Read Online Between Dusk and Dawn by Lynn Emery - Free Book Online Page A

grandson.” Mr. Young spoke with such force that the
cords in his neck stood out. Then he lost steam again and sank
against the cushioned back of the chair. “My wife lost her mind,
too, when she looked at him. Been in a nursing home this past year.
Doctors say it’s Alzheimer’s. I know different.”
    “ Mr. Young, I can’t help
you by going to see your grandson.”
    He shook his head slowly. “Joyelle
told me you said no.”
    “ Then why did you come to
see me, Mr. Young?” LaShaun studied him as he seemed to waver on
how to answer.
    “ Whatever got hold of my
boy is movin’ in other folks. I knew your grandmama.” Mr. Young
wore a sad smile as he nodded at her surprise reaction. “My wife
grew up not far from here, before her daddy lost his land. She’d
play with Odette when they was kids. We never thought of her as
evil. Fact is she helped us with our daughters. The girls went wild
when they got to be teenagers. All three of ‘em, only a year apart.
Odette put a scare into them.”
    “ How?” LaShaun raised an
eyebrow.
    “ They were sneaking into
the woods with boys, having liquor parties and such at night.
Odette caught the kids out on her property and pretended to be
workin’ magic on ‘em.” Mr. Young wore a genuine expression of mirth
for the first time. “They call it scared straight when they make
kids tour a jail or prison, right? That’s what she did. Scared
those rascals straight. At least two settled down, finished high
school and got decent husbands.” The light died from his
eyes.
    “ Must be hard on all the
family,” LaShaun said.
    He seemed unwilling to broach that
painful subject. Instead he stood up. “Listen to Joyelle, and talk
to those other folks she told you about. Maybe you’ll reconsider. I
thank you for your time.”
    “ Stay and have some coffee
to take the chill off the night. We can talk some more
and--”
    “ No, ma’am. I’ve lost the
knack of being company for other folks. Besides, I don’t have any
more answers for you. All I know is Manny got taken over by
something bad, real bad. He wasn’t no angel, but he don’t deserve
to die with a needle full of poison stuck in his arm.” Mr. Young
gazed down at LaShaun solemnly. “You take care.”
    His last words didn’t sound like a
normal leave taking goodbye. He turned around and walked out of
living room with LaShaun following him. The dour man’s steps seemed
heavy as he trudged across the porch, down the front steps and into
the shadows. LaShaun saw the vague outline of a truck just off a
path beyond a clump of azalea bushes. The headlights flared up and
he backed out to the road. The rumble of the engine faded into the
night as LaShaun locked the front door. For the first time a
flicker of trepidation tickled the base of her spine.
    *****
    LaShaun came wide awake in the dark.
She lay still as her eyes adjusted to the darkness in her bedroom.
Every sense in her body told her she was alone. Yet her spiritual
sense shouted the opposite. Nothing moved in the room. There was no
sound except the occasional creak of wood settling in the old
house. She was used to hearing the creaks and cracks. In fact they
were oddly comforting. But she knew something was up. Coming fully
out of a deep sleep always signaled she needed to be cautious. The
antique brass clock on the table ticked off the seconds. The modern
digital clock glowed on the nightstand next to her queen-sized bed.
Fifteen minutes went by before she heard it; a soft insistent
scratching. LaShaun rose slowly from the bed as though not wanting
to startle the source of the noise. Anyone else would think mice.
LaShaun wasn’t anyone else. Her supernatural alarm clanged inside
her head causing a dull throb to take hold behind both ears. With
catlike movements she pulled on a pair of jeans, a long sleeved
t-shirt and a jacket. She found her leather walking boots at the
foot of her bed and put them on, grateful she’d gotten the zipper
version for fast