Page 11 of Deceiver (Soul Chasers #2)

Wilder

K eagan finally seems to be resting peacefully.

Unfortunately, he fell asleep on the sectional.

Fortunately, it’s not the worst place to sleep.

I flick the TV off with the remote and rise from the couch carefully so as not to disturb him.

I know he has a million questions about me, and I’ll answer them eventually, but there’s no reason to overload him all at once.

Gazing down at him, I admire his soft features for a few moments.

He’s very attractive, but he doesn’t seem like the type of guy I usually gravitate towards.

I can’t afford to get my feelings involved, so if the person is just down to mess around for a while, that’s great, but if not…

I’ve made that mistake twice, and I won’t do it again.

I’m not interested in a love bond, and watching the person you love grow old and die is a pain I’m not willing to endure again.

Still, it’s been a hell of a dry spell the last seven months. My last assignment was an elderly married couple and their Horror kept me too busy to seek out physical release. I barely had time to regroup before I was assigned to Keagan’s case. Before that I was just burned out, I suppose.

I exit the room and walk up the stairs to my bedroom.

I need to think about my plan to handle this Horror.

The connection to Keagan may make it more challenging, but that’s likely why it was assigned to me.

More importantly, I need to work out how to prevent Keagan from attracting more spirits.

Maybe his medium friends have ideas. I haven’t had to think about anything like this for at least sixty years.

What is it about him that draws the spirit world to him?

I need to figure it out, or getting rid of the Horror is going to take longer than I want it to.

I can usually get rid of a Horror in a few days, a couple of weeks tops, but I have a feeling I won’t be that lucky this time.

In my room, I peel out of my clothes, grab my journal from the top of my dresser and settle into my bed, flipping through notes I’ve made on previous situations. After an hour, my eyelids grow heavy and I’ve only made it back twenty years and found nothing interesting to help.

I close the notebook and set it on my nightstand, then I flip the lamp off and lie back against the soft mattress and cool pillow.

Staring up at the ceiling, I let my thoughts take me where they wish.

Sometimes they lead me to an overlooked solution, but nothing comes, and I’m too tired to keep trying.

Tomorrow is a fresh day. I’ll tackle it then.

I’m woken by a scratching sound on my window. I try to ignore it and go back to sleep, but it gets louder, along with the squawk of a bird. Shit. I sit up abruptly, turning my gaze to the window, where I can make out the shadow of a large bird.

Climbing out of bed, I hurry over to the window and push it open. The raven is very agitated, wildly flapping its wings and tilting its head downward. I peer past the bird but see nothing in my yard. That’s when I get the sense of what the bird is telling me. Keagan.

I grab my robe from the foot of the bed and throw it on as I make my way through the dark house back to the TV room. When I enter, I’m stopped in my tracks by the sight before me.

A spirit floats above Keagan, pinning him to the couch. Keagan struggles but is powerless against the Horror holding him down. Apparently he can’t scream either, since he appears to be yelling but the room is eerily silent.

His panicked eyes shift to me and I see the relief spread across his face.

Except I don’t have shit with me to stop this from happening.

Without saying a word so as not to alert the Horror to my presence, I quickly dart out of the room and head to my study.

Hopefully, Keagan understands that I’m not abandoning him.

I open my armoire and grab a couple of vials from it.

This should be enough to subdue the spirit so I can get Keagan to safety.

Hurrying back, I note how cold the house is.

Guess I should have used a stronger protection spell around my house, but since I’ve never had a difficult spirit show up, I’ve slacked.

When I return to the TV room, I find the same situation, but now it appears the Horror is choking Keagan. It’s definitely not the one that was his father. This is something else.

I open one of the vials and flick the liquid in the direction of the Horror. It shrieks and withers, releasing Keagan and turning my way. Keagan sits up, gasping for breath and rubbing his neck as I back out of the room, luring the spirit along with me so I can get a read on it.

As it closes in on me, I focus on its aura, becoming confused. How the hell did one of these low-level fucks get through the veil? I thought they weren’t powerful enough. It’s not benign, but not a full Horror, and clearly it has bad intentions. I’ll have to ask Farnsworth.

Reaching out, I grab it by the neck, grinning when it looks surprised that I can. Even though its features are nondescript, there is a semblance of a face, and I can see movement in the two black holes that should be eyes.

“You fucked up, spirit,” I whisper. “How did you even get here?”

It writhes and shakes in my grasp, but it’s not able to speak. I could go to the astral realm with it, but I’m not about to waste my energy doing that. This is an easy one.

“Unfortunately for you, if I’m the one to send you back, you’re going straight to the Below. No sorting process for you.”

It shrieks, elongating and then shrinking.

“Yeah, it sucks. Tell your friends.”

With my free hand, I reach into my robe pocket and pull out the final blow, a substance that took years, decades to develop, but it comes in handy.

I dip my finger into the jar, holding it against my body while maintaining my grip on the spirit, then I smear the mixture over what should be a forehead.

The noise the spirit makes is piercing and spine-chilling. I watch it shrink away to nothing but smoke before being sucked through the floorboards back to where it belongs.

When I look up, Keagan is standing outside the door, barely peeking in.

“It’s safe now.”

He steps in, exhaling in a huff as his shoulders slump. “What the fuck happened?”

“Best I can tell, some of the spirits may have attached to you, which means they’ll go where you go. Hopefully it was the only one.”

“That wasn’t my dad, right?”

“No.” I walk over to him, offering my arm to support him. He leans against me, still shaking from his ordeal. “I left you down here as I didn’t want to wake you, but it’s safe in your room. There’s a protection spell. I’ll reinforce the rest of the house in the morning.”

“They can’t be in the bedroom?”

“They can’t. My apologies, Keagan. It’s not a problem I normally have, but I should have anticipated it with you.”

“It’s okay. It’s not your fault, it’s mine. I just wish I knew why.”

“It’s not your fault. It’s how you were made or something you acquired. We’ll work on that too.”

He nods, still trembling. “Could that thing kill me?”

“It wasn’t powerful enough. I’m not even sure how it got through. It’s not the kind that usually does.”

“Great.”

“It could only scare you.” I squeeze his shoulder. “But try not to worry. I’ll lock down the house in the morning.”

“I’ll try.”

“Let’s get you upstairs.”

I walk with him, and once we’re in his room, he looks around then turns to me. “Um, this is gonna be weird as fuck, but can you stay with me?”

“Um…”

“Just tonight. I’m sure I’ll be okay tomorrow, but I’m really freaked out.”

I have to remember that most mortals aren’t used to interacting with the spirit world at this level. “Yes, I’ll stay.”

His breath hitches as relief washes over his features. “Thank you.”

“I need to put clothes on.”

“What?”

“I’m nude under the robe. It’s how I sleep.”

“Oh. Right. Um, I’ll come with you. I won’t look, promise.”

“I’m not modest. Come along.”

Keagan follows me down the hall to my bedroom, where he leans against the wall by the door while I open my drawer and pull out a pair of pajama pants. I refuse to wear a shirt. In the interest of being polite, Keagan lowers his head while I shrug my robe off and pull the pants on.

“We should stay in here, actually,” I say as Keagan carefully lifts his head. “My bed is bigger.”

He nods, glancing around. “Can anything get in here?”

“Not after I do something.”

Keagan stands by and watches me grab a jar from my closet and sprinkle salt around the room and on the windowsills. That should be good enough until morning.

“There we go.” I walk to my side of the bed and climb in.

Keagan joins me on the other side, carefully pulling the blankets up around his waist. “I hope this isn’t too weird for you.”

“I’ve done weirder things.”

He laughs softly. “Me too.”

I pat his shoulder softly. “Try to get some sleep. I’ll be here to keep you safe.”

“How did you know I needed you?”

“The raven woke me.”

His eyes widen slightly. “That’s cool.”

“Very helpful. Good night, Keagan.”

“Night, Wilder. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Keagan lies down, turning onto his side with his back towards me while I do my best to ignore the allure of a warm man in my bed.

Doesn’t help that he’s gorgeous. There’s something about him that intrigues me, too.

Must be the spirit thing. What happened that caused him to be a conduit to the spirit world? Was he just born this way?

So many things to find out, but first I need to get some sleep. I have a feeling my hands are gonna be full tomorrow.