Page 26 of Origins
I choked. I would have thought that despite our friendship status, Damen would maintain that they were supposed to be professionals.
But now that I thought about it, no one had actually said that they were ghost hunters at all. In fact, Finn had only said that his brother wasinterestedin the paranormal; and Dr. Stephens had told me next to nothing before sending me to the planned meeting.
Oh no.
“Hold on,” I tapped my chin, mentally going over the facts. “Are you guys ghost hunters?”
I hoped that my imagination hadn’t gotten away from me. That would be embarrassing. As it were, if theyweren’tparanormal investigators then I was just a random girl who showed up at Damen’s house one day.
“Nottechnically.” Damen leaned back, and he and Miles exchanged a look. “We don’t take clients, or go around to houses with haunting stories. But we knowaboutthe paranormal, and many things related to those topics. In fact, you could call us experts in the field.”
Experts? What the fudge did that mean?
I was such an idiot. It was all I could do not to bury my face in my hands in shame. “Why didn’t you say so from the beginning? I thought you were ghost hunters! I can’t believe this…”
“Don’t worry, we’ll still help you.” Miles rubbed my back. “Plus, it’s not every day that a girl shows up at Damen’s house looking for help. Don’t feel bad. Dr. Stephens sent you to us because of our personal experiences. We’relikeghost hunters. Did you…” he trailed off, looking at Damen.
“We were discussing that before you arrived,” Damen responded. “Bianca can feel the presence of a spirit, and can even see them to a certain extent. I’m sure there’s more. She said it’s been changing. We can look into it, but that’s Julian’s field. That being said, Bianca,” he glanced at me, “in cases like this, spirits are drawn to those who have these abilities. Have you ev—”
My phone rang.
Crap, bad timing. I snatched my purse off of the floor and dug around inside. “Sorry,” I apologized as I pulled out my device, “I have to take this.”
There was only one person it could be, because my parents never called me. Leaving the room wasn’t an option. If I didn’t answer right away, it would be worse.
So, I didn’t even see their reactions as I answered the phone—hoping that they would just stay quiet while I derailed this train.
“Hello,” I greeted pleasantly.
“Bianca,” Finn sounded upset. Finn rarely gotupset. He was mostly cool, blunt, and calculating. Immediately my heart began to race as I feared that something terrible had happened.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“Um…” Why was he still looking for me? Normally he’d have given up and gone back to his books.
Whatever had happened, it must have been awful. My free hand gripped at my sweater as I feared for my parents, my sister, or… well. It had to be about one of them because I didn’t know anyone else.
“What’s wrong?” I breathed, frightened.
“You lied to me, that’s what’s wrong.” Finn sounded furious. Even so, relief washed over me as I realized that no one had been hurt. He was only angry withme. That was the lesser of two evils.
Then his words processed, and my heart skipped a beat in terror. How in the world was I going to explain to him where I was? I barely even noticed Damen and Miles anymore. I had to fix this. “What—”
“Where are you?” he interrupted. I could hear the wind in the background—he was outside.
“Um…” Should I lie? That would be the safest thing to do. “I told you that I’d be at the greenhouses today…”
“Stop that. I’m here now, and you aren’t,” he snapped. “Where are you, Bianca?”
I knew that lying was a terrible idea, “Um…” My frantic mind tried to come up with any excuse at all. A truth—a sorta truth? That might work. Something that didn’t sound suspicious. “I’m at a friend’s house.”
“You don’t have any friends,” Finn replied. “And if you did, then that means I don’t know about them. And you don’t know them, either. That’s dangerous. You can’t do that. What friend’s house? Don’t make me have to look for you, Bianca.”
I frowned, somewhat disturbed, despite my anxiety. What did he mean by that?
“Bianca,” he sounded frantic. “This is your last chance. It would be in your best interest to answer me now before I find out the hard way. You’ve been acting suspicious lately, and I’ve had enough of it!”
Fear flooded through me—I had no idea what he meant by any of this. Butwhydid he need to know where I was?
