Excerpt from “Good Will Ghost Hunting: Demon Seed” by Lesli Richardson

Coming April 20, 2009 from Lyrical Press

Blurb:
Kalyani Martin is a minister’s daughter and a virgin who has every intention of staying that way despite the overwhelming attraction she feels for the co-host of Otherworlds, her new ghost hunting show. Devastated by the loss of his wife twenty-five years ago, Will Hellenboek is waiting to die. An archdemon, he bides his time co-hosting Otherworlds with his cousin, Aidan. His instant attraction to Kalyani is simply unacceptable to him. His only goal in life is his death, not sex. And certainly not love. Ryan Ausar protects Earth from anything that would usurp man's free will. His job becomes much harder when his strongest archdemon stubbornly refuses to come back to work. When lives are on the line, Kalyani, Will and Ryan must make the choice to give up what they hold most dear. Can Kalyani turn her back on her father’s faith and find a little heaven on Earth in the arms of an archdemon?

Warning, this title contains the following: hot virgin-deflowering sex, hunky demons, a sweet love story, frequent snark, and a dogma-questioning Baptist minister’s daughter.

Prologue

Perpetually in shade from the massive live oaks, the old cemetery offered cool refuge, even from the scorching April Florida sun. Early on a Wednesday morning he was the only one there.

His feet knew the way without his brain interfering, which was a good thing because his mind had firmly settled in the past, in his memories…

In his prayers for the not too distant future.

Not long, Abby. Not much longer, sweetheart.

Her grave was nestled by itself in a quiet corner under a towering oak, large azalea bushes granting him more privacy. An extra charge he’d gratefully paid. He knelt beside the marker and carefully tucked the small bundle of white roses into the vase by the stone.

Carved from smooth, pale peach granite, unremarkable except for the inscription.

AnnaBelinda Hellenboek—Beloved soul mate.

No date of birth listed, only her date of death nearly twenty-six years earlier.

As always, he lost track of time. He talked to her out loud, reminiscing, remembering, planning. It wouldn’t be long before he could join her. No, not long at all.

After two hours he kissed his fingers and touched the cool stone. “I’ll try to be here next week but I don’t know if I’ll be back in time or not. I’ll get here as soon as I can, sweetheart. I love you. Always, Abby. Always.”

He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and slowly returned to his car. Over twenty-five years later and his soul still hurt as bad as it had the day he lost her.

The day she was murdered.

Chapter 1
“Will, is that you?” Aidan yelled from the back room when the front office door opened.

“Yeah.” Will dropped the mail on his desk and heavily sat, scrubbed his face with his hands.

How did I let him rope me into this? It was something Will wondered every day, and he still had no answer.

Aidan stuck his head through the doorway. “Where you been?” Will glared at him and Aidan’s face fell. “Sorry, dude. I forgot it’s Wednesday.” He immediately brightened. “Hey, I got a call from our liaison at the network. They’re sending us a new producer, some dude named Cal Martin.”

Will groaned. “We don’t need a producer. Why won’t they leave us alone? We’ve got it covered.” He sorted bills from fan mail into two neat piles.

Aidan walked over and perched on the corner of Will’s desk. “Listen, if they’re giving us the budget to pay for a producer, accept the gift horse. That means they’re pumping money into us. They want us around for a while.”

“I don’t want to be around for a while.”

“Dude, listen to yourself. Mr. Doom and Gloom. We could kick Sci Fi Channel’s ass to home and back with one hand behind our back.” Aidan was convinced he could change Will’s mind if given enough time.

Will picked up one of the bills and ripped open the envelope. “We can’t do that and you know it.”

“Well, we can damn well give them a better show. So what if we can’t get as deep as we could?” He ran a hand through his scruffy blond hair. He was overdue for a haircut and it brushed his shoulders, giving him a vaguely surfer dude look.

“Look, I only agreed to this hare-brained scheme because you’re my cousin and my friend.”

“You love this and you know it.” Aidan fingered the tiger’s eye amulet hanging from a black satin cord around his neck. “It’s in your blood, it’s all you know.”

Will wouldn’t meet Aidan’s honey hazel eyes. “I want out. I’m tired, and I’m ready to go.”

“I wish you’d come to your senses.” Aidan knew time grew short and was desperate to convince Will to change his plans.

“I should have come to my senses years ago. If there was any other way out I’d take it in a heartbeat and you know it.” He dropped several fan letters into the basket beside his desk for their production assistant to take care of. “I hate this. I hate living.” He leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his head. “So when do we meet this new producer?”

“They’re sending him straight over to the shoot tonight.”

“Great. Just in time to screw us up and throw off our whole routine.”

They looked up as Gery opened the front door. Aidan went to help as the large man juggled a laptop case and a drink carrier holding four cups of coffee.

“Thanks, man,” Gery said. Geryon Arnold was huge, well over six feet tall and broad as a bull. His close cropped black hair and brown eyes endowed him with a military look. Not many people talked back to Gery when he stared them down, but he was under normal circumstances a friendly, if not quiet man. Will had known him for centuries and counted on his strength more times than he cared to remember. Will still counted on Gery, even though Gery still officially worked for the Firm.

Aidan handed Will a cup of coffee, took one for himself, and sat the carrier on Gery’s desk. “Where’s Purs?” Aidan asked.

Gery shook his head. “He’ll be here. He had a hot date last night.”

“I wish he could keep it in his pants for once,” Will growled.

Aidan laughed. “Dude, you could have all the girls you want.” He pointed to Gery’s desk where a plastic crate on the floor next to it overflowed with fan mail. “You probably have twenty marriage proposals and fifteen requests to father children in there. Pick one.”

Will glared at him. Aidan dropped it. When his cousin’s slate grey eyes turned midnight blue it was time to change the subject, and Aidan damn well knew it.

* * * *

Will grabbed his clipboard and started checking equipment. Their three assistants and four volunteer investigators working on the shoot tonight had day jobs. They’d arrive at the Otherworlds office in north downtown Tampa, which also housed Will’s production company, around four. That left plenty of time to caravan everyone over to the University of Tampa and set up the equipment for the shoot.

Aidan had sweet talked someone in authority into letting them investigate Plant Hall and the Henry B. Plant Museum. Will didn’t want to know how Aidan finagled that one. Some mysteries were best left unsolved.

The door to the back room opened. Purson Gibraltar stuck his head in. “Hey, boss. Need help?”

“Nice of you to finally join us.”

Smiling, Purson slipped inside and closed the door behind him. “You know what it’s like, Will.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Come on. One of these days you’ll meet someone and she’ll change your mind.” At least, he hoped Will would. The other three men didn’t want to contemplate losing Will Hellenboek. Not when he’d been their friend and leader for countless years.

Will’s knuckles turned white around the FLIR camera case as he struggled not to throw it at his friend. “I don’t want to talk about this, Purs.”

Purson shrugged his broad shoulders and fixed his friend with his piercing blue eyes. “Whatever. Aidan said we’ve got a new producer joining us?”

“Unfortunately.” Will handed Purson the clipboard and started sorting through a carton of power cords. “Freaking network wonk. Probably some kid right out of college and wet behind the ears who wants to change the world.”

“We should be so lucky.”

“I’m not in the mood for your shit today, Purs.”

Purson started to playfully bust Will’s balls when he remembered it was Wednesday. Will was always in a foul mood on Wednesdays. “Sorry.”

* * * *

The others gave Will a wide berth for the rest of the day. The Otherworlds show was in its third season and going gangbusters. The network film crew would show up around three to start filming B-roll and setup shots. Cal Martin’s flight was scheduled to arrive at Tampa International at five thirty. He would join them at the University of Tampa campus after arriving.

This wasn’t Will’s idea. He’d been happy running a small, local production company making commercials, filming Florida-based documentaries, shooting stock footage and syndicated pieces, and other low budget jobs. He still wasn’t sure how Aidan had managed to take his hobby and get them involved in…this.

Three ring circus didn’t begin to describe what it’d turned into. Sci Fi Channel had their own popular show and Otherworlds was the low budget version on the gO! Network. “With little gee, and a big OH!” declared the network’s slightly stupefying slogan. They built their rep ripping off reality shows from the big cable networks like the Discovery and History Channels. Their show investigated and debunked not just reports of ghosts, but other myths, including the Swamp Ape and Bermuda Triangle, among others.

While Aidan’s idea, Will had been roped into the co-host spot because of his quiet, brooding, serious temperament. Aidan was the playful, funny one, and most likely to claim ghost even when he damn well knew there wasn’t. Will played the Professor to Aidan’s Gilligan. The public loved it.

No, Will understood exactly why he got involved, because he tried to keep the Firm off Aidan’s ass. If Will kept Aidan in line, at least until he could finally leave this freaking earthly plane for good, they’d be less likely to come down on Aidan for using insider knowledge to spice up their show.

Not hard to do when you’re an archdemon.