The Ghost Files 2 (The Ghost Files - Book 2) (11 page)

Like an obedient puppy, I hold out my arm and he ties it around my wrist. The oddest sensation creeps over me and I shudder, wanting it off. I almost tear it off when Eli puts his hand over my arm. “Don’t,” he says. “It works. I know it feels creepy, but you’ll get used to it.” He holds his own arm up and I see a gris-gris on his arm and Caleb sports one, too.

“You don’t have to believe in them for them to work.” Eli smiles. “That’s the great thing about Voodoo, it works whether you want it to or not.”

Good God, the boy has dimples! His aqua eyes aren’t staring at me with malice, but humor, and my insides clench and those odd feelings flood my stomach again. What is wrong with me?

“Didn’t you kill it?” I ask, ignoring the slight hesitation in my voice. At least I didn’t stutter. How embarrassing would that be?

Eli shakes his head. “No, we just chased it off. Is it the same one you saw before?”

I nod. “Yeah, only this time it seemed faster.”

“It would,” Mr. Malone says from the doorway. “It’s the house. Demons feed off the evil in the house and become stronger, faster.”

“Dan?” The doc finally makes an appearance. About time. “I didn’t expect you until tomorrow.”

“You voodoo lady got these done early,” Dan explains. “You said it was vital she gets it ASAP so I drove straight here from Bourbon Street.” He looks down at me. “Why haven’t you answered any of my emails, texts, or voicemails? Do you have any idea how crazy I’ve been?”

I frown. “What are you talking about?”

“Mattie, I know you’re pissed six ways to Sunday with me, but you promised you’d never do that to me again. Not after what happened.”

“Dan, I don’t have a phone, remember?”

“Uh, no, Mattie, you do. I overnighted it to Doctor Olivet. He was supposed to give you the phone and your new laptop.”

“You see, Dan, about that…” Doc looks anywhere but at Dan. “Mattie wasn’t in any condition to answer the phone.”

It’s Dan’s turn to frown. “What happened?”

“Mattie has been unconscious for the last three days,” he admits.

“SHE WHAT?” Dan bellows, making me wince.

“It was the ghosts,” Caleb tells him. “They were too many and it overwhelmed her. It caused her to pass out into a kind of coma.”

“And you didn’t think to take her to the hospital?” Dan shouts.

“Chill, man, we fixed her up,” Eli says. “Besides, she’s fine. Woke up swinging and everything.”

Dan eyes the busted lip and bloody nose Eli is sporting and gives him the best cop look he has. That look has made me squirm on occasion, but it doesn’t faze Eli. He just stares back, a challenge in his eyes.

“Before this comes to blows, let’s go inside,” Mr. Malone interrupts before either Dan or Eli can say anything else. “I’d like to ask a couple questions about that demon since it seems to be following you, Mattie. We need to figure out how you picked it up.”

“What do you mean picked it up?” I ask, startled. Did it like latch onto me the same way ghosts do?

“There are lots of ways people can find a demon that decides they are a good meal to snack on or even a host to hitch a ride with. We figure out how it found you, we might be able to get rid of it easier.”

Eli groans. “Man, this was supposed to be a bag and tag, not a demon hunt.”

“Bag and tag?” I ask.

“Find the vengeance ghost, which means bag it and then kill it, or tag it,” Caleb explains while giving his brother the stink eye. Caleb was the older of the two, in his early to mid-twenties whereas Eli was about my age give or take a year or so.

“Come on, Angel Boy,” I say to Officer Dan. “You might learn something.”

Leaving the boys behind to glare at each other, I follow Mr. Malone inside, hoping that at least
I
might get some answers.

Chapter Thirteen

We go back into the dining room and I flop down in the first chair I come to. Eli and Caleb flank me on either side before Dan even has a chance to slide in next to me. These boys are serious, I realize. What in the world did I say while delirious? It must have been pretty bad if they’re refusing to let Dan near me. Not that I planned on sitting next to him, anyway. I’m still beyond furious with him.

“Mattie, how many times now have you seen that thing?” Mr. Malone asks me.

“Three,” I say and tell him about the previous two, going into as much detail as I remember, Dan throwing things in I hadn’t been aware of, considering I almost died.

“Wait, wait, wait.” Eli raises a hand to interrupt me. “You’ve only seen this thing when he’s around?” He jerked his hand in Dan’s direction.

I frown. “It attacked me on the porch and Dan wasn’t here.”

“Yeah, he was,” Caleb tells me. “He had just pulled into the drive. I remember standing up to see who was here when I heard Eli shouting about demons.”

Dan crosses his arms over his chest and glares at us all. I can sympathize, he’s had a rough time of it lately dealing with the supernatural. This has to be so hard for him to even sit and talk about. He refused to believe in anything supernatural until he met me. Sometimes, I still wonder if he doesn’t try to logically explain my weirdness.

“Do you know what kind of demon it is?” I ask Mr. Malone to distract everyone. As mad as I am at Dan, I know what it feels like to be stared at and speculated about. It’s not pleasant.

“It sounds like a protection demon.”

Did he really just say
protection
demon? “Uh, Mr. Malone, isn’t that kind of the exact opposite of the whole evil demonic creature thing?”

He laughs. “I know it’s hard to wrap your head around, Mattie. There are many different types of demons, all encircling the seven circles of hell. What you’re describing is a third circle demon. It is called up by a summoner to protect someone from something or someone. The person it tries to kill is the thing or person it’s protecting someone else against.”

“So someone thinks Dan needs protecting from
me
?” I ask, both startled and outraged.

“You got a hell of right hook, Hilda,” Eli pipes in.

I’m up and twisting, but Caleb catches my fist before it connects with his brother’s face. “Leave off, Elijah. Do you want to get another beat down by a girl?”

“I didn’t get a beat down to begin with!” he denies hotly.

“So you don’t have a busted lip and black eye?” Dan scoffs.

Eli glares at him. “Nobody asked you.”

“Can we get back to the discussion at hand?” Mr. Malone asks wearily, his face pained. Same look I get from Nancy sometimes.

“Dan, is there anyone you know who doesn’t want Mattie in your life?” Doc asks.

Dan frowns and then his face goes cold and bored, his cop look, I call it. Ohhh, Officer Dan does know something and he’s not gonna share. Don’t think so.

“‘Fess up, Officer Dan,” I tell him. “What don’t you want to say?”

“I don’t know anyone who wants to hurt Mattie,” he tells us, the same bored tone in his voice he wears on his face.

“That’s not what he asked.” Eli leans back in his seat, getting comfortable. “He asked if there’s anyone who doesn’t want her around you? Like maybe your new girlfriend?”

Points to Dan for not breaking the cop face. If you didn’t know him, you wouldn’t have noticed the slight tightening around his eyes to signal he’s mad. Instead of giving Eli the reaction he’s hoping for, Dan mimics the relaxed pose Eli adopted and shakes his head. “Meg and Mattie are friends. She’d never do anything to hurt her.”

“You didn’t really just say that?” I ask. Not hurt me?

“Mattie, she didn’t intentionally…”

“Don’t,” I say softly. “If I never hear her name again, it will be too soon.”

Dan gives me the same look Mr. Malone had given us all earlier and I am so not in the mood for it. “Look,
Officer Dan
, if you can’t deal with it, then you can leave right now. I’d be safer without you around, anyway.”

He flinches, but doesn’t move. “Mattie, I told you once before, no matter how hard you push me away, I’m not going anywhere. I’m in it for the long haul.”

“Yeah, you got that down pat, don’t you?” Eli sneered. “Going out with her best friend is really in it for the long haul.”

Dan shoots me an unbelievable look. He knows I don’t go around telling complete strangers stuff. I can understand his disbelief.

“I was unconscious,” I say. “They said I talked in my sleep.”

“Yeah, you do,” Dan agrees.

My eyes go a little round. Dan had spent many, many nights camped out at the hospital with me. What did I say? Then another reality hit me, if I talked in my sleep, then he knew how conflicted I was about him and he still started dating Meg. I blinked, my eyes burning with that realization. I would not cry, not here, not in front of these people.

“Want me to toss him out?” Caleb asks me, seeing the hurt and confusion I’m trying so hard to hide.

I shake my head. “No, we need to figure this out.” The sooner we do, the sooner I can send Dan on his way.

“Squirt…”

“No,” I say. “I’m not talking about that right now. You need to ‘fess up and tell us what you’re trying to hide. You know something.”

“Can I talk to you alone?” he asks.

“No,” Eli and Caleb both say. I send them a glare. Something is going on with Dan and he’s not going to say anything around anyone. In some ways, he’s just as private as I am.

“Mattie, what if the demon comes back while you’re alone with him?” Mr. Malone says. “We need to keep you where we can see you.”

“It’ll be fine.” I stand up. “We’ll just go into the next room. If it comes back, one of us will scream our heads off.”

No one in the room, except for Dan, looks happy with my decision, but tough. It’s my life that’s on the line, so if it means talking to Dan alone, I will. If he knows who’s sending this thing after me, then I need to know.

We go down the hall into what I guess would be called a parlor, maybe. The walls are covered with wallpaper. The floral pattern looks a bit tacky to me, but I’ve never liked anything with tons of flowers on it. The furniture is all dark mahogany that contrasts beautifully with the lighter wainscoting. It looks like something right out of a romance novel during the civil war. Historical romances were a vice of mine, one I don’t share with anyone.

“Mattie, we need to talk about this,” Dan interrupts my silent musings. Leave it to the police officer to get right down to the heart of it. Problem is I’m not ready to talk about it yet.

“No, I don’t want to talk about that,” I say, going to stand by the window. It looks out over a beautiful garden full of roses in full bloom. It’s breathtaking. “What did you find out from your PI friend?”

He sighs. I can tell he’s aggravated just by the sound of it. “No, Squirt, we have to talk. I can’t take this distance. I need you to forgive me.”

I rub my arms, cold. Amazing how cold I am even in the humid New Orleans temperatures. Doc says it’s because of my soul being made up of ghost energy. Add that to the fact the little buggers flock to me like a kid to Disney World—I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get warm.

“Mattie!”

I turn to face him, leaning against the window frame. He doesn’t look aggravated. He looks haunted. “Trust me, Dan, you really don’t want to talk about this right now. You won’t like what you hear.”

“Please, I need you. Don’t shut me out.”

I laugh bitterly. “Then why would you do that to me, Dan? Why would you lie to me when you know how important honesty is to me?”

“I never lied to you.”

“Hiding the truth from me is lying by omission,” I say. “By doing that, you made a conscious choice to lie.”

“We didn’t think you could handle it…”

Another harsh laugh escapes. “You knew it was wrong or you wouldn’t have tried to rationalize lying to me. Why not just come clean and tell me you wanted to date my best friend?”

He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. It’s longer than he normally keeps it. “You had just gone through the worst nightmare of your life and you were fragile. You might not want to admit that, but you were. Meg knew about your confused feelings when it came to me and we both tried so hard to fight it, but we couldn’t. It’s so easy with Meg. We talk for hours and never run out of stuff to say. It’s as natural as breathing with her.”

“It’s not easy with me?” I whisper, hurt flaring. I know I’m a mess, have trust issues like no one else, and I’m difficult on the best of days. No one has ever really cared enough to fight through those but Dan, or so I’d thought. I grew up knowing no one wanted me. That does terrible things to a person, things that most normal people would never understand.

To live with the knowledge that you’re just a throwaway is awful. That’s what I feel like, anyway. All my life I have moved from foster home to foster home, some good, most bad. Whenever I got too difficult to deal with, my foster parents would just ship me back to be ferreted out to another temporary home. No one ever tried to get past my baggage, to care enough to try to love me.

Then I met Dan. No matter how hard I pushed, he stayed. I thought I’d finally found someone who cared, who wouldn’t just toss me back out onto the streets because it was too hard, but now he tells me how easy it is with Meg? I know I’m hard, I know this. I can’t help it, but to hear him say it…it hurts. I love him more than I’ve ever loved anyone and he doesn’t want me because it’s too hard?

“Mattie…”

“No,” I cut him off, not wanting to hear anything else. “I can’t, not right now. This hurts too much.”

“This isn’t just about you, Mattie,” he says softly. “It’s about me too. You’re not the only one who gets to be hurt and act like an ass.”

My eyes narrow. I know I’m selfish, but I am not acting like that. I would never treat him the way he treated me. “Just go away, Dan.”

He walks over and tries to pull me to him, but I refuse, stubbornly standing in my spot. I can’t handle all that sympathy from the boy who has pulverized my heart.

“I never meant to hurt you, Mattie.”

“You did, though,” I say woodenly.