“What do you mean he comes out? Like to take a stroll around the neighborhood?”
“I’m not sure what he does when he leaves the house. No one sticks around to find out.”
I pondered all this, but had trouble imagining what she offered and said, “How do you know that he’s a bad ghost or man, I should say?” Seriously, had anything ever been so ridiculous? “What sort of feelings do you get off him?”
“Just wrongness. He hasn’t hurt any of us, yet.” She didn’t fail to add that. “But I wouldn’t put it past him.” That same fear sped across her face. “I had the feeling when I first encountered him that he would destroy me if I got in his way.”
“Sounds like someone I definitely want to meet.” I snorted softly.
Kipp grinned. “Ask numb-nuts if ghosts have the ability to hurt you?”
I smiled at my ghost, adoring that his concern was first and foremost for my safety. I glanced at Dane who appeared frustrated that he wasn’t hearing all of the conversation, but I could hardly care about him. “You said before that I could be in danger. What does that mean?”
“Exactly what you think it means.”
I gulped. “Could a ghost kill me?”
“Not in the way you’re thinking,” he said, as if he choose his words carefully. “But you’re more threatening to a ghost than you would be if you didn’t hold these gifts. They will know you have the knowledge to get rid of them—or suspect you do—and if they didn’t want that then you could imagine their reaction.”
Did he just answer my question or avoid it? “Yes, well, that’s shitty and all, but what would a ghost do to me in that situation?”
“They could trap your soul.”
I laughed, even if it did sound nervous. “Yeah, right.”
No hesitation crossed his features. “It’s why I said it’s important I come with you. Not only to see what you’re up against, but I need to teach you how to close yourself off. You complain they’re always intruding on you, but the truth is, you allow it.”
“I allow nothing of the sort,” I retorted.
“You do. You just don’t know it.” There was his knowing look again. “By allowing them to have so much control, you leave yourself defenseless. Meaning, a ghost could do whatever they wanted to if you let them—because you don’t realize the power you hold—and that includes stealing your soul. Trust me when I tell you, this would be far worse than death. Any dark spirit that entered your body would seek to destroy you as painfully as possible.”
“Ask him more about this, Tess,” Kipp said. “If you need protection, we have to know how to get it.”
“Fine.” I huffed, forcing myself to keep from glaring about Dane’s continuing assumption that I had no sense at all, but kept it close by just in case he deserved it. “What do I need to do?”
“You need to stop letting them in.”
I urged him on with a wave of my hand. “Which means, in English?”
“Since you refuse to listen to me about how to keep them out, and insist on seeing what I’m telling you is for your own good, we’ll need to go about it in a different way until I get you to see sense.”
He dug into his pocket and held out a gold medallion strung through a black ribbon. “Turn around.” He stepped forward. “I suspected I might need this for you and you’re only lucky I thought ahead.”
I caught a quick glimpse at the necklace. Engraved into the round medallion was a warrior of some type holding a sword out in front of him. I peeked sideways at Kipp, and he nodded, so I obliged.
Dane swept my hair over my shoulder, and his fingers skimmed along my neck. My eyes fluttered closed as energy swept through me. Whatever power he held or maybe because of our shared connection, affected me right down to my toes.
He wrapped the ribbon around my neck, tying it to sit like a choker against my skin. I reached up and ran my fingers over the warm metal. “What is it?”
“It’s the Archangel Michael.”
I spun around and laughed. “Some Archangel is going to protect me from spirits who wish me harm?”
“Who do you think fought off evil before we did?”
“Okay, first off…” I gulped. “I don’t fight anything evil, and second, are you seriously suggesting that you believe in the Archangels?”
“It’s not a matter of believe or not believe. I’ve seen the strength of these symbols, this magic—”
“Whoa!” I raised my hand cutting him off. “Hold up, there. Don’t go spitting out about magic as if it’s normal conversation.”
He sighed, shaking his head at me. “I have a hard time understanding how this is all so unbelievable to you. You see ghosts. Yet, an angel, a protector, and magic that offers a way to guard us is completely mind-blowing to you.”
I gave a firm nod. “Yes, it’s completely mind-fucking blowing to me. What kind of magic is this that you’re talking about?”
“Spells.”
The more he spoke, the more I realized I didn’t know jack-shit about this man. “How do you know about spells?” At his arched eyebrow, I added, “Okay, so you’ve used spells before and they’ve worked?”
“Every single time. I’ve been doing this for years, Tess.” He lifted his chin, widened his stance. “Before I joined the F.B.I., I dealt with things you couldn’t even imagine. And that’s exactly why I’m coming down on you. I know things you don’t. I’ve seen things you haven’t.”
“All right.” Not that I agreed with him, but why push his hot buttons? I reached up, and the necklace was surprisingly warm beneath my touch. Somehow I doubted that would change. “What will this do for me? And don’t tell me Michael the Archangel is going to appear in his ghost form and defend me.”
Dane scoffed. “That’s highly unlikely.”
“I’d be lying if that doesn’t make me happy.” I glimpsed at Kipp. He laughed, clearly agreeing with how freakishly weird that’d be. “What will it do then?”
“It provides you with a barrier of protection. Michael, as he always has, places his shield on your body. No ghost wishing you harm will be able to break through that hold. Meaning, they can’t take anything from you, including your soul.”
I rubbed the necklace. “I think I like this Michael.” I studied Dane, maybe now more interested in listening to him since he knew stuff I couldn’t even fathom. “Have you researched this or something?”
“Over the years, yes. I have a very close friend who is a practicing witch. She tends to offer me a great service with her wealth of information.”
Something flashed across his features. An emotion of some kind that I didn’t recognize, nor trust. “A witch, huh?” Images of a woman riding around on broomstick filled my mind. But I didn’t want to point out how even the witch seemed ludicrous since he’d already chastised me for being so dense. Besides, if he believed in Archangels, his believing in a witch didn’t seem far off.
Dane looked at the medallion for a moment, then lifted his gaze. “You’ll be safe now. If at any time you feel like you’re in real danger, you only need to recite these words to increase the protection, Michael to the right of me. Michael to the left of me. Michael above me. Michael below me. Michael within me. Michael all around me. Michael, with your flaming sword of cobalt blue, please protect me today.”
I snorted. “If I’m in serious danger, do you honestly think I’m going to have the time to remember that, or actually say it?”
“Trust me.” His gaze darkened. “If you’re up against anything that scares you enough, you’ll remember it.”
I doubted that, but I wasn’t about to argue with him. “Okay. I’ve got Michael, my Archangel, a saying if I need a bit of extra muscle, is there anything else?”
Dane smiled, and it held no amusement. “I hope you’ve got the balls that you portray, because I suspect you’re about to face something that’s going to take everything you know, everything you believe in, and turn it upside down.”
Now that, I believed.
&nbs
p; Chapter Nine
The moment I exited the car and approached the house that looked in worst sorts than even Anna’s, I realized Dane was right. I also understood what Holly meant by the wrongness. The odd sensation lingered thick in the air, making breathing difficult. The two-story, red-brick house had no lights on the inside, which only increased the nerves crippling me.
Now with the dark night surrounding us, a worry surfaced. I glanced over at Dane. “Do you have a flashlight—”
He handed me one before I could finish. An odd thing for him to carry, but I figured as part of the F.B.I. he always came prepared. And I was only too grateful. I clicked the button turning it on. Not that it’d help anyway.
If there was a nasty ghost in there, did I really want to see him? But like everything else in my life I had no control over anything, so I followed Kipp and Dane up the porch and tried to portray half the determination they showed.
At the front door, Dane knocked, but as expected no one answered. Even on the front porch, some of the missing wood planks confirmed the house had been long ago abandoned.
Kipp melted through the front door and Dane opened it, unbeknownst to him that Kipp had entered.
The floorboards creaked under my feet as I entered the living room. The scent of burnt wood, mixed with something almost spicy filled the space around me. I scanned out with my flashlight and the second it hit the floor, I skidded to a halt. “Holy shit.”
On the floor, written in what could only be described as blood of something—I prayed not human—was a pentagram. A large circle was around the pentagram and within it were symbols.
Kipp strode around the pentagram studying it, then looked at me with concerned eyes. “Ask what this is.”
I could barely find my voice and whispered, “What is that?”
Dane shook his head, kneeling down beside the pentagram, examining the mark. “I’ve never seen a pentagram drawn in such a way before.” His gaze lifted, and fear shook me to the bones. “I’m not sure what its meaning is, but whatever it is it ain’t good.”
“Figure that out yourself, did ya?” Even I who knew nothing about this stuff determined a pentagram was a bad thing.
“I…” Dane grasped his stomach, groaned and keeled over.
I sucked in a deep breath understanding his reaction, as a swell of pure fright rocked my system. The scent of the spiciness increased tenfold and I held my breath, not to inhale it.
Kipp grabbed for my arm, an icy embrace that raced through my skin, but even that couldn’t extinguish the wrongness invading me.
“What is it?” he demanded.
My words were trapped in my thick throat. I glanced around the room with my flashlight looking for anything or anyone. As I scanned to the right side of the room, I found what I needed to and even a scream couldn’t form.
Kipp jumped in front of me, his arms out in a solid wall of protection, as he stared into the corner of the room. “Who the fuck are you?”
The man stepped forward, gave a smile so dark, as if he’d heard Kipp. “Why are you in my house?”
“Don’t talk to it.” Dane rose up, but his pale face displayed his pain.
I wondered who had it worse. Me, or him. I could see spirits, but I couldn’t feel whatever energy they gave off, or to the extent he experienced. He wasn’t in a good place right now.
“Get out of my house,” the man said again, striding forward.
I squinted and lowered my flashlight along his body. He wore a uniform that appeared oddly familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.
Dane shot forward, and my light landed on him as he yanked a purple weed out of his pocket and lit it. Smoke formed from the weed and he waved it in the direction of the man. “You are bound to not leave this house. Be gone.”
His demanding tone impressed me since I wanted to run the hell out of here and stay far, far away. Plus, I had lost the ability to speak, scream, or doing anything that seemed appropriate.
The man’s eyes became murky, and if I didn’t know better, I’d swear they turned a reddish color that glowed in the dark room. I blinked once only to discover that the man had somehow up and vanished. I scanned the room quickly, but found nothing.
Dane latched onto my hand and yanked me so hard, I stumbled forward. “We must go.”
“Get your hands off her!” Kipp yelled, rushing forward running straight into Dane’s body.
Dane released my hand, fell onto the ground and roared, “Get out of me. It’s for her own good. She’s not safe here.”
Kipp soared out of Dane’s body and glared down at him. “I don’t give a fuck. You never touch her like that.”
I blinked again. Had a human man just vanished? And did Kipp just enter Dane’s body? I gave my head a hard shake to pull myself away from my shock. “What just happened?”
“Besides the fact I was internally bruised,” Dane said in a hard tone. “We need to get out of this house. The fumitory is only a temporary solution to keep it away. If we stay here, it’ll return and I have nothing left to protect us.”
Where had my brain gone? “Huh?”
Without so much of a word, Dane latched onto my hand, and even though he couldn’t hear Kipp’s curse, I was damn sure he could feel Kipp’s rage.
Dane had me out the front door in a split second. He dropped my hand once we reached outside and ran toward his car. A moment later, he returned with bags and shoved one of them in my hands.
“Wait here.” He went into the house and returned in a matter of minutes. “I’ve placed the salt around the upstairs windows and doors, but let’s do outside too as extra precaution.” He pushed on my shoulder and again I stumbled. “Hurry. You do the doors. I’ll do the windows.”
I glanced down at the red bag with a drawstring, demanding that my mind form a coherent thought. “Why is salt in here?”
“No questions,” Dane shouted, running off toward the front window of the house. “Do it. Now.”
“What?” I gasped.
“Just do as he asks,” Kipp replied, calm as he always was in a stressful situation. “Who knows what voodoo shit he’s up to, but…” He glanced over at Dane who ran around the outside of the house depositing the salt on the windowsills. He finally turned to me. “It must be important.”
I shrugged, thinking along the same lines considering Dane acted like a crazy man. He’d always been so composed. I opened the drawstring on the bag and hurried around to the back of the house. I lined the doorway with the salt, and then repeated the process at the front door. By the time I sealed the bag, Dane had joined us.
He heaved a sigh, sounding breathless. “Now it can’t escape.”
“Escape from what?” Both Kipp and I asked together.
“I doubt my order will be enough to keep it locked down. The salt binds it to the house. It won’t be able to leave, for now, until it gets smart and figures a way out. That gives us time to determine how to deal with it.”
Fear shook me to my bones, but why that was hadn’t registered in my mind. “I’ll give it to ya, the man was scary as hell. But besides the fact that he up and vanished, which I can’t for the life of me figure out, he didn’t look like he was going to harm us.”
Dane raised his eyebrow. “He didn’t harm us because I lit the fumitory. The smoke drives it away. It’s not a ghost problem you have here in Memphis.” His gaze was serious in a way I’d never seen from him and void of all emotion. “You, Tess Jennings, have a demon.”
Chapter Ten
I waited for him to say more that somehow rejected what I heard. Dane didn’t and merely stared at me with a blank expression. “There’s a…” I gestured toward the house. “Demon in there?”
Dane nodded, his gaze thoroughly chastising me. “I would think a woman such as you, who sees and talks with ghosts wouldn’t be so surprised that evil can exist.”
“Just because I see ghosts doesn’t mean I know anything about demons,” I retorted. “I’ve never seen one before, and I sure as hell
didn’t know they were real.”
His look went right through me, as if he was indeed surprised I hadn’t known this. “That’s because there aren’t many of them. But I assure you, they do exist.”
I didn’t doubt him. What I’d seen in that room hadn’t been a normal man. Even if I wanted to believe that such evil didn’t exist, the feel of that man’s presence, the scent of him, the sheer fear I experienced, shed any doubt in my mind.
“Have you ever seen anything like this before?” Kipp asked.
I repeated Kipp’s question to Dane, and he shrugged. “Like I said, I can’t see ghosts or demons for that matter, but I’ve seen someone possessed by a demon before. It was a twenty-year-old woman in North Carolina some years ago who killed a man by snapping his neck.”
I blinked. “How would she have the strength to do that?”
Dane stared at me knowingly. “Anyone possessed with a demon will gain their strength. Years of history have shown similar stories of killers, even teenagers, who have killed with remarkable strength.”
“Fuck,” I whispered.
Kipp nodded in agreement.
I realized what Holly asked of me was now impossible. “I take it he won’t want to just leave if I ask him to, right?”
Dane chuckled darkly. “Doubtful.”
I looked at Kipp. For the first time he didn’t stare at Dane with contempt. He appeared thoughtful. I wanted to refuse Holly’s request. But Kipp’s gaze told me he didn’t. “What are you thinking?”
“He knows more about this,” Kipp replied, finally looking at me. “Press him.”
I didn’t need Kipp to tell me as much, but I didn’t want to know the answer. Sure, I’d signed up to help ghosts, but this wasn’t a ghost. This was as a spawn of Satan. Before I obliged Kipp, I had questions of my own. “Since it won’t leave if we ask it to, is there a way to get rid of it?”
“There are always ways to send evil back to Hell.”
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