Millie’s office was comfortable, if small. Her desk was tidy, and her office looked very professional—there were no family pictures anywhere. I wondered if that was to protect her family’s privacy, or if there was another reason. She slid behind the desk, motioning for us to sit down.
“I’ve called the search and rescue team and they’re on the way. As soon as they get here, I’d like you to brief them on what they’re going up against.” She pointed at a mini-fridge in her office. “Would you like some soda or something?”
I nodded. My throat was dry from the cold. I peered in the fridge and pulled out two bottles of water, handing one to Caitlin. “Hydrate,” I said, sitting down. A wave of weariness hit me and I suddenly felt exhausted. The adrenaline of the afternoon was wearing off.
A few moments later four men and three women entered the room. The room was small, so they stood around the edges, lining the walls. Millie waited until they were settled in before turning to me.
“Please give us all the details of who we’re looking for, and what we might be facing,” she said.
Between Caitlin and me, we filled them in from the beginning to end.
“So from what Charles Crichton told me, and what we’ve discovered, we think the entire building is like a sentient beast. If enough of you go in there together, you’re probably going to be safe—but whatever you do, no matter what, don’t hive off. Don’t separate. We thought we’d be safe in pairs, but obviously we weren’t.”
“Tad said Hank was in the basement. I don’t even know where the basement is.” I turned to Millie. “Any idea where the entrance is?”
“Actually yes, the moment I heard Tad say that Hank was down in the basement, I got on the phone to town hall and had them do an emergency search for the blueprints. The entrance to the basement is on the west side of the building, in the room labeled 102. The room was a storeroom that was used for janitorial supplies, and the entrance to the basement is through there. There’s one other entrance to the basement, but it’s from the second floor and right now, I suggest you avoid going up there unless you absolutely have to. Take emergency medical supplies, along with oxygen—that’s the only thing that saved Tad.” Millie’s gaze traveled over the line of the search and rescuers. “Be careful—whatever is lodged in that building is deadly, and has been feasting on lives for over sixty years.”
A thought occurred to me and, as the S&R team filed out, I turned to Millie. “There were rumors that Psy’s ghost was killing people in December, but were there any other bodies found out in the woods nearby during other months—ones where there’s no apparent cause? Maybe there have been more deaths that have gone overlooked because everybody just assumed it was Psy’s ghost doing the dirty work.”
“I’ll check. I don’t want you going back to the asylum for now. If you go to watch the team, stay well away from the actual building. I’m going to cordon off the area when the search and rescue team’s finished.”
“We have to pick up the van,” I said.
“All right, but don’t go inside.” Millie gave me a somber look. “I don’t want to add your name to the list of the dead.”
I tapped Caitlin on the arm. “Let’s go find Killian.”
Millie gave us a wave as we headed out, her attention focused on her notes.
Killian was waiting for us. He drove us back to the asylum and we parked near the van. The search and rescue team had already arrived and while we saw their cars, they were nowhere in sight. I assumed they were deep into the building, hunting for Hank. The ambulance and two medics were waiting nearby, in case they were needed.
“I hope they find him,” I said, staring at the building. “I feel like it’s watching us.”
“The creature?” Killian asked.
“The building…creature…they’re one and the same now. I wonder if razing the building will do anything to destroy it.” But then I shook my head. “I doubt it, though. The curse was on the land long before the asylum was built, so it would just be without a form again. I don’t know which is more dangerous.”
“I’m thinking the focused form. The building gives it more of an anchor.” Killian shrugged. “That’s just my opinion. I’m not an expert in these things.”
“Me either, but I agree.” Caitlin bit her lip. “If the curse—hex—entity or whatever it is has too much focus in the physical realm, then it can interact more.”
Either way, this place was like psychic quicksand, waiting to suck down unwary visitors. We waited, but it was getting colder and darker.
I finally turned to Caitlin. “We should go. We can’t do anything else tonight.”
“But…” The pain in her eyes was hard to watch. I liked Tad and Hank, but they were good friends of hers, and she was suffering.
“All right,” I started to say, but then stopped when there was a flurry of movement at doors to the asylum. “Something’s happening!”
We jumped out of Killian’s SUV just as all seven rescuers came hurrying out. Three of them were carrying a limp form that I recognized as Hank. The medics rushed over to meet them and—by the activity—we could tell that Hank was still alive.
As we headed toward the leader of the S&R team, it was obvious they were shaken.
“You found him? He’s alive?” Caitlin bombarded them as we closed the distance between them and us.
“We found him, and yes—he’s alive. He’s weak and incoherent but he should live, I think.” The rescuer shook his head. “Whatever’s in there is bad news. I don’t think I ever want to set foot in there again,” he said. “We’re going to run crime tape around the entire compound. We’ll rope it off before we leave.”
I wanted to go see Hank, but they were already loading him into the ambulance. I turned to Caitlin. “Let’s take the van back to the office, then we can drive from there to the hospital where we can see both Tad and Hank.”
She nodded. “I’ll call Wren and tell her what’s going down. She’s known them longer than I have, and she needs to know, even if she is a thousand miles away on vacation.”
I promised to call Killian from the hospital—by now he was highly invested in the case—and then Caitlin and I headed toward the van. I was never happier to see the back of a place as I was when we drove back to the main road.
Overhead, the storm broke and once again, snow began to flutter down again. We were settling in for a long winter, I thought, and right now the icy glow of the snow made everything seem sparkling, icy, and dangerous.
Chapter Thirteen
Back at the office, we unloaded the van, made sure everything was locked away and the alarm code was set, and then headed for the hospital in our separate cars. I stopped on the way at a drive-thru for sugar, ordering brownies for both Caitlin and me.
Moonshadow Bay was jumping as I threaded my way through the busy streets. Holiday shoppers were out in droves, and it made me want to be with them. It would be so much better, more comforting, shopping for gifts than trying to stop some ravenous building from killing anybody else.
I snorted. Put like that, I sounded like a nutcase.
As I bit into the gooey peppermint-chocolate brownie, the serotonin kicked in and I began to relax. Self-medication through chocolate was a favorite tactic of mine. I parked in the espresso stand’s parking lot and finished the brownie, washing it down with my mocha. Then, wiping my hands, I aimed myself toward the hospital.
Ten minutes later, I arrived. As I stepped out of the car, it suddenly hit me how very much my life had changed in the past few days. A few nights ago, I had been torching my wedding dress. Now, I was wrestling ghosts of a different kind.
Caitlin was already at the hospital, in the waiting room. I hustled over to her side, handing her the brownie.
“I brought you food. Any news?”
“They haven’t told me anything yet. I called Hank’s girlfriend and she’ll be here soon. I also called Wren. She wanted to fly back tonight, but I told her to wait until we knew how they’re both
doing.” She made space for me on the banquette.
I sat down. “Has Conjure Ink ever dealt with anything this dangerous before?”
She shrugged. “I guess we have, but we had the upper hand and—oh, I don’t know. I guess some of the hauntings we’ve dealt with were dangerous, but we’ve never encountered anything like this. I wish the whole building would just implode like the house in that movie Poltergeist.”
“Unfortunately, things aren’t as tidy in real life as they are in movies. Nothing gets wrapped up in a tidy bow and boom, happy ending. There’s always an after, in ‘happily ever after.’ ” I frowned. “I found that out the hard way.”
I was about to call Ari and let her know I was all right when a doctor emerged from behind double doors and headed our way.
“How are Hank and Tad?” Caitlin leapt to her feet. “Are they okay?”
“I’m Dr. Banks,” the man said. “And you are?”
“Caitlin Tireal, and this is January Jaxson. We work with Tad and Hank.” Caitlin took the lead.
“They’re in serious condition, but they should recover.” He looked around. “Do they have family members we should contact?”
“Crap, I forgot to call Tad’s mother,” Caitlin said. “I’ll call her right now.” She moved off to the side.
“I don’t know about Hank,” I said, trying to make conversation. “But I believe Caitlin contacted his girlfriend.” I tried to see what was written on the chart, but the doctor was keeping it close to his chest. “What happened to them?”
The doctor frowned. “I can’t give you that information without their permission. But one of your friends is awake, so if you’d like to see them for a few minutes, I can have a nurse show you back. Only five minutes, though. They’re both exhausted and I don’t want anyone tiring them out.”
By that time, Caitlin was off the phone and we followed a nurse through a labyrinth of sterile hallways painted in muted silver-grays and blues. Soothing, yes, warm—no. The sounds and scents of hospitals made me jumpy.
The night my parents had been in the car crash, I had come rushing into the hospital, desperate to hear any glimmer of good news. Ellison had begged off, claiming someone needed to stay home to tend to the magazine, so I had come alone. Both had survived for a brief window. I had driven like a bat out of hell all the way from Seattle, and thanks to my intense focus, none of the cops on the roads had noticed me speeding past.
I had walked down this very hallway, following the nurse to the ER. My parents had been in beds, side by side, and by the time I arrived, my father was on life support. My mother was reaching out, calling for him, awash in a haze of pain. The doctors hovered over her, and they motioned me back so I wouldn’t interfere. I had walked over to my father’s side, staring at the monitors, feeling numb. His heart was beating, but there was no brain activity.
Then, before I could ask anything, alarms sounded and the doctors near my mother flew into action, all talking at once.
“She’s crashing.”
“Get the crash cart!”
“Somebody get her out of here!”
The latter was aimed at me. A nurse grabbed my arm and hustled me to the door. I tried to protest but she pushed me out of the room, where another nurse quickly walked me over to a nearby bench.
“What’s going on?” I asked, begging her to find out, but another code sounded and she had to run, after cautioning me to stay where I was.
Twenty minutes later, the doctor came out and grimly introduced himself, adding the usual platitudes about how they had done everything they could, how my mother had fought for life but she was just too injured and hadn’t made it. He then asked me what I wanted to do about my father, who was brain-dead, but being kept alive through the ventilator.
“Let him go…let him be with my mother,” I had said, starkly realizing that I held his life in my hands, and the only conscientious thing I could do was to sign his death warrant.
Then it hit me that I was an orphan. Aunt Teran had come running into the waiting room. She had been out of town and had only gotten home. She took one look at my face and knew.
We had settled on a sofa, numbly waiting for the nurse to bring my parents’ belongings. Teran and I didn’t say much. What was there to say? In the matter of a couple hours, my parents had been wiped out—their lives swallowed into the well of time.
I had looked around the hospital, never wanting to see it again. The sounds and smells all jumbled together. The clicking of machines and alarms and the wheezing of oxygen as it flowed into patients’ lungs, the soft hush of the corridors that seemed all too silent for how busy it was, the smell of disinfectant and beneath the cleansers, that unmistakable smell of coppery blood—it all washed together to form an indelible imprint on my memory.
All those memories came streaming back as we followed the nurse. Tad was awake, though he looked pale. And Hank, who was next to him, was still unconscious, but the machines hooked up to monitor his heart rate and oxygen chugged along at a nice steady pace.
I stood back as Caitlin approached Tad. She turned, motioning for me to join her. As we stood by his bedside, he opened his eyes and flashed us a wan smile.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” Caitlin said. I could feel the rush of emotion streaming through her. “I called your parents. They’ll be here soon.”
“How are you feeling?” It was a lame question, but I didn’t want to jump right into grilling him over what had happened.
“Like I’ve been steamrolled. The doctor told me that if they had brought me in twenty minutes later, I might not have made it. Hank’s showing the same symptoms. I asked them to bring in a specialist who deals in ailments for the Otherkin, because while this manifested physically, I suspected the problem’s magical in nature. So he’s got someone coming in. They should be here soon.” Tad deflated, looking exhausted.
“That’s a good idea,” I said. Then, after a pause, I asked, “Do you remember what happened?”
He shook his head. “Not so much. We were waiting for you to return when there was a loud crash in one of the rooms. We decided to investigate and…the cameras! We took a camera in there. It’s probably still there. If you can get the footage, we might know what happened. I blacked out at some point around then, and I’m pretty sure Hank did too.”
“The search and rescue team didn’t mention finding a camera anywhere near Hank. I doubt if we want to go back in looking for it at this point,” Caitlin said.
I leaned forward, looking at the sucker-like spots all over his face. “Did the doctor say what made those marks?”
“Again, they have no idea. The doc said that if he didn’t know better, he’d think I was attacked by…something like an octopus. But Hank doesn’t have any marks on him.” He paused. “You know, I was watching a Star Trek—the original series—rerun the other day. I remember thinking about the creature in it. It was the one about the monster that craved salt—and it left sucker-like impressions on the skin of its victims.”
I blinked. “You don’t really think that’s what attacked you, do you?” I didn’t say it, but I wanted to point out that Star Trek was just a show.
Tad snorted, then groaned. “That hurt. No, but I was thinking about that episode as we were investigating. I wonder…did whatever it was…did it play out my thoughts?”
I suddenly understood what he was saying. So did Caitlin.
“You mean did it read your thoughts and manifest as what you’re most afraid of?” she asked.
He nodded. “That’s it—because Hank doesn’t have them on him.” He paused as the doctor returned, another white-coated person behind him. The woman, who had so much magic dripping off her she practically reeked of it, gave both Caitlin and me a polite nod, then stepped forward to examine Tad.
“I’m Dr. Fairsight, and I’d like to ask your friends to leave the room, so I can examine you now. But before you go, the two of you were there, weren’t you?” she asked, cocking her head to the s
ide.
“Yes, we were, though we were outside. But we can tell you everything we know,” I said.
Ten minutes later, after Caitlin and I gave her a rundown of our experiences, the doctor asked us to step outside. “Nearby magical signatures may interfere with my examination,” she explained.
Caitlin and I sat on a bench in the hallway. For all I knew, it could have been the one that I had sat on, waiting while my mother died.
“I hope…” Caitlin started to say, then pressed her lips together.
“He’ll be okay,” I said softly, giving her a sideways glance. “He’s not in danger now.” I hoped I was right, but I wanted to give her some comfort.
She flashed me a glimmer of a smile. “Thanks. I’ve worked with these guys since Tad first opened Conjure Ink. He’s a geek, but he’s got a heart of gold and is one of the nicest guys you could meet.”
I wanted to encourage her to break her engagement. It was obvious she was in love with Tad, but I held my tongue. There was time enough to discuss emotions later.
As we were sitting there, one of the nurses stopped in front of us. “Would you like coffee?” she asked. “The cafeteria is still open, and there are vending machines down the hall and around the corner.”
I thanked her. That was when I remembered that she had been on duty the night my parents died. I caught her gaze and held it, and saw a tiny spark of recognition in her eyes. “I think you were on duty here when my parents were brought in about five months ago. They had been in a car crash. My father was brain-dead and my mother…she died here.”
The light in her eyes flared. “Oh, yes, I remember. I’m so sorry—we did everything—”
“I know, and it’s all right. I just wanted to thank you for doing your best to help them. I know you don’t get thanked often enough for all you do.” I held out my hand and she took it. “Please, go do what you need to do. We’ll be fine right here.”
As she hustled off, Caitlin turned to me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were dealing with such rough memories.”
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