“Why do you like them burnt?” He grinned down at me.
I popped the gooey burnt goodness into my mouth and grinned at him. “Because it’s tasty,” I pointed out, as if it were obvious.
He shook his head as he put another one on his stick. “I don’t see it.”
“Have you tried it?” I asked, snagging another marshmallow from the bag.
“Yes, but never on purpose.” He smiled. “Come here, you’ve got marshmallow face.” He reached over and gently wiped some burnt goo from the corner of my mouth. His eyes were warm as he brought his finger to his lips and ate it with a smirk. I met his gaze, a small smile on my lips. The silence stretched. Warmth that had nothing to do with the summer filled me. I couldn't seem to find anything to say. Not with those chocolate eyes on mine.
Hades barked. I turned to where he was barking, not sure if I was glad for the interruption or not. Travis and Keith came into the firelight. We had met the two when they were ghost hunting in an abandoned hospital in April. Travis was the shorter one, with dark hair that was a little long and falling into his gray eyes. Keith was the taller, leaner one with blond hair and brown eyes. Hades moved to sit between me and them.
“I told you she’d be here,” Travis told Keith before turning back to us. His eyes went to the marshmallow in my hands. He smirked. “I thought you were diabetic.”
I met his eyes and let him see my irritation. “What do you want?”
“Look,” Keith said, stepping between me and Travis, his hands out. “We really need your help. Otherwise we wouldn’t have come to this freaking party.”
“I can’t help you,” I reminded them. I was starting to think we should have left them in the hospital with the Shadow Men.
“I don’t care if you’re hiding abilities, and right now it doesn’t matter,” Keith said. “But there’s a six-year-old girl who is waking up with scratches she didn’t go to bed with.”
I went still. “What?” My eyes went from Keith to Travis and back. Keith pulled out his phone and came around the fire. Hades growled; Keith froze. “Heel,” I told him. Hades lay down next to me, still eyeing the newcomers.
Keith handed me the phone and backed up from Hades. “Those pictures were sent to me by her older sister. She found our website and called for help.”
I looked at the photos. There was a kid’s back with four scratch marks running diagonally across her back from her shoulder blade to her ribs. Long, deep scratches. I went to the next one; more scratches, lighter, but still four of them on an arm. I flipped again. This time it was teeth marks into the meat of her shoulder. The bite was big enough that I was sure it was an adult’s.
“Have you ruled out abuse?” I asked as I flipped to the next picture. This time the scratches were barely visible as they ran down her neck.
“Their dad’s a minister,” Travis informed me.
I looked up and met his eyes. “That doesn’t mean shit.”
“Yeah, we ruled out abuse. Their parents were out at some church thing when she was bitten.” Keith answered. “Another time she was in the backyard alone. This latest attack was when her mother was the only one home with her.” I nodded. That certainly ruled it out, unless they were all in on it. Which I kinda doubted.
I turned to Ethan, his eyes on the picture of the little girl with scratches on her leg. His eyes lifted to meet mine.
“Call the guys,” I told him. He got up and walked out of earshot. I turned back to Keith and Travis. “You might as well sit down.” They both relaxed. Travis might have been an ass, but he looked just as relieved as Keith. They took the log across the fire. “Did you guys do an investigation?”
“Yeah,” Travis said. “We got a lot of video. Most of it was nothing, but some of it caught something.” Keith came around the fire and took his phone from me. He opened files before handing it back.
He sat on the log above me and pointed to a video. “That one.”
I hit play, then made it full screen. It was a bedroom at night - a little girl’s room.
“Watch the closet,” he told me. I found it in the shot and watched.
It slowly opened.
“Where is the kid when this is happening?” I asked. Ethan came back and sat on my other side to look over my shoulder.
“She’s in her bed in the shot,” Travis said. I looked and found her bed against the wall in the upper corner of the frame.
Movement caught my eye. The chair at the desk moved out and spun around as if someone was planning on sitting in it. The chair then pulled closer to the girl’s bed.
“Look at the fabric hanging from the bed,” Keith said. I watched as the dust ruffle moved, almost swinging in a breeze. Instead of focusing on that, I noticed something else. I zoomed in on the girl’s face. Her breath was coming out in a fog. Shit.
I stopped the video and showed Keith. “Did any of you notice that?”
“Get the fuck away from her.” Zeke’s growl had me looking up. Zeke stepped over my legs, grabbed Keith by the shirt, and jerked him to his feet. He was shoving him away from me when the others reached us.
“Zeke, let him go,” I told him as I looked back down at the phone and hit play. I turned up the volume so I wouldn’t miss anything.
“Why?” Zeke demanded.
“Because I didn’t have Ethan call you guys out here to beat the shit out of them,” I told him before I heard a voice. It was quiet and deep; it sent shivers down my spine. But I couldn’t make out the words. I looked up to find Zeke hadn’t let Keith go. “Zeke!”
Zeke growled and let him go, then walked behind the log I was leaning on. Probably pacing. He’d been doing that a lot lately.
Miles stepped closer to the fire. “What’s happened? You called.”
I looked up and met Keith’s eyes. “Tell them what you told me.” I held up the phone. “Did you get what it said?”
Keith shook his head. “We couldn’t figure it out.”
Isaac walked around the fire to Travis. “Tell us what?”
I went back to the video and scrolled it back. “Ash, can you come listen to something?” Keith began explaining to Miles and the others.
Asher moved around the log, and probably Zeke, to sit on the log beside me. I held the phone up to him. “Hit play and listen. It’s really faint.” Asher hit play, held the video close to his ear, and listened.
He frowned and brought the phone down. “I heard it, but I couldn’t make out words. How far back did you go?”
“Forty-five seconds.” I watched as he moved the video, pressed play, and brought it to his ear again. This time he plugged his other ear. His eyes grew wide. I knew he heard it again.
He was frowning as he brought it down. “‘I’m going to kill your family in front of you. Slowly.’” His eyes met mine. “What the hell is this?”
“Video of a little girl’s room,” I explained as I took the phone back and hit play again. “She’s getting scratched.” I watched the rest of the video. At the end, the little girl woke up screaming. I looked up. Keith was still explaining to the guys. I turned to Travis. "How did you get this video anyway?"
"Their parents were on church retreat for a night and we were able to set up cameras," Travis explained.
“Any other videos I should see?” I asked as I held up Keith's phone.
Travis nodded as he eyed the guys around me before moving to my side. He brought up another video. “This is downstairs in the kitchen.”
Zeke stepped closer behind Ethan, watching over our shoulders probably. A knife came out of the knife block on the counter and slowly moved across it. Cabinets opened and banged shut, over and over. When it was finished Travis was still standing there, waiting next to me.
“Any other voices?” I asked.
Travis shook his head. “We only had the cameras up one night.”
I tapped my finger on the side of the phone case as I thought about what they had said. Those scratches came to mind. Shit. Keith finished explaining the situation to everyone.
I met Miles’ eyes before I turned to Keith and Travis. “We’re going to need a minute to talk.” I got to my feet. “Will you guys wait by the pool?”