Chapter 8

Eight

"Ezekiel…"

Kaleb raised his head, glancing around. The dogs were outside, learning their territories, and Charlie wasn't there yet.

He was supposed to come up for a few hours before he went down to town. Right now it was bright and sunny and great for working in the house.

So what was that he'd heard…

"Hello?"

"Ezekiel, where are you?" The voice sounded so far away.

"Hey, is someone here?" He stood, dusting off his knees. He'd been pulling up some shitty vinyl someone had put in back in the seventies when they'd thought about making the house a museum with a kitchen restaurant. Really, though, he didn't want folks wandering through the house. It wasn't safe.

In fact, it had been one disaster after another, and Kynan had been off for nearly three weeks as the flu ravaged his whole family. So he was DIYing a lot and cursing more.

"Please. Come back."

He whirled in a circle, his heart pounding. That had come from much closer, and a wave of longing, of sorrow, had damn near driven him to his knees.

Suddenly he wanted to see Charlie more than anything on earth.

He headed outside to get some air. Maybe he was getting lightheaded from dust and fumes. His eyes watered. So he pulled out his cell to check and see where Charlie was.

There were a couple of texts from his omega.

Miss you>

wanna go to lunch?>

wanna go to supper?>

He texted back. Hey. I do. Sorry. I must not be getting signal all the time>

And he was hearing things.

Pick me up? We could go to Fuel. I got reservations>

Oh, ho! Charlie was spoiling him.

Love that. Let me grab a shower and I'll be down> He had time for that before Charlie got off work. At hotel?>

Yep. I've been working hard>

You always do. See you soon.>

He whistled up the dogs, who came running. "Hey, guys. Come on. We're gonna go take a shower and feed you. Then we can go to Charlie's and you can hang out in the apartment while we eat."

Kaleb was ready to get away—He frowned, because he would swear he saw someone moving through one of the windows.

He frowned. "Did you guys see that?"

Trinity growled softly, head tilting.

"Yeah. That's what I thought." He grabbed a crowbar from the pile of tools by the back door. "Whoever you are, I'm coming in! This is my house, and I don't allow squatters!" He sounded brave, he thought…

It wasn't even that there was a stranger. It was that he had the weirdest feeling. Something just kept tugging at his brain, at his senses, and he couldn't figure out what.

"Ezekiel!" The cry was loud, shaking, and he jumped back a good three feet, wondering if he should call the cops.

Neo howled, running into the house.

"Neo!" He took off after his damn dog, because if someone hurt Neo he would have to beat them to death.

Trinity was at his heels, barking loud, slobber flying. She would protect them to her last breath.

He skidded into the kitchen, but no one was there, so he checked the pantry and the dining room. "Is someone here?"

He heard the faintest whisper. "Ezekiel…"

The hair stood up on the back of his neck, and the cold was so intense in the dining room that his nipples went hard and his balls tried to crawl into his body. What the fuck?

"Neo. Trin. Outside," Kaleb croaked.

He was calling Hank. Hank would know about this weird shit. He herded the dogs into the truck, then dialed Hank's number. He'd been having lunch with Hank and Charlie, and he liked the guy a lot. He dialed up Hank while he fed the pups.

"Hey, Kaleb! How goes it? No, Antonia. You cannot bother him. He's working."

"I think I just had a ghost encounter at the house, man. It was freaky deaky."

"What? That's awesome! Amazing. Where are you now?"

"You don't have to sound so pleased." Hank's enthusiasm did make him smile, though, centering him. "I'm on my way to meet Charlie for dinner at Fuel."

"Oh, yum. Lucky man. So, ghosts. When? Where? What happened? Talk."

"In the kitchen. I was pulling up that vinyl. And there was someone calling for an Ezekiel. But no one was there." He still shivered at that.

"Ezekiel? Seriously? When can I go take readings?"

"Tomorrow. And I don't want anyone up there alone."

"I can bring Stone if you're busy."

"As long as you buddy up. I'll be up there tomorrow by noon." He frowned, head tilting. "Does Ezekiel mean something to you?"

"That's the name of the omega that Dewhurst built the house for."

"No shit? Didn't you say the owner killed his omega or something?" What the hell?

"That's the scuttlebutt, yeah. They say it was a murder-suicide."

"Well, someone was calling for him. Asking him to come back." He turned down the road that headed down into town.

"Damn. Well, I hope he'll talk to me tomorrow. You're staying with Charlie still, right?"

"I am. The RV just has too many issues. Lights go out. The shower sprang a leak. Thank god the toilet works."

"Well, I know Charlie's enjoying having you in there at night. He's beaming every time I see him."

"I adore him." He wasn't ashamed to say it. He wanted the whole world to know it. "And if I make him happy, then I've done my job."

"You're doing great." Hank chuckled softly. "Go eat with your omega. Call me tomorrow."

"Will do. Thanks for the info, Hank. And tell Antonia the puppers said hi." Neo was, in fact, drooling on his shoulder.

"She'll be over the moon. Have a good night, man."

"Night." He turned onto Main where it branched off from the county highway and headed to the hotel. The river walk area was already far busier than it had been when he'd first arrived in Summit Springs, hinting at what it would be like in the summer.

He saw his lover standing on the steps, the sun shining down on the light brown head.

God, he had it bad. So damn bad. And he felt like they'd moved faster than he'd expected, but not as fast as he wanted to just gobble Charlie up and keep him just for himself. Which was like, super alpha and kinda not like him at all.

Charlie waved at him, beamed. "Hey, you! How's your day been?"

"Weird, honey." He got out to open the door for Charlie. "No, Trin. Stay."

"Hey, guys." Charlie hopped into the vehicle. "How are my drooly besties?"

Neo woofed softly, no doubt telling Charlie all about their ghost.

"So what's up?" Charlie asked.

"I think I heard a ghost. Either that or someone has decided to do a horror movie and play recorded voices to drive me out of the house." He headed across the river and up Main into downtown.

"Oh, wow. Did you call Hank?"

"I did. He wants to run up in the morning with Stone to take some readings." Kaleb chuckled. "He was happy as a clam. It was a little disturbing."

"Hank is very focused, isn't he?"

"He is." He thought it was kind of hilarious actually, but Kaleb had never really believed in ghosts. "What do you think?"

Charlie blinked. "About Hank? He's my best friend."

"No, about ghosts. At the house especially." He didn't want that to scare Charlie off.

"Oh. Well, there was that weird mist that one time. And I swear sometimes I see something out of the corner of my eye when I'm there taking measurements."

"But does it worry you?"

"No. Ghosts are all over this town. So far, if you aren't trying to harm anyone, they don't really seem to harm you." Charlie sounded as if he knew that from experience.

"Is this from working at the hotel?" Kaleb asked.

"Partly." Charlie chewed his lip. "And partly because on my first day in town, a ghost saved my life."

He pulled in to park at the apartment. "No shit?"

"No. I was dumped in a coal room under the Merchante building. No one would have heard me and I might have died if it wasn't for the resident ghost."

"Holy shit." He turned to face Charlie, touching his cheek. "I'm glad you're here."

"I hear that. I'm glad I'm here too." Charlie beamed at him, stroking his leg. "Come on. Let's walk the dogs."

"Sounds good. And then we have a yummy dinner to get to. I wonder what the menu looks like tonight." Fuel was a wonder because the menu changed all the time. It was a pop-up sort of place with a permanent location. He loved it.

"It'll be good, whatever it is. Spring—so asparagus? Uh…pasta salad? Lamb?" All of the sudden, Charlie seemed to turn green around the gills. "Oh. Oh, gag."

Charlie threw the car door open, heaving on the sidewalk but not bringing anything up.

"Charlie!" He was out of the SUV in a heartbeat, running around to help keep Charlie from falling out the open door. "What's wrong?"

Trinity woofed, trying to crawl through the console.

"Sorry. Sorry, I must have just… I got queasy. So sorry."

"Hey, it's okay." Maybe he needed to turn the air up when Charlie was in the vehicle, but he'd never had a problem before. "Car sickness happens. You okay?"

"Fine. Nothing even came up. I'll go get something fizzy and cold. It'll fix me right up." Charlie's cheeks were red. "So embarrassing."

"You're fine, honey. I promise. Let me take the dogs up and you can sit out here in front and get some air, okay?" Charlie could sit on the bench outside and breathe some.

"I'm all right. I just need a ginger ale and to splash some water on my face."

"Do you want to go ahead and sit? I bet they'd just give you our table." He kissed Charlie's forehead, relieved that it wasn't fever hot.

"Come on up to the apartment. The pups need to go in, and I want to change my clothes and brush my teeth." Charlie winked at him. "We could shower together? Conserve water?"

"Oh shit." Kaleb looked down at himself. "I didn't get that shower. Yeah, come on. I'm sorry, honey, I just wanted to get you the ginger ale and I was going straight line instead of thinking about logistics."

Charlie snorted. "You have alpha brain."

"I do. Man provide sparkly drink."

"Come upstairs, and I'll let you provide all over the place, okay?"

"That sounds like a great plan." God, he was an idiot. He'd just wanted to get Charlie that fizzy drink, but they had to shower and change and that would really help Charlie's tummy, he'd bet. "Come on, mooses. Walk pretty for me." He pulled the dogs out of the car, and they did him proud, loose leash walking in so he could give Charlie his other arm.

"Look at those angel babies. They do make me smile." Neo and Trin both wagged hysterically, so happy to be loved.

"They're ridiculous, but they've kept me sane more than once over the last couple years." They got upstairs, and he was worried at how pale Charlie still was. "You sit. I will provide lemon-lime fizziness."

"Thanks. I appreciate it. I'm so silly."

"No, you're not. There's nothing silly about getting a little caught up. Was it car sickness? You've never had that before riding with me, so I just want to know for the future if it's an issue for you." He hit the fridge to pull out a bottle of ginger ale, then poured some over ice in a glass.

"Never has been. I thought it was a bug, but I don't think so." Charlie shrugged, the motion almost invisible. "It was just the thought of the lamb, I think."

"Oh? Do you not like lamb?" Maybe he should call down to Fuel and make sure they had some other option, if that was the case.

"I used to, but just the thought…" Charlie swallowed hard, clearly trying to push down another round of gagging.

"Let me call King and see what's on the menu tonight, okay?" He had no idea what was going on with Charlie, but he wanted him to be able to eat whatever they settled on, even if it was canned soup. He pulled out his phone while Charlie sipped his ginger ale.

"Fuel, can I help you?"

"Hey there. Can you tell me what the menu is tonight? This is Kaleb Raleigh. Charlie Putnam and I have a reservation in just a bit."

"Oh, of course! We have ravioli with a lemon cream sauce, a chicken paillard, and an amazing pesto and chicken pizza. So. Good."

"Yum. No lamb?"

"Um, no. Not tonight. Chef King is kind of nose-to-tailing it with the chicken."

"Perfect. Thank you. We'll see you soon." He hung up to go squat down in front of Charlie, hands on Charlie's knees. "Good news. No lamb. Just chicken."

"Mmm…okay. I'm in. I'm sorry, Kaleb. I'll try to keep my drama to a minimum."

"Stop apologizing. Tell me when you want that shower."

"Oh, let's do it. We have time to get naked and wet before our reservations."

"We do? Awesome. I love that with you." He sprang to his feet to help ease Charlie to his. Charlie took his hand, looking much better, color back in his cheeks.

It was the easiest thing ever, to let Charlie lead him to the water.