Welcome to the Dream (A Celeste Cross Book, #1) (8 page)

When Susie had said she was
getting in the daughter of a friend to house sit, Jack had hardly
paid any attention to it. He knew most of Susie's friends, and they
were all mad. She was the kind of lady who liked to dabble in
anything. She had every single tarot pack under the sun, had the
kind of crazy books from the '70s that promised to give her mental
powers, and she would try anything and everything new that came
along. All her friends were of a similar ilk. So when Susie had
promised someone was going to move into her house for 6 months,
Jack had conjured up an image of a long-haired, airy fairy, hippy
type. Not that he had any problems with hippies; he just hadn't
been imagining Celeste.

She had a certain presence
about her. It was exactly opposite to what you'd expect. And no,
Jack hadn't bought into the stereotype of your average computer
programmer. It wasn't that. It was the way she seemed quite calm,
almost unflappable. When she'd admitted that she'd had a run-in
with Arthur Turner, Jack had been ready to call the police. Turner
was known to most of the locals in the town, and had a reputation
for being violent. Celeste, on the other hand, had brushed the
incident off with nothing more than a shrug.

Jack found himself smiling.
Then he planted a hand on his head, whisking away the
sweat.

He probably shouldn't let
himself get so distracted; there was a lot more to think about than
the woman who'd moved into his aunt's house.

There was what she'd said,
for one. As soon as Celeste had mentioned the Star of David in the
church, he'd said a quick good-bye, then he'd bloody well run over
there, checking for himself. He'd grabbed the torch from the back
of his car and had made his way into the main hall, finding the
tile quickly. Then, a sinking feeling collecting in his gut, he'd
spied the star.

She hadn't
been lying.
He
thought.
She
had bloody sharp eyes for picking that up in the first
place.

He'd been over that church
so many times in the past three years, and nobody else had ever
spotted it either.

‘
Solomon's Seal,’ he mumbled to
himself.

That's what it would be. In
demonology, a Star of David acted as Solomon's Seal, and was a sure
sign of demon activity. That it had been directly over that tile
was a very bad thing indeed.

Jack and already made a
bunch of calls, and his team were on to it. Still, that wasn't
going to stop him from kicking himself all night about why he
hadn't picked this up in the past three years.

There's been
too much going on, don't be so hard on yourself.
He thought.

He pressed his eyes closed,
letting his hands flop down beside him.

Tomorrow was no doubt going
to be a very busy day, not to mention sweltering hot. In the
morning he'd get up bright and early to debrief the church team
from last night. If he was lucky, the situation would have been
completely contained. If he wasn't lucky, however, he'd be dealing
with loose ends for the rest of the week. What was more, he also
had a couple of meetings to get to in the afternoon, and he wanted
to get some training in too.

You are a busy
boy, Jack, no time for play.
He thought to himself as he let out a deep sigh, chest
punching down as he exhaled.

Yet he couldn't forget
Celeste either. He had promised to help with the chores, even
though he didn't have the time.

Sometimes you
have to make time.
He
thought as he drifted off.

Celeste Cross

Jack had been right, today
was stinking hot. Though Celeste had tried to sleep in, it had been
impossible. She'd pushed herself out of bed at 6 am for a cold
shower, and then she’d spent the rest of the morning unpacking her
stuff. By 9 o’clock she was thoroughly bored, but for some reason
didn't want to do the chores that Susie had set her. She knew
exactly what that reason was: Jack. Just maybe if she was slow on
the chores, Jack would have to come around more often, and Celeste
wouldn't complain about that one little bit.

Instead of going outside and
weeding the garden, she piled into her car and drove to town. There
were a couple of things she had to pick up now that she'd looked at
Susie's list of jobs more carefully. She had to nip around to the
hardware store and get a new pair of secateurs, then she had to
head to the supermarket for some cleaning products.

Celeste usually wasn't one
for skimpy clothes, but in this heat she was wearing about as
little as was legally possible. Okay, maybe not that far, but for
her it was a big deal to walk down the street in a slight, breezy
summer dress that was cut too far down the neck, showing a bit too
much cleavage.

But with the day so hot and
sticky, she fancied no one would care. They would be far too
concerned with how unbearable the weather was to bother noticing
her state of semi dress.

Though she'd only been in
town for a day-and-a-half, she was starting to enjoy Gresham. Yes,
okay, it had a lot to do with the very hunky army boys walking
around in their uniforms. Yet the place had natural charm too. It
was in such a beautiful, dramatic spot.

She received a couple of
appreciative glances as she walked down the street, and Celeste had
to cram a hand over her face to stop from giggling. Really, in her
line of work and where she lived, admiring glances from attractive
men was not something she had to put up with.

I could get
used to this. I could really get used to this.
She thought as she maneuvered her bag
along her shoulder, trying to make it more
comfortable.

As she walked along one of
the smaller roads that branched off the main street, she glanced up
to see a whole lot of junk sitting on the sidewalk. At first she
thought it was some kind of garbage collection, but when she got
closer, she realized it was a second-hand store that simply had
goods spilling out onto the street. Maybe it was intended to
attract customers, or maybe the store itself was so full that the
stuff had simply tumbled out and onto the pavement.

Still, it worked; it got her
attention. She slowed down, peering at a wicker chair covered in
old teddy bears. Then she moved to the side, leaning down to look
at a big barrel full of old garden pots. She picked a couple up.
They were ceramic and had relatively pretty patterns over them.
Shrugging, figuring that whatever was inside couldn't be that bad,
she pressed her way through the bead-screen covering the front door
and entered the shop.

She tensed as she entered.
After all, she hadn't exactly forgotten her run-in with the
second-hand bookstore last night. Yet as she gazed around, she
realized there were a couple of people milling about, and one look
over at the front counter told her that the darling old lady behind
it was not about to grab her wrist and shout crazy.

Satisfied that everything
was okay, Celeste got to work sifting through all the junk, looking
for her treasure.

She found a couple of cheap
figurines, but then decided not to buy them. She did however find a
jar on the front counter that was full of trinkets.

‘
Tourist memorabilia, dear,’ the
woman behind the counter pointed out. ‘Some very nice stuff, well
worth a riffle.’

Celeste smiled. She plunged
a hand into the jar, shifting around, bringing out the occasional
object to have a better look.

Eventually she found a
strange stone amulet that was covered in small carvings. She
brought it up to her face, running a thumb over it. There was a
metal hook on one side, and a worn piece of leather tied around it.
No doubt the intention was for someone to wear it, but Celeste
didn't need to hold it for too long to figure out that it was too
bloody heavy to put around your neck.

‘
That's a replica, dear, of the
famous necklace that our very own Solomon Clarke carved,’ the old
lady behind the counter leaned over, pointing at the amulet in
Celeste's hands.

‘
A necklace?’ Celeste's lips
crinkled. Solomon hardly seemed to be the kind to dabble in
jewelry, well at least not from what she'd learnt about him
yesterday.

‘
I'm sorry, an amulet,’ the women
clarified. ‘They used to sell them at the church, but now it’s a
heritage building so I sell them here. I can do you a very good
price on it.’

Celeste turned the amulet
around in her hand a couple of times. It was gaudy, in a way, but
it still had a certain charm to it.

‘
It's meant to have protective
powers, and it's only $10,’ the woman said, voice dipping low as if
to emphasize just how much of a bargain it was.

Celeste eventually gave in,
took her purse from her bag, and bought it.

Then she walked out of the
store, rubbing her thumb over the surface of the carved
stone.

It wasn't fancy at all; it
wasn't some kind of gem or anything. It was simply a blackened
soapstone, or something equally as common. In reality, it was
probably only worth a dollar, but that didn't bother Celeste; she
liked to pick up the occasional odd and interesting trinket to
string around her house.

Finally, she looked up and
over the street at the electronic clock displayed above the bank,
and she shook her head.
I can't be late for him.
She thought as she quickly ran to her
car.

Celeste crammed the amulet
in her bag, and then she almost immediately forgot about
it.

Jack West

It had been a busy morning.
He'd had a briefing with the team from last night, and things had
gone better than expected. There were no human remains in the crypt
after all, and there didn't seem to be a great deal of energy to
suggest the presence of a Yaoguai infection. However, there was a
trace, and that was the reason Jack was now shifting around
uncomfortably in his seat as he changed gears, his car grunting as
it took to the gravel driveway.

If there was a trace of
energy, it might mean that once upon a time there had been a
Yaoguai artifact in that church. When it had been removed, however,
was a different matter. They couldn't tell that from the devices
they used. It could have been years ago or last week.

He had to be careful, so
he’d redoubled his efforts, telling everyone to do as much research
as they could. He’d told Ami to question the archaeologists and
find out if they’d removed anything whatsoever from that church.
And he’d told Gustaf and Cindy to help her.

Right now he was going to
help Celeste.

As he drove up his aunt's
driveway he was careful to take it slow. It was long and steep, and
whenever it rained, the gravel washed into the ditches.

Reaching the house, he
parked right next to Celeste's old sedan.

He jumped out, slamming the
door and opening the boot to get the hedge trimmers.

The front door opened with a
tinkle, and Celeste walked out to him. ‘Hi,’ she said.

He turned, keeping his eyes
level. She was in a summer dress. It was one of those breezy, light
numbers with a plunging neckline.

‘
I am just going to get dressed.’
She motioned to the house behind her.

He stopped himself from pointing
out that she was already dressed, and he quite liked what she was
wearing. Instead, he cleared his throat. ‘Yeah, sorry, I'm a bit
early.’

She shook her head as she
walked away, turning over her shoulder to look at him.

He watched her until she was
through the front door and out of sight.

He couldn't help but
smile.
You
don't have time to get distracted.
He told himself quickly.
There's a lot going on.
Wait until we find
out what the hell's been happening in that church, then we'll see
if you have time for anything else.

Jack muscled the hedge
trimmers and the chainsaw around the side of the house. Susie had
been meaning to chop down a low-hanging branch there that was
getting too close to her shed. But, Susie being Susie, she'd left
the task to Celeste. While Celeste did look as if she could handle
herself, Jack was happy to take the branch down.

‘
Do you want a drink?’ Celeste
walked up behind him.

He turned, resting the
chainsaw by his feet.

‘
It's just a glass of water.’ She
handed it to him.

‘
Thanks.’

‘
Oh, great, you brought the
chainsaw. Susie left me the task of chopping down the lowest
branches. You can leave it in the shed, I'll do it later.’ She bent
down to pick up the chainsaw.

‘
Can you actually use one of
those?’ Jack asked as he finished off his water.

‘
I may be a programmer, but yes,
I can use a chainsaw.’ She paused. ‘Okay, I've used a chainsaw
once, does that count?’

He grinned and then shook his
head. ‘Not really, not unless you want to chop your leg
off.’

She gave an easy laugh. ‘You
know, I don't actually want to chop my leg off. But honestly, if
you don't have the time—’