Bitter Blood

second she saw a ghostly shadow appear against the still-standing bricks of the fireplace…but it was gone in seconds, blown away.

Please help me, Alyssa’s whisper said. Shane, help me.

“I don’t know how!”

Don’t leave me alone.

Claire suddenly didn’t like where this was going. Maybe she’d seen too many Japanese horror movies, and maybe it was just a tingle of warning from generations of superstitious ancestors, but suddenly she knew that what Alyssa wanted was not to be saved, but for Shane to join her.

In death.

She didn’t know what Shane might have done, because just as she came to that breath-stopping conclusion, she caught sight of a shiny black van pulling around the corner. For a second she didn’t connect it to anything in particular, and then she recognized the logo on the van’s door.

Great. “Shane—we’ve got company,” she said. “Ghost-hunting company.”

“What?” Shane turned and looked at her blankly, then at where she pointed. Not only had the ghost hunters arrived, but the two hosts—Angel and Jenna—were already out and walking toward them. Jenna had something in her hands that looked like an electronic metering device; it was making strange, weird noises like a frequency tuner. Angel had what looked like a tape recorder. And behind them, following with a bulky handheld camera on his shoulder, was Tyler.

“—Activity,” Jenna was saying in an intense voice. “Definitely some significant signs here. I got a huge spike from the van, and it’s even bigger now. Whatever’s out here, it’s definitely worth checking into.”

“Where?” Angel sounded tired and more than a little irritated. “We’ve had a lot of false alarms already. If I didn’t know better, I’d think the local residents were trying to screw us up—oh, hello. Look, it’s the kids from the courthouse. Where’s your pretty friend?”

Claire didn’t know which to take offense at more—the implication that she wasn’t pretty, or that Monica might be considered a friend. She was saved from answering by Shane, who walked up to her and kept walking until he was blocking the path to the vacant lot completely. “Get lost,” he said flatly. “I’m not in the mood.”

“Excuse me?” Jenna said, and tried to move around him. He got in her way. “Hey! This isn’t private property. It’s a public sidewalk! We are fully within our rights to be here.”

While she and Shane were facing off, Claire heard Angel mutter to Tyler, “Make sure you’re getting all this. It’s great stuff. We can use it in the teasers. The town that didn’t want to know.”

“You,” Shane said, and pointed past Angel, at Tyler and the camera. “Turn it off. Now.”

“Can’t do that, bro. We’re working here,” Tyler said. “Relax. Just let us do our job.”

“Do it somewhere else. You don’t do it here.”

“Why?” Jenna was staring at him intently, and past him, at the empty lot. She held out her meter gadget, and Claire could hear the tones it gave off. She didn’t need to be an expert in ghostology to know it was pinging like mad. “Something you don’t want us to see, perhaps?”

“Just back the hell off, lady. I mean it—”

“We’ll see about this,” Angel said, and pulled out a cell phone. Theatrically, of course. “We do have a permit to film direct from the mayor’s office!”

“Let’s see it,” Shane said. “Go ahead; call somebody. I’ll wait.” He stared Angel down until the other man put the phone away. “Yeah. Thought so. Look, just do us all a favor, okay? Call it a day, get in your van, and head to some other town where they don’t mind your making fun of dead people, all right?”

“That’s not what we’re doing!” Jenna said sharply. “I’m very committed to trying to locate those who are lost and stuck, and finding a way to bring them some peace. How dare you say—”

“I don’t know—because you arrange all this crap for ratings, advertisers, and money? Maybe that?” Shane stepped forward, and he was using all his size and attitude this time. “Just go. Get off this street.”

The device that Jenna was holding gave a sudden shrill alarm; she jerked in surprise and stared at it, then turned it to Angel. Tyler angled in to get a close-up of the meter.

“What?” Shane snapped.

“We got a huge electromagnetic spike,” Jenna said. “It’s coming from that vacant lot behind you. I’ve never seen anything like it—”

Shane. It was a very clear, cold, longing whisper, and it came from right behind them. And it just froze everyone right in place. Claire had a vivid, clear snapshot of them: Tyler, mouth open behind his camera; Angel, stunned silent; Jenna, eyes wide.

And Shane.

Shane’s lips parted, but he didn’t speak. His face had gone blank and pale, and he actually took a long step backward, pulling Claire with him. She didn’t mind. That voice had a scary, otherworldly quality that didn’t sound human.

Angel almost dropped his recorder, but he gained his composure and moved in to the camera to get a close- up. “Did you hear that?” he asked Tyler, then turned to Jenna. “That was no EVP. That was a voice.”

“Someone’s messing with us,” Jenna said in annoyance. “Cut, Tyler.”

“I don’t think so,” he said. “Rolling. Keep going.”

“Tyler!”

“Rolling, Jenna, keep rolling!”

“I’m telling you, the locals are having us on. We’ll probably find some kind of EM transmitter out here, and some giggling high schooler with a megaphone….”

“Rolling!”

“Okay, okay, it’s digital. At least you’re not wasting film….” She took in a deep breath and said, in her tense ghost-hunting voice, “We may have gotten an actual spirit contact! I can’t even begin to describe how incredibly rare this is!”

“Can you speak to us again?” Angel said, and if possible, he got even more pompous. “You said a name. Can you say it again?”

Nothing.

“I think it said shame,” Jenna said. “Is it a shame you’re gone? Are you ashamed of something?”

“Oh, for the love of—” Claire couldn’t bite back her exasperation. “Come on. We have to go, now.” She very deliberately didn’t use his name. They didn’t seem bright enough to make the connection, but even so…

“That’s Alyssa,” Shane said. “I’m telling you, it’s her. My sister is right there.”

Dammit. Well, there went her entire nothing to see here, move along plan.

“No such thing as ghosts,” she said, and pointedly looked at the camera. Shane, recovering from the shock, finally got back on script enough to nod. “I think someone’s messing with you. Really. You need to just—chalk it up to locals being stupid.”

“Or,” Shane said, “you could poke around in the dark. That’s fun. There might be fewer annoying visitors if you tried it.”

“Excuse me?” Jenna said. “Are you threatening us?”

“No, just making an observation. I mean, wandering around in the dark isn’t a good idea, lady. Ask anybody.” He shrugged. “Meth. It’s a cancer around here. So I’ve heard, anyway.”

“Oh,” she said, and seemed to take it seriously for the first time. “It is a problem in a lot of places. I should have thought of that. Guys, maybe we should pack it in until later.”

“But we heard that,” Angel protested. “We should at least do EVP in the vacant lot, just in case!”

Shane started to object, but Claire tugged at his arm, urgently. Let them, she mouthed, and he finally shrugged and stepped out of the way. “Knock yourself out,” he said. “Try not to get bitten by any rattlesnakes or anything.”

“Snakes?” Tyler suddenly sounded very, very nervous.