War-N-Wit, Inc. - The Witch (16 page)

I stared at the house.
Something
in the air.
The whole neighborhood screamed despair, poverty,
hopelessness. But there was something else, too. Something I couldn't peg. But
it wasn't coming from the neighborhood as a whole. No, it was specific.
Located squarely in
that
house.

And it wasn't just me, I thought. Chad
felt it, too. I could
feel
him
feeling it, just as I knew he could feel me.

"Baby girl."

"What, Magic Man?"

"Whatcha' think?"

"Don't know. There's something
different about that house. I know there is, but I don't know what.
Can't read it.
Can you?"

"Nope.
Always known it was there, felt it when I first started tracking
him. But I think I know what we need to translate it."

"Yeah?
What?"

"A ghost whisperer.
We know any good ones?"

I laughed softly. "Well, now that you
mention it, I might just be able to hook us up with one."

Chad
turned the key and the Equinox hummed softly into life. He pulled away from the
curb, just another shadow amidst other shadows.

"We're going back to civilization, get
us a hotel room,
get
some rest." He grinned.
"Among other activities.
And we'll call Stacy early in
the morning and ask her to drive up here and translate for us."

Chapter Twenty-Three

I called Stacy from the warm comfort of Chad's
arms in an Alpharetta Best Western king size bed at 7:00 a.m. the next morning.

"Hey, Antsypants!
You got any plans this weekend?"

"Whassss—what time isss it?
Jezzzzzzzzz, Ari,
it's
7:00 o'clock! In the mornin'!
And it's
Saturday!!!!!
"

I grinned at the progression of degree of
wakefulness in her voice.

"Yeah, well, just be glad I didn't
call you last night. At 2:00 a.m."

"Where the hell are y'all?"

"Alpharetta."

"Nevada's got an Alpharetta?"

"Alpharetta,
Georgia
."

"What are you doing
back
already?"

"Long story.
We were kinda hoping you'd drive up."

"Because?"

"Because we need a
ghost whisperer."

* * *

The house looked worse this time than it
had in the wee hours of the night before. Rain'll do that. It sat in darkness,
and that
something
that neither Chad
nor I could peg was even more palpable tonight. I turned in my seat to keep a
constant view of my little sister's face as she sat in the back. I'd never seen
her while she was in the grip of her own special power and I didn't intend for
anything to happen to her, no matter what she sensed.

Her face drained of color.

"So many," she whispered.

"Stacy?"

"So
many
.
He's used it.
Many times.
Over
years.
Death house."

"Stacy!"

She was almost in a trance. And I was
almost climbing over the seat to get to her. Chad's hands held me back.

"Leave her alone, baby girl! Don't
interfere!"

"He takes them.
The
lost ones.
Inside that house.
And they never
come out."

"Stacy!"

"Baby girl!"

"Who are you?" Stacy asked.

"Stacy, you know who we are!"

"She's not talking to us, baby."

"Leanne.
Such a
pretty name.
Such a pretty girl.
You had no
business out on the streets at fourteen, Leanne."

"Oh,
shit
!" Chad
exclaimed. A tall man in a heavy nylon coat and a knit skull cap was walking up
the street, his head and shoulders hunched against the drizzle. He headed to
the door of the house.

Stacy came back to us in a rush.

"Chad! That's him! Don't let him go
in! We have to get him.
Now!
"

"Not so loud, honey! We need back-
up,
we'll stay and watch while I call this in—"

"No!! He has a girl in there! Still
alive! Leanne told me! If he goes in—by the time anybody gets here—we have to
stop him now!"

Chad
looked between us and closed his eyes briefly. I could feel his frustration.
A serial-killing drug dealer to take down and two novices to worry
about.

"Lord
help
,"
he said. He leaned over and kissed me hard and quick and opened the door.
"Ariel, get your ass over in this seat and get the hell out of here while
Stacy calls 911. We're at

He didn't wait for an answer. Probably
because he knew the one he'd hear. I turned the key but not to crank up, only
to lower the window so I could hear them. I hoped. Stacy was already on her
cell.

"We're at

Oh, God, don't tell 'em, honey, they'll
never believe us, I thought, but I underestimated my little sister.

"…we have a break-in attempt,
somebody's trying to break in our house,
he's
got a
gun, please hurry!"

She clicked the phone shut. The man
stopped, head up, all senses alert as Chad approached, a predator sensing
danger.

Chad
's
hand moved inside his jacket. I knew it was on the Glock in his shoulder
holster.

"Hey, buddy, I'm lookin' for Zander.
Somebody told me he's the man to see if you want the best. Can you help me out
here?" I strained forward. I could barely hear.

"You not lookin' to
score, man.
You get yo' ass on gone, do you know
what's good for you."

"Hey!" Chad threw up a hand. Not the one
on the Glock. He kept walking towards Zander.
"Chill,
man!
All I want is a little piece of action." He was closer.
Zander, high-alert mode activated, debated whether to run, hold, or attack. I
could feel his indecision vibrating in the air.

"No, man.
You lookin'
for me." I saw the
material of Zander's coat change shape under the street light. It poked out in
a straight line.
The line of a gun barrel.
I heard the
retort of the gunfire at the same moment I saw a blackish-red flower bloom on Chad's
shoulder. Almost simultaneously, I heard two more gunshots.
Much
louder gunshots.
Two blackish-red flowers bloomed in Zander's chest. A
look of amazement crossed his face. And then he fell.

I was out of the car and running, Stacy hot
behind me, as Chad
staggered. He fell forward just as I reached him, the blood pumping furiously.
Arterial blood.
Had to be.
He
looked at me and said, "Twice, baby girl. You always shoot twice.
Once to take 'em down, once to finish it."

I caught his arms just as he fell, and we
went down together. Not because I wasn't strong enough to hold him up. At that
moment, the adrenaline was pumping so furiously I could have held him up had he
weighed much more than he did. We went down together because he was passing out
from the sudden massive blood loss. And so was I.
Without
losing a drop.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Somewhere off in the shadow lands where Chad
and I floated, I heard sirens.
My sister's urgent voice.
The shouted orders of the responding officers.
Not
everything.
Bits and pieces of running, jumbled voices.

"Miss, calm down.
…what went down…yes, an ambulance is on the way…"

"…my sister and brother-in-law…private
investigator, you'll find his ID at the hospital…that man…check the house! You
have to check the house….
where's
the fuckin' ambulance?!"
Oh, yeah, Stacy was getting hot.

"Miss, it's on the way…house…swat
team…."

"…don't need a swat team…need a
forensic team…check under the house…ambulance…Don't you
dare
try and separate them, you don't understand…." I felt her
kneeling beside us, her arms around us.

Another somebody was beside us too, one of
the officers, I assumed. "I need more padding! Pull all you got from both
cars…move your asses!"

More sirens.
A different tone.
Ambulances.

"No! You
do not
separate them!"

Tell 'em, Stacy. You go, girl!

"Where the hell's she hit?"

"That's the thing. She's not!"

"Vitals are as bad as his, she's gotta
be hit somewhere!"

"She's not! You work on him!"

"
Get
the
plasma going!
Gotta replace the blood!"

"Move your ass out of the way! I go
with them! Don't you dare try and stop me!"

And through it all, I felt Chad
slipping, fighting back, slipping,
fighting
back. I
latched on with a psychic vice grip and pulled with everything I had.
And entered total blackness.

* * *

I was floating somewhere. I didn't know
where.
Somewhere black.
Somewhere
soundless.
I didn't know how long I'd been there. And out of the
darkness came light.
A pinprick at first.
I felt a
hand grabbing mine, and though I couldn't know it or actually feel it, I knew
it. And felt it. Another hand was grabbing Chad's hand.
And
tugging.
Then a buzzing noise.
A voice.
Furious.
Intense.
Insistent.

"You listen to me, Mister! You get
your ass back here and you bring my sister with you! Do you hear me?!?!"

I opened my eyes.
An ER
trauma unit.
I was on a stretcher, Chad on a stretcher beside me.

"Stacy? Chad?"

"Oh, my God!
Thank you, thank you!"

"You can stop shouting now, darlin', I
hear you."

Chad
's voice.

"Okay, Miss, we've gotten some blood
back in him, he's stabilized. And I don't know what the devil that's got to do
with your sister's condition but since she's back, and he's back, we got to
knock him out again, take care of that shoulder. Can you let us do that now,
you think?"

I laughed. My little sister had apparently
raised some holy hell in our absence.

"Baby girl, you okay?" His voice
was stronger already.

"I'm fine, Magic Man." I was, in fact, sitting up on the
stretcher, hampered by the IV, though why the heck they'd thought I needed one
or what it was, I didn't know. "Can y'all get this thing outta me?"

The doctor stepped over and ripped off the
tape. "Stay still." I felt the foreign object leave my skin with a
stinging sensation. I stood and moved to the head of Chad's stretcher, stumbling a bit.
Stacy steadied me as I leaned over and kissed him.

"Hell of a honeymoon, Magic Man. You
behave and let them take care of you. We'll be here when you come back."

"'Kay.
Love you."

"Love you."

I watched as they wheeled him on to the ER.
Another doctor spoke.

"Your husband's a lucky man, Mrs.
Garrett. He's alive because the officers kept pressure on that shoulder long
enough for the paramedics to start replacing some of the blood loss.
Close to bleeding out there."

"You're telling me," I said.

"Damnedest thing I ever saw. You, I
mean. You wouldn't care to explain that, now would you?"

"Oh, I wouldn't mind. But you wouldn't
believe me."

"Probably not."
He nodded. "Well, let's get you two settled in the right
waiting room. You sure you're okay?"

"As long as he
is."

"You're not gonna pass out when they start
the anesthesia, are you?"

"I don't think so, I know
it's
coming.
Seems to make a
difference."

The doctor shook his head. "Nope, I
probably really don't want to know anyway."

Stacy picked up the bag furnished by the
hospital to hold our personal things and we settled down in a waiting room
outside the right surgical unit.