Devil's Playground (5 page)

I
penned a looped flourish to the end of my signature.

“There, now you’re all filled out,” I said, proud of myself.

I glanced at my phone and thought that if I hurried, I could still drop the rental application off, before the manager closed his doors for the day. I walked behind the bar and replaced the pen in the cup where my cell phone used to be.

Now, if only the sun would hurry up and go down enough for Rafe to move around in it comfortably, we could get out of here. 

“Do you think Slone gave your boyfriend the correct address?” Darcy asked.

She was hovering over the beer coolers and not doing much else other than shadowing me.

“Judging by how pissed off she was when Rafe insisted she tell him where Josh was, yeah, I’d imagine she did. And Rafe is not my boyfriend.”

“Oh.” She gave me a sly smile. “So he’s single?”

I shook my head at her, and at the same time, my cell phone beeped.

Darcy’s eyes perked up, as she said, “That could be him now.”

“Rafe doesn’t have a cell phone. Plus, he’s in his room, getting dressed.”

With wide eyes, Darcy blinked out of the room. I suspected that Rafe was about to have company—a pervy ghost visitor.

Speaking of boyfriends, on the screen, I read a quick message from Rush.

See you soon.

I fussed my fingers over the letters on the screen, trying to figure out what to reply.

I settled with…
There’s trouble. Can I meet you at your place tonight?

Seconds later, the phone began to ring. I should have known Rush wouldn’t text back, but would call, after what I’d sent him.

Rush’s concerned voice echoed out, “Kris, what’s wrong?”

“What
isn’t
wrong? A woman’s body was dumped behind
Devil’s Playground
today. Oh, and there’s also the fact that the victim’s ghost is haunting me.”

“Fuck. I suppose this means you’re going to help her? Is there anything I can say or do to change your mind?”

“No, I’m sorry, but I need to help her… Darcy, that is. And besides, the devil himself hired me to find the person responsible for dumping the body. So there’s that, too.”

A vexed whisper slipped from the phone: “For the record, I’m completely against this. But I know there is no stopping you, once you’ve made up your mind about something. Promise me that you won’t do anything stupid, that you’ll be careful.”

Rush knew me so well. But I did plan on being very cautious. It was the only way to be on a hunt for murderers. To be honest, I really, truly wanted to say, ‘
screw everything,’
and run from that Hell-mouth of a bar and into Rush’s strong embrace—my safe haven. But responsibility had a name, and it was
Bitch
, and I needed to learn how to handle everything that came along with dealing with her on my own.

“I promise. And I’ll call you if I need anything.”

His voice deepened, as he said, “What the hell am I going to do with you? You drive me mad, woman.”

I gave him a sexy as sin smile, knowing damn well that he’d be able to hear a warm hint of it in my words, as I spoke.

“I’ll put you out of your misery soon enough, lover.”

The growl he let out was low, and my body awoke to it; my nipples instantly tightened. It seemed that my sensual teasing had backfired on me.

“Do whatever you have to. Just get it done and be careful about it. Then you, my feisty she-devil, are mine to do with as I will.”

Erotic images assaulted me. His playful fingertips, trailing across my warm, almost hot, skin.... I could somehow taste him on my tongue, as I imagined licking a glistening path up his thigh, paying close attention to the flesh there, by tracing each curve of hardened muscle. His large hand reached to cup my heaving breast, the pad of his thumb sweeping across my nipple, remaining long enough to bring it to a fevered peak. My hand dropped and brushed across my belly at the exact moment I pictured the way his manhood swelled impossibly hard, as he readied my body for conquering.

“Kris?” Rush whispered.

Begrudgingly, my eyes opened, and I swallowed a moan.

“Umm, what was that?”

“Come over later, and you’ll find out.”

The answer to that was a no brainer.

“Okay.”

I could barely move my fingers enough to hang up the phone. A rolled purr lingered in my ear, as he said his farewell. Somehow, I found the end button and pushed it right before Rafe entered the room.

“I’m ready whenever you are.” Then he gave me a second look. “You doing okay? You look a bit flushed.”

Darcy popped back into the room, as well, the little voyeur.

I nodded and waved him off. Pushing through my lust-fogged brain and shaking off the tingles in my limbs, I narrowed my eyes on Darcy.

“Did you enjoy the show?”

I caught a blush, along with a guilt-laden look, right before she flashed back out.

I grabbed my things, folded my rental application, and stuffed the paper into the inside pocket of my purse.

“I need to make one quick stop.”

Rafe helped me on with my jacket, as he said, “Sure thing. Can I drive the motorcycle?”

I gave him an unamused frown.

“Never ask if you can drive my baby again.”

“I’m not making any promises, Kris.”

“Suit yourself, but asking will do you no good.”

As I walked out of the door, I looked over my shoulder, to where Rafe was following me, and said, “Oh, and just so you know, ghosts can be anywhere at any time, and you have an admirer, my friend. So keep your dangly bits covered if you’re the shy type, because she’s a peeper.”

Rafe’s eyes widened, and both hands shot below his belt to cover his groin area, as he looked around the room.

“Thanks for the heads up.”

Darcy’s bratty voice came out of nowhere, saying, “Spoilsport.”

***

We reached the apartment manager’s office ten minutes late, but we found a convenient drop-box in the door. I slipped the application inside. It would have been nice if Mr. Riley had told me about the night drop, before I had committed several traffic violations to get there on time.

I shook my head, as I thought,
The things I’d do for a really great, spirit free, apartment….

Not long after that, I pulled up next to the curb in front of Josh’s house.

I yanked the helmet off my head and finger-combed my long bangs out of my eyes.

“Are you ready for this?”

Rafe nodded, before jumping off the back of the bike. His boots landed without sound on the asphalt. His ability to sprout wings and fly probably accounted for the vampire’s flawless landing. He had plenty of practice.

“Am I going in fangs bared, or do I have to be nice?” he asked.

I strapped my helmet securely to the bike’s leather seat.

“Let’s just find out if he’s here first. After that, we’ll play it by ear.”

“That sounds good to me.”

The labored, uneven beat of a car engine, popping in misfire, echoed in my ear. A few seconds later, the grinding of a garage door winding its way open sounded from the side of Josh’s house.

“It looks like we got here just in time,” I said, as a rusted-out tin can of a car passed us by and then turned into the driveway, to pull inside the open garage.

We strolled in tandem across the front yard, with its brown patches of neglected grass; the sorry excuse for a lawn was void of anything resembling life.

After kicking aside several empty beer cans and hopping over a pile of forgotten newspaper bundles, I rapped my knuckles on Josh’s door. A few seconds passed, and then he answered it, clenching his wallet between his teeth and holding a plastic grocery bag in one hand.

“What do you want?” Josh’s question came out garbled.

His eyes opened wide at the sight of me, and they bulged even wider at the sight of Rafe, who towered like a mountain at my back. The wallet fell to the carpet. Immediately, he bent over to retrieve it.

“Is Slone with you?” With a hopeful glance, he leaned forward, searching the space behind us, but his features fell, when he realized that Slone was not there. “Oh… Umm, let me just… please, please, come in. Excuse the mess. I wasn’t expecting company today.”

Josh’s invitation still rang in my ears, as I walked over the threshold and into a small sparsely decorated living room. With the invitation granted to both my vampire and me, Rafe would be able to enter, as well.

I grimaced at the dirty brown carpet that covered the space in a sea of filth, which reminded me of the unkempt lawn out front. Only a few pieces of furniture occupied the room. A ripped and stained sofa was pushed up against the wall, and a green milk crate was turned upside down, littered with old Chinese takeout cartons and days-old pizza, with cigarette butts squashed out in the molded cheese. There was also an old-fashioned console television set that sat on the floor in the corner, with foil wrapped around its bunny-eared antenna.

The smell, oh my God, the smell was awful. It reminded me of an odor that belonged in an abandoned building or lingered over carnival grounds after closing time. How anyone could choose to live in that kind of crud was mindboggling.

With a shake of my head, I walked even farther into the room. Rafe, who was obviously not bothered by the wicked stench or the mess, walked past me and stood next to the front window.

Josh gave a humorless laugh, closed the door, and asked, “So what brings you to my doorstep? Good news, I hope.”

The hollow sound to his voice, paired with his outward mannerisms, registered odd. Stiff shoulders, a slight tilt at the corner of his mouth, and the way he kept looking at Rafe out of the corner of his eye…. In my opinion, Josh should have been a bit more nervous, but instead, he seemed to be studying us, meticulously calculating our every move.

“I just need to go over a few things about the murder with you. We were rushed the last time we spoke, and some facts are still unclear to me. Do you mind?”

Josh leaned against the wall next to the door, and said, “I’ve got someplace to be soon, but I suppose a couple questions won’t hurt if you make it quick.” He walked over to stand in front of the couch. When he got there, he grabbed his cell phone off the crate. “Slone should be calling any second.”

“I’ll try to make this as quick and painless as possible.”

He chuckled.

“Much appreciated.”

A smile spread across my face.

“I aim to please,” I said sarcastically. After a slight hesitation, I continued. “At any point, when you were around the bad guys, did you happen to overhear anyone use the term
Handler
?”

Josh’s eyes shot wide and then, in an instant, his features calmed. It happened so fast that I was surprised I’d caught the gesture at all.

“I only know what I told you before; I’m just as much a victim in this as that dead lady.”

For some reason, Josh referring to Darcy as
that dead lady
pissed me off. Rafe sensed my building rage and walked away from the window to stand next to me.

“It’s not nice to speak ill of the dead,” Rafe warned.

Josh’s shoulders slouched forward—the movement seeming forced—before he dropped his gaze to the floor and said, “You’re absolutely right. Sorry about that.”

There was a terrifying emptiness in that gaze, before he redirected it.

Who, or what, the hell am I dealing with?

My heart beat fast, the rage in me not satisfied that the guy was truly who he claimed to be. My honed survival instincts were screaming at me, warning me that something was wrong with him. I reached over and grazed my pinky finger across Rafe’s forearm. He knew the slight signal for what it was, his turn up at bat.

R
afe stared at Josh with eyes void of any emotion and as still and deadly as black ice. It was as if all signs of humanity had been snuffed out of them, and what was left was pure predator—vampire. He moved so quickly that all I could see of him was a blur. Then he had Josh in a vicelike grip, a chokehold that could easily pop his head clear from his neck if more pressure was applied. The thought of that man’s death didn’t bother me like it should have. All life was precious to me; I needed to know why his wasn’t.

My leg shot out, and I kicked over the green crate that separated us. Spoiled food exploded everywhere. The asshole barely flinched. I got in his face.

“Not so close, Kris,” Rafe rumbled.

“I’m fine,” I growled back.

“I know you were Darcy’s Handler. And if you don’t tell me who you’re working for this instant, I’ll make Rafe’s day and let him finish you off.”

A thin shroud of smoke slipped across Josh’s eyes, and tiny beads of sweat prickled at his hairline.

Something about that, the entire scene, nagged at me strongly. The unkempt lawn, the house, which was obviously lived in but still looked abandoned…. The last time I’d felt a hunch like that, a rolling in my gut that wasn’t quite the same as a vampire warning but similar, was when I encountered a phantom for the first time in my family’s awakening chamber at the Center.

I received a crash course in Phantom 101 that night and learned what they were—a very nasty body-jacking parasite that was just as strong as, and even more vicious in nature than, a vampire. Phantoms, who were ancient ghosts turned hostile and bitter, could take over humans’ bodies at will and possess them so completely that the infected humans they inhabited were rendered powerless over their own actions, passengers and spectators trapped inside of their own flesh.

I battled the queen of those ghastly beings recently, barely escaping her realm with my life. And somehow, I ended up saving my grandmother in the process. Or more accurately, Lily was the one who saved me, with her vast knowledge of those creatures. After unleashing her vampires and ghouls upon us, the queen of the phantoms, Camille, and her servant, Wolf, had escaped.

The situation had just become trickier. If the phantom figured out that I was onto him, he could dematerialize out of the room. Getting my hands on him was a necessity. With flesh to flesh contact, he’d be trapped, and I could use my power to burn the squatting toad right out of its host.

I thought about what Rush had said to me that night in the awakening chamber: “He’s scared of you.” He’d been referring to the phantom, after I’d almost singed him out of existence with my power, which was something I’d stumbled upon by accident. But I knew how to use that deadly reserve. I reached out to touch Josh’s arm, but Rafe spoiled my plan by pulling them both back away from me.

“Kris, I’ve got this,” Rafe said.

I needed to defuse the tension in the room and make the phantom think he was still undetected.

“It’s okay, Rafe. I think I might’ve jumped the gun here. This man obviously knows nothing.” I shook my head and then continued, “I needed answers so badly that I think I wanted him to be guilty.”

The speech seemed to relax Josh. Rafe raised a brow and gave me a look that said,
What the hell?
But he kept quiet. He trusted me enough to see where I was going with the change in tactics. Rafe released Josh from the tight chokehold and took a step back.

“Thank you,” Josh said, rubbing the red marks on his neck. He sidestepped away from Rafe and then walked clear around me, before opening the door. “I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but you’ve overstayed your welcome, and as you said yourself, I can be of no help to you.”

I reached a hand out to Josh. He seemed impatient but reluctantly shook it.

“Thanks for stopping by. Sorry I couldn’t help you guys,” he said.

My hand flashed white.

“Believe me, you’ve been extremely helpful.”

Josh stiffened, his eyes going wide in shock. He leaned back, feet scrambling for purchase, and tried with all his might to jerk his hand free from mine. I reinforced my grip by slamming my other hand over our joined ones. And once my magic started to pour through me and into him, he was welded to me like red hot metal. He could not escape.

My body pulsed with heat, which was warm and soothing, a comforting blanket. I reveled in it, each beat, a welcomed sensation. I watched, as the phantom tried to escape his host in a thin sheet of fog.

“You’re not going anywhere, parasite,” I whispered. 

I was able to make out an outline of a face amidst the fog. Its features were morphed, with a long mouth, gaping in terror. The widths of the entity’s eyes melted into a dripping oval shape. I clenched my fingers tight and sent another blast of power at him. That last shot did it.

The phantom vibrated, and then its unstable mass separated into long streams of indistinguishable plumes. Afterward, a white flash spread like wildfire from our joined hands, greedily swallowing up anything that remained of the malevolent squatter.

Before I could blink, my knees hit the carpet.

“What the hell?” Rafe exclaimed. “Kris, are you okay?”

A persistent ringing nagged deep in my eardrums. I shook my head to try and clear it.

“Is Josh all right?” I asked.

I was scared that the process of stripping the phantom from his body had killed him. Like almost everything that had to do with my powers, I was learning as I went.

Rafe looked at me like I was bat shit crazy.

“I don’t care how he is. I’m worried about you!”

Shaking my head once more, I pushed myself up to one knee. Breathing was coming hard, but I was still getting enough oxygen into my lungs to function.

“You don’t understand. Josh was possessed by a phantom. I just burned the thing out of him.”

His eyes went wide in understanding.

“Oh!” He slipped his arm around me and helped me the rest of the way up. “You still come first, though.”

My nod was weak, as I said, “Thank you.”

“You should have seen the light show you put on. You looked like a million-watt light bulb.”

With a chuckle, I said, “That’s good to know.”

I looked down at my hands. They were pale and shaky.

“I need to sit down for a second. Can you go check on Josh? I’ll be fine.”

Rafe walked me over to the couch and sat me down. He gave me a small peck on the forehead, pushed aside a strand of hair from my face, and showed me his teeth.

“You move, I bite.”

He was getting no argument from me. I needed to rest for a minute, recharge my batteries, so to speak.

Josh’s body was a lifeless pile on the floor. My stomach tightened.

“Please, God, don’t let him be dead,” I whispered.

Rafe moved to stand beside Josh. He knelt down, reaching to check for a pulse.

“His breath is shallow, but he still lives.”

I eyed Josh’s chest. I could see a slight movement from small intakes of air.

“Should I try to rouse him with my power? A little jolt might help.”

Rafe slid his arms underneath Josh’s body and hefted him up.

“No. I don’t think that’s necessary… or even possible. You make vampires, when you give the gift of life, so unless you want to chance siring another wonderful specimen like me, you’d be wise to keep those hands of yours to yourself.”

I had to agree with him.

Josh stirred in Rafe’s arms.

“He’s coming around.”

“Good, put him over here,” I said, patting the spot next to me.

Rafe nodded and set Josh down on the couch, as I’d asked.

Josh’s body slumped forward the moment Rafe released him. He seemed all right, aside from the apparent fatigue. His breathing was becoming stronger by the second, and after a few minutes, he was able to sit up and keep his head from lolling from his shoulder to his chest. All of those were good signs; I hadn’t killed an innocent man.

“Here, I brought him some water,” Rafe said, walking into the living room from the kitchen.

I grabbed the glass and held it to Josh’s trembling lips. They parted, and he took in a few sips.

“Thanks.”

“I have something I’d like for you to see,” Rafe said. “I found it while looking for a clean glass in the kitchen.”

“What is that?” I asked, reaching for the object.

He dangled a silver bracelet in front of me. With a silent curse, I took it.

“It’s an exact replica of the one you found at the murder scene. There’s a boar charm and everything,” he said.

While inspecting the piece of jewelry, I wondered if its being there meant that another woman had died under the phantom’s authority. That led me to also consider the possibility that maybe…
no way
.

“Did you search the entire house?”

“No, do I need to?”

If what I suspected were true, the last person who needed to search the house would be Rafe, because he was a man.

Shuddering, I asked, “Can you take over for me here? I need to check something out.”

He shifted his head toward the hallway that led to the back rooms of the house.

With a grimace, he said, “Be careful.”

***

The penetrating smell from the living room followed me down the hallway, only to hit me even worse, as I opened the first door that I came to. It was a small bathroom. The floors were covered in grime, and mold and bacteria grew, crawling like a collection of stretching branches down into the tub, to spread into a blackish green splotch inside the corner, between the wall and the base of the tub. I was too scared to even look at the toilet. It was time to move on, because the only living things in that room were cockroaches, mold, and bacteria.

I stopped at the next room. The door was locked, so I wrenched the knob, until it snapped like a twig in my hands. I pushed through, and what I saw on the other side brought tears to my eyes.

I could hear small sounds coming from the woman tied to the bed. Her dark hair was rumpled into a mass of knots, against a sweat-stained pillow. Her eyes were closed tight, with dark crescent moon-shaped marks underneath them. My stomach clenched at the sight of her hip bones, which were protruding underneath her brown skin. She looked as if she hadn’t eaten in days, her hollowed cheeks and slack features reminding me of a skeleton.

The woman’s chin lay against the bruised curve of her shoulder. She must have heard me enter, because she rocked her head to the side in spasmodic movements. Oval eyes cracked open, a deep green that penetrated me with their weakness and absence of any real light.

She opened up her mouth to speak, but all she could manage was a croaked, “Help me.”

I felt a scream of protest building in my throat. But it wasn’t my injustice to release, to set forth onto the world—it belonged to her. I’d save my rage at what was done to that poor woman for better use, as a weapon to wield against her attackers. So I swallowed it deep.

Before my own movement registered, I was beside her on the bed. Any filth or presence of bad smells didn’t matter anymore; helping her was my only concern.

“It’s okay… you’re going to be okay. I’m here now.” In a gentle voice, I cooed to her like a mother would to a sick child. “No one will ever hurt you again.”

I pulled her limp body into my arms. Her sunken cheek instinctively nestled into the warm comfort of my breasts.

“I want to go home,” she rasped between brittle lips, her voice almost lost against my shirt.

I wanted to squeeze her more tightly, but I feared she’d break.

“You’ll be home very soon. I promise. Just be still.”

It came slowly, a warm pulse of power that hurt at first. It was a good pain that assured me what I was about to do was right. Rafe thought that if I tried to heal a human with my gift, I would ultimately create a vampire, but when the power was riding me like that, almost instinctual in nature and having a mind and intent of its own, I knew what I needed to do for that woman could be done. And I also knew it to be fact, because I wasn’t using my power to bring back a lifeless corpse. I was about to use it to enhance a life that already existed in a living and breathing body. There was an immense difference between the two acts.

I rubbed my fingertips against her temple and willed my light to seep slowly in through her skin. Her body bowed away from mine, her hands clenching my shirt. The entire healing process happened within a beat of a heart, finishing as my light receded, and she relaxed her body against mine. Her eyes fluttered wildly, until they swept down at a normal rhythm. She gave me a perplexed look.

“Where am I?” she asked, her voice no longer hoarse; instead, it held a smooth cadence.

I was about to explain things to her but decided not to. Instead, I gave her a second to remember the Hell she’d been through on her own. I’d healed her bodily wounds, but her memories were left untouched. The horror was her burden to bear. Suddenly, she sprang from the bed, eyes darting around the room like a skittish animal. Her legs and arms moved fluidly, her slender body, in perfect working order.

“We have to go! Now, before he comes back!”

I reached for her, my hand beckoning in a non-threatening manner.

“It’s okay. You have nothing more to fear. Your tormentor is dead.”

Her face, which was fleshed out and back to a healthy light brown glow, began to pale. She frowned at me.

“How can you be certain? Did you see him die yourself?”

I stood up but kept myself on the opposite side of the bed from her. Even though she was calming down by small degrees, a person who’d been through as much as she had could be unpredictable, especially when cornered. So I left a wide space between us.

“I know he is dead, because I’m the one who killed him.”

Her head tipped to the side, her eyes a little less shifty.

“So do you mean I’m free? I can go home?”

She turned her head away, tears threatening to spill over her lower lids, as she noticed for the first time that she was standing in the middle of the room, completely naked. Her hands scrambled over her full round breasts, and she crossed her legs at the thighs to hide the triangle of black curls situated at the lower junction of her body.