Page 67 of Air Of Mystery
“What’s your name?” I asked, taking one of her arms to help her sit up.
“Mary. My name is Mary. Get me out,” she begged. “Pleaseget me out of this house.”
“Is anyone else in the house with you, Mary?” I asked, easing her back against the sofa to help prop her up. Her arms were covered in wounds. I didn’t think it was needle tracks because the punctures were too large.
“My boyfriend, Dave, is here,” she said, starting to cry. “I told him to stay out of the basement. That it would only makehimmad...but he didn’t listen.”
The basement.Something unnatural was still in the basement, I realized, despite Kenna blasting the shit out of whatever entity had attacked Tyler earlier this year.
“Make who mad?” Sunny asked gently.
“Don,” Mary said, crying harder. “He’s Dave’s friend. He’s not…normal.”
Sunny’s hand was gentle as she laid it on Mary’s arm. “Did thisDondid this to you?” my cousin asked. “Did he put all of these bruises and wounds on you?”
The woman nodded her head in the affirmative and started to sob.
“We need to get the hell out of here,” Sunny said urgently.
“We will,” I agreed. “Grab her arm and let’s get her outside.”
Sunny nodded, looped her arm under the woman’s shoulders, and together we lifted and half-carried, half-walked the woman to the front door.
“Don’t stop at the porch,” I said to Sunny as we hit the threshold. “We’ll keep going. Across the street. To the pretty brick house with the ash tree in the yard—”
My words were cut off when something grabbed me from behind and yanked me backward.
I heard Sunny scream my name even as the door slammed shut. I was suddenly airborne, hurtling back with so much force that I hit the sofa and flipped over it. I landed on my back against the hardwood floor with a loud thump.
The breath was knocked from my lungs, but I managed to get up on my hands and knees. As soon as I did, I discovered a tall man standing in the center of the living room. He was wearing dark clothes, and his hair was long and spilled over his shoulders.
“Dave?” I asked, although I didn’t believe for a second that this was Mary’s boyfriend.
The man smiled and my heart sank.
“Hello, Skye,” he said. “How delightful to finally meet you in person.”
I knew that voice, I’d been talking to him on the phone off and on for years. “Hello, Don,” I said, climbing unsteadily to myfeet. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d sold the house to flippers.”
“You literally can’t help yourself, can you?” he asked, and began to move, slowly edging his way around the sectional. “I’ve found your investigation attempts amusing over the years. It’s been very entertaining for me, in a way...”
As he spoke, I took in his appearance. He was slender and moved with a sort of fluid grace that honestly made me think of watching a tiger walking across its enclosure at the zoo.
This was a true predator,I realized,and we were alone.
I had a couple of options here. Stall and hope that Sunny would call the cops and they would arrive quickly…or defend myself and fight.
Throwing a glamour wouldn’t work. For starters it would take way too much of my personal energy, and I was already unsteady from being tossed across the room. Pulling up power from the earth, I tried to ground and steady myself to prepare for what was to come.
“Aw,” he said. “That’s adorable. Magick won’t work against me, Witch.”
I didn’t respond to him, but instead shifted my position in an attempt to keep the sectional sofa between me and him. He realized it of course, and that only made him smile more. The bastard was enjoying this.
Reaching for the expandable baton in the sheath at my side, I pulled it free and braced myself.
“I’ve admired your tenacity, Skye...” he continued. “But unfortunately, that curiosity will be the death of you.”
Easing farther away from him, I backed toward the hallway. If I could make the kitchen, I had a slim chance to get out the back door. Flicking my wrist and snapping my arm out to one side, the baton telescoped out with a loud click.
