Page 96 of Ghostly Touches

“Jonah? Is that really you? I thought you were dead…” Her voice trails off as her eyes widen.

“Surprise!” He spreads his arms out on either side of him. “Definitely not dead, though there were some days I did wish I had been.”

“You don’t look a day older than the last time I saw you. How is that possible… Are thosehorns?” Margaret gasps as her eyes grow wider.

She reaches into her pocket. I snarl as I take two hurried steps forward before leaping off the porch and landing in front of her. Margaret freezes, her hand still in her pocket.

“Who are you?” she demands, breathlessly.

I tower almost a good two feet over the woman, and I use my size to bear down on her. “The monster that will tear you apart if you pull a weapon out.”

She shakes her head quickly.

“I’m harmless! I was just going to pull out my phone and let my boss know I found—”

“No,” I snap.

Whistles pierce the night. These are from Theo. The two sharp whistles cause the hair on the back of my neck to stand straight up.

“You may be harmless, but what about the people coming to join us?” I demand.

Shouting from the nearby woods begins to echo around us.

Behind me I hear Jonah hiss, “Come on, Willow. Let’s get out of sight before trouble finds us.”

“If I can find her, others will too!” Margaret shouts at me loudly enough for Jonah to hear. “He’ll keep sending people for her. Now that he knows what she looks like, she’ll never have a place to go to keep her head down. Willow, come with me. Fredrick is a reasonable man. He’ll give you whatever you want. And Jonah, he can give you a steady job. You’ll want for nothing.”

“How much money are we talking?” he asks.

“Jonah!” Willow hisses quietly. It’s followed by his chuckle.

“I’m just curious, aren’t you?”

“Shut up, Jonah,” I snap, furious at the question. Willow’s not going anywhere. Turning my attention back to the older woman, I glare at her. “How does Fredrick know what Willow looks like?”

The woman points to her car. Perched on the dashboard is a small dash camera pointed towards the house, directly at Willow.

“Well, that sucks,” Willow says with exasperation. “Look, Margaret, I’m already being held against my will here, and I have a feeling, after all that comes with that book, I’m probably not going to find a better situation with Fredrick. So, while I appreciate you coming all this way, I’ll just stay with the devils I know.”

Around us the sound of bullets being fired rings out. There’s a scream in the night. Margaret’s expression shifts from me to Willow as someone swears behind me.

“Come on, Willow—” Jonah says. I hope he’s pulling her towards the house.

Margaret sighs.

“If you don’t come tonight, we’ll just find you another time.” She holds her hand out for Willow. “Please, Miss Harvest. Mr. Noir simply wants to talk. I’m sure you’ve gone through a lot in the time you’ve spent around that book. I know it’s special. But if you’re alive and still in possession of it, that means you’re special, too. Mr. Noir can be your best friend if you—”

A loud, long, and sharp whistle pierces through the darkness. My stomach sinks as I take a step back and brace for trouble. A breeze follows the warning before a real wind picks up. Margaret looks around as another scream whips through the night. She visibly pales under the glow of the flood lights. I reach into my cloak and pull out my sword. The whistles aren’t for the men dying in the woods around us. They’re for what’s killing them.

“Are those your friends?” I ask as I pull out my sword. “If so, it doesn’t sound like they’re doing too well.”

Margaret’s eyes go to the sword in my hand with a frown.

“Run, run, run!” a man darts out of the woods, dressed in black tactical gear. While he’s running full speed, Viktor bursts out of the woods right behind him, hardly exerting himself as he chases down the man. Before anyone can say or do anything, Viktor raises his sword and swings. The force behind the blow takes the man straight to the ground. He doesn’t get back up. Viktor presses his booted foot on the man’s back and yanks his blade from the dead man’s body.

Margaret screams at the sight and behind me Willow gasps.

Viktor looks up at me, and I can see the crazy glint in his eyes as a grin spreads across his face. His attention swings to Margaret who takes two steps back from the Ghost. Her eyes are wide, and her mouth is agape.

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