Make it Rain (Afterlife Book 10) Read online

  Hannah nodded. "Then I'll come with you. I want to get rid of this thing inside me. I don't want to be setting fires. People have lost their homes because of me. And soon enough, I'm sure people will start dying if I keep starting fires. Someone will be home in one of those houses that get burned down."

  "We're not going to let that happen," Harper said.

  "Are there are others?" Hannah asked.

  "Yes," Brittney said. "There are other people who are possessed. We're going to try and help them too. We're going to make sure that none of you can hurt anyone. Alright?"

  "Alright," Hannah said. "I just want it gone. I want to be able to open my florist shop again and sell flowers. That's all I want. I lost my boyfriend when all this happened. He didn't believe me either. I don't want to get into a relationship until I know I'm safe."

  Brittney winced. She imagined not being able to control what she was doing and then losing Chloe because she wouldn't believe her. It sounded like something out of a nightmare.

  "We'll stop the demon," she promised. "And maybe we can talk to your ex for you."

  "No, he's gone," Hannah said. "He got married two years ago, not that long after I went to prison. I looked up him up when I got out. But there'll be someone else, right?"

  "Right," Brittney said. "We're not going to let this destroy your life again."

  "Thank you," Hannah said, as the three of them walked out to get into Brittney's SUV. "Thank you for believing me."

  SEVENTEEN

  Harper and Conner decided to meet up for lunch the following day, despite Alec's protests they should all stay together. Harper left Hannah back in Alec's apartment with Brittney and the others. They were going to attempt to keep her from leaving, should she suddenly be overcome by a demon that wanted to burn things down. Harper hoped they'd be able to keep her safe. Safe from others, safe from herself.

  They met at a little cafe not far from Janice and James' house. Conner didn't want to be too far in case something happened. Harper understood, though she didn't like tailoring her meals with her boyfriend around his ex-girlfriend. She knew he didn't see it that way; he saw it as tailoring their meal around his son, which she would be able to accept better, but she also knew he wanted to be close to Janice.

  Harper had never considered herself a jealous person, but she was jealous now. She didn't like how much time Conner spent over there, son or not. So when they met up for lunch, she was already a little annoyed. She was even more annoyed when Conner showed up late.

  "Sorry," he said, without preamble. "I had to help James finish a project for daycare before I could leave. You understand, right?"

  "Of course," Harper said.

  She stood up and they stared awkwardly at one another for a moment before hugging. Then Conner kissed her, and Harper felt her jealousy draining away. He sure wasn't kissing Janice like that! She enjoyed it while it lasted, almost forgetting that they were in the middle of a public restaurant.

  "I should stay gone more often, if you're going to kiss me like that..." Conner said once they'd broken apart and taken their seats.

  "Well, I missed you," Harper said, a little defensively. "I've hardly seen you lately."

  "That'll change soon," Conner promised. "As soon as we've dealt with Bartholomew and the rain has stopped, the demons will return to their place underground and I can stop worrying about attacks that might be coming."

  "I know," Harper said. "It's just that... well, we had a bit of a rocky start to the beginning of our relationship. I want to make sure the rest goes smoothly. I really like you, Conner."

  "I really like you too," Conner said.

  She thought she saw a flash of disappointment on his face. Had he been hoping she'd tell him that she loved him? Harper had to examine her own feelings to decide if she did or not. She definitely loved him as a member of Afterlife. She loved all of them like family. Did she love him in the way that a girlfriend loved a boyfriend, though? On that matter, she wasn't sure. She thought she might be starting to, but it was hard to tell with them being separated so much.

  "Good," Harper said.

  The waiter came over and took their orders. She got herself a burger and Conner ordered a steak. They both got a side of fries and ginger ales. Harper smiled; she knew ginger ale wasn't Conner's favorite, but he was drinking it because it was hers. Maybe this could work out after all.

  "Now, you said you wanted to talk about something," Harper said.

  "Yes," Conner said, looking a little nervous. "It's about something I've been thinking about for awhile. Harper, I want you to move in with me. Well, not with me, but together. I want to move in together. We can get a new place."

  Harper stared at him. Whatever she'd been expecting, it hadn't been that. She cleared her throat. "You want to live together?"

  "Think about it," Conner said. "It makes perfect sense. We get our own place, and Chloe can move in with Brittney. It's quite convenient, actually."

  "We're not moving in together because it's convenient," Harper said. "If we move in together, it's because we want to be together."

  Conner nodded, holding his hands up defensively. "Of course, of course. I didn't mean to imply otherwise. I'm just saying that it's lucky that you have someone that can take over your part of the lease. I'm sure Chloe would want to. And my lease is up at my apartment, and I'm not all that attached to it anyway."

  For a moment, Harper didn't know what to say. "Conner, you don't want to move in with me. You're just asking because you feel guilty about how much time you've been spending with Janice."

  "What?"

  "You've been spending so much time with her that it's made you realize that you haven't been spending all that much time with me," Harper said. "That's led you to the idea that we need to move in together."

  Conner shook his head. "That's insane. First of all, I want to move in with you because I care about you and I think we're at the point in our relationship where we could be living together. Secondly, I don't think I spend too much time with Janice."

  "You don't?" Harper said.

  "If anything, I haven't been spending enough time there," Conner said. "I should be there right now but I'm having lunch with you."

  "You think you should be with your ex-girlfriend right now instead of having lunch with your current girlfriend?" Harper asked. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You're joking, right? Please tell me you're joking."

  "It's not about Janice. I need to be there to protect James and her!" Conner said. "It has nothing to do with the fact that she's my ex-girlfriend."

  Harper shook her head. "You can't be there to protect them all the time. Sometimes you're going to have to let Janice protect her own kid."

  "Our own kid," Conner corrected angrily. "He's mine too. I owe him this, Harper. I wasn't there for the first six years of his life. I'm not going to miss out on the rest because you're being jealous."

  "You think I'm jealous of your kid?" Harper said. "I'm jealous because of Janice, you -- you idiot! Sooner or later, you're going to realize how much of a perfect family you make, and that'll be it for you and me. That's why you want to move in together. Because you're trying to stave off the inevitable."

  Conner shook his head. "That's ridiculous," he said coolly. "You're being ridiculous. I'm not going to get back together with Janice. I'm over there because of James and that's it. That's the only reason. The only one. I'm in love with you, Harper. I have been from the start, in case you haven't realized."

  "You don't love me," Harper snapped. "You love the idea of me. You don't know what love is."

  "And you don't know what's right in front of you," Conner said. "You never have. You were so obsessed with Alec that you couldn't see that I was right there, all the time."

  Harper flushed. She knew that much was true. She didn't know what else to say though. She opened her mouth and then closed it. People were staring at them. Their waiter had arrived with their food. He hesitated, holding the plates.

 
Conner gestured for him to set them down, and he did, then backed away quickly.

  Harper quieted her voice. "You know, if you want to be with them so much, maybe you should just go."

  "You know I didn't mean it like that, Harper," Conner said.

  "I don't know anything, apparently," Harper said. "Just go, Conner. I'll get the bill."

  "I don't want to leave things like this between us," Conner said. "Harper, please. Let's just talk about this some more."

  Harper shook her head. She was confused and embarrassed. "I don't want to talk right now. Just go back to Janice and James and we'll get together later, okay? I promise."

  Conner sighed and got to his feet. He left Harper sitting there with their two uneaten meals, and left the restaurant. Harper looked at the food. She didn't feel like eating at all right now, and she realized she was close to tears.

  People were whispering, and she could imagine what they were whispering about. She quickly signaled the waiter. "Just... box it up, I guess," she told him. She gave him her credit card and waited for him to ring it up. Once she'd paid and gotten her to-go boxes, she went out and got in her car.

  She felt like an idiot. Conner had professed his love to her and her response had been to yell at him. To say that he didn't know what love was... that was just cruel. If he went to Janice now, she'd deserve it. She'd pushed him right into her arms.

  With a heavy heart and a turbulent mind, she went back to Afterlife.

  EIGHTEEN

  Chloe waited until Harper had gotten all the way out of her car before rushing up to her. She enveloped her in a giant hug. "Oh, Harper. Are you alright? Brittney told me you got in a fight with Conner. That sucks. Do you want to talk about it? Do you need to talk about it? I'm a great listener."

  "No," Harper said. "I don't want or need to talk about it, Chloe. Brittney has a big mouth."

  Chloe couldn't argue that; the moment Brittney had gotten off the phone with Harper, she'd hurried out to tell the others there had been a fight within the inner circle. She said she was doing it for the sake of the group, that they couldn't afford not to know that there was conflict within their crew, not if they were going up against Bartholomew soon.

  Chloe thought she just wanted to gossip. She didn't even know if that was fair or not but she was annoyed with Brittney at the moment, so perhaps that was coloring her vision. Brittney had brought home a stray. It was bad enough that Hannah knew Harper and Brittney were involved in the supernatural, but now she knew about everyone else as well.

  Not to mention, it was getting crowded up in Alec's apartment with the additional people that were now there. Hannah wasn't exactly a non-issue either. She was prone to bursting into tears and wanted to discuss her issues with anyone who would listen to her for more than a minute. Chloe was a sympathetic ear, but she had gotten tired of hearing about her flower shop after the dozenth time.

  "So what did you fight about?" Chloe asked, completely ignoring what Harper had just said about not wanting to talk about it. "Was it because he's spending too much time with his ex-girlfriend? I mean, even I noticed that, and I'm not the one dating him."

  Harper nodded. "That was part of it. The other thing is... he asked me to move in with him."

  "What?" Chloe came to a stop, completely ignoring the fact that it was still pouring down rain. "He did what?" Harper grabbed her arm and pulled her into the building.

  "Yes," Harper said. "He said we could get a place together."

  "But... you haven't been dating that long," Chloe said. "Doesn't he realize that it's a bit soon? I mean, it is a bit soon, isn't it? That's what you told him?"

  "Among other things," Harper said vaguely. "He also said he was in love with me. He said I was too obsessed with Alec to see what was right in front of me."

  Chloe winced. "So it was a bad fight."

  "Yeah," Harper said.

  "Well, I'm sure you'll work it out," Chloe said. "You two are too cute of a couple to let something like this get between you. Everything will be fine, Harper."

  "Maybe."

  "At least you haven't been stuck with Hannah," Chloe said. "Can't we send her home? Please?"

  Harper shook her head. "We can't. What if she's alone and she goes off and starts more fires? If someone had died in those fires, that would be first degree murder. She'd be serving life in prison. Plus, can you imagine what that would do to her mentally? As you know, she's already a bit on edge."

  "I've noticed," Chloe said wryly. "Well, isn't there anything we can do? She's driving me nuts, Harper. I'm serious. I'm going crazy. I might start burning things down myself soon."

  "Oh, ha-ha," Harper said.

  Chloe grinned and hugged her again.

  "Well, I was thinking about it," Harper said. "What if you and I did an exorcism?"

  "What?" Chloe blinked. She wasn't sure she'd heard Harper right. "You want to do what?"

  "An exorcism," Harper repeated. "I mean, I'm a gypsy and you're a fairy. We both have access to magic. It stands to reason that we should be able to drive the demon from her and put a protective charm in place to keep her from being possessed again."

  Chloe considered for a moment. Her powers weren't as well defined as she'd like them to be, but she did like the idea that they could get rid of the demon, Bartholomew, and send Hannah home to mourn her lost flower shop without the rest of them.

  "Okay," she said. "We can try it, but I've never done an exorcism before."

  "Me either," Harper pointed out. "I only know what I've seen in movies. I doubt she's going to bend over backwards and speak in tongues."

  "Probably not," Chloe agreed. "Come on, let's go upstairs and tell her. We'll wing it. I'm sure we'll figure it as we go."

  The two of them made their way up to Alec's apartment. Nobody else commented on the fight between Harper and Conner and Chloe realized it might have seemed a little insensitive of her to do so. But she wasn't trying to be insensitive. She was serious when she said she wanted it to work out with them, even if she thought Conner was screwing it up by spending all his time with Janice, and doing stupid things like asking Harper to move in with him.

  "Hey, Hannah," Chloe said, approaching the short woman.

  "Hey, Chloe," Hannah said, sounding just as miserable as she had when Chloe had left to go downstairs. "I was just telling Alec about these blue flowers we used to have in my shop. Do you want to hear about them? They were really pretty. I think they were called--"

  "--Not right now," Chloe said, cutting her off. "In fact, I wanted to talk to you about something else. As you know by now, we're supernatural as well."

  "Yes, you've said," Hannah said. "It's crazy. I mean, I knew it was real, because I knew I was possessed when I did the fires, but I still... it still blows my mind."

  "I know," Chloe said. "You've said as much. Several times. It doesn't matter. Sorry, I'm getting off track. We want to attempt to drive the demon from you, and prevent him from entering you again."

  "You can do that?" Hannah asked.

  "Yes," Chloe said firmly. She glanced around and saw Sarah and Alec watching. "But we're going to need some privacy. Alec, can we use your bedroom?"

  "Sure," Alec said.

  Chloe took Hannah by the hand and led her into the bedroom. Harper followed.

  "Okay," Chloe said. "Lie down on the bed."

  Hannah hesitated and then climbed into the bed, lying flat, and staring up at the ceiling. "Is it going to hurt? I don't want it to hurt."

  "I don't know if it's going to hurt," Chloe said impatiently. She looked over at Harper. "Should we hold hands or something?"

  Harper shrugged. "I'm not sure."

  Chloe realized she was going to have to take the lead. She grabbed Harper's hands, and held them above Hannah's body. She focused on her inner energy, drawing in a deep breath. She let it out slowly and allowed her energy to flow into Harper. She saw the gypsy blink and then fill with a soft light.

  She didn't know what she was doing, but that was alr
ight. She suddenly realized that she was meant for this kind of thing. She focused on Harper, drawing in her energy as well as sharing her own. Suddenly she could feel Harper's pain and loneliness. It hurt so bad that Chloe almost cried out in surprise. Then she shut out the emotions and focused on Hannah. She allowed their energy to flow from them into the woman.

  "Bartholomew," she whispered. "Leave this woman."

  There was a flutter of energy from Hannah. It felt different, angry. It didn't want to leave.

  "Draw it out, Harper!" Chloe burst out. "I've got hold of it, draw it out!"

  Harper struggled, her body trembling and shaking. "I can't do it."

  "You can," Chloe said. "Draw it out. I'm holding on, you can draw it out. Get it! Now!"

  With a burst of energy, Harper yanked the energy that was attached to Hannah, pulling as hard as she could mentally. There was a flash of light in the room, and then a floating energy seemed to swell around them. It was almost visible.

  "Go away!" Chloe screamed out, pushing with all her mental might. The energy seemed to hover for a moment and then dissipated. Chloe sagged forward, falling onto her knees. She held her head in her hands, feeling as though she might vomit.

  She saw Harper fall forward as well. The two of them breathed in heavily, both drawing in breath after breath of fresh air.

  The door to the bedroom burst open and Alec came in. "Are you alright?" he demanded. "I heard yelling."

  "We're fine," Chloe said. "The demon is gone. He won't come back to Hannah. She can go home now." Then she fell forward and passed out.

  When she came to, she was on the couch in the living room, and Harper was across from her in the recliner chair. She looked as pale as Chloe felt.

  "How long was I out?" Chloe asked.

  "Three hours," Alec said. "We sent Hannah home. I gave her enough money to start another shop. Well, a small one anyway. You did well, Chloe. You too, Harper. You two saved that woman."

  "Oh, thank God," Chloe said. She breathed in and then out. "Now what?"

  "Now we call Conner," Alec said. "The demon will know what you did. It's time to go after Bartholomew in the flesh."