Reach For Me

by Elizabeth Cole

  “That’s why you need to talk to Dom and Lex. They’re way smarter than me, and they’ll know what to do. I’m just the muscle.”

  “That is not true. Yeah, you’re tough. Someone would have to be an idiot to want to fight you. But you’re really sharp too. You notice things, you put things together in time to do something about it. You know the difference between troglodyte and trilobite.” Cara rolled her head to look at him fully, a little smile in her eyes.

  Mal took a breath, then rolled on his side to curl up against her. Cara let him rest his head on her chest. After a breathless second, she put her hand on his head and ran her fingers through his hair.

  He sighed, feeling like he maybe just passed a test. “I know I’m not the best choice for a good guy. I want to fix this whole mess, Cara. But I can barely think.”

  “You’re tired. We’re both tired. Let’s take a little nap and worry about it later.”

  He mumbled, “I don’t get women in bed just to sleep.”

  “Oh, you were going to seduce me again?” She laughed softly.

  “Hoping to,” he said, his voice slurring. Mal cuddled closer to her.

  “We’ll talk about it later, trilobite.”

  Chapter 21

  They must have both dozed off. Cara woke up slowly, moving by degrees through layers of unconsciousness until she realized she was awake again, still with Mal sleeping next to her. They hadn’t even got to the point of getting under the covers. She was still in the bathrobe, but Mal was only wearing a towel, his upper body completely exposed. His very cut upper body.

  Cara shifted to her side, figuring now was as good a chance as any to ogle him. There was a lot to ogle, and before she really planned to, she was running her fingers along his arm, feeling the strength in his biceps, and noticing just how nice his clean skin smelled.

  She sidled a little closer, opening her robe to put partway across him, a makeshift blanket because she was too lazy to get up and find the extra one in the closet.

  Cara laid her hand on his chest, idly teasing his nipple the way he’d done to her.

  Then he turned his head and kissed her.

  A slow roll of pleasure hit Cara, starting with her mouth, where she could feel the sweet, velvet softness of his lips pressed to her. Then it went lower, sending a wave of heat right between her legs.

  Mal’s tongue ran along her lower lip and the heat doubled.

  “Mal. I thought you were asleep.”

  She felt him smile. “I wasn’t. I was just being real quiet while you were pawing at me.”

  “I wasn’t pawing. I was…”

  “Groping?”

  “Appreciating.”

  He laughed and said, “You’re supposed to ask before appreciating people that way. Especially if you think they’re asleep.”

  “I couldn’t resist. Besides I was pretty sure you’d be into it.”

  His hands slid under the bathrobe. “You were right.”

  Another long kiss had her ready for more.

  Within a very short time they were both sweaty and short of breath. Riding the pleasant buzzy calm of her orgasm, Cara curled up on her side, ready to sleep for another few hours.

  Then Mal asked, out of the blue, “What would happen if you stayed? I mean, after all this is over.”

  She blinked, puzzling her way out her haze. “Mal, how much work do you think October County can offer for historical restoration? I need to go wherever my next job is.”

  “I knew you’d say that.” He was quiet for a long minute. “Want to fix up our house? I’ll pay you.”

  She kissed him on the cheek. “You can’t afford me. Anyway, I don’t date clients.”

  “Good. I mean, unless I ever get to be a client.”

  “You won’t,” she said firmly. “You’ll just have to get your sex on while I’m here.”

  When she got up at last, Cara packed up some of her stuff, and they walked outside into a chilly evening. They left her car at the inn, since Mal didn’t like the idea of her driving alone at night, even for a little while.

  It was very late when they reached the Salem house, but the lights were on throughout the first floor. Mal had Cara’s bag over his shoulder and dropped it in the hall.

  “Where’s everyone?” he called out.

  “Where’s Pumpkin?” Cara added, feeling that was the most important consideration.

  “I’m in here! Behemoth and Pumpkin are sleeping upstairs, they’ll be down in a sec.” Lex was reading at the kitchen table and didn’t even look up from his book. “We didn’t know how long your…convincing would take. Dom is upstairs giving Vin a magic lesson.”

  “Is that a euphemism?” Cara asked Mal quietly.

  “Nope. He’s been teaching her how to cast spells.”

  Lex added, “I’m not sure if he’s teaching her regular spellcasting, or Dom-style spellcasting.”

  “Is that a euphemism?”

  “Nope. Most spellcasting is done with rituals, and it requires a lot of setup and research and double-checking because if you screw up, bad things happen. You can’t just fire off a spell off the top of your head.”

  “But Dom can. He’s got a gift. First born,” Lex noted. He closed his book and looked up at last.

  “Yeah, that’s usually who gets something like this,” Mal explained. “Dom can basically decide what he wants to do and whip up a spell on the spot—no research, no vetting, no generations of study and refining and casting from a book. And it works.”

  “It’s maddening, sometimes,” Lex added.

  “Yeah,” said Mal, “especially because his spells are so powerful. It’d be less annoying if his stuff was like poof, I made the chicken cook faster. But Dom is like poof, I just locked a demon up in this circle of Pop Rocks I happened to shake out on the floor.”

  “That sounds pretty useful,” said Cara.

  “Don’t get us wrong,” Lex said. “It’s very cool Dom is that strong. And good for business.”

  “I almost wish he’d make more of a big deal about it,” Mal grumbled. “He’s so modest about it that showing off would be better.”

  Lex rolled his eyes. “Like you do with fighting?”

  “Well, I’m good at fighting,” Mal said.

  Cara knew that to be true. She asked, “What are you good at, Lex?”

  “Nothing, really. I’m the spare Salem. Support staff and bottle washer.”

  Mal said, “I told you before, Lex is a genius. Don’t let him be all humble.”

  “I’ll save that job for you,” Lex noted sarcastically.

  A small orange mass streaked toward Cara, and she scooped up Pumpkin right before he crashed into her feet. “Sweetie, I missed you!”

  Pumpkin started purring the moment she cuddled him to her chest. Mr. B looked on, blinking after his interrupted nap.

  Lex smiled at Cara. “We’re really glad you came back. Will you stay here for a little while? It’s safer.”

  “I packed my stuff, but I still technically have a room at the Calendar Inn.”

  “Good. Some misdirection might come in handy. I wanted to ask about the ghost you—”

  A couple walked in, interrupting his question. The man was clearly a brother to Mal and Lex. The same basic coloring and features. He had more visible tattoos on his arms. He looked a little older, but not much.

  He noticed Cara and immediately walked over to her. “Hey, I’m Dom. I bet things are really confusing right now.”

  “It’s been an interesting few days,” Cara allowed.

  She looked at the woman who stepped up by Dom’s side. She was everything Cara was not. Tall, platinum blonde, and without an ounce of fat on her. She wore her outfit with the sort of confidence that reminded Cara of the cool girls in high school, even though this woman looked like the sort who was voted Most Likely to Burn the School Down.

  The sort of girl who would never be friends with a Cara.

  But this woman gave Cara a brilliant smile. “I’m Vinny. We’ve h
eard a lot about you. And we cyber-stalked you a bit. Your website is amazing.”

  “Oh, um, thanks.”

  “Mostly, it was reports from Mal.” Vinny’s gaze slid from Cara to Mal, and then back again, her eyes widening. Whatever Vinny noticed, it left Cara feeling very shy.

  Lex jumped in. “I was just about to ask Cara ghost-related questions. That seems to be the most interesting aspect of this whole situation, and probably our best chance to find out more of what’s going on.”

  “I only saw the ghost a couple times,” Cara said.

  “But you saw her when no one else did. Little girl, dressed in clothes looking like the 1920s? We’re almost certain that it’s the spirit of Marigold Egan, the Egans’ daughter.”

  “I thought there were only two sons.”

  “There’s a birth record for a Marigold Edith Egan, and the presence of the ghost suggests she died there, and the lack of a death record suggests no one found the body…which might explain why her ghost is still haunting the place.”

  “We want to ask her questions via a seance.” Dom said it like it was the most normal thing in the world.

  “Weird, huh?” Vinny laughed. “But they’re serious. The guys can conduct a seance to communicate with the ghost, but we need your help to get into the house.”

  “And it might be good if you were there since you did see the ghost most often,” Lex added. “Any positive vibes improve our chances of speaking with her.”

  “Whoa. I don’t know about positive vibes. I think she tried to kill me once. I was convinced I was caught in a fire and she maybe tried to push me down the stairs. And was she the one Mal fought? How do we know that a seance won’t get her really mad?”

  “It’s a possibility,” Dom said. “But we have to risk it if we want to get more information.”

  “Demon-hunting and ghost-chatting is a risky business,” Mal told her. “The good news is that you only have to unlock the house and turn off the alarms.”

  “When would this happen?” she asked.

  “Tonight,” said Dom.

  “Tonight?”

  “Sooner the better. If we go now, we can start the seance at midnight. Perfect timing.”

  That sounded like atrocious timing to Cara, who didn’t even like the idea of raising a spirit in broad daylight. But what else could she do?

  “All right. Let’s get this over with.”

  It didn’t take long for the Salems to prepare for the seance. Vinny stayed with Cara in the living room while the guys assembled everything. Cara focused on Pumpkin, the most normal thing in her world right now. Cuddling the little orange kitten, she smiled. “At least I found you in this mess.”

  Behemoth jumped up on the couch, causing Vinny to scoot a foot over, giving the cat a wide berth. He settled between the two humans.

  Cara reached down to scratch his ears. “Thanks for looking after Pumpkin, Mr. B.” He began to purr.

  Then Mal stepped into the room. “Everything’s ready. Let’s go.”

  Cara put Pumpkin down carefully and stood up. Behemoth jumped down as well.

  Mal looked at the cat. “Oh, you’re coming too?” he asked, then paused as if the cat was speaking back.

  “It’s a thing,” Vinny whispered. “Piewicket does it too. I wish I could hear them, but I can’t. It’s just the family.”

  “Wait. The cats really are talking?”

  “Yeah. They’re not regular cats. Not at all.”

  Cara’s list of questions about the world was getting longer, but then the whole group was out the door, walking up the hill to Egan House.

  She got out her keys to unlock the gate and the back door. She deactivated all the alarms and motion lights, and unhooked her cameras.

  “Ok,” she said at last. “Coast is clear.”

  “Should we set up in the parlor?” Lex asked Dom. “It’s the place with the most power.”

  “I’d rather not,” Dom said. “Cara, you first saw the ghost upstairs, right?”

  “Yeah, I can show you which room.”

  “Let’s go there. Maybe the ghost has its reasons for being in that space.”

  When they reached the room where Cara first saw the ghost, and where Mal fought whatever supernatural shadowy thing, she took up a position by the mirrored door and watched as Mal and his superhero team went to work.

  The floor was pretty clean, but Vinny swept it with a hand broom she’d pulled out of a bag. Lex measured out a big circle and traced it in chalk. Then he and Dom started marking out a bunch of weird symbols and shapes around the perimeter of the circle. They talked as they did so, using terms that sounded like five foreign languages and a chemistry class mixed together.

  Meanwhile, Mal and Vinny started placing a bunch of candles around the room. “Want to help?” Mal asked Cara.

  She took half a dozen votives. “What are these for?”

  “Light. Just put them anywhere where they’ll be out of the way. Vinny is placing the candles that will actually matter for the ritual.”

  “Oh, what have I gotten myself into?” Cara muttered. “No one is allowed to light a single one of these till I get a fire extinguisher in here.”

  Lex laughed and gave her a thumbs-up, then bent down to work on his cryptic drawings.

  Within ten minutes, Cara was standing just outside a twelve-foot wide circle surrounded by a dozen candles in glass jars, with twice as many in the corners and sides of the room to give additional light. Some were little white tea lights, but others were the colorful tall glass ones she usually only saw in Mexican groceries.

  She had to admit that it did create a certain ambiance that flashlights couldn’t match. “What do all those symbols mean?” she asked.

  Mal responded, “These ones are primarily for safety, welcome, and binding. Marigold’s name is there.” He pointed to the one legible bit of the design. “We want her to know it’s ok to show up, but not ok to make trouble.”

  “Please tell me you’ve done all this before.”

  “Oh, lots of times. And Dom knows what he’s doing. You’ll see. I shouldn’t have to kick any ass at all.”

  “But don’t nod off,” Lex said. “Just in case everything goes horribly wrong.”

  Behemoth meowed in what sounded suspiciously like agreement.

  “Are these candles placed right?” Vinny asked Dom.

  “Yup, perfect. And I see Cara has a shiny fire extinguisher at the ready. Let’s do this.”

  “Who’s in and who’s out of the circle?” Lex asked. It was very clear that both Lex and Mal deferred to their older brother without question when it came to magic.

  Dom looked at Behemoth for a long moment, as if the cat was offering opinions.

  “Yeah, that makes sense,” Dom said to the cat. Then he looked around. “Lex and Mal, stay outside the circle. You’ll watch in case there are problems. Vinny and Cara, join me in here.”

  “I thought I was just observing,” Cara squeaked.

  “You are, but you did see the ghost more often than anyone else, and your presence could help get her attention. You don’t have to do anything. Vinny and I will handle all the spellcasting.”

  Cara stepped over the chalked lines carefully so she didn’t smudge anything. “Should I sit?”

  “Yeah, however makes you comfortable,” Vinny said.

  “That would be a mile away in a well-lit, non-haunted house, please.” She sat and crossed her legs. Vinny and Dom sat too, so they formed a little triangle. Lex and Mal looked pretty relaxed where they were. Behemoth sat in front of the mirrored door, his green eyes glowing in the candlelight.

  “You’ll be fine,” Dom told her. “A seance rarely gets physically dangerous.”

  “How reassuring.”

  Despite her worries, Cara was fascinated by the whole process, especially because everyone was taking it seriously, but not theatrically. Dom was wearing a T-shirt, not some hooded robe. Vinny leaned over and gave Cara’s knee a squeeze, whispering, “Once Dom starts
talking, don’t say anything or disrupt the casting if you can help it. Just think about Marigold, and when you saw her, and how you felt during those times. Try to keep an open mind and an open heart, however bonkers you think we are.”

  Cara smiled, relieved to know that Vinny understood.

  Then Dom began to speak. He didn’t use English. Cara assumed it was Spanish at first, but quickly figured out it was Latin.

  Dom lit a few remaining candles in a diamond shape at the center of the circle. He sprinkled some powder or crumbled herbs over the flames, and Cara inhaled the scents of rosemary and maybe mesquite, something green and wild.

  He spoke again, using Marigold’s full name, and when he did an immense feeling of sadness descended on Cara. It was similar to the times she’d felt sad in this house before, but it was much, much stronger now.

  Vinny’s brow wrinkled in distress—she must have felt it too.

  Outside the circle, Cara saw Lex and Mal shift a little, uncomfortable.

  Dom paused for a moment, but then straightened his posture and went on. His voice changed, becoming more certain, more assertive.

  The sadness lessened for a moment. Cara tried to shake off the feeling, and the sense that maybe it was better to let the dead be. Something awful happened in this house…why stir it up again? Why make this poor little girl speak about the terrifying end of her short and lonely life? What could be gained? Why not talk to her parents, the ones who hurt her and betrayed her…

  “Marigold Edith Egan, come speak to us,” Dom said in the sort of tone that made you want to obey him.

  Cara waited, breathless. The candles flickered slightly. Probably just a draft.

  Then a wave of blistering heat hit her, followed by a deadly cold. She tried to breathe, but felt utterly frozen.

  She opened her mouth, and words that weren’t hers came out.

  “I am here.”

  Chapter 22

  Mal knew something was wrong the moment Cara stopped moving. And then he heard the words coming out of her in a voice nothing like her own.

  She was still sitting in the circle, flanked by Dom and Vinny, who was already leaning toward Cara.