Page 25

Chance

W e had been sitting out here for hours with no results. Every one of our devices was going off, each one lit up and either buzzing or beeping with sounds that were just annoying us at this point, because we were getting nothing. No attempts at communication were being made by whatever entity was present, and Rhodes had confirmed that he wasn’t seeing Kali.

I had a bad feeling about it. I suspected that we were in the presence of the very entity that was responsible for the drownings, and I was concerned we were putting targets on our backs. No, they were already there.

I had tried to tell Mikey and Rhodes to leave, to get somewhere safe, but both of them had refused. Dakota had been spooked enough that when I sent her back to the campsite, she went willingly with a parting order to call her if we heard from Blake.

That was another issue we had to deal with. No one had heard from my little brother since yesterday, and it was causing quite the stir. I had a feeling he was trying to decompress a bit by shutting himself away from the world. Hearing that Kali might have been alive and nearby was hurting him just as powerfully as it had struck me.

Blake was struggling, but he had Dakota now. He would get over it eventually because he had already moved on. If he would just pull his head out of his ass. Dakota deserved better than that, and he knew it, too. He would be so mad at himself when he finally snapped out of it.

Footsteps crunching over sticks and dead leaves preceded Rhodes as he came back to check on us, greasy paper bags in each hand. ‘Figured you guys might be getting hungry. Hope nobody’s a vegetarian, ‘cause I got burgers.’

‘Burgers are great,’ Mikey said with a grateful grin, taking the bag Rhodes handed him and immediately shoving a fistful of fries into his mouth. He moaned as he chewed, closing his eyes in satisfaction.

‘Well, now. I’ve never made a man moan quite like that before,’ Rhodes teased as he placed the other bag down beside me.

Mikey blushed a deep red colour that I had seen on him pretty much every day since we’d met. ‘Sorry,’ he muttered shyly around the mouthful of food.

‘You sleep with a lot of guys, Rhodes?’ I teased the younger man right back, drawing the attention away from Mikey, whose shoulders slumped in relief. He struggled to relax under scrutiny, even in social situations. Hell, even with me and the girls. I’d never met anyone as shy and introverted as him, and Rhodes’ bubbly personality was a stark contrast that was, quite frankly, jarring in comparison. Luckily, I was used to it with Ashe and Gloria, who, come to think of it, hadn’t made any reappearances since they’d left this morning.

My brows pulled together in a frown as I considered their absence. That was three people total who were now missing.

I unwrapped the burger, noting how it was wrapped in tinfoil, which meant it was more than likely cooked by Fred. He was a cool guy. Didn’t care for nonsense, which I admired, but I hadn’t seen the older man over the past couple of days, choosing to make my own food instead since I was out and about more often than not. I made a mental note to drop by to say goodbye to the old man before I left.

The first bite was delicious. Juicy and flavourful, with crunchy lettuce, perfectly melted cheese, and homemade sauce. There was no special flair added to make it something it wasn’t. It was just a simple burger, but one that was made to go straight to a man’s heart, because damn . I understood why Mikey let that moan slip out, because this was practically orgasmic.

‘Party in your mouth, right?’ Rhodes commented, licking his lips. ‘I already ate mine, but fuck if I wouldn’t make room for another if I could.’

I snorted, then sputtered as I tried not to spit out my half-chewed bite. I swallowed it hard, almost choking on it as it went down, but shot him a sly smile. ‘That’s a deflection if I ever saw one.’

He laughed, the sound boisterous and carefree. ‘Nah, man. No dick for me, except my own. Sorry to disappoint,’ he winked.

I shook my head with a chuckle, settling back against the trunk I was leaning against to get more comfortable. My ass was numb from sitting for so long, but I was enjoying the rare moment of levity and peace before the world inevitably came crashing down again.

‘She’s not showing up tonight, is she?’ Rhodes asked after a few minutes of comfortable silence.

‘Did we… scare her off, or something?’ Mikey asked dejectedly.

‘I don’t know, but I have to keep trying,’ I said, determination filling me. I may have not been able to feel my ass cheeks, my legs tingling with pins and needles while my head pounded from stress and lack of sleep, but I wasn’t about to let that stop me from talking to Kali. I had waited seven years for this, and I was a patient man. I would camp out here for as long as it took.

I wasn’t leaving until we talked.

‘Do you think she’s shy?’ Rhodes asked contemplatively. ‘She seemed pretty timid each time we spoke before.’

‘Kali has never been shy,’ I informed him. ‘She was always the life of the party.’

‘What if she’s avoiding us?’ Mikey asked, eyes glued to a beetle scuttling over the fallen leaves.

‘Tough shit,’ I said, perhaps a little too harshly because Mikey flinched and Rhodes arched a brow. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.’

‘You’re not letting her get away again,’ Mikey finished for me with a dismissive shrug. ‘I get it.’

‘You really loved her, huh?’ Rhodes asked me, openly curious.

‘Always have. Always will,’ I answered honestly.

‘How come you two never got together, then?’

‘Because he’s a pussy,’ Mikey answered for me, shooting me a pointed look when I went to argue.

I sighed, accepting the criticism for what it was. ‘He’s right. I was too scared to tell her, and I lost her before I could pluck up the courage.’

‘To your little brother?’ he whistled. ‘Damn, man. That’s rough.’

‘Yeah, well. I lived my life full of regret. I won’t be doing that anymore.’

‘What do you hope to achieve by talking to her now?’ he asked, digging into the root of my emotional torment without trying.

‘I just…’ I hesitated, mulling over my thoughts to try to put them into the right words. ‘I need to know what happened. I need to fix it, you know? I can’t bring her back, but I can help her put the fucker behind bars, even if it’s the last thing I do.’

Mikey tensed at my comment, but quickly composed himself to hide his feelings on what we both knew was inevitable. His mask didn’t slide into place fast enough, though, and Rhodes caught it. He was remarkably observant.

‘Wait, hang on a minute. You’re not planning on joining her, are you?’

I didn’t answer, but I didn’t have to. It was written all over my face.

‘That’s messed up, man. And sickeningly romantic. I wish I’d had the opportunity to love someone at least half as much as you love her.’

We sat in silence for a beat, contemplating our life choices and what had brought us to this moment. It was heavy, incredibly depressing, but also enlightening. The rightness of my decision was becoming more apparent the more I let it settle, and I was confident I was making the right choice.

The moment was interrupted by the EMF going off, beeping loudly as it picked up on a ghostly presence joining us again. The lights were flickering wildly, the beeping more rapid than before to the point where it was almost a single, solid noise. Whoever was here they were practically on top of us.

‘Right,’ I said, clapping my hands on my knees before hauling myself to stand. ‘That’s my cue. Rhodes, do you see her?’

He shook his head, scanning the darkening woods as the sun was descending for the night. ‘No. I don’t see anything.’

I figured as much. I was almost certain this entity wasn’t Kali. I didn’t think she would mess with us like this.

‘Hello?’ I called out, stepping closer to the spirit box that was placed in a small clearing nearby. ‘If you can hear me, let me know. You can talk through the spirit box right here, and it will pick up your voice so we can hear you.’

When I got no response after waiting for a few minutes, I tried again. ‘Can you tell me your name?’

Nothing.

‘Kali? Are you here?’

The spirit box lit up at her name, and excitement burst inside me, thinking it was her. But that excitement was quickly doused by the decidedly male voice that came through.

‘She’s… mine.’

‘Who’s yours?’ I asked, dread starting to sink in. Was he laying claim to Kali? Why? What could he want from her?

The spirit box crackled again before the entity repeated his words. ‘She’s… mine.’

‘Who?’ I asked more insistently, the bad feeling growing until I felt like I was about to be sick. ‘Who’s yours? Kali?’

‘Yes…’

I exchanged a startled glance with the others, and it was Rhodes who asked the question I couldn’t seem to vocalise. ‘What do you want with her? Kali doesn’t belong to anyone.’

‘She’s… MINE!’

I jumped back when the spirit box was suddenly launched into the air by some unseen force, then Rhodes was forced to duck as it was thrown at him. It missed, thank fuck, but it was thrown so hard that it smashed to pieces when it collided with the tree behind him, leaving a significant dent where it hit.

Rhodes glanced between the tree, the obliterated device, and back to where the entity was presumably standing, eyes wide with both fear and exhilaration. ‘Holy shit…’

That shouldn’t have been possible. Not once in all my years of paranormal investigating had I come across a spirit that could manipulate tangible objects, but with such strength. I didn’t understand, and I was suddenly more sure than ever that whatever Kali had gotten herself into, it was dangerous even beyond the grave.

Was this entity the reason why she hadn’t shown up today? Was she hiding from him? I didn’t think I could wait much longer to join her if she was in trouble.

‘What do you want?’ I called out despite our only means of communication being destroyed. I didn’t expect an answer, but the chills that ran across my skin when I heard his voice whispering through the breeze had adrenaline coursing through my veins in an instant.

‘Leave.’

My jaw clenched, a protest sitting ready on my tongue, but I already knew that arguing with this thing would be futile, so I bit back the urge to argue. Instead, I tried a different tactic and asked a question I desperately needed the answer to.

‘Do you want to hurt her?’

‘LEAVE!’

Out of the corner of my eye, I swore I could see the shadows becoming denser, darker, that they emitted a chill that exceeded their typical temperature on a warm summer evening like tonight. I realised we were fighting against something much too powerful and beyond our scope of understanding, and it was no longer safe for us to stick around.

I raised my hands and backed up a couple of steps to show that I was giving in to his demands, our safety currently more important than the answers it clearly didn't want to give. ‘All right. Okay. We’re leaving.’

Mikey and Rhodes didn’t need any more prompting, both of them darting towards the house without looking back.

I wasn’t so quick to disappear, however. There was something that was keeping me rooted in place, staring at the shadows of the woods. I didn’t know what, but I could feel eyes on me from multiple directions. In possibly the stupidest move of my life, I turned my back on the angry entity to scan the woods in the other direction.

‘Kali?’ I called out hopefully.

The only response I received was a deep, primal growl that rattled my bones and had me finally shooting off back inside the house. It was an involuntary action, my fight or flight activated by the threat of the unknown entity that was far more powerful than it should have been. It was a predator, I could tell that much, but to what degree? And was it a threat only to the living, or to the dead as well?

Before I closed the door shut behind me, I looked back out to where I’d felt that second pair of eyes, and just knew that it was the woman I had loved and lost.

‘I’ll see you soon,’ I vowed, my voice quiet, but steady and strong. ‘I promise.’