Red House (23 page)

Haschall flickered like a signal tuning in and out. The same ugly rolling laughter I’d heard years ago when he’d killed my friend began to fill the ballroom. “You think to trap me, witch?” The words hit like gravel spat out under car tires. I had hoped he wouldn’t be able to tell what we were doing.

Blake approached Haschall from behind, hand curled around the colorful Hello Kitty figurine. Daniel edged closer. Shelby and I stood our ground but the look on the younger woman’s face worried me. If she broke the circle and ran in fear we might not be able to protect her.

Haschall stepped closer, his form becoming more solid. “Only thing I like to kill more’n a woman is a witch.”

“You’re a chatty bastard.” He was too. I had no experience with ghosts capable of this much interaction. “Why is that?”

“I paid for it, witch,” he said. “You know how it works.”

“No.” I shook my head. “Tell me.”

Blake gave me a look but I ignored him. I was genuinely curious.

“My sister thought she could question me. That she’s better ’an me cos it came so easy to her. I had to work so much harder until I found my way.”

“What’s your way, Stanley?”

His mouth stretched into a rictus of a grin. “Blood’s my way, little sister.”

He flickered out, reappearing as a stain of red rushing at Shelby. She stood but didn’t break the circle. Haschall hit the barrier like a rung bell, his laughter echoing as he bounced off the ward. The shock of it sent Shelby reeling, her foot sliding through the ring of herbs and breaking the protective spell.

Haschall was flung backward into Blake.

Chapter 19

In a slow motion nightmare, the force of Haschall’s energy sent Blake flying backward, the Hello Kitty figurine knocked from his hand as he slammed into a wall. Red swallowed him whole, eclipsing the starfield of his aura. He slumped to the floor, eyes closed, body still. I started to run to his side only to be blocked by Daniel. Pushing me away with one hand, he raised the shotgun with the other, leveling it at Blake. “Make a circle. Now, do it while he’s out!”

Choking back a hard lump of fear, I flew on auto-pilot and rushed to my stash of ingredients. Shelby said in a wavering voice, “No time for that.”

Blake had regained consciousness. Crimson burned from his eyes and his aura, his usual smirk replaced by Haschall’s freakish grin. My stomach somersaulted as I broke out into a cold sweat for, I swear to God, the first time in my life. Too far from my bag, I searched the floor for the Hello Kitty figurine. Blake, no, Haschall climbed to his feet.

Daniel aimed the shotgun at Haschall’s chest. “Don’t move, motherfucker.”

Haschall flexed his new hands. “I do believe this suits me better.” He took a step toward me. Daniel closed the distance between them, pressing the shotgun directly against Haschall’s chest.

“No!” I raised my hands to my face, wishing for some kind of magic that could get us out of this. “Please don’t hurt him, Bubba.”

Daniel swore, drawing a chuckle from Haschall. “He’s not the only one that can hurt him,” Haschall said. Hearing that voice come out of my lover’s mouth was just about the last straw. “You not gonna hurt him, are you? You gonna do what she tell you like a good boy?”

Shelby crept to my bag and began digging inside it. For what, I had no idea. She needed to get herself back inside some sort of circle, or maybe teleport to the next county.

I wasn’t the only one who noticed her movements. Never taking his eyes off Daniel, Haschall said, “Whatcha doin’ there, little sister?”

Shelby froze, then dropped the bag and went for the whiskey. “Thought I’d get a drink.” She opened the bottle, made as if to take a drink and shrank from the scent. I tried to make eye contact without moving too much but she studiously ignored me. “So can a ghost taste anything? When’s the last time you had a drink?”

Oh shit, no she didn’t. I wanted to throttle her for being so reckless, so much that I didn’t even give her credit for doing something I would have done. It’s one thing for me to do stupid dangerous stuff, but the eighteen-year-old granddaughter of a client? Not a good thing at all, unless of course it worked.

Haschall began to move, one slow step at a time. Daniel kept pace walking backward, the barrel of the shotgun steady and the business end still tight against the other man’s sternum. The yellow-gold of his aura rippled with cracks of copper and rust. Haschall kept going until he stood between me and Shelby, still keeping his gaze on Daniel. Bubba gave it right back to him with a hard glare of his own. I suppressed a hysterical giggle, thinking of Daniel and Blake eye-fucking each other again.

That wasn’t Blake, though, not by a long shot. Haschall carried himself differently, in a manner that suggested he’d been shorter than Blake in life, and stockier. An old fashioned farmer’s build, from a time when plowing a field meant guiding a mule and not sitting on a tractor. The voice had already struck me but as I watched him I realized even his face looked different, as if Haschall was forcing Blake’s muscles to conform to the shape his face had been.

“Long time since I had a taste a much a anything. What else you got I might like?”

Shelby offered him the bottle and pointed at the cigar on the altar dish. “There’s that, if you want it.”

I said, “Shelby, come stand by me.” She took a step toward me.

Haschall grabbed the end of the shotgun, pulling it against Blake’s chest hard enough to bruise. “No, none a that. Y’all don’t move less I say so.”

I nodded at Shelby and she stayed in place. Haschall relaxed, using the shotgun to push Daniel before releasing it.

“Chill, Bubba. Please.”

“I’m made of ice right now, don’t you worry.” Belying that, veins raised from stress carved a map of the strain of reining in his vampire instincts across his skin. His finger shook on the trigger. For the first time I wished I wore a watch. How long before dawn?

Haschall said, “How ’bout that whiskey, girl?”

Shelby extended her arm, leaning forward a bit, but was still too far away for him to reach the bottle.

“Bring it here!”

“Okay, okay.” She approached him slowly, only getting close enough for him to snatch the pint from her hand. As soon as he had it she rushed to me and I grabbed her, maneuvering her to stand behind me.

Keeping him talking seemed like a good idea. Better than no idea, at least. “Why don’t you tell me more about your way, Stanley? I want to know about the blood.”

Haschall stepped away from the shotgun, sneering at Daniel as if to dare him to do anything about it. Daniel, bless him, let it pass, though he did keep it aimed and his twitchy finger on the trigger. Using the bottle to gesture at Daniel, Haschall said, “Bet he knows about blood. Bet he can tell you all kinda things ’bout it.” He twisted the cap off the bottle, bouncing it in the palm of his left hand. “I didn’t know creatures such as you existed when I was alive. Learned a lot since then. An awful lot.”

“What did you do to make your spirit so strong?” I wanted to know, and I wanted his focus off Daniel.

It worked. Haschall finally looked at me. A thick red haze swam across Blake’s dark chocolate eyes. Twin tears dropped to my cheeks. I brushed them away. Shelby grabbed my hand, squeezing it.

“You ask about as many questions as my sister.”

“Which one? You had more than one. You had a whole big family and you–’’

“Killed every last one of them. It was her fault, she wouldn’t stop askin’ questions. Just like you! She kept on and she kept on until I finally shut her mouth for good.”

“Then what happened? Did you get caught or did you just decide they all needed killing?”

He grinned. “Both. I got caught. Momma found me in the smokehouse cuttin’ her up so it’d be easier to get rid of her. She hollered like I was choppin’ on her. I couldn’t cut her throat fast enough to keep the others from hearing. I didn’t have a choice.” The grin never left his face. He had no remorse for slaughtering his entire family.

The need to vomit kept me silent for a moment. “What kind of magic could you do back then?”

The grin widened. “Don’t you just wanna know.” He raised the whiskey to his mouth and winked at me before he drank a double shot’s worth.

Shelby gave my hand another squeeze, a signal. I tensed, not sure what to be ready for.

Spitting out the liquid, Haschall threw the bottle, sending it crashing to the floor several feet away. “What did you do?” He came at us in a rage. “What did you do witch?”

I kept myself between them. Daniel grabbed him from behind, the shotgun abandoned. Vampire strength should have been enough to hold him in place even with him struggling. I side-stepped them to get to the altar. Haschall, with Daniel still gripping his arms from behind, lunged for me. I hadn’t put enough space between them and myself. We collided hard and I hit the floor. Somehow Haschall wrenched free of Daniel. Scrambling to my knees, I tried to crawl the last few steps to the altar and the bottle trap, reaching for it with one hand. He captured my ankle and I slid backward to find myself trapped under him. He grabbed my throat with one hand, squeezing my windpipe. A reddish-gold figure came into sight above.

“I’ll kill her before you get a chance. You know I will.” His red eyes held me hypnotized, searching for some sign of Blake.

I struggled to speak past the pressure on my throat. “Kalidas.” My voice came out in a rough whisper.

Haschall squeezed tighter, his aura flaring a brighter red. He began to shudder then convulse violently. I tried to push him off but he was too heavy and too out of control. His hand tightened even further and I slapped the floor in frustration. If I couldn’t get out from under Haschall, Daniel might hurt him, which meant hurting Blake.

A wordless cry of anger came from his twisted lips, then Haschall went still, his hand releasing my throat and sliding to the juncture of my neck and shoulder. He dropped his head to the same spot on the opposite side as Blake’s starfield aura washed out the red.

I hugged him, tunneling my fingers in his thick dark hair, whispering his name over and over.

“Roxie?” Daniel crouched next to me.

“It’s him, I can see his aura. It’s Blake.” Relief flooded me, loosening the knots of tension and fear.

Blake groaned, tried to move but couldn’t.

Daniel said, “Let’s get him off you so you can breathe.” With a care that surprised me, Daniel guided Blake to roll to his back on the floor. I sat up, running my hands over Blake’s features. He looked like himself again in every way and I couldn’t help pressing my lips to his in a hurried kiss.

“So where did Haschall go?” Shelby had a good point. Brushing my hair from my eyes, examined the room for signs of Haschall, finding none.

“I don’t see him. Shelby, can you get the bottle of water from my bag, please?”

“Yeah.” She did as asked.

Blake opened his eyes, a haunted expression on his face. For a moment it reminded me of Jody. He tried pulling himself into a sitting position but didn’t quite make it. Daniel and I each grabbed an arm and helped him. I opened the water and held the bottle to his mouth. He took it from me, taking a long drink.

“We don’t have long,” he said.

“I’m going to strengthen the ward around the room and give us a little time.” I rose to perform the task. Blake caught my hand and pulled me back down.

“No.” He drank again. “That doesn’t matter.”

“Oh my fucking God,” Daniel muttered, briefly resting his forehead in his hand.

I looked at him, not understanding. “What?”

Shelby said, “Is he still in the room?”

“He’s still in me,” Blake said.

Chapter 20

I repeated Daniel’s expletive. “How is that even possible?”

Blake said, “It’s something I learned how to do during my original training. It’s a technique that allows me to partition a part of my subconscious. If I feel like I’m under attack, I have a method for doing it quickly.”

I think Shelby spoke for all of us when she said, “No freaking way. You can’t partition your subconscious like it’s a hard drive.”

“I can and I did and I shoved him into that partition as fast as I could. But I don’t think I can keep him there long.” He looked at me. “Your spell has got to work.”

“I know.”

Blake took my hand. “I can’t keep him in me indefinitely. I won’t be able to take it. He gets out and your trap doesn’t work, he could possess any one of us. Do you understand?”

“He means me, Roxie.” Daniel looked ashen. The thought of Haschall taking control of someone with that kind of strength, and Haschall’s own fondness for blood…the rest of us wouldn’t make it out alive.

“I know what I need to do.” I went for my bag and the bottle trap. “Bubba, I’m gonna need you to hold Haschall down when the time comes. Shelby, I want you to stay out of the way. No arguing about it either.” I rummaged through my bag for the traditional double-edged athame I rarely used.

“He’s focused on you, Roxie,” Blake said. “He recognizes you. He knows the taste of your fear.”

“That’s a right disturbing turn of phrase.” I sat on the floor, putting the bag aside and the bottle in front of me. The cigar still smoked on the altar dish. I leaned over and retrieved the dish and cigar, then the whiskey. Everything I needed arrayed in front of me, I turned the knife over in my hand and said, “How much longer?”