Starlight Web (Moonshadow Bay #1) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,37

my voice as we once again came to a turn. “I don’t want to engage whatever is making those noises.”

He nodded, stopping at a door in front of us. Cautiously, he pushed it open and peeked around the other side. “And we’re back in the reception area. We’ve come full circle,” he said, opening the door wide and standing back for me to pass through.

Sure enough, we were standing by the counter in the reception area again. In our circle around the facility, we had passed two stairwells leading up, one on the far left side of the building, and one on the far right side. I let out a breath of relief as we headed for the main door. The place was haunted, all right, though whether it was Psy Schooner’s ghost in action, I couldn’t be sure.

We had barely stepped outside when a noise from above sent me whirling around. I glanced up just in time to see a window explode out, and a chair came sailing through amid a shower of glass. Killian shouted, grabbing my arm and yanking me away as the chair fell, landing right where I had been standing.

“Fucking hell!” I stared at the mess on the ground. “I could have…” My words vanished as the severity of the situation hit me. I felt the blood drain from my face and began to shake. “I could have been…”

“Come on, let’s get you into the car and warm you up.” Killian steered me back to his SUV and bundled me into the passenger seat. He turned the ignition and flipped the heater up to high. As the cool air began to warm, I was inches away from tears. I didn’t want to have a meltdown in his car, so I choked the tears back and asked him if he had any water.

“I always carry a case,” he said, reaching in the back. He cracked a bottle open then handed it to me.

I drank deep, then replaced the cap. As I stared up at the building, I shook my head. “Whatever is in there, it’s not friendly.”

“Whatever’s in there is downright dangerous. Then again, the place did house a number of the criminally insane, so you have to figure on both danger and instability,” Killian said, producing a bag of M&Ms from his pocket. “Here, you want some?”

I nodded, holding out my hand as he opened the bag and poured some of the candy into my palm. “Do you think that insanity lasts beyond death?”

“What do you mean?”

“I never thought about this before, but if someone is mentally disturbed while they are alive, does that continue into the afterlife?” I frowned and began picking out the red candies first.

He watched me for a moment. “You color coordinate your M&Ms, don’t you? You eat from the most to the least?”

I stared down at my hand and then nodded. “Actually, I do. I always eat the color I have the most of first. It’s been something I’ve done since childhood. I don’t even think about it, though. Not anymore.”

“As far as your question goes…I’m not sure. I don’t think there have been any studies done on the situation, and it would be hard to find any definitive studies. First, you’d have to find ghosts that were willing to talk, then you’d have to find records of what they were like during life, and then you’d have to figure out if they were just messing with you or not. Some ghosts do that.”

I let out a sigh, finishing the candy. He replenished it without asking. “Yeah, I guess that’s one of the questions we’ll never really know the answer to. Plus, we have no idea if the process of dying can trigger psychosis. Some spirits seem calm and happy, some pass on, but others are angry and violent.”

I paused, then—breathing easier—added, “Thank you so much for coming out here with me. I don’t know what I was thinking. I didn’t do any research before showing up here. I’m not certain what I hoped to uncover. I guess I am learning on the job, as you put it.” I laughed, finishing the M&Ms in my hand. “So, not to bring up an embarrassing subject, but you weren’t going to kill that little mouse, were you?”

He cocked his head, looking puzzled, then laughed. “No, I wasn’t. I just…when I’m in my wolf form, I like to play and the mouse…well…it’s fun to chase. But don’t fret about it. I’ll refrain from