“I’m sending for the details. I take it you were alone last night? No alibi?” Armstrong glanced at Didiane, who smiled.
“We slept alone,” she said. “At least, Jordan did.” Her half-lowered eyelashes and a sly glance at Bernard Foret indicated she had her witness ready.
Karey spoke up. “No he didn’t.”
Jordan closed his eyes. “No, please no!”
Yes. “He was with me.”
Karey didn’t move, but Jordan could see her, and Foret. It was almost worth it to see his rival’s shocked disbelief. Foret obviously considered himself irresistible, once he’d put his mind to seducing a woman, and he’d set his sights on Karey.
“Jordan and I are married,” Karey said. “It was for old times’ sake. We had a lot to discuss, and one thing led to another...” she shrugged and smiled.
One part of him wanted to sweep her into his arms and never let go. Another part wanted to repudiate her, turn his back, for her safety. Mentally, he reached out to Didiane and felt a vicious slash of rage. Didiane was too good at hiding her feelings to allow anything to show on her face, but Jordan felt her anger, and knew trouble lay ahead. Nothing he could say would prevent her attacking Karey now.
Nothing would stop him killing Didiane if she succeeded.
“You’re telling me you’re faithful?” He quirked a brow at Didiane. That might work, if she thought Karey was just a casual partner. Didiane had never wanted his body exclusively, but she wanted to own his mind, considered him as hers ever since she’d caused his conversion. She smiled back at him, the seductive, possessive smile he knew so well. It failed, but he allowed a touch of warmth to reach his eyes.
The captain looked from Jordan to Karey and back again, his lower lip between his teeth. Karey shrugged and glanced at Bernard. “What can I say? We are still married, after all.”
Jordan wished she hadn’t said that. Didiane needed very little encouragement to go into overdrive.
The captain seemed oblivious to the undertones passing between them, but Jordan would have bet his last dollar that he wasn’t. “Is it possible to use this room?”
“What for?” Bernard demanded. “It’s highly inconvenient. While the main offices are being rebuilt, we share this one.”
“I can’t imagine you have any urgent business.” The captain was only a couple of inches shorter than Jordan and considerably bulkier. He commanded this room, but only, perhaps, because nobody else cared to.
Karey walked over to her small desk with its instruments. “Please don’t touch these. They’re recording the activity in the haunted parts of the house.”
The cop followed her across the room. “Any cameras?”
“Sure.”
“I’d like to take a look at those.”
“No problem. I need to see them first.”
“No.”
Karey gave the officer a ‘gee, thanks,’ look which Jordan was heartily glad he hadn’t received. He glanced away hastily, aware his expression would betray them both if she looked in his direction.
“You really think this place is haunted?” The note of incredulity didn’t go unnoticed.
Karey drew herself up to her full five feet seven inches and glared up at the hapless officer. “There’s too much evidence to ignore it.”
“Have you found any evidence here?”
“Not on these.”
“Leave it alone.” The words came from Sarah, clipped and precise. “I’ve discussed this with Captain Armstrong before, and he might as well have a wooden head for all the effect it’s had on him.”
Jordan turned to her with a thankful smile, but caught sight of a movement from Karey. She leaned toward the police officer with an expression on her face Jordan remembered seeing that morning. Desire, pure and simple. This time it shocked him because she wasn’t looking at him. She was looking at Armstrong.
Before he could stop himself he started forward and went to her. She turned to him, and under the searing need he saw desperation.
“Help me!”
Oh fuck, it was back. He sensed a presence, felt the lust as if it were a sentient being. Something surrounded her, a miasma, a fog of pure desire, infecting her. Was that what had made her so passionate last night?
Self-doubt had belonged in his life, so long that he almost automatically countermanded it. This time he paused and knew it didn’t originate with him. Something, someone was taking his fear and using it against him. As they had just used his fear and desire to make him reveal his true feelings for Karey.
Karey held out her hand and without hesitation Jordan took it, exerting pressure to bring her to his side. The pall of emotion came with her, but alerted, he’d prepared for its hit and threw up barriers to surround them.
Captain Armstrong watched them, completely unaware. He must have been blind if he hadn’t seen that fierce desire Karey had shown him a moment earlier.
Sarah was the first to speak. “Begone!” she said firmly, and then began to chant in a language Jordan didn’t recognize, but he didn’t need to understand to know what she was doing. Banishing the presence, driving it away. Power surged through the room. An invisible duel, a fight for possession.
He drew Karey back as the presence changed its focus, concentrating on the formidable figure of Sarah, standing proudly upright in the center of the room. Power lived in every inch of her, sparking from her.
On the other side of the room Didiane stood beside Bernard, both watching with wary speculation.
The only person unaware of the real action was Captain Armstrong, who moved closer to Karey, and opened his mouth to speak before Jordan lifted his hand and hushed him. He used a gentle mind probe, careful not to make the persuasion too strong, relieved when the captain made no protest. Dissent could disturb her concentration.
Sarah continued her chanting, holding her hands up in the universal gesture of banishment, palms out, averting her head. The presence built in strength for one terrifying moment of blind panic, then disappeared as though it had never been.
Jordan found Karey in his arms, pressed closely to his chest, trembling. A surge of fury rose against this presence that had reduced his indomitable wife to this quivering creature. He knew she would be feeling angry with herself, but scared to hell and he yearned to care for her until she recovered her strength.
The acid voice of the police captain brought everyone down to earth. “Quite a show. Would someone mind telling me what’s going on here?”
Somebody laughed. Didiane. Of course. “Just a little psychic disturbance, captain. It’s so nice to meet someone not completely taken in by all this. An interesting demonstration, Sarah. What do you do for an encore?”
Sarah blinked once, and turned, taking her time. Jordan couldn’t see her expression now, as her back was to him, but he didn’t need to. The rigidity of her pose told him all he needed to know. Sarah had filled this room with power, and everyone but the captain was aware of it. Didiane’s taunts were meant for him. “You should try to turn to the other side,” Sarah said quietly. “It might be the making of you.”
Didiane laughed again, a tinkle of amusement as false as her fingernails. “I doubt that. I’m here for one reason, and when I’ve found it, I’ll go home.”
“The sapphire necklace.”
“You believe in that old story?” The captain seemed glad to move away from the disturbance of a moment before. Perhaps he had sensed something, however minor, or perhaps Sarah’s chant of power had unsettled him more than he cared to admit. “That necklace disappeared over a hundred years ago. Mr. Duplessis had this place torn apart in his renovations. If nobody’s discovered it by now, it’s doubtful it will ever turn up. I’m thinking someone discovered it a long time ago, and quietly sold it on. It’s probably part of a hundred engagement rings by now.”
Didiane smiled at him, her head tilted to one side. “No. You’re wrong. It’s here. I can sense it, but I can’t discover its hiding place.”
“More paranor
mal garbage?” The captain smiled grimly. “Think you can dowse for it?”
She shrugged. “It’s been done before, but no, not in this case. I will, of course, pay the family a good price for the piece, but I want to find it myself.”
“So you’ll be here for a while?” Armstrong’s interest was more than professional. The glance he exchanged with Didiane smoldered with intention.
“Maybe.”
While the exchange was going on, Jordan held Karey close, glad for the distraction. When her trembling stopped, he didn’t release her and she didn’t pull back, so he held her some more.
The captain strode across to the desk, sitting in the comfortable leather chair set behind it. “Two men are out there securing the crime scene, but when they get in, let them know I’m here, would you?” He drew the phone toward him as though he owned the place.
Jordan took Karey away, although when he walked toward the door she stopped and went to her part of the office, taking her laptop with her. The captain noticed, but said nothing. Both knew she should leave it there, but she left the other equipment. The laptop was only her backup, but it had last night’s files on it.
She led the way back to her room, and set up the laptop on the dressing table after shoving her perfumes and cosmetics to one side. Jordan watched, knowing she needed this link with her reality.
When she’d arranged the machine to her satisfaction, she turned back to him and folded her arms under her breasts in a defensive gesture. “What happened down there?”
“The lust?”
She grimaced and glanced away at the screen. “Yes, that. Jordan, you’re the only person I’ve ever lost control with. Before you, sex was part of my life, but a minor part. It never meant that much to me. Have you unlocked something?”
“No.” He frowned in thought. “Has it happened before?”
She flushed, the delicate pink infusing her pale cheeks. “Yes. Once, with the same man. It didn’t come from me, Jordan.”
“It was Thomas,” he said abruptly, furious with himself and with the shade that dared create such havoc in his beautiful wife.
“What?” She shouldn’t really stare at him with such an incredulous expression after the events of the last few days.
“Both restless spirits here have a connection with you. Susannah invaded you last night, and today Thomas managed to get to you.”
“How is that possible?”
He took the step that took him close to her and prised her hands loose from the convulsive grip she had on her elbows. “You know it’s possible, ma chaton. I nearly lost you to Susannah last night. Thomas can’t seat himself so strongly inside you, but he can cause mischief. I put barriers up in your bedroom, but the rest of the house—I don’t have the power. I can’t maintain that kind of barrier.”
“It was so—so inappropriate!”
He should have laughed at the word, but inside his heart reached out to hers, knowing how lost she must feel, how her world had turned upside down in the last few days. He knew because it had happened to him six months ago. “Now they know they have a way through from their world to ours, they’ll try again. You can count on it. But they won’t succeed, not while I’m with you.”
“Why would they want to?”
“Several reasons. The most common seems to be unfinished business. Sometimes they don’t want to let go of life, sometimes they’ve left a mystery they want solved, sometimes they want to help someone in life. No one reason, but many.”
He crossed the room and picked up the chair by the door, putting it next to the one in front of the vanity. “Let’s look at last night’s evidence. I can sense when they’re near, and I’m on guard. We need to see these, and it will help us to calm down.” Karey could always immerse herself in her work to the exclusion of most other things. It would be good for her now.
They reviewed the tapes together, Jordan with one arm protectively around her shoulders. Occasionally Karey made a few notes in one of her small notebooks.
They found nothing. During the half-hour it took to review the events of the previous night they slipped into their old relationship, with one vital difference. Jordan was aware of her as never before. He’d always loved being with her, and foolishly assumed their common interests created the bond. Short-sighted idiot that he was.
After they’d done, she relaxed against him. Somehow their chairs had inched closer, and the gap between the chairs had disappeared. He drew her close and kissed the top of her head, nuzzling her shining auburn hair. “I always loved the way your hair smells,” he murmured. “Sunshine and rainbows.”
“That’s just my shampoo.” She lifted her head so he kissed her, long and sweetly, easing his hand into her hair, feeling the silk against his palm.
Karey pulled away, with a half laugh. “We can’t do this.”
“Why not?” He drew her back. “What else do we have to do?”
“You want a list?” she protested, but she let him take her in another kiss. Afterwards she sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. “What are we going to do, Jordan?”
He ignored her tone of helplessness and turned to the practical. “Right now, we’re going downstairs to see Sarah, at least I am. She’s toured the house and she’s come to some conclusions.”
She lifted her eyelids and gazed at him in astonishment. “How do you know?”
“She told me,” he said simply.
She pulled away and stared at him. “She’s a vampire?”
Chapter Ten
He smiled. “Yes. They aren’t too uncommon, especially in this part of the country. For some reason New Orleans is a magnet for them. Perhaps it’s because they know they’re welcome here. Or perhaps vodun and vampirism go together.” He shrugged. “Qui sait?”
She chuckled. “You are so French sometimes.”
“The product of a French mother and a Cajun father often has that aspect to his nature,” he said, perfectly straight faced.
The chuckle turned to laughter, and he rejoiced to hear it. They could alter nothing of what had happened recently, they didn’t know what lay ahead, but this moment, this second, was perfect.
He took Karey to the east wing, where Sarah waited for them. When they entered the old master bedroom, Sarah straightened in a graceful movement that barely disturbed the air around her. The furniture was swathed in heavy cream colored covers, the high windows were bare of drapes and the walls were smoothly plastered, ready for the redecoration scheduled to begin in the next few days. She was the only color in the place, her blue gown and dark skin vibrant against the anemic paleness of her surroundings. She studied Karey before turning her dark gaze to Jordan. “You told her.”
Jordan’s heart sank. “Yes I did. I had no choice, Sarah. If I’m to protect her, I need all my abilities, and she’s hardly about to ignore them. I will, of course, take the memories from her when I leave.”
Sarah’s eyes widened in surprise. “Why do you not take her as yours? You tried to separate yourself from her and it didn’t work, so why not give in?”
Jordan made a sound of exasperation. “I can’t turn her without losing my own life and while I’d do that in a heartbeat, it would affect her too badly.”
Karey tugged his hand. “In case you were forgetting, ‘she’ is standing right next to you, Jordan Arcenaux.”
He turned his head and smiled, his expression softening as he turned to her. “Sorry. sweetheart.”
Karey smiled back, but then turned her attention to Sarah. “Is there no way we can stay together? Nothing we can do?”
“Who told you that you couldn’t be together?”
Hope surged through Jordan when he realized what Sarah meant. Stupid, so stupid, he’d taken so much for granted. “Didiane, but since coming here I’ve discovered much of what she told me was false. She lied about so many other things, why not this? Why didn’t I think of that?”
Sarah shook her head slightly, her disapproval of Didiane evident in the way her mouth tightened.
“You can’t think of everything, Jordan. This change in your life and the way Didiane kept you away from the rest of Talented society means you only learned what she wanted you to.”
Jordan couldn’t look at Karey, daren’t let her see the hope that dawned in his soul. “She told me a vampire could only make another by losing his own life. She told me that I must never tell any human that I’d turned, otherwise we’d both be condemned and put to death.”
“Like many clever liars she told you a half truth,” Sarah said. She turned away, trailing her hand over the rough linen cover of the sofa she’d been sitting on when they arrived.
“She lied?” From the excited tone in her voice Jordan could tell that Karey had the same hopes that were beginning to dawn in him. He reached for her hand, and hung on.
Sarah turned back to them, smiling. “It’s true that we don’t wish our presence in society generally known, but life isn’t that simple, that clear-cut, and no rules can encompass all possibilities. We deal with the occasional exposure, and one day something will happen to make us open.”
Jordan took a deep breath, forcing his mind and body to listen, to keep control. Even if it were possible, Karey might not wish for this. He couldn’t allow himself to hope. Not yet.
“You know that the children of vampires can see and communicate with ghosts?” Jordan nodded. Sarah kept her gaze trained on him. “Didn’t you wonder about that phrase? Not all children of vampires are vampires themselves. Some are mortal, some are Talents of another kind. People can’t help where they love and it happens.”
Jordan tightened his grip on Karey’s hand.
“If you wish it. I will vouch for you with the community, and if you will allow it, brand Karey’s mind so that anyone examining it will see the brand, and be assured.”
Jordan deliberately forced himself to release Karey’s hand, although he wanted to hold on for dear life. He wanted this so badly he was afraid to think about it too much. She had to make the choice. His life had already changed and he couldn’t go back. If she decided to stay with him, it would alter her life, too.
Hosts to Ghosts Box Set Page 36