Page 3 of Real Fake Hauntings

I waved his words aside. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll see if I can find you a spot. Why do you want to work there, anyway?”

When he didn’t answer, I looked back and found him studying Dru carefully. Dru had been a staple of Olmeda’s paranormal community for years, so Brimstone probably was aware that she was a demon.

Witches, elemental mages, and wolf shifters made up the bulk of paranormals. Demons and berserkers made up the rest of the community with the exception of some rarer species, some so rare they were the stuff of legends.

Soft tinkling filled the air as the door opened behind Brimstone and Destruction, and a small breeze of chilly air lifted the hairs on the back of my neck. I peeked around his form to find Sonia standing on the threshold.

Talk about scary Halloween sights.

Her cane thudded ominously on the hardwood floor as she stepped up to the counter. She was wearing one of her PBOA president’s I mean business brown pantsuits.

Uh-oh.

She gave me a slow once-over, her eyes narrowing on the witch hat on top of my head.

I lifted my chin, defiant. Yes, I’d bought it at Sonia’s costume and party favors shop to show my support of the local business (and hopefully make her hate me less). So what if I had waited until Sonia wasn’t around to purchase it? It still counted.

“Avery,” she said curtly.

“Sonia,” I said amiably. I gestured toward the glass display on the counter. “Muffins? Tea?”

“No, thank you.”

I clamped down on the urge to beam. She had thanked me. My plans to get on her good side were totally working.

She gave the shop a slow glance, as if ascertaining everything was as it should be, and I noticed her gaze snagging on Brimstone and Destruction for a second too long.

Brimstone’s eyes went half-lidded, and some sort of silent blink-and-you-miss communication seemed to pass between the two before Sonia’s surveying moved on.

I almost gasped. “You know who he is?”

Sonia’s sudden glare all but evaporated the flesh off my bones.

“Right,” I said hastily. “None of my business.”

But it totally was. How did Sonia know Brimstone and Destruction? Was she aware that he dwelled on the wrong side of the paranormal community? Did he own some kind of paranormal business I wasn’t aware of and that’s how they’d met? The questions burned—burned!—and I couldn’t wait for her to leave so I could ask Dru what she knew about it. My gaze drifted toward her, and she shrugged slightly, appearing as surprised as I was.

“Avery,” Sonia snapped.

“Yes, Sonia,” I responded immediately, my spine straightening. Her way of making one feel like a misbehaving child at school could’ve won awards. Maybe magic was involved.

“I need your help.”

And then the outraged screams of a hundred thousand doomed souls filled my ears as hell froze over.

TWO

“You need my help?” I asked, unable to contain the wonder in my voice.

Could this be my first official job as a pillar of Olmeda’s magical community beyond selling potions? My heartbeat sped up at the thought.

Sonia narrowed her eyes. “Don’t make me repeat myself, Avery.”

“Yes, Sonia.” My lips twitched with the need to grin. Sonia’s glare intensified, so I cleared my throat and valiantly plowed on. “What can I help you with?”

“We have a situation with?—”

The door chimes tinkled again as a couple entered the shop, oohing and aahing at the inside.

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