“Billy, get your daughter out of the house,” I ordered.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Erin asked, demanding an explanation. Unfortunately, Delbert had lost interest in choking his wife to death and had whirled around to face me.

Billy – God bless him – didn’t hesitate. He ran for Hannah and scooped her up. “Where do I take her?”

Erin stood appalled and more than a little confused. “What is going on?” she asked him, alarm raising her voice an octave. She rushed to join Billy as he grabbed Hannah’s diaper bag.

I honestly had no clue where he should take her, but surely a place with holy ground would keep evil away.

“To a church,” I said. “Or a cemetery. Anywhere with consecrated ground.”

He nodded and bounced Hannah as she began to cry.

Her cries caught the undivided attention of The Mayor. His eyes glittered with appetite.

“Now!” I yelled at him, then to Billy. “Get them out!”

Again, he didn’t hesitate. He latched onto Erin’s hand and bolted down the stairs with both of them.

Anger flared to life around Delbert like electricity when they left. I took it. Siphoned it off him. Absorbed it and molded it to my will. He was strong, though. And I’d forgotten my flashlight. I wondered if any light would do.

I searched for a light switch and realized Erin had come back. “Erin, what the hell? Get out.”

She shook her head. “No. Billy is taking Hannah to safety. I need to see the end of this.” She knew. Somehow she knew that there was something supernatural upsetting her life.

I didn’t know what she could see, but I was pretty certain the earthquake that shook the house would leave an impression.

Novalee found her footing and stepped back, arms crossed and a satisfied expression on her face. I wanted to tell her about the flashlight, but Delbert was growing both angrier and weaker by the moment.

His energy, evil or not, felt wonderful. I blinked in surprise. He was like a drug. Like heroin or extacy or 3 AM coffee. I stepped closer, unable to get enough as though suddenly parched. I drank him in. Reveled at the high it gave me. Inhaled him until he was completely drained of energy.

Novalee placed hopeful hands over her chest. Delbert groaned. And the house shook to its foundation.

Pretty soon, Delbert was holding his arms over his eyes. He squinted as though blocking light.

“I’ll kill your daughter, too,” he said in a desperate attempt to stop whatever was happening to him.

I curled a hand into the lapel of his dusty jacket and pulled him closer. “I don’t have a daughter.”

“I’ll be sure and tell her that when I steal the breath from her lungs.”

Though I knew his threats were hollow, the walls shook even harder. Pictures fell and crashed to the floor. Erin screamed but held her ground. I couldn’t say I would have done the same in her position.

Delbert began convulsing. His skin cracked and bled darkness. His head shot back and his spine bowed.

“Down, boy,” I said, giving an order I didn’t quite understand.

But a shadow appeared beneath him. It grew, spreading in all directions under his bodyless soul, until he melted into it, his eyes like saucers, and the darkness took him. He wanted to be evil. He could do it down there.

The moment the shadowy portal closed, everything stopped and a silence settled around us. Novalee fell to her knees and cried. Erin stood in shock.

She found her phone and called her husband. We heard sirens in the distance. She didn’t tell him what had happened. She just told him to bring Hannah home. It was safe.

“That’s so weird,” I said, turning to Erin when she hung up. “We keep having the strangest earthquakes.” Though this one I was pretty sure was caused by Delbert.

“You’re bleeding,” she said.

“Oh, shit.” I’d left a large puddle of blood on her carpet. “I’m so sorry,” I said, lifting my foot and bouncing to the doorway.

“Wait. In here.” She led me to a bathroom down the hall.

I kept my foot in the sink as Erin ran to the door to greet her family. When a police cruiser rolled up, Billy dealt with them – while I prayed Mable hadn’t reported the car stolen – and Erin saw to the gaping hole in my foot. I sat on her bathroom counter gazing at Hannah as she slept in a basket beside me.

“She’s so beautiful.”

Erin nodded, then poured more peroxide on my foot. I got the feeling she enjoyed that part.

“Are you okay, hon?”

She nodded again, her lips pressed together as though she were trying desperately to keep calm. She shook worse than I did, though, and I realized she’d been traumatized. Thank God she didn’t see Delbert. She’d be in therapy for years.

“Erin,” I said, ducking my head to meet her tear-filled gaze, “she saved you from him. Your great-aunt Novalee. She saved you and your mom and your aunt.”

Her expression showed both surprise and understanding. When she could finally talk, she said, “I’ve always felt a connection with her. Like I knew she was watching out for me.”

“Now you know why. And I think she’ll be around for a long time to come.”

“I hope so,” she said, looking around as though trying to talk to Novalee.

The elderly woman heard her. She was standing right beside me, gazing lovingly at Hannah. “I’m sorry about stealing your extra shifts at work,” I said.

She shook her head and drew in a cleansing breath. “You were right. I could never have kept it up. Not working that much with a baby. Billy’s great, though.”

“I agree. And he looks fantastic in a towel.”

“Right?” she said with a soft giggle.

“Erin, you don’t need more hours at work. You’re an incredible artist. You need to go back to school. Become a graphic designer or an interior decorator. Your house is amazing.” I scanned the area. “Or, you know, it used to be.”

“If you hadn’t come when you did…” Unable to hold her emotions back any longer, she broke down. Her shoulders shook.

I put a hand on her arm, and she tackle-hugged me, almost knocking me off the counter. I held her tight, struggling with the whole thing myself. Her emotions were overwhelming, and I couldn’t tell where hers stopped and mine began.

“I’m just glad I got here in time.”

“Me, too.”

We stood like that while Erin grasped at the tattered edges of her composure. After several long moments, she hiccupped and asked, “When did you see Billy in a towel?”

18

If only one of my personalities liked to clean house.

—T-SHIRT

There was nothing like a wrecked house and a poltergeist to rob a girl of a good night’s sleep. In lieu of draping my body across Denzel, chasing rest I knew I’d never get, I cleaned. Swept. Scooped. I didn’t have that much furniture to begin with. Now my apartment was downright pathetic. And I needed a new glass.

When I’d done the best I could, I showered and retaped my foot. It was still early, like dark-out early, but I decided Reyes needed coffee, and I needed Reyes. I stole Mable’s car again and hit the local twenty-four-hour convenience store.

Osh was there in his signature top hat, buying several packages of extra-large condoms. He gave me a conspiratorial wink. I tried not to snort, though I didn’t doubt he had no problems with the ladies. The kid was pretty. Those dimples and shimmering bronze eyes were going to get him into trouble.