Dead End (Peri Jean Mace Ghost Thrillers Book 8)

by Catie Rhodes

  “Shit.” Tubby jumped off his stool and ran to Hannah. I followed.

  Hannah bent forward, trying her best to break the zip tie around her ankles. Tubby grabbed one of her arms and pulled it back. I did the other. Hannah snapped like an animal, her teeth clacking together.

  I glanced back at the table to see if Mysti was going to help. She rummaged in her witch pack. Great time to play with her stuff. Cecil stood from his seat, eyes swallowing his face, and slowly approached.

  “Tubman?” Mysti spoke without looking up. “Do you have any more drugs on you?”

  Tubby shrugged. I glared at him. His cheeks reddened around the stubble. “Over the sink in a plastic bag.”

  Mysti opened the cabinet and rummaged around. She dropped two packages of braided nylon rope on the counter, dug around some more, and finally withdrew a plastic bag full of multicolored pills. She raised her eyebrows at Tubby. He held out one hand in answer. Mysti gave him the bag, and he picked out two pills and dropped them into her waiting hand. She spoke to Dillon. “You’ll have to help me hold her mouth open.”

  Dillon shook her head. Cecil stepped forward. “I’ll do it.”

  With Tubby and me holding Hannah’s arms, Mysti and Cecil somehow got a pill down Hannah’s gullet and forced her to swallow.

  The whole time, Mysti spoke soothing words to Hannah. “I know you’re still in there, and I know this is miserable. But we’ll help you. Just rest and get ready to fight.”

  At Tubby’s direction, Dillon found the package of zip ties, and we got Hannah bound again. She had already calmed a great deal. Her chin dropped to her chest, and her eyes stared unfocused. Mysti patted her and led us back to the table where she picked up her teacup as though nothing had happened.

  “As I was getting ready to tell Tubby, terms like vampire, werewolf, or even gargoyle don’t adequately describe what we’re dealing with here.” She gave Tubby a gentle smile. “The things I’ve seen are not like creatures from mythology or monsters from popular television or books. But in every lie there’s a little truth. If you know the concept behind an incubus or succubus, then you have a vague understanding of what that hag riding Hannah is doing. It feeds off her.”

  “Sexually?” Tubby leaned forward, very interested. It both impressed and amused me he knew the terms Mysti threw out, especially when he didn’t even know irregardless isn’t a word.

  “I’m not completely sure. It could be feeding on any aspect of Hannah’s darkest heart.” Mysti chewed her lip and frowned as she tried to pick her words.

  “Darkest heart?” The phrase grabbed my interest, made something move around in my subconscious.

  “That’s actually Griffin’s expression.” She stopped speaking and gripped my arm. “By the way, Peri Jean, Griff wanted to be here. He’s just having some personal issues with his mother. She’s challenging…” She cut herself off and shook her head. “Now’s not the time.” She let go of me and clapped once, lightly. “Darkest heart. We all have a shadow side, a side of us where our good qualities become bad ones, minor quirks grow into neuroses. Mostly you just glimpse a person’s darkest heart every once in a while.”

  Mysti’s words burrowed deep into my mind. I’d killed other human beings to save my own life and the lives of my loved ones. The experience made me question myself, who I really was. Killing them hadn’t bothered me the way I thought it would. In some dark corner of my mind, I’d considered their threats against my loved ones and me a declaration of war. There were no rules in war. Not for me anyway. Was that my darkest heart? A shiver worked its way up my spine.

  Mysti watched me with an odd light dancing in her eyes. “If someone’s darkest heart takes over, it eventually causes them to self-destruct. Now I’ll try to answer Tubby’s question about what Hannah’s ugly passenger eats…”

  Tubby broke in. “That ugly little shit eats feeds off the sorrow that the host feels as they self-desctruct.”

  Mysti nodded. “It gets bigger and bigger as the person becomes weaker and weaker. Then when the person finally dies or commits suicide, the thing absorbs their life force.”

  The hair on the back of my neck prickled with revulsion and maybe a little fear. “What does it do with the life force?”

  Mysti drew in a deep breath and stared at Hannah. “Live on it until they find the next host.” She shivered and rubbed her arms. The gesture made me wonder what she’d seen in her investigations with Griff. They called me in on ghost stuff but never anything involving an actual monster.

  “So can we kill this thing?” I glanced at Hannah. She snoozed, chin dipped toward her chest. A thin line of drool dangled from her mouth.

  “We can’t kill it.” Mysti shook her head. “We’ll be lucky to get it out of Hannah without it killing any of us. It’s low level compared to some of the beings you’ve already met, but it’s still way more powerful than mere mortals. And you’ll get to watch your back the rest of your life. Our stealing its meal is going to piss it off.” She turned up her cup and drained it. “Wade prepared me well for what I was going to see, so I’ve got all the supplies we need.”

  The mention of Wade stabbed into my heart. He’d known he was living his last hours. I didn’t want him to be dead. I didn’t think I could go on living if he was. The coming days and weeks of knowing I’d gotten Wade killed stretched out in my imagination, frightening as anything I’d ever faced. I rubbed the aching ball of stress in my shoulder. I had to do something to take my mind off it. Doing a ritual, using my gifts to banish this awful parasite from Hannah, might help. “I’m ready to get started now.”

  Mysti smiled at me. “Good. But we’re waiting until three in the morning.”

  “The devil’s hour?” Tubby asked with a straight face.

  Mysti rewarded him with a tip of her chin. “Very good. Rest now. We’ll need everybody’s energy if we’re going to make this work.”

  8

  I got up from the table, not sure what I was going to do with the hours between now and the ritual. Tubby stood and tapped my arm. “Let’s go check on Corman and smoke.”

  We descended the stairs in silence. Now that we were in a holding pattern, my mind had nothing to do but get up to mischief. The moment of Wade’s shooting played on endless loop. My throat ached with the need to cry, but I held it back. This had been my hare-brained scheme. I didn’t deserve the luxury of crying over it now.

  Mysti’d said each of us had a dark heart, a shadow personality. Hannah’s both scared me and made me sad. This manifestation of her was like the anti-Hannah. She'd always liked her drink and her men, but the old Hannah kept it classy. A glass of scotch and soda at a reception. A well-heeled yuppie on her arm. People who didn’t know Hannah probably didn’t see how many times the scotch and soda got refilled or notice how the man on her arm was never the same. Or if they did, they saw only a wealthy young woman with impeccable manners enjoying herself. This Hannah, the one who sat in Long Time Gone slamming tequila shots with King Tolliver? That Hannah was crawling on the bottom of the septic tank.

  The parasite riding her shoulders had taken mostly harmless behavior and turned it into the blackest, coldest night of Hannah’s life. Was sitting on that barstool in Long Time Gone wearing a too big shirt, bruises covering her arms, and kissing a nasty piece of human garbage like King Tolliver what really lurked in Hannah’s darkest heart? The jump unnerved me. It also brought my mind around to my own darkest heart.

  Right then, my darkest heart, which I still thought was my penchant for violence, strained on its leash, begging to bathe in the steaming waters of brutality. I’d make Trench Coat feel like he was burning from the inside out until he lost his mind. He’d never shoot anybody again. King Tolliver. The very thought of him set off fireworks of anger in my brain. My vision wavered. Before this was over, King would beg me to leave him alone. The Six Guns had declared war on me, and I’d fight them until I won or died.

  Tubby’s fingers closed around my arm. I jumped and let out a yelp. He held
up both hands and tried to smile. “I ain’t never gotten used to bad scenes like at the Six Gun Compound neither. You keep thinking over what you did wrong, maybe even thinking you shouldn’t have got involved in the first place.”

  I stared at the dark circles under Tubby’s eyes and waited to see what he’d say next.

  “You did the right thing, going to get Hannah. You’re doing the right thing for your Uncle Jesse. And for Rainey too.” He giggled. “That girl’s got it so bad.”

  I cocked my head at him. Tubby watched me with an almost sympathetic look on his face. This time he did manage a smile. He slipped his arm around my waist and pulled me to him. I resisted. After his request for a date and my refusal, I didn't want to give him the wrong idea. He strengthened his grip, overpowering me, and whispered in my ear. “Rainey and your uncle got a lil’ sumpin’ sumpin’ going on.” He drew back, really grinning now. Had I been thinking straight, I’d have noted that Tubby was sharing secrets with me and not asking for compensation. But Wade dominated my thoughts. I didn't have time for Tubby’s diva act. He pouted. “Ain’t you gonna axe how I know?”

  I shook my head, smiling in spite of myself. Tubby’s enthusiasm for gossip was endearing in a scary way.

  “So I told you I got a contact at the prison. One thing he brought back to me, just because he knows Rainey’s from Gaslight City, is that she and Jesse touch each other ever chance they get. Which ain’t much at a prison, but the way he says they look at each other…” Tubby shrugged. “Anyway, you know prisoners’ mail is monitored, right? My contact says their letters ain’t just legal correspondence. If you know what I mean.”

  My cheeks heated. How would I ever look my sweet Uncle Jesse in the face again? He was the same age as my father would have been, had been my daddy’s twin in fact. And he was talking dirty to a woman my age who used to be Miss Texas? Oh my.

  A grin spread across my face. Tubby’s laughter hissed through his teeth. He clapped one hand over his mouth. I put my hands over my face and laughed until my side hurt. Tears streamed down my face. Some of my guffaws sounded more like sobs, but it still felt good.

  Tubby patted my back. “You gotta let it out some way. Otherwise, it’ll drive you crazy.”

  I wiped the tears off my face. “It’s driving me crazy anyway. I knew why Rainey wanted Jesse out of prison so badly. I can't let her down.” I got out my cigarettes. “It’s just that everything has turned to shit.”

  Tubby lit his own cigarette and motioned me to follow him. At the back of the store, near the bathrooms, Corman Tolliver sat tied to a chair. He raised his head but made no other effort to acknowledge us. Tubby took a phone out of his pocket and snapped a picture of Corman. He fiddled around with the phone. A few seconds later, I heard the sound of a text message being sent.

  Tubby stuffed the phone back in his pocket. “King ought to like that, the bastard.”

  I turned away from Tubby and voiced my worst fear. “Wade’s dead. That’s why King hasn’t contacted us.” We walked back to the stairs and sat down to smoke.

  “Hard to say.” Tubby leaned against the wall, smoking and staring into the darkness. Without warning, he reached into his mouth and pulled out a row of teeth. I drew back from him before I could stop myself. Tubby, ignoring my disgust, held up the bridge for me to see. “Remember this?”

  I flinched at the sight of it. Tubby’d worn the bridge so long, I’d forgotten about the day he showed up at school, his mouth all swollen. The memory of how long it took our teacher to realize something was wrong with him, that he wasn’t just being a little asshole, made my heart hurt.

  Tubby stared at the false teeth. “You remember what happened to Roger?”

  I remembered. Tubby’s evil stepfather. Roger beat the sass out of Tubby about once a month, bad beatings, until Tubby was in his late teens. A hunter found Roger in the National Forest leaning against a tree. He’d died with his hands laced over his stomach where it had been cut open. He must have been trying to hold his guts in. Roger’s murder went unsolved.

  “This here is a reminder to never eat shit from assholes like the Six Gun Revolutionaries. We can’t change what they’ve done to Wade, but we will give them back everything they’ve dished out and more.” Tubby put his teeth back in his mouth. What was his darkest heart? Maybe the Tubby I sat shoulder to shoulder with was the dark one. Maybe he had no light.

  A phone began to ring. It wasn’t my ringtone, so I didn’t even take mine out. Tubby dug Corman’s phone back out of his pocket and answered. “Yeeeesss.” He listened, a grin growing on his face. “She’s right here, boss.” He held the phone out to me. “The boss wants to talk to you. Very important shit.”

  I took the phone. “What?”

  King’s shout blasted through the speaker. “If my son’s dead, you freak of nature, I swear I’ll—”

  I hung up on him and set the phone back in my lap, anger sizzling in my veins. I couldn’t let myself get into a shouting match with King Tolliver. The phone rang again. I hit the answer button and held the phone to my ear. King’s heavy breathing came over the line. “You finished hollering?” I glanced at Tubby to find him watching me, eyes half-lidded, almost smiling.

  “You stupid bitch. You got no idea what you done stepped in.” King didn’t holler, but his voice was like hot pavement at the end of summer, rough and unforgiving.

  I lit another cigarette and closed my eyes. My mouth felt too full of spit, and I wanted to swallow, but I didn’t want King to hear. I counted to ten and swallowed as quietly as I could. “Let’s save the pillow talk for some other time. Tell me if Wade’s still alive.”

  King barked out a dry laugh. “I don’t even know if Corman’s still alive.”

  I stood and walked back to where we had Corman, Tubby scurrying after me. The phone had a video call function, and I switched to it. King accepted, and I had the pleasure of his ugly, hollow-cheeked face. At least he wasn’t baring his dingy teeth at me. “Here’s Corman.” I turned the phone and held it near Corman’s face. His eyes moved as I got near him.

  “Son?” King’s voice came from the phone. “Where are you hit?”

  “Shoulder.” Corman’s sluggish voice dragged the word out. “They doped me.”

  I turned the phone back to my face. “Now Wade.”

  King laughed at me. Actually laughed.

  “Show me Wade, or I’m going to kill Corman right now.” I paused, glaring into the phone’s camera. “Then I’m coming to kill you and everybody left in your shitty motorcycle club.”

  King bared his nasty teeth in a grin. “You better be real sure who you’re threatening.”

  I smiled even though I wanted to scream in frustration. “I am. Are you?”

  King turned the phone away from himself and showed me a view of Wade curled into the fetal position, facing the camera. My heart thudded faster as I took in the blurry image. Wade’s eyes were closed, his sides moved with his breaths. Alive. He was alive.

  Behind Wade was a wall of rough-hewn boards, smoke blackened and dingy. They’d put him in one of the structures that got burned down. Jerks. At least I had an idea where he was being kept. Some of the stress holding me upright released. But a million questions followed right behind. Chief among them was how long Wade had left before he bled out or died of shock.

  King turned the phone back to his wasted face. Both of us waited for the other to speak. The seconds dragged past, each one full of poisonous fears. Finally King coughed. “Here’s my deal. You deliver my son with no further injuries and Barbie’s tape about your daddy’s murder. I’ll let you have what’s left of my former friend.”

  I glanced at Tubby. He shrugged. I spoke into the phone. “But I don’t know where the tape is.”

  King started laughing. “Ask that stupid whore you carried out of my house. She had all kinds of ideas about it when I first met her. You got twenty-four hours.” He ended the call.

  The facade I’d used with King dropped away. My knees buckled. I pushed th
e phone at Tubby and grabbed onto the wall. The floor tilted, and black spots danced in my vision. Fear stung every pore on my skin. I hung on for dear life and tried not to puke. So many things could go wrong.

  We might not get rid of the hag so we could talk to Hannah. Corman might die. And hours were passing. Wade could die while we bumbled around trying to find the tape. Why did King care so much about it anyway? I stumbled sideways. Corman chuckled from his seat. I shot him a hateful glare.

  Tubby stepped in next to me and held me upright. His nasally drawl crooned in my ear. “Come on now. You gonna have to get it together.”

  I turned to him. “Say Wade’s going to be okay.”

  Tubby shrugged. “I can’t.”

  “He won’t be,” Corman slurred. “Fucker signed his death warrant when he clobbered Daddy upside the head.”

  I spun and shook off Tubby’s arm, hurling myself at Corman in three running steps. I doubled up my fist and hit him in his bullet wound. Corman squeezed his eyes shut and howled. I delivered a flabby roundhouse to his jaw. Tubby grabbed me around the waist and dragged me away.

  He threw me on the wood floor and stood over me. “Don’t break your bargaining chip.”

  I glared at him for a second and then picked myself up. “You’re right.” Killing Corman would mean I’d never see Wade alive again. May not anyway.

  A scream built in my chest. I spun away from Tubby and ran into the building’s darkness. There, in a dusty corner, I cried myself into a fitful doze. Hours later, a little before three a.m., Dillon woke me to get ready for the spell work.

  We gathered in the kitchen to learn what we needed to do. I sat off to the side, slugging down coffee and trying to shake off the fogginess my nap had left behind.

  “This’ll be a two-step process, plus a backup plan.” Mysti stood in front of us as though she was teaching a master class on witchcraft. Maybe it was a master class to her.

  Cecil raised his hand. I bit my lip to keep from smiling. Must have seemed like a class to him too.