Chapter 3
It didn’t take much effort to find our friends once we entered the restaurant.
Eli’s bright red hair was easy to spot at a table farther on the right side.
Mack had chosen a steak buffet restaurant—always a welcome thing for both me and Mack.
He could usually find safe things to eat, or safe enough, at least.
I beelined for the table to say hi first. “Hello, my fellow ghost wranglers, how are we?”
“Peachy,” Eli answered before popping up for a hug. “Also glad to be out of the car. What a drive.”
“Tell me about it.”
I shook hands with Lachlan, as he was grinning up at me. “You’re looking far too delighted to be here, friend.”
“That I am,” he said brightly. “I always have so much fun with you lot.”
“This might be more Medium-based work than stabbing,” Mack warned him. “I don’t know if we have monsters to slay here.”
Lachlan waved this off. “You got fun caves to spelunk in with spooky things to make it interesting. No complaints, mate.”
God bless Lachlan for being a little bit crazy. “Where’s the cousin?”
“Davina is wiped out after traveling all day. I’ll be bringing her a bite after we eat.”
“Fair enough.”
“Go get food,” Booker encouraged us.
Half starved, I immediately did as instructed, loading up a plate with an awesome-looking salad before filling another plate with baked potatoes, steak, and corn. Someone ordered me a soda while I was away, and I was all set at the table by the time I returned.
I chowed down, happy with good food in my mouth, and looked over my team.
Eli was put together as always, in a cute green top and jeans, with a bit of a sunburn across her fair skin, mostly her nose.
Booker was quiet, as usual, his thick dark hair unruly, like he’d been running his hands through it.
He wore different glasses since I’d seen him last and they suited his face better.
Quinn had gone casual in a tank top and jeans, his tank showing off the defined muscles of his arms without him even trying to flex.
He wore his usual gold necklace and diamond stud earring.
Lachlan was his typical gorgeous self, like a Highlander looking to grace the cover of a romance book. He’d tamed his honey-brown hair into a low ponytail, and his skin was a bit more golden, so he’d gotten a tan recently.
Everyone, to my amusement, was looking at Mack with a little concern. I had no idea why, either.
“You going to be all right?” Booker asked in a soft tenor. “This case sounds as bad as the tree one last year.”
“It wasn’t even so much the case itself,” Mack said with a groan, aggravated all over again. “Listen to me carefully, especially you, Eli. Do not, no matter how tempted or desperate, use Jon as a battery.”
Her eyes widened in realization. “Oh my god, you didn’t. I thought you were down for three days because you were boosting ghosts like crazy!”
“Well, I was, but I was using Jon’s energy. It was a do-or-die situation and seemed like a good idea at the time, but my god, I felt like I’d swallowed an electric eel. Everything hurt. Even my hair hurt!”
Seeing Lachlan wasn’t following, I explained the situation.
“Jonathan Bane is who he’s talking about.
My brother-in-law is one of the best Readers in the known world—there’s very little his eyes can’t see—but because of that he also runs stupid hot, psychically speaking.
You can’t take electronics anywhere near him.
He fries them instantly. Now, imagine Jon giving off psychic energy left, right, and center, and siphoning off his power to use. ”
Lachlan immediately shook his head. “Naw, mate, that’s not on. I’m not that stupid.”
Mack glowered at him. “Do. Or. Die. Situation, I said. Even then, I’ve learned my lesson. Don’t do it.”
“After Brandon’s description? You can’t even tempt me,” Lachlan said. “Er. He’s not going to come out here, is he?”
“Not his area of expertise, so no,” I assured.
Plus, planes and Jon mixed like a Molotov cocktail and a stack of firewood.
I glanced at Mack’s plate to make sure he’d found enough food, which he had.
Good, good. Making sure Mack could find dairy- and corn-free food was a real trick while on the road.
We ate companionably, and I went for dessert because the apple cobbler was calling my name.
This was a pretty good restaurant; we might come here again since it was only about ten minutes to the hotel.
Mack finished and sat back with a satisfied sigh. “I feel human again. All right, serious talk, who knows if anyone else is coming?”
Quinn glanced at Mack. “So far, I only know of your mentor coming?”
“Beau and Hannah,” I confirmed before finishing the rest of my soda.
“They’re catching up,” Mack said, “and should be here by tomorrow night.”
Eli grunted, brow pinching. “Sylvia’s trying to get more people for us. We’re all stretched thin and a little tired. She’s having a hard time finding anyone else. We might be alone for a while.”
“No,” I corrected, “Falisa and Ken Tate are coming, too. Falisa texted me just before we boarded and is driving in. Should be here in two days or so.”
Eli relaxed into her seat, delight spreading over her face. “Oh, thank god. I know those two are reliable. Lachlan, you’ll like them. We all met on a case together in Louisiana, and Falisa is a solid Medium, easy and dependable to work with.”
“Delightful. Now, if my math is right, we’ve got Davina, Mack, the lovely Eli, Beau, and Falisa? Six Mediums to tackle a small town might be enough.”
Mack cast him an apologetic look. “Plus the ghost town.”
Everyone else but me froze, staring at him like he’d told a joke in incredibly poor taste.
“I gather from your reactions, no one else fully read through the file,” I drawled.
Booker grimaced. “We barely got it before we had to pack and fly, then I forgot it in the luggage, so we couldn’t read it on the plane. Brief us.”
Mack and I did, explaining the parameters and what all was expected of us.
Mack outlined his hope to do the ghost town first so we wouldn’t be getting hit from both sides.
Did they think we were joking about the caves earlier?
That Lachlan was going to poke into them for fun?
They hadn’t realized the mining shafts were part and parcel?
Well, tired people didn’t pick up on nuance very well.
Lachlan lifted a hand. “I’m for it.”
Quinn nodded slowly, eyes fixed on the table, clearly thinking. “I admit, it’s got several pros. I’m for it, too. Good thought, Mack.”
Mack preened a little. “Can’t take all the credit.
Brandon suggested it first. That said, should we wade in while we’re waiting on the rest of our team to arrive?
Or scout out the area and come up with an overall plan of attack so we’re ready to go when they get here?
I’m good either way. Just don’t know if there’s a preference. ”
“Scope and plan,” Quinn and Booker said in near unison.
Eli pointed to the sides where her husbands sat. “I’m with them on this one. Lachlan?”
“Oh, plans are a fine thing,” he said grandly. “Let’s split up so I’m with Brandon and Mack, and we’ll take the mines. You take the city, aye?”
It made the most sense. Then we’d have two teams of three. I think Mack wanted to go into a haunted miner’s town about as much as he wanted to eat a five-course meal of sawdust, but he also knew we couldn’t afford to ignore it. He sighed in resignation.
Booker whipped out the company card to pay for dinner, and then we all got up to leave. We still had to get to our hotel and check in. Lachlan paused us right outside the restaurant door, though, the light shining through the glass door partially illuminating us.
“I’m very excited to work with you,” he told us, and he honestly did appear it. The way he kept shifting his weight, gestures broad, was almost like watching a child in a parade. “My cousin, she is too.”
He had gotten some food to go for her, come to think of it. “We’ll meet her in the morning?”
“Aye, that’s the plan. The hotel has a breakfast, they said, so we can meet downstairs.”
“Sure, let’s do it.”
We all split up into our own rental cars and headed off. I really did not want back in the SUV, but needs must. At least we were fairly close to the hotel.
Mack sighed low as we got back on the road. “I’m tired. It took all day to get here.”
Between getting to the airport, flying to Phoenix, then the drive here, it really had. “I also want to be horizontal for a while.”
“Ma moitié?”
Now, I knew this tone. Mack wanted to ask for something but wasn’t sure how it’d be received. He still had hang-ups about asking me for things, but he’d gotten leagues better in the past few months. I didn’t like his hesitancy but wanted to encourage his trust. “Yeah, honey?”
“Us needing to call in Beau makes me realize, I’d have been really lost without him as my mentor. I’m a pro, but even a pro needs a master to back him up sometimes. I also want to be that for someone—a master, passing down what I know.”
His desire came as a complete surprise to me, but it was lovely to hear the wistfulness in his voice. He’d clearly thought about the idea and yearned for the possibility.
“And you’ve seen Jon with his apprentice,” I said.
“That plays in, too. He’s so happy to teach Abby, and you can see she’s thrilled to have him. I’m not trying to push for anything right this second, but are you open to sharing our lives with an apprentice?”
“Absolutely.”
He blinked at the immediacy of my response. “Wow. You didn’t even think on it.”
“I love kids,” I reminded him. “It’s part of why I became a cop, to protect kids. So me taking on a young Medium who needs guidance and protection? As natural as breathing to me. I think we best honor the rising generation by giving them every tool we can pass along.”