The Demon Hunters Read Online Free Page B

on
the bottom of Long Meadow Lake.
    Then Royal snorted. He met my eyes,
looked away, but couldn’t hide his grin.
    I looked daggers at him. “Is something
funny,” I asked, still not catching on.
    “ You should see your
face!”
    Then it dawned on me - he was teasing
me. Again.
    For a moment, I didn’t know how to
react, because Royal’s humor seemed cruel. But that was just me. He
didn’t know his idea of fun cast me back into a world where nobody
understood me, or ever would. We had never discussed my former
boyfriends, so he didn’t know one dumped me because he couldn’t
reconcile with my odd behavior and the other two dumped me because
I kept them at an emotional distance, afraid to let them know my
secret. Back then, I carried my ability like a burden, because I
didn’t think I could share with anyone. Telling Royal was a relief,
a kind of freedom. I didn’t have to watch what I said and did with
him around.
    I heard Colin’s voice in my
head. “ People who say they see ghosts are
delusional.” And, “ Don’t tell me you thought you saw a ghost, Tiff?”
    Royal must have seen something in my
face. “Tiff, are you mad at me? It’s just . . . I could not resist.
. . .” And he chortled again.
    I recalled the third time I saw him,
when he came to my bedroom in the early hours of the morning.
Having him so close did un-Tiff-like things to my body and when he
noticed - he couldn’t help but notice - he deliberately laid on the
sex appeal hot and heavy. Remembering made me smile and soothed the
sting.
    I should be happy he knew all about
me, knew I wasn’t crazy. He didn’t see Jack and Mel or any other
shade with whom I interacted, yet still believed. He could even kid
me about it, not to be mean, but for fun. I should be able to live
with that.
    But I would not let him get away with
it that easy. I went over there and swatted the air in front of his
face, but he caught my wrist and pulled me between his knees. It’s
kind of hard to pretend you’re mad at your boyfriend when he’s
nuzzling between your breasts.
    “ For god’s sake, get a
room!” Jack groaned.
    Just so you don’t think Royal and my
roommates became best buddies, one big happy family, he would
rather I devote myself to him and not chat away at thin air when
he’s at my house. Yeah, he believes they are here, but I can see
how the one-sided conversations would make anyone uncomfortable.
Kind of like when you have a couple of people in your gang who
speak a different language, and chat away, knowing you don’t
understand a word they’re saying. So I keep it to a minimum, and of
course doing so irks Jack and Mel.
    Lesson in life: you can’t make
everyone happy.
    ***
    Driving past the tall building which
houses the Fifth District Court and Clarion City Police Department,
I took my eyes off the road to glance up at the third floor,
recalling the last time I walked in Lieutenant Mike Warren’s
office. Mike heads up Clarion PD Homicide Division and I met with
him to tell him I quit. I worked as a consultant for the division,
until Mike and I had a misunderstanding. I miss Mike, sometimes,
like when his help with a case could make life easier for me. But I
don’t dare contact him, not since I accused one of his men of
murder, and he ignored me, and I was wrong anyway. It was one of
the rare times I got it all wrong, and boy am I glad I did, since
Royal was the culprit in question.
    Royal lives on Twenty-Second Street.
To look at it now, you would not believe just fifteen years ago a
decent woman - or for that matter, a decent man - avoided
Twenty-Second after sunset. Hookers and pimps, drug dealers,
panhandlers; Twenty-Second was their domain when night fell. Of
those days, one decrepit old hotel which caters to the down and
out, two pawn shops and two bars remain. The rest of the narrow
buildings are a diversity of restaurants, coffee shops,
microbreweries, antique shops, art galleries, gift shops,
miscellaneous boutiques and three