Ghosts, Witches, and Ghould
CHAPTER 1
Considerations
A chill wind blew through the graveyard, scattering yellow and brown leaves. The wind whipped a shower of water from the trees and a fat old raven squawked in protest. The bird took flight as a very tall thin woman passed by.
She brushed a few yellowed leaves from the top of the headstone before she knelt in front of it. "It's me again Vivie."
A chill wind swept across the graveyard and Alexandra huddled deeper into her heavy sweater. "I just don't know what to do. He has started sending people to try and drive us out of our place."
She sat for a moment in silence before she pulled a sandwich baggie from her satchel. She'd killed the frog yesterday, but it would still be good. The frog stuck to the inside of the bag here and there but she eventually worked it free. The frog was still cold from its time the refrigerator but really it was only a little colder than when she'd first caught it so she didn't mind too much as she bit into the meaty part of a back leg.
She ate half of the frog and set the other half on top of the headstone. "I miss you."
. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .
Charlie shivered as she tied her hair up into a messy bun on her way into Treyson's gym. She'd been the manager for the gym for a long time now, but she still felt uneasy crossing the dark parking lot. Her keys jingled as she turned them in the lock and pulled the door open. The smell of cleaners and old sweat hit her as she opened the door but it was familiar and comfortable.
The flyer announcing the next women's self-defense class fluttered as the door closed. She wondered if Quinn would be helping with the class. She and Trey usually helped with the class but now that Trey's wife was expecting he'd been spending a lot more time at home.
She flipped on the overhead lights but paused when they flickered. Nothing else happened for a moment so she started to take her jacket off. There was a clang of metal and something darted in the shadows of the hall.
"Hey!" Charlie yelled as she hurried to the desk. She grabbed her extendable baton and snapped it out as she approached the hallway. "Whoever you are, you better come outta there!" She took a cautious step closer.
The lights flickered and there was a sudden chill. Charlie could feel the skin on her neck prickle. She took a cautious step closer. The air was noticeably colder in the hallway. She thought she heard something move in the darkness ahead of her. She felt along the wall with one hand until she found the light switch. She flipped the switch but nothing happened. She flipped it a couple of times out of frustration and nerves but still nothing happened.
There was a sudden loud clatter from the storage room and she yelped. The lights flickered again but this time they stayed on. She relaxed a little and followed the hall around the corner to the storage room. A stack of boxes had fallen over but nothing else looked out of place. The lights flickered again and Charlie felt a chill slither down her spine. The lights continued to flicker as she hurried down the hall.
She felt like something was watching her as she neared the end of the hallway. She looked back over her shoulder but continued to head for the main room. Hands grabbed her arms, she screamed and reacted on instinct. She jerked her knee up and spun her arm away from the fingers that had suddenly tightened their grip. It all happened in the second it took for her to turn her head to look at who had grabbed her. By then it was too late and Trey had already dropped to the floor with a groan.
Still curled on the floor he moaned. "Guess it's a good thing I didn't plan on having more kids."
"What the hell?" It was easier to be angry than to admit that he'd scared her, and she was sorry she'd kneed him.
Trey turned and sat carefully. "What were you running from?"
"I think you have a ghost in the storage room and maybe the hallway." She glanced over her shoulder again, and stepped closer to the desk.
"What?" He looked up at Charlie and could see how pale she looked. "Are you serious?"
"Yes." She crossed her arms. "I saw something move in the dark and the lights were flickering and... whatever… It just freaked me out."
"Okay. I'll check it out, but don't be telling the customers there's a ghost. That's the last thing I need."
. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .
"Eliot!" Parker yelled as she came into the loft. "Eliot! Hardison said I can't steal candy for Halloween!"
Eliot flinched and Quinn had sprung from the couch into a ready stance.
"Jeeze Parker." Eliot's eyes flashed yellow.
"Why can't I steal candy if I want to?" Parker crossed her arms and then braced her hands on her hips.
Eliot huffed when he recognized that she was trying out poses that she'd seen Sophie use to show her displeasure.
"Because people give away candy on Halloween?" Quinn had relaxed a little but hadn't sat back down.
"So?"
"So we'll find somethin' for you to steal if you want, but Hardison and Quinn are right, people give candy away on Halloween." Eliot went back to stirring the contents in his bowl.
"Are we giving away candy on Halloween?" Parker gave each man a dubious look.
"Yes." Eliot set his bowl on the counter and wiped his fingers on his apron. "Janel and Brian are taking turns sitting out front to give out candy to the kids and the rest of the staff is giving candy out with the food orders."
"Didn't Hardison say something about a candy flavored beer?" Quinn moved to sit on one of the stools by the counter.
Eliot shuddered. "Yes, and I'm offering fifty percent off of their next drink if they ordered that candy crap."
"Afraid you'll lose customers over it?" Quinn tapped idly on the counter.
"Have you tasted it? I'm just hoping no one actually gets sick off of it."
"It tastes like marshmallow Easter bunnies!" Parker smiled as she settled on a seat next to Quinn.
"Ick." Quinn's face scrunched up in disgust.
"Don't make that face 'til you try it!" Hardison smiled as he came in.
"It sounds disgusting." Quinn gave Hardison a look that clearly said he thought there was something wrong with Hardison.
"Don't knock it 'til you try it."
"I'm not gonna try it."
"And I'm knocking it off the menu as soon as Halloween is over." Eliot hung his apron on a hook. "Come on. The ribs need to marinate and all of you could use a run."
"How about you?" Parker shoved at Eliot's shoulder as she headed for the stairs.
"Especially me."
~~o0o~~
By the time that the pack had changed and met on the loading dock the misty drizzle had turned to a complete downpour. A chill wind blew rain onto the loading dock and they all flinched away from it.
"Back up to the gym?" Quinn looked at Eliot.
"How about Treyson's?" Hardison could feel how much Eliot and Quinn needed to get out of the loft for a bit.
"What are you guys waiting for?" Parker called from the front seat of Lucille.
A quick dash and they were all in the van. Eliot pulled his damp hair back into a tail before he put the van in gear. "Alright, let's get to it."
Rain wasn't something that would discourage traffic in Portland the way that it would in other places, but it could slow it down. The weather slowed the traffic, and the traffic added an extra ten minutes to the usual drive to Treyson's. Eliot felt more than heard the plastic of the steering wheel start to crack under his palm and he loosened his grip.
"Have you heard from Gemma today?" Quinn asked from his place at the back of the van.
"No." Eliot readjusted his grip again.
"They've been working on parts of the grid on that side of town after the last storm." Hardison pulled out his tablet to see if there was anything new.
"I talked with Gemma yesterday morning before her shift and she said that power had been pretty solid but the phones and internet kept blinking on and off."
"I'm sure she'll call soon." Parker smiled brightly.
"Come on, everybody out." Eliot found a spot right in front of the gym.
They hurried into the gym and moved to sign in at the desk. Everyone noticed the way that Charlie's face lit up when she saw Quinn. They each signed the clipboard before heading for equipment or lockers.
Charlie leaned a little closer when Quinn stepped up to the desk. "I'm glad you guys braved the rain to come in today."
"Why's that?" Quinn didn't look at her as he signed in.
"It's just nice having you come in on a day like today."
"Well alright then." He handed her the pen before heading to the locker room.
Eliot was changing his shoes when Quinn joined him in the locker room. "Not gonna give Charlie the time a day huh?"
"What do you mean by that?"
Eliot snorted.
"I just don't want to get involved with a normal."
"Whatever you want. Sophie is the matchmaker, not me." Eliot grabbed his light gloves and his mouth guard. "You want to spar today or are you doin' somethin' else?"
"I'll spar with you as long as you keep in mind that it's not my fault the phone service is sketchy in Louisiana right now."
"Deal." Eliot headed for the ring.
~~o0o~~
A large strand of hair had pulled free from Eliot's hair tie and fallen across his face. When Eliot shook his head to toss the hair out of his way Quinn took advantage.
Quinn knew from having had long hair himself that there was a second where he couldn't clearly see what was in front of him when he tossed his head like that. He stepped in with an upper cut to Eliot's jaw, staggering him backward. Quinn followed through with a punch to Eliot's diaphragm that didn't hit quite as hard as he'd hoped and a right cross to Eliot's cheek that did better.
Eliot landed hard on his back but tracked Quinn's movement. Quinn made the same mistake that a lot of men did, he stepped closer to see if Eliot was really going to stay down. One more step and Eliot hooked his foot behind Quinn's ankle and yanked. Quinn fell back and Eliot sprang forward. Eliot put a knee to Quinn's belly and would have grabbed his hair but at the last second got a grip on his neck. He drew his free hand back and Quinn tapped the mat, signaling his submission.
Eliot smiled and got up. He held a hand out to Quinn and Quinn rolled to his feet.
"Good match." Eliot smiled.
"Good match." Quinn agreed.
Eliot realized they'd drawn the attention of most of the gym as he headed for the ropes.
"So why'd you go for his neck, instead of his hair?" Trey asked as Eliot climbed through the ropes.
" 'Cause it was a friendly match." Eliot knew that Quinn was a lot better about having his hair touched or played with since Sophie had worked with him, but he didn't think Quinn would deal well with having his hair grabbed and used to control him. He wanted them to have a good time. He didn't want to bring up bad memories.
"And if it hadn't been a friendly match?" Trey raised an eyebrow.
"Cheek for a knockout or throat to kill them. Why?"
"It was a good move. I just want to know all the angles."
Eliot nodded and grabbed a towel as he headed for the locker room. With a glance at the front door, as he checked his surroundings, he noticed that the rain had died down to a misty drizzle and showed signs of clearing up for a little while. As he neared the desk, the lights flickered and there was a rattly-metal sound. The temperature near the hall dropped suddenly.
"It's the ghost." Charlie muttered and stepped a little away from the hall.
"Ghost?" Quinn asked.
"No ghost!" Trey was adamant. "My place ain't haunted!"
"That was kinda spooky." A woman on the closest treadmill commented as she shut the machine down.
Trey gave Charlie a pointed look. "There is no ghost. It was the weather messing with the electrical grid."
The woman grabbed her water bottle and headed down the hall to the women's locker room.
Quinn gave Eliot a glance but no one else said anything as they headed for the showers.
"What do you think that whole thing was about?" Quinn asked as they stepped into the showers.
"I don't know, but somehow I doubt that ghosts smell like fresh air."
"Fresh air?"
"Didn't you catch it when the temperature dropped? The air cooled and it smelled like someone had opened a door to the outside."
Quinn nodded
Eliot toweled off and was just pulling clean sweats on when a woman screamed down the hall. He and Quinn yanked on shoes and ran down the hall.
Charlie was standing in with her arms wrapped around the brunette who was shaking. Trey arrived at nearly the same time and they all looked from Charlie to the floor. Blood had splattered across the floor and a dead snake was lying in a haphazard pile to the side.
A second later, they all heard the clatter of metal and a rush of cool air as the lights flickered.
The brunette screamed and ran for the front door.
Eliot glanced at Quinn who was wearing boots and had a bath towel wrapped around his waist. "Get some clothes on. I think we need to take a look at things."
Hardison and Parker joined them in the hallway and Trey and Charlie encouraged everyone else to go back to their workouts.
"Do you think the snake is some kind of message?" Hardison kept a hand over his mouth and nose trying to hide from the scent of blood and dead snake.
Parker looked up at the vent in the ceiling. "Could it have been injured and dying and it fell out of the vent?"
Eliot picked up the snake between thumb and finger and looked it over. "Sharptail snakes eat slugs. They don't gnaw on their own insides as far as I know." Eliot looked at the middle of the snake where it had obviously been chewed on.
Quinn looked over Eliot's shoulder and with a glance to make sure that no one but the pack was looking he sniffed trying to catch all the scents he could.
Hardison gaged. "I don't know how you can do that."
Quinn closed his eyes and followed the scent until he was directly under the vent. "I don't think he's there anymore but his scent is still pretty strong."
"You can tell that the ghost is a he?" Charlie looked around Hardison to talk to Quinn.
"Uhm, ghost? No, I don't know anything about a ghost."
"But you just said…"
"Uhm…well." Quinn wasn't sure what to say that wouldn't lead to more questions or make the situation worse.
"And how do you explain the lights flickering or the room getting a chill." Charlie crossed her arms.
"I think I know what happened there." Parker looked up at the vent. "Quinn gimme a boost."
"Hang on a second. Who knows what's in that vent. I don't want you getting hurt." Trey frowned and stepped past Hardison.
"Don't worry. It'll be fine." Parker set a hand on Quinn's shoulder and he held his hands together so that Parker could step up into the pocket he made with his hands. She stepped into his hands and then up onto his shoulder. She tugged at the vent cover and it swung open. With a little hop from Quinn's shoulder, she shimmied her way into the vent.
The wolves could hear her moving through the vent but the looks on Trey and Charlie's faces said that they couldn't hear her. A moment later though, they all heard Parker yelp. A zap of pain shot through the bonds.
"Parker?" Eliot called into the vent. "Are you okay up there?"
"Yes, Sparky, I'm fine." She grunted and shifted around a little. "Someone needs to come to the roof and bring a screwdriver!"
~~o0o~~
Trey held the bottom of the ladder as Eliot climbed up to the roof.
Eliot could smell an odd musky odor when he got up there. The rain had been heavy earlier so he was sure that the scent trail was new. There weren't any obvious footprints or scuff marks, but the scent trail was strong. He followed it to a turbine vent cover and as he got closer, he started to pick up Parker's scent.
"I'll have you out in a second."
"Don't touch…" Parker didn't get to finish her sentence before the whole pack felt pain zap through the bonds.
"Ouch!" Eliot yanked his hand away from the vent cover.
"It's been hotwired." Parker sounded grumpy. "Look for a wire that's been looped around a screw or something."
Eliot found a small red wire that had been crudely stripped, leaving the wire looking mangled and frayed. The scraggly ends of the bare wire had been wrapped around a screw on one corner of the vent cover. There was a similar wire tangled around the manufacturer's nameplate on the other side of the vent. "Found them. Now what?"
"Use the screw driver to pull the wire loose."
It only took a second for him to yank the wire free. He gave the vent cover a shove and felt nothing but cool metal this time. He held a hand down and pulled Parker up and out of the vent. "You okay?"
"Yep." Parker dusted herself off. "Whoever he is, he's scared."
"What makes you say that?"
"There's no other reason to booby-trap a vent cover unless you're scared that someone will follow you."
"What are we talking about?" Trey asked as he climbed off of the ladder and onto the roof.
"You're going to want to call an electrician." Eliot pointed at the raw wire laying near the vent.
"Well damn." Trey shook his head.
"The wire is probably what was causing the lights to flicker and…" Eliot rocked the vent cover, and they all heard the metallic rattle that they'd heard earlier. "There's the noise and I'm pretty sure it's just the air out here rushing into the vent that's causing the chill inside."
"See, I told you my place wasn't haunted.
. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .
He watched them. He watched them find his door. He didn't understand why all of this was happening. He'd left. He'd crossed the river and he'd hidden, but now people were tracking him and opening his door. And it wasn't fair.
And it wasn't fair.
. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .
"So, no ghost." Trey looked smug as he walked through the front door.
"I don't know." Charlie still looked skeptical. "Quinn said he could tell the ghost was a man."
"I did not." Quinn raised an eyebrow. "I never said anything at all about a ghost."
"Doesn't matter. Eliot and Parker just proved that it wasn't a ghost." Trey crossed his arms. "We do need an electrician to fix the loose wires that are causing the lights to flicker. Can you call around and see if there is anyone that could come today?"
"Fine. But when the ghost follows you home just remember that I warned you." Charlie smiled as she headed back to the desk.
. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .
Josette used a wooden tongue depressor to move the last leach into the jar she was holding. Leaches weren't as commonly used anymore but there were still a few medical facilities that ordered small batches and occasionally a regular customer who would ask for them, so it was worth the fuss of maintaining them.
The front door of the shop opened and closed.
"Alexandra is that you?" Josette wasn't expecting her sister to be home so soon. Usually her visits to Vivie's grave took longer than this.
"Not Alexandra."
Josette couldn't help the hiss that escaped her at the sound of Ghould's voice. She hurried to the front of the store.
"You are not welcome here!" She carefully shut the gate that separated the public area from the private area. She kept a careful eye on the old man. His face was gaunt and his eyes hollow, thin arms and legs and a chest that, while broad, mostly served to emphasize Ghould's cadaverous appearance.
"Really?" He ran a pointed finger across the edge of a shelf that was displaying several herbs. "And we used to be such close friends."