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“Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts. This building isn’t going to fall on me. Blue sky. Open space. Puffy clouds,” Sky whispered in a rushed little voice behind him.
The witch shuffled forward, his bag clutched to his chest with one hand and his phone thrust out in front of him in the other, the flashlight trembling as it glanced off the rubble surrounding them.
“You okay?”
“Yep. Sure. Just fine.” Each word came out clipped and tight.
That had him turning completely, placing his hands on Sky’s hunched shoulders. “You’re not.”
“I’m okay. Old buildings full of ghosts make me claustrophobic. Graveyards are sooooo much better. Open space. Lots of fresh air. Plus, I’m pretty sure that if we make too much noise, the building will fall on top of us.”
“You can wait outside. I’ll grab my brother from the apartment and be right out.”
Sky’s hand tightened on the bag until the leather creaked. “Nope. I’m fine. Not letting you out of my sight.”
Nolan’s heart gave an awkward flop in his chest, but he ignored it as he wrapped his arm across Sky’s shoulders, tugging him in close before they continued down the hall. “Stick close to me. I promise the building isn’t going to fall on us, but you’ve got to handle the ghosts.”
“Yep, yep. Not a problem,” Sky answered briskly as he snuggled closer to Nolan.
They walked a few more steps, Nolan’s gaze skimming over the numbers that were visible on the old doors. Well, at least on the doors that were still there. Occasionally they’d pass an apartment that had no door and they could peer into the deep, shadowy darkness that hinted at broken furniture and strange, unidentifiable piles of stuff. His brain poked at him, gathering fear, wondering, Exactly how much protection does a vampire need from the sunlight? Are these bleak rooms dark enough for them?
“Ghosts, huh? Lots of them?” Nolan inquired. It was easier to think about ghosts than vampires. Sky could handle the dead. But weren’t vampires technically dead?
“So many. But they’re not the kind to do the haunting that most people think of,” Sky reassured him, his voice returning to normal even if it hovered close to a whisper.
“No rattling chains and moaning in the middle of the night?”
Sky giggled, and Nolan’s heart started a new gymnastics routine in his chest. Really, this was getting ridiculous, but was he surprised? No, Sky was absolutely adorable.
“Ghosts don’t rattle chains, but they can moan if they’re bored. Most ghosts exist in an in-between plane that is separate from our world and the underworld. They can’t see the living or interact with us,” Sky explained.
“So, is the concept of a house being haunted utter bullshit, if ghosts can’t interact with our world?”
The witch grunted. “Oh no, they can totally haunt our world. They can get stuck here too. Dying can be messy business.”
Nolan wanted to ask more about ghosts and how they exactly got stuck, but they’d reached the end of the hall and found the apartment. He raised his hand to knock on the door, but a different thought filled his mind. With a wink at Sky, Nolan lifted his foot and kicked the door that was already partially open.
“Always wanted to do that,” Nolan said with a lopsided grin at his companion.
“Uh-huh. Cute. Don’t bring the building down on our heads.”
“I got you,” Nolan teased, wishing his remarks could settle his racing heart. Kicking the door had been incredibly loud, but there was no answering sound from inside the apartment. Shouldn’t he have heard something from Owen, even if it was only a yelp of terror?
Raising the beam of light, Nolan stepped into the apartment. It was a studio, allowing them to view almost the entire place all at once. Empty. Not even a fucking rat. To make things worse, the space looked as if someone had trashed it even more. Everything was shredded and broken. There were gouges in the walls as though someone had punched through the drywall. But he had no way of knowing if these were recent or months old.
His heart in his throat, Nolan forced himself to march over to the bathroom and peek inside. His throat was tight as his brain conjured up images of his brother’s corpse in the bathtub, but that room was empty as well. The large, dust-covered mirror over the sink was fractured so that it became a flat disco ball when the flashlight skimmed over it.
“Owen?” Nolan called out as he returned to the main room where Sky stood. He wasn’t shouting, but the building was quiet enough that his voice should have been able to carry at least through a good chunk of the first floor. “Owen?”
“Try calling his cell again,” Sky suggested.
Nolan nodded and attempted to call his brother, but it went straight to voice mail. “Nothing. Fucking asshole just left without a word. Dragged us here for nothing.”
