enough to make my gorge rise. I kept myself from throwing up because that would require stopping and something might catch up with me. From the look on the faces of my companions, everyone was struggling not to retch.
As we headed for the steps, the door to the attic swung open, revealing a lightless abyss. I heard footsteps coming down the attic stairs, and I did not want to see what was heading to meet us.
“Faster!” Teag shouted. Calista and Drew were in the lead, heading down the grand staircase. Pete was close behind them. Kell was in front of me, and Teag behind me. As Calista reached the midpoint on the stairway, the huge crystal chandelier crashed to the floor, sending shards of glass flying.
Roaches made a living waterfall down the moldering carpet of the stairway. Pete tripped on the last step and went sprawling. The roaches swarmed over him as he screamed and beat them away. Teag and Kell dragged Pete to his feet, swatting the bugs off him.
“My equipment!” Calista yelled, veering toward the dining room.
“Hurry!” Kell urged.
Teag and I maneuvered ourselves to stand at the bottom of the steps while Pete and Drew helped Calista grab the monitoring equipment and Kell held the door open. Shadows were sliding down the walls of the upstairs landing and from around the corner where the attic stairway loomed. “Get them out of here!” Teag yelled to Kell. “We’ll buy you some time. Get the van running and wait for us.”
“Go!” Teag said, giving Pete a push toward the door.
Calista and the others were already running. I let the athame fall into my hand and focused on its resonance, gathering my will. A cone of cold, white light blasted from the wooden handle, smashing the roaches on the bottom half of the stairway and driving back the shadows with its glare.
Teag and I backed up quickly, never turning our backs on the shadows that were already regrouping and slithering down the walls to the bottom of the steps.
“Run!” Teag yelled as he lobbed one of Chuck’s EMF grenades in an underhand toss toward the steps. Together, we dove out of the house and clamored down the front steps. A momentary burst of sound and light flared out of the windows of the first floor, then the ruined house was dark once more.
Teag and I piled into the van before Kell slammed the side door closed. “What the hell was that?” Kell’s voice was shaking.
“Tell you later!” I said, remembering the thing that had been hauling itself out of the pool. “Go! Go! Go!”
Drew was driving, and the van laid rubber getting out of the driveway. I had no idea whether any of the neighbors had spotted the light show and called the cops, but if they did, I didn’t want to be around to answer questions. Calista was examining her equipment and swearing under her breath.
“Something nearly blew out all my monitors,” she said.
Pete managed a brave half-smile. “Thanks for pulling me out back there. I thought I was a goner.” His smart-glasses were askew.
“Next time, I’m bringing a big can of Raid,” Drew said. “Calling those bugs ‘palmetto bugs’ doesn’t change a thing. I hate roaches.”
Kell was still looking at Teag and me as if we had grown two heads. “What did you do back there?” I could hear fear in his voice, and beneath it, curiosity.
Teag shrugged. “I used something I’ve been tinkering around with,” he lied. “Sends an EMF pulse and scrambles ghosts’ frequencies.”
“It would have been nice to have a warning,” Calista said, sounding a bit tetchy. “I’m hoping I didn’t lose my equipment.”
“It got us out of there,” I snapped. “Did you really want a closer look at whatever was chasing us?” Calista and the others shook their heads and I realized that they looked more frightened than annoyed.
Kell let out a long breath. “Thanks a lot,” he said “Better to lose some equipment than have anyone get hurt.”
“I’m guessing the last time wasn’t quite that extreme?” I asked.
“Not even close,” Pete replied. “We got freaky readings and heard sounds.”
“No roaches,” Drew agreed, and shivered.
“It’s very possible that EMF pulse wiped our recordings,” Calista said with a sidelong glare at Teag. “So we may not have any data to show for all our bother.” Kell gave her a dirty look, and she shut up.
“You saw what happened in there,” Kell said, and I could see that he was badly shaken. “It’s not just our imagination,