Perse reached into the open window and tapped the radio on the dashboard. It flickered, the stations changing at random. It hopped from hip-hop to dad rock to hyper-pop. There was a method to her madness, though.
The choppy songs said, “Good…afternoon…hot stuff…”
My cheeks warmed again. “Perse,” I hissed under my breath.
Flinging my arm out, I pointed to the glowing portal that led to the afterlife. “The door is right there. See yourself out.”
She laughed and meandered away to go bother some bored cats or something. I didn’t care, so long as she wasn’t here flirting with the detective.
Maddox blinked rapidly. The blood had rushed from his face. He had been resisting believing, but Perse’s display had changed something. I could see, even from here, that every hair on the back of his arms stood on end.
“Do you want to come inside?” I asked.
The sun was setting. I wasn’t going to stay up much longer. I had an early shift at Bad Moon Café in the morning. The place needed to be deep cleaned, bottles needed to be checked for their expiration date, and I would have to see if Vi had set anything on fire while I’d been gone—though her control had been amazing as of late.
“I’m fine out here. Try not to make any ghosts while I nap out here.” Maddox settled back into his seat.
He was languid. Had he been a shifter, he would have been beautiful and deadly. What was I saying? He was already both. A man like him knew how to use both his body and his gun to kill.
Having him outside was oddly comforting. I left him to his own devices while I went inside to make myself a quick dinner. I could have made him something, too, but I wasn’t in the mood to hand-deliver food. If he was hungry, he could come and knock on the door.
Stomach full, I made my way through the dark towards my bedroom, so I could crash into bed. I flopped, face first, into my comforter. It should have been comforting, but I missed the silence of the wilderness already.
The moans and groans of disgruntled ghosts filled the air. They were louder than the distant sirens wailing in the inner city. I could get used to the sirens. It was the inconsistent complaints, stories left untold, and ear-piercing screeches that kept me awake.
Rolling over, I sighed and stared blankly at the ceiling.
A face suddenly filled my vision. Perse’s eyes were wide with fear. She reached to shake me, but her hands passed right through me. A sound at the window caught her attention. Her head snapped to the side.
I’d never seen her this scared before.
“Get up,” Perse hissed.
Something scratched at the dark windowpane again. The sound of nails dragging along the glass made my bones rattle. Cold arcana unfurled deep within me. It reached outwards before I could stop it and grazed the thing outside my window.
Death.
My breath hitched. I rolled out of bed and onto my feet, but I didn’t know where to go. My friends had battle instincts. I froze. Heart hammering inside my chest, I stared at the window where the dead thing was trying to get in.
Had I…had I done it again? Had I raised the dead by accident again? I never meant to do it. My arcana had a mind of its own. It would crawl out of me, in the dead of night, and find empty hosts. Try as I might, I couldn’t stop it.
I could never stop the half-formed, rotten things crawling their way towards me like I would be able to fix them. I couldn’t. I didn’t have the power to fix them. They were dead and needed to stay that way.
Perse filled my vision again. “This isn’t you. Run. They’re coming for you.”
She shoved me. Even though her hands went through my body, I lurched all the same. I spun and stumbled out of the room. I grabbed my keys from the table near the door and rushed out into the night.
A crash in the bushes made me jump. I clamped my hand over my mouth to keep from yelping. When I turned, the shadows shifted. Even under the pale glow of the street lamps, I could see something crawling out from under the bushes. A human hand, desiccated, flesh slumping off the bone, reached out.
“Shit. Fuck.” I spun around.
The Lincoln still sat by the curb, but I couldn’t go to Maddox. He didn’t deserve to be caught up in this. I prayed that he was sleeping peacefully in his car while I leapt into my own driver’s seat and jammed the key into the ignition.
Ness could use her arcana to issue commands. Vi could burn things with her divine arcana. However, as I pulled out of my driveway, I couldn’t bring myself to go to them. My friends had mates and happy lives. Both had recently survived near-death experiences.
I wasn’t going to bring my problems to them.
Cerri could help, though. At least, that’s what I hoped as I sped towards her warehouse apartment. Maybe…maybe whoever was after me wouldn’t be able to find me there. Cerri had to have wards on her apartment.