CHAPTER NINE

 

 

IT HAD BEEN a long time since Logan had a woman around but listening to Presley in the next room was nice. Reassuring even. Maybe because he knew as long as she stayed with him, she’d be safe. For some reason, he felt extremely protective of her. Which was kind of surprising since he hadn’t even wanted her around two days ago. Of course, he didn’t know she was being targeted by a homicidal ghost then. That changed things.

He only thanked God he’d gotten to her apartment when he did. He still couldn’t believe she had the presence of mind to set a protective circle of salt around herself, especially when she’d been so terrified. At least she’d relaxed a little when he told her the warehouse was impervious to any and all ghosts. He hoped she got some rest. She’d looked exhausted. Then again, he had bored the hell out of her with his life story. That would be enough to put anyone to sleep.

Logan was amazed he’d been so open with Presley. He hadn’t said that much about what had happened to his partner since…well, ever. He hadn’t told the shrinks in Bellevue, that was for damn sure. Hell, he hadn’t even told Mav that much about it. But Presley had a way about her that made it easy to talk to her. Maybe it was all the work she did as a school counselor. Or maybe it was because of what she’d gone through with Del Vecchio. Maybe in some weird way, it made them kindred spirits.

He took a swig of beer, then grabbed the book he’d picked up on the way back from the kitchen and thumbed through it until he found the section on ghosts, hoping the research would get his mind off the beautiful, blond damsel in distress and how easily she’d gotten him to confide in her.

He was halfway through the chapter when he remembered he was supposed to meet Mav up in Maine. Thinking he’d better bring his buddy up to date, he took out his cell phone.

“Mitchell.”

“Hey, it’s me,” Logan said.

“I was wondering where the hell you were. You on your way up here?”

“That’s what I’m calling about. Presley was right about Del Vecchio. The asshole did come back and he’s after her.”

“You sure?”

Logan clenched his jaw. “I’m sure. And he’s as real as she said. His ghost paid her a visit earlier tonight at her apartment and terrorized the hell out of her.”

“You there now?”

“No. I brought her back to my place.”

There was a pause. “Your place? I hate to break it to you, dude, but it’s not exactly female friendly.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you even have any food?”

“Yeah, of course I have food. Leftover pizza. Presley seemed to like it.”

“Of course she did.” Mav let out a breath. “Did you ever pick up any toilet paper? The last time I was there, all you had was a roll of paper towels.”

Logan scowled into the phone. “Yeah, I have toilet paper. Besides, the important thing is that she’s safe here.”

“The place is a fortress, I’ll give you that. You’re that worried about her safety, huh?”

“Yeah. This thing isn’t like any ghost I’ve ever dealt with before. One minute, it can walk through walls. The next, it’s slicing and dicing women who look like Presley. He’s already claimed four victims since coming back from the dead.”

“Damn,” Mav breathed.

“You ever heard of a ghost being able to do that?”

“Never. You sure the thing’s a ghost and not something else?”

Logan snorted. “Other than the fact that it doesn’t like salt, I’m not sure of anything right now. Suffice to say, I’m not going to be able to get up to Maine right away. You hook up with Brice yet?”

“Not yet. He wasn’t at the motel where we were supposed to meet and I can’t get him on his cell. I’m going to head out to look around some more tomorrow, see if I can find out what he was up to. You need me to come back there instead?”

“Nah, I have this. Stay there and see what’s going on with Brice. If I can’t deal with this on my own, I’ll give you a call or ask some of the other local hunters for help. Hopefully, I can get rid of this ghost or whatever the hell it is quickly and get up there to back you up. It’s not like Brice to ask for help, then not be there to meet you.”

“No, it’s not,” Mav agreed. “Okay, I’ll talk to you later. Watch your back with this ghost, huh?”

Logan assured him that he would, then hung up. Tossing the cell phone on the coffee table, he hit the books again. After an hour of reading, he still wasn’t any closer to figuring out what kind of ghost he was going up against. Hoping some of the other hunters he knew might be online, he grabbed his laptop and connected to the Internet, then pulled up Messenger. To his relief, a few of his friends were online and he set up a conference chat so they could all talk to each other as a group.

Most of them were of the opinion Del Vecchio might not have been human to begin with. Since that would certainly explain why the son of a bitch was acting completely unlike any ghost he’d ever dealt with, Logan didn’t discount the possibility. Unfortunately, it still didn’t tell him what the thing was now or how to destroy it.

The best suggestion any of the other people could come up with was the tried-and-true method for dealing with ghosts Logan planned on using all along anyway. Find Del Vecchio’s mortal remains, sow them with blessed salt, then burn them. If this thing was a ghost, even some bizarre new kind of ghost, that technique should work. If it didn’t, he’d be able to say with some kind of reasonable certainty that he was dealing with something other than a ghost. Of course, then he’d have to come up with another way to get rid of it. But he’d deal with that when he got there.

Logan was logging off Messenger when he heard a terrified scream come from the bedroom. Tossing his laptop on the couch, he jumped to his feet and pulled the shotgun loaded with rock salt out of his duffel bag. There was no way Del Vecchio’s ghost could have gotten into the house, much less circumvented the protection charms Logan had put around the place, but that was the only thing he could imagine making Presley freak out. His blood ran cold at the thought of what that sicko was doing to her.

When Logan ran into the bedroom, Presley was sitting up in bed, her eyes wide and unfocused as she stared at something only she could see, blanket clutched to her chest even as she let out a scream so loudly it sounded like her throat might tear. For one horrified minute, he thought Del Vecchio had already been there, stabbed her and disappeared, but he didn’t see any blood.

That’s when it hit him.

Presley was having a nightmare. He’d seen enough traumatized people to recognize the look on her face. She was reliving the night Del Vecchio had attacked her.

Swearing under his breath, he set the shotgun on the dresser and hurried over to the bed. When he put his hands on her shoulders to calm her down, she gave a start and slapped his hands away.

“Presley, it’s me. It’s Logan.”

She didn’t seem to hear him—or if she did, the words didn’t register—because she shook her head wildly and tried to push him away again. He didn’t let her. Instead, he sat next to her and pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly against his chest.

“Shh,” he hushed, rocking her trembling form back and forth. “It was a bad dream. You’re safe. I won’t let anything hurt you.”

He kept repeating the words over and over until she finally quieted. Her screams becoming little more than a whimper, she melted into his arms, pressing her face against his chest. He expected tears to come on the heels of a nightmare like the one she had, but there weren’t any. Just long, shuddering breaths and ragged coughs.

“I-I’m sorry,” she said, her voice a hoarse whisper against his chest. “It seemed so real.”

“Shh. There’s nothing to apologize for.” Logan pressed his cheek to the top of her head. “How long have you had the nightmares?”

She curled her fingers around the material of his T-shirt. “From the moment I woke up in the hospital. Seeing Del Vecchio’s ghost has made them worse than ever. He keeps coming after me over and over with that knife…”

A shudder went through her body and his arms tightened around her. “I won’t let him hurt you, Presley. I promise.”

She looked up at him, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “Will you stay with me? Just until I fall asleep? Please.”

He should be trying to figure out how to kill this asshole, but at the pleading look she gave him, he couldn’t say no. “Of course.”

She relaxed against his chest again. Logan leaned back against the headboard and pulled the blanket up over her shoulders. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d held a woman in his arms, especially one who was so beautiful or needed his help so badly. It felt good, even if she was only there because of a nightmare.

Presley fell asleep a little while later. Even though he’d fulfilled his promise to stay with her until she did, she looked so peaceful lying on his chest Logan couldn’t find it in himself to disturb her. From the sound of it, she hadn’t gotten much sleep lately and he didn’t want to wake her by getting out of bed. Besides, he wasn’t going to get any more research done tonight anyway. Closing his eyes and drifted off to sleep, his arms still wrapped protectively around her.