by Meg Ripley
The man refused to shake his hand; he just stood there, waiting for the newcomer to be intimidated.
“I’m looking for Penelope.”
A woman came around Tyler and shot him a scathing look before offering her hand to their guest. “Penny.” She studied Raul with wide green eyes that slanted up at the corners. They were the same eyes that he’d noticed in her profile picture—that he’d stared at too long if he were honest with himself—and now they were looking right at him. She’d attempted to tame her wavy golden hair into a braid at the nape of her neck, and the strands that’d escaped were tucked behind her ears. With full lips and a pert nose, she was one of the most beautiful women Raul had ever seen.
As her hand wrapped around his, completing the gesture Raul had offered to her comrade, Raul thought he might explode from the inside out. Nuclear bombs were detonating throughout his body, sending a ringing buzz through his ears. After what felt like a small eternity, he realized that he was just standing there staring.
“I, uh, I’m Raul,” he stammered, trying to get a hold of himself. He’d seen plenty of good-looking women before, and he’d never lost his cool that badly. There was just something about this voluptuous beauty that reached out and pulled his beating heart from his chest. The funny thing was, he wanted more. “We chatted online.”
She gave him a small squeeze to end the handshake and offered a little smile that sent his blood racing through his veins. “Yes, I’m so glad you could make it. We’ve tried to reach out as much as possible to get some other folks interested in ghost hunting. It seems like these days no one’s interested unless they’re certain they’ll find evidence, or that they’ll become YouTube celebrities.”
He thought he saw her give another look to the tall guy, who continued to stare straight down his nose at Raul.
The rest of them were watching him, too, but without the same open hostility. Could they tell that his wolf was going absolutely wild inside him? Was he acting like even more of an idiot than he felt he was? “Yeah, no, I’m just looking for a little information. You see, I’m with the SOS Force.” Amar had given his express permission to tell them exactly who he was, given that they needed the Society for Spirits to work with them and serve as consultants on this mission. It still felt incredibly weird, and Raul felt a heat flush into his cheeks.
Penny’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re more than welcome to tag along while we do our investigation here, and then you and I can talk in more detail later.” She turned back to the equipment set up around a fresh grave.
Raul noticed the doubtful looks exchanged among some of the other ghost hunters. They either didn’t want him there because they didn’t accept outsiders, or because he was on the Force, but tough shit. He ignored them and focused on the task at hand. “What do you have going on here?”
She shone her flashlight on the headstone. “This is the grave of Victor Reyes. He died last month, but there have been several sightings of him since then, including him supposedly robbing a liquor store. We’re checking things out here first.”
“I saw that video.” Raul replayed it in his mind. “How do we know for sure that the dead guy and the robber are the same person?”
“A little bit of intuition, but I studied the video carefully and compared it to his mug shots. We’ll have to stop talking for a bit now. We need to get these baseline readings, and we’ll completely throw off the sensors.” Penny and another man with dark curly hair finished setting up various pieces of equipment around the mound of lumpy dirt. “Dylan, do you have the camera ready?”
“All good.”
Raul followed the lead of the other ghost hunters, taking several steps back from the grave and standing still. He watched and waited, but nothing happened. The lights on the various electronics didn’t change. Nothing beeped. No ghostly mist arose from the grave to curse them.
“Okay, make sure we’ve got the temperature recorded this time.” Penny was the first to move, making a circuit around the grave as she double-checked everything. “Anything on the camera, Dylan?”
“Just us chickens.”
“Figures.”
“You really think the dead are coming back to life? They don’t seem to stumble around the way the movies portray.” Once again, Raul suppressed a laugh. He had an embarrassingly large stash of Night of the Living Dead comics back at headquarters, but he’d never taken them that seriously.
Penny shot him a look. “Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t reanimate a body. This is just the spirit we’re talking about. We’re looking for evidence that it might’ve come up through the ground. Look here.” She’d gone back around, bent over the grave, and leaned close to him as she pointed out small swirls in the earth.
His breath shortened in his lungs as the soft curve of her hip brushed against him, and his eyes immediately lost focus on the evidence she was trying to show him. Penny was affecting him in a way that made his inner wolf claw at the underside of his human form, demanding to be let out of its cage. He was nauseous and sweaty one moment and pleasantly dizzy the next. She was a force that affected him like the moon affects the tides, and the swirling waters that crashed inside him were proof of it.
“Are you all right?”
Raul blinked, realizing he hadn’t even been paying attention. He looked to Penny, thinking she’d spoken to him. Instead, she was sitting on the damp grass and holding her head in her hand. One of the other team members, a girl with fiery red hair, was kneeling next to her.
“What happened? Are you all right?”
Penny glanced at Raul and away again. “I’m fine, Ingrid. I’m just a little dizzy.”
But there had been something in that glance. It wasn’t just embarrassment at feeling off in front of a stranger. As his heart pounded in his chest, Raul’s mouth went dry, something he was grateful for as it kept him from saying anything stupid.
Something was affecting him and Penny, and he was damn sure it had nothing to do with ghosts. Was there any chance she could be… No. Right?
The guy who’d tried to intimidate Raul pushed past him to crouch on the other side of Penny. “You should take it easy. You know how sensitive you are to the supernatural.”
“No, Tyler. I don’t think it’s that. I just… I’m fine. Okay?” Once again, Penny glanced past her friends and up at Raul with those emerald eyes of hers.
It was that look, that look right there, that told him he couldn’t deny it. But why should he even want to? Penny was stunning, and it was clear from the way she ran the show with this group that she was a competent, intelligent woman. If anything, she was too good for him. No one had ever resonated with him like that, and he couldn’t expect it of her. Raul clutched his fists against the denim of his jeans. Something was happening there. Ghosts? Fate? Both?
“Let’s just get this done. We’ve got a job to do.” Penny got to her feet, refusing help from either Ingrid or Tyler.
Raul cleared his throat. “Can you tell me a little about your equipment?”
“She doesn’t have time to deal with you,” Tyler retorted, once again stepping between Raul and Penny. “It’s bad enough we have to keep under wraps due to the humans and government, but now we’ve just got the shifter version of G.I. Joe here.”
“Stop it!” Penny hissed. She gestured for Raul to come a little closer, and she pointed to a small device that looked like a pop-up lantern. Instead of a single bright bulb or LED, it had rings of lights in different colors. “This is the EMF detector. As I’m sure you can guess, it detects electromagnetic frequencies. The stronger the frequency, the more it lights up.”
“Does that indicate proof of a paranormal presence?” Raul had watched some of the ghost hunting shows on TV just to kill time, but he didn’t put much stock in all the devices they carried around.
“No. None of this technically provides proof, but that’s the problem. We don’t yet know exactly how to prove that they’re here or not. All we can do is take baseline readings in a given environment, compare them
to any unusual anomalies, and then look for a rational way to explain those anomalies.” Penny’s arm grazed against his as she moved to check the screen on the camera.
His next question died in his throat as he concentrated on what that tiny bit of contact had done to him. Why was this so hard? He’d been on countless missions when he was with the Green Berets. Some might think his position as a Communications Sergeant kept him safely behind enemy lines, but that was never the case when it came to Special Forces. He’d constantly put himself in the line of danger, and he’d never had a problem with it. That’d been his job. This woman, by simply talking to him and showing him what she knew, was overwhelming.
He swallowed and remembered what he’d wanted to say. “So, you’re basically telling me that you find ghosts by proving that they’re not around?”
“Essentially. That’s the best we can do for the time being and still do this whole ghost hunting idea any justice. It would be easy to claim that we’re certain of paranormal activity based on a sudden change in temperature or a dog barking at empty space. But then we’d be looking past what could actually be causing these things and discrediting anyone who genuinely wants to find spirits. Even electronic voice phenomena isn’t completely accurate, because people tend to hear what they want to hear.” Penny had a clipboard in her hand now, and she scribbled some notes down.
“Hey, I like the EVP recorder,” groused a girl leaning on the tombstone. She looked like a ghost herself with the pallor of her skin against the gloom of the cemetery. “We’ve gotten several answers from ghosts through that.”
“This is Wendy, by the way,” Penny said, gesturing toward the goth girl.
“What kind of answers?” Raul asked.
Wendy lifted her chin slightly and looked away, looking as though she might not be willing to answer him. “Whenever we do an investigation and we find anomalous readings, I usually ask several questions of the spirit. Sometimes they don’t answer at all, but now and then, when we play the recording back, we hear some pretty clear words.”
“Really? I’d be interested in what kind of experiments you’ve performed along those lines. I’d think the questions you ask and the environment in which you ask them could affect the outcome.” He was speaking to Wendy, but he was incredibly aware of Penny.
“It doesn’t matter,” Wendy replied glumly. “Like Penny said, people hear what they want to hear. You could play back EVPs for a believer, and they’d hear a spirit answering questions. Play them back for a skeptic, and they’d find some other way to rationalize it.”
“All right. So other than reading the equipment, what do you guys look for?” Raul wasn’t sure if his unanticipated interest had something do to with genuine curiosity or his attraction to Penny.
She straightened and looked around, as though she expected the ghost to come strolling up the hill at any moment. “I’ll note any phenomena. One theory is that cold spots or malfunctioning equipment could be caused by spirits taking up the energy in the environment as they try to manifest themselves. That works well with the laws of physics, but again, there isn’t any proof. Sometimes it’s a light that turns on by itself, a child who has conversations with a deceased relative, objects that move on their own, things like that.”
Raul stuck around while they worked for a little while longer, trying to stay out of the way and still observe as much as possible. Other than Penny occasionally asking one of the other members about something or explaining a reading to Raul, nothing unusual happened. Dylan was packing the equipment back into specialized cases by one a.m.
Raul scratched the back of his head as he approached Penny. “I know it’s late, but I’d still like to talk to you about some of this stuff if you have time.” He felt like a teenager asking a girl to a dance, when really it was just business.
“Yeah, sure. I’ve got some questions for you, too. There’s an all-night diner just a few blocks from here if that works for you. We could walk there.” She aimed those viridescent eyes at him once again, and he noticed a flash of excitement in her gaze.
Fire blazed a trail from his heart to his groin, his pants suddenly feeling a bit too tight. Hell, he couldn’t resist if he wanted to. Raul hardly noticed as she made sure the rest of the group was good with getting the last few things picked up. The warm breeze that floated around them as they made their way onto the street could just as easily have been an electrical storm brewing between them. It’d been something else to be in her presence when he’d arrived, but being alone with her intensified the effect.
Still, he couldn’t exactly start this portion of the conversation by telling her how much he wanted her or how the rest of the world disappeared when he looked at her. “So, tell me what you know about this sudden wave of ghosts in L.A. Have you managed to gather any evidence?”
She shook her head. “Mostly, I’m still just collecting as much information as possible. It’s difficult because every time I turn around, there’s another video, another account. I don’t know how I’m going to keep track of it all.”
The city sent a glow of light up into the dark sky, making a halo of pale blue before the blackness of night took over. Several signs nearby competed with the light show, advertising a fortune teller and a convenience store. Raul stared at them absently as they walked, thinking about all the computing power he had back at headquarters. “I might be able to help with that. Creating a database and analyzing any commonalities between the instances could give us a real lead to follow.”
“Us?” She looked at him, her full lips twisted into a smirk. “Are you really telling me the SOS Force wants to know about ghosts? Paranormal activity is the kind of thing most authority figures are quick to dismiss.”
“We’re not like most authority figures,” he smiled back. “You’d be surprised by some of the things we deal with. And if these ghosts or whatever are affecting the lives of the shifters here, then we want to get involved.” He certainly did, anyway. Amar was waiting to see what he’d report back after this encounter, and he’d decide for the Force as a whole after that.
“All right. If you’re really serious, I’d be more than happy to let you help me crunch some numbers. We’re lucky that we live in a time with so much advanced technology, particularly when it can help us so much. I’m afraid I just don’t have the time or knowledge. Or the equipment,” she admitted.
“I agree, and I have all of that.” He was bragging. He knew it, but couldn’t help it. “I was actually a Communications Sergeant with the Green Berets when I was in the service. My work was all about gadgets and making sure they worked, no matter the conditions. The Army has some pretty specialized tech, but the Force can certainly compete.”
“I suppose we’ll have to see what the computer data has to say about it, but I’ve got a theory.”
“Which is?” Raul felt himself leaning toward her with the question, like a plant drawn to sunlight. He forced his feet flat and his spine straight.
“I’ve only seen information about these ghosts on The Shift. When it comes to new stories, there’s often a lot of crossover between shifter and human sources. You know, like if there’s an earthquake, then everyone will be talking about it. I discovered next to nothing about these apparitions on the human side of things. I find that a little too interesting.”
“What do you think it means?” She could tell him it meant everyone in Southern California was going to have cheesecake for dessert the next night, and he’d listen raptly.
“I think it means that whoever or whatever is making these spirits walk the Earth, they’re specifically targeting shifters. Every single ghost who could be identified was a shifter, from what I can tell. I can’t explain that yet, but I do think it’s something worth taking note of.”
“Hmm.” Raul turned away from her to give himself a moment to focus. “That should be a pretty easy thing to find out.
“If you really are serious about the Force working with us, then I think we could get to the bottom of this
in no time. Here we are.” She gestured to a squat, square building on the corner. LEDs had replaced the original neon sign that shouted “Curly’s Diner” out the world, but from a distance, it would look as though the place had popped right out of the fifties. Large windows lined the front of the building, showing a long counter fronted in chrome and stools. Tables of a similar fashion marched in a row along the windows, and there were hardly any patrons inside.
His stomach growled as he held the door open for her and the scents of the place invaded his nostrils. Plenty of the restaurants in this part of the world touted vegan salads, hummus, and organic bean sprouts, but Curly’s smelled of greasy burgers, fried chicken, and milkshakes. “I see no reason we can’t collaborate. I might even have some connections that could get you some new equipment.”
A waitress appeared at their table as soon as they seated themselves across from each other. She was an older woman, and she looked exhausted. “What can I get you folks?”
They ordered, and Penny’s eyes snapped to his as soon as the waitress had turned to leave. “Why do we need new equipment? There’s nothing wrong with what we’re using.”
He frantically shook his head, realizing how his statement had sounded. “No, that’s not what I meant. You’re the expert on that, and I’m not here to challenge you on it. I just meant I know some guys who’re really into technology—and advanced technology, at that—who might be able to come up with something that actually could give you proof of the paranormal.”
Penny’s face pinched with skepticism. “I highly doubt that’s possible.”
“You don’t know these guys. If it’s feasible at all, they can do it.” He drummed his fingers on his thighs, uncertain of what else to do with himself. He longed for those French fries to come along and help him keep occupied. And maybe if he had a burger in his mouth, he wouldn’t say anything stupid.
“Well, you’d really have to talk to Dylan. He’s the one who knows the most about our gadgets. I mean, I might have founded LASS, but that doesn’t mean we don’t all have our specialties.”
