Veiled (19 page)

When we’re almost done with the lamb and some of us are practically licking the plates, Sage excuses himself to use the bathroom down the hall.

“And Jay,” my father says. “What kind of job are you in the market for?”

I stare at Jay, not sure what he’s going to say, then give my father a look, thinking he’s being too nosy.

But Jay is cool and collected as always. “I’m looking for freelance work. I’m a graphic designer.”

Graphic designer? That’s the first I’ve heard of this. Then again, he could be flat-out lying and I wouldn’t know. In fact, I wager he is lying.

Dad pretends to be impressed. “Interesting. I guess you would work from home then.”

“That’s the plan,” he says with ease, “Got a few jobs lined up already.”

I nudge him under the table to say
that’s true?
but he ignores me. I’m tempted to reach down and give his leg a squeeze when Sage comes back over, his brow furrowed in thought.

“Are Dex and Perry here?” Sage asks casually as he sits back down.

I roll my eyes. God. Always Dex and Perry. All anyone ever wants to talk about are Dex and Perry.

“No, they’re back in Seattle,” Dad says before taking a sip of wine. “Should pop by next month.”

“So there’s no one else in the house?” he asks, a thread of worry in his voice.

My heart stammers. “What? No. Why?”

“Nothing,” he says as he looks to my dad. “Thought I heard talking coming from upstairs. I’m sure it’s the TV or something.”

“I’m sure,” my father says even though I was the last one upstairs and I know there was no TV on.

I think the others know this too, judging by the deepening scowl on Jacob’s face, the way Jay’s attention has turned to me now, asking with his eyes if this is something we should be worried about.

Then . . .

DOO-DO-DO-DO-DO!

Horn instruments erupt from the kitchen, the swing big band music of what can only be Glen Miller comes blaring, making us all jump in our seats.

“Goodness,” my dad says, hand at his heart. He shakes his head as he gets up, shoots everyone an apologetic smile. “I thought I turned the radio off! Sorry about this.”

My heart is bouncing around like it’s in a squash court now. My dad listens to AM when he’s cooking but I know for sure he turned the radio off earlier on when he was concentrating on the mint sauce.

He heads to the kitchen and the moment he’s out of earshot—which isn’t a problem considering how loud those trumpets are—Jacob leans in and says, “I don’t like this. I didn’t like it before and I don’t like it now. We’re pushing our luck.”

“Why, what is it?” Dawn asks, worry lines appearing on her forehead.

Suddenly the music turns off and my dad comes back in the room before Jacob can continue. “Strangest thing,” he mutters to himself as he comes. “The radio was already off. I had to turn it on and then back off again to make it stop.”

“That sounds like it defies the laws of physics, dad,” I tell him, wishing for once that he wouldn’t find a rational explanation for every damn thing.

“It’s an old radio,” he warns, eyes cutting into mine over the tops of his glasses. I know the last thing he wants is for me to bring up ghosts and the supernatural. Oh, if only he knew who he was dining with.

He’s just about to sit back down when Dawn slowly gets out of her chair. “Maybe this is a good time to bring out the—”

She’s cut off.

Because the lights flicker and then die, the entire house is plunged into darkness.

Dawn lets out a gasp.

I yelp.

“What on earth now?” My dad cries out in the blackness.

“Power failure,” Jacob says in a flat-voice that I find even creepier considering I can’t see a god damn thing.

“Why would the power go out?’ I ask, my voice getting shrill with fear. “Is it just our house?”

It’s past eight pm and the sun has set, though there should be enough twilight coming through the dining room window. Yet the room is so dark, it’s like someone has put blackout drapes on.

Finally, a light comes on, a blinding stream from Sage’s iPhone. He quickly flashes it around the table and checks to make sure everyone is here, the whites of his eyes shining with a fear I know is familiar to him.

“Where’s your breaker?” he asks my dad.

“In the basement,” my dad says. “I’ll go take a look. Maybe I did something screwy when I was fiddling with the radio.”

“No,” I say quickly and the flashlight blinds me. I shield my eyes until Sage lowers it. “It’s dangerous to go down there in the dark. Maybe the whole block is out?”

“I’ll go with you,” Sage tells him, getting out of his chair. “Supply the light.”

I still don’t want my dad to go anywhere, let alone the basement. It’s a place I avoid like the plague, always afraid I’ll get to the bottom and the door will close on me.

The two of them walk off, the light flashing off the walls. For a moment I think I see a shadow standing in the corner, its back to us, motionless. Then the light is gone and everything is black again.

I left my phone upstairs but Jacob pulls his out and shines it around the table. Just four of us now. I can hear my dad stumble over something down the hall, Sage asking if he’s all right, then the sound of the basement door opening.

“Why is the power out?” I ask Jacob, leaning forward in my seat until my breasts are practically on the table. There’s this dark cavern of emptiness at my back that feels dense and immeasurable, like a million shadows are lurking, staring at my exposed spine.

“I don’t know,” he says, voice still flat, eyes beady in the darkness. “I’m sure we’ll find out soon though.”

“Day-O,” Jay sings softly under his breath. “Me say
daaaay
-O.”

“That’s not funny!” I hiss at him, not even bothering to ask when he managed to watch
Beetlejuice
. I half expect the lamb carcass to reassemble itself and start doing a jig to the Banana Boat song.

“What were you saying earlier?” Dawn asks Jacob. She can’t hide the fear in her voice either and probably isn’t too happy that Sage volunteered to take my dad to the basement.

“I was saying,” Jacob begins. Then he pauses, head cocked. Listening again.

“What is it?” I ask. When Jacob raises his finger to shush me, I turn to Jay. “Jay. What’s going on, what’s happening?”

He’s watching Jacob closely too, gives me a slight shake of his head.

“The power is only off in this house,” Jacob finally says. He looks me dead in the eye, a sly grin twisting his mouth. “This was a bad idea.”

SLAM!

A door slams shut from somewhere in the house, causing us to flinch, even Jacob.

The noise is followed by echoing footsteps.

Shouts.

“Hey!” Sage yells, muffled from the basement stairway.

We all get out of our seats, Jacob with the light which leaves me banging my hip into the edge of the table.

“Motherfucking shitfuck,” I swear, grabbing my side.

Then Jay’s taking my hand and holding on tight.

“Stay with me,” he murmurs in my ear. “There’s something not right here. I can smell it.”

“You mean literally?” I ask as he leads me out of the dining room and down the hall where Jacob is shining a light on the basement door.

He grunts his answer.

“The door won’t open,” Sage says from the other side and the doorknob turns back and forth in vain. He pounds on the door again.

“We’re here,” Jacob says, passing the phone to Dawn and seeing if he can open it. “Are you both all right?”

“Yes,” my father says, his voice sounding weak.

“Why don’t you go back down and try the breaker, I’ll try and fix the door,” Jacob says.

A muffled agreement comes through and the sound of their footsteps as they walk back down into the basement.

Jacob lets go of the knob and looks at us, his face ghostly white in the light Dawn’s holding. I wonder if this is how so many of Perry and Dex’s shows started out. Only they didn’t have two Jacobs with them, which should make me feel safer but it doesn’t at all.

Well actually that’s not true. Jay is still holding my hand and I’m pressed up right against him, afraid to stray from his body heat for even a second.

“It’s trying to separate us,” Jacob says grimly.

“It?” Dawn and I cry out in unison.

Jay squeezes my hand harder, his body stiffening against mine.

Then…

Laughter.

From upstairs.

Cold, sinister, utterly inhuman laughter.

Familiar but not familiar.

Primitive.

Every cell in my body revolts, terror striking my marrow.

“Oh god,” Dawn says softly. “What is that?” She looks back to the door, the phone shaking in her hand. “I have to get to Sage.”

“He’ll be safer in there than out here,” Jacob says. “You know to trust me on this, don’t you, Rusty?” He looks to me. “Ada, stay with Jay.”

I wouldn’t dream of protesting.

Especially when a light from upstairs goes on. The hall light outside my bathroom. It shines down the stairs, illuminating the bottom.

A shadow passes through the beam, someone walking along the upper hallway.

I can’t. Even. Breathe.

Then it goes dark again.

Light to black.

It was just enough to let us know that it’s there, whatever it is.

And it’s
waiting.

Jacob starts walking away, down the hall toward the stairs, in slow, controlled movements.

“Don’t you need your phone?” Dawn hisses softly, holding it out to him with a shaking hand.

He only raises his arm in dismissal before he disappears out of reach of the light. I’m pretty sure Jacob can see in the dark. I’m pretty sure Jay can too.

I’m pretty sure there are some things in the dark that we’re not meant to see.

The three of us wait outside the basement door like we are in some kind of limbo. My dad and Sage are stuck in the basement. Jacob is walking up the stairs to tussle with some monster.

“Now what?” I whisper. “What’s he going to do?”

I hear Jay swallow thickly. “Something like I did last week. I’m not really sure. Jacob warned me about tonight, saying that there would be too much energy in one place. It would bring the demons out of the portal and whatever else has been lying dormant on the other side of these walls and the walls you can’t see.”

“Oh my god,” I cry out. “Why did you come over then?”

“We were debating,” he says. “But we couldn’t know for sure.”

“I’m so sorry,” Dawn says. “I had no idea.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Jay says quickly. “It’s better this way.”

The laughter erupts again, seeming to come from all corners of the house, our heads swiveling around trying to find the source.

“How is it better this way?” I ask incredulously, so close to peeing my pants. The laughter feels like its permeating my very soul, turning it sour and black. “I can’t stand this!”

“Easy now,” he whispers to me. “I’ve got you.” He glances at Dawn and then holds his hand out for her. “Come here. Nothing is going to happen to you either.”

She takes it and if I wasn’t scared shitless, I’d be swooning a little over Jay, taking an older woman’s hand and making her feel safe.

And so there we are, two girls in the dark, hanging onto his hands for dear life.

“Is Jacob going to be okay?” I ask. “I don’t hear anything.”

Even the laughing has stopped. Upstairs sounds like radio silence.

“Jacob will always be okay,” Jay tells me soberly.

“You can say that again,” Dawn says, trying to sound light about it but failing.

“Because he’s immortal like you,” I point out to Jay.

“More or less.”

“But what if his head gets chopped off?”

Jay gives me a strange look. “If his head gets chopped off? I don’t know.”

“What if
your
head gets chopped off?” Not the most appropriate question considering the circumstances, but hey it’s preventing me from thinking about what’s really going on. AKA, it’s preventing me from really losing my shit. Besides, I’ve always wondered.

“You are such a morbid girl,” he comments, almost sounding amused.

“You rip the heads off demons and travel to a dead world,” I tell him. “You shouldn’t talk. Also, you’re not answering my question.”

“Well,” he says, licking his lips. “I assume I would die. I would at least hope I’d die. I don’t want to operate with my head doing one thing and my body doing another.”

“Why not, most guys are like that.” I pause. “So if you can die, then you’re not really immortal are you?”

He sighs. “Semantics.”

“But vampires—”

“Can we not talk about this right now?” Dawn pleads.