Nick: Justice Series (8 page)

“What does Addison have to do with this?” Dane shrugged and told him he just spread the news, he didn’t make it. “You think she’s headed to her now? I mean, you think that the old broad is going there to be with Addison? Then all we’d have to do is find her.”

Joel wasn’t sure what he might do when he found Addison. He’d been thinking of having her killed. Keeping her with him for the rest of his days would have been…fun, he supposed, but he was bored now. He wondered how long making her life hell would appeal to him.

“Well, we know where they’ve been. I got me a bead on them with some of my friends. We can track better than the FBI when we set our mind to it.” Joel had no doubt that he could. “And so’s you know, the bastard lives in Ohio too. We can kill us a couple of birds with a single stone.”

Joel was still sort of squeamish on the whole killing thing. He’d never been in a positon to actually do the deed before. He’d had his second wife poisoned. His first wife, of course, was still living. He hadn’t had the resources to take care of her like he did the next time, but he was beginning to feel a little bad about that too. Joel had talked a big game when he was pressed, but he wasn’t sure he could actually kill anyone. But he was pretty sure that Dane had not just done it while living, but even since he’d been dead. The more time he spent with the man, the more he was beginning to realize his mistake in hooking up with him.

Traveling was set up. It was easy too. They just had to think of a place that they knew very well and go there. Since Joel didn’t know where they were headed, he was relying on Dane to get him there safely. And safety was something that he was very concerned with right now.

A ghost could be killed. Well, not killed, but rendered incapable of moving. There were elements, things that could be done to them that would send them to the other side. And Joel was still foggy on where that might be. It wasn’t heaven, he’d been told, but someplace else. No one seemed to know where this other place was, but no one ever came back from it. That was what it meant when you were zapped. You went there.

The rules were simple, if not a little odd. If you landed in a church or a place of worship, you were stuck. And you couldn’t move out of it no matter what you did, but you could move around it. Not a lot of fun in that. Even a cemetery could hold you, but if someone summoned a dead person, said their name three times, they could be brought out of it. There was also the circle. He’d tried his best to get information on that, but all he’d been able to understand was it was round and it involved salt.

And that was another rule he’d been told about. Avoid salt of any kind at all costs. Which made absolutely no sense to him whatsoever since he didn’t eat. Why on earth would he need it around him anyway? But Dane had been very forceful about the no salt, and he was going to do what he said.

It took them what seemed like forever to get to their destination. Dane had gone ahead twice before Joel was able to follow. Joel didn’t care for this idea of depending so much on the other man any more than he had to. To be honest, he thought him a little unstable, but he was getting him to Addison and that was all that mattered for the time being. Besides, the man had a wealth of informants, and that was proving to be extremely helpful to him too.

Like the other day when he’d been trying his best to get a new suit. It was just hanging on the rack, yes, but he loved the color and knew that the fit would be spectacular. The man…ghost, he supposed…that seemed to know the tailor industry better than his other tailor ever did, came to talk to him about it.

“You like?” Joel told him that he did. When something hit him in the head, he looked at the older man. “You can’t wear it, dumbass. You’re dead. You’re stuck in the clothing that you died in. But there are things you can do to change up your clothing. Take off your jacket. Remove your tie. And the best part is, you no longer have to worry about it needing pressed should you leave it wadded up in your pocket. It’ll be just as fresh as the day you put it on. The blood will stay, but the rest will look nice. Don’t remember where you took it off? No problems there, either. It’s yours, and with you all the time should you want it.”

Joel had been playing with his outfit for hours now. He hated that it was always the same one, but he liked that he didn’t have to look like it. Dane, he noticed, was wearing the same nasty looking shirt and pants he’d been murdered in. Even the blood on the front he sort of wore like a badge was something he took pains to show off. The man was a complete moron about a great many things so far as Joel was concerned.

He decided quickly that this area of Ohio was a dump. There was a mall nearby that he wouldn’t have stepped foot in, a movie theater that boasted only six movies at all times, and a selection of restaurants that would have kept him from ever going out to eat. It wasn’t up to his standards at all.

“You really are a snob, aren’t you?” Joel looked at Dane. “Who gives a shit about the quality of the mall? It’s not like you’re going to be shopping there. And believe it or not, they don’t deliver food to the dead. It’s one of their rules or something. And what the fuck do you care if there ain’t no movies you want to see? It’s not like you’re gonna have to pay when you go in. Nobody gives two fucks about you anymore.”

“I care. There are things that I just like. Places I like to see. Addison should know better than to plop her ass down in a place like this. It’s not even up to her standards. When she’s with me, things are going to be put to rights. We’ll visit places together. Make our own rules.”

Dane just laughed at him. The man was getting on his last nerve, and he could not wait to get rid of him for good. Joel had been thinking about that too…ways to rid the world of this man. It wasn’t like he was going to kill him, but to shove him away was becoming more and more appealing all the time.

They looked around the area for several hours. Joel realized at one point that his feet didn’t hurt, nor was he tired. When he commented on it, Dane looked as if he was going to tell him he was dead again, a term he was tired of hearing, when one of the others with them spoke up.

“You don’t hurt for obvious reasons. But the fact that you’re not tired is something that I noticed about you too. I have to rest…which means that I have to go back to the place I died at and just hang out there. Not sure why about that, but when I leave, or when I can leave, I usually feel pretty good. But you don’t seem to need that.” Dane told him about Joel being shoved from the home where he had died. “Could be that. Not sure. But that book they gave you, ask it. I still after all this time refer back to mine.”

“I don’t have it.” The man, he couldn’t remember his name for the life…death of him, asked him if he’d missed his hook-up to get it. “No. Dane told me that I didn’t need it and to throw it away. I left it at the house.”

“Left it?” They all stared at him when Dane nearly screamed his question at him. “I told you to shove it away. Not leave it. Mother fuck, you left it? Where it can be found?”

“So?” Dane backed from him, as did the others. “What does that mean? What’s going to happen now?”

“If one of them necros find it, you’re fucked. And so is the rest of us. Mother cock sucker, this is bad. They’ll have it all, don’t you see? Not just the question part, but everything we have. News we have to be aware of. Things like a necro…them suckers are bad news, but it lets us know when they’re going to be near us. To keep…I cannot believe you just left it behind.”

Joel didn’t understand the difference and said so. The man that had been talking to him first just shook his head. It wasn’t just frustrating the way everyone thought he should know it all, but it was time consuming as well. To be asking the same question over and over until someone finally got around to asking him.

“You said you were pushed out of the place you were killed, right?” Joel nodded. “This ghost, did he just say for you to go away, or did he use his hands and say it?”

Joel tried to think. “He said that I’d overstayed my welcome. Put out his hands and said
be gone to your own home, never to return.
Yeah, that was it, he said I couldn’t return.”

“You’re not able to go to your resting place. When he used his hands, he sort of put a hex on you. Kinda like he said, fuck you, you’re not going to bother me again. You can’t ever go back, even if he leaves the house to move over to the other side.” Joel wished the hell there was a handbook. Then he remembered that he’d had one and left it behind, and wanted to scream out his frustrations.

“I’ll just go and get the book.” The man was shaking his head. “Why not? It’s more than likely still there. I can just sort of pop in and pop out with it. No one will even know that I left it behind.”

“You did though, didn’t you? And by now, somebody has found it. Might be lucky and it’s only a living human, but with the shit that has been going with you since your demise, I’d bet some necro has it about now.” Joel thought the man was right. His luck hadn’t been all that good since he’d died, and it wasn’t getting any better. When Dane disappeared, Joel figured he was scoping out the area, but when the rest of the men left him, Joel knew he was on his own.

Chapter 8

Billy waited for as long as he could before he decided he was leaving. He’d been checking out the Delaney house for several days now, and there wasn’t a ghosty to be found. Not even one that had been hanging around for a while. Just as he started back to the house, a woman came out and stared right at him before she started for him. Billy knew she was dead, so he waited.

“You’re here for this?” She put out the book and he looked down at it. He’d seen one like this before, but it had been decades since he’d even looked at it. “Some fool left it behind. I can’t read, but I know what it is. You want it?”

He took it but was careful to only touch it like she had, on the cover and not the pages. And Billy had an idea who it might belong to, but only slipped it into his pocket. His heart, if he had one beating, would have been pounding a mile a minute.

“You can’t read? How do you make it work for you then?” She told him that hers talked to her. Real polite like, too. “I never heard of such a thing. Do you still have yours? I don’t want it, but I’m just asking. I’ve not seen mine in a coon’s age.”

“They go back, I guess.” He asked her where. “Don’t know. Just back. I heard tell if you didn’t use it no more it just goes back. That person that owned that one, you suppose they know they lost it? That’s a right scary thing to lose, if’n you ask me.”

He agreed. “I think the man in this house was only killed recently. Could be he might not care to have it.” She nodded and looked at the house. “You live here?”

“I used to live on this here land. There was a cemetery here some years ago. Lots of us were there. When they put in the houses, they moved out the bodies they could find, of course, but I still like it here.” He looked at the huge homes and the fancy cars in the drives. “There used to be a few kids around a dozen years or so ago. Now, all those big houses and not a child in a one of them. I’m thinking of moving on to somewhere that’s a bit more friendly.”

“I like where I’m at. Private like, so there’s no cars and such.” He longed to be there now with Steele and Kari and the rest of the men. But he’d been asked to see what he could find here to help out, and by golly, he was going to get what he could. He asked her about family.

“Didn’t have any that I could speak of. I was a slave for so long that I guess we just about believed we’s all family in one way or ‘nother. Was a house maid until the sickness took me. Had no babies of my own that…but raised me up a bunch of them at the big house. Miss those times, I do. But things happened to us all, and I was left out there.” He nodded, thinking that was the loneliest thing he’d ever heard. “I was thinking of going out to the West. Out there where it’s pretty all the time. Whatcha think? It all warm like they say?”

“It’s hot, I guess. Too hot for me when I was living, and I’ve no desire to go there now. You could come with me.” Billy had no idea why he invited her, but once he did, he knew it was the right thing to do. “Nice place. Family of mine is there. Gonna be a great granddad too, one of these days. My family, they understand the dead better than anyone I ever saw.”

“I know who you are.” She looked away, then at him. “You’re with that Steele man. The necromancer that helps us. You’re Billy Pike too, ain’t you? I’m Summer. Got no last name, but that’s me. Born as a slave woman, died as one.”

“I’m sorry about that, Summer. And I am Billy, like you said, and they are necros. Steele is my grandson, in case you didn’t know that.” She nodded. “You can still come out with me if you wish. They won’t bother you.”

“You think he’d help me cross over? I’m done with this world and the living in it.” Billy had heard that Steele and Nick could do that, but didn’t know if they really could. He told her that. “I’d like to go on home, if’n he don’t mind helping me. I’m old and tired of this place, like I done told you. Some of them babies I helped raise up, they’re there too, I’m betting.”

As they headed back to his home, Billy talked to her as if he’d known her his entire life. She might have been uneducated, but she was worldly smart and she had a good sense of humor too. By the time he was feeling his own earth under his feet, he knew as much about her as she did him. Which, in his estimations, was a lot.

He found Connie and Aster at the little cemetery talking to Mitch. He told them what had happened at the house.

“And you have this book now?” Billy nodded and held it out to Mitch. “I can’t touch it. I’m not sure why I know that, but it’ll cause me a world of hurt if I do. I think this calls for someone stronger than me. Like Steele or Nick. They’re the only two that I know that can maybe take this.”

As they made their way to the house, Billy told them what Summer wanted. Connie told her that if anyone could do it, then Steele could. Aster was very quiet.

When they entered the house, it nearly had him backing up. An argument was going full swing, and he watched in astonishment as Addie was right up in Steele’s face. Kari was laughing so hard that she was holding on to Nick, and Izzy and Jake were standing out of the way. The rest of them were there too—Ray, Drew, Hugh, and Nick. Landon was sitting on the counter seemingly just taking it all in.

“I’m not one of your minions, you jackass, and you will not order me around like one.” Steele started to laugh, and Billy wondered if she’d already hit him in the head. The boy had to know better than to laugh at a woman when she could hear you. “When I tell you that I feel just fine, you can either believe me or not, but keep your fucking advice to yourself.”

“I just figured that since you and Nick have become…close, that you would be better off taking it easy and let the doctor check you out when he gets here. It’s no problem whatsoever, and I think it’s a good idea.” The low growl had Billy backing up more, and he slammed his body right up against the door behind him. “What is your problem? Is it that I’m a male?”

“No, my problem is that you’re you.”

Kari started forward to presumably step between them, and Billy reached for her. He had no idea why he’d do that since he couldn’t touch anyone, but his fingers brushed against Addie. The power blasted him back against the opposite wall, and his body felt burned.

When he was helped up, Billy got a second shock. Addie was touching him. Not only that, she was lifting him up like he didn’t weigh much at all. Standing up, he stared at her and she backed off.

“I don’t know what happened.” Billy nodded his agreement. “I must have had some static or something. That’s all it was.”

“Billy?” He tore his eyes from Addie to look at Nick. “What happened? Did you do that to her, or did she?”

“She did it. I’m thinking it was more than some plain old static, too.” He looked back at her. “You touched me. I mean, you really touched me.”

“I’m not supposed to be able to do that, I guess.” He shook his head at Addie. “I don’t think I meant to hurt you. I didn’t, did I?”

“No. You knocked me on my big old butt, but you didn’t hurt me.” He put out his hand and she backed up. “I don’t think that’ll happen again, but we need to be sure. Just touch your fingers to mine and see what we get.”

“I don’t want to.” Steele started to speak and she cut him off. “I hurt him. No matter what he said, I fucking hurt him.”

“Do you feel it?” Addie nodded at Nick. “I can too. Billy has a burn on his arm, I think. It’s not a blister, but a burnt place. One on his belly too. I can feel it like it’s my hurt.”

“Yeah, but there’s more. It has to do with something he has. What do you have in your pocket?” Billy was confused and started to tell her nothing when he remembered the book and handed it to her. When she reached for it, the book leapt into her hand. When she tried to shake it off, it didn’t budge.

“What is that?” Steele started to touch it but didn’t get the chance. He was pushed back as well. “I don’t think it wants anyone to touch it but you. Nick, you try it. I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that it thinks it belongs to you two.”

Billy wanted to warn them away. He also thought it best to just take the book back and hide it away. There was something very strange about this particular book, and he was slightly afraid of it.

Nick put his finger on the cover. When that didn’t seem to have any effect on him, he touched it with his hand. As soon as he covered it with his palm, much like Addie was from the bottom, Billy could see that it was doing something to them. Addie staggered slightly, and Steele grabbed her up just as Mitch grabbed Nick. Billy muscled his way to them to take the book. It was lying on the floor between them. Just as he reached for it, Nick stopped him.

“It belongs to Delaney. Christ, do you have any idea what that is, Steele?” Steele told him trash, but Nick shook his head. “It’s an afterlife book of some kind, geared just to him. And now for some reason, I think we can use it.”

“To do what?”

Billy wanted to know too and was glad that Steele asked. Billy knew what it did for him. Back in the days it had been the only thing that had kept him from doing some stupid things, but for a living person to have it? Billy was afraid.

Nick leaned over and picked the book up. When he opened it, Billy and the rest of them could see that it had the required pages, green, white, and red. But what he knew, and the rest might not, was that there was also a deep purple page, almost black. The book flipped open to this page.

~~~

Nick felt his skin crawl a little when he read the words written in white on the page. He looked at Addie, and he could see from the expression on her face that it scared her a little too. Turning to Steele and the others when he said his name, Nick looked at Billy.

“You have one of these too?” Billy nodded, then shook his head. “You had one and now it’s gone. Lost?”

“No. After a while I guess when I didn’t use it, it just come up missing. I never thought much about it until Summer here gave me this one. I was…I’m not sure what I thought to do with it, but turning it in came to mind. But to be honest, I’d have not a clue who to give it over to. Delaney left it behind. Maybe he lost it, but…that’s a powerful tool to lose. It can cause some big damage to us on this side of a beating heart.”

“He left it behind. Someone…Glass told him to. Told him to shove it away, but he only left it. The book isn’t happy about that.” Hugh asked Nick how he knew that. “It told us.”

Nick turned the book to them, and they all stared at it then back at him. When Hugh cleared his throat and looked at the others, Nick knew whatever he said was going to be more frightening than what the entire missive said.

“There’s nothing there, buddy. Just a blank page. I don’t think we’re supposed to be able to read it, just you and Addie.” He put his hands behind his back as he moved ahead of the rest of them. “What does it say? Can you…do you suppose you can tell us, or is that going to cause you some trouble?”

He didn’t know. Looking at Addie, he was pretty sure she had no idea either. When she took the book from him and sat down, he could see that her hands were trembling, and her knees were slightly wobbly looking too. His were too if he was honest with himself, and he sat on the floor at her feet.

“Joel Patrick Delaney, holder of the book, has disgraced and discarded these pages. His name has been stricken from the help that this can offer him. His heart is not true, his body is…his body is black. The new holder of this book will destroy him.”

“Christ.” Nick nodded and put his head down on Addie’s knee as Steele paced. “Do you have any idea what it takes to destroy the dead? The amount of power that…I don’t think either of you have it. I’m sorry, but I don’t, and it’s…sometimes it’s just too much.”

“I don’t want this.” Nick looked up at Addie when she spoke to Steele. “Here, you take it. You’re the all-powerful shit around here. I didn’t believe in ghosts before I came here, and I’d just as soon not have to kill one of them no matter what kind of abusive prick he was. I’m sure that in death he’s not any better, but right now I just want to go and buy my house and move on with my life.”

“What house?” They all looked at Mitch when he spoke. “The house with the green kitchenware? The black and white floor?”

“Yes.” Addie sounded scared. “You were there. I love that house. It has a lot of character. The appliances can be changed, the floor cleaned, but I love that house. I met…I think I met Nick there in another life.”

“It’s haunted again. But not with the dead.” Steele asked Mitch what he meant. “She’s there. Ellen. I wasn’t sure until today if it was her or not, but she’s there. And so is Glass.”

“No.” Mitch nodded at Nick. “No. My stepfather would not be hooking up with her. That would just be…Christ, she’s really with him?”

“I don’t think she knows he’s there as yet.” Mitch moved to the table and, using a spoon that was laying there, he pushed the book back at Addie. “Ask it. All you have to do is have your hand over it when you need something answered. Just ask it.”

“I don’t want to. I don’t want any part of this.” Mitch told Addie it was too late for that. “Please, don’t make me do this. I don’t want to have to meet up with either of them again.”

“They’re going to continue to kill. You know that as well as I do. Once he’s shown himself to her, there will be no end to their terror. The house, it has its own secrets, Addie, just as you do. But should they not be stopped, then they will hurt Nick.” Nick stood up and pulled Addie into his arms as Mitch continued. “There are nine ghosts there now, not including Glass and one other man I can’t recognize. Children too, though I’m not sure why they’re there just yet. It seems to me that he’s gathering an army. And we’ve seen what a bunch of ill-tempered ghosts can do when they get together.”