Heath’s mother turned to look over her shoulder and I followed her gaze. Huge arcs of water were making their way onto the heart of the fire, but already most of the house was disintegrating into a smoky wreck.
“So what happened?” Heath said again, his tone level and barely controlled.
Ray pulled the oxygen mask off his face. “I don’t know, man!” he said again. “I was inside and something freaky started happening!”
“How freaky?” I asked, my senses alert.
Ray shook his head, like he couldn’t quite believe what he’d been through. “There was, like, this growl or something while I was upstairs working on your drywall, bro. I didn’t know what it was. It sounded like a tiger or something!”
Mrs. Lujan’s hand flew to her mouth and behind me I heard a squeak. Without looking, I knew Gilley was with us too.
“Then what?” Heath asked, and this time his voice was more patient.
Ray took a shuddering breath and coughed wetly. The paramedic shoved the mask back over his mouth and nose and told him to leave it there. It was a minute before Ray had the wind to continue. “Something hit the side of the house! Something big! With claws! It happened near the kitchen, I think, and I got, like, freaked-out, so I stayed upstairs and just waited to see if it would go away, but then something really freaky happened!”
“What?” we all said when Ray didn’t continue, but just focused on taking big gulps of air.
His eyes were staring at the pavement as if he were seeing it all unfold again in front of him. “I heard this sound downstairs, like it had come inside, you know? So I panicked and hit the button on the alarm for the fire trucks—”
“Was the house already on fire?” I interrupted, thinking I’d missed something.
Ray shook his head. “No, man, but whatever was downstairs was so freaky that I didn’t want just two police guys to show up, you know? It’s like that saying, you come home after a robbery, call the police, but if you’re home during a robbery, call the fire department. They’ll come with lots of trucks and noise and guys and shit.”
“Language, Raymond,” Mrs. Lujan said, then put a hand to her mouth. “Sorry,” she said to him. “It’s habit with you.”
Ray nodded like he totally understood.
“So how did the fire start?” I asked.
“Well, the ALERT button for fire went off on the control panel, and it said that the fire department was on its way, and then all of a sudden there was this sound like a bunch of volts or something, and I heard the fuse box blow and all the electrical outlets just started crackling and burning, and then the whole house started to smoke up, you know? It was like, whatever was downstairs was playing with me, yo! Like it was saying, ‘Oh, yeah? You wanna call the fire department? Well then, I’ll give you a stinking fire!’ Before I know it, I’m trapped on the second floor and the whole downstairs is burning up! I just stood there! I was afraid to move!”
Ray coughed and the paramedic gave us all another stern look.
Once Ray had stopped coughing, he said, “I knew I should’ve gotten out of there the minute I smelled smoke, but I was still afraid of the thing downstairs. I mean, what if it was still there? But the smoke got so bad and I couldn’t open the window, so I had to, like, dive through it onto the roof, you know? I barely made it out alive, bro!”
Ray was shaking now from head to toe, and his coughing fit resumed. I put a hand on Heath’s arm and he got the hint. Turning to his cousin, he said, “Ray, it’s cool, really. This paramedic is going to give you a ride to the hospital, okay?”
“My . . . dad!” Ray sputtered in between coughs.
“I’ll call him,” Mrs. Lujan promised. “You go to the hospital, Raymond. We’ll be there in a little bit.”
“Would you like to ride along?” the kindly paramedic asked her.
Mrs. Lujan brightened. “I would. Thank you,” she said, but then seemed to think better of it. She turned to Heath, who leaned in, gave her a hug, and said, “Go, Ma. Be with Ray. We’ll head over soon.”
Mrs. Lujan squeezed her son tightly, then let him go and got up into the ambulance next to Ray, who’d finally stopped fighting and was lying back on the gurney, sucking in the oxygen. I felt terrible for him, and I was very glad he was alive. Once the ambulance had driven off, Heath moved back to stand near the fire trucks and watch them battle the blaze.
Gilley and I joined Heath, and I again reached for his hand. On the other side of him, so did Gilley, and I nearly smiled when I realized Heath was allowing Gilley to hold his hand too. “You were right, M. J.,” Heath said to me.
I blinked. “Right about what?”
“Sparks and water,” he reminded me. “Remember you said I’d have an electrical and plumbing issue?”
“Whoa,” I said, realizing that sparks had caused the blaze and now hundreds of thousands of gallons of water were being poured into Heath’s ruined home. “I wish I’d been wrong.”
He swallowed hard, and I could see him struggle to hold back his emotions. I felt terrible for him.
“Do you have insurance?” Gil asked.
“Not now, Gil,” I said tersely.
“What? If he has insurance, it’ll cover the house and he’ll get to build from the slab up!”
“Yes,” Heath told him, sliding his hand out of Gil’s to rest an elbow on Gilley’s shoulder in a more manly pose of affection. “I’ve got insurance. But it’s still tough to watch, you know?”
“Thank God Ray’s not seriously hurt,” I said.
But Heath didn’t seem to be listening. His focus was on the fire, which was finally showing signs of burning out. Still the flames outlined Heath’s face and I could see his pain etched there. It broke my heart. He looked weary and sad, but there was also an undercurrent of anger, which I fully understood.
Finally, the fire captain motioned for Heath to come to him, and he left Gil and me at a safe distance while he talked to the firefighter. I saw the captain show Heath a small section of wood that didn’t appear to have been touched by the fire except for perhaps some light scorching on one side. The captain then called over one of the cops standing nearby and the three men regarded the wood panel, talking about it while turning it over and over. The officer scratched his head as he looked at the section; then he appeared to ask the captain something, but the fireman could only shrug as if he didn’t know. Heath’s posture was downright rigid, and he didn’t seem to contribute much to the conversation.
“I wonder what that’s about,” said Gil.
“Nothing good,” I replied.
Sure enough, Heath came back to us with a very troubled look on his face. “We can go,” he said, and began walking toward his SUV.
Gil looked at me as if to say, “Uh-oh . . .”
We got into the Durango without a word and Heath backed up carefully to avoid the hoses and other emergency vehicles. Once he’d gotten turned around, we headed over to the hospital.
Heath parked and we went into the ER. The lobby was filled with Heath’s relatives, practically everyone I’d seen at Ari’s house. Ari came right over to Heath and gave him a big hug. “Oh, cuz,” she said. “I’m so sorry!”
“Thanks,” he said stiffly. Ari backed away and eyed him quizzically. I was sure she detected the simmering anger just under the surface, but what that was about I still had no clue. I suspected that the piece of his wall was somehow involved, but I couldn’t figure out what had caused the current of anger in him.
We heard that Ari’s husband, Brody, was with Ray, who was getting a CT scan to check for signs of a concussion and any other internal injuries, and then he’d need to get stitched up, so it might be a little while. I was willing to wait, but Heath seemed unusually anxious to be off, and I saw him go over to his mom and whisper something in her ear that caused her to gasp and look at him with large frightened eyes.
She seemed to ask him a question and Heath nodded, patting her hand to reassure her; then he kissed her on the cheek and turned awa
y.
Before coming back to us, he stopped to say something to Ari, pointing back to his mother. This time she nodded and he squeezed her hand before leaving her too. “We gotta go,” he said quietly when he stood in front of us again.
“Okay,” I said, wondering what the heck was going on. Gilley edged closer to me.
“Are we in trouble?” he asked Heath. “I mean, did we do something wrong?”
Heath’s whole face changed. “No, man,” he said to Gil. “Sorry. I’m just preoccupied with this demon thing. Let’s get back to the car and I’ll tell you what the firemen found.”
We got back into Heath’s vehicle and he started the engine, which was good because it was now dark and cold outside. “The fire captain showed me a section of the wall from the back of the house,” Heath explained. “He said that there was an entire panel back there that had weirdly escaped the fire, and the one thing that he couldn’t quite figure out was how there could be scorch marks dug so deep into the wood without it going up in flames along with the rest of the house.”
“Huh?” said Gil. “Dude, I’m not following you.”
Heath sighed and appeared to gather his thoughts. “At the back of the house where the kitchen sat, there was this section that Ray was working on to replace the wall because the old one had some water damage. There was no stucco on it; it was just bare wood. The section was maybe six feet by four feet, and according to the fire captain, it sustained no damage at all. It was like the wood had some sort of flame retardant on it, except for three long scorches shaped like claw marks running all the way down the side of that section. Those claw marks had been burned into the wood.”
The breath caught in my throat. “That’s what was on the section of wood the captain showed you?” I said. “Those talon marks looked like scorch marks from where we were standing.”
Heath nodded. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said, and a shudder ran through his shoulders.
Gilley made another squeaking sound. “So we’re absolutely positive that the fire wasn’t started by faulty wiring?” he asked.
Heath shook his head. “That’s the other crazy thing. The captain said it was still too early in his investigation of the cause of the fire to say for sure, but one of his guys said that the fuse box looked to be the source. The captain said that what he and his guy had seen indicated it was probably an electrical overload, but the weird thing is that you don’t usually get that kind of overload unless a house gets struck by lightning.”
I looked up. The night was crystal clear and all the stars were out.
“So this demon we’re dealing with is capable of overloading fuse boxes and starting fires?” I asked.
Heath nodded. “We saw the same thing with the witch in Scotland.”
Gilley whimpered, and I knew he was missing his personal fire extinguisher. “Gilley Gilleshpie,” he whispered.
I felt a shudder trickle down my own spine as the memory of both the inn in Scotland that the witch had set ablaze and Heath’s home engulfed in flames came back to me. For several minutes no one said anything; we all just looked down and stared blankly at our laps. “How do you fight something like that?” Gilley finally asked. “I mean, the witch at least had once been human. But this thing . . .” His voice trailed off while he thought about it. “How do we fight a demon that’s pure evil?”
I looked up and found Heath and Gilley staring at me. Aw, hell. They wanted me to come up with the answer. “I don’t know,” I told them honestly. “But I think we need to start working on a plan of attack, and we need to come up with it soon.”
Heath nodded. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to work it out at Teeko’s place,” he said, turning to the wheel and putting the car in reverse. “We should go somewhere with more people.”
A sudden terrible thought occurred to me. “Doc!”
Heath twisted his torso to look behind him while he backed up. “I know,” he said. “We’ll go to the house, get him and our stuff, and find a popular hotel with all the latest in fire-safety systems. We can talk through some game plans tonight.”
We found a package for Gilley on the front steps of Teeko’s lodge and Doc safe and sound, half-asleep and quite cranky about being woken up. “Booger butt,” he said moodily when I stuck my hand into his cage to retrieve him.
“I know, honey,” I cooed. “We just need to get you packed up for a road trip, okay?”
Meanwhile Gilley alternated between being ridiculously excited that his new iPad had arrived and charging around the house like a Tasmanian devil, throwing everything he could find that was his, mine, or Heath’s into an open suitcase and scuttling it to the front door. Then he found a small fire extinguisher under the sink, and continued to pack one-handed while he hugged the extinguisher tightly.
Heath went around and flipped on every single outside light he could find. I knew it likely wouldn’t keep the demon away if it was in the neighborhood, but the glow did ease my nerves a little.
“We have no spikes!” Gilley complained when he took in the contents of our things. “M. J., did you pack any in your messenger bag?”
“I have two grenades,” I told him, referring to the steel cases that housed the magnetic spikes we used to thwart off the nastier poltergeists.
“Two?” Gilley shrieked. “How the hell are we supposed to do anything with just two?”
“Hey,” I said, motioning to Doc, who began fluttering on my hand. “Don’t upset the birdie.”
“Sorry,” Gil said, lowering his voice to a hissy whisper. “How the hell are we supposed to do anything with two?”
I glared at him. “You were in charge of bringing our equipment, Gil.”
He glared back. “You know the crew put all our stuff on the plane for L.A.,” he snapped. “Gopher and his stupid inventory checks for the network accountants. We have nothing to fight this thing with!” His voice was back up to shrieky again and I was losing patience.
“We can make more,” Heath said calmly, picking up Doc’s cage to carry it to the front door.
I put Doc on my shoulder and went to Mrs. Lujan’s room to pack her things too. “What’re we going to do with your mom’s stuff?” I asked when I’d finished and was wheeling her suitcase out to the front hallway with all the others.
I came up short at the door. Heath and Gilley were standing there with Sheriff Pena and his deputy. “M. J.,” Heath said, his voice a bit stiff. “This is Sheriff Pena and Deputy Cruz from the Pueblo.”
The sheriff tipped his hat. “Ma’am,” he said.
“Sheriff,” I replied. My eyes moved to Gilley, who was discreetly looking over the deputy, who was indeed a fine-looking man. “What brings you by?”
Doc fluffed his feathers and began to growl. He does that with strangers sometimes, and I had a feeling he didn’t like the lawmen’s hats.
Sheriff Pena said something, but Doc was starting to make too much noise. “Okay, okay,” I told him, and hurried back down the hall, taking him out of view of the lawmen. A moment later I heard the door close and Gilley came looking for me. “Are they gone?” I asked.
“No. They just moved outside to talk to Heath.”
“About what?”
“They wanted to ask him about the fire at his house,” Gil said.
“Why? I mean, Heath’s house is well off the Pueblo.”
“According to them,” Gilley informed me, “his uncle Milton’s cabin also burned down tonight.”
For a moment I was speechless. “Wait, what?”
“Around the time we were at dinner, Milton’s cabin caught fire.”
I thought of the surrounding woods and worried about the potential for a forest fire. “Is it out?”
“Yeah,” Gil said. “But they still want to talk to Heath about it. And get a look at the inside of his SUV.”
“Why’s that?”
Gilley shrugged. “Probably to see if he has any accel-erant or anything incriminating like that.”
?
??Wait a minute,” I said. “They think he might be responsible?”
Gilley gave me a level look. “My guess is that they think one of us did it.”
“But we have an alibi, right?” I figured our waitress was bound to remember us after I’d barked at her to give us the check. Plus, Heath’s outburst when he’d learned his house was on fire had to be pretty memorable to all the patrons there.
“Oh, I’m pretty sure they’re going to make the rounds tonight, M. J., and check out our alibi, but I got the impression that they don’t like Heath or his mom so much, and that they like you and me even less.”
Gil and I heard the door again and we both walked out of the hallway to find Heath with a moody glint to his eye. “How’d it go?” Gil and I asked at the same time.
He scowled. “Pena can be a real asshole,” he snapped. “And Cruz is like his mini-me.”
“Cruz could mini-me anytime,” Gil cracked.
I couldn’t help it—I let out a laugh, but sobered quickly when Heath’s eyes cut to me. I cleared my throat and said, “Sorry.”
“Birdie go night-night?” Doc asked, fluffing his feathers again.
“Come on,” said Heath. “Let’s get the car packed and find a hotel.”
It took us an hour to drop off Mrs. Lujan’s luggage with Ari, who was taking her aunt in for the time being, and then to find a good hotel well away from the thick trees that could hide an eight-foot-tall, red-eyed, scaly-skinned demon. I wondered if AAA had a rating for that.
Heath picked the place; it was called the St. Francis, and the minute we pulled up to it, I knew why he liked it—the thing was clearly haunted. “We’ll be hiding amongst the spooks,” I said to him. “Nice.”
“If anything nasty comes close to us, we’ll feel a spike in the paranormal activity around us and that should give us time to protect ourselves,” he said reasonably.
“Good thinking.”
“No!” Gilley said from the backseat. “Bad thinking, Heath! Very bad thinking!”
I sighed. “I’m sure nothing here will be too scary.”