Page 15 of Ghost

“What happened after that?” I asked. “If you were poisoned, then surely it would have taken some time to work.”

“What doyouknow?” he snapped. “You don’t even know how to make pulled pork.”

My head hurt again. This must be karma, telling me that speaking with spirits was probably a bad idea. And it was exhausting work—if all spirits were like this one.

Would it be ethical to let him stew out here by himself? The thought was tempting. I wondered if Damen might have some insight on the topic.

Chapter Six

Damen

Pull

“Abernathy, aren’t you going to introduce us to your girlfriend?”

I paused, mid-sentence, in my conversation with Jamie—the senior officer on scene. Jamie was never one to assert his authority, and only adopted a patient expression at the interruption.

Apparently he had expected this to happen.

Conner threw his arm over my shoulder. Conner—like Jamie—was one of Titus’. A member of a hyena pack that none of us liked, nor fully trusted. But they were so far below in his ranks, they remained unnoticed. They were generally assigned to open and shut cases.

Hyenas, especially, grated on my nerves. They had a way of pushing my buttons when no one else would dare. Generally I tried to ignore them. But in professional instances—such as this one—I had no choice but to play nice.

And now, here was another reason to dislike them. Bianca hadn’t gone unnoticed.

I had to stop this before it turned into a catastrophe. If I had known they’d be here, then I’d never have brought her at all.

But it was my fault. Norman’s initial debriefing had been cut short. Instead, I had gotten a certain group of text messages that required my full attention. At that moment, there had been nothing more important than solving Bianca’s disciplinary mishaps.

Which, of course, turned out to be a huge misunderstanding.

I wasn’t sure what to make of that, to be honest. Never in my life had I met anyone like her before. She had to be testing me; I refused to believe anyone was that naïve.

The comments she made. The way she would touch her fingers together, or nervously tug at her shirt. Even her explanation of slumber party games. I didn’t know whether to take her seriously or not. I was actually a bit concerned, because there was obviously something deeper there. I had never seen someone with such anxiety.

And at some point, I realized it didn’t matter.

Anxiety could be controlled. We could help her. Julian—and Miles too—had learned to live through their darkness. No one was broken beyond saving.

It was who she was outside of that which drew me to her.

She was kind, caring so much for our feelings, and even the well-being of the spirit living at that house. And she was a hard worker. That much was evident in the way she tried to help the rest of us. Most people would have pressured Titus and Julian about their abilities too. But Bianca understood that sometimes those revelations had to come naturally.

She even hated Bryce, just like me.

She was amazing and beautiful, and just perfect. Sometimes I thought she might like me too—or at least find me attractive. But any time I made progress, she shut me down.

It didn’t do much for my confidence. I’d never actually had to flirt with a woman before. They all tended to flock to me naturally. Perhaps I was doing this all wrong.

It was probably just as well, it wasn’t like it could happen anyway. So I couldn’t ask Julian his thoughts on my technique, he had already made his stance perfectly clear.

Liking lace was a perfectly acceptable thing.

But, as he reminded me, she was off-limits anyway.

There would be enough gossip over the fact that we brought her into our circle in the first place. I was sure when the elders found out—and I knew they would, because I refused to hide her—there would be questions.

We would have to make our intentions clear. We were allowed to have friends. They couldn’t punish us for that.