Read Online Blood Moon: A Rowan Gant Investigation by M. R. Sellars - Free Book Online

it,” I
told him then embraced a sudden tickle of suspicion at the back of
my skull and asked, “Why?”
    He shrugged, swallowed, and then answered,
“Just makin’ conversation.”
    “Why don’t I believe you?”
    “‘Cause you’re paranoid, I guess.”
    “When it comes to you I have good
reason.”
    “Bullshit,” he huffed. “You know better’n
that.”
    “Who’s shoveling it now?”
    “Truth? From what I can tell, both of
us.”
    I contorted my face as I shook my head. “What
did I do?”
    “Fed me a line of crap about bein’
retired.”
    “That wasn’t crap, Ben. I’m serious.”
    He gave his head a quick nod in my direction.
“Yeah, well the way it looks ta’ me I think maybe your mouth is
writin’ some bad checks, Row.”
    Upon hearing the words I shot him another
confused look, but before I could ask what he meant I noticed that
my hand had returned to my neck of its own accord. How long I had
been massaging the area again I didn’t know, but it seemed my
friend was at least partially correct—someone on the other side of
the veil wanted my attention.
    In all honesty, I had expected something of
this sort to happen eventually and because of that had already
resigned myself to dealing with it. I just hadn’t been expecting
the annoyance quite this soon.
    This certainly wasn’t the first time I had
tried to renounce this curse of communicating with the dead. This
go around, however, my resolve was driven by a deep fear. My
unwanted ability had been bringing the horror closer and closer to
home, and most recently the nastiness had literally set up shop
inside my wife. While Felicity was able to find a thousand reasons
why it wasn’t my fault, I could only see the one that laid the
blame directly on me.
    I hoped that if I ignored the chatter inside
my head for long enough, the disembodied voices would move on to
some other unfortunate sucker. It wasn’t that I really wanted to
wish it on anyone else. I simply felt like my luck was running out,
so I was trying to heed what I perceived to be a wakeup call and
get out while I still had some shred of sanity.
    “No, Ben,” I said as I started shaking my
head. “I can’t do this. Not anymore…”
    “Didn’t ask ya’ to,” he replied. “All I did
was ask if ya’ knew about vampires. You don’t, so no harm, no
foul.”
    “But you had a reason for asking.”
    “Yeah. I already told ya’ the reason. I’ve
got a dead girl in a cold storage drawer over on Clark, and from
the minute I arrived on scene this mornin’, my gut’s been tellin’
me somethin’s extra hinky about it. You and your neck just
confirmed that for me.”
    “You aren’t helping.”
    “Look, white man, believe me, I’m not tryin’
ta’ drag you into it. Hell, I’m usually the one who’s tellin’ ya’
to stay outta the way and let us cops do our jobs, ain’t I?”
    “Yeah, but that’s not exactly how it sounds
to me at the moment,” I returned.
    “Maybe it’s because I’ve been down this road
with ya’ before, Row. You might not know it, but right now you got
that look. It’s the one you get when the hocus-pocus is gonna take
over and shit hits the fan. I’ve seen it a dozen times, and it
always means you’re gonna be in the middle of it no matter
what.”
    “No. No I’m not.”
    He shook his head. “For your sake I hope like
hell you’re right. But I gotta be honest, I sure as hell wouldn’t
put money on it.”
    “Remember I just said you aren’t helping?” I
grumbled. “Well, you still aren’t.”
    “Sorry, white man.” He grunted. “Just callin’
it like I see it, and from where I sit there’s a signpost up
ahead…”
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 6:
     
    By the time I arrived home, the pain was
screwing itself into my neck with a vengeance. It had gradually
escalated from sharp discomfort to a tortured sting that rose and
fell in intensity with each beat of my heart. Fortunately, although
my stomach was still off-kilter, the acidic