Oleander House: Bay City Paranormal Investigations, Book 1

away, drowned out by the almost-words writhing through Sam’s mind. He felt his body going numb, the cold creeping into his brain. Consciousness began slipping away and Sam couldn’t find it in him to care.
When something grabbed him around the waist and pulled, he wasn’t sure what it was at first. He blinked, his vision cleared, and Bo’s wide-eyed face swam into focus above him. He appeared to be on the floor, though he couldn’t remember how he got there.
“Sam,” Bo panted. “Please talk to me, c’mon!”
“‘M okay,” Sam mumbled. His voice sounded weak and slurred. He looked around and frowned at the apparently empty room. “Where’d it go?”
“It’s in the foyer.” Bo bit his shaking lower lip. “We have to stop it.”
Sam wanted to protest. He wanted to lie there in Bo’s arms, shut his eyes and pretend he hadn’t just let loose a monster from another dimension. Shouts and a high-pitched scream from the foyer galvanized him into action.
“Help me up,” he whispered.
Bo stood and hauled Sam to his feet. Sam leaned on Bo’s shoulder, his head swimming.
“Come on,” Bo said, pulling Sam toward the doorway. “Hurry!”
Sam stumbled after Bo, clinging desperately to his arm. They skidded to a stop just short of the staircase. Sam stared, horrified, Bo’s grief-stricken cry barely registering.
Amy lay shaking on the floor, the monstrous creature looming over her, one serrated claw skewering her thigh to the wooden planks and another poised to penetrate her throat. Blood ran in rivers from gaping wounds in her chest and belly, puddling underneath her. David and Cecile had Andre pinned against the wall, barely holding him back.
“Let me go!” Andre screamed. “It’ll kill her, please!”
A ragged sob broke from Cecile’s throat. “It’ll kill her if you come for it.”
“She’s right,” Sam whispered, shuddering at the sensation of the creature’s mind slithering through his own. “It says so.”
Bo stared at him in shock. “Oh my God. It’s communicating with you?”
Sam didn’t want to consider the implications of that just yet. He’d go crazy if he did, and he didn’t have time for that right now. He had to save Amy. Nothing else mattered.
His gaze still fixed on the nightmare in front of him, Sam drew a deep breath and focused his mind as best he could, picturing the dimensional gateway sucking the thing back through and slamming shut. With a shriek Sam felt in his bones, the creature pushed its claw against Amy’s throat, just breaking the skin. Amy keened and struggled weakly, a trickle of blood running down her neck. Her face was gray and beaded with sweat. Her wide blue eyes fixed on Sam.
“Help me,” she gasped. “Make it stop.”
I’m trying. Deliberately opening his mind, Sam willed the impossible creature to face him. As far as he could tell it didn’t move, but he felt the sudden weight of its regard just the same.
Thinking past the malice beating at his brow was almost more than Sam could do. He closed his eyes and forced himself to concentrate on the feel of the creature’s mind intertwined with his. Letting himself sink deeper into the core of the thing, he searched for its connection with the other side, looking for a way to send it back.
When he found it, he didn’t hesitate. Stopping to think about what he was doing could be lethal, and he knew it. Acting purely on instinct, he let his awareness shrink to a pinpoint, every ounce of his energy focused on the tenuous cord linking the thing in front of him to the place where it belonged.
Sam opened his eyes. For a moment, it seemed as though his tactic would work. The creature wavered, becoming vague and indistinct. Sam held his breath. Then Amy moved, trying to crawl toward Andre, and everything happened at once.
Too suddenly for Sam to react, the creature became solid once again. Hissing, it sliced its glossy black claw through Amy’s thigh. She shrieked, her fingernails scrabbling at the floor as the thing severed her leg. With a desperate wail, Andre shoved David and Cecile violently aside, and lunged at Amy. His hand grasped Amy’s just as the creature tore her throat out.
Oh no, oh God no! Not knowing what else to do, Sam gave a final, panic-stricken push with his mind. There was a hollow tugging sensation in his chest and a whirling in his head, then in an instant it was gone. He fell to his knees, gasping for breath.
The thing was gone like it had never been there. Bo, David and Cecile