by C. C. Wood
“Deal,” he said quickly and I knew I’d been had. He knew I was a softy and he’d taken advantage.
“You’re a sneaky bastard, you know that right?” I asked as we walked into the kitchen.
Stony gasped in mock outrage. “I’ll have you know my parents were married when I was born.” He paused. “Married to other people, that is.”
As he intended, I laughed.
Between Stony and my search for information on Teri’s killer, I was distracted for the next few hours.
Blaine arrived back from the airport just in time to help Stony with the dishes after breakfast. I offered to cook something more for him, but he claimed he was fine with a bagel smeared with cream cheese and a couple more mugs of coffee.
We were all sitting in the kitchen, working on our laptops, when my cell phone rang. I saw that it was Mal calling and smiled, leaving the room as I answered. I wanted some privacy when he and I talked.
“Hello?” I said into the phone as I headed upstairs to my office.
“Hey.” Mal’s voice was low and warm. “What are you doing?”
“I was working in the kitchen with Stony and Blaine, but now I’m alone in my office. How was your flight?”
“Crowded,” he complained. “I swear they make those seats for children and not fully grown adults.”
I bit back a laugh because I had a sudden vivid mental image of Mal squashed down in a tiny airplane seat, his knees up around his ears.
“Are you laughing at my misery?” he asked.
“Maybe a little.”
He chuckled and blew out a long breath. “I’m just glad to be off the plane.”
I could hear the dull roar of a crowd in the background. “Are you still at the airport?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m about to rent a car and drive to the network offices. Since I insisted that I was only free for forty-eight hours, my agent booked a meeting for this afternoon so we can get started.” He paused and I heard papers shuffling. “Look, I need to go so I can take care of the rental paperwork, but I’ll call you tonight when I get to my hotel, okay?”
“Sounds good,” I answered. “And kick ass at the meeting.”
Laughing, he replied, “I will.”
Still smiling, I disconnected the call and turned to exit my office. A flicker of shadows around the edge of my vision made me look up from my phone. I didn’t even have time to scream as the oily black cloud rose up in front of me and swallowed me whole.
Chapter
My head ached viciously. The last time I’d felt like this was four years ago when Jonelle challenged me to a tequila shot contest and I lost.
Groaning, I lifted a hand to my forehead, using my palm to cover my eyes in hopes of keeping them in my skull.
“Oh, God,” I whispered. “I’m never drinking again.”
“She’s finally awake,” Teri cried, making me wince.
I cracked open my eyelids, moaning as the bright overhead light seared my retinas, and clamped my hand more tightly over my eyes. “Turn off the light,” I demanded, my voice little more than a rough whisper.
“There, it’s off,” I heard Blaine say from somewhere above my head.
Slowly, I lifted my hand and glanced around. I realized I was lying on the floor of my office and Teri, Stony, and Blaine were all hovering over me with frightened expressions on their face.
“What happened?” I asked, clearing my throat when my voice caught.
“We were hoping you could tell us,” Stony stated. He ran a hand through his hair, leaving it standing up in spikes all over his scalp. “Where do you hurt?”
I hesitated for a moment, taking stock of any aches and pains. “Just my head, really,” I answered. “I feel a little stiff, but nothing else hurts.”
“Do you remember falling or anything?” Blaine asked. His face was pale and his blue eyes looked out of place against the white of his skin.
“No, no,” I answered, pausing as something teased the edge of my memory. “I didn’t fall. It was here.”
Blaine and Stony looked confused, but Teri understood me and her eyes grew wide with fear.
“What was here?” Stony asked.
“The dark cloud. The entity that attacked me.”
The two men looked at each other.
“Call Mal,” Stony told Blaine.
As Blaine stepped away and pulled out his phone, I focused on Stony. “How long was I out?”
“I’m not sure,” he answered, his voice tense. “You were upstairs for about ten minutes before we heard the thump when you hit the floor.” He glanced down at his watch. “That was five minutes ago.”
So I hadn’t been unconscious long, then. “Help me sit up.”
Stony stared at me with doubtful eyes. “I don’t know, Zoe. I think we should call an ambulance.”
“And tell them what? That I was attacked by a dark cloud that tried to suck the life out of me a few nights ago?” I moved, testing the ache in my head, but it seemed to be fading. “I’d rather not.”
“We could tell them you fell. They could do an MRI or a CAT scan,” he suggested. “Just to be sure there was no damage.”
“I don’t have a bump on my head and I’m not bleeding,” I argued. “They might not believe that.”
Stony looked as though he were going to argue when Blaine returned to my office.
“He’s not answering. He’s probably driving through downtown.”
“Call an ambulance,” Stony insisted.
“Do not call an ambulance,” I interrupted. “I am not going to a hospital and that’s final.”
Blaine came closer and crouched down next to me. “You may have a concussion,” he said softly. “You should get checked out.”
“I don’t have a concussion,” I answered. “The dark entity came back and it attacked me again.”
Blaine scowled. “All the more reason for you to go the hospital.”
“I’m fine,” I repeated. Slowly, I pushed myself into a sitting position. The pain in my head faded to a tolerable ache.
“Maybe you should lie down for a bit,” Blaine suggested.
I waved him off. “I’m not lying. I really am fine. My head doesn’t hurt so badly anymore and I’m just a little stiff.”
Neither of them looked convinced, but their hands shot out to help me as I hauled myself to my feet.
A little unsteady, I walked to the small loveseat against the far wall and collapsed onto it, leaning my head against the back.
“Can I have a glass of water?” I asked Stony, opening one eye to look at him.
He nodded and disappeared from the room.
Teri came over to the sofa and sat down next to me. “Did you know it was here? I mean, did you feel it?”
I shook my head slightly. “Did you?”
She shook her head as well.
“What?” Blaine asked, his gaze on the screen of his cell phone.
“I was talking to Teri,” I explained.
Blaine muttered a short, “Oh,” as his thumbs moved rapidly over the gadget touchscreen. He and Stony had become accustomed to my unexpected conversations with ghosts, so it rarely fazed either of them anymore.
“Do not call an ambulance,” I repeated firmly when I saw Blaine and Stony exchange a glance. “I mean it. I will kick both your asses out of my house.”
“But Mal would want—” Blaine argued.
“I’ll talk to Mal when he’s out of the meeting and tell him what happened. Let me handle it.” I realized I sounded like a raving lunatic so I tacked on, “Please.”
The ‘please’ got me twin looks of concern. Apparently, a woman trying to soften bitchy comments with good manners made men nervous.
“I’m almost certain I don’t have a concussion,” I told Blaine, thinking back to the night that Steve Dwyer and his wife had tried to kill me. “I’ve had one before, and this is nowhere near as bad.”
They finally relented.
“We won’t call an ambulance,” Stony ag
reed. “But you have to promise to tell us if you start feeling nauseated or woozy.”
“I can do that.”
Stony and Blaine had me reclining on the couch, a blanket over my legs and a mug of herbal tea in my hand when Mal called a few hours later. Though it was nearly August and hotter than Satan’s taint outside, a permanent chill had settled in my bones. It took over an hour for me to stop shivering once Blaine carried me downstairs.
Teri wasn’t helping matters because she loitered near me, the weirdest bodyguard in history. Every so often, part of her arm or leg would brush me and start the chills all over again.
“Teri, stop pacing,” I demanded. “You’re making me nervous.”
She glanced down at me, her arms crossed over her chest. “You should be nervous. That-that thing attacked you again and we don’t even know why!”
I couldn’t argue with that, focusing instead on my tea. I heard Blaine’s cell phone ring and tensed as he answered it. Instinct told me that it was Mal calling.
Sure enough, Blaine appeared behind the couch and held his phone out to me. “Mal wants to talk to you.” His expression told me the conversation wasn’t going to be pretty.
I lifted the phone to my ear and immediately said, “I swear, I’m fine.”
Mal was silent for a long moment. Then he said, “I’m on the next flight home.”
I ignored the giddy feeling that filled me when he said home, as in where I was, and focused on changing his mind. Instead of taking a firm tone with him as I had Stony and Blaine, I opted for a softer approach. I could hear the edge in his voice when he spoke. Hell, I could almost feel it through the phone, sharp and furious.
“Mal, please don’t,” I pleaded. “I promise that I’m not hurt and that whatever it was is gone.”
His lack of response told me all I needed to know.
“Didn’t you say you were going to meet with a medium while you were there?” I pointed out. “Someone who might be able to help us?”
“I’m supposed to meet her at eight o’clock tonight.”
I nodded. “You should keep the appointment. And the meetings you have tomorrow, go to them. Please.”
“Zoe,” he murmured.
“I’m asking you to please do all that for me, Mal.” I took a shaky breath and decided to bare a little of my soul. “Would I rather have you here? Yes. I feel safe when you’re here,” I admitted. “I’ve never had that before. But you can’t fix this. I might be able to, but I don’t know how. You know people who can help us and that’s what we need. More than I need you here or your need to be with me. Until we figure out what’s attacking me and how to fight it, the next best thing is someone who can give us the weapons we need.”
Mal grunted. I knew he wanted to continue the argument, but he was thinking about what I said.
Finally, he acquiesced. “Fine, you are not out of Stony or Blaine’s sight.”
I hesitated. “Look, I’m not trying to be a pain in the ass,” I explained, “But I will have to shower or use the restroom and I’m not doing that in front of them.”
“Call Jonelle,” Mal shot back. “Have her stay the night. I’ll go to the meeting tonight and tomorrow and come back as planned on the condition that you are never alone until I get there.”
“I can do that,” I replied. “And I’ll be careful.”
Mal didn’t respond, but I could feel the tension vibrating from him even though I couldn’t see him.
“I don’t like this, Zoe,” he whispered. “Why would it attack you again and just disappear? Why did it attack you in the first place?”
“I don’t know the answers to those questions and I don’t like that either, but what you’re doing in Atlanta is best for everyone, not just you and me.”
“Keep your phone with you at all times. I’ll call you after my meeting with the medium and let you know what’s going on.”
“Okay,” I answered softly.
“Bye, Zoe.”
“Bye, Mal.”
After I disconnected, I turned to hand the cell phone back to Blaine when the clock caught my eye.
“Oh, no! It’s nearly five-fifteen!” I cried.
“Yes. Is that a problem?”
“We have to go to my parents’ house for dinner tonight, remember?”
Blaine looked at me as though I’d lost my mind. “Surely your mother will understand why you can’t come tonight,” he pointed out.
“She would if I could tell her,” I argued, throwing the blanket off me and getting to my feet. “Go put your shoes on. We have to leave in five minutes if we’re going to be there by five-thirty.”
“Zoe, we should stay here,” Stony argued as he came out of the kitchen. “Tell her you’re getting sick and need to stay home and rest.”
“Have you met my mother?” I asked him incredulously. “Do you know what she’ll do if I call and tell her that?”
Stony shrugged. “Tell you to feel better.”
I shook my head and stared at him in horror. “No, she’ll make me soup, then she’ll come over here and force feed me hot toddies, boss you both around, and rub Vick’s all over my chest and back while I try to fight her off. If that thing comes back while she’s here…” I trailed off.
Stony and Blaine looked at each other and their shoulders drooped when they realized I was right.
I dashed up the stairs. “Five minutes!” I called over my shoulder. “Then we have to hit the road.”
I brushed my hair and put on make-up so quickly that I nearly poked myself in the eye with the mascara wand. Teri hovered near the bathroom door, watching me.
“I’m worried,” she said, her voice flat.
I met the gaze of her reflection in the mirror. “I know. I am too.”
“Until this is over, I’m staying in your bedroom when you sleep,” she insisted.
“Okay,” I agreed. Any other time, I would have told her to respect my privacy, but if there was ever a time to make an exception, this was it.
“I just wish I could go with you when you leave the house,” she fretted. “I could protect you if you needed me.”
I threw the mascara in my make-up bag and faced her. “Maybe, Teri. Or something bad might happen to you, then I’ll be even more vulnerable.”
She blinked at me. “You would?”
“You saved me once, Teri, but there’s no telling what this thing will do to you if you encounter it again. You need to be just as careful as I do because, without you, I have no chance against it.”
She nodded. “I understand.”
“We’ll be back early,” I told her. “And be nice to Jonelle when she gets here. We’ve had enough drama for the year, don’t you think?”
“Hell, yeah,” she agreed.
As I left the house with Stony and Blaine three minutes later, I looked back to see Teri’s lone figure silhouetted in my bedroom window, her expression pensive and frightened.
As I lifted my hand to wave to her, I felt the shiver of a premonition on my skin.
“Something wicked this way comes,” I whispered to myself, rubbing my hands over my arms as goose bumps broke out on my flesh.
Deciding I’d creeped myself out enough for one day, I climbed in the passenger seat of Blaine’s car and tried not to think about the ominous vision of Teri standing alone between the darkness and me.
Chapter
I half-expected dinner to be a complete disaster, but I should have known better. Stony had charmed my mother at my birthday party, much to my surprise. It also appeared that Blaine could behave like a gentleman when he wanted and, apparently, tonight he did.
When we entered my parents’ house, my mother didn’t even mention that we were five minutes late. She gave Stony and Blaine a warm welcome and ushered us into the kitchen.
She offered the guys beer, but they politely turned her down. When she finished pouring them glasses of sweet iced tea, she looked at me and told me she needed a little help with dinner. Considering she had made pot roas
t with potatoes and carrots, I assumed that there wasn’t much for me to do. I was wrong. My mother gave me two cans of crescent roll dough and told me to wrap them up and stick them in the oven. Then she went to work making a salad.
Stony and Blaine kept the conversation moving, telling my mother stories about their paranormal encounters from times before I joined the show. To my complete shock, she laughed long and loud at their anecdotes.
When my dad came into the kitchen, a wide smile spread across his face at the sound of my mother’s laughter. He gave her a light kiss and put his lunch box on top of the fridge in its usual place.
He welcomed Stony and Blaine, shaking their hands before he went to the fridge to grab a beer.
Then he walked over to me and gave me a hug.
“Hey, sweetheart. It’s great to see you.” He lowered his voice. “Your mom’s been missing our Thursday night dinners.”
Dinner itself was actually fun. My mother was more relaxed than I’d ever seen her, her smile easy and her laugh ready. My father looked at her as though he couldn’t tear his eyes away.
It was then that I realized that, despite the distant attitude my mother presented, my parents were still very much in love after thirty years of marriage. Until tonight, I sometimes wondered how my parents had ever ended up together for so many years.
Now I could understand it.
After we ate, Blaine and Stony endeared themselves to my mother even more by insisting that they clean up the dishes. My father even picked up a towel and dried them, giving me a wink when he noticed that I was standing a few feet away with my mouth hanging open.
Mom pulled me into the living room, leaving the men to the housework. “They’re such nice boys,” she commented as we settled on the couch. “Excellent husband material.”
I nearly choked on my iced tea at her pointed words. Coughing, I set the glass aside and stared at her in disbelief. “Husband material?”
Mom waved a hand. “Fine, boyfriend then. Still, you’re not getting any younger you know and I’d like a grandbaby before I get too old to chase them around.”
I felt as though I was having an out-of-body experience. My mother never complained about the state of my love life or tried to set me up with men. In fact, she used to act as though she wanted me to avoid any kind of emotional attachment.
