by D. G. Swank
The back door opened, and Jack stepped out into the yard. Relief washed through me. He was probably trained to deal with distressed children. Besides, Jack and I had banished a poltergeist together. Maybe he was the key to helping Tommy.
“How’d it go?” I asked as he approached.
He grimaced. “We’ll talk later.”
My stomach sunk.
Tommy glanced up at Jack, then clutched my hand when I went to push him again. “Who’s that?” His fear had returned.
“That’s my friend, Jack, remember? Would you like to meet him?”
Tommy hopped off the tire and cowered behind me, holding on to the back of my shirt.
Jack gave me a questioning look, and I said, “Tommy, you don’t have to hide behind me. Father Jack’s really nice.”
Jack squatted in front of me, and I nodded to my left, the side Tommy was peeping out from. I reached out my hand, and Jack took it—and then squeezed it, his eyes flying wide.
“I can see him,” he whispered in shock.
I nodded. “I can touch him too.”
“Piper… this…” But then his face settled into a soft smile.
“You can see me?” Tommy asked.
“Yeah,” Jack said in a tight voice. “And everything else too. I like your swing.” He stared up at me in awe. “Piper…”
“I know.” Seeing ghosts was one thing, but seeing their world was something else entirely. I gave Jack a hopeful look and whispered, “Can you help?”
Surprise filled his eyes. “I don’t know. You’re the expert here.”
I was anything but. “Let’s sit down and have a chat.” I dropped Jack’s hand and sat on the grass, tugging Tommy down with me.
“No!” he said, sounding worried again. “It’s wet.”
“You can sit on my lap,” I said, then coaxed him around to sit on my left leg. “Jack, can you sit with us?”
He still looked dazed, but he nodded and sat down cross-legged in front of me. As soon as he was settled, I took a breath to center myself and then reached out and touched his leg.
Jack stared into my eyes, amazed anew. “When did this ability to see their world start?”
“Just now.”
Still in a stupor, he stared at the boy on my lap, but Tommy began to squirm.
Still touching my leg with his left hand, Jack held out his right one for a shake. “How about a proper introduction? I’m Jack Owen, nice to meet you…?”
The little boy shook Jack’s hand, looking shocked that he could. “Thommy Whithfield,” he said with his lisp.
“Very pleased to meet you, Tommy Whitfield.” He pumped Tommy’s hand once and let go, amazement in his eyes.
“Do you know where Momma is?” Tommy asked.
“No,” Jack said in a soothing tone, “but I promise that Piper, Rhys, and I will try our best to help you find her.”
“I’ve been waiting and waiting for her to come back.” Tommy let out a sniffle, and I wrapped an arm around him, hugging him close.
Jack’s reassuring gaze lifted to mine and a wave of emotion washed over me. Gratitude that he was here. Regret that I couldn’t explore the initial spark I’d felt with him. But the mysterious voice that guided me—and Jack—had insisted Jack wasn’t the man for me.
I hated the thought that someone, or something, was toying with me, but that didn’t detract from the voice’s power.
“What have you been doing while you’ve been waiting?” I asked the boy on my lap.
“Staying in my room. That woman spends most of her time downstairs, and Momma told me not to talk to strangers.”
“But I’m a stranger,” I said.
He looked up at me with wide, innocent eyes. “But you’re nice. You talk to me.”
If only I knew what to say to help him move on… I shot Jack a helpless look.
“How about this?” he said. “What if Miss Beth—she’s the lady who lives here—talks to you until we can find your mother?”
I nodded, silently thanking him for buying us some time. Maybe with some research and practice, I could figure out a way to get Tommy to his mother. But it also meant we had to get Beth to agree to let a ghost keep living in her house.
Tommy looked up at me with sad eyes. “But I want Miss Piper to stay.”
“Miss Piper has some very important business to attend to—grown-up stuff—so we’ll have Miss Beth take care of you until she can come back.”
“Don’t be gone too long. Okay?” he asked.
“How long have you been waiting for your mother?” Jack asked.
Tommy’s face scrunched up. “I don’t know…” He looked even more distressed as he tried to figure it out.
“That’s okay,” I said in a comforting voice and rubbed his arm. “You don’t have to tell us. Jack was just curious.”
“That’s right,” Jack said. “The important part is that we’re going to help.”
Tommy turned his face up to look at me, perfectly calm and expressionless. “You have to go.”
My brows shot up. “I can stay longer if you want.”
“No,” he said, a hint of fear creeping in. “The bad things are coming to find you.”
A shiver ran down my spine. Please don’t turn into a pile of ash, I silently pleaded even though I doubted he would.
A couple of weeks ago, three ghosts had appeared to me. They’d each delivered an ambiguous warning before disappearing into a pile of ash and a wisp of black smoke. Disturbingly, all three had died minutes before appearing to me. I had a hunch something had killed all of them so they could communicate with me. I couldn’t handle it if Tommy had been killed to deliver some cryptic message. But as soon as the thought flitted through my head, I knew it was absurd. Tommy had died long before I was born.
But he still seemed to have a message for me. “Bad things?”
“The things that want to take you. Like the thing last night.”
Jack placed his hand on mine and squeezed. “How do you know the bad things want Miss Piper?”
Tommy turned to him, his nose scrunching up. “They want you too now.” Then he disappeared.
My stomach lurched, and I got to my feet. “Tommy!”
My gaze was pulled up to his bedroom window, where Tommy was watching us now with a grave expression. At least nothing bad had happened to him…besides being dead.
“What just happened?” Jack asked.
“I think we just got a warning that more demons are headed our way.”
Chapter 4
Jack and I went inside, and I coaxed Tommy downstairs for a proper introduction to Miss Beth. (She’d strongly resisted at first, telling me she’d hired me to clear her house of ghosts, but Jack’s good looks and charm had succeeded where I had not.)
I reached for Tommy’s hand while gripping Beth’s. She gasped and shook my hand loose as she took several steps backward and pointed to the little boy. “I saw him!”
Jack put a hand on her shoulder. “We told you that you would.”
“I thought you were shitting me.”
Tommy was now huddling behind me, shaking with fear.
“Beth,” I said with forced patience. “Tommy is scared, and you’re scaring him even more.”
“He’s scared?” she whined. “Last night there was a demon in my house, and now you expect me to babysit a ghost? Isn’t it your job to get rid of them?”
“He’s just a little boy,” I said, hating the idea of leaving him here with her. Could I bring him with me? I knew that spirits could attach themselves to objects and be carried from one place to another, but I suspected that very much depended on the ghost and what they were attached to. Tommy was very much attached to this house, the last place he’d seen his mother. Besides, if bad things really were coming for me, I didn’t want a five-year-old—even if he was a ghost—anywhere near them. Demons could take energy from ghosts when they needed sustenance. I couldn’t let Tommy anywhere near one of them.
Was that why the dem
on had shown up here? To feed off Tommy’s power?
I also couldn’t help but wonder how Tommy knew more demons were coming. Had the demon I’d killed last night told him? When I’d asked, he’d refused to say.
In the end, we convinced Beth to let things ride for now, but it was obvious she wasn’t happy about it. I promised to check in periodically to make sure things were going well until I figured out a solution. Then Tommy gave me a tearful hug, and I left before I could change my mind.
“You did the right thing,” Jack said as he and Rhys and I walked toward our cars. His frown suggested he didn’t like leaving him any more than I did.
“Yeah, I know…” But it still felt like I’d abandoned Tommy. “I have no idea how to help him. I didn’t think we should tell him about his mother.”
“Agreed. It could really upset him.”
“But I have no idea how to get him to cross.”
Jack stopped at his back bumper and turned to face me. Placing his hand on my upper arm, he said, “You’ll figure it out. I have faith. I’ll do what I can to help.” Then his eyes darkened, and he dropped his hand to his side. “But we really need to talk about his warning.”
“What warning?” Rhys asked.
I told her what Tommy had said, how he sensed “things” were coming for me and Jack.
Panic filled her eyes. “Where’s Abel?” Considering how much she distrusted him, she had to be really frightened.
The only hint that Jack was bothered by the mention of Abel’s name was the slight twitch by his eye.
“He’s in Europe,” I said, then sucked in a deep breath. Saying that out loud had done something weird to that spot in my chest. It felt hollow and raw, and I instinctively reached out to him, taking comfort from the fact that I could still feel him there. But then I got pissed with myself. I didn’t want to care about where he’d gone. Even if we were bound together somehow. Even if he understood this crazy situation I’d stumbled into better than I did.
Even if I needed him.
I didn’t want to need him. Kieran Abel was not to be trusted. Even his own loyal employee had implied as much.
“When will he be back?” Rhys asked.
“I don’t know,” I snapped. I ran my hand over my head. “I’m sorry. I’m just…there’s just so much…”
Rhys reached out and pulled me into a hug. “Piper. Please. Don’t apologize. I know you’re under a lot of pressure with the ghosts and your training…”
“Don’t worry, Piper,” Jack said softly. “I’m staying in Asheville. I’ll be here from now on.”
That brought a rush of guilt. “Jack…”
Jack was essentially throwing his entire life away to help me. We both knew he had feelings for me. Feelings I couldn’t totally reciprocate because I was entangled with an asshole.
But Abel wasn’t a total asshole. Despite himself, he’d shown me a more tender side, and while there was no denying the attraction we had for one another—something supernatural and passionate and completely out of our control—we’d also started to like each other on an individual level. And then there was that kiss…
I’d never been kissed like that before, and just thinking about it made me ache for him with a need that wasn’t normal.
All the more reason to stay away.
Jack stared at me, waiting, and I realized he’d asked me a question.
“What?”
“I asked how your training is going.”
“Considering I do two three-hour practice sessions every day, it’s going okay. It definitely came in handy last night.”
Rhys chuckled. “Ms. Overachiever is pissed off that she’s not a black belt in karate yet.”
I scowled. “I’m not learning karate.”
“Yet you want that black belt anyway.”
I rolled my eyes. I didn’t want a black belt. I wanted to not die the next time I encountered a demon.
“This might not be the best place for this conversation…” Jack said, glancing back at the house. “How about we go for those tacos I owe you?”
Sure enough, Beth was peering out the living room window at us. And Tommy was standing next to her, watching me with a mournful look.
I lifted my hand and waggled my fingers goodbye.
Beth gave me a confused look and waved back. I almost pointed next to her, but she was already wigged-out by her spectral babysitting gig. No need to add to her unease.
“Sounds good.”
Jack turned to Rhys. “Would you like to join us for lunch?”
She gave him a smug look. “I have plans of my own.”
“She needs to get back, so she can go meet her girlfriend,” I said, drawing out the last word to tease her.
Rhys beamed. She and her crush had only been dating for a couple of weeks, but things were going well.
“Not a problem,” Jack said with a grin, then glanced down at me. “Do you want to go to that new Mexican place in West Asheville? I thought we could sit outside for more privacy.”
“Privacy,” Rhys singsonged. She made a shooing motion. “Sounds fun. You two run along.”
Talk about subtle…
“It’s business,” I said in a no-nonsense tone.
She shot me a mischievous wink. “I never said it wasn’t.”
Rhys had made no secret that she shipped us. She couldn’t stand the thought of me hooking up with Abel, which was why I’d never told her—or anyone for that matter—what had happened between us the night I’d killed the demons.
Jack and I both found parking spots on the street, then went inside and ordered at the counter. The cashier said someone would bring everything out to us, so we went out to the shaded patio and found a table for two in the far corner. The indoor seating was packed, but the patio was completely empty. That pinged my radar. It was a gorgeous day, the kind when outdoor seating should have been a precious commodity. Could it be a coincidence that we’d found the privacy we needed? I’d experienced too many coincidences over the past six months to believe they were just coincidences, but I didn’t like this further evidence that we might be in the thrall of some unseen puppet master.
We made small talk until the cashier brought out our order. She hadn’t even gotten back inside before I dug into one of my tacos.
Jack grinned, clearly amused.
I cringed. “All these workouts are kicking my ass—literally.”
He lifted a hand in defense. “Hey, no criticism from me. You look like you lost weight.”
“I have. Five pounds. And if Davis finds out I ate a greasy taco instead of grilled chicken, he’ll kick my ass even more. Rupert’s more lenient.”
“Davis and Rupert?”
“Rupert is my hand-to-hand combat instructor,” I said, before I took another bite. “Well, one of them. Both of them are teaching me how to use my daggers, but Rupert makes me use the wooden ones in practice. Davis sometimes has me use the real ones and is über-strict with my diet.”
Jack’s brows shot up as he sat back in his seat. “Wow. And you really train six hours a day?”
“They’d have me train more if I’d agree to it. But between my clients and everything else…” I’d considered giving up my ghost whispering appointments, but now that I knew I could really help the spirits move on, I couldn’t bear to do it.
“Was the demon at Beth’s place the only one you’ve encountered since that night?”
“Yeah. But it mentioned another demon. It said the Great One had said the electrical barrier would hold me in, but I cut through it with one of my blades. Have you heard of the Great One?”
“No.” He didn’t look happy with his answer.
“I suspect it has something to do with Tommy’s message.”
“Agreed.”
I polished off my taco and picked up my water. “Have you encountered any more demons since our night by Helen’s Bridge?”
“No.” He looked troubled.
I sighed. I didn’t want to bring up the Guardian
s, but I needed to know what he’d learned. “You learned something about the Guardians?”
“I did.” He hesitated. “The Guardians were in Manteo three weeks ago.”
“How do you know?”
“I went there. I talked to some people. Specifically, a police officer involved in a couple of police investigations that caught my attention.”
“I thought you were in Charlotte.”
“I was. I was only in Manteo for a couple of days.”
I shook my head. “Why were you investigating police investigations?”
“The week before you and I met, there was an incident at the botanical gardens on Roanoke Island. There was a ceremony of some sort. They found occult-type symbols burned into the grass, along with a lot of blood and a few bodies. There had been a massacre of some kind, yet it barely made the news.”
“How is that possible?”
“People in high positions.”
I squinted at him. “How do you know it was the Guardians?”
“One of the victims was Miriam Peabody, the woman from the Guardians who called me over a month ago to come look at her collection of fourteenth-century weapons.” He seemed to hesitate, rubbing his neck. “Her throat was ripped out.”
I pushed my plate away. We should have discussed this after we’d finished eating. “How did that not make the news?”
“Manteo and Roanoke Island are enough of a circus since the Lost Colony reappeared a couple of months ago. And like I said, people in high positions kept it quiet.”
“How did you find any of this out?” I asked in disbelief.
He shrugged, then picked up his drink and took a sip before he answered me. “I might have stalked a police officer to a local bar and bought him a few beers.”
My mouth dropped open. Jack Owen, Episcopal priest, had gotten a police officer sauced to wheedle information out of him. “You said there were two police investigations.”