WeirdNights Read Free Page B

chi-chi restaurant downtown. He was—according to
her fellow receptionist Jana—very popular with the female clientele. All of
Foy’s blood-oathed students were trying to earn enough to individually open
their own studios to continue his teaching in other towns.
    Mindy’s friend, Dodie, had gotten engaged and would soon be
married to one of Foy’s other students, Christian. Dodie’s fiancé recently
opened his own place. Christian worked nights as an exotic dancer while he
saved up to buy his dojo. Jonah grumbled about it, but he couldn’t dance, so
there was no way he earned in tips what Christian had nightly.
    That was okay. Mindy preferred Jonah not be gawked at by
thousands of women. She’d want to claw out their eyes, even though she had no
right to feel that way.
    Jonah held out his hand. “Give me the aspirin.”
    She placed the medicine in his large hand. He took the pills
and swallowed them without water. “Happy?”
    Mindy shrugged. “No.” Yes .
    “You were about to tell me I was wrong about something.”
    “Yes.” She stood up, needing to be away from his bed. It
felt too intimate to sit on his mattress while he lounged against his
headboard, half-naked, watching her with hooded eyes. Now she knew his gaze had
come from pain, not some desire to ravish her, but her stupid imagination
wanted to take the image and run with it.
    She needed to focus. Or maybe she really, really needed to
get laid. Either way, she had to get control of herself, fast.
    “How or when was I wrong?” He rubbed at his face. Jonah must
really be hurting and quite exhausted to show as many symptoms as he did. The
man usually walked around like human steel—nothing touched him, nothing
bothered him.
    She smiled at him. “You know what? I’m really sorry I woke
you. We can talk about it later.”
    Mindy turned and headed for the door.
    “Mindy.” He called out her name and she turned. “Tell me. What
am I wrong about?”
    “It’s nothing.” She fled into the hall. After she closed his
door behind her, she leaned against the wall.
    Jonah didn’t have to know his mistake. If he did, he’d try
to stop her from doing something she needed to accomplish.
    Her head buzzed with excitement while she walked down the
hall toward her desk. When the demon landed in Austin, it had brought all kinds
of paranormal activity with it. That was normal for a demon infestation. But
there had been no rising demon in Chicago. Jonah had stopped it the night
before.
    There was no reason for the activity in the neighborhood
except that there was, in fact, a haunting going on. Jonah didn’t know
everything about the paranormal. She read and read on the subject.
    Sometimes ghosts could haunt entire neighborhoods and she
would bet her life savings that it was a coincidence that the Satan worshipers
lived on the block. There was a haunting going on too.
    And she intended to stop it, without Jonah knowing anything
about it. Until afterward because she would admit, even to herself, that she’d
have to brag. If for no other reason than to watch him change his opinion about
her. When she finished, no one would be able to think of her as cowardly or in
need of protection again.
    * * * * *
    Jonah drummed his hands on the table in front of him. Braxton
played poker in complete silence. He’d always liked the other man, but he might
as well have been playing it on the computer for all the conversation he got.
    “I call it.” Braxton finally decided on his next move.
    With a laugh, Jonah threw down his cards. “I got nothing,
man. Bluffing the whole way.”
    Braxton nodded, flipping over his own cards to show his full
house. “I won.”
    “Yep.” Jonah nodded. The other man had beaten him again. So
far, he’d lost fifty bucks and given that, thanks to his stab wound, he was
going to miss work for the next couple of days, he should stop losing his
money.
    He leaned back in his chair. Mindy had been right. The
aspirin helped, not that he planned to