anything like this?”
“Never.”
“Maybe they’re just here to raise an alarm.” Looking at Max’s face, Paige couldn’t help but feel sorry for the Mongrel. She’d only met him once for less than a few seconds, but he played a big part in ending the Kansas City siege. Now, his body was twisted into something else, his brain was somehow on hold, and she suspected Liam had something to do with it. If that was the case, the Mongrel was most likely going through hell. “Keep watch outside,” she said. “Let me know if you think anyone knows we’re here.”
“What are you going to do?”
Holding her weapon down so as not to pose a threatening silhouette, Paige backed through the door and into the short hall connecting the two bedrooms. From there she could watch as both of the creatures retreated into their respective corners and settled back into the shadows. Fishing her cell phone from her pocket, she said, “I’m checking to see what the hell this could be.”
Nadya backed out even farther and headed out through the front door.
Once her number was dialed, Paige tapped the Call button.
“Paige?” Stu asked as soon as the connection was made.
“What, you’re not going to thank me for calling?” she whispered. “What happened to phone manners and professionalism?”
“You sound tired. What happened?”
“A lot’s happened,” she replied. “That’s why I’m calling.”
“Why are you whispering?”
“What do you have in your records about Atoka, Oklahoma? And I don’t mean anything from the last few days. I mean something that might be in your files about weird activity or strange energy or . . .” Pausing because she couldn’t believe what she was about to say, she just spat it out instead of wasting time looking for better phrasing. “Or buried treasure.”
“Buried treasure?”
“I don’t know. Just buried something. You have anything like that connected to Atoka?”
There was a smirk in his voice when he replied, “Nothing jumps out at me, but I’ll check.” After a few seconds of tapping, he said, “Sounds like we’ve got some reception issues.”
“I know.”
“So you hear that voice?”
Paige listened for a moment but could only hear the tapping of Stu’s fingers on his keyboard beneath a thin layer of static. “What voice?” she asked.
“Yeah. Sounds like another call or . . . that’s gotta be on your end of things. It just mentioned your name.”
“I don’t hear anything.”
The tapping stopped. “You didn’t just hear that? Or . . . or that? It’s talking to you. Either that or someone else named Paige who’s standing outside of a bedroom.”
Paige’s eyes drifted toward the shadows in the other room. “Hang on,” she said before lowering the phone so she could listen without the distraction of any noises coming from the call. Even when she closed her eyes and concentrated, she couldn’t make out anything more than the steady panting and the scrape of branches against the house. “Let me ask you something,” she said when she lifted the phone back to her ear. “Is the voice male or female?”
“It’s definitely a man. Sounds like it’s whispering. Did you find it? It was a lot louder when you were quiet.”
“No, I didn’t find anything and I still don’t hear anything.”
“That’s really— Hang on! You know what it sounded like?”
“Still haven’t heard it, but please drag this out a little more,” Paige snapped.
“That sounded like an EVP!”
“You mean those voices you guys hear on tape recorders that come from ghosts?”
“Or other dimensions,” Stu added. “Depends on what theory you subscribe to.” He was quiet for a few seconds and returned twice as excited as she’d ever heard him on any previous phone call. “Yes! That whispering sounds like an EVP. Did you hurt your right arm?”
“You know I did.”
“No. Is it scratched? Bitten?” After a pause, he asked, “Were you talking to another woman carrying a big gun who stepped outside just before you called?”
“Now you’re freaking me out.”
“What did you do before when you were quiet? It got louder then.”
“I just lowered the phone. Look, I don’t have a lot of time, but I want to ask you about . . .” As she glanced down to the floor, she realized that the paranormal investigator might not have spun off on such a bad tangent after all. “How’s this?” she asked before lowering the phone and stretching her hand toward the pit in the next room.
She could hear Stu’s excited reply despite the distance between her ear and the phone’s speaker.
“That’s it!” he said once she