Ashes to Ashes (Experiment in Terror #8) (4 page)

I swallowed and nodded,
noticing the tense tone of her voice.

Things are
changing over here
, she said.
Things are changing for me. I’m
afraid I won’t be able to see you very often.

Why?

I don’t know. But I feel it. I
know you can see it in me. Though I am dead, I am also dying. And
you…you are growing stronger.

I bit my lip.
I don’t understand. Stronger
how?

You are able to put your
thoughts in other people’s heads and you’re starting to pick up on
their thoughts. Not with everyone, but with others like you. Like
me.

So? I mean, what’s the use in
that? I don’t want that, I don’t want people to know what I’m
thinking, and I don’t want to know what they’re thinking.

You will learn to block your
thoughts and learn to block theirs. But that is beside the point.
You are gaining these gifts at rapid speed, which means you have
the capacity for immense power.

I’m not a fucking
superhero.

Don’t swear,
Perry
, she chastised me, her nostrils
flaring.

Sorry,
I replied.

I’m trying to warn you.

Then come out and say it. You
know this passive aggressive dilly dallying has never worked in my
favor.

I would tell
you more if I knew for a fact, for certain. Alas, I do
not
. She looked up at the sky, frowning.
I followed her gaze but saw nothing out of the ordinary for
whatever world we were in. She went on.
But I do feel things, and I have…instincts…that I
never had when I was alive. The demons on the other side are
growing. The ones that make it through to the Veil are strong. The
ones who make it through to your side are even stronger. It gets
worse each year.

My heart slowed a few
beats, but still I raised a brow, forcing myself to be cynical
rather than scared
. Is that
so?

She smiled lightly which
only made her hollowed out cheekbones more pronounced.
You feel it. Everyone on your side
feels it. The disasters, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes,
earthquakes. The daily violence. The fall of humanity. Everything
crumbles for a reason.

So what do I
have to do with the fall of humanity
? I
asked. What she said did make sense but you could probably say that
about humanity at any time during our planet’s history.

You don’t have anything to do
with it. But maybe you will. Or someone you know will. Someone who
is as equally special as you.

Dex
, I said, exhaling
slowly.

Yes,
she said.
I think he might be a target. Could be. Or maybe your
sister. Or maybe other people that I do not know. I just know that
when demons get to the other side, they look for a host and they go
after the ones with power.

Been there,
done that
, I said, narrowing my eyes at
the memory.
Have the
t-shirt.

This isn’t
the time for jokes, Perry
.

Well what the
hell am I supposed to do about it?
I
asked, raising my hands in frustration.
I don’t even know where I am and you’re telling me
that more demons are looking for people like me.

Her eyes turned soft, her
mouth grave
. I just wanted to
warn you. Nothing I said is necessarily true. It is just what I
feel and what I fear. If something did happen to you, to Declan, to
Ada, to…
she trailed off and swallowed
hard
. Just know I had to tell
you, even if it turns out to be nothing
.

Well, let’s
just hope it’s nothing then
, I
said,
because honestly,
dealing with this seeing ghost business is hard enough. Thank God
for Dex, because if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t know how I’d cope
in this life, always seeing things that others can’t.

It is lonely.
And I wouldn’t wish it upon my greatest enemy.
I felt a life of isolation and sorrow roll off of her and
onto me.

Suddenly her head jerked up,
and this time there was something to see in the sky. I couldn’t
quite make it out; it seemed to be both very close and very far
away. It looked like a bat, a giant black one, with a wingspan that
grew larger as it grew closer.

“
Time for you
to go,” Pippa said.

Everything shimmered, rippled,
a dance of air on a palette of grey.

Then I was back in the
apartment, standing in the living room in Dex’s t-shirt, my legs
and feet bare and cold. I heard a little snuffle from beside me and
saw Fat Rabbit roll over on the couch, seemingly asleep and
uninterested.

The fuck just happened? Was I
sleepwalking, dreaming I was in the Veil with Pippa? Or had she
actually, physically brought me there? Wasn’t that supposed to be
dangerous in a way?

I just know that when demons
get to the other side, they look for a host and they go after the
ones with power.

I shuddered at her words as
they played over in my head. I’d already faced my demons, I’d
already gone to hell and back. There was no way that could happen
to me again. No way.

But what
about Dex?
asked the voice in my
head.
Ada?

I knew I’d do whatever I could
to protect both of them. But I also knew I couldn’t freak out over
an unsure warning in what might have been just a dream.

It
had
to be a
dream.

I sighed. I headed to the
bathroom to pee when suddenly there was a burst of vibration and a
buzzing sound. With my hand at my chest, I spotted Dex’s cell on
the kitchen counter, dancing and skipping from a muted phone
call.

I frowned and quickly went over
to it. Not only was it four in the morning, but the number was
1-234-56789123456789, something I had never seen before.

I picked it up and pressed
answer. “Hello?” I said quietly, not wanting to wake Dex if I
didn’t have to.

There was silence though I
thought I heard breathing.

“
Hello?” I
asked again.

Someone cleared their throat.
“Sorry. I may have the wrong number. Is…is Declan Foray there?”

“
Declan?” I
asked, always finding it funny when people addressed him by his
full name. “He’s sleeping.”

“
That’s a
shame,” the man said. I couldn’t really figure out if he was young
or old. He had a clipped way of speaking.

“
Can I take a
message?”

“
Who is it
that I am speaking to?”

I paused, feeling funny about
the whole thing. “Perry,” I said reluctantly.

“
Are you his
girlfriend? His wife?”

I would have snorted at that if
I wasn’t so creeped out.

“
Who is
it that
I
am speaking to?” I asked.

“
I must have
the wrong number,” he mused slowly. Then the call went
dead.

I stared at the phone, trying
to wrap my head around it. Then I shrugged and headed back to the
bedroom. It was time to go back to sleep.

***

I didn’t really remember
the phone call, nor my dream about Pippa, until a couple of days
later when we were getting ready to leave for Oregon. I left out
the dream since it was probably nonsense anyway—I
was
under
a lot of stress when it came to seeing my parents, so my mind was
probably concocting a bunch of nonsense—but I told Dex about the
call. It didn’t seem to interest him a bit so I left it at what he
thought it was—a pushy telemarketer in the night.

“
The dog
sitter will be here in ten minutes,” I yelled at Dex from the
bedroom. He was in the bathroom and taking forever. “And then we
have to be out of here.”

I heard him mumble something
that sounded like, “Relax, kiddo,” followed by the buzz of his
electric razor.

I sighed. Rebecca had been Fat
Rabbit’s regular dog sitter until she joined our team. Now we’d
been trying to find the right one for a while. The last one we had
was Dex and Rebecca’s friend Seb, and when we returned home, we
were paranoid that Seb had turned the place into a marijuana
grow-op. Even the dog seemed to be extra lazy upon our return. As
soon as the new sitter, Ana Rita, showed up, we’d take off for
Oregon.

I still hadn’t told my parents
about it. In fact, I hadn’t told Ada either. We’d decided to head
straight to the coast and then stop by Portland on the way back, so
at this point I’d only called Uncle Al. He sounded overjoyed to
hear from me—it’s wasn’t like I regularly talked to him anyway—and
it calmed my nerves a bit.

But only a bit.

Because I was pretty fucking
nervous about this whole thing. The child ghosts at this school
weren’t even entering my head—I was worried about my parents and
their reaction to me showing up. I was worried about how they would
or wouldn’t accept Dex. Even though I’d cut the ties and I was more
than old enough, they were still my parents and they still had a
strange hold on me.

I looked over my shoulder at my
small suitcase I’d packed on the bed. Then I looked at Dex’s duffel
bag on the floor. I peered inside. It was completely empty.

I rolled me eyes and ran over
to the bathroom door and pounded on it. “Hey, you haven’t packed
yet!”

The buzzing stopped
momentarily. “It’ll take me two seconds.”

Right.

I went back to the room and
started flipping through his closet, pulling out a leather jacket,
a cargo coat, a hoodie, and a long-sleeved dress shirt for when
he’d meet my parents again, then headed to his dresser. I rummaged
through his drawers, picking out a few t-shirts and folding them
before I tackled his boxer briefs. I only pulled out one pair
before I heard the bathroom door open and Dex cry out, “What the
hell are you doing?”

I whipped around to see Dex
charging toward me and slamming the drawer shut. Thank god I
removed my fingers just in time.

“
What’s your
problem?” I asked him, noting how his body was now blocking the
entire dresser, his eyes wide with panic. He’d trimmed down a lot
of his beard and ‘stache so it was just sexy scruff, and put in his
eyebrow ring. He was looking good. But obviously nuts.

“
What are you
doing?” he asked again.

I gave him an odd look. ”I’m
trying to pack for you.”

“
I told you
I’d do that,” he said, though he was starting to relax.

“
Well I’m not
counting on that. Why are you acting so sketchy? I’m allowed to
touch your underwear.”

“
Not when
there might be skid marks on them.”

“
Ew!” I
wrinkled my nose. “Holy TMI, and also, don’t you know where the
damn laundry basket is?”

He shrugged. “Now that you know
what you’re up against, you can continue packing if you’d
like.”

I shook my head and gave him a
wave of disgust. “No thank you, it’s all yours.”

He grinned at me like he’d won
some kind of war, and I could do nothing but take my suitcase out
to the front door just in time to hear the buzzer from
downstairs.

Fat Rabbit immediately started
barking, staring up at me with a forlorn expression on his wrinkly
face. He always acted a bit weird whenever we went away and the
suitcase was a clear sign. I hoped he wouldn’t give the new sitter
too much trouble.

I buzzed the woman up and
turned to see Dex strolling proudly out of the bedroom with his
duffel bag in tow.

“
See,” he
said, “packed in seconds flat.”

I narrowed my eyes
suspiciously, figuring he’d probably forgotten a bunch of stuff
like deodorant and socks.

When he got next to me, his
face grew serious and he reached out to touch my hand, holding onto
my pinky. “Are you okay? You’re the one who is acting a bit sketchy
lately.”

I nodded but still said, “I
don’t know. Just feeling antsy for some reason.”

He raised his brow. “Some
reason? Kiddo, going home to see your parents isn’t some reason.
It’s a big deal and it’s okay, I get it. But I’m here for you, you
know that. Right?”

There was a quick knock at the
door which set off Fat Rabbit again so I quickly shot him a smile.
Having his support would help, but it wasn’t enough to make my
nerves stop rattling.

I opened the door to see a
pretty woman with a warm smile and honey-tinted skin, dressed in
form-fitting yoga pants and a tank top that conformed to her lithe
body. Immediately I felt a prickle of insecurity and self-loathing,
mentally comparing my body to hers.

“
You must be
Ana Rita,” I said, trying to ignore my shortcomings. “I’m Perry,
come on in.”

“
Thank you,”
she said warmly. I saw her eyes flit over my shoulder to Dex and
her smile broadened. “Hi. Dex, right? We spoke on the
phone.”

Dex nodded and shook her hand.
“Thanks for agreeing to watch the little bugger. Hope you’re
prepared for lots of farts in your future. From the dog, of
course.”

She went down into a crouch to
pet Fat Rabbit who was wriggling all over the place like a spazz,
drool flying everywhere. I watched Dex carefully to see if he was
checking her out. If he was, he was being real subtle about it.

“
You sure
you’re comfortable staying here?” he went on while Fat Rabbit
finally calmed down enough to be sitting in front of her. “Fat
Rabbit doesn’t do well in other people’s houses, he tends to take
dumps in your shoe, so we just find it easier to have people come
here and sit for him.”