Free Ghoul Interrupted by Victoria Laurie

“You know what, M. J.? Sometimes you’re an idiot.”
    That got me to smile a little. “I’ll call her later, after I get Heath through the next few days.”
    “Do you guys have any leads on this demon thing that might’ve murdered Milton?” Gil asked, blowing his nose loudly into a tissue.
    I shook my head. “Heath’s been calling members of his family to talk to them about the possibility that both Milton and his ex-wife were killed by something otherworldly, but according to the Pueblo coroner, Milton died of wounds consistent with a mountain lion attack, so no one’s buying our alternate theory.”
    “A mountain lion?” Gil asked.
    “Yep. Can you believe it?”
    Gil eyed me soberly. “Only we would think it might’ve been a demon, M. J. Seriously, can you blame these people for wanting to believe it was some kind of wild animal?”
    “Yeah, well, they’ve been no help to us in trying to figure out what this demon is or where it comes from or why it might be attacking the Whitefeathers.”
    “And we need to know that because . . . ?”
    “For a bunch of reasons, Gil. For starters, we need to know what we’re up against, and Sam hinted to me in that first dream about Milton that there was a person who’s involved with or possessed by this demon. A human that’s no longer human, I guess.”
    “Are you really going to kill this person?” Gil asked me, just as I was having the same thought.
    “No!” I said, more to convince myself than to convince Gil, I think. “There’s got to be a way to deal with the demon without any further bloodshed.”
    “What’s Heath say about it?”
    “We haven’t talked much about that part,” I said, rubbing my temples, suddenly so homesick I wanted to cry.
    “Why not?” Gil pressed.
    “If you haven’t already noticed, Heath’s in pretty bad shape emotionally and I think it’s best not to push him right now.”
    “But he knows what Sam told you, doesn’t he? He knows that Sam said you’d have to kill the guy who controls the demon, right?”
    “Of course Heath knows,” I said defensively. That wasn’t exactly the truth. I was sleep deprived, jet-lagged, and feeling somewhat lost emotionally: Thinking about how to tell Heath that had felt like too big of a challenge to take on right now.
    “So if I ask him about it . . .”
    “Don’t you dare,” I warned him.
    “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he said.
    Gil sighed and got up.
    “Where’re you going?” I asked him.
    “To send a text. And fix this for you.”
    I snorted derisively. “You can’t fix this, Gil.”
    “No,” he agreed. “But maybe I can fix you.” And off he went to send his little text.
    Normally I’d have been worried, but I wasn’t feeling myself, so I just let him go without asking what he meant.
     
    The next morning, just as I was starting to come out of a fitful sleep, there was a soft knock on our door. My eyes flew open and I looked at the clock. It was eight a.m.
    The knock sounded again, no louder than the last time but with a few more raps.
    I glanced at Heath. He was facing away from me, but he appeared to be sleeping. I eased out of bed and hurried to the door, peeking through the peephole first to see who it was. “No freaking way!” I gasped, then pulled on the handle.
    When it opened, there stood five feet five inches of blond gorgeousness. “Teeko!” I cried, and threw my arms around my very best girlfriend.
    In her usual calm style she laughed and wrapped one arm around me to pat me gently on the back. “Hey, girl,” she said. “How you been?”
    A lump formed in my throat, and it was several seconds before I could speak. “Okay,” I said, squeezing her tighter.
    “Really?” she asked. “I heard you weren’t doing so well.”
    I backed up and noticed that she was also carrying a wriggling little black pug in her arms who was anxiously trying to lick the air between us. “Wendell!” I said, taking him from Teeko. “He’s