By the time I closed the last creased leather cover, it was getting dark outside, and I didn’t know any more about Lukas and Jared Lockhart than when I started.
I should’ve been at home packing. A driver was taking me to the airport in the morning—a fact that I’d made peace with before I found out what really happened to my mother.
I pulled into the only space on the street in front of my house, letting the engine idle as I listened to the last few verses of the Cure’s “Inbetween Days.” My world felt that way. Trapped in between the days before it fell apart and the ones I lived in now.
I climbed out of the car, and my throat went dry.
Even with its Kelly green door and trimmed boxwoods lining the walkway, when I looked at my house, all I could see was the dead girl in my bedroom.
Were there other spirits in the house? Could they hurt me if I was awake?
I turned away, trying to summon the courage to go back inside.
A black van was parked across the street, facing the opposite direction. It looked like the ones serial killers use to abduct their victims. The driver noticed me staring and jerked away from the window.
Walking up to a stranger’s car felt crazy, but there were plenty of university students on the sidewalks. Even a psycho wouldn’t kidnap me in front of witnesses. My eyes darted to the license plate for a second just in case: AL-0381.
My knees turned to rubber as I knocked on the driver’s-side window.
It rolled down slowly.
Jared Lockhart stared back at me, still wearing his green army jacket.
I must have been in serious shock last night because I didn’t remember him being this gorgeous. Intense blue eyes and full lips, balanced by a roughness that came from a fight or two, kept him from looking like your average pretty boy.
“How long have you been out here?” I couldn’t believe I’d spent the whole day trying to find him and his brother, and they were sitting in front of my house.
Jared shrugged sheepishly. “Awhile.”
Lukas leaned forward in the passenger seat, rolling a silver coin over his fingers. “Glad you’re happier to see us this time.”
“I’m sorry about last night. But I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
Lukas threw me a crooked smile. “Apology accepted. I’m just glad we got there when we did.” He seemed sincere, and something inside me relaxed.
“You guys showed up out of nowhere,” I said. “How did you know I needed help?”
Jared’s eyes darted from me to his brother.
“We heard you screaming.” Lukas didn’t miss a beat. “Your window was open, remember?”
How could I forget—struggling to breathe, the pressure on my chest, almost suffocating. Screaming was the only part I didn’t remember. They weren’t telling me everything. I just didn’t know why.
“Do you guys carry around a gun full of salt and shoot ghosts every night?”
Jared shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “It’s kind of a hobby.”
A hobby? He made it sound like they were playing video games, and I was scared to walk into my own house.
“But I’m safe now? I mean, there’s nothing else in my house, right?”
Jared frowned, his scar disappearing between the worry lines in his forehead. “Those are two different questions.”
Lukas’ smile faded. “Jared, we have to tell her. She’s in danger.”
My skin went cold.
What was inside? The ghosts of other dead girls?
“I thought you got rid of the spirit.”
“We did.” Jared stared into the growing darkness. “But he’ll send others.”
“Who?” My voice wavered.
Lukas stopped rolling the coin and looked at me. “The demon that’s trying to kill you.”
6. SINISTER LULLABY
Let me get this straight. A demon is sending these vengeance spirits to kill people?”
It was hard to believe we were having this conversation at the table where I ate my cereal every morning. It wasn’t that I’d never considered the possibility of ghosts, especially after my mom died. I wanted to imagine her out there somewhere in a better place. But a vengeance spirit possessing my cat and murdering my mom was on a completely different level. And now we were talking demons.
Lukas watched me from across the table, measuring my reactions. “The demon isn’t sending them after just anyone. He wants them to kill specific people. And you’re one of them.”
It didn’t make any sense. “Why me?”
Jared had been pacing the room like a caged animal since we came inside. He stopped and turned to his brother, a silent question passing between them. Lukas nodded, and Jared took something out of his pocket. A tattered sheet of yellowed parchment, the creases so deep it practically fell apart when he unfolded it.
Jared slid the paper across the table. “Have you ever seen this?”
A hand-drawn symbol filled the center of the page. It reminded me of a music stand with two lines curving upward, each capped with a triangle like the devil’s tail. “No.”
“Are you sure?” Jared’s eyes drilled into me.
Of course I was. A basic image composed of three continuous lines wasn’t a stretch with a memory like mine. Not that I was admitting that to them.
I studied the symbol for their benefit. “I’d remember something like that. Are you going to tell me what it is?”
“It’s a seal.” Lukas took the silver coin he’d been toying with earlier out of his pocket. It looked like a quarter, but the image was different. His fingers rose and fell in a steady rhythm as the coin rolled over them and back again. “Every demon has a unique seal, like a signature. It’s used to summon and command the demon. This one belongs to Andras.”