CHAPTER SIX

 

 

PRESLEY DIDN’T RELAX until Logan pulled the Hummer out of the parking lot and they left Stamford in the rearview mirror. It occurred to her that she should probably ask where he was taking her, but right then she didn’t care. She wanted to get as far away from Del Vecchio’s ghost as she could. She’d never been so scared in her life, not even the night that bastard had tried to kill her the first time. For some reason, the fact that he was a ghost made him even more terrifying. Maybe because he seemed unstoppable in this new form. Thank God Logan had gotten there when he did because she wasn’t sure the salt would have kept Del Vecchio at bay much longer.

She let out a shiver at that and wrapped her arms around herself. That was when she realized she was only wearing the tank top and shorts she’d put on earlier. She hadn’t even thought to slip her feet into a pair of sandals before they’d left. Logan must have seen the movement because he reached in the back with his free hand and grabbed his leather jacket from the seat.

“Here, put this on. You must be freezing.” He gave her an apologetic look as he handed it to her. “Sorry I didn’t think to get you something else to wear before we left the apartment.”

Presley shuddered at the thought of spending one more second in that place. She would have run out of there naked if it meant getting away from Del Vecchio’s ghost.

“Don’t worry about it,” she told Logan as she put on the jacket. It was big on her, but it was warm and she pulled it around her gratefully. She caught the faint whiff of a masculine scent along with the that of leather and she couldn’t help but smile as she realized it smelled like Logan. “You saved my life and that’s all I care about. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t answered the phone. How did you get to the apartment so fast anyway?”

“I was still in Stamford.” He explained what he’d learned about the murders from his friend in the police department, adding he’d already been on his way to her apartment when she called him. “The moment Muncie mentioned the light bulbs had been blown out in all of the victims’ homes, I knew we were dealing with something paranormal. Something that has a heavy EMF signature like a ghost, though not like any ghost I’ve ever heard of. Then Muncie told me the victims looked like you and I knew you were in deep trouble.”

She frowned. “What do you mean, they looked like me?”

He gave her a sidelong glance. “They were all tall and pretty with long, blond hair. Del Vecchio must have been using them as a substitute for his rage until he could finally get to you.”

Presley’s stomach churned. “How is he even able to do what he does? I thought ghosts couldn’t take physical form.”

Logan’s hand tightened on the wheel. “They usually can’t. The simple act of appearing in a crowd of people like the one in the newspaper photo without causing a riot is unheard of but attacking women with a knife shouldn’t even be possible.” He glanced at her as he merged onto the highway leading to upstate New York. “Tell me exactly happened when Del Vecchio showed up at your apartment.”

She hesitated. She didn’t want to think about it much less talk about it.

“Presley, I know it’s like asking you to relive the horror again, but I need to know what kinds of things Del Vecchio’s ghost is capable of so I can figure out how to stop him,” Logan said softly.

Apparently, the cop in Logan was still underneath that ghost hunter exterior somewhere because he sounded like the police who’d come to talk to her about what had happened the night Del Vecchio had murdered Darla and tried to kill her. As much as she didn’t want to talk about her encounter with that psychopath’s ghost, she knew Logan was right.

She took a deep breath and told him exactly what happened at Jennifer’s apartment, starting with seeing Del Vecchio’s reflection in the screen on her laptop and finishing with how the ghost had gone absolutely crazy and trashed the living room when she’d made a circle of salt around herself and he couldn’t get at her.

When she was done, Logan shook his head. “He acts like a ghost with the electrical disturbances and his ability to pass through walls, but the thing with the knife has me doubting myself. Your normal, garden-variety ghost can’t do something like that. In order to cause physical harm, that knife would have to exist in our world. But the very definition of a ghost is something that doesn’t have solid form on this side of Darkness. It’s as if Del Vecchio is existing on both sides at the same time.”

“What do we do then?” she asked.

“First, we get you somewhere safe. Then I start doing some research and find out what the hell we’re dealing with.”

Presley sighed. She’d been hoping Logan would say it’d be a piece of cake to get rid of Del Vecchio. That all they had to do was whack him with some salt, enlist a priest to exorcise his ghost and he’d be back in hell where he should be. Apparently, it wasn’t going to be that easy.

“Where does a ghost hunter go to get information on a ghost?”

He gave her a lopsided grin. “To another ghost hunter, where else?”