Page 47 of Into the Fire

“I’ll take it any way I can get it. Wait and see.” Vic used his weight to pin Simon, although the other man could have easily gotten free. Vic reached his right hand around to stroke Simon’s cock while the fingers of his left trailed over his buttocks.

“Don’t stop,” Simon groaned.

“Wasn’t planning to.”

Keeping his rhythm up front leisurely, for now, Vic let his fingers slide down between Simon’s buttocks and gently circle his oh-so-sensitive hole.

Simon moaned, and Vic grinned. “That’s the idea.”

Vic’s finger stroked over Simon’s hole but didn’t press in more than the tip, moving it in and out a couple of times before his hand moved lower to fondle Simon’s balls and taint.

“Won’t last long,” Simon warned.

“Just let go,” Vic urged. “I’ve got you.”

Simon’s whole body shook with the force of his orgasm, as Vic stroked him through it. Vic’s climax came less violently, with a warm afterglow of satisfaction. He grabbed a couple of paper towels and cleaned them both.

“Feeling more relaxed?” Vic asked as he pulled Simon’s jeans back up and buckled his belt.

“Feeling great.” Simon pulled Vic in for a long kiss. “Just the ticket for sweet dreams.”

8

Simon

“Who was the owner of the storage unit?” Simon could sense something was off as soon as he was near. The nearby spirits were agitated and angry, bordering on malicious. Not a good sign.

“Sheldon Korecki, owner of Sheldon’s Old World Traveling Circus.” Bob Fanning, the proprietor of City Storage, replied.

Simon had been deep in reviewing the lore about grimoires when Fanning’s call came in, reporting a dangerous spike in supernatural activity at the storage company and begging for help before someone got hurt.

“You said there was a sudden increase in spooky stuff happening. Does that mean that some level of supernatural activity is the norm?” Simon asked.

Fanning looked away. “You’re going to think I’m nuts.”

“I promise I won’t.”

With a heavy sigh, Fanning nodded. “Trade secret; storage units are haunted as hell. People put all kinds of weird stuff in these places and then walk away for years. Sometimes they die, and we have to clean the units out and auction off what we can to settle the back rent. Believe it or not, storage company owners have found skeletons, caskets with corpses, and all kinds of creepy weird stuff.”

“Interesting.” Simon made a mental note to ask Sanderson if Ocean Visions had a unit somewhere, although given how large the hotel was, he couldn’t imagine the need.

“The traveling circus lasted for a long time, but those kinds of attractions are harder to make a go of these days, with TV, social media, and video,” Fanning commiserated. “The company closed when the owner died under suspicious circumstances, and their headline act skipped the country. The bank auctioned off the assets and all the cool circus equipment and let the rest of the entertainers go. It’s a real shame.”

“Why wasn’t the storage unit included in that?” Simon asked.

“Everyone had forgotten about it,” Fanning replied. “It happens. It was on autopay for a year at a time, so no one saw monthly bills. Technically, it’s paid for a couple more months, but once I contacted the bankruptcy lawyers, they told me to open it up, sell the contents, take a commission, and send them the rest.”

“I’m guessing that part is pretty standard,” Simon replied, and Fanning nodded. “What made you call me?”

“People in my business are used to regular ghosts,” Fanning said. “But when the circus folded, that storage unit went bonkers.”

“Can you be a little more specific?” Simon pressed.

“It always had a cold spot, some strange noises, and the lights flickered more there than other places.” Fanning sounded like those were normal, which made Simon doubly certain he never wanted to use an external storage site.

“But even before we knew about the circus closing, so probably the actual day it happened, the activity got worse,” Fanning said. “One of my people saw a man in old-fashioned clothing walking up and down the hallway, but he vanished when my guy called out to him. Someone else said they saw a person dressed like an acrobat—same thing, they disappeared into thin air.”

He turned to Simon. “I’ve had two people quit, and I don’t have a big staff. The ones who haven’t resigned yet refuse to work that hallway or that floor of the building. We have other paying tenants around that unit that need our services. I can’t just shut down the whole place.”