Rage and Ruin(55)

Even though a rational part of my mind recognized he didn’t have to take me anywhere nor did he have to tell me squat, the slicing pain in my chest felt all too real. I felt...betrayed. A burn built in the back of my throat and crawled up, stinging my eyes.

The urge to cut and run hit me hard and my muscles tensed to do just that. I wanted space—I needed distance to get control of what I was feeling as I watched Zayne’s steps slow. The look of surprise was hard to miss, and it was as if he’d felt me and couldn’t believe I was here.

I was intruding.

Heat swept across my cheeks as my stomach churned. Oh, man, what exactly was I intruding on? Zayne had claimed he and Stacey were just friends, and friends met up for ice cream all the time, but friends didn’t hide that.

My head was shorting out like there was a loose wire somewhere between my synapses. Under a coarse coating of embarrassment was...disappointment.

Not jealousy.

Not envy.

Disappointment.

Zayne inhaled, and something flickered over his face. “What are you doing here?”

My emotions were too all over the place to pick up anything from the bond, but the way he’d spoken the words told me everything I needed to know. He wasn’t happy to see me here.

“She just showed up, and I thought she was with you, but she said—” Her voice, thick and coarse, drew my gaze. “She said Sam is here.”

Her words jolted me out of the spiral of emotion.

“Sam?” Zayne shifted so he was in my line of vision. “What’s going on, Trinity?”

“I am here,” the spirit in question spoke up from where he still sat beside Stacey. “Tell them I’m here.”

My heart was thrumming and my muscles were still tensed to run, but I held myself still. I hadn’t done anything wrong. Well, I probably should’ve demanded more answers from Sam before I’d agreed to help, but I was just doing what I was meant to do. It wasn’t my fault that it had led me to Zayne’s little rendezvous.

“Trinity,” Sam pleaded, and I looked at him. The golden shimmer around him was fading. “I don’t have much more time. I can feel it. I’m being pulled back.”

Get it together.

This is your duty.

I shoved everything I was feeling aside. My face was still burning, as were my throat and eyes, but I ignored all of that. I had a job. I had a duty. I got it together.

“Sam is here.” I hated how hoarse my voice sounded. “I saw him at the apartment once before,” I continued, not looking at Zayne or Stacey. “But he disappeared before he could tell me who he was. He followed Stacey when she came with Roth and Layla, but I didn’t realize he was with her then.”

“I did.” Sam nodded.

“He just confirmed that,” I said.

Stacey looked like she was close to fainting or having a complete breakdown as she stared up at us. “Zayne...?”

“Is it true?” Zayne asked, touching my arm. “Is Sam really here?”

Stunned he’d question me, I jerked my arm away as a new wave of hurt pulsed through me. “Why would I lie about that, Zayne?”

He blinked. “You wouldn’t.”

“No shit,” I spat, hurt giving way to anger. I wanted to pick up Stacey’s ice cream and toss it in his face. Instead, I gestured at the booth. “Sit down.”

Zayne hesitated like he wasn’t going to listen, and I turned to him, widening my eyes. His lips thinned, but he dropped into the seat and slid across the booth, leaving space open. Sitting next to him was the last thing I wanted, but we were already drawing enough attention to last a lifetime and Sam was running out of time.

Tugging the earbuds out of my ears, I shoved them into my pocket and then I sat, back stiff. “I had no idea until we got here that Sam was bringing me to Stacey. He conveniently left that out.”

Sam had the decency to look sheepish.

“And as Zayne can confirm,” I said to Stacey, “I didn’t know who Sam was. No one told me about him. If anyone had, I might’ve realized right off who he was.”

She stared at me. “This is real?” Her wide eyes darted to Zayne. “She can see him?”

“She can see ghosts and spirits.” Zayne dropped his arm on the table, next to the pack of the Twizzlers. “If she says Sam is here, he’s here.”

“I can’t...” She looked at where Sam was sitting, shaking her head. “Tell me what he looks like.”

I did just that, and Stacey pressed her palm to her mouth. “But you could’ve seen a picture of him online,” she reasoned. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

“She’s telling the truth,” Zayne insisted quietly, saving me from having to ask why in the Hell I would even be looking up a picture of Sam.

Stacey said something, but it was too muffled for me to understand. She lowered her hand, fingers curling into a tight ball over her heart. “Sam?”

“I’m here,” the spirit said, reaching for her but stopping short. “I’ve been here. Always.”

I repeated what he said, and Stacey’s face crumpled. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I just—I’m sorry. Tell him I’m—”

“He can hear you,” I said.

“He can hear me? Okay. I guess that makes sense.” Tears tracked down her cheeks as she looked at me and then Sam. “I miss you,” she whispered, lifting her hand from her chest to her chin.

“I miss you, too,” Sam said, and I repeated it.

“Oh God.” Her slim shoulders shook. “I’m just so sorry. I...”

Zayne made a sound of distress, reaching across the table. He placed his much larger hand over hers. “It’s okay,” he told her. “It’s okay.”

But it really wasn’t.

Normally I’d be more considerate of the emotions these types of situations caused, but I had zero craps to give at the moment and we didn’t have a lot of time.

“He has something he needs to tell you—”

“Tell both of them,” Sam corrected, and my eyes narrowed on the spirit. “I knew they were meeting today.”

A spirit had known and I hadn’t.

“They used to come here once a week after...well, after everything,” he added.

Nice.

That was just freaking great.

Hands opening and closing, I kept my eyes on Sam. “He has a message for both of you. Something to do with a school?”

Sam nodded and then twisted toward Stacey. “She can’t go back to that school. Something is happening there. It’s not safe.”

“You’re going to need to give me more detail, Sam. I need to know why it’s not safe.”

“He’s saying the school isn’t safe?” Zayne questioned.

“There’s a lot of...souls there. Too many. It’s like they’re gathering for something,” Sam explained, his form flickering more rapidly now. “I’ve been checking on her since...well, since I could, and it hasn’t always been like that.”

“What do you mean souls are gathering there?” I asked, and Zayne shifted forward.

“Souls. Dead people who haven’t crossed over—”

“Ghosts?” I suggested, and when he nodded, I glanced at Stacey, who was staring at Sam but not seeing him. “There are a lot of ghosts there? How many?”

Stacey’s eyes widened even further. “At school?”

The spirit nodded. “Over a hundred. I tried counting one day, but they disappear and they’re confused. Sort of running around all hectic-like. It’s like they’re stuck.”

“The ghosts are stuck at the school,” I repeated. “Over a hundred.”

“How can that happen?” Zayne asked.

“Spirits and ghosts can be summoned to a place,” I explained.

“Like through a Ouija board?” Stacey let out a nervous, wet-sounding laugh.

“Yeah, actually those things can work under the right circumstances,” I said. “But you almost never get who you think you’re communicating with. Not unless you know how to...channel a certain spirit, and even I can’t do that.”

Stacey stared at me. “They sell them in toy stores.”

Beside her, Sam laughed. “God, I missed that look on her face.” A smile appeared. “Did you know the Ouija board marketer fell to his death while supervising the build of a Ouija board factory?”

I frowned at him.

He shrugged. “Kind of freaky if you think about it.”

“How can ghosts be stuck?” Zayne asked.

“I don’t know. I’m sure there are spells that could do it, but I don’t know why you’d want to. A trapped ghost or even a spirt could become a wraith. Could take months or years, but being stuck would corrupt them,” I said, horrified by the possibility of something like that occurring. “How could this happen at a school?”

“It’s a Hellmouth,” Stacey murmured. “Layla and I weren’t joking when we said that.”

I ignored her. “Are the ghosts putting people in danger?”

“Someone fell down the steps a week ago. They were pushed by one of the ghosts,” Sam said.

When I repeated that, Stacey sat back against the booth. “A guy did fall down the steps. Last Tuesday. I don’t know the details, but I heard that it happened.”