Death and the Girl Next Door

by Darynda Jones

  I looked up to see a darkness gathered near the ceiling, hovering, watching. A different kind of fear than I had ever known before took hold: a chilling, tingly, sweaty kind of fear. It wrapped cold tendrils around my ankles and crept up my spine to the back of my neck. This was way scarier than the movies. I wanted to run more than I’d ever wanted to run in my life. That whole fight-or-flight thing was leaning heavily toward the latter. Then, without warning, it swooped down at us.

  More fear shot through me, pumping adrenaline by the gallons as I screamed and dropped onto an ornate rug. The darkness passed over me. I felt its energy reverberate like an electric wind, standing every hair on my body on end.

  The presence retreated into the shadows as quickly as it had appeared. I scanned the room wide-eyed as Jared walked—no, strolled—to Glitch and offered him a hand, and I wondered if supreme beings were afraid of anything.

  “Actually,” he said to him matter-of-factly, “that was a poltergeist.”

  Cameron walked—no, strolled—over to Brooklyn as she huddled behind the sofa with a throw rug over her head. He fought a smile. “An angry poltergeist,” he said in agreement. “And as ingenious as your disguise is, I’m fairly certain it knows you’re here.”

  “Of course it knows,” she said through gritted teeth, “with you standing there giving my position away to every poltergeist in the country.”

  He shrugged and turned to walk away.

  “Where are you going?” she asked, her voice suddenly shrill.

  He chuckled and stayed put by her side.

  I rose cautiously to my feet, searching the corners of the vaulted ceiling, trying to control my panic. “It disappeared,” I said, bewildered. Then reality sank in. “Wait, how exactly are we able to see it? I’ve never seen a ghost in my life.”

  “It must want to be seen,” Cameron said, searching the ceilings as well. “Ghosts tend to make themselves scarce. You can thank your boyfriend for that little show. It’s like an animal who puffs up when it feels threatened. This entity feels threatened with the reaper close by. It’s making its presence known.”

  “Seriously?” I asked.

  “Seriously. And just like a cornered animal, it will do anything to survive.”

  I was actually referring to the part about your boyfriend, but nobody needed to know that.

  Jared stepped to me as I turned in a circle. “See it yet?”

  “No,” I said, trying to sound brave. I caught his scent, clean and earthy, and inched closer to him. “Can it hurt us?”

  He lifted his shoulders. “Only if it wants to.”

  “Nice. You might have mentioned that.”

  “And ruin the surprise?” he asked, his expression playful. He had taken off the jacket in the car and his muscles were doing that flex-with-every-movement thing that mesmerized me into a trance.

  “I think we should just get out of here,” Glitch said as he walked to the fireplace to grab a poker, “and come back when we actually have a plan.”

  Before I could reply, I heard something from an alcove behind me. When I turned to investigate, I had to admit, the last few days had certainly been the most surreal of my existence. I’d been hit by a truck and brought back to life, seen the world freeze around me, gotten pulled back in time through someone else’s eyes, and fallen in love with a supreme being.

  But all things considered, the massive grand piano that had been upended and thrown at me as though polter-thing were playing fetch-the-Steinway with some massive ghost dog pretty much iced the cake. And tossed a cherry on top.

  At least when the truck hit me, I didn’t see it coming. Maybe once someone was supposed to die, that person couldn’t escape it. Maybe no one could cheat death. Not for long anyway.

  As the piano grew larger, Jared placed his fingers under my chin and turned my face toward his. He flashed a smile that could make grown women beg, and my heart faltered as a surge of longing enveloped me.

  A warmth took hold, a strange euphoria. I had fallen in love with an angel, with a celestial being as old as time itself. How weird was that?

  He pulled me into his arms—a place I had wanted to be for some time now—and let his eyes drift shut. When he lifted his face toward the heavens, a floodtide of energy cascaded over us. I could feel it, powerful and electric.

  “Be still,” he whispered to the universe. And the air thickened. The earth slowed. He opened his eyes as I wondered at the sparkling world around us.

  “You can still do it,” I said, transfixed.

  He was enjoying my fascination.

  And my fascination grew, because the piano, once solid, passed harmlessly through us. Hammers and strings flowed through my body. Keys and pedals floated past my eyes. I raised my hand and watched as an E-flat swept through my fingers.

  “They fear my darkness,” Jared said.

  I glanced back at him. His eyes had become blazing pools of fire, as though an inferno were engulfing him from the inside out.

  “They always fear the darkness.” His mouth tilted up at one corner in a devilish grin. “But the light,” he said as he lowered his head, “the light is so much worse.”

  I froze as his sculpted mouth descended onto mine.

  A kiss, soft as a summer breeze.

  A flash of light so bright, I could see it through my closed lids. Like a nuclear blast. Purging. Cleansing. Setting things right.

  Then the world rushed back with hurricane force. I heard the piano crash against a wall, splintering into a thousand wooden shards. The house shook. The entity screamed.

  And Jared’s hand on my back pulled me closer, molded me to him. The kiss deepened. He slid his tongue along my mouth, and I parted my lips to let him enter. When his tongue slipped inside, a tingling sensation raced through me. It pooled deep in my abdomen, liquid and hot.

  The entity’s screams echoing off the walls kept rhythm with my pulse, with the blood and energy pulsating through my body, until the screams ebbed and faded into nothingness. A thick silence settled around us and I realized Jared’s light had banished the entity. It was gone.

  He pulled me tighter and walked me back to a wall, pushed me against it and pressed into me. His body, solid and strong, felt like molten steel against mine. His lungs labored as he explored my mouth with his tongue. I savored his taste, sweet like candy.

  Bracing one hand against the wall, he tore away from the kiss. But he didn’t let me go. Instead, he placed his forehead on the wall beside me, panting, his muscles constricted as if in pain. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice husky and soft.

  He was sorry? For what? I realized then that I was panting too. My legs were weak and I was sure I would have slid down the wall if he wasn’t holding me.

  “You’re amazing,” he whispered between raspy breaths.

  I was amazing? Had he looked in the mirror lately?

  “I’m blind!” Glitch held out his arms as he tried to navigate the room. “What the bloody heck was that?”

  “Jared’s light,” I said proudly as I gave him my rapt attention. His lids were closed, his jaw clenched. I placed my fingertips on his mouth, cut to perfection, and he turned into them, kissed each one then brought up my palm and kissed it too, then my wrist, watching me from underneath his thick lashes. Each contact sent goose bumps spiraling over my arm.

  “Well, it’s freaking bright,” Glitch said. “I think it burned the retinas out of my eyes.”

  Jared continued to stare at me for a long, breathtaking moment, then turned to Glitch. “I think you’re wearing the late Grandma Southern.”

  Glitch stopped and patted himself. When the piano hit the wall, the urn must have tipped over and broke. He was covered in ash.

  “Get her off me!” he screamed as he turned in circles and swiped at his shoulders. “Get her off me! Get her off me!”

  Cameron laughed. He leapt casually over the back of the sofa and sat on an arm to watch. “You scream like a girl, man.”

  “She’s everywhere,” he
said, his voice tinged with a sad, pathetic kind of despair. “I’ll never get her out of my hair.”

  I couldn’t help a bubble of laughter. He still had his eyes plastered shut as he shook his head. A fine cloud of ash surrounded him, reminding me of a character from Charlie Brown.

  “Holy moly!” Brooklyn still had a throw rug over her head as she rushed toward the front window. “They’re here! The Southerns are here!” She turned and surveyed the battlegrounds. “How are we going to explain this?”

  “I ain’t explaining diddly,” Cameron said. “I’m outta here.” He jumped off the sofa and walked to the patio door. Then he stopped and turned back to her. “Coming?”

  Without hesitation, Brooklyn dropped the rug and scrambled after him.

  I ducked down and maneuvered around a coffee table to look out the window. I could see two headlights meandering up the drive. Thank God we parked off the main road and walked up.

  I glanced back at Jared. He’d followed me to the window.

  “It’s too late to go out the back,” he said. “They’ll be able to see us when they park in the garage.”

  “Glitch, for Heaven’s sake, get down.”

  He was still swiping at poor Grandma Southern. “I can’t see.”

  “Down, Glitch. Just let gravity do its thing.”

  “And yes,” Jared said, “you can see. Try opening your eyes.”

  I had turned back to the window, but I heard Glitch say, “Oh yeah. Thanks.”

  Even as scared to death as I was, I laughed. He could be such a nerd. Which was probably why I loved him so much.

  “So, what do we do?” I asked.

  “We get the bloody hell outta here, that’s what we do,” Glitch said. He stood beside us.

  “Actually,” Jared said, “we wait. As soon as the garage door closes, we hightail it out the front and go down the mountain from here.”

  “Right,” Glitch said. “That’s what I meant.”

  I turned to look at Jared. His dark eyes were glistening as usual. His mouth formed a half smile, dimples emerging at each corner.

  “On three,” he said.

  I snapped back to earth and waited for the count.

  “One,” he said, turning back to watch the garage door slide down. “Two.” He took my hand into his and leaned down teasingly to whisper in my ear. In the quietest, most sensual voice, he said, “Three.”

  We jumped up and ran for the front entryway just as the door to the garage was opening.

  “Wait!” Glitch whispered loudly. “Did you say three?”

  “Come on,” I called back to him.

  We charged out the front door, raced over the manicured lawn, and fled into the forest as fast as our feet could carry us. Well, as fast as my feet could carry me. I had a sneaking suspicion Jared and Glitch could have run a bit faster. They were barely jogging.

  But when we hit the forest, we got separated from Glitch. Jared yelled directions softly. “Down, Glitch. Just let gravity do its thing.”

  I almost laughed. Adrenaline and the taste of freedom—aka, getting away with breaking and entering and some fairly hefty acts of vandalism—rushed through me like a cool wind. We ran so fast, I couldn’t believe I wasn’t falling on my face. But Jared had a firm grip on my hand. He reined in when my feet slipped out from under me, grabbed my arm when I tripped, and kept me semi-vertical more than once.

  Then he skidded to a halt and whisked me behind a tree, his movements sharp, calculated. Suddenly on full alert, he threw a glance over his shoulder, then crouched to the forest floor, pulling me with him. Something was wrong.

  “What’s going on?” I whispered.

  He put a finger over his mouth and led me deeper into the woods. “Listen,” he said after a moment.

  “I think I got it all this time,” a man’s voice said.

  I almost gasped aloud. Jared pulled me to his side as we peered through a thick bush at John Dell, investigative reporter for the Tourist Channel.

  He leaned against a huge pine tree, cell phone in hand. “You won’t believe it,” he said, frowning at his cameraman, who could only stare at the house in disbelief, his camera hanging off his shoulder, forgotten. Their van had been pulled into a clearing behind them.

  “It’s her,” he continued, “the prophet and one of the guys from the other day.” He paused a beat. “Right, the dark one. You’ll have to look for yourself. He has the markings of a messenger, but he’s not one. He can’t be. He looks mortal.”

  Fear crawled like spiders up my spine and burst over my skin, shuddering along the surface.

  After another long pause, he said, “Oh, he’ll cooperate. I have several fourth-degree felonies on tape to make sure of it. If he cares anything for the girl, he’ll cooperate.”

  I clasped a hand over my mouth. He’d recorded the whole thing. They must have been able to see us through the huge front windows. We were so dead. What would they do to Jared? He would have to go into hiding. If the wrong people got ahold of that recording …

  Creepy reporter guy closed the phone and turned to his stunned cameraman. “What’d I tell you? This is going to make my career. I knew I didn’t sell my soul to that man for nothing.” Then, as though he heard the thundering of my heart, the reporter’s head whipped toward us.

  Jared jerked me to the ground and covered my body with his. That’s when I realized anger had engulfed him. He shook with it, his jaw clasped shut, teeth bared in fury.

  “Who’s there?” I heard the reporter say. Then footsteps crackled along the forest floor.

  Jared closed his lids and inhaled deeply, as if trying to control his actions. Then he placed a hand over my eyes, leaned in, and whispered into my ear. “Whatever happens, don’t look.”

  “Wait, why?” I whispered back.

  But my question was drowned out by a soft growl from Jared, the deep sound prickling my skin with anxiety. When the reporter’s footsteps reached the bush we were hiding behind, a whoosh of air pulsed over me, stirred my hair, and the weight of Jared’s body was no longer pressing into mine. I opened my eyes in complete disobedience and found myself surrounded by a swirling, tangible darkness—thick, hot, and pitch black. It slid over my skin like static in the wake of a lightning storm, then seeped through the brush, a searching fog. It reminded me of the poltergeist, only darker and denser and pulsating with life.

  I watched, mouth agape, as the fog slid along the forest floor. Was this what Cameron saw? Was Jared really the grim reaper? Would he leave now? Go back to where he came from?

  Before my mind could make sense of what was happening, I turned and looked up into the eyes of John Dell. His mouth twisted into a sneer as he reached for me. I pushed his hand aside and scurried back, my eyes wide as Jared materialized behind him. An instant later, John Dell flew through the air. His body slammed into the side of the van as another technician looked out the open side door in surprise.

  I scrambled to my knees to watch. Every move Jared made left a thick, lingering fog in his wake, like he was only part flesh, only part human. He graced the technician with a quick glance then touched his forehead. The man collapsed, falling face-first to the ground. Then Jared looked back at the cameraman. He’d dropped the camera and was inching away, placing one foot behind the other, arms raised in surrender. But Jared was in front of him at once, enshrouded in smoke and shadows. Another touch. Another fall. So quiet, it gave new definition to the word eerie.

  My lungs, completely paralyzed, burned with their need for air. Were those men dead? Had Jared killed them?

  A second later, a sharp crack resonated through the forest, and I looked over just in time to see John Dell fall to the ground, his head twisted at an odd angle, his neck clearly broken.

  Jared stepped back as the man crumpled before him, and I slammed my eyes shut, suddenly afraid to look, to see what he was capable of. Then he growled again, like an animal, like an echoing thunder. The inhuman sound sent chills washing over me. I rose to my feet and took a w
ary step back. As though remembering I was there, he turned. The heat from his anger radiated toward me, hot and palpable. He took a step toward me, his head lowered, his chest heaving, his eyes bright like a predator preparing for its next kill.

  And I ran. I gathered every ounce of strength I had and ran like I’d never run before. A blinding fear drove me forward. Twigs and branches lashed across my face as I slipped and stumbled down the mountainside. My heart pounded so hard, I could hear it pulsing in my ears. In the back of my mind, I knew I could never outrun him, but my feet didn’t care. They pushed on, pumping, stumbling, catching, and pumping again. I actually fell twice, like those chicks in scary movies, the uneven terrain almost impossible to navigate. But I scrambled back up and started racing toward the road again.

  Glitch’s Subaru appeared like a haven below me. Just a few more yards. He hadn’t caught me yet. Just a few more yards and I’d be safe. Or at least that’s what I kept telling myself.

  Then he was there. In front of me. Jared. No longer an apparition of smoke and fog, but solid, flesh and blood, regarding me with a mixture of worry and anger. I skidded to a halt and ended up falling back to keep from sliding into him. When he reached down, I tried to scramble out of his grasp.

  “Lorelei,” he said, “wait.”

  I scurried out of his reach with a frown, a warning for him not to come any closer. He seemed normal again. Normal. Like he hadn’t just been something … not.

  “Lorelei, I can explain.”

  Cameron was there in an instant, kneeling beside me. “What happened?”

  “Guys!” Glitch came running down the mountain, yelling breathlessly. “Guys, there are three unconscious men up there.” He stopped beside me and bent over, panting. “I swear. I think they’re dead.”

  He’d stumbled upon the massacre. That meant he’d been close when Jared went postal. I glanced back at Jared, my eyes wide. “Would you have hurt him too?”

  Jared looked down as though unable to face me.

  “If you had seen him,” I pushed, “would you have hurt him too?”

  Cameron stilled, his muscles tense, his expression wary.