Page 10 of Want Me, Take Me, Haunt Me, Make Me

“I don’t know what category one of them fell into, but the other was from beyond. A demon.”

“Those are real?”

“They fit the basic description. Otherworldly, dangerous, fond of suffering. Many go after that straightforwardly, but some of the real powers among them make deals when they can.” Hazel fixed her gaze on Stephanie’s, keeping her own expression as calm as possible. She hadn’t exactly beenherebefore, but she’d handled similar situations, and they hadn’t always gone well. “And I’m afraid your father-in-law probably did that.”

“What?” Stephanie drew back, blinking. “Why would youthink so?”

Hazel scanned her face: shock, yes, and disbelief, but not offense. She probably wasn’t violating any precious memories. She pitched her explanation carefully, anyhow—she’d been wrong before. “Because they were physical enough to hurt me. Usually, I go in, I cast my circle, and I talk to the spirits. I banish them if they won’t go willingly, and that can be tough, but it hits my energy and my thinking. In this world, ethereal beings can mostly create light and sound effects. The really powerful ones can throw glasses around or float a chair if it’s not too heavy. That’s it.”

“Unless one of us…calls them through.”

“Mostly. All the exceptions involve very specific places and times, and none of that applied. I check before I conduct any rites. If it had been a new moon and Clarence’s house had been built on the site of a gallows, for example, I wouldn’t have gone in alone—or at all, if I could help it.”

Stephanie nodded slowly, still clearly taken aback but not, as far as Hazel could tell, about to jump out of her chair and run away screaming. “But—why? Clarence wasn’t a great guy, even Lee was never close to him, we stopped bringing the kids over pretty early, but he wasdying. What would he get out of summoning demons?”

“Favor on their part of the other side, maybe. Or worse.” Hazel had to gather her nerve for a moment before she spoke the words, but she couldn’t evade it. She’d had some time to think. “There was a reason he wanted me there—if he’d just been after a human sacrifice, he could have thrown his nurse to them. With a medium, he could have hoped to cheat death.”

“Does thathappen?”

“Probably. I’m afraid nobody’s really got a Wikipedia about the ethereal. Not even a really good textbook, most of the time. What I do opens a door from this side. Once I do that, coming and going is probably a lot easier.”

Stephanie sat still, taking that in, and Hazel let her. The noisesof the hospital went on around them, the business of life and death made pedestrian. Eventually, the other woman framed a careful question. “How did you—didyou close that door?”

“As far as I know,” Hazel said just as carefully, “yes. I wasn’t able to do it ritually, but since I crossed the threshold of the room and then the house alive, the connection should have shut behind me. I think the reverberations from that made the house collapse. Sorry about that.”

“Clarence had insurance, and I doubt Lee would’ve wanted anything he owned.” Stephanie’s bracelets jingled again as she waved away the unscheduled demolition. She hesitated before going on. “Um. I don’t want to insult your skills, I’m sure you’re very good, but we have kids. When you say you’re pretty sure…”

“Whatever happens, I don’t think you or your family would be in danger. Clarence didn’t ask Lee to attend the séance, did he?”

“He didn’t even ask Lee to come visit.”

“Happy families are all alike,” Hazel muttered, and cleared her throat before Stephanie could ask. “That’s a good sign for you. If Clarence had been trying to use bloodline connections, he’d have tried to lure Lee in too. But I can come take a look. They’ll discharge me this afternoon, and then I have to get my phone and my car back and get back to my regular job—”

“You mean talking to the deaddoesn’tcome with a salary?” Stephanie asked, her mouth tilting slightly upward at the corners.

Hazel chuckled. “And you can forget a dental plan. Is there a number where I can reach you?”

Stephanie took a pen and a purple notepad out of her purse. “Here’s mine,” she said, writing quickly but neatly in dark blue ink. “I have the phone on Do Not Disturb except for Lee and the kids and my mom, but if you leave your number, I’ll call you back.”

“Give me a day or two.” Hazel tore the paper neatly in half and used the hospital’s scratchy ballpoint to write down her phone number and email. “God willing, I should be able to answer both of these by tomorrow at the latest. Let me know if Lee or the kids—oryou—have strange experiences.”

“Strange?”

“Hearing or seeing anything unusual, odd dreams, feeling cold and not being able to explain it, objects moving on their own, mysterious lights—basically anything that strikes you as out of the ordinary. It’s better to know than not.”

Folding the paper, Stephanie slipped it into her wallet. “Thank you. And how are you doing?” She flushed a little. “I just realized I came into a hospital and asked a lot of questions without ever getting to that one. I’m sorry.”

“You were worried. I’d do the same. And I’ll be all right, thanks.” Hazel ran a hand through her hair. “With any luck, the worst I have coming up is a lot of bureaucracy.”

Chapter 6

“You’re the girl from the house that blew up, right?” A boy barely out of his teens, pimples spotting his chin above a scraggly beard, leaned over the impound lot’s counter and goggled at Hazel without even trying to hide his curiosity. His name tag said he was Steve. His shirt advertised a rock band she’d never heard of.

She nodded. “It just collapsed, though. It didn’t explode.”

Steve had clearly wanted a different answer. “Really? You sure? Because I heard that the old guy had rigged it up with dynamite and shotguns. Gone a little…” He whirled his index finger beside his temple.

A noisy overhead air conditioner blasted an icy breeze directly down on Hazel, making her shiver despite the sweat suit she’d added to her hospital bill, and her leg had already started to ache. Three people had been in line in front of her, defying all her expectations of Orange River—or maybe it was just a town where people spent a lot of time parking in accessible spaces. “I wouldn’t know. I barely met the guy. Can I have my phone, please?”