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  “No.” She interrupted Jonah. “Whatever you have in your mind get it out of there.”

  He ignored her as if he couldn’t hear her, which she would have believed back in the house but she knew not to be the case now. “Get her the fuck out of here. You and I both know what has to happen. I won’t have her here. I never ask for help. You know that…”

  Foy held up his hand and she knew she was about to be ousted from the mansion. “Say no more. I get it.”

  “I get a say in this.” She would have stomped her foot if it wouldn’t have made her feel ridiculous. “I know he’s trying to be noble but…”

  “Mindy,” Jonah interrupted her. “You need to do this for me. I love you. If you love me the way you said you did, and I believe you do, you won’t make me go through this knowing you’re watching.”

  “Jonah…”

  He shook his head. “Please.”

  “Damn it.”

  She turned on her heel and stormed from the room. He didn’t have to beg. If he wanted her gone, she’d be gone. But this wasn’t what people who were in it together did. Did he really not believe that she could handle it? Or that she could help?

  Why did Jonah spend so much time thinking he had to do everything alone?

  Tears sprung from her eyes and since there was no one to be brave for she let them flow down her cheeks. Screw him. He’d told her he loved her and then threw her out the second things got difficult again.

  Mindy had almost made it out to the car alone when she saw that Braxton leaned against it. How was it that one of the blood-oathed was always around? They were worse than a high school locker room. Someone was always watching.

  “What?” She rubbed at her face, flicking away the tears. Crying alone was one thing, crying in front of Braxton something else entirely.

  “I wanted to make sure you got out to your car okay.”

  “How did you even know I’d be out here?” She shook her head, holding up her hand. “No, don’t tell me. I’ve had enough of the whole weirdness for one night. If Foy spoke to you telepathically, I don’t want to know.”

  He held up his phone. “Texted me.”

  Tiredness gripped her shoulders, making her feel twice as heavy as she actually was while she walked toward her car. She should be asleep, wrapped in Jonah’s arms, not ordered from his side when he needed her the most.

  “You know what he’s doing, don’t you?” Braxton didn’t budge from his spot.

  “He’s protecting me. I get it.” She shook her head. “But it’s bullshit and nothing else you have to say is going to convince me of anything else.”

  “He doesn’t want you to watch him die.”

  She stopped moving. “Say that again?” Her hands shook and she shoved them in her pockets.

  “If he can’t get this under control, Foy will kill him.” Braxton uttered the words so calmly at first she thought she must have misheard him. But he just stood there, staring at her in the way that made her feel exposed.

  “Braxton.” She swallowed, her mouth had gone dry. “People don’t go around killing one another. We’re not allowed to just do that. Foy can’t simply kill Jonah because Jonah is having some kind of breakdown.”

  “This isn’t a breakdown. This is a progression of a haunting. Whatever causes it—Jonah or a leftover spirit or whatever—it’s purely paranormal. And we have a deal with one another. None of us can be left to be abused by the darkness. We stop it. One way or another.”

  She fisted her hands, wanting to slam them right into Braxton’s face. “Jonah can beat this. I promise you that. And if anyone harms him, they’ll have to answer to me.” Mindy meant what she said and Braxton would have to be an idiot not to believe her—she knew he wasn’t that. “Including Jonah. If he harms himself, I’ll come and find him in the next life and kick his sorry ass. Got it?”

  Braxton grinned. “Good girl.”

  Mindy didn’t even want to imagine what he meant by that.

  * * * * *

  The next morning when she pounded on Foy’s door, she was calm. Mostly. She’d ground her teeth all night and managed to give herself a headache. But she at least knew what she had to do and how she had to do it.

  He opened the door and shook his head. “I’m not letting you see him. He’s locked up in a cell in the basement where there is nothing he can hurt himself with.”

  “Two things.” She held up a finger and to her amazement Foy shut up. “Number one, he’s really, really psychic, isn’t he? Like, ridiculously off the charts. People can make poltergeist but this is over the top.”

  Foy nodded. “He’s always been blissfully unaware of it but yes, why do you think he’s so empathic? So able to immediately walk into a room and assess what is happening paranormally? Jonah is gifted. If he could tap into the power that makes his delusions he could be unstoppable as a force against them.”

  “Right.” She nodded. “That’s what I thought.” When he got through this she was going to see to it that Jonah started really using his talents. “Second thing. I need you to use your contacts. I’m getting in to see Damian, wherever he is, and I’m bringing him to see Jonah. Don’t argue with me. If you don’t do this, Foy, if you don’t get me in to Damian and then let me in to Jonah I’m going to go to the police. Oh I’m sure I won’t get through to them. You have this town in your pocket. But when they turn me down, I’ll go to the media. To anyone who will listen to me. A blogger. I don’t give a shit. Ask yourself if you want that kind of publicity.”

  Foy raised an eyebrow “Are you threatening me?”

  “Yes. Yes I am.” She’d never threatened anyone before in her life. “But I guess it’s not really fair to call it a threat because I intend to make good on it. People don’t get to kill someone I love, not when I can stop it.”

  Master’s eyes got huge. “Kill him? Where on earth did you get that idea? I’m not going to kill Jonah.”

  “But Braxton said…”

  He shook his head. “Braxton said whatever he thought you needed to hear. And that makes me compelled to help you. Because, like Jonah, Braxton is a man of talent. You want to bring Damian to Jonah? Fine. We’ll do that. Why not?”

  “How do any of you live with so much game playing?”

  Foy laughed and for the first time she saw that he had a dimple in his left cheek. It actually made him look…gentle. “We stop evil from overtaking the world. Sometimes it takes a little juggling to get there.”

  * * * * *

  Jonah stared at BoBo. The clown leaned against the bar of the cell, staring at him with red demonic eyes. The creature hummed a distracting tune and Jonah groaned. He didn’t want to spend his time down here with that…thing.

  “You’re not real. You know that, don’t you? You’re dead. My friend’s fiancé ended you by wielding a sword. She turned out to be really amazing. Perfect for Christian.”

  BoBo laughed, a high-pitched giggle. “Does it matter? If I’m real? If I’m not real? I can still harm you because I’m in your head. And that’s all that matters, right?”

  Jonah closed his eyes. “I can make this stop. I did once. I can again.”

  He could remember now. The nights that had been filled with terror when he’d lain on his bed in Foy’s house, Christian across the room, Braxton and Ivan through a small door, just next door. It had stopped. He’d been able to let this stuff go. So why couldn’t he now?

  “You did stop it and it came back. We all came rushing back to you. So you didn’t really stop it. All you did was delay it. Just in time for your girl to see what a fruitless future she’d have with you.” BoBo stretched before pulling out a knife. “Should we start cutting you up now?”

  “Jonah.” He looked up through the bars of his cell and saw Mindy standing there with the boy they’d saved. Damian.

  He blinked several times to make sure she remained where she was. When she didn’t fade, he looked at BoBo. It couldn’t be good when he had to speak to his own delusions to get clarification but w
hat other choice did he have?

  “Do you see her and the kid?”

  Mindy huffed. “I don’t know who you’re talking to but I’m here and so is Damian.”

  “I see her.” The clown shrugged. “But I don’t care. I’ve already cut her up once. Who needs a repeat performance?”

  “You are never going to touch her again.” He spoke through gritted teeth.

  Mindy threw her hands in the air. “BoBo again. Great.”

  “Okay.” Jonah stood up and walked to the bars. “What are you doing here?” He’d told her to go. He’d thrown her out. Why had she gotten back in? Why wasn’t she running so far from him that he couldn’t possibly cause her any more pain?

  “I came to bring you Damian.”

  He shook his head. “Yes. I can see that. The question is why did you bring me Damian?”

  Damian looked up him. “You can see them too.”

  Jonah bent down. Did Mindy expect him to make sense of this for the kid? He could barely understand any of it himself.

  Still, he tried to make himself at least appear calm when he spoke with the boy. “What can you see?”

  “The clown. The images on the wall. The ghosts floating by.”

  Jonah didn’t want to disappoint him but at that moment all Jonah could see was BoBo. “Yep. Sounds about right.”

  “And none of it exists.” Damian rubbed his eyes. “Except somehow it does.”

  “Right. That’s the problem.”

  “No,” Mindy interrupted and he looked up at her. How could she be so beautiful in the midst of all this mess? “It’s not a problem. You’re both simply channeling your energy incorrectly.”

  “What?” He patted Damian on the head. Maybe there would be a better ending to this for him than there had been for him.

  “I’ve done some research.”

  He sighed. Mindy and her research. He never did get around to getting her better books. Where had she come up with this current idea? Wikipedia?

  “I can see the scoffing going on in your mind.” She shook her head. “But someone else agrees with me. Don’t say anything disparaging until you speak with him.”

  “Foy?” Jonah wasn’t convinced that his Master would know any better than Mindy. Foy was good for fighting—reading had always been much more Jonah’s field.

  “No.” She grinned. “Your buddy. The Shaman.”

  Mindy stepped out of the way and Foy’s Shaman who had cleared the house earlier in the week looked at her.

  “You’ve really gotten yourselves into a bind here.” He put his hands on his hips. “And luckily I can help both of you get out of this.”

  The Shaman looked at the door and it swung open. Jonah stared at it for a second. “Did you just open the door with only your thoughts?”

  “Yes.” He nodded. “And the thing to remember here as we go through this is that you have this ability too. You just hid it so far back in your mind that you had no chance against the onslaught. No wonder you went around making poltergeists.”

  “You can stop it? You can clear me?”

  The Shaman shook his head as he took Damian’s hand and walked into the cell. Jonah opened his mouth to tell them all to back up and then closed his lips. Maybe there was a chance he could be helped.

  “I’m going to teach you how to clear yourself. The kid too. You have the same problems. Then you’ll be able to take all that psychic goodness and really kick ass.”

  Damian grinned the smile of a kid who had just been given candy at Christmas time. A second later, his face fell. “My parents did bad things.”

  “So did mine.” His parents had done such bad things that he’d blocked them out completely for years. But they’d been there…inside him…infecting everything. He’d tried to deny them, picked up a Southern accent that wasn’t his own, tried to be…amusing.

  “Yep.” The Shaman raised his hands over his head. “And mine were mass murderers. But we aren’t our parents. Let’s live our own lives.” The Shaman turned to Mindy. “You need to leave. As we discussed.”

  She nodded before bending down to Damian. “You know what’s going to happen now. And afterward you’re going to stay here with Foy.”

  Jonah jolted. “He is? Foy hasn’t taken on any new kids in years.”

  “Well, he’s taking on Mary and Damian.”

  She wouldn’t look at him and it made Jonah’s insides cold. If the Shaman could fix him, would Mindy still be around? Finally, her eyes met his own. “Can I speak to you for just a second? Then I’ll leave you here with them to get better.”

  Something about the tone of her voice made his hands shake. “Mindy, listen…”

  “No.” She shook her head. “You listen. Whatever has to happen here, you focus on that. This whole thing was my idea. Apparently it had to be that way. Braxton manipulated it. Don’t ask.” She bit down on her lower lip. “But you told me you loved me. You made love to me. You made promises. And then you threw me out.”

  “I’m trying to protect you from this. I don’t want you to watch me fall apart.”

  “No.” She fisted her hands and he thought for a second she might actually punch him. “You don’t get to tell me you love me, accept my love, and then sideline me because it’s no longer convenient for you.”

  She really didn’t understand. “Sweetheart, listen to me.”

  “I’m done with that. I didn’t survive being attacked by a demonic clown in order to live half a life. I made a decision when I woke up from my delirium that I would no longer hold off living the life I wanted, the one I was sure I deserved.”

  “No one is asking you to do that. I want you to have everything you desire.”

  “Right.” She nodded and one lone tear slipped from her eyes. “As long as it’s on your terms. I think I felt that I was somehow less-than because I can’t do what you all do here. I’m not powerful. I’m just a girl trying to get stronger after being hurt.”

  He touched the side of her face but she didn’t even acknowledge the movement. “You’re so much more than that.”

  Mindy took a step back. “You’re not listening to me. If ever it was clear how you really felt about me it was last night. You’d told me you loved me five minutes earlier and then you threw me out.”

  “I’m trying to protect you.” His heart beat hard against his ribs. Jonah’s stomach turned over. He had the worst feeling that he knew exactly what was about to happen and there wasn’t a thing he could do to stop it.

  “I don’t need protection. I’m not Cinderella, I don’t need Prince Charming.”

  She turned on her heel and walked toward the door. He lunged forward, needing to stop her, but he was yanked backward before he could manage it.

  The Shaman stared at him, no sympathy in his eyes. “You want to go after her with that thing,” he pointed at BoBo, “still embedded in your head?”

  “No.” But he had trouble breathing. She couldn’t be through with him. That couldn’t have been a forever statement. It just…couldn’t be.

  “Then let’s get it out.”

  “Okay.” That sounded like a good plan. Evil first and then beg Mindy to listen, to not leave him. “I’ll go after her in a couple of hours. She’ll have cooled off a bit and…”

  “Jonah.” The Shaman shook his head. “This might take days. Weeks. Months. Years. I just don’t know. I don’t always understand women but I would guess you couldn’t go back to her a half-man. She’s not going to take you that way. Not after what she just said.”

  He nodded. The Shaman was right. “It can’t take years. Whatever I have to do. Twenty-four hours a day. Got it?”

  “Can’t rush these things.” The Shaman walked back to Damian.

  We’re with you, Jonah. Christian’s voice was in his head. He whirled around. Foy called us. We’re all here.

  Yeah. Because none of us had anything better to do. Braxton laughed.

  Can it, Brax, Ivan countered.

  Pretty soon the other four and Foy were arg
uing in his head. Strangely, it made him feel stronger. Less alone and this task less…daunting.

  His blood-oathed brothers were with him on this. He could do it.

  “What’s first?”

  The Shaman sat down. “Meditation.”

  Of course, his least favorite activity. But anything for Mindy. Anything.

  Chapter Twelve

  Mindy sat in her chair and studied the menu. When she wasn’t in the mood to eat barbecue something was wrong. But as she watched Dodie chow down on her biscuit and she didn’t want to eat anything on her own plate, she knew she’d crossed over some kind of line she wasn’t coming back from.

  Dodie set her down fork and stared at her while she sipped on her iced tea. “Now I know that I looked really pretty in my wedding dress today when I tried it on. But not enough to render you speechless or take away your appetite. Unless you think I look bad.”

  “No.” She grabbed Dodie’s hand. God forbid her friend think that. “I’m sorry I’m so moody. I just can’t snap out of it.”

  Dodie nodded, taking another sip. “Jonah?”

  “I guess.” Although she wished she could just snap out of it. “Sorry about that. This week is about you.”

  “You have been saying this for five weeks. It doesn’t need to be about me. Not every day.” Dodie pointed at her with her fork. “You can’t use my wedding as an excuse to not talk about this stuff. It’s going to eat you alive.”

  “Your wedding is a wonderful, exciting, blissful event.” Dodie had actually found the perfect guy for her. Somehow it worked that Christian was a karate instructor-slash-evil-fighting teacher who used to be an exotic dancer and whose nights were dedicated to fighting demonic things. Dodie was a game designer—a real techie—and he thought she walked on water.

  Mindy wanted to bend her spoon in half she was so jealous of her best friend’s happiness. Thrilled for her, but green with envy at the same time. She’d never had such a dichotomy of emotions running through her at the same time.

  True joy and utter disappointment. “What other time in your life will you be able to say that everything needs to be about you?”