Chapter 20
Three’s a Crowd
Brooke
Brooke cruised the garage first. Immediately she noticed the big Chrysler 300 that Seth’s parents usually took when they traveled together was gone. Seth’s car was there, though, as was his dad’s big F250, Bryce’s wheels of choice. Which meant the parents were probably gone, but the boys were likely at home.
Next, she entered the house through the front door, something she’d never done when she and Seth were dating last year. Thinking about that reminded her what a jerk Seth had been, even then. Fuel to a fire that burned dangerously hot already.
A quick recon confirmed that the only people home were in Seth’s bedroom, and judging by the high-pitched giggles, Seth’s guest was not his brother. Bryce must have either gone with his parents or stayed at a buddy’s house. Or maybe he was out in the horse barn. It had been lit up like Christmas. Brooke had figured that was a security measure, after what had happened to the horses, but then she recalled Bryce used to like to sleep out there, sometimes. They kept an old computer in the office out there, and Seth used to razz Bryce about using it to surf porn, though Bryce insisted he was just playing online games.
Brooke paused outside Seth’s door, eavesdropping unabashedly. The sounds issuing from inside were definitely makeout noises, but not sex noises, per se. Perfect.
Passing easily through the wall, she floated into the bedroom. The room was very dark, too dark for them to see her, but not too dark for her cast eyes. She clearly saw that Seth and Melissa lay on the bed pretty much as she imagined they’d be doing. Mostly clothed but with their shirts undone, limbs tangling as they fooled around.
Seth, of course, was putting on the full-court press. For a second, Brooke wanted to warn Melissa not to give in, not to give him what he wanted. Once he got it, he’d soon be scraping her off his shoes and moving on in search of a worthier challenge.
Unless he didn’t.
Maybe it was just her—Brooke—he found unworthy.
The idea fed her anger until she itched to hurt Seth. Hurt both of them.
She glided closer to the bed.
Seth rolled Melissa so the two of them lay on their sides. It was the perfect invitation. Brooke moved closer, then dragged her nails across Seth’s back. He flinched, but not altogether without pleasure. Taking the nail raking as evidence of Melissa’s ardor, he ratcheted up his efforts.
From Brooke’s perspective, Melissa seemed a little taken aback, a little unsure what to do, but she didn’t smack him down or anything. Biting her lip, Brooke floated to the other side of the bed and pinched Melissa’s butt through her denims.
She gasped. “Seth! What the hell?”
Seth, who’d been working his way into her bra cups, froze. “What? You don’t like that?”
“No, I do not!”
“Since when?”
“What do you mean, since when? Since forever!”
“Oh, okay. Sorry.”
Apparently mollified, she pulled him close for another kiss, her hands framing his face.
Smiling an evil smile, Brooke switched sides again, moved in close and pinched Seth’s ear. Viciously.
She zoomed back as he howled and rolled away, a hand clamped to his ear.
“What the fuck, Melissa? I said I was sorry for trying to get your bra off.”
She sat up. “What are you talking about?”
“You pinched my ear. And not the lobe! The cartilage. It stings like a bitch.”
“I did no such thing, Seth Walker. You’re the one who pinched me.”
“Like hell I did!”
“You certainly did. Right on the ass. And I’ll have a bruise to prove it tomorrow.”
“Oh, God!”
Seth dove for a light. The lamp beside his bed must have been one of those that come on if you touch any part of it, because it came on with no fumbling. Much faster than Brooke anticipated. Too fast for her to disappear. And then there they were, looking at each other as the seconds ticked by.
The frozen tableau shattered when Melissa screamed. That seemed to galvanize Seth, who leapt up and grabbed a poker from the fireplace near his bed.
“You! You’re the Heller!”
Brooke felt her heart racing—not here, but original Brooke back in the attic. She could feel her original’s adrenaline rush, feel her screaming to get out of there, but somehow it just fed Brooke’s excitement. She turned to face Seth Walker and his puny poker. She couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when it passed right through her. She’d let him swing at her, and when he realized the futility, realized just how vulnerable he was, she would open her mouth and unleash the primal scream. She would flay him alive with it. Melissa too. Damn them both!
“This should fix you,” he said. Lifting the poker, he swung it at her in a downward arc.
To Brooke’s shock, the poker struck her on the neck. The force of it stunned her, driving her to the ground.
Luckily, it must have shocked Seth, too, for he released his grip on the poker. Or maybe it was the effect of Melissa screaming in the background that unnerved him. Whatever the case, he lost his grip on his weapon, which lay propped on her chest. Big mistake on his part. She’d make him pay, and enjoy doing it.
She lifted a hand to brush the poker away, or rather she tried to. But to her horror, she realized she couldn’t lift her arm. The blow must have damaged something. Brooke tried shrugging. All she needed to do was jolt the poker and it would roll right off, but she couldn’t do that, either. Nor could she roll her body one way or the other.
Dammit, she was immobilized! Trapped by a thin piece of cast iron that she should be able to flick off like it was dandruff.
Panicked, she tried sinking through the floorboards, thinking to escape that way, leaving the poker lying harmlessly on the floor. Except—shit, shit, shit!—all she could manage was to sink her lower body through the floor. Her upper body, the part pinned by the iron poker, wouldn’t budge. It was as though the iron had turned that part of her shadowy caster body into corporeal, physical matter, incapable of sliding through the solid floor.
Melissa screamed again. “Oh, God, it’s in the floor!”
“Not all of it!” Seth said. “I think we trapped it!”
Okay, nothing left now but the scream. That would drive them away and give her some time to figure out how to get out of this mess.
She opened her mouth and... nothing! She couldn’t scream. Couldn’t make any noise at all. Defenseless. All her powers stripped.
Oh, God, she was so humped. Too exhausted to keep struggling, her lower limbs floated back up through the floor.
“Jesus, we really did trap it!” Seth’s voice rose with exultation.
Melissa just sobbed harder.
“Oh, man, we gotta get some help.” Seth raked a hand through his already disheveled hair. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll stand guard here and you’re going to run out to the barn and get Bryce. He’s the one who’s read all Grampie’s journals. He knows everything there is to know about Heller hunting. He’ll know what to do.”
Melissa whimpered, her eyes fixed on Brooke’s cast.
He turned on her in a rage. “Goddamn it, Melissa, get your ass out there right now and bring Bryce in!”
Without bothering to do up her shirt, Melissa tore the bedroom door open and fled, her feet pounding down the stairs.
A Heller hunting expert. Brooke would have groaned if she could have.
Oh, yeah. She was humped all right.