Good Will Ghost Hunting: Demon Seed [Good Will Ghost Hunting 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) (11 page)

Will didn’t waste any time. “What happened to her?” he asked. At times like this he wished he still had his powers so he could kick the shit out of Ryan. It’d been three years since he’d last seen or spoken to Ryan. Three years too soon for his liking.

“What happened to whom?” Ryan’s attention focused on the Braves’ batter stepping up to the plate.

“Kal. What happened to her?”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“You know damn well what I mean.” He stepped between Ryan and the television. “What the fuck is wrong with Kal? We saw the films. We know she’s possessed by something. What took her?”

Ryan waved Will out of the way as he watched the pitch, groaning when the batter hit a foul. “Wraith took her.” Ryan’s tone sounded as nonchalant as if stating the time.

Aidan’s blood ran cold. “
What
did you say?”

The batter hit another foul, this one bouncing off the dugout roof. “Did you not hear me or not understand me, Aidan? She’s possessed by a wraith.”

Will shook his head. “That’s not possible.”

“Why not?”

“Because whatever it is, it’s embedded deep in her soul, not on the surface. A wraith can only do that if someone’s pure.”

Ryan flicked his eyes from the TV only after the batter hit a grounder and was thrown out at first. “Your point is?”

“Ryan, she’s what, almost twenty-five? She went to OSU and lived on campus, for chrissake. That’s a party school. Seriously, what’s going on? I need to help her, and you know damn well what’s going on.”

Ryan glanced at the TV again, then back to Will. “Read my lips. She. Is. Pure. She’s a virgin. Daddy Dearest gave her a purity ring to help keep her honest, and she has been.”

Will and Aidan exchanged glances. Will shook his head and forced a smile. “Joke’s over. Ha ha, very funny, you had us going. Seriously, what’s wrong with her?”

He’d drifted in front of the TV. Again, Ryan motioned for him to move. “Look at her left hand. Feel free to ask her about her ring. And quit blocking my—oh! Home run! Yes!” Ryan clapped his hands as the batter ran the bases, scoring for the Braves.

Will grabbed Aidan’s arm and they appeared in Will’s hotel room.

Kal flinched at their sudden appearance. She shrank away from Will when he reached for her left hand.

“It’s okay, Kal,” he said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Yeah, keeping me handcuffed to a bed is
so
not a comfort in that direction, Hellenboek.”

He took her hand, again feeling a tingle of connection with her. He saw the silver ring and really looked at it for the first time. A heart wrapped with a ribbon and overlaid by a cross, inset with a small, pink stone.

“What does this ring signify?” he asked her.

“Why should I tell
you
anything?”

Aidan stepped forward and bent over the bed. He spoke in a soft, gently persuasive tone. “Kal, honey, what’s the ring for? Please, it’s really important.”

She studied the men, glanced at Purson and Gery, then glared at Will. She dropped her voice. “It’s a purity ring. My father gave it to me when I turned fourteen. I took a vow to remain a virgin until marriage.” There, she’d said it. “I don’t know what your game is, but you need to end it right the heck now.” If Will or the other guys dared give her any hassle about it, she’d show them a really brassed-off woman.

After they took the handcuffs off her, of course.

Will closed his eyes and swore. Aidan put a hand to his forehead and rubbed it.

“Shit,” Aidan said. “Bastard was right.”

Will gripped Aidan’s hand and the men disappeared again.

Kal looked around the room. Surely she was delirious. Despite the restraints the men weren’t hurting her, so maybe this
was
for her own good, so she didn’t hurt herself and others. Because people didn’t just pop in and out of rooms like that. That was an obvious sign of fever or illness, right?

Purson looked concerned. “You okay, Kal?”

“Oh, sure. I love spending my evenings chained to a bed.”

Gery laughed. “I’m sorry, sugar. It’s the only safe option until they figure out how to fix this. We can’t have you prowling the streets and killing people. This way at least you won’t tear up the joint. Come dawn, we can let you go again. It’s just while the moon’s out and it’s dark. Whatever’s got you is a night creature.”

She tipped her head to the video camera. “What’s that for?”

“Proof,” Purson explained. “You can watch it later and see what happens to you when you black out, and see that we didn’t try to ravish you. We promise, we’re keeping our hands to ourselves.”

She felt something shift inside her, like a presence awakening. She wanted to claw their eyes out. With her next thought came a wave of horror over feeling that way in the first place. There was something wrong with her, all right. Something that made PMS feel like a walk in the park.

“What’s wrong with me?” she whispered, for the first time really scared—of herself.

Purson shook his head, his face serious. “I don’t know for sure. That’s what Will and Aidan are doing, talking to someone who probably does know. As you’ve no doubt guessed by now, there’s more than meets the eye to us and this situation. I’m good at finding stuff out but this goes beyond even my considerable abilities and experience.”

“Where’d they go? Am I blacking out? Is that why they look like they disappear and reappear?”

The men exchanged a glance. Gery finally spoke. “Sure, that’s it, honey. You keep blacking out. Just try to relax. Want me to change the channel? We’ll watch whatever you want.”

* * * *

Ryan still watched the game. Will stood to the side, clenching his fists.

“All right, so she’s a virgin,” Will said. “What do we do? Tell me how to get rid of the wraith.” He’d dealt with a lot of things before, but it had been centuries since he’d dealt with a wraith. Even that one had been easy to get rid of, like any other possession. Not deep like this.

Ryan glanced at Will, then Aidan. “Full moon’s in seven days. If the wraith isn’t taken care of by then, it takes her over permanently, becomes fully embodied, and at that point there’s only one recourse left.”

The other two men knew exactly what that one recourse was. Aidan paled. “Dude, quit screwing around. Please tell us how to take care of her and fix this.”

The game was in the top of the ninth, and the pitcher worked to strike out the second Marlins’ batter. “I know it’s been a while since you’ve dealt with one,” Ryan snarked, “but how much do you gentlemen remember about wraiths?”

So
not
in the mood for this bullshit.
Will didn’t say it. Instead he said, “Short version, please.”

“A wraith can possess someone of weak spirit, but it can be ousted in various, common ways. Can’t get a grip. Wraiths can’t latch on to a child because there’s no desire, no hormones or sexual tension for them to wrap around, you know that. If a wraith latches on to a pure adult soul, however, someone who has never been intimate, shall we say, it can take over and take permanent form, become embodied. Once it spends a full moon in residence, you can’t remove it, and the person must be killed. As is, it can only take control at night while the moon is out.”

Will exchanged a worried look with Aidan. “Okay, so we have seven days to get rid of it.
How
do we get rid of it?”

The second batter struck out and Ryan pumped his fist in the air. When the network went to commercial, Ryan headed for his kitchen and returned with a glass of merlot.

“Want some?” The other men shook their heads. Ryan returned to the couch. “Well, as you are well aware, standard methods don’t work when a wraith attaches to a pure soul. You need a lot of power to oust it. What’s more, you have to make sure the wraith can’t return to the host once it’s been booted.”

Will thought strangling Ryan looked like a pretty tempting option. “
How
do we do that?”

Ryan sipped his merlot. “How do you make sure the wraith can’t return?”

“All of it. Return, get rid of it, everything.”

“The wraith can’t return if she’s not a virgin, so that part’s fairly straightforward, I should think.” He glanced at Will. “Or has it been so long you don’t remember how
that
works?”

Will lunged. Aidan stepped between them. “Will, settle down.” He turned to Ryan. “Don’t be a dick. We get it. Just tell us how to get the wraith out of her in the first place.”

Ryan set his wine glass on the coffee table. “You’ll actually take care of two birds, so to speak. The wraith can be driven out by an archdemon, certainly, but only a powerful one.”

“So you’re saying we need to get one of the guys to sleep with her?” Will was grateful Aidan said it, because he was too busy trying to not choke Ryan.

Ryan’s eyes flicked from the TV, where the Braves had struck out the third batter, back to Aidan. “Not just any of them, Aidan.” He looked at Will. “Only a very powerful archdemon can drive the wraith out. He has to be willing to give her his heart, bond with her permanently. Become her soul mate. As a result, obviously, he must be one who doesn’t already have a soul mate. If it’s not done by the full moon, she has to be killed by an archdemon before the wraith can fully take control of her. We can’t very well have a permanently embodied wraith running around loose on the planet now, can we?”

Nausea twisted Will’s gut, along with something else he didn’t want to name but which relentlessly bubbled to the surface—jealousy. He didn’t want Kal to die,
couldn’t
let her die. Yet the thought of someone else sleeping with her…

“Why does it have to be an archdemon who sleeps with her?” Will asked.

The baseball game kept pulling Ryan’s attention from them. It pissed Will off. At least it was almost over.

“Basic physiology. A powerful, unbonded archdemon, one strong enough to drive the wraith from her soul. You have some poor Joe Blow sleep with her, she’ll rip his balls off as soon as the wraith breaks through at night, you should know that. Her soul must be bonded to an archdemon. Once she becomes an archdemon’s soul mate, the wraith is driven out. Of course, by default it can’t return.”

“And she’s The Firm’s newest spousal dependent whether she likes it or not,” Aidan snarked. He dropped heavily into one of the matching chairs in front of the sofa.

“Yes. The catch is, of course, she has to do this of her own free will. You can’t simply drug and date rape her. She must willingly agree to it and be an active participant so she can bond and become a soul mate. That means it has to be someone she wants to sleep with, someone she’s attracted to. It has to be someone who’s attracted to her, too, obviously. Someone who will take her as a soul mate and love her.” He fixed his pointed stare on Will.

Will closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead, trying to stave off a tension headache. “So what’s the bottom line?” There had to be a way around this. There always was. He just had to let Ryan have his say. Ryan was like his old man in that way, giving the worst-case scenario first so when he presented you with the alternative, no matter how unappealing, it looked a lot better than the original idea.

Ryan
couldn’t
be saying what he thought he was saying.

“The bottom line, Will?”

Will nodded. “Spit it out and cut the bullshit.”

Ryan took his time arranging his long legs. “Either you fuck her, or Aidan kills her.”

Aidan leapt to his feet. “What?”

Nonplussed, Ryan turned his gaze to Aidan. “You heard me. Either Will takes her cherry and takes her as a soul mate, or you must kill her. I say you because I know there’s no way Will would wield the sword. There’s no other way to get rid of the wraith.” Ryan casually sipped his merlot.

Nope, this was definitely worse than Will thought. His face reddened with anger. “You can’t do that. You can’t let that happen! You have the power to fix this.”

“No,
you
have the power to fix this. I can kill her.
You
can save her.”

“I can’t sleep with her! I don’t love her!” Even as Will said it, his body betrayed him. The thought of loving her fiercely battled with the pain in his soul and his years of dedication to Abby.

His dedication to dying to be with her. Or, at the very least, to no longer be in pain without her.

Ryan arched an eyebrow. “Really? Why not? I thought you were rather fond of Kal.”

Will wouldn’t give Ryan the satisfaction. “I barely know her,” Will growled through clenched teeth.

“Ah, Will, but you do. You not only know her, you love her.”

* * * *

Aidan’s jaw dropped. “Oh, shit!” he whispered, awestruck. “You’re a fucking miserable bastard, Ryan. You know that?”

Will was too angry for bullshit and turned on his cousin. “What is
your
problem? You know I won’t let her die, she’s an innocent. This is my problem, not yours.”

Aidan, still stunned, slowly shook his head. “Dude, he planned this. You’re not getting it.” He looked at Will. “You’re
really
not getting it. Do the math.”

Confusion slowly displaced Will’s anger. “What?”

“Will, do the fucking math. What’s Kal’s birthday?”

Horror replaced confusion in his expression. “She was born about nine months after—”

Aidan nodded. “Dude, she’s Abby.”

Ryan’s smile broadened, but for once he said nothing. He took another sip of his merlot.

Will’s eyes flashed blue, then black. He let out an enraged scream and lunged at Ryan. Aidan barely managed to catch him and pull him back. Apparently unconcerned, Ryan never moved and continued nursing his merlot.

“I have to admit,” Ryan said, “it was rather inspired. Father said he’d never been so proud of me. It marked the moment he decided it was time to turn the reins over to me once and for all, put me totally in charge of The Firm.”