He nodded. “Sure.” But we both knew that thank-you was for a whole lot more than just tea. He had to know I’d heard what he’d said to Sarah.
I turned to the others. “If any of you want to know about what I did, you might as well ask and get it out there so we avoid embarrassment later.”
Gage looked around the table, as though waiting for someone else to go first, but Ben was frowning at Sarah, who was glaring at Mace, who was staring at the table.
“Look,” I said, gesturing my cup at Sarah, “I appreciate that Mace hasn’t talked about me to everyone he knows. Why don’t you just be glad your boyfriend has some integrity, find comfort in knowing he’ll never post pictures of your naked ass on the internet and take your bitchy attitude down a notch?” I stopped for a breath—and to take myself down a notch. “I’m not ashamed of what happened or why I did it, but if I find out any of you have spread gossip about me around the school, if you tell anyone about Wren, you’re on your fucking own with this ghost. Got it?”
“That goes for me, too,” Kevin announced as he sat down across from me. He set a laptop and a stack of hard-and softcover books on the table. Some of them had library tags on the spines, others didn’t. Some looked fairly new and others looked like they had nothing more than spite holding them together.
Sarah muttered something under her breath.
“What?” I demanded.
She glared at me. “I asked if there were any other threats you want to make?”
I held up my hands. “I wouldn’t gossip about you. I’m just asking for the same respect for me and my sister. If you can’t give me that, then just say the word and I’m out of here.”
“That sounds like a threat to me.” She leaned back in her chair and folded her arms over her chest.
Would my foot fit down her throat? It was really, really tempting to let the ghost have her, let her try to save her own ass, but I couldn’t do it. For all my tough talk, I wasn’t going to let someone die.
Not even someone who despised me for no good reason.
“Whatever,” I said. Then I turned my back on her. “Where’s Roxi?”
“Grandmother’s,” Gage replied. I figured he would know. He and Roxi seemed pretty tight. “She’s going to meet us when she’s done.”
“Where’s Wren?” Kevin asked.
I wanted to ask him how he knew she wasn’t there—goad him a little. I wanted to tell him it was none of his damn business. I wanted to tell him to leave my sister alone. “She’s doing some research. She’ll be back soon.” I assumed she would—she’d been gone for a few hours now. That might only be a few minutes in the Shadow Lands, or it could be six days. Time just didn’t follow any set of rules there.
“I brought my books on spirit communication and hauntings,” Kevin informed us. “I don’t know how much help they’ll be, but it’s a place to start. I’m still new to this whole medium thing, but I know a guy in Southbury who might be able to help us.”
I wouldn’t have thought of Southbury as a hotbed of ghostly activity, but hey, Ed and Lorraine Warren had based their paranormal investigation business in Monroe, and they were the ones who had investigated the house in Amityville. That movie The Conjuring had been based on one of their cases.
“How did you get into this?” I asked him.
He shrugged, his gaze guarded behind his glasses. “I saw things when I was a kid, you know?”
“Yeah,” I said drily. “I know.”
Was that actually a smile? “I’m not nearly as gifted as you, but I caught glimpses of ghosts. I could sense them, and sometimes they told me things.”
Gifted? He thought I was gifted? I could have fallen right out of my chair if I didn’t think everyone would laugh at my underwear.
“Anyway, I never thought much of it until the day you...” He cleared his throat. “The day Wren found me. It was like having someone scream in my face after a lifetime of whispers.”
I smiled. “She’s like that.”
He looked me in the eye, his dark blue eyes serious. “She was terrified, and I had no idea what the hell was going on.”
Not much wonder he wasn’t my number-one fan. “I’m sorry you got dragged into that.”
“Don’t be.”
Okay, fine. “I started digging into Haven Crest history,” I confided, wanting to change the subject before I could get jealous again. “Seems it’s been nasty for a long time. I need to find out the possible effects the place can have on Wren and me, given our connection to the other side. Ghosts can be real bullies, especially when they’re all crammed into one place.”
Sarah laughed. “The other side. You sound like one of those ghost-hunting shows.”
I turned to her. “The dead, then.”
“How are you going to find that out?” Ben asked. “I can’t imagine you can just look it up on Google.”
I took a sip of my latte. It was perfect. He’d even gotten them to add a shot of vanilla. Would he think I was crazy if I proposed to him? “Well, we could do a séance, or we take a trip to Haven Crest.”
They all looked at each other.
“Wouldn’t that be dangerous?” Gage asked.
“Yeah, but we’re going to have to do it eventually. We’ll have to go there to destroy the ghost. It would be safer to have a séance first.”
“That’s still contact with the ghost, isn’t it?” Ben asked. “How is that safer?”
I took another sip. “Because we’ll be on our own territory, and because Wren, Kevin and I can form a protective barrier against the ghost.”
Mace finally spoke. “How can we contact it if we don’t know who it is?”
Ah, good question, and one I was hoping no one would ask. “We don’t need to—it will come if you guys call it. And then I’ll know who it is.”
“How?” That was Kevin. “What if it doesn’t give its name?”
“I don’t know how, I just know that I’ll know.” That was the lamest answer ever. It was also totally honest. I really didn’t know why or how I could figure out who a ghost was.
“I’ll see it as it looked in life,” I told them, trying to find a better explanation. “I’ll be able to talk to it. Plus, Wren will be there, and she’ll be able to interact with it in ways I can’t.”
“What if it tries to hurt her?” Kevin asked.
His concern was actually sweet. I grimaced. “It can’t hurt her—” at least, not like he thought “—she’s already dead.”
He looked as though I’d just kicked his puppy.
“This is so weird,” Sarah remarked, shaking her pretty blond head. “And I thought my family was strange.”
I stared at her. There had to be a disconnect between her brain and her mouth. She just didn’t think before she spoke. Or maybe she did.
Ben defused what might have become a situation. “My uncle George used to walk around town in a top hat carrying his pet duck under his arm.”
“Don’t worry,” I told him. “I hear duck-carrying skips a generation.”
Brown eyes stared into mine for a second before he grinned. “Good to know.”
Okay, I was starting to crush on him a bit. I managed to smile back before it felt as though a piece of me that was loose got pushed back into place. The world slipped into a tighter focus, and I was a part of it.
Wren was here.
Kevin looked up—he felt her, too. I stared at him. Jerk. When he looked at me, one of his eyebrows arched. Oops. Guess I hadn’t done a very good job at hiding my thoughts.
“Be nice,” Wren said, tugging on a lock of my hair that I had somewhat contained behind a black headband—it made a nice contrast.
Kevin smiled. Oh, great, he could hear everything she said now?
“Don’t look at him like that,” she went on. ?
??And no, he can’t hear me all the time when I talk to you. You and I have our own frequency.”
I didn’t ask how she knew that, I simply trusted that it was true. I wouldn’t suggest that she and I could read each other’s minds, but each of us understood how the other thought.
Ben obviously noticed a change in me. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Wren’s here.”
“Hi, Wren,” he said, with a little wave in her general direction.
My sister looked thrilled at the attention. It hurt to look at her, because that foolish grin told me just how lonely she was. I wasn’t enough for her. I wanted to be, but I wasn’t. She was in this world because of me, but she couldn’t interact with it like I could. If I weren’t already halfway crazy, being in that situation would send me all the way over the edge.
The others greeted her, as well. I didn’t know if it was to suck up to me, or because they were actually happy she was there, and I didn’t care. It made Wren feel good, and that was all that mattered.
“I found a book on Haven Crest in the Shadow Lands,” my sister informed me. “I think it’ll help us.”
I repeated that to the table.
Kevin scowled. “How can you bring something like that into this dimension? You shouldn’t be able to do that.”
Wren looked surprised by his tone. Hurt. My eyes narrowed. “Might want to adjust your attitude, Sixth Sense.”
He shook his head, but he didn’t look at me—he looked at Wren. “Sorry. I mean, how is it possible that you’re able to do that?”
Wren shrugged. Kevin smiled a little. He really could see her. Or at least, he could sense her.
For the benefit of the others who weren’t so ghost-abled, I said, “Sometimes Wren and I can do things we shouldn’t be able to do. We don’t know why. Neither of us came with an instruction manual.”
“No one expects you to know everything,” Sarah said. Gotta admit, that was a surprise. “But thanks for sharing what you do.”
“You’re, uh, welcome.” I had a great career in public speaking in my future.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Mace reach down and entwine his fingers with hers. For a second she was stiff and cool, but then her hand closed over his. Obviously she forgave him for not telling her about finding me. And obviously he forgave her for being awful about it. I envied that. And I hated them a little bit for it, too.
“Did she bring the books with her?” Mace asked.
I shook my head. “No. She can bring them into this world, but she can’t transport them once they’re here.”
He nodded. “So, what do you want us to do?”
The bunch of them stared at me. They thought I had the answers. They expected me to have the answers. They trusted me to have answers. Damn, that was...unnerving.
“Can you do a search on Haven Crest ghosts or hauntings? I’ve got to think some of the stories have gotten out over the years. Look for anything that has to do with razors in particular.” Then to Sarah and Gage, “Maybe you guys can look up incidents or attacks at Haven Crest over the years? Each take a couple of decades to make it go faster.”
Their thumbs started flying over the screens of their phones.
“What can I do?” Ben asked.
“You and I are going to go shopping for supplies.”
“Want some help?” Kevin asked.
I shook my head. “Go through your books for ways to protect ourselves. Anything that stands out make a note or send Wren to me. Or call.” Yeah, calling was probably more convenient.
Everyone seemed on board. I took my chai with me, and as we walked out of the shop, Ben gave me a hesitant smile. “We’re like the Scooby gang or something.”
“Or something,” I replied drily. But my heart gave a stupid little flip. Other than group therapy at Bell Hill, I’d never been part of anything before. Ever.
I really hoped I didn’t get any of them killed.
* * *
Self-checkouts prevented so much embarrassment.
Ben and I went through the twelve-items-or-less line with ten cans of salt, a bottle of iron supplements, a bottle of fennel and a jar of cloves.
“You have thirteen items,” the woman at the next checkout commented, looking pointedly at the salt as I scanned it through.
I grabbed a pack of gum, dragged it over the scanner and tossed it on the belt. She didn’t say another word.
“You’re such a rebel,” Ben remarked, his eyes twinkling. He bagged our purchases. “Do we really need all this?”
“We will. You should salt the windows and doorways in your house.”
“Yeah, because that’s not hard to explain.”
He had a point. “At least the windows and the threshold of your bedroom. It will keep the ghost from getting you in your sleep if it decides to come visit.”
He shook his head, a lock of dark hair falling over his forehead. “I don’t need it.”
“Because you’re such a badass?” It was snarky of me, but why was he here if he didn’t want my help?
He stopped bagging and turned to me with the bottle of cloves in his hand. “You know, if you knocked that chip off your shoulder you’d be able to see beyond yourself and realize that we’re not the assholes you seem to think we are. Sarah’s not a bitch, she’s just scared and guilty because it was her idea to go to Haven Crest. And your buddy Mace? He got really pissed at her for it. Made her cry. And no, I’m not a badass, but I have a grandmother who likes to put pujok all over the house to protect us from evil spirits, so I feel relatively secure. Oh, and it wasn’t Kevin’s or Roxi’s idea to ask for your help, it was mine, so you can be shitty with me over it. But I probably didn’t have to tell you any of that, did I? Because you know everything.”
I stared at him as he tossed the cloves into one of the bags. He drew a deep breath, nostrils flaring, then let it out before looking at me again.
“Wow.” I scanned the last can of salt. “You found my place and put me in it. Well done.”
He sighed. “I didn’t mean to be a jerk, but we don’t expect you to save us, Lark. We just want your help saving ourselves. And to be your friends.”
“That’s what I don’t get,” I told him, digging out the credit card Dad had given me from my wallet. “Why would any of you want to be my friend? You never did before.”
He froze. In fact, he looked furious. “Grades four through seven.”
I frowned. “What about them?”
Ben’s jaw twitched. “Those were the years I invited you to my birthday parties and you never came.”
I stared at him. “Are you high? You never... Wait. Are you Benji Ross?”
His face flushed, and I felt heat rush to mine. Oh, crap. Benji Ross. Chubby little dude who I’d always thought was a weird kid. Quiet. Wow. He’d obviously had a growth spurt since I’d last talked to him...and improved his social skills.
My shoulders sagged. He looked so embarrassed, and I... “I’m such a shit. Ben, I’m sorry.”
He gave a stiff nod. “Forget it. Are we done here?”
I swiped my card through the machine, signed and followed him out of the grocery store.
“I can take some of the bags,” I said.
“I’ve got them,” he replied, staring straight ahead.
I tossed him the keys to the car. “I forgot something. I’ll be right back.” I turned and ran back inside.
When I came out a few minutes later, the bags were in the backseat and Ben was in the front listening to the radio. I climbed in and handed him an envelope.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“Open it.”
He did, and I held my breath as he read the Happy Boo-lated Birthday card I’d gotten him with a little cartoon ghost on it. When he laughed, I sucked in a lun
gful of grateful air.
“You really are a shit,” he said. His smile faded a little. “Thanks.”
I smiled back, heart thudding hard against my ribs. “Are we good?”
He nodded. “Yeah. We’re good.”
Those words made me happier than I would have thought. I guess I wanted friends more than I realized. Or maybe I just couldn’t stand knowing I’d hurt Ben’s feelings years ago. It wasn’t a good feeling.
On the way to Nan’s, we drove through where I used to live—Mace’s neighborhood. Funny, I never really knew him until he saved my life. He’d always been fairly popular, and I had always been fairly...not. His house was one of the nicer ones on the street—an old Victorian that had been restored. A gorgeous house, and the kind I tried to avoid if I could. Old houses tended to contain old ghosts.
After a big lawn and low stone wall was the house I’d called home until Bell Hill. It was big, but not a mansion, with a veranda practically covered in plants. The new owners had made it really pretty. My mother had kept it a bit more...bland.
“Did people really talk about me bleeding through the carpet?” I asked as we passed.
“I didn’t,” Ben replied.
No, I bet he hadn’t. Him and Mace. “Thanks.”
“Why did you come back here?” he asked after a moment’s silence. “I would think this would be the last place you’d want to be.”
“I didn’t have much choice. My mother didn’t want me anymore.” I couldn’t believe I’d told him that.
“Let me guess, because you can see Wren and she can’t?”
“Yeah.” The fact that he’d nailed it freaked me out a little. “So, my Nan took me in, and the school took me back, provided I behave and don’t act like a crazy person.”
“Doesn’t helping us go against that?”
I flashed a halfhearted grin. “See, you were right about me being a rebel.”
“I think you’re more than that.”
“I have no idea what I am.”
I saw him glance at me. “You’re not afraid.”
“I’m afraid of a lot of things.” Wow, it was True Confessions day for me. “Being afraid pisses me off.”