Twisted Sisters (The Orion Circle Book 2) (5 page)

“I
was
hurt. God, it hurt,” he says in a choked whisper. “I felt like my chest was being crushed.”

“I’m so sorry, Logan.” I wrap my arms around his neck. My heart falls a bit when he doesn’t return my embrace. “I swear to you. The only thing I noticed while kissing him was the placement of my hands and the counting in my head.”

“Counting?”

“Yeah. Daniel told me to count to a slow five in my head before releasing the kiss,” I admit, leaning my forehead against his cheek.

“You were counting in your head.” Logan makes a noise that sounds suspiciously like a laugh. “You kiss the amazing Daniel Westin, and all you think about is how long until you can stop?”

“Um, yeah.” I pull back to look at him. My eyes widen at the adorable smirk gracing his face. “If the kiss was too short, Mr. Holmes would’ve made us do it over and over until we got it right. Then I’m sure one of the bet options would have happened. I wanted it to be perfect to begin with. Then I could walk away with the last laugh.”

“What do you think about when I kiss you?”

A warm flush shoots up my neck. “I, uh… you, nothing. I can’t really think too much when you kiss me.” The blush spreads from my neck across my cheeks. “When it’s over I sometimes worry about whether my legs will support me.”

“You are so beautiful when you blush,” he murmurs, brushing a light kiss over my lips.

“I’m sorry I hurt you.”

“Don’t apologize anymore.” He kisses my forehead. “Had I gone with instinct and followed through with option number three, this entire event would have wrapped up much quicker.”

“You heard about the betting pool.” The flush on my cheeks deepens from anger. “Asshats, the whole lot of them. Those vultures all showed up for the rehearsal. You should have seen their faces when Daniel and I nailed the kiss on the first try with absolutely no embarrassing issues.”

I pause for a moment, trying to remember what option number three was. When it hits me, I pull away and stare into Logan’s eyes.

“Option three was you beating up Daniel. You wanted to do that?”

“It was my first instinctive reaction,” he replies, unable to mask the sorrow in his eyes. “I went to the gym and beat on a weight bag for a while instead. Then went home only to be stalked by your damnable crows. They were all over my car at school and followed me home, then all the way here. How the hell did they know I might be in danger with this case?”

“I don’t think they were with you because of the danger.” I glance up at my feathered friends. “I think they were reacting to your mood. They were worried about you.”

“They’re crows.”

“You know better than that,” I murmur before kissing his cheek. “You’re the one who taught me that familiars are more than mere animals. There’s something supernatural about their behavior. They were with you because they were concerned.”

“I wish I had a familiar,” he says, glancing up at the crows covering the branches over his head.

“Until you get your own, it appears I’m sharing.”

Daniel walks over, eyeing us with a wary look. “We okay, Logan?”

“Yeah,” Logan says, rising to his feet. He holds his hand down to me, and pulls me up, snaking an arm around my back.

“I would never…” Daniel says, trailing off.

“I know.”

“So…” Daniel shoves his hands into the pockets of his jeans while he rocks back and forth.

“This might be bad,” Logan says, pointing at the house. “Three furious spirits are tearing this place apart.”

Before I can ask any questions, Carl and Rebecca arrive in the Circle van with the ghost hunting equipment. Something tells me we don’t need the cameras and EMF detector for this one. Though, maybe Carl will finally get his proof on camera. Logan takes my hand, entwining our fingers while our auras and powers mingle together. We gain strength from one another, and it seems to work much better when we’re touching. Raven stalks over, her expression stormy. Looks like our sorority clients annoyed her.

“Okay, so after Logan’s failed attempt at nabbing the spirit board, I’m guessing our ghosts don’t like guys much. I’m heading into the house to grab the board. Hopefully they let me in,” Raven says, her lips in a firm line. “It’s in the kitchen. Those idiots over there tried to burn it in the sink when the ghosts popped out. Good thing they didn’t succeed.”

Destroying a spirit board is never a good idea, not unless you’re looking to trap the spirit you summon to this plane. We need to banish the spirit, and then destroy the board. It will be burned to ash, the ashes scattered in several different places, at least one running water.

“I’ll be waiting,” Daniel says. Though he tries to appear nonchalant, his face pales.

Poor guy is going to have to touch the board to get a reading. I don’t envy his clairsentient power one bit. When I glance at Logan, he gives a little nod. I take Daniel’s hand in mine, lending him our combined strength. Anything powerful enough to make this much racket is not weak. Spirits are intangible‌—‌it can take years for a ghost to learn to manipulate the environment.

“If I’m not out in five minutes…” Raven trails off, leaving the worst case scenario unsaid.

“We’ll come in after you,” Daniel says, giving her a little salute.

She straightens her back and walks toward the wide-open front door. With one last glance over her shoulder, she crosses the threshold. My breath catches in my throat when a blue armchair flies out through the front bay window. Logan’s fingers tighten around mine. Daniel races to the chair, placing his palm on the arm. A small tremor twitches along his jawline when he glances back at us. It looks like we’re in for a rough night.

Chapter Six — Three Nasty Ghosts

Chapter Six

Three Nasty Ghosts

Logan

Tension rises as everyone stops to stare at the armchair now lying in the front yard. Though the sorority girls are frightened, their overall fear level doesn’t increase much. Mine soars along with my hammering heart. Only a powerful entity could throw a chair out the window, but it’s probably best to keep that little tidbit to myself. No point in scaring the sorority more. Kacie’s fingers clench my hand to the point of pain, but I don’t care, nor do I let go. We will need to combine our power to deal with whatever currently occupies the
Rho Gamma Pi
house.

I look on in horror as Daniel collapses against the armchair. Carl and Rebecca drag him away, but it’s impossible to miss the haunted look in his eyes. Every peek into the unknown carries a risk‌—‌we all know and accept that. It doesn’t make times like this any easier though. Kacie releases my hand and kneels down on the grass beside Daniel. When she pulls him into a hug, a surge of jealousy rushes through me.
Unwarranted,
I remind myself and potentially hazardous. We are a team and need to support each other, and yet all I can think of at the moment is wrenching her away from him.

“I’m going to check on Raven,” I murmur to Kacie, taking off before I can hear her reply.

My gaze travels to the sorority sisters, all huddled together near the driveway. Twenty-three of them, yet I couldn’t get a coherent answer about what happened. Melissa and Kendra mumbled something about murder but refused to elaborate.

“Rebecca!” I yell over the banging from the house and the sobs of the girls.

“Need help?” she asks with a wary glance at the house.

“I need you and Carl to find out as much as you can about a murder that may have occurred at
Rho Gamma Pi
—” I cringe when a small end table hits the doorjamb. “It’s all I could get out of them. Try talking to them. You seem to have a way with difficult interrogations.”

“My specialty,” she replies, flashing a wicked grin.

Her smile is scary, definitely more so than many ghosts I’ve faced. Rebecca has a take-no-prisoners attitude coupled with fierce intelligence. I know she thinks she has no paranormal powers, but I think she’s a human lie detector.

“Huge EMF spike!” Carl shouts, waving the EMF detector in the air.

That’s it. I can’t wait for Raven any longer. Mr. Kincaid’s voice echoes in my mind, calling me stupid for rushing in not knowing what’s in there. But I’m in charge of this fiasco… I never should’ve let her run in without more information. Steeling my shoulders, I cross the threshold into the house.

I stop and survey the scene in seconds, taking in the ridiculous amount of damage. The living room is trashed: sofa overturned, lamps broken on the floor, and the front window shattered by the flying armchair. No sign of Raven, but the girls said they were using the board in the kitchen. As I walk down the hall toward the back of the house, a ceramic figurine flies at me. I duck just in time, and it grazes the top of my hair. I’m finding it difficult to believe spirits summoned from a spirit board by amateurs could be this powerful.

The family room is in a similar state to the living room. When I spy the sixty-inch TV on the floor in a smashed mess my heart thumps faster. These are powerful spirits or maybe even a rogue gang. That TV had to weigh over one hundred pounds, and it’s a good twelve feet from the entertainment center. No sign of Raven in here either.

A fierce wind blows from the kitchen, slamming me against the wall. So much power. None of this makes any sense!

“Raven.” I try to call out, but my voice comes out a hoarse croak.

My body is freed as the wind dies down, and I race toward the kitchen. Something shoves me from behind, sending me reeling across the tile floor. I manage to rotate myself at the last second so my shoulder impacts the wall instead of my head. The wind stops the moment I hit the wall. As I rub my sore shoulder, a loud scream pierces the silence. My stomach drops at the sheer terror in that scream. Raven.

Leaping to my feet, I search the large kitchen for her. When my eyes land on her, I blink a few too many times. This shouldn’t be possible.

“Hang on, Raven,” I call out to her form suspended in midair near the ceiling.

“Hang on? Really?” Her arms are splayed out to the sides, her long, black hair floating around her like a mermaid underwater. Though she tries to project confidence with her words, I can tell from her face that she’s terrified.

“Release her at once!” I yell at the invisible spirits. “She has done nothing to you.”

“Don’t you think I already tried that?” Raven bites out in between gasping breaths.

“St. Michael, the archangel, def—” I start the prayer, but something crashes into me, knocking the wind from my lungs as I’m slammed into the floor. It takes a few dazed seconds to realize it’s Raven’s body crushing me. “Can you move?”

“I don’t know.” She rolls off me despite her words, groaning. “Those damned spirits. Madder than cornered rattlesnakes.”

“I can’t feel anything but intense hatred and fury.” I push to my feet, ignoring the searing pain in my side. After hauling Raven up by the arm, I drag her toward the back door.

“Wait!” she yells, yanking her arm away. “The board.” Raven disappears beneath the long oak table. A few seconds later, she pops out holding the spirit board.

“Come on,” I shout when I feel the spirits returning for round two. “Crap, too late.” An invisible force plows into me, pushing me back into the unforgiving wall. “Raven, run!”

Something hits me in the ribs, banging my body into the wall once, twice, three times. My head spins from the impact. At least Raven made it out. A white mist fills my vision, and I blink several times. It doesn’t go away, only becomes sharper, more focused. Her form is wispy, ethereal. She would be beautiful were her lips not turned into a vicious sneer. I lie on the ground, waiting for her to make her move while she floats around me.

“She lied,” the ghost whispers in a grating voice so at odds with her glowing visage.

“Who lied?” I swallow around the lump of dread in my throat.

My instincts scream at me to run, but I’m trapped on this hard, tile floor until my head stops spinning. I take a deep breath and bite back a yelp. My fingers fly to my left side. A hiss escapes my lips from the sharp pain‌—‌my ribs are broken or bruised. Either way it hurts like hell.

“Earlier outside, your girlfriend, she lied,” the ghost girl informs me, her face contorted in malicious glee. “I can’t believe you fell for it! Kissing that hunk was a rehearsal? Damn you’d have to be a total chump to fall for that.”

I ignore her mocking words. I trust Kacie and Daniel.
Right?
With a loud groan, I push myself to my feet, clutching my side. Turning my back on the now cackling specter, I limp from the kitchen.

“Aww, did I hurt your little feelings?” she asks in a mocking tone as she appears in front of me.

My breath flies out through gritted teeth. After all these years, I should be past gasping in surprise whenever a ghost pops in, but I guess it’s just one of those things that will always bug me. Right now, this girl seems to be a bit more than I can handle. Dirty trick, playing on my insecurity. She must be worried about what we might do to evict her.

“Sometimes the truth hurts,” another female voice says from behind me as I’m shoved forward.

This time I’m unable to hold back a startled cry as pain sears through my side. I whip around to confront the newest presence. She floats above the ground, a mocking smile on her mangled face. The entire left side of her head is caved in, and her limbs bend at impossible angles. Another ghost appears beside her, pristine and white with long, flowing hair. She looks like she should be running through a meadow, maybe picking flowers, rather than glaring down at me with a scowl marring her face. Four dark scratches cover each cheek from her eyes down to her mouth. They almost appear self-inflicted, like whatever happened to her was so awful that she scratched her own cheeks with her fingernails.