I could barely find my voice and whispered, “What is that?”
Dane shook his head, kneeling down beside the pentagram, examining the mark. “I’ve never seen a pentagram drawn in such a way before.” His gaze lifted, and fear shook me to the bones. “I’m not sure what its meaning is, but whatever it is it ain’t good.”
“Figure that out yourself, did ya?” Even I who knew nothing about this stuff determined a pentagram was a bad thing.
“I…” Dane grasped his stomach, groaned and keeled over.
I sucked in a deep breath understanding his reaction, as a swell of pure fright rocked my system. The scent of the spiciness increased tenfold and I held my breath, not to inhale it.
Kipp grabbed for my arm, an icy embrace that raced through my skin, but even that couldn’t extinguish the wrongness invading me.
“What is it?” he demanded.
My words were trapped in my thick throat. I glanced around the room with my flashlight looking for anything or anyone. As I scanned to the right side of the room, I found what I needed to and even a scream couldn’t form.
Kipp jumped in front of me, his arms out in a solid wall of protection, as he stared into the corner of the room. “Who the fuck are you?”
The man stepped forward, gave a smile so dark, as if he’d heard Kipp. “Why are you in my house?”
“Don’t talk to it.” Dane rose up, but his pale face displayed his pain.
I wondered who had it worse. Me, or him. I could see spirits, but I couldn’t feel whatever energy they gave off, or to the extent he experienced. He wasn’t in a good place right now.
“Get out of my house,” the man said again, striding forward.
I squinted and lowered my flashlight along his body. He wore a uniform that appeared oddly familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.
Dane shot forward, and my light landed on him as he yanked a purple weed out of his pocket and lit it. Smoke formed from the weed and he waved it in the direction of the man. “You are bound to not leave this house. Be gone.”
His demanding tone impressed me since I wanted to run the hell out of here and stay far, far away. Plus, I had lost the ability to speak, scream, or doing anything that seemed appropriate.
The man’s eyes became murky, and if I didn’t know better, I’d swear they turned a reddish color that glowed in the dark room. I blinked once only to discover that the man had somehow up and vanished. I scanned the room quickly, but found nothing.
Dane latched onto my hand and yanked me so hard, I stumbled forward. “We must go.”
“Get your hands off her!” Kipp yelled, rushing forward running straight into Dane’s body.
Dane released my hand, fell onto the ground and roared, “Get out of me. It’s for her own good. She’s not safe here.”
Kipp soared out of Dane’s body and glared down at him. “I don’t give a fuck. You never touch her like that.”
I blinked again. Had a human man just vanished? And did Kipp just enter Dane’s body? I gave my head a hard shake to pull myself away from my shock. “What just happened?”
“Besides the fact I was internally bruised,” Dane said in a hard tone. “We need to get out of this house. The fumitory is only a temporary solution to keep it away. If we stay here, it’ll return and I have nothing left to protect us.”
Where had my brain gone? “Huh?”
Without so much of a word, Dane latched onto my hand, and even though he couldn’t hear Kipp’s curse, I was damn sure he could feel Kipp’s rage.
Dane had me out the front door in a split second. He dropped my hand once we reached outside and ran toward his car. A moment later, he returned with bags and shoved one of them in my hands.
“Wait here.” He went into the house and returned in a matter of minutes. “I’ve placed the salt around the upstairs windows and doors, but let’s do outside too as extra precaution.” He pushed on my shoulder and again I stumbled. “Hurry. You do the doors. I’ll do the windows.”
I glanced down at the red bag with a drawstring, demanding that my mind form a coherent thought. “Why is salt in here?”
“No questions,” Dane shouted, running off toward the front window of the house. “Do it. Now.”
“What?” I gasped.