Mal stared down at Cara, who was wedged into the corner of the porch, her face pale and her eyes big with fear.
“What happened?” he asked.
She swallowed once before saying in a choked voice, “There’s someone in the house.”
Adrenaline rushed through him at the thought of Cara in danger. He reached out and took her by the arm to help her up, even as he looked up at the house on the hill. “They still there?”
“I…I don’t know.”
Jesus, she was crying.
“Did someone hurt you?”
She shook her head. “Not really. I mean, I’m just scared.”
“Ok, come in here.”
Cara hesitated, probably because the house was pitch black. Mal reached for the light switch and the kitchen warmed to bright gold, banishing the darkness. “It’s ok. Come in. I’m inviting you in, Cara.” Mal said the words deliberately. Even though Cara would have no idea of what was happening, his invitation would allow her to pass by some of the strongest wards around the house, the ones that the Salems put up to keep themselves safe.
Cara looked around as she stepped into the light. Sawdust had settled on her hair like snowflakes, and she wore jeans and a simple flannel shirt. Her boots were light brown leather, and also dusted with tiny wood shavings. The scent of raw pine and varnish followed her in, stinging his nostrils.
“You live here?” she asked, puzzlement on her face. “Why didn’t you say?”
“Never mind that. Tell me what happened.”
Mal was glad he was there alone for the moment. Dom and Vinny and Lex and Piewicket had all left. It was Behemoth who had sensed the presence of a person on the porch and howled a silent warning to Mal.
Now Cara’s hands twisted nervously as she started to talk. “I was working late. I do that a lot. The lights were on, bright. Anyone would have known someone was there.”
He saw that she was shivering. And not just because it was a nice cool autumn night outside. This was the aftermath of shock. Worried, he grabbed a blanket from the living room couch and wrapped it around her shoulders. Cara gripped the edges of the fabric like it was the only thing standing between her and certain death.
“Better?” Mal asked.
She nodded, her gaze unfocused.
“Want something to drink? Yes, you do. Something hot.”
He got the kettle going, pulled out a mug from the cabinet, and rooted around for tea. He found a canister of handmade packets of herbs that Lily had crafted, marked Restful AF. He grabbed one and dropped it in the mug. Then he turned back to Cara, who was standing there, looking lost.
He indicated the kitchen table with its mismatched chairs. “You should sit.”
“Hmm, yeah.” Cara sat in one, as vacant as a sleepwalker.
Mal’s concern sharpened. “Are you sure no one hurt you? Do you want to call the cops?”
“No!”
Mal paused at her vehement reply, the first noise she made that sounded conscious. “Why not?” he asked.
“I don’t want to get cops involved.”
“You called them when the supplies went missing before. This could be—”
“This is different.”
“Why?”
She shook her head. “This is going to sound stupid.”
“Just say what you saw. Don’t worry about how it sounds.”
She took a breath, or tried to. Mal saw her chest working, and then noticed the tightness around her mouth.
“Hey,” he said, moving to take her by the shoulders. “You need to breathe.”
“I am breathing!”
“Not well. You need to take long breaths. It’ll lower your heart rate and get your body back to normal. Listen. Take a deep breath in. I’m going to count to three, then you exhale for three. Ok?”
Cara nodded, and Mal counted slowly, tapping her shoulders in time to help her focus. After the first couple counts, she was breathing more normally and her color came back to her face. Mal itched to push her messy hair back, but he was also very aware that any move that freaked Cara out would blow up the delicate state of trust he just established.
Wait till she figures out that you’re lying about your name.
Cara finally sat up straight, letting the blanket slide down from her shoulders. “How do you know about stopping panic attacks?”
“I don’t. But I know when people aren’t breathing normal. It’s a thing that helps right before a fight, when your heart goes all haywire. Different reason, same treatment.”
She nodded in comprehension, her eyes now locked on him instead of unfocused like they were before. “Wait, a fight?”
“Yeah, I do a lot of martial arts,” he explained hastily.
“Oh. That explains…” A blush crept into her cheeks. “Um, that just explains it.”
Behemoth took that moment to leap onto the table, and Cara was obviously glad of the interruption. “Who’s this?” she asked, holding a cautious hand out for the cat to sniff.
“His name is Behemoth. Family cat. He’s sort of a jerk.”
But Behemoth was purring up a storm as Cara began to pet him. Her shocked expression began to fade as she focused on the cat. Behemoth was probably working some sort of cat magic to calm her, which was the first useful thing he had done in quite a while.
“Charm offensive, Behemoth?” Mal asked the cat.
Just my usual charm, the creature replied in his mind. Are you jealous I can seduce her when you cannot?
“Shut up,” Mal muttered.
Cara blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Nothing. Are you feeling better?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“You think you can tell me what you saw now?”
Cara closed her eyes. “I swear it was a ghost.”
She said nothing more, maybe waiting for Mal to laugh in her face.
He didn’t. Instead he pushed the mug of tea toward her, simultaneously whisking Behemoth off the table. “Drink this.”
“I’m not crazy,” she muttered.
“I don’t think you are. But you are in shock, at least a little.” It was too hot to drink, but the solidity of the ceramic mug would be grounding enough to keep her from shivering. And the tea, whatever it was, smelled amazing. Lily was very good with herbs. That had to help.
Cara wrapped her hands around the mug.
Mal kept his voice calm. “Tell me what you saw. I promise I won’t laugh.”
She inhaled, and in a small voice recounted what happened to her. Mal nearly had a heart attack when she talked about smoke and fire. He’d have lost his mind if he was in that particular situation.
“You say you had a weapon?”
“Not really a weapon. I was using a chisel and I had it…until I dropped it.”
Mal nodded. A simple, solid iron tool was exactly the right weapon for a novice to choose. Iron was damn good against anything from the fae otherworlds, and in fact, iron was great against corporeal things too. Anything that could deliver a good whack.
“What did you do then?”
“I followed the noise into the east room. I had the chisel, I figured it was just a raccoon or something anyway.”
Cara was bolstering herself up, and he admired her for not caving after her first, terrifying encounter with the supernatural.
She was saying, “I heard someone tell me to get out, to leave and never come back. And I turned when I heard that, because there’s not supposed to be anyone else in the house and I saw this shape. A person. But no one could have got there without passing by me. There’s no doors, no windows, nothing. But I saw them, and I felt a push toward the stairs, and I was just running out of the house.”
“What did it look like? The ghost?”
She shook her head. “I was panicking. I’m sure I’m not remembering it right. For a second I thought it was a little girl, but that’s got to be me thinking of horror movies to fill in the blanks. I can only be certain about the eyes. And the voice. Something in that house really doesn’t like me.”
All of a sudden, tears were rolling down her face. Mal forgot all his good intentions to keep his hands off her and leaned forward to take her in his arms.
Cara resisted for half a second, and then softened against him. Despite everything, despite his goal to ignore any physical reactions to her, Mal inhaled the scent of her sawdusty hair and felt how incredibly soft she was, and he’d be happy to hold her all night.
Do not say anything stupid about how she smells good, he warned himself. She’s scared out of her mind.
After a moment, Cara mumbled something. Mal leaned back. “What was that?”
“I’m sorry. This is unprofessional. My crying, I mean.”
“Cara, it’s ok. You had a really weird experience. Ghosts are scary.”
“It can’t have been a ghost,” Cara said, more firmly than before. “I don’t believe in stuff like that. There’s a rational explanation, and in the morning, it will all make sense.”
Mal said, “I believe in ghosts.”
She looked over at him suspiciously. “Do not play with me.”
“I’m not.”
“You, macho workout martial arts dude, believe in ghosts.”
“Yes. My physical workout regimen doesn’t have anything to do with my metaphysical…regimen. Or something.” Mal was annoyed at his own statement. “My point is that I one hundred percent know ghosts are real. And I am not surprised to hear that you saw one in that scary house up there.”
Cara got defensive, fast. “At least I’m working on it, making it habitable. Not like this place.”
“We are working on it,” Mal said hotly. “We do what we can, ok? It’s not like we planned to have pigeons living in the rafters.”
Her expression brightened. “Oh, that’s easy. If you know where they’re getting in, you can staple chicken wire over the opening. Not while they’re in there, duh. But scare them out, and—”
“Cara. Forget about the pigeons. Let’s get back to the ghost.”
“It wasn’t really a ghost.”
“What if it was?”
“Are you trying to freak me out?”
“You were already freaked out when you ran over here.”
“Yeah.” She shivered, and Mal’s instinct was to pull her close again and hold her till she stopped shivering. But Cara would probably use a chisel on him if he tried it.
While he was thinking things over, Mal texted Lex, who was still away on his research mission.
Re: Egans. Look up to see if there was a girl living there. Daughter, niece, etc. Cara saw ghost.
Lex texted back almost instantly. Ghost! OMG. Will do lookup.
Mal rolled his eyes. Sometimes talking to Lex was like talking to a teenage girl. He blamed Lily. The chica was a bad influence when it came to texting.
Behemoth sunk a claw into Mal’s calf to get his attention. We need to talk.
“Owww! Ok.” He glanced at Cara, who was watching him with wide eyes. “’Scuse me, I just got to go feed him.” He grabbed Behemoth and moved into the big pantry off the kitchen.
“What is it?” he hissed at the cat, who was laughing at him.
First woman who places professionalism over fun with you. What will your brothers think?
“Do not tell them! Not Dom, not Lex. And definitely not Lily!” He did not point out that Lily was not a brother, or even a Salem. Lily was basically an honorary sister, and she’d tease the hell out of Mal if she ever found out he’d been turned down flat by Cara.
Behemoth had Mal in a corner, literally and figuratively. What is my silence worth?
“What do you want? Tuna? Salmon? What?”
I shall consider my price, Malachy Salem. In the meantime, you must examine that house as soon as possible. Tonight. By dawn the lingering energies will dissipate and we’ll learn nothing.
“I can’t leave Cara here!” Mal said, almost forgetting to keep his voice down.
I could make her sleep, the cat replied.
“You can’t just slap some cat magic on anyone who gets in your way.”
Behemoth looked puzzled. I assure you I can.
“I mean it’s not kosher. By the way, what do you think of her?” he asked. “Apart from the turning-me-down thing?”
The cat twitched his tail a few times, which Mal recognized as a thinking gesture.
She seems on the level.
Mal winced. “Did you just make a carpenter joke?”
Some of your predecessors were freemasons. The jargon was much the same.
“You don’t think she’s part of an evil plot to reopen a hellhole?”
She is undoubtedly part of a plot. Whether she knows it or not is another matter. Open that can of tuna and feed me. For appearances.
Mal did, grumbling about Behemoth’s opportunism. Back in the kitchen, Mal didn’t say anything for a while, considering the whole situation. He was unreasonably angry that something scared Cara so much. He started tapping his fingers on the table. “Ok. I’m going to go over there.”
She looked up, alarmed. “No way. What if there’s…”
“A ghost?”
“I was going to say a real person,” she corrected. “A guy with a gun, maybe. Someone did steal copper pipe and fixtures. That stuff’s expensive enough that somebody might be pretty serious.”
“All the more reason to find evidence of what’s happening.” Mal stood up. “Wait here with the cat. I’ll be back.”
Cara stood too, a hard look on her face. “No way. Egan House is my responsibility. If you’re going over there, I’m going too.”