Darkness Brutal (The Dark Cycle Book 1) (6 page)

SEVEN

I sit on the couch beside Finger and his Funyuns.

Across the hall and through an archway, I can see Lester and Jax playing a game at the kitchen table. They keep smacking down cards and yelling out numbers and calling each other “fart nugget” and “pencil dick.” I wonder if it’s ever quiet here.

Just as I start to think the answer is probably no, a somber-looking guy comes into the house through the back door. He’s tall and broad, maybe eighteen, with dusty-blond hair, cut neat over his ears, and a serious tan. The skin on his nose is peeling—obviously a surfer.

“We got the job,” he says, walking into the kitchen. “Time to get to work, boys.”

“Yes! I knew it!” Lester shouts.

“You didn’t know anything,” Jax says.

“The peek stone showed the outcome looking positive,” Lester says, a smug grin on his face. “And it got us the freaking Benson job.” He folds his arms across his chest.

Jax snorts. “You mean the
fucked
-
up
Benson job. You’re just lucky that ghost had a thing for peppermint schnapps or you wouldn’t have gotten her Depression-era ass outta that sticky skin of yours, and you’d have been one weird Italian-Indian lady—”

The older blond boy spots me then. He hits Jax on the arm. “Shut it. We’ve got a spec hovering.”

All eyes fall on me. Jax leans back in his chair, giving me a harder look than he did before. “He’s waiting to see Sid. Kara let him in. She thinks he’s a keeper, Connor.” He makes a crude gesture with his hands to the older boy. “Kara likes ’em fresh and dumb.”

“Then why’d I shoot you down, Jax?” Kara asks, coming down the stairs. She doesn’t look at me, just walks by the living room and enters the kitchen. She asks the Connor guy, “Where’s Sid?”

Lester grins. “This new job’s a shoo-in, Kara. The peek stone said—”

“Shut up!” Connor snaps. “We wait till Sid is here, then have a vote for a go or not, like always.” He looks at Kara and adds, “Sid’s right behind me. He just stopped to do something in the shed.” Then he looks at me. “Ten more minutes, Kara, and if Sid isn’t inside, this spec needs to be gone.”

Kara follows his gaze. “He’s harmless, Connor. Guy doesn’t know what the hell’s going on.”

Very true.

Sid reminds me a little of a young used car salesman. Not just because of his suit—though it’s really nice, well fitted, and stylish. He’s got a pin-striped vest on, a thin silk tie loose at the neck, and his shirtsleeves are rolled up to just below the elbow, revealing heavily tattooed forearms. He grips a black walking stick with long and delicate fingers, tapping it on the floor as he paces in a semicircle in front of me.

He could definitely be a used car salesman, but I get the feeling I’m not a customer. I’m the car he’s trying to figure out how to sell.

He looks like he’s in his early twenties, not much older than the blond kid, Connor. He’s medium height, with dark eyebrows and sun-kissed skin, bald as a billiard and clean shaven. His features are almost feminine, graceful. But there’s a sharp line to his hazel eyes. They cut into me, peeling back layers of my defenses until I wonder if he’s seeing me for real. Like through my skin. How I see people.

It’s a bit terrifying to imagine how I might look from that angle.

By his face, I’d say it doesn’t look good. That frown could strip paint.

The other inhabitants of this madhouse clutter the opposite side of the room, facing the couch where I’m still sitting beside Finger. They watch Sid watch me like they’re not expecting much. This must not be the first time they’ve considered another recruit to this . . . whatever this is.

It’s definitely not a church-charity group home thing, obviously. And I don’t get a drug house vibe or a sex thing—if I did, I’d be out the door faster than Finger’s fingers tap on that Xbox controller. If this ghost hunter thing is a front for something else, it’s a really good one.

“Stand up, boy.” Sid waves his walking stick, pointing at a spot in the middle of the living room floor.

I rise from the couch and move to where he motioned. “Listen, Mr., um, Sid. I just—”

“No talking,” he grumbles, tapping my leg once with his stick.

It’s just a small tap, but I jerk back and glare at him. I don’t like people touching me, not ever. And I’ve had too many people think I’m a punching bag. If he does that one more time, I’ll take that stick from him and shove it up his—

“Yes! Fire! There, I see it now.” He smiles, changing his entire face. He glances behind him at the audience. “You were right, Kara.”

When I look over at her, her eyes move away to the window.

“Listen,” I say. “I just wanted to talk.”

“You need help,” Sid says.

I open my mouth to deny it, but then let out a sigh and just nod. What’s the point in pretending?

“Who sent you?” he asks.

“Hanna from SubZero. She gave me your number last night.”

He looks me over again. His eyes pause at my wounded hand. “What happened?”

I just stare back at him. Silent.

“Let me see it.” He waves me forward.

I don’t move. I can’t let him be in control, not before I know his angle. “I have a few questions first.”

He leans back on the arm of the couch beside Finger and nods for me to continue. A few members of the audience look impressed at my stubbornness, especially Lester and Holly, a young Hispanic girl—the one who’s high strung, according to Kara, and apparently obsessed with hair products. Her tight pink T-shirt says,
I see stupid people
. She kind of looks like an eighties throwback with rainbow knee-highs, pink Reebok high-tops, hair tied up with bright ribbons, and a headband with Hello Kitty on it.

“First I need to know exactly what it is you people do around here,” I say.

“Would you like to take that one, Kara?” Sid asks.

“We’re like fumigators,” she says to me. “We kill bugs. Otherworldly bugs. Kill ’em, lock ’em up, or cast ’em out. Whatever suits at the time. And we get paid pretty good to do it, too.”

“Otherworldly bugs?” I ask, feeling the blood leave my head. “Like what, exactly?”

Sid responds, “Don’t play dumb, boy. You already know what kind of bugs she means. The same kind that helped you get that wound.” He nods at my hand.

This is unbelievable. “Demons?”

I realize too late that he tricked that piece of information out of me. First he opens his mouth in shock, then his lips shift to a slight, knowing smile. “The rare demon, here and there, but mostly ghosts and poltergeists.” No red spark. He’s not lying—or doesn’t think he is, anyway.

Lester pipes in, “We killed a vampire once!” He sticks his chest out a little, like he’s the one that made the kill. Which is ridiculous.

“Vampires?” Okay, they’re full of shit.

“It wasn’t a
vampire
vampire,” Kara says, glaring at Lester. “It was a spirit that liked blood energy. We just didn’t know what else to call it. This old man had to put a fresh bowl of pig’s blood out every night, or the thing would rattle his windows and turn off his TV. So we helped him get rid of it.”

A million questions are spinning around in my head. They know about this stuff. But how? I look at Kara. “You can see them.”

“Not exactly,” she says. And I’m surprised by the disappointment that filters into my gut. For a moment I’d thought she might be like me. “I feel them. Sometimes hear them. But I can’t see them.”

“Kara is invaluable,” Sid says, giving her a fatherly look that seems a little . . . off.

She glances away, back to the window again.

I glare at Sid. “And what is it
you
do?”

He moves closer, right in front of me. “I can help you.” He points the handle of his walking stick at me. It’s tipped by a clear ball with what looks like a pentagram inside. “Eric told me about you. Said you have several unique gifts. But I’m guessing these gifts feel more like curses, don’t they?”

My hands are shaking.

He motions to the audience. “Each of the souls you see here was living in hell until I found them. I pulled them from gutters and padded cells and foster homes and helped them learn to use their gifts. To accept who they are. And now they’re lights in the dark places, keeping us connected to the spiritual world like beacons, and earning a living helping others.”

Connor clears his throat. “It’s true.”

Sid moves over to Connor’s side and pats him on the shoulder in a way that looks like he truly admires the young man. “Connor was once on the streets,” Sid says quietly, “selling drugs and living in a very dark place. Now he’s able to use his gift to help others, to help himself out of the dark. Just by seeing the places an object has been. Very useful. He’s already reunited a family with their lost child since he’s been with us. He’s a hero now.”

Jax pipes in, pointing to the Hispanic girl, “Holly dreams about dead people. Like that kid in
The
Sixth Sense
.”

Holly spins her head, her ponytail whacking against her cheek, and glares a hole through Jax’s head, obviously not happy about the revelation of her gift. “And all you can do is tell if it’s gonna rain, dumbass.”

Sid holds out a hand to Jax as if trying to calm the waters. “Every gift is important in its own right. From Kara’s sensory skills to Lester’s very useful ability to channel spirits, or Connor’s object reading, Jax’s sky predictions, and Holly’s budding dreams.”

I glance at Finger. He’s the only one who hasn’t been mentioned. Maybe his gift is focusing, because the kid hasn’t looked away from the TV since we all gathered in his domain.

Sid taps his cane again and points it at me. “And now you’ve come to me. I’ll ask again: Do you need help?”

I take a deep breath, then plunge. “I need a job. I need a place to stay. Not just for me, for my little sister, too. Someplace safe.”

Sid frowns at that. “Your sister.” Eric must not have mentioned Ava. Of course, I barely ever say anything about her. Maybe he forgot I have a sister.

“She’s with a foster family right now, but they don’t take good care of her, and she’s getting scared. I can’t leave her with them.” Can’t tell him too much, or there’s no way I’ll get what I need from these people. No one wants a girl living under their roof who’s the target of demons.

Sid takes in a deep breath and lets it out slowly, then says, “No, I suppose not. But you and your sister must each bring something to the table if you’re going to earn your way. Food and shelter aren’t free.”

“My sister’s just a kid.”

“So are you. What can she contribute?”

I sigh. There’s no way I can tell them the truth about that. “She can’t do anything.”

“His sister’s just a blank,” Connor says. “Can we really afford the dead weight right now?”

Sid eyes me, ignoring Connor’s comment. “Well, what can
you
do with us to provide for her?”

I consider my options. Hanna seemed to think I could trust this guy. I can at least tell him what Eric knows, since Eric probably already spilled the beans on that score. “I can see things. Ghosts and demons and shit.”

Jax whistles low. “Nice.”

The others gape. Except Kara. She’s got a terrified expression on her face.

Sid frowns. “You
see
them?”

“That’s what I said, isn’t it?” I don’t know why, but I’m suddenly getting irritated. Why is Kara looking at me like that? Her hands clench into fists.

Sid has his car salesman face on again. “What else?”

“What, that’s not enough?” I laugh. Then I realize Eric probably told him about my talent with languages. “I know Latin and Hebrew. And a little Ancient Greek.” I shrug.
And Aramaic and Anglo-Saxon and a bunch of others I have no clue what they are
.

He’s frowning at my hand again. “You can see them. With your human eyes . . .” He hesitates then asks quickly, “Are they a blur? Shadows?”

I shake my head. “Living color.”

He stares at me with such intensity that my pulse begins to race.

“Do you know what that means?” he asks.

The growing excitement in his voice sets a warning off in my gut.

I swallow and say no. And I’m pretty sure from that giddy look on his face I don’t want to know.

He takes my hand, turns it over in his, studies my markings, the bite. “I’m assuming the demon that did this was corporeal?”

I snatch it back. “What? No.”

His head jerks back. “No? Are you saying the creature was still on the other side of the Veil and yet it somehow
bit
you?”

My teeth clench at the memory and at the realization that I didn’t want that piece of information known yet.

“Did you fight it off? You did, didn’t you?”

“What the hell difference does it make?” It’s suddenly getting harder to breathe. Because I know it makes a difference. A huge difference.

Sid shakes his head, looking almost awed. “You made physical contact with the other side.” And then he says, almost as if to himself, “How else could you have done that unless you exist on both planes?”

My chest constricts in fear.

The bodies in the room stir.

Sid’s voice grows a little stronger. “That’s why you can
see
them. Unlike Kara, you must have one foot on the other side of the Veil. A part of your soul is on this side, and a part is on the other. You’re
between
.” He smiles suddenly, brilliantly, as if he just discovered the next big Internet craze that’ll make him millions. “That’s a lot of power, boy. A lot. You may have talents you haven’t realized yet.”