Mack's Rousing Ghoulish Highland Adventure, page 3
A woman wearing running shoes and a black button down was hauling a tray of glasses into another room when Eli hailed her.
“Catriona, they’ve arrived!”
Looking toward us, the woman blinked and then broke into a relieved smile. She quickly put the tray down on the nearest surface, scurrying toward us. She looked mid-forties and as if she’d tried to dress nice this morning, but the stress of the day had made hair escape from her bun and creases appear in her tan slacks.
“Catriona O’Keefe,” she said, offering us both a hand. My ear detected a softer burr, the accent a little different than I expected. (Based on movies, granted.) “I be owner and manager here. Ye be welcome, Agents. I’ve a room set aside for ye—I understand ye’re a couple as well as partners?”
I nodded. “That’s right. I’m Brandon Havili. This is Mack Lafayette.”
“A pleasure, a pleasure. Always lovely, isna’t, to have such a sweet gay couple. And yer welcome in more ways than one, as we’re about done-in here.”
A little strange to be welcomed as a gay couple, but I was happy that she seemed to be a staunch LGBTQIA+ supporter and not one to give us trouble. I didn’t like the stress so obviously heard in her voice, though.
Mack gave her that charming smile he had, the one that made everyone in the vicinity melt. “I can see the influx of ghosts even where I stand. I take it it’s not normally like this?”
“Oh no, heaven forbid that. We do have our regulars, dinnae we? And they for the most part be no trouble. We do have the one, bit amorous he be—likes to pat the bums sometimes—but for the most part they were just here. Like our guests. And we didnae mind them much.” Her expression morphed into one of distress, and she glanced at Eli. “And then about three weeks ago, we suddenly started to get more and more in. And they were scared, I coudnae get them to leave, ye know? And I didnae know what to do. So I called me brother, he be in the police force here, and he made a few calls, and by the time the NCA agents arrived, it had gotten to this point.”
“It’s actually gotten worse since our arrival,” Eli corrected. “The untrained eye can’t see it. I was in here ten minutes when I called you, Mack. Because like hell I wanted to tackle this alone.”
“We’re all up to high doh here,” Catriona agreed, making a face.
I had no idea what that phrase actually meant, but I took it to mean they were all at their wits’ end. “Let’s throw the suitcases into our room, and then we can sit down, get a full brief on what’s going on, and maybe we can get things back to normal.”
Catriona looked so hopeful, like I had promised her a pony. I prayed I hadn’t offered the unachievable.
The room Catriona showed us to was nice and kinda standard for a hotel room. It was wallpapered, had a king-size bed in the middle of the room—thank god, I could sleep comfortably—and rugs on the wooden floor. The attached bathroom was small. It would be tight quarters for me, but doable. I barely got more than a glance at it, throwing the suitcases inside and heading immediately back downstairs.
I couldn’t see anything. I never could, but judging from the way Mack weaved and ducked, the stairwell was packed with ghosts. Really, everywhere we went, it was packed. He acted like we were in some crowded convention hall and there was barely room to squeeze in.
Just how crowded was this place, really?
Catriona led the way into a back room, what I took to be a party room. It had one couch along the window, a coffee table in front of it, and then a dining room table square in the middle with eight chairs all around. Four people I didn’t know–who I assumed belonged to the NCA team judging from the equipment in front of them—were arranged around the table. There were a lot of laptops, maps, flashlights, bags of salt, even some crystals.
Quinn and Booker had set up at the couch, but with our entrance, immediately left it and closed in for a hug. I clasped Quinn strongly around the shoulders for a second before letting go, grinning down at him. “Yeah, we’re here. Breathe.”
“You think you’re joking, but you’re not,” he informed me. Quinn was one of the few men I knew that made me look average in size. A power lifter, he was massive in build, making him look short. But then, everyone compared to my family looked short. He also looked frazzled around the edges, just like Eli. He wasn’t even wearing his diamond stud earrings like usual.
Booker’s dark hair was standing a bit upright, as if he’d run his hands repeatedly through it, and he, too, looked as if he’d dressed in the dark while fighting off ninjas. There were bruises under his chocolate-brown eyes, showing as dark shadows on his taupe skin, the black, square glasses not doing anything to disguise them. I had a feeling these three had been yanked out of a sound sleep over something.
I gave him a hug, too, and was honestly glad in that moment that we’d been able to come immediately to help. Just judging from what I was seeing, they were all in over their heads.
“Brandon,” Booker greeted in his soft voice. He stepped back and gave me a small smile. “You and Mack are godsends. Thank you for dropping everything and coming.”
“I’d say it’s our pleasure, but…” Mack grimaced. “This is a bit much.”
“I know it. Come meet our colleagues.” Booker drew Mack toward the table of agents, who had been watching our entrance with interest. “This is Graeme Abernathy, NCA and appointed team leader of the group.”
Graeme looked like an average Joe kind of guy, one who wasn’t too handsome or too plain. His dark hair was short and edging toward curls, skin tanned from the sun, scruff on his chin from not shaving for a few days. But he greeted us with a smile and a handshake.
“Pleasure, gentlemen. Ye’re a welcome sight.”
“Blair Campbell, his anchor,” Booker continued.
Blair’s red hair could rival Eli’s any day. She kept hers in a short pixie cut, and if this woman spent any time in the sun, it was not obvious from her skin tone. She looked like porcelain, no kidding. Her handshake was strong, and I felt like if someone started a fight, she had what it took to finish it.
“Logan Nowack,” Booker continued, coming around to the other side of the table.
If someone told me that Sean Connery had a twin, I’d believe them. Logan Nowack looked like a younger version, bald on top, grey on the sides, with a trim grey beard accenting his jawline. A good-looking man, no question.
“And this be me partner,” Logan said, indicating the agent sitting next to him. “Rowen Ferry. Use they/them pronouns for Rowen, please.”
I appreciated the heads-up. Rowen had a unique look to them, a sort of gender-neutral feel, so I hadn’t been sure which way to go there until Logan said something. Their brown hair was in a long bob, no makeup on, with the shirt and pants so basic they were genderless. “Nice to meet both of you. I’m he/him pronouns, so is Mack.”
Rowen liked that I said that, their smile turning up another notch. “Thank ye. Please, do sit. Agent Lafayette, may I say, we’re extremely relieved to have ye.”
Mack gave them a smile as he took the chair at the end of the table. “Just Mack, please. And I can see why. You’re really overrun here.”
“The situation be more…precarious than ye realize.” Graeme’s face drew into a grimace. “The reason why Eli be with us to begin with be that we currently only have three exorcists in Scotland.”
I let out a low whistle. Oh boy. That was a very low number.
“We invited her over here so we could nae only get experience workin’ with someone of her ability, but because we had a few cases where we needed her help. We did manage one of those before this problem landed in our lap. I meself be a strong sensitive, but I cannae be considered a medium.”
Oh. Oh really? Sensitives were the norm in most psychic agencies, really. They could sense, communicate with, and help guide ghosts into passing, but they couldn’t exorcise. The range on sensitives was all over the map, so I had no idea how powerful this man was, although I had to assume he’d met some kind of standard if he was team leader.
Logan cleared his throat, and in his slightly gravelly voice, added, “I be a medium, but cannae exorcise at all. I can assist with one, that be about as far as me power allows.”
The full situation dawned.
I was in a haunted as hell inn with only two people who could exorcise.
Oh shit.
Mack didn’t look as surprised, but he could probably tell from their auras just how powerful these two men were. “I can exorcise up to two ghosts a day without it wiping me out. I vote we try to pass people as much as possible, as that I can do all day. But why this sudden influx? Do we have an answer to that?”
Eli entered and closed the door behind her, looking a bit more refreshed, as if she’d taken a second to put herself back together so she no longer appeared as though she’d fought with a whirlwind and lost. “We’ve interviewed countless ghosts as they’ve come in, and—you. Yes, you. Get your hand off my husband’s ass.”
The threat in her tone was so harsh that even I jumped a little. She was looking right at Quinn’s side. Not that I could see anyone next to him, but I assumed the amorous ghost had made an appearance.
“You touch him one more time, you will not like what I do, understand?” Eli glared some more and then pointed at the door as if ordering a disobedient dog. “Out.”
Quinn apparently hadn’t sensed anything as he just blinked at her. “Someone copping a feel?”
“You’re too sexy.”
“I do have that problem from time to time.”
Eli rolled her apple-green eyes at him and continued her explanation. “Anyway, the ghosts are quite possibly the worst witnesses on the face of the planet. All they’re telling us is that there’s the boogeyman outside. And it’s eating spirits, so they’ve hightailed it to the only safe location—here, supposedly.”
I blinked at her. “Boogeyman?”
“We dinnae know what it actually be,” Rowen answered, looking fed up with the situation. “No one’s put a name to it. Some be actin’ on rumor alone, other ghosts tellin’ them the warnin’, and them runnin’ fair puckled straight here.”
I needed a Scottish slang dictionary, apparently. But I took their meaning.
Mack looked between all of them, brows drawn up in confusion. “Surely just rumor isn’t enough to send this many ghosts scrambling here.”
“No, it be nae just rumor,” Graeme assured us darkly. “Somethin’ really be eatin’ ghosts. A few have come in half-gnawed, lookin’ like zombie waifs, if that makes sense. Somethin’ dark be afoot here, no question. We just dinnae know what. And we’re so overrun with scared ghosts pleadin’ for help, we’ve no prayer of proper investigation as to the cause.”
“Our job,” Eli informed my lover with a long sigh, “is to get all the ghosts to either pass or calm down so we can figure out what’s driving them here. And then deal with it, whatever it is. So for the next few days, it’s all guiding people into passing and exorcising the ones we have to.”
Mack blinked at her, absorbing this for a minute. Then he turned to face me and said, “This is going to take a hell of a lot longer than five days.”
“You’ve got that right.”
I’ve heard war stories over the internet of people who attended conventions so jam packed they became claustrophobic afterward, but I didn’t know up until this point that there was a ghostly equivalent. It literally felt crammed to the gunwales no matter where I turned.
Poor Eli had dealt with this for a full two days before I could get to her?
It was nearing dinner time, and I knew we were losing the day by inches, so it was definitely time to get cracking. Catriona had already given us yet another party room in the back to work our magic in. It looked much like the other, with nothing more than a couch, table with chairs, and a window that overlooked the river nearby. Big enough for our purposes at least. Eli and I took our strongest flashlights and went to set up there. We were divided into two different rooms as it wasn’t feasible to cram all of us into one. Logan was in the room next door, also trying to pass ghosts.
Brandon took one look at the room and volunteered, “Let’s move the table off to the side so you have room to work in.”
Quinn immediately pitched in. “You grab a side, I’ll grab a side.”
Booker had a map, laptop, and a clipboard with pens in his hands.
“What are those for?”
“Better to take a record of everyone that passes,” he explained, waiting for the guys to move the table before setting everything down. “And we want to track where the ghosts are coming from. We might be able to see a pattern.”
Now that was a good thought. I clearly didn’t think along the lines of an investigator.
I was the steadier person of us two in passing people on. It was a finesse thing, something that took very little power to manage, which meant Eli really had to concentrate to do it. She was a power hitter; finesse wasn’t her thing, so this wasn’t something she could comfortably do for long without her head exploding.
And because of that, I decided it was best to divide and conquer. “Eli, why don’t we split this? Since the guys are wanting info, why don’t you do a quick interview, then pass the ghost along to me, and I’ll send them on.”
She looked relieved at this suggestion. “You don’t mind?”
“I mean, that’s why you called me, isn’t it? Because I can pass ghosts along easier than you can.”
“That, and you’re cute,” she agreed promptly.
Oh, this one was in a fine mood if she was teasing already. I gave her an unamused stare. “Thanks for that. All right, let’s get cracking—”
I cut myself off as I realized that while we talked out our game plan, the ghosts had started crowding into the room. And one in particular, a middle-aged ghost with a lecherous smile on his face, was sidling up next to Brandon, hand in groping position.
Oh, hell no.
I marched right there, caught the ghost by the shoulder, and whirled him around. “Guess who gets to go first.”
The ghost whined at me. “I wasnae doin’ anythin’!”
“Let me make this clear. That very fine man you were about to grope is mine.” I made my glare as menacing as possible.
It worked. The ghost visibly wilted.
“Why don’t you start us off?” I smiled. It wasn’t a nice expression. Then I promptly dragged him to where I had set up my flashlight. I wasn’t doing a trail of lights this time, there wasn’t enough room for it, and I wanted the ghosts to pass along as quickly as possible.
“But I like it here!” the ghost protested as he stumbled along in my wake.
“Tough. First you tried to grope Quinn, now my lover. You’re done, troublemaker.” I picked up my flashlight, thumbed it on, and pointed it at the far wall, making a very visible light spectrum. “Walk along the light, envisioning an open door waiting for you on the other end.”
When he balked, pouting at the light at the far end, Eli leaned over his shoulder and whispered, “Or I can scatter your soul to bits. Which would you prefer?”
He moved. With alacrity.
One down.
And honestly, I had no idea how many there were to go. Which was a very scary thought.
It didn’t help that we had so many in the room, either. It was jam-packed, literally standing room only. The ghosts were of all different genders, ages, times. There was a robust woman in a dress, her hair up in a bun, who looked like she’d died a good two hundred years ago. Another man standing next to me was barely senior to me, looking like he’d died yesterday. The motorcycle jacket, leather pants, and boots he wore hinted he’d died on a bike. It was such a mishmash, as any gathering of people will be.
As Eli and I sorted through them, I overheard their conversations with each other.
“Where do ye hail then?” the matron asked the younger man.
“Shieldaig. Ye?”
“Strath. Bit of a jaunt to get here, isna’t? Still, better than to stay and be eaten by the beastie.”
“Oh aye, no doubt on that. Did ye see it, then?”
“Naw, never laid eyes on it. The lassie with me, though, she saw it with her own eyes. Ran to her grave to hide there, not that it seemed to do her much good. I havenae seen her since she told me of it.” The matron looked more than spooked relating this, the fear real in her eyes. “I looked for her, I did. Hoped to see her here. But I fear she got caught.”
Younger ghost did a cross over his chest. “God rest her soul.”
What was this beast they were talking about? I would ask, but they clearly didn’t know details either, just rumors. They were running on pure fear. Still, I kept an ear out for other conversations and leaned into Eli’s side to murmur, “Ask if they saw what scared them. Or if they know anything.”
“I have been,” she murmured back. “Nothing concrete yet. It’s always a second- or thirdhand account.”
“Damn. Okay.” Well, someone surely knew something. We’d sort through these ghosts and get an answer eventually.
I kept listening, but it seemed to be the same story with everyone. They’d heard of a beast consuming ghosts, knew of someone who disappeared, and it scared them enough that they ran for sanctuary. They dropped the names of places where they’d been, or where they’d passed through, as they talked.
The locations didn’t mean much to me. Shieldaig, Kerrysdale, Strath, Auchtercairn. I assumed them to be fairly nearby, as ghosts didn’t travel much by nature. But I had no context in this land that I knew nothing about.
How far had they traveled, running from this boogeyman that few held any knowledge of?
Or was this just the rumor mill? I was reminded of the rumors I’d heard in the past, of how twisted and outlandish they got in the retelling. My fifth-grade teacher had had us play a game of telephone in class once, and by the time it made it through thirty-six kids, it had been something completely different.
