Page 100 of The Devil and His Ghost

I slowly dropped his hands and stepped back out of reach while averting my gaze to my feet. “Please take me back.”

I couldn’t look at him, even as the minutes of silence ticked on. I didn’t know what was happening in his head, and I didn’t want to find out. Knowing would only ruin the distance I tried keeping between us for both of our sakes.

Eventually, he stepped close. I could feel his eyes on the side of my face while he grabbed my hand and wrapped shadows around us. When they cleared, we stood in my make-shift bedroom at Mountview once more. The storm outside had ceased, though I wasn’t even sure if the storm was ever real to begin with or if it had just been a part of that horrible nightmare of an experience. Seeing that I was back, I leapt away from him like I was a live grenade, and I was trying to shield him from my blast.

I cleared my throat while wrapping my arms around myself. “The sun should come up soon. I think I’m gonna go sit on the rooftop until it’s daylight. You should rest more. You—You don’t look like you’ve been sleeping.”

He chuckled hollowly. “Are you worried about me now, Ghost?”

You’re worried after constantly hurting me yourself?

The implied question was one Xander would never actually voice, but sometimes, I wished he would. I wished he’d get angry at me. I wished he’d hate me.

It was what I deserved.

Chapter 34

Xander

(Present Day)

DID I LIKE BEING AT Mountview where some goddamn demon had taken an interest in messing with Kendyll while preventing me from intervening? Not one fucking bit. If I found the bastard, he was dead. Even if I couldn’t send him back to our creator with my lesser abilities, I knew a Letum demon who’d be more than happy to complete the task for me.

While every alarm in my head was practically flashing red and demanding I evacuate immediately, Kendyll, my incredibly stubborn and determined human, was adamant on seeing this through. And she needed to. I knew that. But I still didn’t fucking like it.

Regardless, I followed her to the place where the issues with these haunting visitations seemed to trace back to. We stood side by side as we stared at the still open elevator, and even though I was a demon who preyed upon fear, a cold chill swept through me.

“There has to be something we can find out from here,” Kendyll declared as she pulled her shoulders back and charged into the elevator.

I looked down at our ghost cat and ordered, “Stay here. Don’t come inside this elevator in case it’s dangerous.”

“Meow,” he replied and stretched out along the floor.

With the cat taken care of, I followed and lit a flame within my upturned hand to offer us light to look around. It truly seemed like an ordinary elevator with nothing pointing toward a demonic influence. Even now, I sensed nothing from a fellow manifestation of Hell.

“When Maria was in here, she disappeared,” Kendyll murmured. She got on her knees to touch the floor where she and the ghost child had been. “But it was more than just disappearing. It almost seemed like she got … yanked down.”

Kendyll got on her hands and knees to press her face to the small crack between the elevator cart and the floor of the connecting hallway. I mirrored her and pressed my own eye to the sliver of darkness before shooting my flames into that small space to light it up. We both sucked in a sharp breath as that flame fell and fell and fell. Our heads whipped up in shock at the same time.

“This is the first floor,” Kendyll sputtered with wide eyes. “Why does this elevator have a shoot that goes so many more floors deep? There’s a basement, but this is the public elevator, which doesn’t have access to the basement.”

The numbered floor panel confirmed this floor was the lowest option available.

“Let me try to shadow-walk down there.”

My body merged with shadows, yet the second I tried drifting beneath the elevator floor and into the shaft, a hot force smacked me back with a searing lash. I gritted my teeth as I rematerialized exactly where I’d been kneeling. The smell of burning flesh filled the elevator, and when I looked down, I found my shirt and jeans burnt to crisps in multiple places with red, boiling skin peeking through the shredded fabric.

“Xander!” Kendyll cried in alarm. Her hands shook as they reached toward me.

“Don’t!” I quickly shouted and held up a hand to keep her back. I grunted as a wave of pain rippled through me with the motion, and I breathed hard. “Don’t touch. There’s still demonic ward magic all over me. I don’t want you to get hurt. Give me a minute, and it will fade.”

I ground my teeth harder and fell back against the elevator wall, making the cart bounce slightly. I tried to keep still as even breathing stretched the numerous burns lancing my body, making the searing skin tear to seep blood and black gunk. The black sticky substance fizzled and vaporized into smoke once it hit the air. It was the trace of this demon’s magic, which crackled and popped along my skin before completely vanishing from my body. The burns followed moments after, leaving behind raw, red skin.

I blew out a hard breath and dropped my head back against the elevator wall with a heavy thud. “Well, that sucked.”

“What happened?” Kendyll worried.

I braced a hand on the wall and stood unsteadily. Kendyll shot to her feet and carefully touched me as though checking for more injuries.