WeirdNights (12 page)

Mindy stepped out of the way and Foy’s Shaman who had
cleared the house earlier in the week looked at her.

“You’ve really gotten yourselves into a bind here.” He put
his hands on his hips. “And luckily I can help both of you get out of this.”

The Shaman looked at the door and it swung open. Jonah
stared at it for a second. “Did you just open the door with only your
thoughts?”

“Yes.” He nodded. “And the thing to remember here as we go
through this is that you have this ability too. You just hid it so far back in
your mind that you had no chance against the onslaught. No wonder you went
around making poltergeists.”

“You can stop it? You can clear me?”

The Shaman shook his head as he took Damian’s hand and
walked into the cell. Jonah opened his mouth to tell them all to back up and
then closed his lips. Maybe there was a chance he could be helped.

“I’m going to teach you how to clear yourself. The kid too.
You have the same problems. Then you’ll be able to take all that psychic
goodness and really kick ass.”

Damian grinned the smile of a kid who had just been given
candy at Christmas time. A second later, his face fell. “My parents did bad
things.”

“So did mine.” His parents had done such bad things that
he’d blocked them out completely for years. But they’d been there…inside
him…infecting everything. He’d tried to deny them, picked up a Southern accent
that wasn’t his own, tried to be…amusing.

“Yep.” The Shaman raised his hands over his head. “And mine
were mass murderers. But we aren’t our parents. Let’s live our own lives.” The Shaman
turned to Mindy. “You need to leave. As we discussed.”

She nodded before bending down to Damian. “You know what’s going
to happen now. And afterward you’re going to stay here with Foy.”

Jonah jolted. “He is? Foy hasn’t taken on any new kids in
years.”

“Well, he’s taking on Mary and Damian.”

She wouldn’t look at him and it made Jonah’s insides cold. If
the Shaman could fix him, would Mindy still be around? Finally, her eyes met
his own. “Can I speak to you for just a second? Then I’ll leave you here with
them to get better.”

Something about the tone of her voice made his hands shake. “Mindy,
listen…”

“No.” She shook her head. “You listen. Whatever has to
happen here, you focus on that. This whole thing was my idea. Apparently it had
to be that way. Braxton manipulated it. Don’t ask.” She bit down on her lower
lip. “But you told me you loved me. You made love to me. You made promises. And
then you threw me out.”

“I’m trying to protect you from this. I don’t want you to
watch me fall apart.”

“No.” She fisted her hands and he thought for a second she
might actually punch him. “You don’t get to tell me you love me, accept my love,
and then sideline me because it’s no longer convenient for you.”

She really didn’t understand. “Sweetheart, listen to me.”

“I’m done with that. I didn’t survive being attacked by a
demonic clown in order to live half a life. I made a decision when I woke up
from my delirium that I would no longer hold off living the life I wanted, the
one I was sure I deserved.”

“No one is asking you to do that. I want you to have
everything you desire.”

“Right.” She nodded and one lone tear slipped from her eyes.
“As long as it’s on your terms. I think I felt that I was somehow less-than
because I can’t do what you all do here. I’m not powerful. I’m just a girl
trying to get stronger after being hurt.”

He touched the side of her face but she didn’t even
acknowledge the movement. “You’re so much more than that.”

Mindy took a step back. “You’re not listening to me. If ever
it was clear how you really felt about me it was last night. You’d told me you
loved me five minutes earlier and then you threw me out.”

“I’m trying to protect you.” His heart beat hard against his
ribs. Jonah’s stomach turned over. He had the worst feeling that he knew
exactly what was about to happen and there wasn’t a thing he could do to stop
it.

“I don’t need protection. I’m not Cinderella, I don’t need
Prince Charming.”

She turned on her heel and walked toward the door. He lunged
forward, needing to stop her, but he was yanked backward before he could manage
it.

The Shaman stared at him, no sympathy in his eyes. “You want
to go after her with that thing,” he pointed at BoBo, “still embedded in your
head?”

“No.” But he had trouble breathing. She couldn’t be through
with him. That couldn’t have been a forever statement. It just…couldn’t be.

“Then let’s get it out.”

“Okay.” That sounded like a good plan. Evil first and then
beg Mindy to listen, to not leave him. “I’ll go after her in a couple of hours.
She’ll have cooled off a bit and…”

“Jonah.” The Shaman shook his head. “This might take days.
Weeks. Months. Years. I just don’t know. I don’t always understand women but I
would guess you couldn’t go back to her a half-man. She’s not going to take you
that way. Not after what she just said.”

He nodded. The Shaman was right. “It can’t take years. Whatever
I have to do. Twenty-four hours a day. Got it?”

“Can’t rush these things.” The Shaman walked back to Damian.

We’re with you, Jonah
. Christian’s voice was in his
head. He whirled around.
Foy called us. We’re all here
.

Yeah. Because none of us had anything better to do
. Braxton
laughed.

Can it, Brax,
Ivan countered.

Pretty soon the other four and Foy were arguing in his head.
Strangely, it made him feel stronger. Less alone and this task less…daunting.

His blood-oathed brothers were with him on this. He could do
it.

“What’s first?”

The Shaman sat down. “Meditation.”

Of course, his least favorite activity. But anything for
Mindy. Anything.

Mindy sat in her chair and studied the menu. When she wasn’t
in the mood to eat barbecue something was wrong. But as she watched Dodie chow
down on her biscuit and she didn’t want to eat anything on her own plate, she
knew she’d crossed over some kind of line she wasn’t coming back from.

Dodie set her down fork and stared at her while she sipped
on her iced tea. “Now I know that I looked really pretty in my wedding dress
today when I tried it on. But not enough to render you speechless or take away
your appetite. Unless you think I look bad.”

“No.” She grabbed Dodie’s hand. God forbid her friend think
that. “I’m sorry I’m so moody. I just can’t snap out of it.”

Dodie nodded, taking another sip. “Jonah?”

“I guess.” Although she wished she could just snap out of
it. “Sorry about that. This week is about you.”

“You have been saying this for five weeks. It doesn’t need
to be about me. Not every day.” Dodie pointed at her with her fork. “You can’t
use my wedding as an excuse to not talk about this stuff. It’s going to eat you
alive.”

“Your wedding is a wonderful, exciting, blissful event.” Dodie
had actually found the perfect guy for her. Somehow it worked that Christian
was a karate instructor-slash-evil-fighting teacher who used to be an exotic
dancer and whose nights were dedicated to fighting demonic things. Dodie was a
game designer—a real techie—and he thought she walked on water.

Mindy wanted to bend her spoon in half she was so jealous of
her best friend’s happiness. Thrilled for her, but green with envy at the same
time. She’d never had such a dichotomy of emotions running through her at the
same time.

True joy and utter disappointment. “What other time in your
life will you be able to say that everything needs to be about you?”

“Mindy.”

She rubbed at her forehead. It throbbed on and off. “I miss
him. What can I say? I worry I made a mistake. I expected to hear from him by
now. I guess I thought he’d at least try to get me back. Don’t get me wrong. I
said what I said because it needed to be out there and I stand by it. But my
stupid heart…”

Dodie took her hand. “If it means anything, Christian says
Jonah is still deep into learning to control his own headspace with the Shaman.
They’re sending energy every night. It’s still pretty intense.”

“It’s been five weeks.” It had never dawned on Mindy that
Jonah would still be working on things. “Why is it taking so long?”

“I don’t know. I’m sure Christian would be happy to talk to
you about it. I know he’d really like to…”

“No.” Mindy held up her hand and Dodie stopped her train of
thought, at least verbally. “I do not want to stick you and Christian in the
middle of this. I know that we’re both important to you guys.”

A cold wind blew through the restaurant and Mindy shivered.
Maybe she should have brought a sweater. But she didn’t normally bring sweaters
with her in Austin. It had been one of the benefits of living there as opposed
to freezing her butt off in Chicago.

Her stomach clenched. She couldn’t think about Chicago
because it brought up Jonah memories. The one subject she needed to avoid. And
Dodie’s bringing it up didn’t help anything.

Dodie sat back in her seat. “Is it cold in here?”

Mindy rubbed her arms. “I thought it was just me. I’m not
used to the air-conditioning or something.”

“No. The temperature in here just dropped significantly.” Dodie
pushed her plate away. “I don’t mean to be a downer about this. I just get
really worked up when the temperature changes. It’s left over from six months
ago.”

“Well that would make sense.” Mindy had her own issues left
from six months earlier. She rubbed at her face. A growl sounded behind her and
goose bumps jumped up on her skin.

“Dodie.” Mindy deliberately looked down at her plate. “Tell
me there is a big dog behind me in the restaurant. A big, mean, snarling
regular old dog.”

Gasps sounded in the restaurant. One woman screamed.

“It’s a hellhound.” Dodie spoke in barely a whisper. Mindy
raised her head to stare at her friend. The other woman had destroyed a demonic
clown after it had, temporarily, killed Christian. Her pale face and shaking
hands told Mindy that Dodie was not at all prepared to deal with another
monster. At least not at the current moment.

Resolve formed in Mindy’s stomach. Her own hands were steady
and she didn’t even feel fear radiating through her veins. She was…steady.

“Listen to me.” She smiled and put her hands on Dodie’s. “Text
Christian. Get him out here. We have a hellhound in a restaurant in the middle
of the day. I cannot believe the fact that you and I are sitting here with it
is a coincidence. Seems too easy to me. I think the thing has been waiting for
me to come back. Or something. Then get these people out of here.” Mindy stood
up. “I’m killing the dog.”

“What?” Dodie’s eyes were huge. “Mindy. You have to run.”

“No. I don’t do that anymore.” She paused. “Or maybe I do,
but not from hellhounds. There are lots of more frightening things out there. This
is going to be a nuisance.”

Mindy didn’t turn to look at the creature but stormed into
the kitchen. The staff looked up at her. They must not know what was about to
happen out in the café.

“Something very bad is occurring in the next room. Real
weird tidings. I’d suggest you go ahead and run.”

She didn’t want to see if they listened, but instead grabbed
the two items she’d hoped to find. Grabbing the mop that leaned against the
wall, she broke it in half over her leg. Her skin burned beneath her pants and
she was sure it had left a large red welt. There would be time to worry about
it later. For now pain didn’t matter.

Pain could be controlled.

She blinked. Maybe Foy’s classes had paid off after all.

Grabbing the butcher knife in her other hand, she made it
back out into the main part of the café just in time to see Dodie hustling the
patrons out the front. She was glad her friend had been able to do that and
hadn’t frozen. Not that there was really much chance of that. Dodie had faced
down BoBo. Alone.

The dog growled toward the kitchen. It really had been
looking for her. Had it been waiting in Austin all this time? Or was it more
complex than that? The dogs had been sent to kill all of them and not
succeeded. Did it have to keep going until it completed the task?

Hellhounds looked like the ugliest, biggest mutts she’d ever
seen. Nothing that made dogs cute presented on their faces. And the red beady
eyes that glared at her did nothing to ease the tension forming in her spine.

What had Foy said about fighting during his combat class? Tension
was good.
It meant you adequately appreciated your opponent’s strengths
.
There was no question of that. She wore the scar on her face from one of its
brother’s bites. Or maybe it was a sister. Either way, it sucked.

She charged forward. “I banish you.”

The books she read suggested she start with that phrase. But
she had no special magical abilities and, as she suspected, the dog did not
immediately return to hell or wherever it was that it belonged. Instead, it
charged forward.

She ducked out of the way, spinning around until it came up
behind her. “Don’t like me trying to send you back, do you?”

It growled, red-tinged drool leaking from its mouth, and
charged at her again.

Once again, she moved out of its way. Foy had told them to
judge the speed and agility of the person they wanted to fight. In this case,
it wasn’t a person but the same rules seemed to apply.

“You’re an ugly thing. Not even pretty as far as hellhounds
go. Were you the last picked to play fetch with the demons?”

As it snarled, the creature charged at her. This time she
didn’t try to move but struck out at it with her right hand, using the butcher
knife.

She caught it on the side and it yelped before jumping back.
The wound she created seeped blood and she got a good look at the inside of the
thing’s skin. Puss-filled and yellow. She’d never seen anything like it before
and hoped to never see it again.

“Gross.”

She forced her gag reflex to stay down. The last thing she
needed to do was to give it any kind of edge over her. She could puke later. In
the comfort of Dodie’s second bathroom.

After the monster was dead.

It lunged and this time she struck it with the mop handle. Right
on the head. “Bad, bad doggie.” She whacked it again, feeling the vibration on
her hands with each bang she made.

Now all she needed was for it to open its mouth again. Wide
open. It shouldn’t be a problem once she did what she needed to do.

Sweat broke out on the back of her neck at the thought but
nothing ever got done by giving in to that kind of fear. Instead, she backed up
and dropped her weapon to her side.

The dog launched, mouth open, right at her.

Mindy raised her stick.

* * * * *

Jonah took a deep cleansing breath and maintained the
centered feeling he’d had since leaving the Shaman’s class earlier in the
morning. Foy had told him he thought he was ready to handle these things
himself.

And for the first time in over a month he finally felt like
himself again. He grimaced looking at himself in the mirror. Jonah really
needed a shave. Four o’clock shadows might work for other guys but on him it
came across as just unkempt, as if he hadn’t showered in days.

Jonah paused. Had it been days? Time moved in a fluid,
unclear manner when the Shaman was involved. Days could feel like hours and
minutes feel like weeks.

Whatever time it was now, he had to get his girl back.

If she’d have him.

She might not and he wouldn’t blame her. Who needed to put
up with this crap? She’d figured out what he needed even after he made her
leave. Mindy had made her needs very clear.

He could give her what she needed, to a point. She was going
to have to agree that he had to protect her. Include her, fine. Tell her what
was going on, yes he could do that. Stand back and watch while she got hurt?
Not going to happen.

There had to be a middle ground between what they both
wanted.

But in the meantime there was still something he needed to
do before he could go seek her out. One more task to complete.

Braxton knocked on his door. “You ready to go?”

He raised an eyebrow, staring at his friend. “You coming?”

“Did you think we would let you do this alone?”

No. He’d not considered it at all but if he had, he’d have
known either Braxton or Foy would make the trek with him. “Thanks, man.”

“Yep.” Braxton shrugged. “Foy went to get the car.”

“You’re both coming?” They either really wanted to support
him or they thought he might suddenly send cars flying on the freeway.

“Your cup runneth over, I know.”

Jonah ran a quick hand through his hair. “It does. I just
didn’t know it before.” He patted Braxton on the arm. “After I go find Mindy
and beg, if I have to, for another chance, do you want me to come back to San
Francisco with you?”

“No.” Braxton walked beside him as they exited the room.
“When Foy says it’s time to go back, it’ll be something I need to do alone.”

Jonah could appreciate that. Some tasks needed friends,
others had to be seen to in a singular fashion. Whatever had happened to
Braxton in California, the other man needed to handle by himself. Jonah would
let him do just that.

But he’d have his back if he needed it.

* * * * *

Jonah sat back in his chair and waited for the person he had
to see to be escorted out. He sipped his coffee and looked at the artwork on
the wall. He imagined they’d all been selected to keep people calm and happy. Mostly
they depicted scenes of families visiting and stern but pleasant-looking law
enforcement officials.

But that was to be expected inside a maximum-security
prison.

Jonah hadn’t laid eyes on his father since the night the
police had come and taken him away. But he knew him instantly. Hell, in some
ways it was like looking in the mirror. They shared the same dark hair, the
same skin tone, the same shape of their chins.

Genetics had basically given him his father’s face.

He gritted his teeth and picked up the phone that separated
him from his dad. For a second the other man stared at him without moving. His
dark eyes staring at him as if he didn’t know who he was.

Jonah picked up the phone and waved it in front of him
indicating that his father should do the same.

Finally, the older version of himself lifted the receiver to
his ear. “Jonah?”

His voice sounded raspy, as if he smoked too many
cigarettes. Still, Jonah could remember the intonations from his childhood, the
way his father elevated his voice in the last syllable of his name.
Jo-Naaa
.

“Yes, Father. It’s me.” His hands tingled and he longed to
rub them together to make the sensation stop. The Shaman had helped him see
that he did those things to make his power surges stop. It was better to just
let the psychic abilities move through him and stop trying to jam them back
inside him where he had no choice but to let them eventually explode out of
him, destroying whatever got in his way.

He breathed deeply.

His father spoke again. “I’ve waited for you to come for
years.”

“Why?”

His father drummed his fingers on the table in front of him
and Jonah watched the motion. Nicotine or something like that had turned the
inside of his dad’s digits yellow. The smoking must have come in prison. Jonah
had no memory of him doing it during Jonah’s childhood.

Of course it could have been hidden from him. Like the devil
worshiping.

“Because you’re my son and we had much to discuss about what
should have been your legacy.”