Haunter 1: The Shadow of the Haunter

30. The Shadow Unchained

I woke up to the gentlest voice I'd ever heard whispering my name. I blinked a couple of times before really opening my eyes, feeling the soft touch of warm fingertips brushing my hair off my face. It was dark outside, and the golden glow of the lamp behind me showed Brandon crouching down by the bed, no hat, his head tilted to meet my eyes, lips pursed in one of his warm smiles.

*Memo to self: I wanted to wake up like this every day for the rest of my life.

"How are you feeling?" he whispered, like trying to wake up the swarm of infernal butterflies as well.

I frowned and scratched my messy hair, 'cause that's me: the queen of hot and sexy.

"Fine," I mumbled, and found my hand had left my hair to rest on his cheek. "You? How are you?"

"I could sleep a whole week, especially like this afternoon." His wink made me blush at the speed of light. "But we ain't done yet. You up for the last stretch?"

"Kujo!" I muttered, kicking the quilt away.

He let out a soft chuckle and helped me out of bed. I opened my closet and grabbed the first thing I found, which was, of course, my old turtle-neck sweater and my sneakers. Sure, why not look like a sack of potatoes? Not like I had an oldie-but-goldie smoking hot man there, right?

I felt an avalanche of chills when he helped me pull it down and brought my hair out of the thick collar.

"There you are," he murmured, that warm smile nailed to his face, and reached out to me. "Shall we?"

No gloves on, yet his fingers closed around mine to lead me out of the room. Another hundred chills and counting. His skin felt cool, not fevered like it did in the morning, and even though he was wearing his trademark black cargos and jacket, I spotted the dragon tee underneath.

The whole Manor was oddly quiet, and as we crossed the kitchen, I saw what looked like a lantern glow coming out the guesthouse's first-floor windows.

"The worms are still crawling up and down the house," Brandon said. "Your friend Trisha is there to keep an eye on things and let the housekeeper go home."

"Oh," I muttered. "Amy said something about taking Kujo there to deal with them."

"Yeah. She seems convinced you guys can command the demon to go where you want it to."

His words made me stop him by the basement door.

"Have you been down here today?"

"No. They woke me up like thirty minutes ago."

"Then let me go first."

He let go of my hand and motioned for me to take the lead. I hurried down the stone steps, anxious and excited like I hadn't been there in a whole year.

"Fran," my phone said as soon as I reached the basement.

"My boy!" I cried, running to kneel down before the corner, my hand up.

"Fran fine," Kujo said, touching my hand.

"Yeah, yeah, I was just wasted and fell asleep upstairs. How are you, my boy? You ready for what we're about to do?"

A discreet cough to my right made me look up that way. Amy was there, wearing her white robe and holding a big old book in her hands. Isaac was a few steps away, behind one of the three cameras he'd set around the corner, like we'd done the day before. A semicircle of tea light candles started at the end of the boiler, curving away from the corner all the way to the left wall. I hadn't stepped on one of them out of sheer chance.