Red House (16 page)

I held the cigarette between two fingers of my right hand, focusing my will on the tip. Calling up the familiar old scent of tobacco, the orange glow of a lit end flaring in the dark night, and the repeated snap of a stubborn lighter, I pressed the tip of my left index finger against the cigarette. Within seconds heat marked my skin and I drew my finger away, shaking it. I took a hesitant puff, coughing hard right away. Holding it and letting it burn on its own would have to be enough. In an effort to disperse the smoke away from me, I waved it in circles over the hole.

Movement on the forest floor caught my eye. The dropped cigarette rolled two inches, then sprang into the air as if picked up. It lit seemingly by itself. The whisper of an indrawn breath raised goose bumps on my skin, fear scratching up my spine with the sharp claws of a cat. I looked over the tops of my glasses to see a washed out shadow pierced with sunlight. Staring, I watched as ash grew on the cigarette, smoke furling from its tip to give the shadow more depth. I didn’t dare breath or move. This was not Haschall, not my friend, not anything I could identify. Whatever it was, it was very real, and strong enough to chill my blood.

Very, very gingerly, I unfocused my eyes and reached out with my senses. A check of the weather, so to speak, careful not to put any force into my will until I knew what I was dealing with. The only answer I got was a deep chuckle as something invisible touched my face, as if a heavy masculine finger traced a line from the top of my cheek to my jaw.

The cat claws became tiger fangs. I threw my cigarette in the hole, quickly covered it as best I could, and ran. I looked back once when I reached the tree line. The shadow flickered, then disappeared. Breathing slow and steady, I did a quick grounding to calm my nerves. It didn’t work all that well but I’d be able to bluff with Blake when I told him what happened and assured him it didn’t scare me at all, not one little bit,
nosiree
.
 

I returned to the cemetery to find Blake standing with his hands in the air, carnations hanging down to touch his hair, and a cop holding a gun on him. A sheriff’s deputy, to be precise, one I knew quite well. “Shit.”

With any luck Blake wouldn’t be meeting any of my family but it looked like I’d have no choice about introducing him to an old boyfriend.

Chapter 12

Deputy Ray Travis turned his gaze to me after I called his name. A big beefy former football player, he wore his age and authority well. Looked good in that uniform too, the short sleeves of the shirt giving a much nicer gun show than the weapon in his hand.

“Roxanne, is that really you?”

“Hey, Ray.” I approached slowly, wanting him to take a good long look.

He did too, his gaze raking me up and down. Twice. Ray hadn’t changed much in the years I’d been gone. He still looked like a grumpy teddy bear. There were a few more lines spreading out from his light blue eyes and the corners of his mouth, but I bet he still had the most kissable lips in the county, full and sensual. I had a lot of nice memories of what he used to do to me with that mouth.

Blake coughed, not bothering to disguise he was faking it.

Ray holstered his weapon. “There was a call of a suspicious vehicle out here. This place is still pretty popular for kids looking for trouble so I came to check it out. What’re you doing here, Roxanne?”

“Oh, you know me.” I waved a dismissive hand, pulling on Blake’s elbow to get him to lower his arms. “I just love hanging out in graveyards.”

Ray did that cop thing where he put his hands on his hips and looked at me like he was just waiting for a chance to put handcuffs on me. “At night in the rain, from what I remember.”

Ooh. I remembered that too. “Yeah, uh.” An embarrassed laugh slipped out.

Blake wrapped an arm around my shoulders, his hand dangling down the front of my shirt, fingertips skimming the skin above the vee-neck of my shirt. “We done here?”

Before I could answer, Ray spoke up. “You gonna go see your folks? I know you don’t come home often, you ought to go see them.”

“I don’t know.” I doubted they wanted to see me and Ray knew that.

He kept his gaze on me for a long uncomfortable moment, then stuck his hand out and addressed Blake. “Ray Travis. Nice to meet a friend of Roxanne’s.”

Blake hesitated before shaking the deputy’s hand. “Blake. Nice to meet an
old
friend of Roxie’s.”

Ray went back to ignoring Blake. “Girl, I hadn’t seen you in ages. Why don’t y’all follow me back to town and let me buy you a cup of coffee?”

Sit around and reminisce with my ex while my current soaked up every word–why, that sounded like loads of wacky fun. “I think we need to be heading on back, but thank you.”

He nodded as if he that’s what he’d expected to hear. “You doing okay? The flood didn’t come near you, did it?”

I stiffened. Blake pulled me closer, his hand on the curve where my neck and shoulder met. The warmth of his hand was a comfort. “Uh, well, I lost my house.”

Ray looked stricken. “Oh damn, Roxie, I hate to hear that.” He took his hat off, wiped at the sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand. He still had a head full of dark curls, now streaked here and there with a touch of debonair gray. The lack of a wedding ring on his finger was a surprise. “I’m real sorry about that, darlin’. Is there anything I can do for you?”

The hell of it was, he meant it. Even with the way things had turned out between us years ago, he’d still do anything for me. Ray Travis was good people, a real Southern gentleman, and a fantasy come to life on the hood of his patrol car in the middle of the night in the pouring rain. I had a lot of screwed up feelings about the place I used to call home, but somehow Ray still being so sweet after all that time helped paper it over enough to take some of the sting out.

“I’m doing okay. Waiting on the insurance company, you know how that goes.”

He put his hat back on. “Oh, I do. I surely do.” He eyed Blake again, no doubt taking in the black nail polish and, well, everything about Blake. Ray didn’t miss much. “You ought to give me a call sometime. Let me know how you’re doing.”

“I will. Oh, hey, there is one thing. You know of any practitioners around anymore?”

Asking him that was risking opening a big can of worms but surprisingly he didn’t so much as flinch. “I’m not sure. There’s been some rumors about a lady that moved here from somewhere out of state. Why? Something going on I need to worry about?”

I jerked a thumb to indicate the tree line. “Haschall’s not in the woods anymore.”

His features screwed into a tight grimace. “Come again?”

Quickly I explained my theory about the flood affecting the spirit plane and told him I’d seen the Haschall ghost elsewhere. He lost a little color under his fisherman’s tan but otherwise took it well. “So assuming I can get him out of that house, I’ll sort of be sending him back here. To the area he’s used to haunting.”

“Can’t you just send him into the light or to hell or some shit? Why you gotta send him back here?”

Blake snickered. I got out from under his arm and stepped closer to Ray. “It doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes a spirit is too strong and you just have to do whatever you can.”

“Well how ’bout we dig up his bones and salt ’em and burn ’em?”

I raised an eyebrow. “You been watching TV. You know TV never gets it right.” Ray frowned, a sight I was well used to seeing back when we dated. “Look, once I get him back here the area will need to be warded. It’ll keep him in and hopefully keep out kids looking for trouble.” I blinked away an image of Jody dead on the forest floor. “I can come back if I have to but if there’s someone here, that would be best. It won’t be a onetime thing. The work will have to be redone every now and then.”

Ray sighed, looking around as if hoping to find someone to talk to who had some sense. It bothered him but not near as much as it had years ago. That made me curious, but not curious enough to go have coffee with him while Blake tagged along.

“Okay, I’ll go talk to her. It’s just a rumor though, she might not be a witch.”

“Go easy, okay? If she is she might get spooked, a cop coming to talk to her.”

He nodded. “Your folks know about your house?”

I didn’t have it in me to talk about that. “Don’t, Ray. It’s not worth talking about.”

“Shit.” He shuffled his feet, another habit I remembered. It meant he didn’t know what to say. With a sigh that was more of a grumble, he reached for my elbow. “Let me talk to you for a second.”

He meant alone. I gave Blake a look and followed Ray several feet away to stand by his patrol car. “What’s on your mind?”

“There’s a lot of things I’d like to say to you. About how sorry I am. That you’re still so beautiful it almost hurts to look at you. That I was a fool. I wish we could talk about a lot of things. I know you don’t want to stay and you’ll never move back. And you got that fella over there. You okay with him?”

There was a lot to respond to in that little speech, a lot that took my breath away. I chose to answer his question and leave the rest alone. “Yeah, I think so. He’s a mess but I can handle him.”

“If you say so.” The laugh lines at the edges of his eyes and mouth crinkled. “You go see your folks, stop at the store first. Get him some of that guyliner.”

“Ray, you’re a sweetheart.” I stood on tiptoe to hug him. He hugged back, pulling me a little closer than he really should have considering my current, uh, whatever Blake was, stood just feet away. But then Ray had a gun and even without that he always did have quite a pair on him, so he must not have been too worried. His lips brushed my cheek and I pulled away.

“You take care now. Give me a call sometime, let me know how you’re doing.”

“I will.” I began to walk toward Blake.

“Roxie,” Ray said, a hand on the door handle of his vehicle. “Thanks for not taking your glasses off. That always did make me feel like you could see me naked. That’s not fair if I can’t see you naked too.” He flashed that bad boy grin he kept under wraps, setting butterflies loose in my stomach even after all these years.

“Good to see you, Ray.”

“And stay out of cemeteries,” he hollered as he climbed into the cruiser. “That shit makes people nervous.”

I waved as he drove off. Blake was leaning against the SUV, doing a good job of appearing nonchalant. “You dated him.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah, for a while. It was a long time ago.” I walked around to the driver’s side and got in the vehicle.

Blake climbed in. “He looks older than you.”

“About ten years.” It was going to make for a long drive back if Blake decided to pout.

“Was it serious?”

I started the ignition and left the cemetery, trying to figure out how to address Blake’s question. I didn’t want to deal with any jealousy, especially when he and I were still on such precarious footing. I didn’t want to minimize what Ray had been to me either. “In a way. It never would have lasted, I knew that even then.”

“But you loved him?” I didn’t answer. Blake said, “I know he loved you. The way he looked at you was proof of that.”

“Ray’s the type that keeps everything close to the vest. He’s real orderly, solid. He’s a good guy. He never stepped out of line, never did anything wild and crazy. I think he needed a little wildness and I needed some solid, so we worked for a while and then we didn’t.” What I couldn’t bring myself to say was Ray was my first love, so far the only man I’d ever loved. Talking about love with Blake was something I just couldn’t do yet. “You mind if we talk about something else?”

“Sure. So we going to see your parents?”

I laughed. “Oh my God. Out of the frying pan, into the fire. No, we’re not. You did your nails for nothing, sorry.”

Blake examined his manicure. “I saw a girl once with a coat of glitter on her black nail polish. How do you think that would look?”

“A lot like your aura, actually.” I breathed a mental sigh of relief, glad Blake didn’t seem inclined to fixate on my old boyfriend or be too jealous. I was ready to get back to focusing on Maple Hill and the ghost of Stanley Haschall.

I was going to have to call Ray at some point, though. No matter what I was able to do about Haschall, it looked like there was something else in those woods. Ray and this maybe-witch would need to know that.

* * * *

I let Blake talk me into staying at his hotel that night. After a quick phone call to Daniel, we ordered room service and talked about magic. I was starting to like having another practitioner to talk with.

Wearing only his jeans, he went around the room placing candles in safe areas. I’d changed into one of his t-shirts, my hair brushed out and glasses left on the nightstand. He had us sit cross-legged on the bed facing each other. He meditated, I pretended. It didn’t take long for me to start giggling. Meditation had never been my thing. Several minutes of kissing earned me his forgiveness.

“If two people are going to blend their energies they have to be very in tune with each other,” he said.

“Are you coming on to me?”

“Always.” His grin turned into a smirk. “I want you to raise your hands up like this, an inch from mine.” He held his hands up, palms facing me. I followed suit. “You know how to ground and center and send your energy out.” A statement, not a question. He’d seen me do that. “I want you to do that now.”