“Odds are good, yeah.”
She grunted, still staring at the doors. “I say park Davina at the door.”
“Wait, Davina’s with you?”
“Yeah, she was riding with us since Lachlan’s flirting with Seiji and she didn’t want to be a third wheel.”
I wouldn’t either.
Eli rattled off, “I’ll sweep right, you sweep left, let’s try to do a pincer movement. If you can at least grab and hold him, I can get the ghost out of him.”
I gave her plan really good odds. Maybe with three Mediums, we could get this done without it becoming a wild chase scene straight out of a Bollywood movie? I was willing to try it, anyway. “Let’s do it.”
Davina caught up, we told her the plan, and she was game for it, ready to grab hold of Thomas if he somehow got past us. With the plan in place, she parked herself at the door with Booker. Quinn went with Eli, heading right as planned, and Brandon went with me as I went left.
The pharmacy was much like any modern version, except the shelves were wood instead of metal. Still had a medicinal smell, but it was mixed in with the scents of old wood and movingwater from the nearby river. Eerily quiet, my own breathing rasped loudly and Brandon’s footsteps sounded like percussion drums being hit. I moved quietly, hoping to get the drop on this fucker.
The aisles on this side carried nonmedicine stuff like greeting cards, lotions, and other sorts of merchandise. I paid it little attention as I made my way down the aisle. All right, there wasn’t much ahead of me. Only five aisles separated me from Eli, as the building was narrow, so where was this guy hiding?
Oh, there was a very long wooden counter in the back. Cashier stations stood on either side, with a pickup sign on the far right. Motherfucker, I’d bet anything he was lurking behind there.
I slowed down a bit to whisper to Brandon, “If you fire, do it with holy water.”
“Got it.”
The holy water would hopefully force the ghost out. At least make him uncomfortable enough to want to leave the body. It also wouldn’t hurt the host, unlike the rock salt.
Come on, come on, where was he hiding?
From behind the counter, I caught a hint of blond hair, and then something sharp whizzed toward me. I ducked and heard Brandon grunt and do a quick side shuffle. What was that?!
“Asshole just threw scissors,” Brandon snarled. “Oh, he’s dead now.”
Uh-oh. Monsieur le Stupid tripped a Havili’s protective instincts up to full throttle.
Bye, ghostie, been nice knowing you.
Brandon shot past me, and next thing I knew, he had a hand on the counter and sailed right over it. Damn, what I wouldn’t give to be so athletic. Except dedicated gym time; I wasn’t doing that.
I hustled to keep up with him, fetching up against the cool wood of the counter. This wasnotwhat I wanted to happen. I was hoping for a clean catch, not this frantic chase through narrow aisles and dismal sightlines. I paused at the counter as Brandon jumped back over it. His charge had scared the ghost out from hiding. They were chasing each other around the back stock shelves, Thomas now throwing things at Brandon, forcing him to duck. The expression on Thomas’s face was awful, a mad light in his eyes, mouth pulled back in a snarl like he was some rabid dog. I almost instinctively flinched. A man with that sort of expression wouldn’t hesitate to use violence.
Despite the throwing of bottles and Brandon trying to lay hands on him, the fight was weirdly silent. The ghost didn’t even try to talk, and Brandon was so focused on latching on, he wasn’t saying anything either.
I didn’t think adding myself into the mix would help any, so I parked myself at the counter’s only entrance. I had no faith I could wrestle Thomas to the ground, but I was game to try. I could at least slow him down long enough for Brandon to sit on him.
Brandon rounded an endcap, reaching for Thomas, but at the last second, the ghost evaded his reaching fingertips. Keen on escaping, the ghost blazed in my direction, scrambling under the counter’s top flap and trying to run past me.
Not happening.
I tackled him from the side, fingers catching and hooking into the back of his shirt, and I became dead weight, dragging him to a stop.
Eli caught up in the next second, rearing back, and with her flesh arm, she punched Thomas dead in the chest. Well, physically she punched him, but I saw the aura around her fist, and really, she basically hit him with a bazooka of power. I winced just being this close to it and it wasn’t even aimed at me.Still, the raw power flew over my skin, leaving goose bumps and this eerie staticky feeling in its wake.
The kid screamed in pain as he flopped like a fish in my grip, then slumped, passing right out. I couldn’t blame him. That had to hurt like hell.
Eli’s punch had worked its magic, though, and the ghost was forced out of its host. I couldn’t react fast enough to catch him, and he was out of range in a second flat. He stood there, shaking, his dark aura fizzing like a static burst, unstable but there.
And with him out of Thomas’s body, I knew who this was. “Joey Halfacre?”
