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Frankly, as long as she didn’t take innocent spirits, like the little girl and boy, I no longer cared what she did with the freak shows of the Netherworld. This was getting old. We’d been fighting spirits for too long, and I was getting really tired of playing ghostbuster to the demonic world.
As I neared the kitchen, the sound of a door slamming stopped me. I didn’t want to turn around. I really didn’t. But the door was right behind me. Either the front door, or a side door to what had been the parlor. Slowly, I peeked over my shoulder.
Mother pus-bucket…Instead of a closed door, I was staring at a demon. It had to be a demon, because it had coiling horns and dark blistery skin, and a feral grin on its face. And it was leaning against the doorway, watching me. This was no ghost.
I paused a half beat, trying to recover my senses, and then bolted for the door. The demon came after me, and he was fast. He was as fast as I was.
I screamed as I crossed the kitchen in two leaps and tripped out onto the back porch. I scrambled up, grabbing for the knob to pull it shut, but he was right there. His hand covered my wrist and he yanked me inside again.
I let out another scream and kicked him in the balls, landing a solid hit. He groaned and bent over but kept hold of my wrist. Good, he was corporeal. I could at least attack this freak.
He snarled, closing his grip on my wrist again, but seemed confused when I didn’t scream. Instead, I tensed my arm and whirled around, dragging him with me to smash him against the wall. He let go as his horns pierced the drywall, entangling him. I laughed and pulled my arm away, spinning to kick him again, this time shoving my stiletto heel into his ass. I yanked it back, satisfied when blood began to pour out of his butt cheek.
“Home run!” But I knew when to back away. He was as strong as I was, and I had no clue what kind of powers he had or what kind of demon he was. I dashed out the door, slamming it behind me. As I jumped over the steps, landing in a crouch, I turned, sure he’d be hot on my heels, But he was standing there, staring at me through the window, making no move to follow me.
It occurred to me that maybe he couldn’t follow me. Maybe he was somehow trapped within the house. If so, score one for us. If not, we’d find out sooner or later. I dashed around the front, back to the others.
“There’s a freaking demon in there. I have no clue what kind but he’s big and horny—literally—and I left him with a nice hole in his ass thanks to my heel. He’s mean, though. Tough sucker.”
As I leaned against Camille’s car, we turned back to watch the house. The lights were running wild inside, strobing on and off in a dizzying cycle.
“I’d hate to have the electricity bill for that,” Camille whispered. But as we moved to leave, there was another sound—a popping, or hissing, or something of that sort, and we slowly looked back.
The house was on fire, burning with a brilliant flame.
“Shit.” Chase pulled out his phone and began to dial 911.
“Wait.” I looked at him. “We can’t let the firefighters go in there—the ghosts are in there, and the demon. Best thing is to just let it burn to the ground. Hopefully, the insurance will pay off and Fritz and Abby can find another house. Because they’re never going to reclaim that one. It’s too far gone.”
Chase gave me a long look, then glanced at the house again. “You know that I can’t…” He stopped. “Yeah…and if anybody asks, we weren’t here to see it start, so we couldn’t report it.”
We waited, watching the house, for another ten minutes and then Roz edged across the street and, taking out one of his little specials, tossed it into the flames, then ran back to us.
“Duck!”
We turned to cover, just in time to miss the explosion. As the house roared to life with an increase in heat and flame, I knew there would be nothing left. Whatever Roz had used had magnified the flames. And there would be nothing to prove that the ghosts had been there, or anything else.
The fire marshal wouldn’t find any concrete reason—so faulty wiring would most likely be blamed. So many of the old houses needed rewiring, and that had been a project on Fritz and Abby’s list. Insurance would chalk it up to accident. And they would get their money and be able to move on.
After another five minutes, Chase called Yugi. By the time the fire trucks got there, the house had imploded and there was nothing left but gutted timbers and a burned-out shell. The basement was open to the rain, the main floor vanished among the flames. Chase talked to the fire marshal, and I’m not sure what he told them, but within a few minutes, we were ready to head out.
“Go home,” I told Camille and Morio. “I have to get my car from headquarters anyway. I’ll meet you later. I may stop in at the Wayfarer to see what’s shaking there.”
They nodded and wearily drove off, taking Roz with them. As I climbed into the prowl car with Chase, I glanced over at him.
“Okay, truth. What the hell were you doing with that little girl’s ghost? I know you were trying to free her from the spirit, but how did you know what to do? And what were you doing?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know, really. I don’t know much of what I’m doing lately, especially when it comes to…magic? Psychic stuff? I really have no clue. I just feel this prompting inside and I can’t ignore it till I do what it wants. I knew that I could untangle her from him, if I only had enough time. But it turned into a tug-of-war match. And then, after he vanished, I knew that I could help those kids over to the other side. All I had to do was hug them, pull them in, and they’d be free.”
“And it happened.” I leaned my head against the seat and closed my eyes. “Chase, you’re all right. You know that, I hope.”
He laughed. “Menolly, anytime you pay me a compliment, I pay attention. I know you don’t bullshit, so I listen.”
And with that, he fell silent and so did I. All the way to the FH-CSI building, the only sounds that passed were those of his breath, his still-beating heart, and the whir of the wheels eating up the road.
Chapter 10
After I made sure Abby and Fritz were okay, I glanced at the clock. I couldn’t believe it, but it was still only around ten P.M., so I decided to pay a visit to Carter. He’d confirmed that Gulakah—the Lord of Ghosts—was definitely back in Seattle, but I wanted to know more about the Greenbelt Park District. And Carter would know its history.
