The Hellhound's Mate

Chapter 56

Angie was tired of strange things.

Why could she not have a break where things were normal, where she could do something normal? Where she could spend the day lounging in bed with her boyfriend as they blew off work, but it was fine because she could sweet talk their boss or take a damn vacation, maybe go to the beach or a theme park or a carnival or something!

But no. That was unfortunately not her life.

Her life was getting a strange phone call from her mother about Lydia tearing at their wallpaper. And then getting another strange phone call from Mason claiming that this was a supernatural emergency and he needed her and Parrish to meet them at the school because the Ghost Riders had come back.

She was covered in rain, soaked to the core when they walked inside, Jordan's arm around her as he warmed her up.

"What's the emergency? Why'd you call?" Angie asked as Mason and Hayden came running up to them.

"The Ghost Riders are afraid of you," Hayden explained.

"What? How do you know?" Jordan asked.

"You're the reason they left Gwen. You can stop them," Mason insisted. "We need you."

And Jordan reached for his gun only for Mason to hold out a hand and stop him.

"The other you," he corrected.

"Mason, I don't like his," Angie piped up. "Everything I've read said that hellhounds hunt with the ghost riders. Why would they do that if they were scared of him?"

"Only one way to find out," Mason said but Angie looked up at Jordan, still very hesitant to let him do this. "Angie, trust us, please," he asked.

"What do you want to do?" she asked Jordan who just sighed.

"If it saves everyone who was at that party, let's give it a go."

She sighed, but nodded as she respected his decision, even if she had a very bad feeling about this.

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They followed the wind.

The wind blew leaves inside the hallways as a Ghost Rider chased a girl down a corridor of lockers, its gun going off as the bullet hit the girl and she vanished in a cloud of green smoke.

Angie couldn't help but wonder if that's what happened to her brother - if he was real. She knew he was real but, her father's hesitation still made her doubt it sometimes.

"Stay back," Jordan said, specifically to his girlfriend as he advanced down the hallway. His eyes glowed as his body began to burn away his clothes - there was a reason why Angie had spares stashed everywhere was because this happened rather frequently.

He roared at the ghost rider as he flicked out his claws and broke into a run.

And the creature simply aimed his gun.

Angie flinched back, Mason and Hayden steadying her as she felt the pain from the gunshot wound that turned Jordan's flames bright green, the same green as the cloud of smoke the girl had disappeared in, before extinguishing them completely as he crashed to the floor.

"Jordan!" she cried out as he groaned on the floor and she rushed forward, sliding on her knees to his side as he rested in her arms.

Hayden then shifted as she growled and began to run forward, but the Ghost Rider simply disappeared with a crack of lightning, leaving nothing but a pile of leaves on the floor.

"You are not facing them again," Angie decreed as she hugged Jordan's body to her, taking some of his pain. "I didn't like that at all."

"Neither did I," he agreed and all they could do was hope that he'd be ok because no one had any idea what that bullet had done to him.