After Moonrise: Possessed\Haunted (26 page)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“What you doing here?” Harper heard Lana shout. “Where
Harper is? If she hurt, I kill! I kill you dead!”

She nearly fainted from relief. “No need to protect me from
Lana.” She sprang forward and wrapped her friend in her arms.

“Harper!” Lana hugged her back. “I so happy to see you.”

“Me, too. I missed you, you overgrown pain in the butt.”

“Missed you, too, my little garden gnome.”

They laughed and hugged a thousand more times, and Harper
breathed her friend in. Hints of sawdust, with an overlying fragrance of
jasmine, Lana’s favorite scent, wafted from her.

When they finally parted, Harper looked her friend over,
checking for injuries but finding none. Lana had dyed her hair black, with no
hint of red. Pretty, but… She frowned. Something was wrong. Something was…off,
but what, she couldn’t quite figure out.

Does it matter?
Here was her
friend, appearing healthy, whole and safe. And, for the first time in weeks,
relaxed. There were no dark circles of exhaustion and guilt under her eyes, no
hollows from grief in her cheeks.

“What have you been doing?” Harper demanded.

“Thinking.” Lana nibbled on her bottom lip and shifted from one
foot to the other. She wore a black top and baggy black pants, with combat boots
on her feet. “Planning.”

“Planning what? And why are you walking around in combat
boots?” Lana believed high heels were a feminine staple, and constantly
complained about Harper’s refusal to decorate her feet as “the good Lord
intended.”

A shrug of one seemingly delicate shoulder. “I was going to
come to you today.” Gone was the heaviest part of her accent, her emotions now
under control.

“Planning what?” she insisted.

“Just a minute, princess. How’d you sneak in and out without
detection?” Levi demanded of Lana.

Her friend snorted. “As if I could not spot the guard dog out
there. Child’s play.”

He was the next to snort. “Well, it wasn’t smart to come to
your own house to hide out.”

Lana waved away his words. “So how you be?” she asked Harper,
eyeing her up and down. Perhaps her emotions weren’t quite under control
yet.

“I’m good.” Thanks to Levi. “Learned a lot these past few days,
most of it disturbing, but I’m surprisingly good.”

“Promise?”

“Promise. But what about you? You took off without a word
and—”

“Unfair!” A stomp of Lana’s foot. “I left a note and—”

“—I wasn’t yet done with the painting. Now I am and—”

“—told you not to worry. I can take care of myself and I was so
afraid my coworkers would turn on you if I stuck around, thinking you would hurt
me—”

“—I know I wasn’t predicting the future when I painted you,
only giving voice to my own fears.”

Silence.

“Holidays are gonna be fun,” Levi muttered.

Harper tried not to smile. “Listen. I wasn’t painting you,
Lana. I was painting me.”

Lana had been trying not to smile, as well, but now frowned,
looking as sad as she had for the past few weeks. “You know, don’t you? About
yourself?”

Before Harper could reply, Levi came up behind her and cupped
the back of her neck. He applied a bit of pressure, and she glanced over at him.
Leaning down, he placed the gentlest of kisses on her lips. There was something
in his gaze, a sadness that mirrored Lana’s maybe, and that disturbed her.

“I’ll leave you two alone, let you talk.”

“Thank you,” she said, wanting to ask him what thoughts danced
through his head but knowing he wouldn’t answer in front of an audience.

“Shout if you need me.”

“I will.”

He gave her another kiss, and Lana made gagging sounds. He
flipped her off before he walked away.

Lana wiggled her eyebrows. “I knew he was into you, but wow,
you worked superfast.”

Heat bloomed in her cheeks, spreading all the way to her
collarbone. “I really like him,” she admitted.

“You should. He’s sexy.”

“And smart.”

“And sexy.”

“And protective.”

“And sexy.”

“And within hearing distance,” he called from outside. “The
window is open, and you two aren’t exactly quiet.”

The heat in her cheeks intensified, but then Lana laughed and
she followed suit, and it felt so good to find humor in something, she just went
with it. They laughed until they were doubled over. If she’d been alive, she
might have peed herself.

When they finished, Lana led her to the couch and eased down.
Harper sat beside her, suddenly curious about why she didn’t ghost through the
material. Or was she really hovering, her mind showing her only what she wanted
to see?

Lana hooked a lock of hair behind her ears. “I’m sorry I lied
to you. I just, I didn’t know what else to do, and I know, that’s no excuse. If
I could go back… Anyway, seeing you every day, knowing you were dead, knowing
what you were about to remember, knowing what you suffered was my fault…I was
breaking down and I didn’t want to be the cause of any more of your pain.”

“It wasn’t your fault. It was never your fault!”

“I left you at gallery to make hookup. I should have stayed
put, should have walked to car with you.”

“Cliff was working with the killer. He set me up, drugged me.
And if they hadn’t gotten me that night, they would have gotten me another. I’m
glad you weren’t there. If they’d taken you, too…” A shudder rocked her entire
body.

“I know about Cliff,” Lana whispered. Tears cascaded down her
cheeks. “I went to gallery to talk to him.”

“What!”

“I tell you what happened in a minute. Right now, you have to
tell me what was done to you. The details were kept out of the news, and I have
to know.”

No, that wasn’t information she would ever share with Lana. Her
friend might want to know, perhaps hoping the details were not as bad as she
imagined, but she didn’t need to know. Knowing wouldn’t help her, would only
hurt and torment her. “I’m still in the process of remembering,” she said, and
that was the truth. She remembered most, but not all.

A barely perceptible nod. “When I discover you missing, I
panic. That so was not like you. I went to police, but they say you were
probably with someone. I say I know you better than that. They say give it
twenty-four hours. So I wait, asking around the area but no one had seen or
heard anything and Cliff…that slime! He said he thought he heard you mention
going to bar to celebrate, which I thought was odd, but I now know he was
sending police in the wrong direction.”

Harper stayed quiet, sensing her friend needed to purge these
details from her mind.

“And then you show up here, as if nothing is wrong, but I knew
truth. I could tell what you were. Knew you’d died. I’m so sorry.” The tears
fell in earnest.

Lana had cried just like that when Harper came home all those
weeks ago. She remembered that day. Lana had taken one look at her and burst
into great big sobs. Her knees had collapsed, and Harper hadn’t known what was
wrong. All she’d known was that her friend had left with a man—she’d thought it
was the next day after the gallery showing—and feared Lana had been raped.

But Lana had assured her that while the man had turned out to
be a jerk, he hadn’t harmed her.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Harper said.

“Sometimes people don’t know what they are, that they are
d-dead, and you did not. I didn’t want to be the one to tell you, could barely
face the fact for myself. So I pretend all is normal, fine, and I know, I know,
I shouldn’t have. I should have told the truth then, too, but then you gravitate
toward a building I’d had to watch many times in the past while on the job, and
I knew you were close to answer, so I couldn’t let you go without me.”

“So you moved in with a bunch of spirits, inside a dump,
knowing your coworkers could be watching your every move.”

More nibbling on her bottom lip, another nod. “If they had
thought you were a danger to me or anyone else, they would have tried to force
you to move on. I didn’t want them any more involved in your life than they
already were, and so I left you and sent you to Tulsa. I thought answers would
help you move on under your own steam, knew that leaving on your own would be
far better for you, but I also couldn’t stand to see you go. I am sorry,” she
said again.

“You are the craziest, sweetest friend anyone has ever had, you
know that? I love you
so
much, and I forgive you for
keeping secrets.”

“Hold that thought,” Lana said, shifting guiltily. “I have to
tell you something else.”

Harper moaned. Could she withstand something else? “What?”

Lana licked her lips. “Just that I…love you.”

Oh. Well. Good. “But that stops today,” Harper said sternly.
She even wagged a finger in Lana’s face. “Not the loving part, but the throwing
away your life for me part. You did nothing wrong. You are
not
responsible for what happened to me, and you have to stop
punishing yourself. And don’t try to deny you were punishing yourself. I watch
Dr. Phil
so, of course, I know my
psychology.”

Lana peered down at her lap, where her fingers were wringing
together. “Well, I have to tell you something else, too. It’s about my
future....”

“Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you.” She told her
friend about Topper’s threat. “We’ve got a plan to find his accomplice before
the accomplice finds you.”

Lana smiled and rubbed her hands together. “I hope he does send
someone after me.”

“You are not going to put yourself in danger, do you hear
me?”

“You can’t stop me.”

“Can, too.”

“Can’t.”

“Can.”

Annnd the slap fight began. They smacked on each other’s hands
as if they were only three years old. But this was par for the course with them,
and so familiar Harper was soon laughing again.

Levi appeared in the entryway, glaring down at them.
“Seriously?” he said. “This is how two grown women conduct themselves?”

Harper stuck her tongue out at him.

His lips pursed. “You’ll have to excuse us, Lana.” Bending
down, he hefted Harper over his shoulder, so that she hung over him like a sack
of potatoes.

“Wait,” Lana said. “I have to tell—”

“No, you don’t. Which way is your room, Harper?”

“I’ll never tell!”

“That way,” Lana the traitor said, pointing.

“Thank you,” Levi replied.

“No need. I’ll demand some sort of payment one day.”

Harper tried not to giggle. This was almost…normal. Well, what
a normal family would be like, anyway, she thought. Teasing one another, helping
one another. And she knew that’s what Levi was doing right now. Helping both her
and Lana. They’d discussed some heavy topics, were both highly emotional right
now and needed a break. This was his way of providing one without making it
obvious.

I think I might love him.

Once inside the bedroom, he kicked the door shut with his foot
and tossed Harper on the bed. Just as the couch had been solid, the bed was
solid and she bounced up and down. She didn’t have time to catch her breath,
because he was on her by the time she hit the mattress the second time, pinning
her down with his muscled weight.

Eyes of jade-green bore into her, past clothes, past skin, past
bone and into the heart of her. “You’re a good friend,” he said, his tone
gruff.

“So is she.”

“Yeah, but you’re the one who went to hell and back.”

She didn’t have to tell him what had been done to her; he’d
seen. He knew firsthand. “Make me forget,” she whispered, “if only for a little
while.”

“I will.” And, oh, did he.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

At eight o’clock sharp, Levi, Harper and Lana strode
into the King’s Landing apartment, where Peterson and Harrowitz waited on the
couch. Now that his spiritual eyes were open, so to speak, Levi could see the
place as it really was. A death dungeon.

The furniture was dirty, ratty and not fit for the streets.
Dilapidated boards had been pulled from the floor and there were holes in the
ceiling. There was a window, but it was boarded up and spray-painted with gang
signs. Yeah.
This
was the place he remembered
raiding on the worst of his drug busts.

Malevolence practically dripped in the air, a darkness, a
dankness that stuck to your skin, something you would never be able to wash off.
Every so often, the walls rattled, the floor shook, dust pluming the air.

How could Peterson and Harrowitz stand to come here? How could
Lana have stood to
live
here?

Lana. He’d listened to her conversation with Harper, and had
fallen the rest of the way in love with Harper. Yeah. Love. He hadn’t realized
it, had even denied it, but he’d already been well on his way.

He loved the stubborn little baggage with all that he was.
There was no denying so real a truth, not any longer. They were bonded in the
most elemental of ways. He’d seen her abused body laid out on a slab. He’d died
to avenge her. To protect others, yeah, that, too, but the bulk of his rage had
stemmed from what had been done to her, so fragile-looking a female.

Then he’d met her and discovered the teasing smile and the sad
frown, the confidence and the worries, the absolute love she had for those she
trusted. He wanted to be the man she trusted, now and always.

And if they left this life, so be it. Everyone left at some
point. He wasn’t going to let the fear of losing her stop him from, well,
living.

How did she feel about him? he wondered. Needing to touch her,
he wound his arm around her. She rested her head on his shoulder, as she liked
to do, her softness the perfect contrast to the hard line of his body.

“Who is this?” Lana demanded.

“The rescue squad. Glad you could finally make it,” Peterson
grumbled. She leaned forward to dig through a black case.

“Finally?” Harper snorted. “We’re right on time.”

Lana looked Peterson up and down, studying her as if she were
under a microscope. When she spoke, however, she directed the words to Harper.
“I thought you say ‘that jerk Harrowitz’ was man. He looks a little womanish to
me.”

Levi had to press his lips together to cut off his laugh.

Even Harrowitz experienced a twitch at the corner of his mouth,
his first ever sign of amusement.

Peterson ran her tongue over her teeth. “Har, har. As if you
don’t recognize my voice, Lana Bo Bana. Good job with the painting,” she said to
Harper. “You took a face like Lana’s and actually made it pretty.”

“Will you two stop?” Harper said. “I’m currently in shock
because Lana actually lived here for several weeks, without dying from some
flesh-eating bacteria.” She must see the truth, as well.

“I know! You
so
owe me.”

“So, Lana,” Peterson said, looking the girl over. “Why didn’t
you tell me you had been—”

“Enough chitchat,” Levi interjected. He knew what Peterson was
going to say. Had figured it out back at the house, and that was the real reason
he’d left the two girls alone. But Lana hadn’t confessed what had happened to
her, and he wasn’t going to spill for her. At least, not yet.

Harper had claimed to want nothing to do with secrets, but when
Lana had tried to admit the truth, she’d stopped her.

After Topper was taken care of, Levi would tell her. Harper
deserved to know the truth, but he didn’t want her distracted by it right now.
He just wanted her safe.

“Why are we here, Peterson?” he added. “To discuss our feelings
or the case you’ve got for us?”

Peterson blinked rapidly, as if trying to jump-start her brain.
Harrowitz finally took things into his own hands and grabbed several sheets of
paper from the case, placing them in her lap.

“Okay, yes, well,” she said, and there was that sad smile
again, coming out to play. Bingo. She’d just figured it out. “Well, that girl,
the one who popped in and out of here and told you some guy was coming for you?
She was Topper’s first victim.”

Breath caught in Harper’s throat as her hand fluttered over her
heart, where sympathy had to be welling. While she had a viper’s tongue, she had
a cotton-candy heart.

Knowing the case as he did, Levi said, “Gloria Topper,” pieces
suddenly fitting together. “His sister.” He’d seen pictures of her. Should have
realized the truth before now, but his faulty memory hadn’t let him.

“Yes. Though no one linked him to the crime until the OKPD
busted into his home and found pieces of her remains. A few years ago, she
disappeared from her college campus. Since her death she’s freaked out several
humans,” Peterson said, “caused trouble in the city, destroyed an entire
building.” Her gaze pinned Harper in place as she spoke that last one. “A few
days ago, someone spotted her, followed her here and asked After Moonrise to
intervene. OKC was all set to act, but I interceded and took over. I’m sweet
like that.”

“You want us to help you get rid of her,” Harper said. “To
force her to move on.”

“Yes, again.”

“No,” Harper said, not really surprising him. “I don’t care who
she’s related to, she was hurt. Of course she’s had a hard time adjusting.”

Uh-oh. Harper had just decided to protect another female.

Peterson rolled her eyes. “This girl is causing trouble,
hurting
people, threatening people. She must be
stopped. If you can’t—”

The entire building shook, the dust suddenly so thick Peterson
and Harrowitz had to cough to breathe.

“If you want our help with the brother, you’ll help us with the
sister,” Peterson said when she calmed. “Because, if we don’t send her packing,
someone else will, and we deserve the bonus, no one else. Callous of me? Maybe.
But unlike you, I still have bills to pay, and I
am
doing the world a favor. Besides, she’ll be better off with the memory of her
suffering no longer tormenting her.”

Okay, now, that ticked Levi off. Basically, she’d just said
Gloria Topper would be better off dead-dead, as though she didn’t deserve a
second chance. And maybe she didn’t. What did Levi know? He couldn’t see to the
heart of the girl, didn’t know her thoughts or emotions. But he wasn’t going to
be the one who made the decision about her fate.

“You know what?” he said. “Thanks for your help, but no,
thanks. We’ve got this. We’ll handle Gloria on our own.”

Peterson looked him over for a long while, then sighed. “She’s
not as innocent as you think. She—”

“Is protected by us,” Lana snapped. “End of story.”

Harper raised her chin. “Yeah. What she said.”

“Fine.” Another sigh. “We’ll—”

The building shook again, this time so forcefully Peterson was
thrown into Harrowitz’s lap. Levi would have laughed, considering he, Harper and
Lana were able to remain exactly as they were, but as the two struggled to right
themselves, Gloria whisked into the room. Her hair flew wildly behind her, and
her arms were spread wide. A shrill scream erupted from her.

Eyes as dark as the night, she flew over Peterson and
Harrowitz, the hem of her dress seeming to envelop them in a black cloud. Next,
Peterson was the one to scream. Harrowitz grunted, as if in pain.

Levi tried to step forward, intending to pull the girl off the
humans. Only, she held out her hand, somehow locking him in place. His boots
seemed to be glued to the floor. Frowning, he tugged one leg, then the other,
using all of his strength. No luck. He budged not an inch.

“What did you do to me?” he demanded.

“He comes, he comes, he comes.” Her laugh was as evil as her
eyes. “There’s nothing you can do to stop him. I won’t let you. Mommy did
special things with her foster boys and ignored her real son. He became my baby,
and I love my baby. I give him what he wants, whatever he wants. And he wants
the girl.”

Topper? Oh…no.
No
. But there was no
denying the truth. The sister they’d been trying to defend was the “person on
the outside” working with Topper. Had been the one to spy on Harper and Lana, to
relay the information to Topper.

She’d taken her second chance and flushed it down the
toilet.

“Gloria,” Harper said, her voice as gentle as a summer rain.
“Listen to me. You don’t want to do this.”

“He comes, he comes, and he’ll be happy. Finally happy.”

Determined, Harper tried again. “Gloria. I know he hurt you. He
hurt me, too, but we don’t have to be afraid of him any longer. We don’t have to
do what he wants. We can stop him. We can—”

Peterson slid to the floor, out from under that dress. Her body
writhed, her hands flat on her ears, her eyes squeezed shut. Her skin was devoid
of color.

Harrowitz rolled on top of her, and Levi couldn’t tell whether
he did it to guard her or because he had no control of his actions. His body was
bowed as tight as a rubber band.

“Harper,” Lana said, her tone layered with foreboding.

“Gloria,” Harper pleaded. “Please, listen to me.”

“Harper,” Lana said again.

“Quiet!” Gloria demanded, and though Lana’s mouth moved, no
more words escaped. “I’ve been around a lot longer than you and I’ve picked up a
few tricks. You will do what I say. You will wait here, and you will give
yourself to my baby. You will do whatever he desires.”

Tears pooled in Harper’s eyes. Levi knew what was wrong. She
didn’t want to fight one of Topper’s victims, even one as disturbed as Gloria,
but they were going to have to. Otherwise, Gloria would destroy everyone in this
room.

Gloria glanced toward the door, smiled serenely. “He’s on his
way. So close, finally so close.”

Levi tugged at his legs all the harder. When that failed, he
bent down to untie his boots. “What do you mean, on his way?”

“He’s like you. He’s like me. The guards couldn’t stop him. I
wouldn’t let them. He killed himself, and now he comes.”

No way. Just no way. Topper…a spirit, a bad, bad spirit…on his
way here…but even with the laces undone, Levi couldn’t force his feet to move.
Frustrated, he tangled a hand through his hair. He had to break free. Had to get
control of this situation.

Harper wrapped her arms around her middle. “If…if you’re
telling the truth, and he comes to this apartment, I can promise you he’ll never
leave it. I won’t let him.”

“You will do what he says!” Gloria screeched. “You will.”

“I won’t.”

“You will. I’ll make you.” Gloria lurched forward, colliding
with Harper. Because the two existed on the same plane, they were solid to each
other. Gloria could not envelop her as she’d done the humans and the two ended
up fighting like alley cats, Gloria clawing, scratching and ripping at Harper’s
hair while Harper punched like a man.

Levi glanced over at Peterson and Harrowitz. They were no
longer writhing, but they were no longer lucid, either. They would be no help.
His attention moved to Lana. She was trying to speak, but couldn’t.

“Come on, princess,” he urged. If Harper could subdue the
girl—if the girl had lied about Topper—they might walk away from this.

If not, and Levi couldn’t get free, Harper would have to face
Topper all over again. And this time, Levi would have to watch every second of
it. Helpless, useless.

Doomed.