Larue Donavon 3 - The Ghoul Next Door (26 page)

When I poked my head up again to the
window, Callahan had moved closer to the window. Luckily, his back
was facing me. “He’s still in there,” I whispered.

Mindy tugged on the back of my shirt.
“Oh, I want to see. What’s he doing?”

I shushed her.

“
Sorry,” she whispered. “Do
you need the binoculars again?”

“
No, he’s right there. I can
see him clearly. And her.” Callahan wore the green shirt that I
liked so much. It fit him in all the right places. So did his
jeans.

Mindy shoved her way in at the window
beside me. “Oh my God. She’s there? I have to see her. Does she
look evil? I bet she looks evil with dark, beady little
eyes.”

“
Is that what you envision a
villain to look like?” I asked.

“
Yes, as a matter of fact,
it is.” She stared through the window. “Wow. Was I
wrong.”

“
Okay, she’s gorgeous, but
don’t rub it in,” I muttered.

“
Why don’t you go in there
and confront him right now?” Mindy nudged my side.

“
What? And be the crazy
girlfriend? No way.” I shook my head. “I’d prefer to appear sane.
Okay. I’d prefer to keep a teensy bit of an illusion that I’m sane.
I’m sure he already thinks I’m somewhat nuts.”

“
So now that we’ve seen
that’s she’s gorgeous what do we do? Why are we here again?” Mindy
took the binoculars from me.

I looked at her. “Hmm. I’m not sure.
Wasn’t this your idea?”

From over my shoulder, Candy Cherry
said, “Y’all are totally pathetic. And neurotic. You give me a
headache.”

“
Oh, I suppose you’d totally
know how to handle the situation.”

She smirked. “As a matter of fact, I
would.”

“
All right. If you’re so
smart, then why don’t you tell me how to handle the situation?” I
snapped.

“
You’d like that, wouldn’t
you? No way. You’ll have to figure this out on your own. Not my
problem.”

“
Well, then don’t complain
about how we’re handling it.” I scowled. “And while you’re at it,
why don’t you keep your mouth shut.”

“
I’m not the one talking to
invisible people. You look like a real lunatic right
now.”

I was not going to argue with a ghost
anymore. I’d just have to ignore her.

“
Don’t listen to her, Larue.
People talk to themselves all the time,” Elvis said.

That didn’t offer me much
consolation.

“
Come on, let’s get out of
here before they see us,” I said.

On our way back to the car, my cell
phone rang. My heart rate increased. Had Callahan seen us watching
him?

When I glanced at the caller ID, I let
out a sigh of relief. It was the demonologist, Zach Duncan, finally
returning my call. Maybe now I could get some answers. I had to
force myself to answer the call. Something was trying to stop me
from talking to him.

“
Hello, Larue. I’m sorry I
didn’t call sooner. I was in a location with no cell phone
coverage.”

I wouldn’t even bother to ask where
that was. Probably in some old castle somewhere.

“
That’s all right. Did you
get my message?”

“
Yes, I did. How are things?
Are they the same?”

“
Yes. It’s gotten worse. It
was all I could do to pick up your call. Something in my head is
telling me not to talk to you.”

“
This sounds serious. You
have to get rid of this thing attached to you.”

People told me this, but no one had a
concrete way of telling me how to achieve this goal.

Static sounded across the line. I
prayed I didn’t lose the connection before he told me how to get
rid of this thing. “This demon can slip through an opening when
someone is vulnerable. But you have to invite it in.”

I slipped behind the wheel of my car.
“When would I have ever invited a demon in?”

“
You may have not realized
you were doing it,” he said.

Mindy climbed in the passenger seat.
By the way Candy Cherry sat in the middle of the backseat with her
arms crossed in front of her chest and eyes narrowed, I knew she
wasn’t happy with the seating arrangement. Elvis and Mr. Fine sat
on either side of her. They had no complaints. I needed a bus to
haul all the ghosts around.

“
I’ve been aware of the bad
spirits from a very young age, you know that, and I’ve taken every
possible precaution to avoid this very type of incident from
happening.”

“
I know you’ve talked to
spirits from a young age, but how young were you when you realized
the bad spirits were around?” he asked.

He had a point. It had taken a while
for me to catch on that some spirits wanted nothing more than to
harm me. “Well, maybe not young enough. Sixteen, I
guess.”

“
Well, that’s not early
enough,” he said. “Larue, think hard. Can you remember anything you
might have done to conjure up a demon?”

I thought for a second and then it hit
me. “There was the time that I was at a sleepover and of course the
other girls wanted to use a Ouija board. I was thirteen and a
spirit started talking to us. It singled me out. The girls thought
it was a fun game, so they asked questions and at first nothing
happened. Then slowly the wedge began to move, easing over the
letters spelling out words. It went to the L, the A, over to the R,
the U and finally stopping on the E.”

Mindy had been there at the time and
she’d gotten mad, telling everyone to stop messing with me, but I
knew it wasn’t them. I had sensed the presence in the
room.

I continued, “The board told the girls
everything they wanted to hear about their life, boys, grades, and
their futures. I told them to get rid of the board, to throw the
thing away or I would.”

“
So what happened?” he
asked.

“
They finally stopped, but I
decided to leave. I was too upset to stay. Of course they teased me
forever after that, but I didn’t care.”

That night Mindy had left with me.
She’d always been a great friend.

“
Do you know if the girls
ever experienced anything else?” Zach asked.

“
Not that I know of. But I’m
not sure if they would have told me. So do you think this has
something to do with that?”

“
It’s possible and highly
probable since you now know how to avoid these
creatures.”

“
But why now? Why would this
thing wait so long before coming back?” I asked.

He let out a deep breath and then
said, “I don’t know for sure, but I’d say it was just waiting for
the right time, the perfect chance to come back when you were
vulnerable again. It’s their only chance of ever getting into your
life.”

“
But why did it pick me? I
didn’t think I was that weak.”

“
It’s not about being weak
and everything about the demon. Whatever they think would cause the
most harm. They’ll take any chance they can get.”

I sighed. “I am so confused. I figured
it had something to do with the black magic that’s been going on in
Magnolia.”

“
It probably is related.
This was the chance the demon was looking for. If someone conjured
up something bad, then this was the one that would step forward.
It’s probably been waiting for this… just waiting its
time.”

“
Well, I guess that does
make sense. The main problem is to get the witches to stop using
the black magic. It has to end. But how to get them to stop is the
hardest part.”

“
I doubt it’ll ever end. You
just have to try to keep it under control,” he said.

I knew the type of people Brianna and
Becky were and it was their selfishness that fueled this
behavior.

“
It’s a never-ending
battle,” I said.

“
Are you ready to take on
that battle?” he asked.

“
It doesn’t look as if I
have a choice. It keeps coming to me. There’s nothing I can do to
stop it.”

“
Would you like for me to
come there?”

“
No, no. It’s not necessary
just yet. But I may have more questions.”

“
Well, call anytime. I’ll be
available now. No more phone problems.”

“
Thank you,
Zach.”

“
Take care of yourself,
Larue.”

I’d heard that worry in his tone
before and knew that meant bad news for me. But I was thankful for
his advice. When I’d finally told my mother about what I was seeing
at the age of sixteen, she called as many people she could find on
the subject until I was finally put in touch with Zach Duncan. He
was the leading demonologist in the nation. I had worked with him
for many years now, although he didn’t do as much
nowadays.

“
What did he say?” Mindy
asked when I hung up the phone.

“
Basically, I’m in deep
doo-doo if I don’t fix this.”

“
So he told you about demons
then?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“
Did you think that incident
before had something to do with this?”

Mindy had never liked to talk about
what had happened that night.

I paused. “Yes. I never invited that
thing into my life though.”

“
You need to find that Ouija
board and get rid of it. I saw that on one of those paranormal
shows once,” Mindy said.

I steered the car around a corner.
“What? You can’t be serious. The only way you think I can get rid
of it is if I find that board? That was many years ago. I’m sure
the board is gone by now.”

“
It doesn’t look as if you
have any other options.”

Mr. Fine and Candy Cherry bickered in
the backseat, but I couldn’t make out what the argument was about.
Elvis shook his head. He looked as if he wanted an eject
button.

“
I’m going to call Mr.
Duncan back and ask for him to come here. I should have done that a
long time ago but I was trying to be the big shot and pretend that
I had everything under control.”

“
I think once he gets here
he’d to tell you exactly what I’m telling you. Heck, one of the
books I read the other night was written by him. But I know you’re
stubborn and won’t listen to me.”

“
You read one of his books?”
I asked with a quirked eyebrow.

Her mouth twisted up at one corner. “I
wanted to know what we were dealing with at the
investigation.”

“
I’m impressed.” I smiled.
“And you’re right, I am stubborn. I won’t deny it. But if you’re
right I’ll make sure to tell you so.”

“
You’d better.” She wiggled
her finger.

“
There’s nothing I can do to
stop this black magic permanently, but I can fight it. I’ll make
Magnolia a very unfriendly place for them to practice black
magic.”

“
You should think about
being the coven leader,” Mindy said.

I shook my head. “I don’t think that’s
anything I’m interested in. I’m no witch.”

“
You have a natural talent
for it,” she added.

As if she had overheard our
conversation, my phone rang and Karyn’s number popped up when I
glanced at the phone.

“
Larue, are you all right?
I’ve been really worried. Why haven’t you answered your phone?” she
asked.

It was hard for me to explain that a
demon was screening my calls.

“
Sorry. I’m
okay.”

“
You don’t sound convinced
of that.”

“
I suppose this demon is
still hanging on to me. What do I do to stop this? How will I get
rid of this thing that’s following me? It’s attached.”

“
You did the spells before
without the necklace. You can do it again.”

I slowed the car to make a turn,
ignoring the evil voice in my head telling me to wreck the car,
then said, “But this is fighting something on a whole new level. It
takes a lot of energy that I’m not sure we can find.”

“
Well, I won’t lie, the
necklace would help. If only we could find it,” she
said.

“
How will the necklace help?
I don’t mean to offend you, Karyn, but I’m not sure I believe in
the power of a single necklace.”

“
It’s a rare stone, Larue.
It collects the energy of the sun, moon, and air. It makes your
energy twice that of what it would be without it.”

“
Is there any other way to
harvest that much energy?” I asked.

“
There is one thing, but
I’ve never tried it, and it’s very dangerous.”

The wheels cried around a curve. “I’m
listening.”

Mindy looked at me as if I’d
officially lost my mind. I worried that maybe I had. “Slow down,”
she mouthed.

“
There’s an ancient spell
that only a top witch is able to perform. Actually, it’s only
happened once. When something like this demon has been set free on
you, it’s usually never possible to get rid of it.”