Chapter 12 #2
It didn’t take any time for footsteps to sound on the porch, and then Iago burst in. “You leave my man alone!”
The door plopped to the floor, the other two hinges giving out.
“They keep opening and closing that door, guys,” he said, wrapping his arm around Iago.
“Dude, that’s impressive. Let’s see what we can find!” Mason headed straight over like it meant nothing.
Wild.
“You stay back, please?”
Law handed Iago a small camera. “Film it. We’ll remove the cabinet.”
“Don’t damage it. Xander loves it.”
He glanced at his lover. “I love you, man. The cabinet can be repaired.”
Iago’s lips popped open. Was it that much of a shock? He was sure they’d said it before, but maybe during the preggers thing.
Maybe it was. But that was why he’d fought liking Iago so much. He’d known how easy it would be to fall hard.
And he had. God, he was a big marshmallow…
“I love you too. I mean it. Not because of the baby. Because you bring my perfect soup, and because you hold me and it’s wonderful.”
“Well, see? We’re both softies.”
Iago laughed for him, turning to hug him tight. “I love love. And you give it well.”
“Aw…” The guys stopped and applauded, making both him and Iago blush.
“You guys suck.” Xander waved a hand at them. “Can you pry it off without breaking it?”
“We can. Colton, hand me that towel to pad the crowbar,” Mason said.
“I don’t love having you in here, honey. I don’t want you to get hurt.” It would kill him to lose his lover.
“I’ll be safe. I’ll stand back here in the doorway like an earthquake person.” Iago kissed his cheek, then moved into a safe location. It wasn’t perfect, but it would do. “I have to be able to record what’s going on, right?”
“Sure, baby. I only want you safe.” Xander picked up a crowbar, putting himself between Iago and the cabinet as if he could whack whatever might come out from behind it.
Okay, so it wouldn’t work on ghosts, but if there was a big racoon owl bear back there he could take it on to keep Iago and his baby safe.
Colton raised an eyebrow at him. “A crowbar?”
Xander stared him down. “We all use what we have. It’s either this or a meat cleaver.”
“No sharp things when we might have to jump back,” Law admonished.
“See, that’s exactly what I said.” Jeez. “Use what I have.”
Xan gripped the crowbar like it was a bat. He wasn’t half bad at baseball, to be honest.
Maybe he should join a baseball league, just one of those social ones. Surely they had one down in Secret Springs.
He’d bet that Iago would even come watch him play baseball if he joined a team.
That was a normal dad thing to do, wasn’t it? Be on a baseball team, so when his son was born he could teach him how to play catch.
Or a girl!
A girl could play catch. Girls were great at softball.
Then there was ice skating. Xander loved to ice skate. He could have a hockey girl or a figure skating boy.
Iago just had his camera up, holding it, recording everything over Xander’s shoulder.
“Okay, Law. One, two, three.” Mason and Law got into position and applied tools to the back of the cabinet. Law had been scoring the old paint with a utility knife while they’d all been talking.
Now they heaved at the same time, and the whole unit popped free as if someone was pushing it from behind. It let loose so hard that the guys stumbled, both of them grunting as they tried to keep their balance.
Colton caught the cabinet, making sure it didn’t crash over onto the floor. “Whoa. So that happened. Careful guys.”
“Yeah. Although it just looks like beadboard back here.” Law knocked on the wall, and a hollow sound rang out.
“Don’t worry about the bead board. I mean, does it look like it’s vintage?” Xander wanted to preserve what he could.
“Everything in this damn house is vintage,” Law snapped. “We don’t want to ruin it if we don’t have to. Do you have a step ladder?”
He nodded. “Yeah, it’s folded up in the broom closet.”
Law went and grabbed it, and then started popping off trim, working carefully. “There’s totally something back here. It’s cold as fuck.”
“Like ghost cold?” Xander asked.
Iago chuckled at him, breath soft and warm against his neck. “We could use this for the show. Don’t say silly things.”
“I wasn’t trying to say silly things. I’m saying terrified, I’m gonna wet my pants things.”
“If you wet your pants, you lose your alpha card,” Colton snarked. “Trust me, you’ll totally lose it, and no one will ever let you live it down, so suck it up.”
The big piece of wood started coming out with this creak, which sounded, he had to admit, perfectly normal and not particularly ghostly. Of course, when they pulled it away, there was... what the hell was that?
It was almost like a little closet space, dark and damp. One of those types people found in attics and basements in old houses.
Mason looked down. “Y’all be careful; there’s a hole.”
He blinked. “Like a hole in the wall?”
“No, man, like a tunnel in the floor, like on purpose.”
“I—” Well, shit.
Law pursed his lips. “Do we need to get a geologist in here or some kind of hazmat team? What if there’s like weird mine gases coming up and—”
Xander blinked. “Weird mine gases? Iago, back up. I have plywood in the shed. Let’s cover it up.”
“No, someone get me a flashlight.” Colton set the cabinet aside and moved forward to peer down into the… hole.
“If you fall in there, Sebastian will never forgive me.” Xander was torn between grabbing Colton and keeping Iago safely out of the picture.
“Trust me. I am not going to fall into another mine and hurt myself. I’ve had enough of that in my life.
” Colton took the flashlight Mason handed him, though, bracing on the wall beside the opening and shining the light down.
“Wow. That’s totally like an access shaft.
” He turned the light up. “Look, guys. A winch mount.”
“So, you’re telling me that my house is open down into the ground, heading to a possible nowhere mine, and it might be haunted?”
“Well, we know your house is haunted.” Colton rolled his eyes. “And we have access to the silver mine, right?”
“We have to find out who owns it, but I’m sure we do. I mean, Xander owns this house.” Law grinned, the look utterly wicked. “So, we own this shaft, or the access to it.”
Mason beamed at him. “Once we get down there—”
“You can’t go without me,” Iago said.
Xander glared over his shoulder. “Excuse me? It’s a hole, a big dark hole to God knows where. No, there could be giant rats.”
Iago shook his head. “This isn’t D&D.”
“Have you read any Stephen King novels? There’s always something bad in a mine.”
Iago shuddered. “Stop.”
Bingo. “And there’s bugs. There’s got to be bugs. We’re going to close it up.”
All of the kitchen cabinets slammed open.
“Are you sure about that?”
He glared at Iago. Then he waved his crowbar around. “Well? What is it? What’s down there that you all want? I mean, for God’s sake, it’s a hole! We’re having a baby! We can’t have a hole! That would be like having an unsealed well!”
Iago put a hand on his shoulder. “Babe. Breathe. Ghosts have a way of telling us what they want.”
“Sooner or later,” Colton muttered.
“Goodie.” No, no, this was not going to work for him. They were going to seal the hole with an iron thing, a big, giant, unmovable, undeniable, screw topped iron thing that would trap all gasses. “What if there’s poison? What if it’s not really a ghost? What if they’re just hallucinations?”
“Babe, we all saw the cabinets—”
He stared at Iago. “So, maybe one of us is a…what-do-they-call-that? A poltergeist?”
Mason blinked. “That’s a ghost.”
Law nodded. “That’s what you have.”
“No, I mean the psychic people.”
“Telekinetics?” Iago offered, and he nodded.
“That’s it! That’s it! That’s what’s wrong here. We are all being gassed, and don’t we have to have some government person here or something?”
Colton shrugged. “That’s really a Gent problem.”
“Well, where is the son of a bitch? This is our problem now. It wasn’t our problem until you figured all this out, and now, since it’s on your show, it’s your problem. Fix it!” He was getting very stressed out.
“Xan.” Iago put a hand on his back, low at the base. “It’s going to be okay. I promise. In the great scheme of things, this isn’t so bad. We’ve found the source of the agitation. Now we just find out the why.”
He breathed in, then out, letting Iago soothe him. “But I don’t want this to be a suck you in hole like the TV in Poltergeist.”
“It won’t be. We’ll close it off when we’re not needing to explore, and we’ll be safe upstairs. Right, ghosties?” Iago sounded gently teasing. Not mocking, just laughing and encouraging Xander to do the same.
He supposed this was old hat to them.
In a weird sort of way, he guessed it should be old hat to him. He’d grown up with the guy who lived in the most haunted house in town. Hell, he’d grown up in the haunted town.
Why was he so stressed out that he had a haunted house?
Why?
Because he had the house that wasn’t haunted. He’d always had the normal house.
Then he’d gone in and changed things and opened things up, aggravating stuff and opening a portal to hell or whatever it was he was doing.
That was logical.
God, his head hurt.
“Okay. Calm. I am evincing calm. Now would be the time to start automatic writing or something, guys. So we know what the spirits want so we can do it, and I can have my house back.”
They all stared at him, and Colton narrowed his eyes. “You are not calm.”
“No, I am not. I don’t feel safe letting Iago stay here, and I don’t like staying at your guys’s house, no offense.”
“So, we do like we did with Sebastian,” Law murmured. “Go stay at the hotel for a few days. Together. Let us do this.”
Xander blinked. Now that was a glorious idea. It would be like a vacation, and he could still go to work, so it wouldn’t actually be a vacation.
He’d still get paid.
He loved that for him.
“Does that work for you, honey?”
“Do I still get to come to help the guys?”
No. That was the whole idea of this. “Please, let’s have a retreat. Just a retreat. I’ll bring you breakfast in bed…”