by Meg Ripley
Her phone rang as she charged through her apartment door, locked it behind her, and headed for the stairs. “I know, I know,” she said when she answered. “I just completely lost track of time.”
“Doing what?” her mother’s voice replied.
Great. Penny rolled her eyes. She was already late, and now she had her mother to nag her the entire trip. “Just working on some things. Sorry, I thought you were Ingrid.”
“It’s nice to know you’ve got friends again, dear.”
She couldn’t stop another eye roll. Mrs. Granger had been talking to her like that for years. “I’ve always had friends, Mom.”
“I know, but after Kayla—”
“Stop. I don’t want to talk about that, not right now. Let’s talk about you. What’s up?” Penny stepped out onto the sidewalk. It was crammed with people as the time approached the dinner hour, and everyone was either heading home from work, heading into work for the evening shift, or trying to get somewhere to eat. Cars raced by in the open lanes and surged impatiently toward each other’s bumpers as they waited for someone slow to turn. Fortunately, she didn’t need to fight traffic since her destination was within walking distance.
“Mostly, I just called to remind you that we have a clan meeting tomorrow morning.”
“I know, Mom.”
“You say that, but you missed out on the last one. Your father is determined that you take over his position once he’s ready to retire. This is important to him.” She could hear the worry in her mother’s voice.
Penny sighed. Most shifters probably thought the children of Alphas had it so easy. But Penny knew the reality of it. Her father constantly worried about the pack’s finances because it took a lot of money to help ensure the prosperity and safety of so many people. Sure, they had a big house, but that was only because they shared it with half the pack. Someone was always there, no matter how much Penny just wanted to live like a normal family. With her mother’s big heart, they were always taking in any stray wolf who happened to come along. And as for status? Her father’s position didn’t matter much when she was seen as the chubby weird girl who was into the occult.
“I know,” Penny repeated, since she’d heard these words a million times over. “I’ll be there. I just forgot what day it was last time. I’ve got things to do.”
“I don’t see how there’s anything more important than family,” Mrs. Granger countered. She was still speaking softly, as was her habit, but there was a bit more determination in her voice.
That was hard to argue with, although Penny wasn’t sure she was up for everything that her parents and the pack expected of her. “We have lots of time, Mom. It’s not like Dad’s going to retire next week.”
“He’s not. You’re right. You’re also making my point for me. Your father isn’t going to step back anytime soon, but I’m sure he’d like to at least know that when he does give up his position, he’ll have someone reliable who’ll take over for him. It might seem like a lot of time to you, but you have a lot more training to do.”
Penny paused as she waited to cross the street and closed her eyes. So many times, she’d taken herself off to some fantasy world where she didn’t have all these responsibilities resting on her shoulders. Her parents had practically come apart at the seams when they’d discovered she’d gotten her own apartment. It hadn’t had anything to do with her not being old enough to live alone or having the money. No. It had all been about the pack and what was traditionally done. Her parents understood how important it was to them, but had they ever bothered to consider what she wanted?
“We can talk about this more tomorrow morning. Right now, I’m on my way to meet my friends for dinner.” She moved quickly across the street. The flickering neon sign of the taco joint was within her sights.
“It’s not that ridiculous ghost hunting thing again, is it?” Mrs. Granger gave an impatient sigh without waiting for an answer. “Penelope, I’ve told you before that you need to stop wasting your time. There are other things you could be doing that are much more important.”
Gritting her teeth, Penny forced a smile onto her face. It wasn’t real, but it would make her sound a lot nicer than she actually felt. “Mom, I’ve got to go. I’ll see you tomorrow morning. I love you! Bye!” She hung up, feeling like an asshole, but also knowing there was no other way around it.
“There you are!” Ingrid called when she saw Penny walk in a minute later. She gestured from the booth that she and the LASS were taking up, even though there was no mistaking where her friends were in a place this small. There was also no mistaking Ingrid’s brilliant red hair. “We went ahead and ordered loaded nachos for you.”
“Thanks.” Penny slid into the booth. Ingrid and Wendy were already seated on the other side, and Dylan had pulled up a chair to the end.
Penny was just about to tell him to scoot in so he’d be more comfortable when the empty space next to her was filled. She tried not to cringe against the wall as Tyler wrapped his arm around her. “There you are,” he said, echoing Ingrid’s words, but not exactly her sentiment. “I guess you figured out that I saved a seat for you.”
Keeping her eyes leveled at Ingrid, Penny sent her friend a why-the-fuck-didn’t-you-warn-me glare. Granted, Penny already knew Tyler was going to be at the meeting. He was at every meeting, even when Penny conveniently forgot to tell him. After their break-up, they’d been trying to maintain some semblance of a platonic friendship, but Tyler wasn’t very good at it.
“Hey,” she finally said, turning to look at him. He was tall and lanky, a stature exaggerated by the way he leaned over the back of the booth. His eyes were rimmed in red, either because of the late hour, or whatever else he’d been up to lately. She’d really liked Tyler at one point. When they were both younger, their parents used to get together for inter-pack meetings. It was like a giant block party of nothing but wolf shifters, and it’d been a blast to see other pups like herself that weren’t her cousins. But times changed, and so did their relationship.
“Hey?” We were a couple for how long, and all I get is a ‘hey’?” Tyler turned to look at the others, thoroughly expecting them to agree with him.
“We’re not doing this tonight. I’ve already had enough fucking drama for the day.” Penny twisted the bracelet on her arm, once again thinking of Kayla. It’d been so long, but Penny knew Kayla would’ve been there for her, no matter what.
“Besides, we have a lot to discuss!” Ingrid chirped, excitement bright in her eyes. “I’m sure you all saw the same video I did, the one with the guy smashing the car?”
Dylan nodded sagely. His curly hair was wild as usual over his dark-framed glasses, and he leaned forward to put his elbows on the table. “Sure, but let’s not get too eager. It’s totally possible that someone faked that. You only have to click a few buttons with the right software to add that cheesy mist effect.”
“Then how do you explain the rest of them? Like that woman who ran right out into traffic, screaming for help, and as soon as the car hit her, she was gone?” Ingrid snapped her fingers in the air for effect.
“There have been urban legends like that for decades,” Dylan calmly countered.
Penny twitched her mouth to keep her smile at bay. Those two liked each other. There was no doubt in her mind, yet she knew that Ingrid and Dylan would each deny it. She was a believer, and he was a skeptic. They could never be compatible, right? Penny couldn’t say anything about that for sure, but the tension between the two of them was always so thick.
Ingrid lifted her chin, but she also ran a self-conscious hand through her hair. “Who’s to say those urban legends aren’t based on something?”
“I see,” Dylan said with another nod. “Next, you’re going to tell me that you made out in a guy’s car and found a hook hanging from the door handle.”
“I…That’s…No!” Ingrid spluttered. She sat back against the booth seat and folded her arms. “You know that’s not what I mean.”
“Okay, I think we can
all agree that there aren’t any hook-handed abductors lurking around the area,” Penny said, trying to get things back on track before her father called and wanted to know why she’d upset her mother. “I think we can also agree that our best route is to take the information that we know is solid and pursue it. You all remember I mentioned we should go to the Calvary Cemetery tonight, right?”
They nodded their heads, except for Tyler. He was staring at his phone.
“That’s where Victor Reyes is buried. It was easy enough to find his grave online, so it shouldn’t be too hard to locate, even though the place is so big. That’s where we start, and we start tonight.” A surge of energy shot up from her stomach and touched the back of her tongue. She’d always been intrigued by spirits. These extraordinary tales that were circulating through the city were a little scary, but it was thrilling to think they might actually come face-to-face with a ghost.
“Why this particular one?” Wendy asked. She was sandwiched between Ingrid and Dylan, and she kept herself shrunk down into as small of a silhouette as possible. Wendy was a typical goth girl. She might have been in her twenties, but she still dyed her hair black and carefully applied a matching shade to her lips. It was a stark contrast to the pearlescent color of her skin, which was, of course, the point.
“We have more information about him than anyone else, and that means we can put a pretty solid ID on him. He was a known criminal when he passed away about a month ago, so there are mug shots to compare the video to.” She’d spent far too long poring over the images, comparing things like the angle of the man’s nose and the shape of his jaw. Penny knew she wasn’t wrong.
“Hey, wait. Is this the guy in the liquor store video?” Tyler asked.
Dylan grunted. “Oh, I’m sorry. Are you actually paying attention for a change?” He and the other members of the society knew that Tyler wasn’t there because of his passion for exploring the spiritual world.
“I pay plenty of attention, asshole,” Tyler retorted, running one hand through his light brown hair and then carefully patting it back into place. “It’s actually the rest of you who should be paying more attention. I’m going to take this group to the next level.”
“Exactly what is the next level?” Penny asked, sure she wouldn’t like the answer.
“The internet, obviously.” He let out a short breath of laughter.
“We’re already on the internet. I made a website and everything.” Wendy’s glare was openly disdainful.
“A website is nice, sure, but that’s not where people really make their money. I’m talking about videos. Haven’t you guys been on YouTube? There are guys that literally just walk around in abandoned houses, and they make a ton of money with ads and merch. There’s no reason we couldn’t do the same.”
“Yes, there is,” Penny instantly argued. “They’re making those videos with the sole intent to make money. The Society for Spirits isn’t like that. We need to be serious if we want to be taken seriously.” She’d been laughed at plenty of times for her interest in the supernatural, and she wanted a world where it didn’t have to be like that.
Tyler sighed. “If you say so, but we all know I’m right.”
There was a collective sigh of dismissal among the group.
Penny wasn’t going to let Tyler ruin this for her. “So, are we all on board to meet at Calvary Cemetery tonight at midnight?”
“Works for me,” Wendy said.
“I’ll be there with the equipment,” Dylan volunteered.
“Yup!” came Ingrid’s usual enthusiastic reply.
“Good. Just so you know, someone will be joining us.” For some reason, this part made her nervous. Penny knew she should have been thrilled that a new person messaged her with interest in the group. The whole point of the LASS was not only to look for evidence of spirits, but to spread the word around. That wasn’t going to happen if it was just the five of them. They needed more people. But she’d gotten a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach when she’d found the message from him.
“I hope this isn’t one of those old farts who retired from teaching high school science and thinks he knows everything,” Tyler cracked. “That’s not what we need on our channel.”
“No. This guy is from another group who’s investigated these incidents, and I invited him along. I’m telling all of you this because this isn’t a good time to be rude.”
Ingrid sat up straight. “Hey! I’m not rude!”
“You’re not necessarily the one I’m talking about,” Penny replied.
“We’ll do our best,” Dylan promised. “But you know how it is. We’ve all spent our lives being the rejects. It’s hard to believe that anyone would want to come hang out with us voluntarily unless they were punking us.”
“Or what about the ones that rejected us from other groups? We’ve had a few of those,” Wendy reminded them.
Penny sighed. “I know. But I have a distinct feeling that things will be different this time.” Their orders arrived, and the friends dug into their cheap Mexican fare. There was so much more that Penny would’ve liked to discuss, but she couldn’t keep her mind off their special guest for the evening.
She’d spent a lot of time on the internet. When it came to ghost hunting, there were simply more resources there than anywhere else. That meant she also exchanged plenty of messages with complete strangers, and they didn’t bother her. But this time, something was different.
Her stomach swirled as she scooped up a pile of seasoned ground beef and cool sour cream with a tortilla chip. She had no idea who this guy was or exactly what about spirits intrigued him. The badge next to his name indicated that he was an authentic source of information, someone who could be trusted, but that wasn’t the same as knowing a person. Penny couldn’t even say why she’d invited him to one of their investigations in the first place. She’d sworn she wouldn’t do that again after that incident with the retired high school teacher, and she’d make any newbies meet her first to talk.
Something was going to be completely different this time. She just knew it.
3
Raul slammed the door of his truck and headed across the street. This wasn’t a part of town that was particularly active for night life, and he was grateful as he moved along the low fence. At first, it was chain link and barbed wire, which amused him, but it turned to cast iron further down. He easily hopped over.
The trees were dark silhouettes, shaking their branches in eternal torture as they loomed over the smaller shadows of the tombstones. Raul picked his way carefully without a flashlight, letting his naturally superior night vision guide him. He was a wolf shifter, after all, and if he couldn’t see in dim light then what good was he?
Besides, it was easy to spot the group he was headed for. They had no qualms about turning on artificial lights, and they each carried one as though they were talismans against whatever bad spirits might have been lurking there. Even from a distance, he could see numerous other pieces of equipment lighting up the night. If the L.A. Society for Spirits was trying to keep themselves a secret, they were doing a shitty job of it. Raul grinned as he approached quietly, tempted to sneak up on them and hear their screams of terror when he jumped out from behind a lump of granite. No. He reminded himself he was there on business, and he needed to act like a professional, even if it wasn’t quite as much fun.
The Special Ops Shifter Force needed the Los Angeles Society for Spirits on their side, after all. Raul was the closest thing the Force had when it came to a supernatural expert, but most of his knowledge had been gleaned from pop culture. Even he was a bit skeptical when it came to these supposed paranormal incidents that were happening in the city. Could anyone really reanimate after death? If so, why would they bother doing things like assaulting people on the street or breaking into a business? So much of this didn’t make sense to him, and he hoped these ghost hunters could help clear up a few things. Either that, or he’d be heading straight down the rabbit hole of sensationalized
reality TV. One good thing he could hold onto was the fact that he was dealing with other shifters, so he could be a bit more of himself.
“We’re getting a big spike on the EMF reader. A huge one! Damn!”
“Does everyone have their cells off?”
Several assents came through the night air.
“Still, don’t get excited about it.” This voice was calm and like velvet, a little deep for a woman. It sent a shiver of pleasure rippling under Raul’s skin and raised a few hairs along his hackles. He took a deep breath, once again reminding himself that he was there in a professional capacity. Whatever strange vibrations he’d been picking up were just the result of spending too much time online and getting crazy ideas stuck in his head.
“But look! It’s steadily increasing! That’s got to mean something.”
“It doesn’t mean anything until we can get baseline readings. We might have to come several nights in a row before we figure out what those actually are. And Ingrid, you know as well as I do that we have to check for any other sources that energy could be coming from. Are you sure all your phones are off?”
“It’s probably me,” Raul said as he approached, secretly pleased at the slight jump he got from several of the investigators. He pulled his cell from his pocket and turned it off. Given that it wasn’t a typical cell and had been specially developed for the SOS Force, he wouldn’t be surprised if it was messing with their equipment. “Sorry.”
“Who are you?” A tall man stepped away from the grave they were surrounding and placed himself at the forefront of the group, blocking Raul’s progress forward. He folded his arms across his chest and tipped his head back.
Most people wouldn’t have been able to make out the man’s features in the dark shadows of the cemetery, but Raul could. He could also detect the waves of anger and possession that rolled off him. This guy was the kind who liked to fight, and Raul had met plenty of others like him in the service. He stuck out his hand. “I’m Raul.”
