Page 20 of Speak of the Devil

That cowardly piece of shit needed to be banished to the next dimension, stat.

“I guess it’s annoyed that someone came to look at the property,” she went on. “From what I’ve heard, it hasn’t evenbeen shown for at least a month. The ghost probably thought it had gotten rid of all of us annoying mortals.”

A corner of her mouth quirked as she spoke, and Caleb couldn’t help being impressed by the way she’d taken the supernatural attack in stride.

Then again, she probably had plenty of experience dealing with this sort of thing.

“So…now what?” he asked.

She hefted the big black purse she’d been carrying a little farther up her shoulder. “Now I try to get it out of here.”

This was what he’d been waiting for. The attack had come out of nowhere, but his demon-tuned reflexes had prevented their outing from ending in tragedy.

Now he wanted to see how Delia Dunne handled the obnoxious spirit who clearly wanted her gone.

“Need any help?” he asked, doing his best to sound casual.

“No,” she said at once. “It’s generally better if I do this kind of thing alone. Having someone else around can mess up the vibrations.”

Because Caleb had halfway expected that sort of response, he didn’t allow himself to be too disappointed. However, if Delia thought he was just going to let it go, she was in for a big surprise.

“There’s no way I’m leaving you alone here after what just happened.”

She looked up at him, one thumb still looped in the strap of her oversized purse. “I’ll be fine.”

“Will you?” he countered. “What if this thing decides to throw a pallet of flooring at you or something? If it almost pushed you into the pool, then it obviously can interact with physical objects in some way.”

Now her expression turned doubtful, and he could almost see her ticking over her counter-arguments and trying to decide whether working alone was worth the risk.

“All right,” she said at last, then surprised him by smiling. “I suppose it would be taking too much of a risk to be here by myself. Just…try to watch and not say anything, okay? This can be delicate work.”

“Don’t worry — I’ll shut up.”

Her hazel eyes flickered with amusement. “Let’s go into the pantry. It’s the only place in the house that has anything resembling a tabletop.”

He’d noticed it when they entered the kitchen, a walk-in space that would probably be an awesome addition to the place once it was finished, but now still had the Formica counters and screamingly loud mustard and white wallpaper that once had probably adorned the entire room. Why anyone would choose that color in a space that was intended to whet your appetite, he had no idea.

Thank God that kind of thing was just as out of fashion now as a pair of go-go boots.

Delia went into the pantry, set down her purse, and pulled out a tin that contained a stick of what he thought was palo santo wood, a little bottle of holy water, a small white candle, and an ashtray from Caesar’s Palace.

Sacred and profaneran through Caleb’s head, and he just barely stopped himself from smiling.

“Can you stand at the entrance?” she asked as she rooted around in her purse again, this time pulling out a Zippo lighter adorned with a skull and crossbones, something that would have seemed more appropriate for a night out at a metal club than performing a cleansing in an empty mid-century house. “That way, you’re not right next to me while I’m working, but you’re close enough to help if anything goes sideways.”

“Sure,” he said, and took a few steps back so he was standing just outside the pantry.

Being part-demon, he wasn’t too scared of the holy water, since it only worked on full-blood denizens of Hell, but he was still happy to put some distance between him and the little white plastic vial that waited on the chipped countertop.

Because he couldn’t quite forget that one time when he and his father and the rest of the Greencastle demons had confronted Rosemary and her minister boyfriend and the rest of Rosemary’s family, and the holy water they’d flung had raised welts on the part-demons. However, Caleb had always chalked up the unusual damage to their power combining and working together.

Delia, on the other hand, was obviously working alone…and since she thought he was just an ordinary guy, she’d have no reason in the world to throw holy water at him.

He wanted to ask her what she knew about the ghost that resided in this house, but since she’d told him to stay quiet, any questions would have to wait until she was done and the spirit had been banished. Besides, he had to believe if she’d had any real information to give him on that topic, she would have relayed it already. This wasn’t her listing, so she probably didn’t know anything more than he did.

She lit the little white chime candle, followed by the stick of palo santo. The acrid scent reached Caleb’s nostrils soon enough, but he didn’t flinch. While he wasn’t entirely of this earth, the sacred wood didn’t really affect him…except for maybe making him feel like he’d cough his head off if he inhaled too much of it.

But while he had no problem with the tools Delia was using to get the spirit to move on, he could tell the ghost had a different opinion on the subject. When they’d first walked through the house, he hadn’t sensed it at all, and neither had he felt anythingwhen they went outside. The attack that had almost broken her neck had been a surprise to them both.

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