on the back door. Sam glanced up from loading the dishwasher in time to see Dean fling open the door and melt into the arms of the tall, sunburned young man from next door.

  “Kyle?” Sam asked, exchanging an amused look with Cecile.

  She grinned. “Yes.”

  “Kyle, this is Sam and Bo,” Dean said, pointing to Sam and Bo in turn. “You met David, Andre and Cecile yesterday.”

  Everyone greeted Kyle, who gave them a grin and a wave. “Hey. Um, Dean? Wanna go for a walk on the beach?”

  Dean bit his lip. “I don’t know if I have time or not. We still have videos and stuff to review, then we have to load up and be at Fort Medina by eight-thirty.”

  Kyle’s face fell. “Oh. Okay.” The boy looked so forlorn, Sam had to fight back the urge to offer him a hug and a cookie.

  “Oh, babe, don’t look like that.” Dean stood on tiptoe to kiss Kyle’s lips, then turned to Andre. “Andre? Please?”

  Andre’s glare fizzled when he saw Kyle’s “poor me” expression and Dean’s big, pleading eyes. “Okay,” he assented. “But be back here by seven-thirty.”

  Dean beamed. “I will. Thanks.” Turning back to Kyle, he grabbed the boy’s wrist in one hand and the door handle in the other. “Let’s go.”

  David snickered as the two hurried off into the gathering dusk. “Andre, man, you’re a big softie.”

  “Shut up while you’re ahead,” Andre advised without looking away from his video.

  At the kitchen window, Sam watched Dean and Kyle descend the steps. Kyle’s arm was around Dean’s shoulders, and Dean’s hand was firmly lodged in the back pocket of Kyle’s shorts. The sight made Sam smile. Maybe he and Bo could take a walk later. There was no more romantic a setting than a moonlit beach.

  Feeling the pull of Bo watching him, Sam turned away from the window. His gaze locked with Bo’s across the room.

  I love you, Bo mouthed, eyes shining.

  Love you too, Sam silently replied.

  They smiled at each other, and Sam thought maybe everything would be all right after all.

  Chapter Ten

  Dean came running into the house at seven twenty-five with two new bruises on his throat and sand caked on his knees. “I’m gonna shower,” he called on his way down the hall. “I’ll be done in two minutes.”

  Andre shook his head. “I swear to God, one of these days his sex drive is going to get us all in trouble.”

  Laughing, Bo got up from the sofa and headed for the broom closet. “For someone with Dean’s experience and ability, we can put up with a little extra horniness.” He opened the closet, took out a battered yellow plastic broom and started sweeping up the sand Dean had left in his wake. “Besides, he’s never been late yet.”

  “True.” Andre yawned and stretched, falling back against the couch cushions. “You know what, unless we find something tonight that warrants further investigation, I think I might call this the last night.”

  Surprised and hopeful, Sam closed the book he’d been halfway reading for the past half hour and looked at Andre. “Really? How come?”

  “Well, Joanne’s stuck in Mobile, for one thing, so we might not actually have anyone to let us in and lock up again after tonight. Plus I think we’ve really done everything we can do.” Andre shrugged. “Hopefully we won’t find anything tonight to suggest the potential for an interdimensional portal. To be honest, I don’t know what the hell we’ll do if we find anything like that.”

  With no answer for that, Sam fell silent along with the rest of the group. He opened his book and stared at the page, pretending he wasn’t thinking about what might happen that night.

  ***

  Sam helped load equipment into the SUV while Bo lay curled up on the sofa watching a cooking show on TV. Bo had scowled when Sam insisted he stay inside instead of carrying around camera cases and long rolls of extension cord, but he hadn’t argued. Whether that meant he’d seen reason at last or simply that he was feeling worse than he let on, Sam had no idea. Bo had acted normal enough through the evening so far, but he was paler than usual and seemed distracted.

  Lifting the last camera case into the back of the SUV, Sam decided that as soon as the others left, he would ask Bo exactly how he felt, and whether or not he was still experiencing those strange, blank spells. If he was lucky, Bo might even answer him without getting angry.

  After the SUV pulled onto the road to the fort, Sam stood on the front porch for a moment, mentally steeling himself for what was bound to be a difficult conversation. At least Bo’s mood had mellowed since the previous day.

  Inside, Sam found Bo flipping through the channels. He smiled and switched off the TV when Sam plopped onto the sofa beside him. “So. Here we are alone in the house.” Bo nuzzled behind Sam’s ear. “What should we do?”

  The suggestion in Bo’s voice went straight to Sam’s groin. It took all his willpower to hold Bo away from him instead of crushing their mouths together.

  “I think we should talk,” Sam said, wishing he didn’t sound so breathless.

  Bo groaned, head falling forward onto Sam’s shoulder. “Why does that sentence never precede a discussion about how well everything’s going?”

  Sam laughed in spite of himself. “I don’t know.”

  Looking resigned, Bo sat back against the sofa cushions, drew his knees up and wrapped his arms around them. “What do you want to talk about?”

  “You.”

  Bo let out a deep sigh. “Sam, come on.”

  “I just want to know how you really are. I know your fever’s down, but you still don’t seem entirely back to normal to me.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Are you really?”

  “Yes.” Bo shoved his hair out of his eyes and pinned Sam with an irritated look. “Why are you so obsessed with the idea that I’m deathly ill, or possessed, or whatever the hell it is you’re thinking is wrong with me?”

  Biting back his frustration, Sam took one of Bo’s hands between both of his. “I know I seem obsessed. I don’t mean to. But I almost lost you once, and the thought of going through that sort of thing again scares me to death.”

  Being reminded of his near death and its effect on Sam always broke down Bo’s defenses. It was a dirty trick, in a way, but Sam didn’t care. He wasn’t above playing the pity card if it got Bo to tell him the truth.

  To his shock, Bo yanked his hand away and jumped to his feet. “Don’t you dare use that tactic with me. Not now.”

  Sam stared, stunned, as Bo started pacing a furious path back and forth across the living room. “Bo, I—”

  “Shut up.” Bo shot a glare full of simmering fury at Sam. “If you bring that up one more time, I swear to God I will punch that fucking lost-puppy look right off your face.”

  Sam eyed Bo’s tense shoulders and twitching jaw warily. He had no idea what to say. For all their arguments, for all the ugly things t
hey’d said to each other in anger, Bo had never threatened him before. Not since that night at Oleander House, before they’d become a couple, and Sam had to admit he’d goaded Bo into hitting him that time.

  “Listen to yourself,” Sam said, keeping his voice calm and his face expressionless. “Listen to what you just said. This isn’t like you. You haven’t really been yourself since that first night at Fort Medina.”

  “If I haven’t been myself, it’s because you have been driving me up the fucking wall.” Bo stopped pacing and jabbed a shaking finger at Sam. “A couple of nightmares and a few bad reactions to a fever, and you have me…” He waved a hand around, as if trying to pull the right words out of the air. “I don’t even fucking know what you think, but you obviously have the idea that something is horribly wrong with me. Yet when it comes down to it, we find out that you are the real danger here. You and that goddamn psychokinesis that you fucking refuse to control.”

  That hurt. Sam clasped his hands together, trying to tamp down his rising anger. “I’m trying to control it. It isn’t easy, you know. There’s not exactly a how-to book on it.”

  Bo barked a harsh laugh. He started pacing again, twisting a lock of hair hard around his fingers. “I can’t believe you can’t see what a fucking hypocrite you’re being.”

  Exasperated, Sam pressed both palms to his forehead. “Are you being a prick on purpose now? I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

  “No, you wouldn’t, would you?”

  That was it. Sam jumped up, grabbed Bo’s shoulders and whirled him around so they were facing each other. “Then fucking explain it! Why don’t you tell me what you’re thinking? Or can’t you handle being honest for a change?”

  Bo’s cheeks went red. He shrugged off Sam’s grip. “You want honesty? Well, you fucking got it.” He shoved a palm into Sam’s chest, sending him stumbling backward. “First, you come up with this theory that anticonvulsants might dampen your psychokinesis to the point where your mind can’t connect to those damned portals anymore. Then you flatly refuse to even explore that option. It didn’t matter to you how much it scared me to think of the man I love—you”—this was punctuated by another jab to the chest—“facing that kind of danger all the time. It didn’t matter to you how much I fucking begged you to at least get tested for seizure disorder so we could find out if your theory would hold water. It did not matter to you how I felt. Not once.”