Haunted Redemption

by Rebecca Royce

  Gray hollered at the top of his lungs. “This is your fault, too. I hate her. And I hate you too.”

  I sunk down in my chair next to Dex. There really wasn’t anything to say. My son hated me. He thought we were all crazy. Some hurts go beyond tears.

  My phone buzzed, and I looked down at the message. Don’t drive tonight. Take a taxi. I’ll pay for it.

  “I have a job tonight. I’m thinking I shouldn’t go.”

  My father cleared his throat. “You should go. We’ll watch the kids. This is a bad time. It was always going to be. Some things simply are.”

  “That so doesn’t help, Dad. But thanks anyway.”

  My father had this way of saying things which made me feel like the sky might actually fall on my head.

  I hadn’t expected Levi to want to drive me, but he insisted. We sat silently in the car, not speaking. I guess sometimes, when there is too much say, not talking makes the most sense. Or at least it seemed to with Levi and me.

  “Are we still on for dinner tomorrow?” Levi drummed his fingers on the steering wheel.

  “If you’re game, I still am.”

  He nodded once. “Great.”

  Malcolm, leaning against his SUV in what I’ve started to think of as his standard pose, caught my attention. I hadn’t expected him. Levi slowed down the car, his eyes narrowing. “Who’s that guy?”

  “My broker.”

  I thought I was pretty innocuous in my response, but Levi jerked like I’d struck him. “Oh really?”

  When the car finally came to a complete stop, I got out. The air was humid, and I hated the way going from air conditioning to the outside heat made my head rush. I closed the door slowly to give myself a moment to adjust.

  “Thanks,” I called to Levi, expecting him to leave.

  Instead, my ex parked the car and got out. Malcolm hadn’t moved, his gaze not leaving Levi like Malcolm was a hawk who had caught sight of his prey from a great distance. I shook my head. That was a ridiculous thought. Malcolm wasn’t going to hurt Levi or vice versa. They were two grown men.

  Not to mention I was going on a job. What did Levi think he was doing? I grabbed his arm to get his attention. “You should go. I have to work.”

  “I want to see what you do.”

  I blinked several times since the world was tilting on its axis. “What?”

  “I want to go see you at work.”

  He’d not had any interest in this at all right until then. How much of it was curiosity at my job, and how much of it had to do with Malcolm standing by the car? “It won’t look like anything to you. Me wandering around the room, maybe flicking my wrist around. It’ll be nothing.”

  Levi made a sound somewhere between a groan and a sigh. “I’m sure I’ll be able to tell something. Aren’t most people able to sense a drop in temperature or the raising of hair on the back of their necks? Basic human survival instincts that keep us alive.”

  I touched his arm. “Some people can, yes. But not you.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  This was so ridiculously hard. “You never have been able to tell. I got rid of a ghost in your backyard on Sunday. You had no idea.”

  “Fuck.” Levi pounded the open side of his hand on the car. “I’m so useless.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  Malcolm strode over to us, stopping me from finishing. “Are we working or having marriage counseling?”

  My ex narrowed his eyes. “Levi Yates.”

  “Malcolm Fallon.”

  They eyed each other, neither one of them going on.

  “Time to go, Levi.” I tapped his arm. “Thanks for the ride.”

  Levi opened and closed his mouth several times before he spoke. “How will you get home?”

  Malcolm pointed to his car. “I’m going to take her. Block is driving us. Any other questions, or can we get to work?”

  Block? I hadn’t noticed anyone else in the car because, between Malcolm and Levi, all the air in the universe had been sucked up around me. But sure enough, there was a man sitting in the car reading a newspaper. He didn’t look up as I poked my head toward the window to get a look. Malcolm’s windows were tinted and made it hard to see inside. The driver appeared older, totally bald, and completely uninterested in whatever we were talking about out here.

  What kind of name was Block?

  “You have a driver?” Levi spoke to Malcolm. “This job requires a chauffeur.”

  Malcolm shrugged. “I have whatever I need to have.” He extended his hand, and I took it as though I’d been doing it for years. “Come on, Sage. We have work to do.”

  “Bye, Levi.”

  And even though I’d never have believed myself capable of it a week before, I left my ex-husband standing on the street without another backwards glance. Levi didn’t have to like it, but he didn’t get a say on my comings and goings anymore.

  It wasn’t until I was in the house and the sheer volume of extrasensory pain hit me that I realized the magnitude of what I’d done.

  “I left him out there.”

  Malcolm shrugged, dropping my hand. “He’s a big boy. He’ll be fine.”

  Of course he was right. That didn’t mean I wasn’t going to get an earful on my date the next night. I pushed the worry away. I could only control so many things at once. Gravity pressed hard on my shoulders. The air was thick, and my throat burned.

  “You getting what I’m getting?”

  Malcolm’s ghost swayed behind him, moving in and out of the doorway. I itched to send him somewhere else, but there were more pressing needs in the location.

  My broker nodded. “That’s what I thought. I don’t want to do it alone, and I didn’t want you in here with it either. We’ll both banish it to wherever it goes from here.” He cracked his knuckles. “I hate demons.”

  “Ghosts are certainly simpler.” I didn’t know if hate was the right word. I didn’t care for any of them. The house where we were—the simple, ranch-style home, which looked like it had been built in the seventies and not updated since—didn’t deserve to host a creature which did nothing but cause pain and destruction. I could feel it—to my left.

  I didn’t move. “It’s not inside someone, right? Because I’m not dressed for an exorcism and neither are you.”

  I’d stayed in my attire for the day, not dressing up to get sexier. After Dex and Gray, I didn’t have the energy. If I’d thought I was going to be assaulted by a demon in a human body, I’d have put on sweats and a shirt I didn’t mind throwing out later. Malcolm wore designer jeans and a black turtleneck. I had no idea how rich he was, but he couldn’t want to throw out his outfit either.

  “I promise to warn you if it’s inside someone. I hate surprises, too. No. This guy is here. Can you see him? I can’t yet. But I can feel him.”

  Goosebumps broke out on my body. “I’ll be able to see him. When I look. I can always see everything. Or, at least I used to be able to before I decided I didn’t want to anymore. Then it was cognitive dissonance or whatever.”

  “We can talk about how that worked later.” Malcolm stepped away from me toward the direction I knew the demon to be.

  I turned my head.

  A voice not human, too low to be anything but the voice of the damned, filled the room. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

  I closed my eyes before I forced them open. Okay, I was scared. Better to admit it to myself and get the job done. Ghosts were annoyances, but this fucker could be dangerous. If I wasn’t careful, he’d end up inside of me, and then I’d be royally screwed.

  “Waiting for me?” Malcolm laughed. “Why didn’t you make yourself known before now? We could have played a long time ago.”

  “Not you, Warrior. There are plans for you, and your time is almost over. No, it’s her I want. The girl we’ve been waiting for.”

  I whirled around to see who threatened me and whose bullshit I had to endure, then I wished I hadn’t. Levi should be glad he’d never see the face of
evil.

  Chapter Ten

  Television and movies did a surprisingly good job when they depicted demons. They really were as horrifyingly scary as they appeared to be. Red eyes gleamed in the darkness, the black body scaled from head to toe. And yet the truth was demons were as stuck in a location as any ghost. Unless they could take over a person—and some people seemed to have natural barriers against possession—they were as stuck as any other being.

  Malcolm hit the creature first. A surge of energy moved through me when he mentally pushed the demon backwards.

  “Careful.” I didn’t want us to start out too strong and tire out too quickly. Practitioners or not, being stupid could get us possessed. I wasn’t going home with this thing inside of me, and I didn’t want it taking over Malcolm. He was clearly powerful, maybe too strong for me to get it out of him if the demon got in.

  Malcolm laughed. “Always careful. Don’t worry. This isn’t how I die.”

  That seemed a strange statement, but not one I could make hide nor hair of at that moment. I shot my own dose of energy at the demon, and he didn’t move. Nothing happened. Wow. I was in the presence of a strong one.

  “Baby doses aren’t going to clear him, and he’s been feeding off the elderly couple in here for years. Killed the husband last week. Their son came in to get some stuff and felt him. Sensitive enough to at least know he should call for some help. You’re looking at decades of feeding.”

  His words had what I imagined was their desired effect on me. I immediately wanted to rip the head off the creature and send him to wherever he was from in pieces. I pushed my energy at it—hard. All thought of not overdoing fled. I wanted it dead.

  Colors passed before my eyes, a clear sign I was in full throttle mode. I’d not exerted this much energy for decades, not even during the Cascade earlier in the week. Rather than exhaust me, the surge pushed me further into myself. I found more energy—more power—than I’d known I had inside of me. The colors—all of them bright—yellow, green, pink—pushed into the creature, and like an explosion rocking not around but through me, I destroyed the demon until he was nothing but thousands of small demon pieces dissipating into the air around us.

  The power abruptly stopped the second the demon disappeared, as though my body knew I didn’t require any more and cut off the drain. The result left me staggering, and I fell forward. I would have hit the floor if Malcolm hadn’t grabbed me and pulled me up against him.

  I panted, and cold sweat broke out all over my body.

  “Easy now, Killer.” He whispered in my ear. “Don’t pass out on me. When I told you what he’d done, I didn’t mean for you to become a one woman killing force all by yourself.”

  I laughed, and it hurt everywhere. “Then next time don’t make such an effective argument.”

  “You didn’t need me at all.” He stroked the back of my hair, still not letting go his tight embrace. “That was some show. The demon taunting you, and then you just blew it to smithereens. Took minutes. I thought we’d be here for hours.”

  His scent wafted over me, pulling me back from the pain that killing the demon had caused. “Not true. I did need you. I’d be flat on my face otherwise. Thanks for catching me.”

  “I always like being able to catch swooning women. You okay, Kendall?”

  He so rarely said my real name. I turned in his arms to stare at his handsome face. He’d never be pretty; they’d never put him on the cover of men’s magazines. Yet I would always remember the slope of his nose and the way his dark whiskers made him look even tougher than he already was. I don’t know what I would have said—maybe “thanks for catching me” or something wittier—because his mouth met mine, and I lost all sense of anything.

  Malcolm had firm lips, and they didn’t so much embrace as claim. His whiskers scratched at my skin and I grabbed onto his shirt to hold him closer. Pain fled my body, and in its place utter and complete heat consumed me. Malcolm moaned against my mouth before his tongue swept against my own.

  He could have done anything he wanted with me right then. I’d have consented to drop to the floor and spread my legs right where I’d blown up the demon. Good sense must have hit him because he pulled back, panting as hard as I was.

  “Not here. Not yet.” He said the last word with a bite, pronouncing the t sound very sharply. I stared into his dark depths. He had gold in them. I stroked the side of his face. Was he really saying no when all I wanted was yes? Malcolm pressed his forehead to mine, making his rejection feel more like a later than a no. Still, it did nothing to still my racing heart.

  “Is this a post-killed-the-demon surge of adrenaline that’s making us both feel something we actually don’t?

  Malcolm laughed. Why was he always finding amusement at things I said when I didn’t mean to be funny?

  “This is not a question of wanting you. I fucking want you.” As if to make his point he pulled me closer against him. I could feel his rock hard abs and below them, the clearly erect cock pressing into my core. For a second I stopped breathing. “It’s a question of you not being really free for this. Not yet. And I’m not going to be accused of taking advantage of you when you’re coming down from a clearing like this one. I barely did anything, and my blood is pounding in my ears. I’ll be lucky if I can get you home before you faint.”

  “I’ve never done so.”

  He kissed my forehead. “That’s good. Come on, Block will drive us.”

  I took his hand and let him lead me from the house. With a glance over my shoulder, I let myself admire the empty room. The demon wouldn’t bother the person who lived here.

  “Truth is, he was an easy demon.” He hadn’t even thrown anything across the room. My mother once came out covered in black ash she couldn’t get off for a week, no matter how she’d washed herself.

  Malcolm shook his head, shutting the door behind him. “He didn’t see you coming. They underestimated you. Make no mistake, unlike ghosts, these fuckers talk. They’ll come at you stronger next time.”

  A thought dawned on me. “What do you think he meant when he said they were waiting for me? And why did he call you Warrior?”

  I’d no sooner asked the question then the ground moved. Or, at least, it felt like it did. The trees were spinning too. Oh what the hell?

  “Are you spinning?” He scooped me up into his arms.

  I closed my eyes. “Yes.” My questions were going to have to wait until later.

  Malcolm placed me in the car, which helped. Sitting was good, sitting would be my friend. I snorted. “Hell, give me a ghost anytime. I forgot how much I hated clearing a demon.”

  “They do suck.” He climbed in next to me, and Block drove the car down the street. I peered at him through squinted eyes. He was totally bald, and his eyes were the palest shade of blue I’d ever seen. “And you hit it so hard you’re really going to crash.”

  I placed my head on Malcolm’s shoulder even though I knew I shouldn’t. He’d been kissing me inside. For now, I’d pretend I wouldn’t feel awkward about this tomorrow. For all I knew, Malcolm kissed all the women he did jobs with. It might be his thing.

  “How do you and Block know each other and what kind of name is Block and why is he driving your car?” I yawned.

  Malcolm joined our fingers. He did get affectionate when he had a power surge. I’d have to remember. “Block works for me, like you do. His talents are different than yours. He drove me because I thought we might both be loopy, and I didn’t want to worry about either of us operating the vehicle. And Block is his nickname. He’ll kill me if I tell you how he got it.”

  “Nice to meet you, Kendall.” Block nodded at me, his gaze finding mine in the rearview mirror before he looked at the road again. “I’m called Block because Malcolm there gave me the nickname. Be careful before he gives you one you can’t lose either.”

  Oh God, if I wasn’t careful, I was going to be Sage forever. “Thanks for the warning.”

  Block nodded. “You two okay? Look
ing like you’re fading. Would sugar help?”

  “I think she’s past a tic-tac.” Malcolm leaned against my head to whisper in my ear. “Your ex-husband is an asshat.”

  Even his insulting Levi couldn’t break through the haze forming in my head. “You met him for three seconds. You can’t possibly know that about him just yet. And it’s not true. Trust me; Levi Yates is one of the nicest guys on the planet.”

  “I don’t have to know him to understand he’s not someone worth your time. He let you go. He doesn’t deserve to get through the day without getting kicked in the balls.”

  I punched him in the arm. “Stop it. He had his reasons, and they were good ones.”

  Malcom kissed me lightly on the temple. “You have to remember soon, Kendall. This is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.”

  I raised my head to stare in his eyes. “What do you mean?”

  “Do you believe in the moon?” He wanted some answer from me that I didn’t have. I could simply think it a crazy question only he’d asked me it twice now, and Malcolm was downright sane considering the stuff we dealt with on a daily basis.

  “I …”

  “Careful, Malcolm.” Block called from the front seat. “Don’t cross the line.”

  What did that mean? The spinning started again, and even though I’d never fainted before, the world faded to black.

  I woke up in my bed the next morning to the sounds of the kids in the kitchen again. I rubbed at my eyes and grabbed my cell phone. It was Wednesday. Tuesday had happened. I hadn’t dreamed it. I’d passed out in Malcolm’s car. How had I gotten here?

  I jumped out of bed and nearly collided with my mother in the hallway. Usually I had a whole routine I needed to do before I even set foot out of my room—bathroom necessities taking precedence over everything else. Today, however, answers were all I required.

  My mother grabbed my shoulders. “Are you okay? I was coming to check on you. Demons are a tricky recovery, and it’s been so long since you worked these jobs. Even then you were always with us.”

  “I …” Breathing seemed a good idea. “Mom, I don’t remember getting home.”