Macyntire & Hough (A Paranormal Romance) (The Macyntire & Hough Saga)

by Franklin Kendrick

“Of course. Demons aren’t welcome anywhere, are they? But we take what we want — without setting foot.” He licked his lips.

  “What do you want?”

  “You know what I want,” Aleister’s hand came to hover above Shelley’s chest, right over her heart. The demon leaned down, breathing in a long, deep drag of Shelley’s aroma. “Can you believe how delicious that smells? Just like a red wine. It gets better with every passing year. Oh, I crave it.” His eyes slid shut and he straightened back up to look at Tadin. “I could do so many things to this one. What would you like? Cancer? Tremors? Alas, I have to control myself. This one is not for me. Yet. I answer to someone a lot more powerful.”

  Of course, thought Tadin. Aleister was merely a messenger. He should have remembered that from the first time he saw the creature. Aleister worked for someone of higher rank — someone he’d evaded since his death.

  “Tell Haures I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Believe me, that’s exactly what he wants,” Aleister ran his tongue across the front of his teeth. “Makes you easier to collect.”

  “So, he’s still haunting that old bar down on Exchange Street?”

  “Of course,” Aleister said. “You know his kind. They’re very territorial. They need an unassuming place to keep their collections. They also like to see them grow regularly. He’s had your name on the list for a long time. You’re quite valuable to him. Like I said, with age comes value. There’s a big reward waiting for me for taking you in.”

  “Sorry to disappoint, but you’re not taking me anywhere,” Tadin said, and Kismit hissed once more at the demon.

  Aleister gave him another eerie grin and reached down to the bed, this time taking a lock of Shelley’s brown hair into his hand.

  “You think I forget,” he started, “that you spirits only have enough energy to manipulate the physical realm in small pieces. What if I took this girl instead of you, hmm? You couldn’t rescue her from my grasp if you tried, and even if you were to wake her, you’d only heighten her fear with consciousness.”

  “You don’t intimidate me!” Tadin took another step forward. “I may be a spirit, but I can still kick your ass.”

  “Oooh! Prove it.”

  Tadin lunged across the room, his feet leaving the ground, and he slammed into Aleister’s chest. His hands caught the creature’s horns.

  Aleister swung his arm around and knocked Tadin in the jaw, slamming his teeth together. He may have been a spirit, but damn did violence still hurt. Demons had full reign over spirits in a fight.

  He lost his grip on the horns and was sent flying back by a hoof to the stomach. Instinctively he dropped his energy, now able to pass through physical objects. If he’d left his energy up, he would have knocked the furniture over and woken Shelley. Waking her was the last thing he wanted. After years of protecting her from witnessing demonic activity, he wasn’t about to let some minion throw that all away.

  He leaped through Shelley’s desk, just barely touching down on the footboard of the bed, and flew at Aleister. He managed to grab the demon by the waist and knocked him backwards on the fire escape.

  One of Aleister’s horns gave a sickening crack against the handrail.

  Okay, Tadin thought as he tried pinning the demon to the grating, this isn’t exactly better than before. True, they were now away from Shelley, but now he was up high, standing on a very tiny rectangle of support. He could see through it to the ground. His stomach turned.

  Tadin knew his upper hand wouldn’t last forever, so he siphoned as much energy as he could from the surrounding area. He didn’t get much because it was already a chilly evening. He needed heat.

  The demon squirmed beneath him, legs thrashing about.

  “Give it up!” Tadin said through gritted teeth.

  Aleister hocked back in his throat and spit a wad of the most foul, reeking phlegm Tadin had ever seen into his face. The stuff burned, clouding his vision.

  Tadin released his grip on the demon and scraped at the thick phlegm on his face.

  With only those few seconds Aleister was able to scramble to the steps and descend to the second floor.

  Tadin managed to clear his eyes enough to see and hurried after the demon.

  Down the first flight of stairs.

  Damn, it would be a whole lot easier if I just jumped, he thought. That would never happen. He was afraid of heights.

  Down below, Aleister sprinted across the brick sidewalk, his hooves clopping loudly as he went.

  Tadin came to the bottom of the last flight of stairs and lunged after Aleister — but suddenly it felt like his face smashed into a plate glass window.

  Whap!

  He brought his hands out in front of him, but they, too, met the invisible barrier.

  Aleister cackled up ahead.

  “What’s the matter? Come on! Come and get me!”

  Tadin tried stepping off the stairs, but again his body met the force field, solid as a rock.

  “Damn it!” he said.

  Aleister continued laughing.

  “Have you forgotten?” he mocked. “Has it really been that long since you’ve tried to leave?”

  Of course! Tadin thought angrily. My damn ring!

  His diamond engagement ring. It was the object that he haunted. For many spirits it was a place, some physical area that they were fond of when they were alive. For Tadin, having moved so much in his lifetime, it was a diamond ring he panned on giving to his fiancé all those years ago.

  The ring was still sitting on Shelley’s bedside table!

  “Damn it!” he said again, watching Aleister wag one of his horrible fingers like a scolding teacher.

  “So sad,” he grinned at Tadin. “Like a dog on a leash. Now my fun begins!”

  The demon spread his arms out wide, curling each finger into his palms, until suddenly with his head thrown back, Aleister was gone! Vanished, right into thin air.

  “Really?” Tadin said to himself, a grimace on his face. “You want to play that game?”

  It didn’t take much energy to follow Aleister into the spiritual dimension. The spiritual dimension lay like a veil over the physical dimension. It was a place where all spirits went when they didn’t want to be disturbed by mortals.

  As he dropped his energy down, Tadin watched all the buildings, street lamps, and pavement stretch into vertical blurs.

  Before he got his bearings, Tadin was slammed in the face by one of Aleister’s fists. The force nearly knocked him completely off his feet, and he stumbled back into the brick wall.

  He needed to figure out a way to finish this without moving away from his ring. If he went back to get it, he’d lead Aleister right back to Shelley’s room and that was the last thing he needed.

  He swung a fist at Aleister and managed to knock him in the jaw. Aleister’s teeth ground together, one of them chipping.

  The only way to get rid of a demon with a physical body was to damage it beyond repair. Tadin knew there was no way to destroy Aleister with his spiritual body alone. He was barely keeping Aleister from knocking his face to a pulp.

  Then it came to him.

  Up, he thought frantically. We have to go up...

  He started back up the fire escape, hoping to stop just shy of Shelley’s window.

  “Come on!” Aleister gritted his teeth and followed Tadin back up the fire escape. “You had your fun for a few decades, but now it’s time to pay Haures what you owe him.”

  Tadin stopped on the second floor. Aleister was right behind him.

  “I don’t owe him anything!” Tadin hollered as he turned on the demon. He grabbed at Aleister’s head and managed to catch the demon’s horns.

  Aleister let out a shriek as Tadin pushed him backwards off the platform.

  Stupid demon, Tadin thought. I may not be strong, but I’ve got you right where I want you.

  Nearly straining his back, he twisted his arms and swung Aleister over the railing. The demon flailed his arms out and fell to the
pavement two floors below.

  Tadin returned to the physical dimension before Aleister struck the ground, watching his handy work in all its glory. It was years since he’d been in such a tremendous fight.

  He hadn’t fought anything physical in a long time.

  How did Aleister figure out where he lived?

  He looked down at the street and saw that Aleister had broken one of his legs and perhaps a few ribs. One of his horns was snapped off completely and the demon forgot the splintered piece on the sidewalk as he dragged himself away.

  No matter, Tadin thought. The street sweeper will take care of that — demonic or not.

  “This isn’t over,” Aleister said as he gave Tadin a baleful glare.

  Tadin just watched him until he dragged himself completely around the corner and out of sight.

  “I’m sure it’s not.”

  With the silence of the evening restored, Tadin hurried back up the fire escape, eager to be off the precarious platform, and returned to Shelley’s apartment.

  He looked around the room to make sure that nothing was out of place. Thankfully nothing was. It would have been a bitch to try and move things back with Shelley asleep.

  Still, there was one thing left for him to do before he could truly rest.

  “Sorry, Kismit,” he reached down to the bed where the cat was nestled, not physically touching the poor creature, but hovering just close enough to draw out the cat’s pure warmth. Kismit whined as he felt Tadin drain some of his energy.

  Charged, Tadin turned his attention to the walls and started layering the energy from corner to corner. Spirits referred to this as buffering — setting up a spiritual boundary that couldn’t be easily crossed. He should have done this earlier. It would have saved him a lot of headache and made it much trickier for Aleister to penetrate.

  Once the buffer was securely in place, Tadin returned to his seat in the armchair. He winced a little at the spiritual bruising he’d suffered, then settled down.

  The wounds would be gone in the morning. They normally only lasted an evening with spirits. For Aleister, however, his wounds weren’t likely to heal for at least a week. That prevented an immediate return visit by the horned creature.

  Shelley turned over in her sleep and wrapped an arm around Kismit.

  Tadin smiled at her innocence, but feared that it wouldn’t last for long.

  This is getting dangerous, he thought. Much too dangerous. It was easy to pretend that being friends with a human was normal for a while, but now, with a real threat emerging...

  Haures was after him first and foremost, but Tadin knew how the demon lord loved collecting mortal souls almost as much as the newly departed. All it would take was Aleister mentioning Shelley and she’d immediately become a target — if she wasn’t one already.

  “There’s no use worrying about that now,” he said softly to himself. He could handle a minion here and there. If Haures actually showed up on their doorstep himself, then he’d consider running.

  “As long as they come at me a few at a time...” Tadin said as he flipped his book open and tried to read. “I should be fine.”

  We should be fine.

  He looked over at Shelley once more.

  For now, all he could do was keep a watchful eye on their surroundings. And, for good measure, he would have to keep his excursions outdoors to a minimum.

  Out of sight, out of mind.

  He read until he slipped into a hazy sleep.

  Chapter Four:

  Wednesday - 12:15pm

  The next afternoon Shelley took a break from stocking the gallery’s bookcases and stepped out for an early lunch to go shopping with her two closest friends from college, Lisa Hanover and Claire McKee. Shopping was something she never said no to. Actually buying something, however, was a challenge with her budget being so tight. She hadn’t purchased new clothes in months.

  The three of them decided to try Jamison’s, an upper-class ladies store at Monument Square. They made their way from one rack to the next, languishing in the stylish designs, yet griping over how unattainable the prices were.

  “Can you believe it?” Claire asked as she turned over a tag dangling from a maroon blouse. “I shouldn’t complain. They don’t look like they have anything my size...”

  Lisa sniggered. She was a bean pole and always managed to find the best outfits, usually in the clearance racks. Shelley felt bad for Claire. She was larger and rarely found anything stylish that wasn’t insanely priced.

  “Have you thought about what you’re going to wear for the gala?” Claire asked, but Shelley wasn’t really paying attention. She was looking at a pair of jeans that were on display in the window.

  “Shelley!” Lisa said.

  She looked up.

  “Huh?” she said.

  “The gala,” said Lisa. “What are you going to wear?”

  Shelley shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ll find something in my closet.”

  Claire put her hands on her hips and just stared at her, an unimpressed expression on her face.

  “What?” Shelley gave them both a taken-aback stare.

  “You’re not going to buy a new outfit for this?” Claire asked.

  “To be honest, I wasn’t,” she replied. “My budget is pretty tight.”

  “That doesn’t matter!” Claire said. “Think of it as an investment in your business.”

  Shelley folded her arms and rested her weight on her left leg. “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “Shel, this is your chance to make a great first impression,” Lisa said. “Don’t you want to look nice for your gallery opening?”

  “Why can’t I look nice with what I already have?” Shelley flipped absentmindedly through a rack of blouses. “I really wasn’t expecting to buy anything today. I just wanted a break from stocking shelves.”

  She tried to imagine what she had in her closet that could be suitable, but came up empty handed despite her argument. She rarely bought anything fancy because more often than not she would get paint or charcoal on it.

  “You need at least a skirt,” Claire suggested. “And a nice blouse. Something flattering.”

  Shelley couldn’t help but burst out laughing at the idea.

  “No, I’m serious!” Claire continued. “You need to wear something that shows off your figure.”

  Shelley pretended to be interested in a shelf of bracelets and rings, but she really just needed an excuse to walk around and release some of the tension that was swirling around in her gut.

  “Alright,” she tried to humor them. “If you think it will help. I’m just too self-conscious.”

  “Trust me,” Lisa said, “we know. You’re always hiding under t-shirts.”

  “That’s my own business,” she said, hoping to end the conversation right then and there because she knew what was coming next. It was always the same thing.

  “Of course it’s your business,” Lisa started, “but, Shel, Claire and I have been talking.” She looked over at Claire who nodded. “And we were just curious...are you really content with being on your own?”

  “I’m not on my own,” she looked Lisa in the eye. “I have a business partner. That’s pretty good, isn’t it?”

  “It’s a start,” Lisa said. “But, what about your personal life? I mean, don’t you want someone to be there when you get home? Someone to talk with, to go places with?”

  “You can’t back her up, Claire!” Shelley rolled her eyes. “You don’t even have a boyfriend!”

  “But I have my feelers out there!” Claire defended herself.

  “Come on, girls,” Shelley let her arms drop to her sides, brushing at her pants as if trying to remove some dust that didn’t exist. “I think we all know how dating ended for me last time I tried it.”

  Danny Thompson came to mind, no matter how much she tried to fight it. He was her first boyfriend at the university. He was also her last boyfriend at university. For two years they played cat and mouse until finally D
anny asked her out.

  She was thrilled. The prospects of pursuing her education, career, and having a new partner all at once were really exciting, and she put her whole self into the relationship. However, Danny had other ideas, and quickly cut loose before graduation.

  She closed her eyes, shook her head, and let out a deep breath.

  “I’ve put that all behind me, okay? Can we talk about something else?”

  “You’re the one who brought up Danny,” Lisa said, her arms folded.

  “Let’s talk about your business partner,” Claire said with a sly grin.

  Shelley was thankful for the change in topic. She could easily talk about Tadin. She just had to be careful not to let slip that he wasn’t a living, breathing human. That wouldn’t go over very well.

  “What do you want to know about him?” she asked.

  “Is he seeing anyone?”

  Shelley knew that would be her first question. Why Claire was so desperate to find a man, she didn’t know. She’d had more bad luck than her and Lisa combined.

  “No,” she answered. It made her smile a little. She had to admit it was kind of fun to know so much about Tadin and being the only one to know those things.

  “So he’s single?” Claire said, a hopeful expression on her face.

  “He’s a bachelor by choice,” Shelley gave her stock answer (what was she going to say, he’s a ghost?), but Lisa laughed.

  “Shel, only George Clooney is a bachelor by choice.”

  “Is he gay?” Claire asked excitedly. This was always Claire’s second question.

  “He’s not gay!” Shelley waved Claire away, and the excited look on her friend’s face quickly dissolved.

  “No wonder he’s your business partner,” Claire grabbed a blouse off the rack and held it in front of herself. “He sounds boring as heck.”

  “If you really knew him, you’d know that he’s not boring,” Shelley found herself defending Tadin, almost as if some puppeteer was telling her what to say. “He’s just a really nice, quiet guy who keeps to himself.”

  “And how long have you known him and we’ve never even met him?” Lisa prodded. “I’m starting to think that you made him up just to impress us.”