He laughed, gasping, “No, I take it back! Please don’t make me pee! Mom, help! Aisi is killing me!”
From the corner of Aisi’s eyes, she could see her mom watching them, an affectionate smile dancing on her lips before she moved toward them and put her hands in mock disapproval on her hips. “What is going on here?” Jorja demanded.
“Mom!” Leo panted, pretending to be exhausted as he reached for her. “Save me!”
“Aisi, you shouldn’t be tickling him,” she said, “because this boy is MINE!” She pulled him away and carried him toward the apartment stairs, tickling him as she carried him up. Leo’s peals of laughter faded as his flailing legs disappeared around the corner. Big Billy stood at the kitchen door with a dish towel draped over his shoulder, watching their shenanigans with shining silver eyes. The barest hint of his voice echoed in Aisi’s mind as he returned to the kitchen: One day, I will have them all together again.
Vance and Father J walked through the open front door. Vance looked unbelievably gorgeous, as usual, in his loose jeans and a graphic tee that clung to his muscular frame in all the right places. He looked exhausted as he dropped his backpack full of gear onto the table next to where Aisi, Colby, and Zinnia sat. Father J followed him, chattering animatedly.
“…and thus we see how difficult it can be to tell an actual personal possession from a place possession. It is so much easier to cleanse and bless an area than to expel a non-human entity from a physical body.” He smiled at everyone at the table. “Well, hello. How lovely to see so many of my favorite people in one place. Aisi, I hate to bother you while you’re resting from your labors, but do you suppose I could trouble you for one of those delightful cherry sodas you make? I think Vance could use one, too. He is rather tired of me and could use some refreshment.”
Vance bolted up in his seat. “No, sir, I’m not, I…”
Father J’s eyes twinkled. “You should never lie to a priest, Vance.”
Colby grinned, pushing his plate toward his friend. “Here. Have some fries, dude. It’ll help.”
“Bring the soda upstairs, Aisi,” her dad told her as he emerged from the kitchen. He shook hands vigorously with Father J, and together they climbed the creaky stairs to the living quarters. Aisi hopped up to get the cherry soda after letting Vance give her a quick kiss on the cheek. His hand brushed her arm, which tingled as she walked away.
Colby looked at Aisi, who ignored his quizzical expression. “What’s up with that?” she heard him murmur to Zinnia.
“Couples therapy, I think,” she replied, not bothering to whisper. “Aisi, before you go up there, I think Colby and I are going to head out. He has to start his training for his summer job tonight.”
“Finally scored a job working for the future father-in-law? Well played, Master Colby.” She smiled, knowing he would blush at her words. He did not disappoint. His cheeks flushed a deep scarlet as he looked down but still kept a tight grasp on Zinnia’s hand. “Let the merger of the richy rich families begin.”
“Knock it off,” Zinnia murmured as the color rose in her own cheeks. “We’re just going out.”
“Sorry, I couldn’t resist,” Aisi apologized. “You have no idea how the lives of the rich and famous fascinate us simple peasants.”
Colby gave Vance a back-thumping man hug before leaving with Zinnia, the bell jingling as they pulled the door closed behind them. Vance followed Aisi to the bottom of the stairs, but she kept walking, carrying the full glass with the cherry on top as carefully as she could while she climbed the steps. She felt his eyes on her.
“Are you watching me walk up the stairs, Vance?”
“Yes.”
“Creeper.”
He laughed. When she reached the top, he called up, “So, speaking of going out, Aisi, can I take you on a real date tonight?”
She paused and turned to look down at him. “Define real date.”
“You know, where I pick you up and we go somewhere that is not your house, Father J’s place, or the diner, and in theory, have fun together,” he explained. He rested his hands against the door frame and leaned forward as he looked at her earnestly. She smiled down at him, for once swallowing her sarcastic response.
“It sounds nice, but let’s be reasonable,” she countered. “Where can we go in this town that isn’t one of those places?”
He looked mischievously at her. “Let’s just say I might have something planned to celebrate the awesome email my professor sent me about my final project and the work I’m doing here, along with your killer scores for end of level tests that came in the mail yesterday.”
Aisi brushed off the compliment. “Do I have to get dressed up?” She did her best pageant queen pose, holding up the cherry soda as she modeled her dirty jeans, smudged black diner apron, a greasy tee shirt, and her health-code-violating flip flops. Her black mass of curls spilled down her back in a loose braid, but a few renegade tendrils escaped and hung loosely around her face. “Today, this is as good as it gets.”
“You’re beautiful,” he told her, looking at her intensely. She turned to head down the hall so he couldn’t see her cheeks burn. “Is that a yes?”
Aisi paused once more, looking down at him. She hoped her eyes expressed what she was too chicken to say.
He grinned. “I’ll take that as a yes. I’ll be outside to pick you up when the diner closes. “
She heard the door open and jingle closed as she approached the door to her dad’s little apartment, and she stopped to smile and let herself be twitterpated for a moment. This new world she decided to explore was a little frightening, but she had to admit it felt kind of nice to just let things happen. Not worry so much about controlling her little corner of the universe.
She couldn’t stop the ghosts from finding her. She couldn’t prevent the demons from coming, even if she hadn’t seen any in the month since she left her sister behind. She might not have the ability to control much of anything, ever, but just admitting it helped her feel…normalish. As normal as a girl who saw ghosts and otherworldly bad guys could feel, anyway.
Aisi walked into her father’s cramped little apartment, where he spent little time since her parents decided to try and work things out. Leo sat and colored his super hero coloring book by the open window. Billy and Jorja sat with Father J on the sagging sofa, pictures of their three kids hanging above and behind them on the wall. Aisi handed Father J his soda and plopped down on a bean bag next to the window, listening for the bells on the door to summon her back to work. She was ready to enjoy the calm before the coming storm.
Other books by Juli Caldwell:
Beyond Perfection, written with Erin McBride
http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Perfection-Juli-Caldwell/dp/1591567815
Lizzie Benson is so not on the hunt, but can she convince Will Pemberley she isn’t? And even if she can, will he stick around long enough to get past her insane mother and out of control sister?
Coming soon: Freaked
Aisi is back…and so is Malus. Turns out her least favorite demon isn’t as all powerful as he wants Aisi to believe, but the creature whose skirts he cowers behind is so much worse. With Vance by her side, she, Leo, and a cousin who just might be more powerful than Aisi ever dreamed must fight to save their family…and maybe their souls.
Would you like a sneak peak of Freaked? Read on!
Her world went black for a moment. The image which came next was grainy and dark, almost too dim to see. Aisi could hear desperate voices, and she rushed through a doorway covered with a filthy sheet when she heard screams of pain and shrieks of terror.
“You took what was mine, and I have come to collect,” hissed an all-too familiar voice.
“No, brother, please! Not my daughter!” gasped another man. “She is all I have.”
Aisi cautiously reached the door, afraid to peer around the corner. A gaunt man faced her. He knelt on the ground before a tall creature whose back was to the door. This man wore a long leather trench coat w
ith a matching fedora, and he held a long black walking stick in his gloved hand. Aisi couldn’t see his face, but she could almost feel those red eyes boring into her once more.
Malus laughed. “You stupid, trusting, caring fool. I have seen such idiocy in you since you gave up my ways. Do you think I care about your child? You have what should have been mine. I will reclaim what rightfully belongs to me. You had a chance to share in my power and glory, but you gave it away for this bloated, simpering sack of fat and flesh you so feebly try to protect. Do you think covering her with your weak mortal body will protect her from me? ”
“Jola,” the man’s voice wheezed as the laughter deepened to a malicious growl. “Run! He comes for me. You must go.”
“No!” sobbed a girl trembling behind the man on the floor. “You can’t take my father!”
“Again with all the love garbage,” Malus said in a tone of amused derision. “I do not care.”
The man’s voice howled in agony, and gleeful demonic laughter filled the room before the two sounds came from the same voice.
The girl rushed out of the dark room and down the hall to a small kitchen. The room didn’t hold much. A few dirty pots lay scattered around the counter tops. A sink filled with more dirty dishes lay beneath a window, the shack’s only source of light, which was covered in partially open blackout curtains. The girl rushed to a drawer in the kitchen which already hung open a bit and drooped toward the floor. She yanked it open the rest of the way and rummaged through it wildly as the laughter from the other room grew louder.
Aisi stared hard at the frightened girl with silver eyes like those gazing upon her, and ebony skin as deep as her father’s. Aisi focused intently, trying to get into the girl’s head as her shaking hands fumbled. She needed to find something.
He told me to find the knife. I must use the knife if the bad spirit returns to him. Where is the knife?
Somehow those frantic hands found what they were looking for in the jumble of utensils and the girl rushed down the hall, the long shaft of a carving knife gleaming even in the hall’s dim light. She raised it with shaky hands, ready to strike as she barreled back into the room she just left.
The glass of cherry soda shattered as it hit the floor, jerking Aisi back to reality. Blood red soda ran into the cracks of the old wooden floor, mingling with her own blood. She didn’t care that shards of glass embedded themselves into the top of her bare, sticky feet. It didn’t matter.
“Aisi…?” Leo whispered nervously. “Did you see that?”
Yes. She saw it, too.
Table of Contents
copyright
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1: Night Terrors
Chapter 2: Morning Revelation
Chapter 3: End of Levels
Chapter 4: The Message
Chapter 5: Cross Country Practice
Chapter 6 Big Billy’s Diner
Chapter 7: Infrared
Chapter 8 Picture on the Wall
Chapter 9: A Truth that Can’t Be Told
Chapter 10: The Priest Next Door
Chapter 11 The Watchers
Chapter 12 Unexpected Visitor
Chapter 13: Confessional
Chapter 14: The Old Man with the Lamp
Chapter 15: Monica
Chapter 16 Calm Before the Storm
Chapter 16 Don’t Trust Your Eyes
Chapter 17 Inside Kalen’s Head
Chapter 18 Little Black Book
Chapter 19 On the Run
Chapter 19 Into the Portal
Chapter 21 Dark Abyss
Chapter 22 Leap of Faith
Chapter 23 A Little Break
Other books
Psyched Page 18