WeirdNights (3 page)

“Thanks so much for saying that.” Being nice might get him
information. Telling her to screw off probably wouldn’t. Besides, she might
complain to Foy and Foy hated to deal with personal problems. Everyone could
act like mature grown-ups or they could get out of the Master’s way.

“You’re always welcome.”

Jonah cleared his throat. “I’m looking for Mindy. Isn’t she
working now?”

“She left early.” Debrah shrugged. “I’m not sure why. But
she had something to do and she scampered out of here an hour ago. Her loss.”
Deb licked her lips. “My gain.”

“Right. Thanks.”

He turned and fled the room. Okay, if Christian, Braxton or
any of the other guys knew he ran from a woman he’d never hear the end of it. Twenty-seven
years old and running from the sexual advances of a woman who was, granted,
very attractive, but he had Mindy tunnel vision.

Despite his declaration to Mindy the night before that he
would always find her, he suddenly worried that he might not. Maybe he should
have stuck a tracker on her.

His phone rang and he looked down at the number. It was
Christian, calling from Austin. Usually they just texted. He answered the call.
“Hey.”

Christian answered. “How are you?”

“Well.” Jonah rubbed his wound. “Fine.” Had he heard
otherwise? Did Christian and Braxton talk or something?

“Awesome. Well, listen, man, I’m calling to ask you if you’d
be my best man.”

Jonah stopped moving and grinned. He hadn’t seen Christian’s
question coming. “For real?”

“Yeah, for real. Who else would I ask if not you? So will
you do it?”

“Yes, of course.” He rubbed at his eyes. Emotional, messy,
sappy situations made him itchy. Jonah never knew what the hell he was supposed
to say. “Count on me. I’ll give you a bachelor’s party to end all bachelor
parties. I don’t suppose you want strippers though. Probably kind of tired of
watching people take off their clothes?”

Christian groaned loudly. “I’ll trust you to know what to
do.”

“Great. Listen, I need to go find Mindy. I have this bad
feeling and I want to make sure I’m only being nutty and something isn’t
wrong.”

“You’re worried something is wrong with Mindy? Should I call
Dodie and get her to call Mindy?”

“No.” He tapped his foot on the ground. “Don’t get her all
worked up just yet. Let me see what’s going on first.”

“You call me if it’s anything at all. Dodie does not like
Mindy being so far away right now. It’s only been six months…”

Jonah interrupted him. “I know exactly how long it’s been. Think
about the strippers.” He hung up the phone.

Christian’s words rang in his head. It had only been six
months. Mindy had been brutalized. Her hair had turned white as snow. Then
she’d been bitten by a hellhound. Nothing bad could happen to her again. How
much more could she take?

He ran a hand through his hair. Last night, he’d found her
ghost hunting and today she’d told him he was wrong. About what?

“The ghosts.” He spoke out loud and it vibrated through the
empty hallway. In the distance, he could hear the five-year-old class ke-ya-ing
in the dojo and his words smacked against the innocence of that noise like an
assault on his senses.

She thought he was wrong? About the ghosts? Demons? Her?
What?

He walked toward the exit of the building. Even though it
hurt to move he’d find her. He would always find her.

Mindy fiddled with the lock until it gave way. Next door,
the house she’d wanted to break into the night before was covered in yellow
caution tape and police signs. She wondered what the police thought happened
and shook her head. In truth, she really didn’t want to know. The authorities
were all too busy to bother with what was happening next door.

The wind blew at her hair and a dusting of snow stung her
cheeks. “If you’re going to snow,” she spoke to the sky, “do it already. Stop
threatening with these flurries. They’re annoying me.”

Finally, the lock gave and she entered the house, closing
the door behind her. The house smelled of cooking spices and she sneezed. When
Mindy cooked, which was next to never, she burned water. No one would ever call
her domestic.

“Pepper.” She sneezed again. It had to be a pepper of some
kind. Her mother had cooked with it. Her father had accused her of trying to
kill the meat again by over-saturating it with spices. But he’d said it with so
much love her mother hadn’t been offended. She’d laughed and then chucked her
apron at his head.

Mindy rubbed her eyes. When was the last time she’d thought
about that? These people didn’t keep their heat on very high when they weren’t
in the house or they had a higher tolerance for the cold than she did. Mindy
shivered and rubbed her arms.

After she opened her bag and took her equipment out—sage, an
ashtray and a lighter—she walked to the center of the house. The Banes, who
owned the home she’d broken into, had let her inside willingly when she’d
wanted. They had known about the ghost problem in the neighborhood and even
went so far as to tell her about the noises they heard at night.

Creaking footsteps when everyone was in bed. A loud bang
that would wake them from sleep. The feeling of not being alone.

Mindy would rid them of their ghost and, if she had to,
she’d go to every home in the neighborhood and chase the thing around until it
finally left for good.

She’d sage every house on the block.

She lit the sage, letting the smoke fill the room around
her. In her left hand she held the ashtray. Some of this she had to make up as
she went along. Reading about ritual and doing a ritual were two different
things.

The idea was to cover every inch of the house with the smoke
until there was nothing else left to touch with the smoke of the sage.

Mindy had spent some time memorizing the words she needed to
say. “I call upon the elements. Please hear me. From the element of fire comes
smoke, which is air. From the element of earth I present this plant, which is
water. I call upon the elements and the blessings of spirit to please cleanse
this house. For the good of all.”

She kept walking. Smoke went up, down and around the house. Room
to room she moved. Nothing happened, just the silence of the broken-into house
making her ears ring.

Then she heard a sound. If she didn’t know things actually
went bump in the night—or in this case in the middle of the day—she’d think it
was just the house settling. But that’s not what it was.

She’d gotten something’s attention. Mindy forced herself to
take a deep breath and then she continued to utter the words again. Over and
over again.

A chair slid across the room in front of her. “Okay. I saw
that.” One of the books suggested letting the ghost know it didn’t belong in
the house, that it had no place there. “I banish you. I send you on.”

“You can’t actually do that.” Jonah’s voice wasn’t above a
whisper, but she jumped whirling around.

He held his hand out in front of him. She would have yelled,
but he shook his head. “Mindy.”

His eyes were huge and she shivered. Even with everything
they’d been through, she’d never seen him scared.

“Jonah?” The temperature dropped at least five degrees.
Maybe more. “What is it?”

“Behind you.” He took a few steps into the room. “Neither
you nor I can banish this thing. We’re not equipped to do it.”

She held up her sage. “I cover the house with this and then
I say the words I’ve been speaking. It will rid the place of the poltergeist.”

“No.” Jonah shook his head, inching closer to her. “It’s
just going to piss off the entity.”

“Why are you acting this way?” When he didn’t answer, but
continued to stare behind her she whirled around to see what he saw. At first,
her eyes couldn’t make anything out but then a large shadow on the wall began
to look like an actual shape and not just a blotchy darkness among other
unpronounced shapes.

Suddenly, the shadow looked a great deal like a dog. A big,
angry canine with sharp teeth. Mindy dropped the ashtray and it shattered on
the floor. Her ears rang from the sound and she grabbed onto her face, feeling
for the scar on her cheek. No, that thing on the wall could not be allowed to
bite her. She would not go through that again. Anything, but being torn out by
a monstrous creature from hell.

Jonah grabbed her from behind, pulling her against him. “I
don’t know what you see, but I can guarantee it’s different from what I am
seeing.”

His voice sounded clipped but firm. Hearing it forced her to
swallow, to regain her composure. “You don’t see a dog?”

“No. Not a dog. My fear is always of the human variety.” He
swore. “It’s playing with us. We need to get out of here before the violence
starts.”

“We can’t leave the house like this. I’m not done. I’ve
stirred it up. I have to send it away before the owners of this place come
home.”

“Mindy.” He huffed and she wished she could simply do as he
asked. But she’d set out to accomplish something here and that was what she
meant to do. “We are not going to be able to send this thing off, just you and
I. I’ll admit I was wrong and you were right. There was something here and you
found it. But we need a Shaman to come in here and rid the place of the
presence. The only thing you and I could have done to help this place is get
the people out of it. They’re not home. Now come with me.”

“The sage and the incantation? Not going to work?” She’d
really been counting on the idea that they would.

“If this was a normal ghost, yes. But that thing…taking
multiple shapes? No.”

“Okay.” She exhaled. “Let’s go.”

Seconds later, Jonah threw her to the ground, his weight on
top of hers. She didn’t know exactly what had happened, only that objects were
crashing above her head. Loud bangs followed by shattering glass startled her.

“You’re going to be okay.” Jonah’s voice sounded like a
gift, but she knew that he couldn’t possibly know if she’d be fine or not.

“Don’t pacify me and for that matter you have no business
shielding me like this. I won’t have you hurt. This is my business.” She’d take
the shards of glass. Jonah already had stitches and her heart ached at the
thought of him having any more pain.

“Mindy, the day I let you get hurt when there is something I
can do about it is the day they will bury me in the ground. Got it?”

She could argue, but she knew him to be totally serious.
Jonah was nothing if not sincere in his need to help others. In this case,
she’d gotten them both into this situation.

“Why is it throwing things?”

Jonah laughed and the room fell silent. Maybe the entity
didn’t want to be found amusing? “Didn’t you say you read up on this stuff?”

“I did.” What had he thought the book was all about?

“Well, it’s a poltergeist. Literally defined as a noise
ghost. Or a loud one. They like to make a scene. This one is making one.
Problem is they are not really ghosts at all.” He squirmed off her. “In three
seconds we go. Ready? One. Two. Three.”

He asked her the question, but never gave her the chance to
answer. Instead, he hauled her from the ground and took off running, propelling
her in front of him. She heard a smash and he grunted but didn’t stop moving.

“Are you okay?” she called over her shoulder.

“It’s nothing. Keep moving,” he yelled, pushing her to run
faster.

They both pounded down the stairs, toward the front door. She
thought about the homeowners. They would come home to find their house had been
destroyed. This had not been her intention. Why did everything she touched turn
to hell?

Together, they busted out the front door and onto the
street. The cold assaulted her and she nearly went down to her knees. What had
happened?

“Why did that happen? What was it if not a poltergeist?”
Jonah coughed and bent over from the waist. She could see blood seeping through
his shirt.
Oh no!
He’d torn his stitches. Mindy rushed to his side. “Don’t
move. You’ve hurt yourself and this is entirely my fault.”

He looked up at her, his dark gaze hot. “You’re right. It’s
all on you. Every bad thing that happens in the world can be laid on your
doorstep.”

“What? That’s…”

He interrupted her by pulling her against him and he kissed
her. Hard. She gasped and he did it a second time. His lips were soft even
though his embrace was not. His tongue plunged into her mouth, demanding a fire-filled
embrace from hers. Mindy moaned.

After a moment, Jonah pulled back. His eyes were hard. He
did not seem a man who had kissed her into a whimper, but rather a cold,
distant stranger who looked as if he’d rather be somewhere else.

“To answer your question.” It took her a moment to realize
what the hell he meant. Her question? Oh the one about the creature in the
house. “It is a poltergeist. A big one. But poltergeists aren’t ghosts. Not
really. They’re energy. Usually from a child. Mostly a female one, but it can
be either. Someone here is hurting a kid. And it’s surging all over the
neighborhood. We’ll get a Shaman to handle that house. But after that? I’m
afraid we have a very different kind of a problem.”

Her heart sank. The idea? Someone hurt a kid so badly that
they were sending out their energy in such a way that it became a ghost? She
rubbed at her forehead and looked at Jonah’s shirt. He bled profusely.

“We can’t leave a kid to suffer. Not if it’s so bad they are
doing this.” She pointed at the house. This hadn’t been the kind of fight she
thought she’d have. But she’d take it just the same. And maybe some more of
Jonah’s kisses. If he could manage not to look so cold every time he did it.

* * * * *

Jonah slammed his fist into the wall and then wished he
hadn’t. He’d been stitched twice in two days. That was unacceptable. Mindy had
nearly been taken out by something she hadn’t understood and now he knew there
was a kid being abused in the vicinity of that house who needed some damn help.
And fast.

But finding the kid wouldn’t be the easiest thing in the
world. He couldn’t exactly go door to door checking out the houses until he
suddenly just knew one of them was in pain. Someone would call the cops.

Mindy needed to be better handled. He winced at the thought.
Kissing her when she’d been all but taken out by a poltergeist had been a bad
call. Now she’d question his intentions and would have good reason to do so. He
wanted her and having a taste—to know her tongue was sweet and that she made
little whimpering sounds when she got excited—that would torment him for the
rest of his life. She deserved better than to be manhandled by someone like
him.

If she was going to get herself into that kind of
situation—and it seemed no matter how many times he told her not to she was
going to do it anyway—then she had to be better trained. He could do that.

Assuming he could manage to keep his hands off her.

Which would be easier said than done.

He left his room, going to find Foy. The man could help, if
he wanted to. His Master had his own agenda and it didn’t always include doing
what Jonah or any of the others thought he should be doing.

Foy was, of course, nowhere to be found and he ran smack
into Braxton instead.

“I just heard you had to go to the hospital again.” Braxton
stared at him.

“Right. I tore open my stitches.” He wasn’t happy about
running into Braxton after the shit the other man had pulled during the card
game. Jonah called
bullshit
on the idea that the other blood-oathed man
didn’t know why he’d been called to Chicago. However, he didn’t have the time
to deal with that right now.

A thought dawned on him. “How did you hear that?” He’d just
gotten back. Who would know? He’d dropped Mindy off at her home before he’d
gone to the ER, even though she’d objected vehemently about not going with him.
There were just some things a guy wanted to do without the audience of the girl
he lusted over.

Mindy shouldn’t see his skin hanging out and his blood
seeping onto the floor.
Not a hot image
. It probably wouldn’t inspire
her to want to go to bed with him. Ever.

“Foy told me.” Braxton scratched his head. “Before he went
into seclusion. He saw it in a meditation.”

Fuck
. So much for Foy helping him with the
poltergeist. Apparently, he’d be on his own finding one child among hundreds
who was projecting that energy onto the neighborhood.

“I guess thanks for letting me know.” He turned to leave and
Braxton grabbed his arm.

“I’m here because someone died in San Francisco and it was
my fault. I got cocky and now someone is dead.” Braxton dropped his arm and
looked away. “Foy thinks I need to regroup. Find the dedication again. Remember
who I am. That’s what he said and I don’t even know what it means.”

“Wow.” Jonah swallowed. Someone had died? That would be the
worst thing to happen to any of them. They’d sworn to fight evil, to protect the
innocent. To lose someone? He shook his head. “That’s the most I’ve ever heard
you talk all together.”

Braxton rolled his eyes. “Ass-hat.”

Jonah grinned. He really couldn’t do serious with too many
people. They lived in the midst of the gloom and doom. Something had to lighten
life up a little bit or they’d all go nuts. Also, he didn’t know what the hell
to say. Sorry? It wouldn’t cut it.