“Go,” he said breathlessly. “I’ll try to keep the ghost away from you.”
Presley wanted to ask how he planned to do that, but she didn’t feel like getting zapped again, so she took off after Brielle.
She looked around wildly for the ghost as she ran, but she couldn’t see him until he materialized in front of her and by then, it was too late. Brielle and Robert tried to put themselves between the ghost and her on the mad dash for the steps, but the apparition moved through them as if they weren’t even there and zapped Presley anyway.
“Depart our presence immediately!” Robert shouted at the ghost as they ran. “You’re not wanted here!”
Presley bit back a yelp as another zap of ice-cold electricity surged through her. Apparently, the ghost didn’t care what they wanted. He was pissed and he was going to take it out on her.
“Logan! Mav!” Brielle yelled they got close to the stairs. “We need help down here!”
Presley was about to race up the steps with Brielle, only to stop when their ghostly pursuer materialized halfway up them. As narrow as the staircase was, there was no way to get past him. If they wanted to get out of the basement, they were going to have to go through him. Since the ghost didn’t seem to have any effect on Brielle and Robert when he’d passed through them before, Presley was confident they could make it, but she wasn’t so sure about herself. Even a glancing touch from the ghost had been uncomfortable. What would it feel like if it went right through the middle of her? For all she knew, she could get electrocuted by this not-so-friendly ghost.
But if it meant getting out of this damn basement from hell, then she was willing to risk it.
She took a deep breath and was about to charge up the steps when she heard booted feet racing down them. Presley didn’t know if it was Logan or Mav or both of them. All she saw was the bright beam of a flashlight bouncing around. The next thing she knew, someone vaulted over the side of the railing to land on the floor with a loud thud right beside her.
Presley barely had time to realize it was Logan who had come to their rescue—complete with sawed-off shotgun in hand—before the ghost charged down the steps toward her. Logan moved faster than she would have thought possible, throwing himself in front of her, his shotgun at the ready. She had only a second to wonder what the hell good a shotgun was going to be against a ghost before Logan fired. She braced herself, waiting for the apparition to pass through Logan and give her another jolt, but to her amazement, the ghost disappeared in a flash of light.
Presley stared at the empty space where the ghost had been. She didn’t know it was possible to shoot a ghost, but Logan was swinging his shotgun left and right as if he expected to have to do it again.
He glanced over his shoulder at Robert. “Get Presley and Brielle out of here. Now!”
Whereas Presley couldn’t wait to get out of the basement before, now all she wanted to do was stay and see how Logan neutralized the ghost, but Brielle and Robert hustled her up the steps before she could protest. Now that she’d definitely confirmed the existence of ghosts—and confirmed they were the exact same thing she’d been seeing all along—she really needed to understand how to make them go away.
Mav was hurrying down from the second floor as they ran up from the basement. He stopped them long enough to ask what had happened before hustling down the stairs.
“Shouldn’t we stay to help?” Presley asked when Brielle and Robert started for the front door.
Robert shook his head. “Logan and Mav know what they’re doing. We’d only get in the way. They said go, so we go.”
“He’s right,” Brielle added when Presley hesitated. “Come on. We’ll be safer outside.”
Presley didn’t like the idea of leaving Logan and Mav alone with the ghost. They might be manly ghost hunters, but that apparition was a psychopath. She didn’t protest when Brielle urged her into the entryway and out the front door, though. Not even when Robert hustled them all the way out to the Hummer.
Too wired to sit inside, Presley leaned back against the SUV and chewed nervously on her lower lip. Neither Brielle nor Robert seemed to want to talk and even though her mind was whirling with questions, she didn’t press them for answers. In all honesty, she didn’t feel much like talking, either. She was too worried about Logan and Mav. Logan might not be her favorite person, but he had put himself between her and that ghost without hesitation. She’d feel terrible if something happened to him.
Suddenly, two shotgun blasts came from inside the house. Presley jumped. As the sound echoed in the night, she absently wondered why the cops hadn’t shown up. Surely someone would have heard them. Then again, there wasn’t another house in any direction for miles, so maybe there was no one around to hear. Or maybe they knew the place was haunted and didn’t care what the hell happened there.
So, they waited. And waited. Finally, Presley glanced at her watch. Logan and Mav had been in there with the ghost for almost half an hour. That was a long time to duke it out with a restless spirit, especially one so vicious. She’d give them ten more minutes, then she was going back in there, with or without Brielle and Robert for backup. Of course, she had no idea what she’d do when she got in there. She wondered if they had another one of those shotguns in the truck.
Luckily, though, Logan and Mav came out five minutes later. Although their hair was disheveled and their faces and clothes were smudged with dirt in places, both men looked unharmed. Presley sighed with relief.
“Is it gone?” she asked when they got to the Hummer.
Logan shook his head. “We burned all the sage and garlic bundles we had, salted the whole basement, invoked the sign of the cross on every wall and said every prayer both of us know, and I still don’t think the asshole is gone for good. We may need to get a priest in here for this one. That damn thing is dug in like a tick.”
Presley’s ears perked up at the mention of a priest. Was Logan talking about doing an exorcism?
Brielle folded her arms and gave both men an accusing glare. “You never said a ghost could do that. You said ghosts and people didn’t exist on the same plane, so we could never interact.”
Logan and Mav exchanged looks, then shook their head as they tossed their gear in the back of the SUV.
“You oversimplified what I said,” Logan said. “I told you most ghosts aren’t substantial enough to interact with humans because they exist halfway between our world and the next—right there at the Edge of Darkness. Some, like the one in there, seem to be able to slide back and forth. It’s rare, but it can happen. It has a lot to do with the kind of person the ghost was when it was alive. It’s likely that bastard was one mean asshole when he was on earth. Hell, he could have been a witch or even a demi-demon when he was alive. He refuses to go all the way across. Or maybe they don’t want him on that side, either.”
Presley blinked. “A witch or a demi-demon? You’re joking, right?”
Logan turned whiskey colored eyes on her, and for a moment, she thought he was going to actually give her a straight answer without all the sarcasm that usually came with it. But then his jaw tightened and he looked away.
“It’s been a long night and we’re all wiped out. Let’s head back,” he said quietly. “We’ll stop at a diner and grab dinner on the way. I’m buying.”