I nod. “Agreed.”
Reaching down, I nudge Miriam, trying to wake her. After a few tries, her eyes flutter open and she bolts upright.
“Jonas?” she squeaks.
“Mom, I’m fine,” he says, waving from the couch.
Miriam clutches at her chest, breathing deeply. Her eyes drift closed as she inhales and exhales. “Oh, thank god.” Her words are so soft, I can barely hear them.
“We need to get you both out of here and get somewhere safe,” I say, helping Miriam stand up.
“Where’s John? Is he okay?” she asks, glancing around the room.
Blake shakes his head. “We don’t know. He and Dan went after the other two.”
“Oh my god,” she says, groping again at her heart.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” I say, patting her on her shoulder. “He’s with Detective Radovich.”
Her eyes betray her as she nods. She wants to believe that all will be well, but being with Dan isn’t enough to guarantee his safety, and she knows it.
“Come on, kid. Let’s get you out of here,” Blake says, reaching a hand out to Jonas. “Do you need me to carry you?”
Miriam stands up, maneuvering Jonas’s wheelchair over to the couch. In a couple of quick movements, Jonas is in his seat and ready to rock and roll.
“Do you have a vehicle we can use?” Blake asks, making his way around the other side of the couch. He pulls his gun from under his shirt, sweeping the area, just in case.
I could have told him the area is clear, though. My gifts are gradually coming back online. Energy-wise, there’s no sign of Dan and John, or anyone else for that matter. At least, not within the vicinity.
“It’s in the garage,” Miriam says, pointing to a door across from the archway.
Blake leads the way, moving past Kyros to the hallway. He holds up a hand to us as we gather in the debris. “Let me check it over quick.”
He swings the door open and flips on the light. The fluorescents spring to life, showcasing a small silver Buick and a blue Chrysler Pacifica.
“Take the van,” Miriam says, grabbing keys from a small table beside the door. She presses a button and the back opens. Then a ramp extends outward toward the garage door.
Without hesitation, Jonas rolls down the ramp and heads to the vehicle.
“Nice trick,” Blake says, nodding his head in approval.
Kyros stands to the side, his mouth falling open. “The sheer level of sorcery masquerading as ordinary in this time is astounding.”
Miriam shoots me a raised eyebrow but turns to follow after Jonas.
Blake, Kyros, and I follow quickly after. I hop in the front passenger seat, while Kyros and Blake take up the middle seats on either side of Jonas’s wheelchair.
I push my abilities out, forcing myself to clear away any remaining debris from the attack. I wish I knew who—or what—that woman was, or how she blocked my powers. But for now, I’m grateful to have them back. Now, we just need to get the hell out of here.
Miriam hits the garage door button and it slowly rolls up.
“Where do you want me to go?” she asks.
“Dan said something about a safe house?” Blake offers.
I shake my head, looking over my shoulder at him. “I don’t think that’s wise. I get the distinct impression anything tied to the PD is being watched.”
Kyros twists in his seat, eyeing Jonas. “This contraption is such a marvel.”
Jonas beams. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool, right?”
Kyros’s forehead creases and he looks to Blake, who simply nods.
“Just go with it. It means it’s good,” Blake mutters, shaking his head.
I chuckle under my breath.
Miriam exits the garage and rolls us down the driveway. The second we’re out in the open, all of us are on alert and watching the area for more intruders. Before we have a chance to see much, Miriam floors it, leaving her neighborhood like she’s been chased by zombies.
My mind rolls back to earlier in the day and the horde of people hanging outside the Inner Sanctum. Weirdly, they’re not dissimilar to zombies. They were mindlessly brought to me, thanks to Apollo. If I could have, I would have raced away in the same manner.
Suddenly, an insight into the perfect place to regroup flashes in my mind.
I sit up straighter, pointing to the next turn. “Take a left here. I know where we need to go.”
14
An Unlikely Place of Respite
Miriam pulls the Pacifica into the small single-car driveway.
“Who’s house is this again?” she asks.
“A friend of mine. He won’t be on the radar of…whoever’s behind this,” I say, opening my door. “Wait here. I want to have a word with him first.”
She nods, then twists around to look into the backseat. “You okay, Jonas?”
“Yeah,” he says, “wish we could stop and get ice cream, though. I’m starving.”
Kyros’s eyes widen and he nods emphatically. “Oh, yes. I would quite like an ice cream as well.”
I roll my eyes and step out.
“Want me to come with you?” Blake asks when I catch his eye.
I shake my head. “No, I think this will go down better if I talk to him alone first. Thank you, though.”
Kyros shoots Blake a sideways glance. I ignore it and close the car door.
The last thing I need is to have either of them breathing down my neck when I ask Demetri for this favor. Hell, I’m not even sure why this came to me as the best option, but I’ve learned to just roll with it when I get those sorts of insights.
I walk up to Demetri’s door, and get the sense that this day is coming full circle. It started off about him and it’s ending right back where it began. Sort of.
I lift my hand and knock on the door. In the silence, while I wait for him to open it, I check my watch.
10:32 p.m.
“Please be awake,” I mutter under my breath. “And not drunk.”
After a brief moment, I hear movement on the other side of the door. Then the deadbolt slides out of place and the door creaks open.
Demetri stands in the doorway, his peppered gray hair standing on end. Thankfully, he’s got on sweatpants and a wrinkled t-shirt. “What in the hell are you doing here, Diana? It’s the middle of the night.”
“It’s ten-thirty,” I say, flattening my expression. “That’s hardly the middle of the night. And I’m here because I need your help. Is there any chance we could come in?”
“We?” Demetri says, running a hand through his disheveled locks as he looks around me.
I glance over my shoulder at the van in the driveway. “Yeah, there’s a few of us.”
“I, uh—” he says, shifting awkwardly as he tries to straighten out his shirt. “I wasn’t expecting any guests.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it. Right now, their safety is more important than your vanity,” I say, shooting him a knowing look.
The last thing Demetri has ever cared about is vanity. If anything, he’s always gone out of his way to be the opposite of vane. It’s one of the many reasons I love the guy.
“They’re not looking for a reading or anything—because you know I’m tapped out,” he replies, panic in his eyes.
“No, I’m not trying to force a vision or anything. We needed somewhere safe and you were the first person to come to mind.”
“Well, gee, since you put it that way,” he mutters, rolling his eyes.
“Oh, shut up. Can we come in or not?” I ask, shifting feet. The chill of the late evening air nips at my extremities and getting inside to have a deeper discussion would be nice.
“Shit. All right. Can you just give me a second to clean up the living room?”
“They won’t care—”
“Well, that’s nice. I do,” he fires back.
I hold my hands up. “Okay, okay. Don’t get your panties in a bunch. I have a quick phone call to make, so that should buy you a few minutes. Bu
t as soon as the call’s over, we’re coming in.”
“Fine,” he grunts.
“Fine.”
I turn on my heel, making my way back to the van. When I hop into my seat, everyone stares at me expectantly. “He said we can come in, but he needs a minute. Blake, can I use your cellphone to call Dan? I want to make sure he and John are okay. Plus, I can give him details on our location.”
Blake pulls his cellphone from his coat pocket and passes it over without a single word. I follow his gaze, which hasn’t left Demetri’s door.
Exhaling slowly, I turn back around and face the front with his phone in my hand. I tap it and bop it on the side, but nothing happens.
“Er—any chance you wanna help with this?” I ask, holding the darkened screen in his direction.
“Sorry,” he mutters, taking it back and doing his magic.
I really gotta figure these newfangled phone things out. But gods, they’re a pain in the ass.
“Thanks.” I take the phone back, typing in Dan’s number and pressing the big green phone button in the middle. At least I’ve learned that much.
It rings three times and each time I find myself clutching the phone a little tighter. I still can’t pick up on him or John, and I’m hoping it’s because I’m not fully back online yet—and not the other thing. On the fourth ring, he answers.
“Oh, thank goodness,” I breathe out.
“Nice to hear from you, too. Where are you at?” Dan asks, his voice rough and his breathing erratic.
“We’re safe,” I say. “What about you? What’s happened? I can’t get a read on you. I think whatever they did back at the Fletcher’s, it’s messed with my abilities a bit.”
“John and I chased the other two through the streets. Seems like they were mostly just hired muscle, but when they caught wind of the rest of us, they bailed.”
“Are you both okay?”
“Yeah, but we lost them. I don’t know if they’re just damn good at hiding or if they found someone with powers to help them out,” Dan says, his voice leveling out a bit. “We’re almost back to the house. Are you still there? Did everything go okay?”
“Yeah, we’re all okay. Blake took out the woman. But we got out of there so we could relocate somewhere safe. Do you remember that friend’s house where we played poker last year? Don’t say his name—just in case anyone’s listening,” I say.
“Yeah, I remember.”
“Okay, good. Meet us there when you can, but avoid going inside the Fletcher’s house without backup. The one who took out my abilities is in there and I’m not a hundred percent she’ll still be subdued.”
“Got it. Thanks, Diana.”
“Bye,” I say, handing the phone back to Blake.
He takes it, hitting the large red button and dropping it back into his pocket.
“All right, let’s move inside. Be careful, though. I don’t want any more surprises,” I say, casting my gaze out the side window.
“I do believe we all concur,” Kyros adds, nodding his head. “Granted, I’m quite certain I came in at the tail end of things, but I lost a very good piece of pizza in the fray. It was a shame to be sure.”
“Mmmmm, pizza,” Jonas mutters.
“We can order pizza or something in a little bit, sweetie,” Miriam says, her eyes drawn back to her son.
“Yesssss,” he whispers, pulling his elbow into his side.
Kyros nods in approval.
“Okay, on that note…let’s get everyone inside. Shall we?” I say, opening my door.
Jonas is surprisingly agile with his wheelchair and the back of the van. It takes him less time than Kyros to get out of the vehicle. Within a matter of minutes, we’re all gathered around Demetri’s front door.
I rap on the wood, hoping he’s been given enough time to do whatever it was he needed to do. Probably clean up his bong collection or something.
When he opens the door, his hair is combed and he’s wearing jeans and a different t-shirt. I raise an eyebrow and walk inside without a word. He stands back, opening the door wider for everyone to enter in behind me. He doesn’t say a word when he sees Blake, but his expression flickers when he notices Jonas.
He always was a softie for kids.
Once we’re all inside, he shoves his head out the door, looks both ways, and slams it shut.
“All right, so who here wants to tell me what the hell is going on?” Demetri says, turning around to face us.
Kyros and Jonas both jab a finger, pointing at me. Blake edges closer to my side, and places a hand on the small of my back.
“It’s not like I know what the hell is really going on here, either,” I say, making a face. “If anyone should be telling this story, it’s Dan.”
“Dan? The Detective that can’t play poker to save his life?” Demetri snorts.
“Yeah, that Dan. Look, this kid has gotten himself mixed up in something and I’m not sure what to make of it,” I say, stepping away from Blake’s warm hand to pace the space between Demetri and me.
“So, why don’t you just use your holier than thou gifts to sort it out? Aren’t you the ‘world’s most powerful psychic’ or some shit?” he says, crossing his arms.
I blanch. “First of all, who the hell said that? Secondly, don’t you think I’ve tried? Whoever we’re dealing with has some serious power backing their play.”
“I’ll say, it took Diana offline completely for a bit,” Blake says, concern painted in his tone.
“Explain,” Demetri says, his expression darkening.
“Look, we were brought in to get a read on Jonas here,” I say pointing at the kid. “He’s got some interesting gifts and I think whoever this is, they’re interested in him. But I can’t be sure—because I can’t get a read on them. Every time I try, it’s like I’m hitting a full-on fog wall.”
“We?” Demetri says, his gray gaze sliding to Blake.
“Yes, we. Blake and I,” I say, annunciating each word slowly. He might not be psychic anymore, but he can still pick up what I’m laying down. Of that, I have no doubt.
“God, I need a drink,” he says, dropping his arms and walking past us all. He continues down the hall into the kitchen.
“Do we follow him? Or—?” Kyros asks, looking from me and Blake to the kitchen, then back again.
“Go,” I say, shooing them all down the hallway.
Demetri’s place isn’t big, but it’s cozy enough. However, each of the rooms along the hallway are dark, without a single light on, other than the kitchen. I desperately want to know what he’s hiding, but I force myself to continue to the kitchen and leave him to his privacy. It’s the least I can do at the present moment.
Kyros enters the kitchen first, followed by Miriam and Jonas, then Blake and myself. I catch the tail-end of Demetri’s swig, as he sets down his glass of whiskey and shudders from the aftertaste.
“What is it you all want from me?” he says, not bothering to turn and face us.
“Like I said, we just need a safe place for them to stay for now,” I say, glancing around the room. There are remnants of past drinking binges scattered across various surfaces, but to the untrained eye, it just looks like normal meal usage. However, I know better. There are fewer pots, pans, and plates than there should be, knowing how he likes to cook.
“Why here? You can go anywhere else. Hell, pretty sure that pretty boy detective has some safe places,” he mutters, his shoulders tense and creeping up toward his ears.
“Good question,” Blake mutters, clearly as amused as Demetri.
“You know, I don’t know. I got the damn impression this was the place we needed to be and I’ve stopped questioning those nudges,” I say, fighting the urge to take a drink myself.
“Well, isn’t that good for you?” Demetri says, taking another jab at the fact that I have my powers when he doesn’t.
“I’ve said I was sorry about all of this. I don’t know what else to tell you, Demetri. But we’re supposed to be here. You’r
e supposed to help us,” I fire back.
“Oh, that’s right. I’m only here for Diana fuckin’ Hawthorne when she needs help. I forgot about that,” he says, spinning around to lock eyes with me.
“Did we step in on something?” Miriam asks.
“I’d like to know the same thing,” Blake mutters under his breath.
Jonas scratches at the back of his neck. “Are we not going to order pizza?”
A knock at the door makes us all jump.
“Jesus, you really are off your game, aren’t you?” Demetri says, sauntering forward and pushing his way between Blake and me. He walks down the dark hallway toward the front door.
“Be careful. We don’t know who—”
Before I have time to say another word, Demetri swings the door open.
15
Maybe tomorrow will be better
Pushing the door open wider, Demetri steps aside, sweeping his hand out in front of him as he does so.
“We were just talking about you,” he mutters, as Dan and John step inside. “Everyone’s in the kitchen. Keep going straight. Can’t miss it.”
Detective Radovich glances down the hall, catching my expectant gaze. I tip my chin, relieved to see them both in one piece. I don’t like it when my gifts go on the fritz and I can’t get a clear read on things. Even if I do know how capable Dan is, it’s nice to know nothing bad happened to any of them.
The three men make their way into the kitchen in relative silence. Dan shoots a confused look at Kyros, but moves over toward the right-hand side of the room, and leans against the refrigerator.
John rushes to Miriam, kissing her cheek before dropping down to eye-level with Jonas. “You okay?” he asks, his dark eyes serious as he looks over his son.
Jonas nods. “I’m fine.”
John exhales, his shoulders dropping as if a weight was lifted.
“So, I guess Diana was right. They were planning to make a move on Jonas,” Dan says. He clenches his jaw as his brow furrows.
“Wish we had more information to go on. Or, hell, more warning,” Blake says, turning to face me. He reaches out, grabbing hold of my right hand, and giving it a squeeze.
Amends: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Series (A Diana Hawthorne Supernatural Mystery Book 2) Page 10
