The Hanged Man (The Braddock & Gray Case Files Book 6)

by H. P. Bayne

  He tried again, increasing his focus. He drove out every other thought, homing in completely on the spirit. Again, he sent out a shove. Again, nothing much happened.

  Not to Coving anyway.

  Sully counted one blessing as the ghost released Roy, sending the man plummeting to the floor.

  The reason for the move became clear as an incredible force seized hold of Sully. The door pushed open, just enough he was towed forward through the gap, into the cell. Sully thought he heard Dez shout his name, but the bulk of his attention was firmly elsewhere—nowhere else it could be when he’d once again found his throat compressed by an otherworldly grip. He was dimly aware of Roy’s stirring form nearby as Sully collided with a wall, toes just brushing the floor as he was stretched, suspended against concrete.

  Nothing revealed itself in front of him. Despite the many horrific things he’d seen, he believed this might well be the most unnerving sight he’d yet come across.

  He shut his eyes as his vision swam. He thought he heard rushed movement. And there was no questioning the force of the impact he suddenly felt against his side.

  He felt himself moving, dropping, thudding against something hard. More than that, he felt his own breath. It entered his lungs in a massive inhale that shook his lungs into a round of violent coughing. He tried to shift, but he couldn’t move. As he opened his eyes, he found Dez on top of him, his tackle successfully completed.

  “You okay?” Sully asked.

  “Yeah. You?”

  Sully coughed again before answering. “Thanks to you.”

  Sully drew in a few more deep breaths to gain better control. It was all he had time for.

  “Sully!”

  Not Dez’s voice, nor Ian’s.

  Roy’s.

  Dez pushed off of Sully, revealing as he did so a struggle occurring nearby—not involving Roy but Ian. Roy was still on the ground, having managed to roll himself to hands and knees. In front of him lay a pair of cameras. Beyond that, Ian squirmed on the floor, hands clutching at his throat. His eyes bulging, he was lifted into mid-air. Then he was thrown, first against one wall, then another.

  “Get Roy out,” Sully told Dez.

  “Sull—”

  “Now.”

  Dez obeyed, rushing for Roy and hauling him to his feet before half-towing, half-shoving him through the open cell door, onto the catwalk.

  Ian was swung again, into the far wall. His head struck the bars on the cell’s high window. He appeared to fall completely limp, and Sully wondered whether he’d just witnessed the man’s death.

  Instead, Ian’s eyes shot back open. For a moment, his eyes fixed on something beyond Sully’s sight, and they widened there in terror. Then the irises shifted, locking in on Sully.

  “Help me.” Not screamed, but moaned.

  Sully would try. He had to. But he needed more power. And even though he’d be going against the warnings he’d received, he knew where to get it.

  Sully forced his eyes from Ian’s flailing form, turning his gaze to the mob entity, hovering in the corner.

  “You’ve been juicing up for something,” he said. “This is it.”

  He locked onto the entity, drawing it toward himself. The temptation to pull it fully into him was strong as he considered the incredible boost of energy he’d receive. Jack, in spirit form, appeared at his side.

  “Don’t,” he said. “It’s too much, even for you.”

  Sully felt Jack’s attention on Coving.

  “I’ll take it,” he offered.

  “No,” Sully said. “You were right. I’ve got this.”

  He held the mob entity, felt the sheer amount of power radiating from the collection of spirits. He drew it farther toward himself, toward the cell door. Then, like releasing a slingshot, he sent it flying forward, crashing into Coving.

  Ian dropped to the floor and didn’t move.

  “Ian?” Sully called out. “Ian, answer me!”

  “You need to create the doorway,” Jack said. “Focus.”

  “I don’t know how.”

  “Who’s he talking to?” Roy asked from somewhere behind him.

  Dez shushed him.

  Sully tuned them out. His attention was back fully inside the cell, watching what he could only describe as a fight between the mob entity and Coving. The entity was swirling around the room, and the excitement rippling off it was fierce. But he could also sense desperation—unquestionably Coving’s. And Sully knew if Coving managed to escape the entity or otherwise disappear, he might lose this chance to send the spirit to the other side.

  “Sully, focus!”

  Sully heeded Jack’s order. He pinned his attention to a space outside the cell. The large window there, he recalled, existed where once a door had led the way to the gallows. It seemed a fitting spot to send Coving, so Sully focused his attention there.

  He pictured it in his mind, imagining what the former gallows doorway might have looked like. Tall and wide enough for a prisoner to be escorted by a pair of guards. Sully imagined the stone surroundings, the steel frame, the solid wood door. He created it in his mind piece by piece, constructing the gateway. He imagined it linking not to a gallows, but to the other side.

  All of this done in mere seconds.

  “You did it,” Jack whispered. “I see it. Now open it and send the son of a bitch through.”

  Sully imagined the door opening. “I don’t want to send him to the wrong place.”

  Jack chuckled. “Don’t worry. A couple of folks are right there waiting for him. I can see them. He’s got some answering to do.”

  “Hey, Jack? How am I supposed to keep focus on the door while wrestling Coving?”

  “Don’t worry about the door,” Jack said. “You’ve opened it. It’s not going anywhere until you’ve sent over your quarry.”

  Sully released tension in a breath. His head ached like crazy, a sweat had broken out all over him, and he felt as if he might throw up, but he knew he could finish this now.

  He returned his attention to the cell where the fight continued. He could sense Coving inside, his energy scattered, either from trying to escape or from being torn apart by the entity.

  “Give him to me,” Sully told the entity. “I’ll get rid of him.”

  If the entity heard, it gave no indication.

  Sully pounded on the door, then reached psychically inside the cell to shove at the mob entity. “Give him to me!”

  He felt the entity’s surprise. It was enough to get it to release Coving. For that matter, it was enough to allow Coving to attempt an escape.

  He didn’t get far. Sully locked onto him, dragging the squirming energy from the cell.

  “You’re finished here, Coving,” Sully said. “There are people wanting to talk to you.”

  He flashed back on the doorway he’d created, relieved to find it still there in his mind exactly as he’d built it. He pushed the guard’s ghost forward, becoming aware as he did the doors on the range clicking open.

  “Check Ian,” Sully told Dez as he walked the short distance forward, following Coving. Around him, the prison’s ghosts had gathered, watching the scene with what he recognized as satisfaction and even glee.

  He sensed two souls leaning out from the doorway to the other side, felt them seize hold of Coving.

  “Let him go,” Jack told Sully. “Your job is done.”

  Sully released Coving. A moment later, he sensed the door slam shut before vanishing completely.

  Jack appeared in front of Sully, smile on his face. “Well done, my friend.”

  Sully met the grin. It didn’t last long.

  He spun at a cry from Dez, turning in time to see him flying from the cell. His body hit the catwalk railing and tumbled over. Only safety netting strung over the common area between the two opposing ranges kept Dez from plummeting to the floor below.

  “Dez!” Sully yelled.

  “I’m okay. Get Ian.”

  “Damn it,” Jack muttered as he and
Sully closed the distance to the cell. “I was afraid this might happen.”

  Sully wanted to know what he was getting at, but Ian was the priority right now. Sully scanned the area until he spotted a stunned-looking Roy holding the video camera halfway up.

  “Roy, put down the camera, and come and help me with Ian,” Sully said.

  Roy didn’t move, seemingly frozen in place. Below, Sully heard Leanna’s voice as she entered the area. “Ian? Roy? Is everyone okay?”

  Sully reached the door to Hell’s Gate. Ian was still on the floor but was stirring. Unfortunately for him, the mob entity seemed intent on changing that.

  “Coving was a murdering bastard,” Jack said. “But he also provided order. Now you’ve got the inmates running the asylum.”

  Sully stepped into the cell, focusing on the entity as he tried to put himself between it and Ian. “You didn’t think to mention this possibility before?”

  “Figured you didn’t need the added stress. You were worried enough. Anyway, Coving needed to go. Looks like some of the others will too. Think you can do it again?”

  “My head’s killing me. I don’t know.”

  Dez rushed into the cell behind Sully. “I’ll get Ian out.”

  Sully couldn’t see, but the startled yelp from Dez suggested Jack had gone corporeal.

  “No,” Jack said. “I’ll roll him out of here. After that, I need to get Flynn and Aiden. You stay with Sully. If things go sideways, you’ll need to haul him out of here.”

  “Who the hell are you?”

  Sully recognized Ian’s voice at the cell door. He turned just enough to see Ian on his knees facing Jack, camera back in his hand. Ian had begun to raise the camera to capture Jack’s image on video.

  Jack wasted no time. One solid punch, and he’d laid Ian out cold. The camera landed uselessly on the floor next to him.

  Dez grinned. “I’ve been wanting someone to do that all night.”

  “Me too,” Roy said.

  “You okay?” Sully asked.

  “Yeah, think so—thanks to you.”

  “Think you can get Ian out of here?” Dez asked.

  Roy picked up the dropped camera and his colleague, grunting as he hauled Ian into a fireman’s carry over his shoulders. “Yep. Got him.”

  “What happened?” Leanna squeaked from nearby.

  “You all need to get out of here, right now,” Sully told Roy. “And you need to stay out. I don’t care if you have to lock Ian in a closet.”

  “No problem here,” Roy said. “Just do what you’ve gotta do. I’ve got your back.”

  “Roy?” Leanna called out. “What happened to Ian?”

  “We need to go.”

  “But—”

  “We need to go, Leanna! Now!”

  Sully would have grinned at the sudden show of strength in Roy’s tone if he weren’t still squared off against the mob entity.

  He had his hands full. And he wasn’t sure he could handle it.

  When an invisible force struck him with the power of a charging bull, sending him flying from the cell, he knew handling this alone would be impossible.

  22

  Sully landed hard on his back, near where Dez had come down.

  The safety netting, stretched between the railings of the opposing ranges, bounced slightly as he impacted, but it held his weight.

  “Sully!” Dez called out.

  Sully had opened his mouth to assure Dez he was okay when a cry of pain from Dez revealed he’d actually been calling for help.

  Sully flung himself forward onto hands and knees, fighting awkwardly to standing as he raced forward, toward the cell door.

  The now-slamming cell door.

  No way in hell the entity was trapping Dez in there with it. Sully hurled himself at the door before it could lock, forcing it to remain open. Behind him, he sensed Jack had returned with Flynn and Aiden.

  Dez was on the floor, moving but stunned, blood streaming from an injury along his right hairline. The entity was leaning over him, its form flailing frantically as if each spirit within the whole was pulling it in a different direction.

  “Threat against this thing’s gone,” Jack explained as Sully set himself up between the ghost and Dez. “Without Coving, it’s lost its focus.”

  “That’s good though, right?” Sully asked, edge to his voice as he continued to eye up the spectre.

  Aiden, in his peripheral vision, went corporeal and moved in to grab Dez.

  “Actually, this makes it more dangerous,” Jack said. “Some parts of it are desperate to hold it together. Other parts want to pull away. It’s fighting itself as much as anyone on the outside. It’s like a rabid animal. It’s at its most dangerous when in this state.”

  Sully shifted position, maintaining himself as a barrier while Dez was helped from the cell.

  “Jack,” came Flynn’s voice from somewhere outside the cell. “We’ve got a problem out here.”

  Sully backed out as Jack exited, allowing him to see what had Flynn troubled. What he saw set his heart thudding against his ribcage.

  Numerous ghosts had gathered on the ground floor—and they were oozing violent excitement. Sully felt it without needing to communicate directly with any particular spirit. They’d regained their power and they were eager to demonstrate it.

  Sully looked closer, searching past his growing anxiety. Not all of them. The ones in the centre. Others retained their observer stance, gathered on the borders as if prepared to bear witness to bloodshed.

  “We’ll handle the ones on the floor,” Jack said. “You’ll need to deal with the mob entity. Can you do it?”

  “I have to.”

  “Take a minute,” Jack advised, then shifted back to spirit form along with Flynn and Aiden.

  Sully watched as the trio of reapers drew their sidearms and leapt over the railing, passing easily through the netting to impact lightly on the floor below.

  Jack took point, facing the most threatening group of spirits in the common area. “All right, you sons a’bitches. This bullshit ends now, you hear me?”

  One—a large, enraged ghost—charged Jack. Sully guessed the fact he could hear reapers explained why he heard a deafening pop as Jack fired a round from his revolver. The charging ghost lit up, lightning-like flashes of electricity coursing through him for a couple of seconds.

  Then his energy pushed outward and exploded.

  “Anyone else want to dance?” Jack asked.

  Dez had stayed on death row with Sully, and his hand suddenly tugged at his arm. “Hey, Sull? Hell’s Gate. I can see something. How the hell is it I can see something?”

  Sully spun. The entity appeared brighter and clearer than ever before. It hovered in the doorframe as if about to experiment with the possibility of escape. As the sound of more gunfire from the reapers erupted below, Sully pressed past curiosity and worry to focus in on his own battle. If this ghost escaped, the damage it might do was incomprehensible.

  No way in hell.

  Sully stared at it, channelling his remaining energy. He sent it out to shove against the ghost. Once, twice, three times.

  It reacted, jerking backward as if from a blow, but it didn’t retreat. Didn’t and wouldn’t.

  And Sully knew he wasn’t strong enough. Not now, after the battle with Coving. He needed more energy. Problem would be figuring out where to get it. Take in the wrong spirits in his current weakened state, and he’d risk going dark side. He couldn’t chance it.

  Dez seemed to sense the problem. “Sully? What about the ghost in the laundry room? You said he was all right, didn’t you?”

  “He’s a long way from here.”

  “So? You’re not dealing with anything physical here. Why should physical distance matter?”

  A good point. Dez was full of them.

  Sully reached out with his senses, stretching toward the basement room until he felt the spirit hunkering there. His fear was palpable as Sully drew him forward.

  Sully spo
ke to him psychically, hoping to ease the man’s dread. “You don’t need to be afraid. This is your chance to stand up and fight back.”

  For that matter, it might be a good opportunity for the manically running ghost. He snagged him, too, for good measure, and towed the two of them in.

  He felt their spirits collide with his. While his energy multiplied, so did his fear.

  No, not Sully’s, he reminded himself. Theirs. Unfortunately, now that their energies had temporarily joined his, the terror might as well have been Sully’s own. Ordinarily, he’d be able to locate the boundaries between himself and them and separate their emotions from his. But ordinarily, he wasn’t this damned exhausted. Trying to calm the manic energy inside him might sap his own remaining reserves and leave him entirely at the mercy of the spirit world.

  Then Grace Devereaux appeared at his side.

  She smiled up at him, calm and steady, yet with eyes containing a sort of unexpected power. Or maybe not so unexpected. She’d spent years in this place, protecting her brother. She’d seen the worst of humanity while managing to retain her own. She’d no doubt faced down potential threat after threat for no other reason than to support someone she loved.

  And Sully was reminded once again that no matter how strong hate and fear and rage could be, no feeling in the world would ever be as powerful as love.

  Her hand hovered close to his arm, and in the near-touch, he understood her intent in coming here.

  I can ease their fear. Use me. Give me this chance to help you and to protect my brother, once and for all.

  He smiled back at her. Already, simply standing near her, the fear was fading. As he obeyed and drew her in, the dread faded out completely.

  Grace was in control, and through her, Sully was too.

  In front of him, the entity set a toe outside the cell.

  The energy from the trio of spirits Sully had taken in swirled and danced inside him as he turned his attention to creating a new door. If he did this right, he wouldn’t even need to wrestle the entity inside. He just needed to time it correctly.