The Ghost Files

by Cheree Alsop

  Haunted High Book 2

  The Ghost Files

  By Cheree Alsop

  Copyright © 2017 by Cheree L. Alsop

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN

  Cover Design by Robert Emerson

  Editing by Sue Player

  www.ChereeAlsop.com

  To my husband Michael,

  The love of my life who shares the rush of

  Riding motorcycles, traveling to distant shores,

  And the joy of reaching our dreams.

  To my children, Myree, Aiden, and Ashton,

  Anything you dream is possible.

  Always believe.

  ALSO BY CHEREE ALSOP

  The Haunted High Series-

  The Wolf Within Me

  The Ghost Files

  City of Demons

  The Silver Series-

  Silver

  Black

  Crimson

  Violet

  Azure

  Hunter

  Silver Moon

  The Werewolf Academy Series-

  Book One: Strays

  Book Two: Hunted

  Book Three: Instinct

  Book Four: Taken

  Book Five: Lost

  Book Six: Vengeance

  Book Seven: Chosen

  Heart of the Wolf Part One

  Heart of the Wolf Part Two

  The Galdoni Series-

  Galdoni

  Galdoni 2: Into the Storm

  Galdoni 3: Out of Darkness

  The Small Town Superheroes Series-

  Small Town Superhero

  Small Town Superhero II

  Small Town Superhero III

  Keeper of the Wolves

  Stolen

  The Million Dollar Gift

  Thief Prince

  When Death Loved an Angel

  The Shadows Series

  Shadows- Book One in the World of Shadows

  Mist- Book Two in the World of Shadows

  The Monster Asylum Series

  Book One- The Fangs of Bloodhaven

  Book Two- The Scales of Drakenfall

  Girl from the Stars

  Book 1- Daybreak

  Book 2- Daylight

  Book 3- Day’s End

  Book 4- Day’s Journey

  Book 5- Day’s Hunt

  The Dr. Wolf Series

  Book 1- Shockwave

  Book 2- Demon Spiral

  Book 3- The Four Horsemen

  Book 4- Dragon’s Bayne

  The Pirate from the Stars

  The Prince of Ash and Blood

  Chapter One

  I knew it was a dream but couldn’t force my eyes to open. I held the demon down, but it struggled, slicing my arms with its claws. I knew if I let it go, it would attack the students around me. When the fire spilled from its mouth and over my hands, it took all of my strength to hold on. Sparrow, my little sylph dragon, used her own fire to protect my left hand, but I could feel the skin on my right one melting away. I couldn’t hold on any longer.

  A stake made from one of the Academy’s banisters skewered the creature through the chest, pinning it to the floor. I was pulled backwards and watched my teammates contain the demon’s fire. It spat out one word before it died. Chutka.

  My eyes opened. I found myself on a bed in the infirmary. Professor Brigg’s cloak was still over me where he had laid it when he visited me and found that I was cold. The lights were out and the only sound came from the monitor across from me. The other beds were empty except for one. Claria Fig slept on a bed against the other wall. In order to help her recover from the wounds she had received from the demon, Dr. Six had induced what she called a crystal-maintained slumber to promote faster healing. I thought I was the only one awake until movement caught the corner of my eye.

  A figure stood in the far shadows checking supplies on the counter.

  “Dr. Six?” I said.

  I realized my mistake before the person turned around.

  Dr. Six was a short, rotund witch who healed using crystals along with the regular practices I recognized from the normal world. She wore a top hat with strange spectacles on it that looked as though they belonged in some different era.

  The person who met my gaze, however, was tall and slender. He was a gentleman I had never seen at the Academy. He wore a black suit with a pristine white shirt except for a hole over the heart that showed dark blood. My heartbeat slowed when the window behind him lit the man in an otherworldly radiance. He opened his mouth and his fangs glowed in the moonlight.

  I made the mistake of using my right hand to push up from the bed. The bandages that Dr. Six had wrapped loosely around the burns from the demon fire did little to stop the pain of using it. I gasped and pulled my hand to my chest. When I looked up again, the ghost was right in front of me. I jerked back, causing the sylph dragon who had been sleeping around my left wrist to awaken.

  The ghost’s eyebrows lifted at my reaction, but he didn’t say anything.

  I figured it was rude to stay silent, so I cleared my throat and said, “S-sorry. I thought I was dreaming.”

  The man adjusted his glasses with a pale hand and said in a low voice, “Stop dreaming, Mr. Brigs-Bris….” He coughed, then said, “Mr. Briscoe. The demons are restless and the fate of this school is in your hands. The ghost of your heart holds the key. Lock the door or all is lost.”

  The ghost’s face changed. The simple, calm expression was taken over by menace. Green flames danced in his yellow eyes and he bared his fangs. A hiss escaped him as he lunged forward, aiming for my throat. I let out a yell and backed up. I fell off the bed and made the mistake of putting my hand down to brace my fall. Pain jolted up my arm as the ghost lunged again. I raised my left arm to shield my face from its touch.

  Sparrow lifted her head and hissed at the creature. The sound was surprisingly loud coming from such a little dragon. The ghost jerked back. Sparrow hissed again and a puff of mint-scented blue flame flickered from her mouth.

  The ghost glared at me. “You won’t always have friends to protect you, Wolvenbracker.”

  Footsteps sounded in the hallway. The ghost looked over his shoulder, then vanished.

  Alden burst through the door. “Finn?” he called.

  “Over here,” I replied as I pushed gingerly to my feet. My knees shook, so I leaned against the bed for support.

  “What happened?” Alden asked, his eyes wide.

  I shook my head, not sure where to start. Sparrow ran up my arm and sat on my shoulder. Her little claws kneaded my tee-shirt in agitation. I ran the fingers of my good hand over her back.

  “We saw a ghost,” I told the Grim.

  “I knew it!” Alden said beneath his breath.

  I was about to describe the ghost when his words stopped me. “How did you know?” I asked.

  He lowered his head so that his face was hidden by his unruly straight white hair and he said, “I felt creepy-crawly.” He glanced up at me and continued with, “It sounds stupid, I know, but my mom always described it that way, so I knew there had to be a ghost here somewhere.” Embarrassment showed on his face when he said, “At least, I hoped so.”

  “Why?” I asked, baffled as to why anyone would want to see a ghost, especially after what I had encountered.

  Alden gave me an apologetic smile. “Because that means I’ll be good at my job.”

 
I didn’t know what to say to my friend whose job would eventually be to escort those who had died to whatever lay beyond.

  I must have appeared a bit lost, because he said, “So, uh, why were you on the floor?”

  That jolted me back to the present. “We need to get the team together.”

  “Right now?” Alden asked, surprised.

  I nodded. “Right now, and probably as many professors as we can get. We have a serious problem.” Before he could leave the room, the thought that was swirling in my mind had to be addressed. “Alden, one more thing?”

  The Grim turned with an expectant look. “What?”

  “I need you to find out whatever you can about a demon named Chutka. I have a feeling he’s got something to do with what’s going on here.”

  “I start researching,” the Grim replied with an air of pride as if having the job was important to him.

  “Thanks. And let’s keep it on the downlow,” I suggested. “We don’t want to alarm anyone.”

  “Good idea,” Alden agreed.

  He took off out the door and left me to make my way to the meeting room.

  I was surprised to hear voices coming from the hidden room beyond the secret passage when I reached it. I had figured that leaving when Alden did would give me a head start, but given everything that happened the night before, my pace was much slower than I had intended. By the time I reached the door, I had to lean against it to catch my breath.

  I heard voices coming up behind me.

  “Are you sure Finn-wolf wasn’t hallucinating? Yesterday was pretty stressful,” Lyris said with concern in her voice.

  “Ghosts are no joke,” Brack’s booming voice echoed through the corridor.

  “Finn’s not hallucinating or joking,” Alden replied. “I felt them, too.”

  “Great, now you’re both ghosted,” Dara muttered.

  They appeared around the corner as Alden asked, “What’s ghosted?”

  “Ironic, coming from a Grim,” she pointed out.

  “It means being haunted,” Lyris replied. The beam of her flashlight swept across my face and she gave a little shriek. The other lights followed hers. The witch’s expression showed her embarrassment when she met my gaze. “S-sorry, Finn. Your eyes shone gold in the light. I thought you were, well….”

  “A monster?” I suggested.

  That brought a little laugh from her and the others as they hurried to reach me. “Yeah,” she said.

  “You were right,” I replied with a smile.

  Brack patted my shoulder hard enough to nearly knock me over. “Good to see you, buddy,” he said.

  “How’s your hand?” Lyris asked.

  “It hurts,” Dara and I said at the same time.

  I shook off the hand she had set on my arm. “I’m fine,” I told her.

  The empath didn’t believe me. “You should be sleeping.”

  “I was sleeping,” I replied. “It’s not my fault a ghost tried to bite me.”

  “Ghosts don’t bite,” a voice said from the other end of the hallway. “I bite.”

  Vicken held the flashlight to his face as he drew near. The light illuminated his fangs. The two vampires behind him did the same.

  “Knock it off,” Lyris scolded. “Finn doesn’t need anything else to be scared of tonight.”

  “I wasn’t scared!” I protested.

  Everyone looked at Alden.

  He shrugged uncomfortably. “You did fall off your bed,” he replied quietly.

  “You told them that?” I asked. I shook my head. “You try being attacked by a ghost. It’s not as fun as it sounds.”

  “It doesn’t sound fun,” Brack replied solemnly.

  All joking left Vicken and he said, “Now that you’re up, we can continue searching for Amryn.”

  “He should be sleeping,” Dara told the vampire.

  “He promised to find my sister,” Vicken replied.

  “He could have died back there!” Lyris argued. “He nearly lost his hands!”

  “Until I shoved a stake through the demon’s chest,” Vicken pointed out.

  With half-amusement and half-annoyance, I listened to them argue about what I was supposed to do until I heard Alden mutter, “Ironic, a vampire staking someone else.”

  Vicken grabbed the Grim by the front of his shirt. “What did you say?” he demanded.

  In an attempt to break the vampire’s hold on my friend, I grabbed his arm with my right hand without thinking. I sucked in a breath at the pain and let go. I cradled my arm against my chest and leaned against the door.

  “Look what you guys did,” Dara said.

  “I’m fine,” I told them.

  Vicken set Alden down and silence filled the small tunnel.

  The door opened. I would have fallen backwards if Vicken hadn’t grabbed my good hand with the lightning-quick reflexes of a vampire.

  “Are you going to stand out there all night and argue, or come in here and tell us why we all got dragged out of bed?” Professor Briggs demanded.

  Vicken let me go and motioned for me to enter first. The wolf in me fought against turning my back on the vampire. I took a steeling breath and did so anyway with the knowledge that if the vampire did choose to attack me in front of the professors, at least he would get expelled. It wasn’t the most reassuring thought I’d had, but I would hold onto anything at that point.

  Headmistress Wrengold met me at the couch. “How are you feeling, Mr. Briscoe?” she asked.

  “Better,” I replied, going with the easy answer.

  I handed Professor Briggs the cloak he had let me borrow. He took it with a searching look. “Are you alright?” he asked quietly.

  I nodded. “I’m better than I was.”

  “You need more rest,” Professor Mellon said. My Creature Languages teacher motioned toward the couch with a kind smile. “Sit down, Mr. Briscoe. You look like you’re going to fall over.”

  “He already did,” I heard Vicken mutter next to me.

  I shot the vampire a look.

  He held my gaze, his yellow eyes boring into mine. “You promised,” he said under his breath for only my ears.

  “I keep my promises,” I replied.

  “What was that?” Mercer asked from his seat on a folding chair near the fireplace. The man’s stony expression didn’t give away his thoughts.

  I shook my head and took a seat. “Nothing,” I told the sweeper.

  The other students chose seats around the room. The smell of the food on the table made my stomach rumble. I wondered when I had eaten last, and also wondered who made sure the table was always full of food.

  After a moment of silence, I realized everyone was watching me.

  “You called us here…,” Briggs prompted.

  “Because a ghost attacked me in the infirmary,” I replied, confused because I thought Alden had already told them.

  “Ghosts don’t attack people,” the skeletal professor said.

  “If you’ve just experienced a near-death experience like Finn has, perhaps seeing a ghost attacking you is normal,” Professor Mantis pointed out with her long arms folded across her stomach.

  I sat up. “I didn’t hallucinate it. The ghost was a vampire. He spoke, well, like he was from the past or something, and then his face changed and he attacked me.”

  Silence filled the room. It was broken by Headmistress Wrengold who asked, “Changed, how?”

  I let out a slow breath and described it in the only way I could. “As if a demon possessed him.”

  That caught their attention.

  Professor Briggs asked Mercer, “Can ghosts be possessed by demons?”

  Professor Mellon twined a strand of her long red hair anxiously around a finger as she asked Professor Mantis, “Have you ever heard of such a thing? My cats have been restless.”

  Professor Tripe pushed his blue hair back and said in his monotone voice, “I need to study more on demon psychology. Perhaps his involvement with the demons has gotten into
his head.”

  I glanced at Dara and Lyris. Both of them watched me with something akin to pity on their faces. It ate at me. I stood up and nearly shouted, “I’m not making this up!” Everyone stared at me. I clenched my hands into fists, regardless of how it hurt. “The ghost was in the infirmary when I woke up. It said, ‘Stop dreaming, Mr. Briscoe. The demons are restless and the fate of this school is in your hands. The ghost of your heart holds the key. Lock the door or all is lost.’ Then its face changed and it tried to bite my neck.” I held up my left hand to show them the dragon sleeping soundly around my wrist as if nothing had happened. “Sparrow blew her flame at him and he backed away and said, ‘You won’t always have friends to protect you, Wolvenbracker.’”

  I leaned against the arm of the couch with my arms crossed in front of my chest. I had to struggle against the urge to phase. If I turned into wolf form, I would be stuck that way until my body decided to phase back. It wouldn’t help my argument at all if I couldn’t participate.

  “He called you Wolvenbracker?” Briggs said, his quiet voice carrying through the room.

  I nodded, grateful someone at least didn’t think I was making it up any longer. “What does it mean?”

  “It’s elvish for wolf threat,” the professor answered.

  “How did he know I was a werewolf?”

  Briggs shook his head. “I have no idea, but I think his warning should be taken seriously enough. ‘The demons are restless and the fate of this school is in your hands. The ghost of your heart holds the key. Lock the door or all is lost,’” he recited. He gave me a searching look. “Who is the ghost of your heart?”

  Thoughts of Sebastian’s death when the car I drove plummeted into the icy river surfaced immediately. I let out a slow breath. “I, uh, I think it means a friend of mine who died.”

  “How would he hold the key?” Professor Tripe asked. “That makes no sense.”

  “Neither does a biting ghost,” Professor Mellon reminded him. “We’re going to have to take this one step at a time.” She thought for a moment, then said, “The demons are restless. That, we already know thanks to your team’s encounter with the one in the corridor.” She tipped her head in gratitude toward the students who waited with me. “What about the door? If we can’t find the door, the key is useless. We need to find out where the demons are coming from.”