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swollen from moisture,
stood inside, a chair on rollers still behind it.
    John started to turn away, when he heard the
rollers squeak.
    Firming his grip on his Glock, he stepped
into the office, shining the light at the desk. “Come out,” he
ordered, just in case it wasn’t a ghoul. Fuck, he wished Gray were
here to tell him one way or the other.
    A muffled sob. Not a ghoul. Probably some
homeless person looking for a safe place to sleep. Lowering his
Glock with a sigh, John stepped around the desk. “You’re
trespassing…”
    Two forms curled together beneath the desk.
One was still human, dressed in filthy clothes crusted with dirt
and grave filth. He cowered, covering his face and crying,
revealing the full ghoul crouched behind him.
    John flung himself back, but not fast enough.
The ghoul lunged at him, lips pulled into a snarl, exposing teeth
ready to bite. He tried to bring his gun up, but too slow, too
slow—
    A shot sounded, deafening in the close
confines of the room. The ghoul collapsed at John’s feet, body
limp.
    Sean stood in the doorway, his expression
grim.
    “ Thanks,” John said shakily, as the
possessed man under the desk began to wail. Fuck, he had been
sloppy. Sean had just saved his life.
    “ Yeah.” Sean lowered his weapon.
“You’re welcome.”
    John winced at his friend’s tone. “Sean—”
    “ Later.” Sean shook his head and turned
away. “Let’s wrap this up and get this guy back to HQ.”
    * * *
    Hours later, John caught up with Sean in the
parking garage of SPECTR-HQ.
    They’d put down the rest of the ghouls and
brought the sole survivor back for exorcism. Poor bastard was a
homeless alcoholic who’d taken refuge in the wrong place, and
allowed hunger and need convince him to let a ghoul inside.
    He’d cried when the NHE was gone. “What am I
gonna do now?” he asked. “I’m all alone with no place to go. At
least I had a home with them.”
    Which left John feeling even more like shit
than he already did. He just wanted to go home, get drunk, and
forget everything for a while. But Caleb and Gray depended on him,
so instead he planned on spending a long night hunched over scans
of Brimm’s books and praying for a miracle.
    When he finally headed for his car, he
spotted Sean a little way ahead of him, talking on the phone.
“Sean! Wait up!”
    Sean ended the call abruptly and turned
around. The parking garage lights painted his skin an unhealthy
shade of mustard. “What is it?”
    He seemed tired, John thought as he
approached. The smell of cigarettes around Sean was even more
noticeable than usual. It reminded John of sneaking smokes out back
at school, when they’d both been seventeen and stupid.
    “ I just wanted to thank you again for
the save earlier,” John said, stopping a few feet away.
    Sean pulled out his pack of cigarettes and
took one out. “I shouldn’t have had to save you. Not from a fucking
ghoul. Your head’s not in the game.”
    “ I know.” No sense in denying
it.
    “ Is this about Caleb?” Sean asked
bluntly. “Because if it is, maybe you should just take the next few
days off.”
    “ I’m worried about him,” John admitted.
And Gray. But he couldn’t admit that, even to Sean.
    “ Why?” Sean flung his arms out in
exasperation. “Christ, he’ll be back Sunday. Forsyth told you so
himself, right?”
    “ Not technically.”
    “ But he said they’ve got an exorcism
lined up. Why are you freaking out?”
    The words hovered on his tongue. Because the whole situation at RD stinks, and
Caleb’s in the middle of it, and I can’t do anything but stare at
books until the wee hours of the morning.
    Because I’m in love with Gray and I can’t
let him die.
    He couldn’t. Couldn’t say it out loud and see
Sean’s shock, because who would ever understand? Even if he only
told Sean the first part, his friend would want to know how he knew
anything sinister was up at RD.
    And he trusted Sean, he did. But Caleb had
asked him not to tell