Free WeirdNights by Rebecca Royce

house.”
    “Exactly.” Pleasure surged through his veins that Braxton
approved of his plan. It was always nice to have a colleague think highly of
the job he’d done.
    “Give me mine.” Braxton grabbed some from Jonah’s hand and
exited the car, heading right.
    “I guess he’s going that way.” Jonah laughed. Braxton never
cared very much for explaining himself.
    “It’s a good plan.” Mindy chewed her bottom lip. “And it
really will at least allow us to narrow down some locations to search later.”
    “That was my thought.” It would be highly inappropriate to
suggest she get naked. Wouldn’t it? “But I do have one question.”
    “What’s that?” He tried to concentrate.
    “Does Foy know you’re giving away all of those free
classes?”
    “If Master Foy is going to go into such extreme meditative
states that he can’t possibly talk for days and days then he is going to have
to deal with how I choose to handle this investigation.” He laughed. “But leave
it to you to point out the trouble I might be in.”
    “Screw it.” Mindy shrugged. “It’s a good plan.”
    “Thanks.” He had to ask even if it pissed her off. “I don’t
suppose you’d consent to just hanging with me. Not doing this by yourself.”
    “Give me my coupons for free lessons.” She held out her
hand.
    “Yeah. That’s what I thought.”
    Damn it .
    * * * * *
    Jonah had given out ten cards. His idea, while still valid,
was going to turn out to be an expensive venture for Foy. Almost every house on
the block had children and most of them had several. Everyone had been
interested in the coupons, even though it meant traveling across town.
    He shook his head. They were going to have to break into a
lot of different homes to find the kid making the poltergeist.
    Jonah looked up at the next house and sighed. There was
probably no point in ringing that bell. The Satan worshipers who had lived
there days earlier would not be answering the bell.
    Braxton and Foy had disposed of them when he’d been getting
stitched at the hospital. Still, he couldn’t manage to look away.
    Did they have children? What had happened to them if they
had? Foy must have thought of that. The man always did. It was part of what
made him so effective. His meditations always brought the Master that kind of
clarity.
    Jonah walked toward the door. He tried the handle and found
it open. Someone hadn’t locked up. That was an error.
    He stepped through the doorway and into the house. “Hello?”
    No one answered. He hadn’t really anticipated that they
would. So why had he called out? He groaned. What were the first signs of
losing one’s mind? He’d need to Google it later.
    A sound upstairs caught his attention and he raised his head
to listen better. It had been a footstep.
    Jonah’s side ached where he’d been stabbed but he forced the
pain from his mind. There were probably a thousand possibilities for what
creaked upstairs. In his mind, he could come up with three good reasons.
    The first would be no big deal. An animal might have gotten
upstairs. That would be the most likely explanation. A squirrel was loose in
the house.
    Only he doubted that immensely. In his life, the answer
never was that a squirrel had gotten loose. That was for other people. Individuals
who didn’t know the truth of what was actually out there in the world.
    He knew it too well.
    The floorboards creaked upstairs again. “Damn it.”
    Jonah might be able to ignore one creak. The second one he
couldn’t, which meant he had to acknowledge the second and third options. Someone
was in the house or the poltergeist had made its way into this house. Either
way he had to look. The goings-on in a home owned by Satan worshipers—even dead
ones—warranted a close look.
    “Hello,” he called up the stairs. “I’m coming up.”
    A whimper sounded upstairs. That didn’t scream poltergeist
to him. More like human, and frightened to boot.
    “I’m not going to harm you.” He