I blew out a long breath to calm my frazzled nerves. “Patrick, you startled me. What’s up?”
Our friendly resident ghost furrowed his brow. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
Finding matches, I knelt again and struck one against the side of the book. The flame wavered, but the pilot light finally flared to life. I stood, waving the match into lifelessness before tossing it in the sink. “I’m a little busy right now. Can it wait?”
I glanced at the clock, hours ticking off in my head. Drat. The turkey wouldn’t be done in time, now. Not if we wanted to eat before midnight, anyway. What to do?
“It’s kind of urgent.” Patrick shuffled from one foot to the other.
Irritation prickled down my spine. Everything seemed to be conspiring against me tonight. The lights flickered again. “Ok. I can see you’re about to bust, so tell me before you blow the breaker.”
“That’s just it. It’s not me.” The lights wavered again before they blinked out entirely, throwing the house into darkness. “Jox and Jax are in the basement. They’ve opened a portal again.”
Anger sank to the pit of my belly like a hot brick. Those two knew better. Just as I started toward the basement door, it flew open and two small shapes tried to dart past me in a blur of blue arms and legs. I caught the collars of their shirts and yanked them back to me. “What in the world are you two doing?”
The anger in my voice filled the now dimly lit room and halted the twins in their tracks. Even Patrick took the opportunity to disappear.
Their yellow eyes darted back and forth in a panic. “Nothing, Miss Danielle. Nothing at all.” The twin imps spoke in perfect unison, something I’d had a hard time getting used to at first.
“You care to rethink that answer? You know how I feel about lying.”
Apparently, they both suddenly found something very interesting about the floor, refusing to meet my gaze.
The anger coursed through me, making my head throb harder. “Portal magic? Unsupervised portal magic? I thought we had an agreement, guys.”
Messing around with portal magic is what got the twins in trouble in the first place. They opened a portal and got sucked into our world by mistake. Ever since, they had been attempting to find a way home.
Jax ran his hand through the shock of yellow hair on his blue head, Jox echoing the gesture. “We thought we had it under control, Miss Danielle. And we didn’t want to bother you.”
I shook my head, bewildered by the short little blue tornadoes of destruction. “And do I look bothered? Because now we have no power and I have to take the time to go the dark basement and flip the breakers back on. It’s not like I don’t already have a long list of things to do this evening in order to give you kids a nice, normal holiday.”
Their lower lips quivered a bit, causing a wave of guilt to wash over me. “I know you guys want to get back home, but we need to do this safely. There are other people in the house to consider, all right?”
They bobbed their heads in unison. “Sorry.”
The hot brick in my stomach cooled, releasing a bit of the tension in my body. They were just children, after all. “Now, go keep out of trouble.”
They shuffled off while I grabbed a flashlight from the counter and headed for the basement.
~ ~ ~
The small beam of light from the flashlight provided little help as I descended the narrow basement steps, but as I had done this more than a few times in the past couple of months, I found that didn’t really matter. I made my way to the breaker box at the far end of the dark room, muttering as I opened the door. A muffled noise startled me, sending my heart pounding like a base drum, the sound drowning out all else as my breath caught in my chest.
I spun, the light from my flashlight darting about the room haphazardly. “Who’s there?”
Shadows greeted me with silence. Just as I was about to chastise myself for acting the fool, a dark figure took shape in front of me. I stifled a shriek and swung my flashlight in the direction of the shape.
“Don’t be afraid.” A child’s voice spoke timidly as I squinted to see clearly.
“Who…who are you?” I fumbled out, my tongue thick with fear.
“Could you maybe lower your flashlight?”
I stared for a second, my brain only partly functioning. Then I gathered my wits and shook my head to clear the fog. “Give me a minute.”
I inhaled deeply in an effort to return my heartbeat to a more normal rate as I pivoted and clicked on the breakers. As the room flooded with light, I switched off the flashlight and turned around.
A young boy with red skin was revealed to me. He wore a neat white shirt and blue dress slacks. Black hair just barely touched his shirt collar. His gaze fixed on me a moment, and I noticed his eyes were red as well.
“What are you doing in the basement?”
The young man looked maybe twelve or thirteen, but it was difficult to tell ages with paranormals. “I came through an open portal.”
Another one through a portal? The twins and their portals were going to be the death of me. How could they have been so careless? “Can I ask where you’re from?”
He stared at the floor, kicking at something with the toe of his shoe. “If I tell you, you have to promise not to be mad.”
The boy seemed genuinely sweet, not dangerous at all, but that was also sometimes hard to tell with paranormals. I had to remind myself to remain guarded at least a little bit, even if my instincts were to protect him. “I won’t be mad,” I told him quietly.
“It’s just that I’ve always wanted to come here, especially during the holidays. Everyone at home complains about mortals and Christmas, but it always sounded wonderful to me.”
His words surged out in a rush of breath. I cocked my head to the side as I pondered the red boy. “And where is home, exactly?” At his reluctance to tell me, a tiny vein of worry sprouted in my chest. What was I going to do with him?
The boy did his best to look at me, but his gaze ended up somewhere over my left shoulder. “Hell.”
I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry. This was a new one. My heart jumped back into overdrive and I felt my eyes go wild and wide. Remember to breath, Danielle. “So you’re…”
“A demon.” He finished. “But I don’t like being evil, like my cousins. I’m called Banore.”
He stepped forward and held out his hand. Stunned, I just stared at it, my mind reeling a little. I had just met a demon. In my basement. Suddenly overwhelmed by the urge to yell at Jox and Jax very loudly—I tried to refocus on the young man before me.
Banore frowned. “You don’t want me here.”
I blinked, taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Banore. You just caught me off guard. It’s not every day a demon from Hell shows up in my basement. Especially one that says he wants to celebrate Christmas with me.” As the words fell from my lips, they almost made me giggle with their absurdity.
Banore grinned, his teeth exceptionally white against the deep red of his skin. “Then I can stay?”
I found myself nodding. “Why the heck not? As long as you’re not here to steal our souls, you’ll fit right in. Besides, I don’t have one clue how I’d send you back.” I had no idea how I was going to explain this one to Mrs. Bell. She’d surely faint dead away.
I climbed back up the stairs, my head thumping with the chaos of the happenings this evening. The stress of it all had me wound so tightly, one more thing just might just break my tentative rein of control. I rubbed the knotted muscles at my neck. Please, no more surprises.
Banore’s steps echoed behind mine as we entered the kitchen. As soon as I shut the door, Derrick sauntered in and stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of my newest friend.
“Another one?”
I plastered a wide smile on my face that most likely made me look deranged in some way. “This is Banore. He’s a demon. He wants to celebrate Christmas with us.”
Derrick’s gaze flicked back and forth between me a
nd Banore a few times before he shrugged. “Welcome to Hell House, Banore.”
Cringing inwardly at the use of Hellsner House’s unofficial nickname, in this instance, I chose not to correct Derrick for his faux pas, considering that a demon from Hell was standing in the kitchen when he said it.
Just then, the doorbell pealed, breaking through my inner dialogue. I don’t know how much more I can handle this evening.
“Derrick, please show Banore around. I’m going to get the door.”
Concentrating on my breathing, I made my feet carry me to the front door. As the heavy wood creaked open, I was greeted by the brightest set of blue eyes to ever melt my heart and turn my knees instantly to rubber.
“Micah! I’m so glad you’re here!” I threw my arms around his neck and held on as if my life depended on it. Micah taught the kids their school lessons. You could imagine what problems sending them to a public school might cause. He was also my right hand, helping me in more ways than I’m sure his job mandated. I didn’t know what I’d do without him.
He staggered a little with the force of my greeting—and the fact that his hands were filled with a collection of overstuffed shopping bags. “Rough night?”
I inhaled against his neck, not wanting to let go. He always smelled so good, all musk, spice, and man, making me all warm and tingly inside.
“Yes.” My response muffled, as my face was still buried in his neck.
He laughed and loosely wrapped an arm around me, lifting me off my feet, and shutting the door behind him with his foot before lumbering into my office and setting me down. My arms finally obeyed the command to let go and unwound themselves from his neck.
“Care to share?” His grin deepened two heavenly dimples, his blue eyes the color of a clear ocean in sunshine. He dropped the bags on the floor.
My fingers twitched to dive into the blond waves of his hair. Most days it was a struggle to keep up the act of the consummate professional. If we didn’t work together, I’m sure I’d try to rip his clothes off at some point. But since I didn’t want anything to ruin our working relationship, I somehow managed to keep those thoughts at bay. But as I noticed how nicely he filled out his blue jeans, I feared my control on that front might slip, especially given the day I was having. Focus, Danielle.
Just as I opened my mouth to fill him in on the horrors of my day, an explosion rocked the house, the walls shaking and the floor rumbling. Micah reached out to steady me, a shocked expression on his face. Probably a complete copy of my own.
I dashed out of the office, into a dining room filled with smoke. I coughed, my eyes immediately watering. Sprinting to the kitchen, I grabbed the fire extinguisher. The billowing smoke stung my eyes and blinded me for a moment, but I could just make out the flicker of flames in the corner, so I aimed and let go with the foam. The thick white stuff doused the fire into extinction.
“Is everyone ok?” Micah’s voice carried through the air as a chorus of children’s’ voices answered in the affirmative. The smoke thinned and I got my first look of what had caught fire. The extinguisher fell at my feet with a thud.
What used to be the Christmas tree was now a smoking collection of ragged branches, dripping with foam.
My heart cracked as I watched a white feather float through the air and settle on the scorched dining table. Oh, no. My angel. Tears welled up behind my eyes as I glanced around the room, looking for guilty faces. No surprise where I found them.
“You mind telling me what happened?” The calm fury in my voice surprised even me.
Sora swallowed and shifted from one foot to the other. “It’s Derrick’s fault. He wouldn’t leave me alone, and then he ducked—”
“My fault? I wasn’t the one trying to blow someone up!”
“Enough!” The voice that erupted from my mouth sounded foreign as white-hot anger pulsed through my veins. I had reached my breaking point, and now the tirade that had been building all evening exploded, an unstoppable force to be reckoned with. “All I do is try to help you kids, and this is how you repay me?”
“Danielle…” Micah laid a hand on my arm, but I shook him off roughly.
“I spend every waking moment at this place, in some vain attempt to give you guys a normal life. No one else even wanted this job, did you know that? You’re lucky you even got someone like me, not that you care.” My words sounded like one long sob as my voice cracked with unshed tears.
Stunned faces gaped at me.
I spun and grabbed my coat off its hook by the door. “I need some air.”
~ ~ ~
After yanking on my coat, I threw open the door and ran down the stairs as fast as my feet would carry me. The cold air burned my lungs as tears flowed down my face. The light dusting of snow crunched under my feet with each step.
I rounded a corner and stopped at a bench, out of breath. The sobs set in, then, so I plopped down on the bench and let them have me. After a few minutes, I hiccupped and wiped my eyes, staring at the stars in the sky. I sat in silence, the tears on my face freezing uncomfortably. The cold finally hit my body full force, the coat I clutched around myself hardly warming me. Shivering, I wished I’d had enough clarity in my tantrum to grab my scarf.
“You’ll freeze to death out here.” Micah’s gentle voice brought me to my feet in a panic.
I shrieked and turned to find him behind the bench, my scarf in his hands. “Don’t do that! You nearly gave me a heart attack!” I took the offered scarf and wrapped it around my neck before sitting back down.
Micah settled next to me. “You were kind of hard on the kids back there.”
“You don’t even know what I’ve been through today.” I took a moment to glare at him. “How did you even get here so fast?”
He sighed, and ignored my question. “These kids need you, Danielle. Even more than you need them.”
I shook my head in denial. “I always thought that this was my calling, that I would help kids have a better life than I had. But now, I’m not so sure.” Doubt had settled in to have a party with the anger I had let get the best of me.
“You’re right where you’re supposed to be, doing the work you’re meant to do.”
I sniffed, my nose still attempting to run away from the cold. “How can you be so sure, when I’m having so much doubt?”
“Let’s just say I have it on good authority.”
I cast him a sideway glance, to see if he was serious, or just messing with me. “Whose authority might that be?”
“His.” Micah’s eyes gestured skyward.
I peeked up at the sky, then back at Micah. After a few more times, the meaning of his words sank in.
I gulped, my eyes wide as saucers. “Then that means you’re a…”
He nodded, a slow grin spreading across his mouth. I glanced at his back, then back to his lovely blue eyes. “Then where are your wings?”
“You’re helping me earn them.”
I let my gaze wander back up to the sky. I shouldn’t be surprised, after the evening I’d had. I had always considered Micah a godsend. I just hadn’t expected that he’d actually been sent by God. How was this even my life?
I sniffed again, wiping at my nose with my hand. Losing my family so young had left me wounded deeply enough to want to lessen that burden for other kids. I’d made it my mission to finish school—convinced social work was my calling, not just a job.
Raw guilt settled in my stomach, churning brightly. I had been hard on the kids. None of them deserved to be reminded how many ways this world didn’t want them. And my angel, well she was just a remnant of a hurt little girl. It was past time I grew up.
I’m not sure how long we sat there, but finally Micah stood and held out his hand. “You ready to go back?”
“Yeah. If they’ll have me.” I entwined my fingers with his and clambered to my feet. We walked back to the house in silence, my head buzzing with how to make things right with the kids.
As we climbed the stairs, I took a steadying bre
ath and opened the door. A cacophony of voices stuttered to silence as I slipped off my coat and scarf, hanging them up. I turned to find a line of children staring at me expectantly.
“You’re back.” Jox and Jax were the first to speak, as usual.
I nodded. “Yeah, I’m back.”
“I’m sorry, Danielle. I really didn’t mean to mess up Christmas.” Sora stepped forward, her eyes bright with unshed tears.
She embraced me tightly. Something she’d never done before. I stood frozen for a moment, stunned by the action, but then I hugged her back just as hard. “I know. It’s just been a hell of a day, guys.” I shot a glance over at Banore. “No insult intended.”
“None taken,” he replied cheerfully.
I released Sora and she stepped back. “Listen, I just wanted to say—”
Derrick held up a hand. “Before you go there, we have a surprise for you.”
I frowned, unsure of what to expect, as the kids parted down the middle, so I could see behind them. Though the scent of scorched tree still lingered in the air, they had cleaned up the mess. The table was set for dinner, a spread laid out like no other. A fine cooked turkey displayed proudly as the centerpiece.
I stared at all of them in bewilderment. “But…how?”
Derrick flashed one of his trademark grins. “Turns out, demon fire is rather useful in the kitchen. Cooks a turkey in no time flat, among other things.”
I stared at Banore, who just shrugged.
“And our Zombie Zoe is rather a whiz when it comes to domestic duties.”
I peeked over at Zoe, who smiled shyly and shrugged as well.
“I made the potatoes.” Sora chimed in. “Though they might be a little lumpy.”
I laughed. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Just say you won’t leave.” Carlton nearly bowled me over with his huge voice. He so rarely used it I had to take a moment to gather myself as he came forward and pressed a small box into my hand.
Hell House Books 1-3: The First Three Hell House Novellas in One Box Set Page 2