Man, this is such a classic demon move, I thought. Demons were always going into politics. Graham’s powers were probably getting strong and stronger but he had no idea he had any magic. It was dangerous, really, but if I got involved and exposed him as an incubus, the wizard councils would immediately move to destroy his career.
And he obviously thought he was helping people and wasn’t trying to run a campaign based on hotness. It wasn’t like he had an Instagram of shirtless photos, although the picture of him at a 5k run for breast cancer had a staggering amount of favorites.
I called his office and got a young woman who took a sort of aggressive, protective tone when I asked if I could speak to him, like I was the ‘other woman’ talking to his girlfriend.
“Well, can you give him my number and tell him it’s Helena with a question about his grandfather’s house?”
“Helena? Okayyy…he’s out right now but I’ll tell him.”
She wasn’t going to tell him.
I sent an email instead, but I had a feeling that would also be screened by his office staff, maybe the same girl.
Oh shit. I had to get going if I wanted to make it to town in time. This was distracting me from the stuff I absolutely had to do which was to go pick out tile for the bathrooms. I checked in on the crew and then hit the road for the hour plus drive to real civilization.
I was only about fifteen minutes from the house when a BMW came up in the other lane. It flashed its lights at me. I slowed down warily but then I saw Graham.
“Hey,” he said.
“What are you doing here?”
“I want to see the house again. Maybe I want to buy it after all. You haven’t done too much to it yet, have you?”
“You think I was just sitting on my ass? You can’t get the house for a hundred thousand anymore,” I said. “I have guys out there right now.”
“Can we talk?”
“I would love to talk, but I have to get to town and pick out tiles before they close.” In fact, I’m late because I spent too much of my morning checking out your groupies, I did not say. “If you want to wait, I’ll be back around six-thirty.” I took my foot off the brake.
“Helena!” he shouted.
“Leave a message with my office!” I cried. No one messed with my time schedule when I was working on a house, and I didn’t need to cater to a one-fourth incubus when I had a dream date tonight with a full-blooded one.
Behind me, the BMW whipped around, one wheel briefly going into a ditch and spinning up some mud before the tires got back on the road and gained traction and speed, coming up behind me.
I wasn’t going to beat a BMW if he wanted to chase me, but he was going to have to follow me all the way to the tile store.
Or pass me. He was passing me now. Was he going to turn around and try another day, or—
Nope. He was getting in front of me to slow me down.
I blew my horn hard.
He jerked the BMW sideways and put himself in the middle of the two lane road, blocking most of it, but I was now so pissed off at him that I just drove off the road. I had no idea if my truck could handle the ditch but I would cast some sort of spell to get me out if I had to. I banged and jolted around inside as I drove over the dip and then out of it again to get around him.
Then I gunned it out of there. Dude was not being reasonable.
I had barely gotten up to speed when the brakes suddenly slammed without my help. The truck spun. I saw Graham getting out of his car, looking intense.
“Thank you,” he said. “I really need to talk to you.”
“Thank you!?” I screamed, leaping down from my seat and waving my hands around. “What the fuck did you do?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know you stopped my truck on purpose.” I saw his confused expression. “You still don’t know what you’re doing? Really? You think I started speeding away from you and then violently changed my mind in the space of a second? You did that.”
He grabbed the lapels of my coat in both hands. “What are you talking about? You’re blaming me for stopping your truck? Who do you think I am, Kylo Ren?”
“Well, no, obviously you have no training.”
He was still gripping my clothes, breathing hard, but then he seemed to realize what he was doing. “I lost my temper,” he said.
“Yes.”
“But I can’t stop trucks with my mind.” He took a step back from me and shook his head, giving me a strange look now. “I don’t even really know why I’m here. I’m starting to think there’s something about you and that house. Like it’s haunted, and—“ He threw up a hand. “Since I walked away I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the house. I don’t understand it. The place is a mess.”
Poor non-magical folk. If you don’t believe in anything, then one brush with supernatural forces just leaves you so confused. It could upend his whole life, I thought. He would become obsessed with Lockwood House like some horror movie for the rest of his life without ever
