21
“Come in,” I tell him, and give Jacques a look. He nods and hurries through the house, making sure everyone else is presentable. Jared steps in and closes the door behind him. I bring him into the sitting room, avoiding the guys in the living room, and motion for him to sit down.
“What happened?” I ask.
“I was in my room watching YouTube videos and suddenly it got really cold.” He pauses, waiting for me to react.
“And?” I say after a few seconds tick by.
“The door opened, but no one came in.”
“Cut the drama, kid. Tell me about the part where you saw the fucking ghost.”
“I heard someone crying. I thought maybe it was my mom, but thenshestepped in.”
“The ghost just walked into your room?” God, this kid is big with the drama.
“Yes.” He swallows hard. “She rushed me, knocked me out of my chair, and started choking me. I’ve been keeping salt on my nightstand, you know, just in case. I was able to kick the nightstand and make the salt spill. It was enough to get her to loosen her grip and then I said her name. Her eyes went from gray to blue. And then she disappeared.”
“Tip your head up,” I tell him, and look at his neck. There are red marks. I bring his hand up, making sure he didn’t do it himself. The marks don’t fit his hand and I don’t think he’s smart enough to think that far ahead. Shit. “Are you okay? Can you breathe fine?”
“I ran all the way here, so yeah. I’m a little freaked out, though.”
“You didn’t happen to go to…say…a national park or see a waterfall today, did you?”
“Yeah, I went with some friends to see the falls. How did you know? Do you follow me on Instagram or something?”
“Stay here.” Running my hands over my face, I go through the sitting room and back into the living room. The guys are in there, all wearing concealment charms. “Pretty sure Pink Dress Ghost went after Jared.”
“She’s close,” Hasan says. “We should try to get her.”
“How?” I raise my hands in question. “Unless one of you has a proton pack lying around, I have no idea how the hell to trap a ghost.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Jacques says like he always does. I’m starting to think he’s just saying that and doesn’t actually believe it.
“I’m short on time.” I look at the digital clock on the cable box. We don’t have long until sunrise. I bring my hand to my forehead, pinching the bridge of my nose. “He’s not going to sit in there either.”
“I’ll babysit,” Gilbert offers.
“Put a shirt on,” I tell him, eyeing his muscular abdomen. “The kid already has self-esteem issues.”
“Iamvery attractive.” Gil gives me a wink and goes into the laundry room through the kitchen, and then moves to the sitting room to talk to Jared.
Jac brings the grimoire and motions for me to sit on the couch next to him. He flips through the pages, stopping on the section about ghosts. It’s all in Latin, and I watch his eyes scan over the pages.
“Banishing her is a temporary fix. It gets rid of her for a short amount of time, but she can come back.” He flips to another page and runs his finger over the smeared black ink. “This is risky, but it might work.”
“Risky?” Hasan turns, looking down at the book.
“Very.”
“What does it say?” I ask.
Jacques reads it over and then takes a breath. “You’ll be opening the rift again and putting her back through.”
“Shit. That is risky. Does it say how to open a rift?”
“No, nor does it advise to. But, it says it’s been done before.”
