Spirelli Paranormal Investigations Box Set 2

by Kate Baray

  Everyone looked at Ewan. He was the oldest person in the room. Barring Bob—but who knew Bob’s age?

  “There’s a lot of magic here.” Ewan ran his hand through his hair. “I’ve never heard of a refuge being moved, and this mass of pure magic being manipulated—no, no idea.”

  “A little nudge to test the waters should be safe enough.” Heike took a tiny step away from Ewan, and said, “We talked about this.”

  Ewan shifted away from Jack and Marin, more squarely facing Heike. “Now is not the time.”

  “Now is exactly the time.” Heike crossed her arms. “This is what working in the field looks like.”

  Jack had a sinking feeling he was experiencing a marital disagreement. An ongoing marital disagreement.

  Jack tipped his head in the direction of the hallway. “We’ll just go check the rest of the house while you guys—”

  But neither Ewan nor Heike was listening. They’d lowered their voices, but the intensity had escalated.

  “Let’s go.” Marin beat a hasty retreat down the hall.

  “Hey—are they married now?” Jack asked when he caught up to Marin in the bedroom.

  “Good Lord—we left poor Bob in there.” She dropped down on the edge of the bed.

  “I think Bob can take care of himself. Hey, speak of the devil.”

  Bob was curled up on one of the decorative pillows at the head of the bed.

  “You can seriously move when you’re motivated.” Jack smiled. He wasn’t surprised that Bob had made a hasty exit. He seemed a low-drama kind of guy. “What do you think? Is Heike going to blow us all up if she fiddles with the house’s magic?”

  Bob looked at him, and then—he shrugged.

  “Did you see that?”

  Marin turned around. “What?”

  “Uh. Nothing. Maybe this isn’t a great idea. We have—what? Another two, maybe three days before the final appeal is resolved and the court determines damages? We can hold off for a better plan.”

  “If there’s a better plan, Dad will come up with it. Did you see how wigged he was? And they’re…they’re mostly married.”

  “What the hell is mostly married?”

  “They’re human-married.”

  “What—there’s a dragon-married? What the hell is that?” Jack lifted his hands. “Never mind. I don’t want to know. So long as we get this shit sorted out with the house—”

  “We will.”

  “Right, I mean without triggering some catastrophic event that kills all the little gnatlike humans.”

  Marin laughed harshly. “The dragons don’t fare well in that scenario either. Pen’s sense of perspective is heavily warped. Accept it and move on.” Her gaze shifted over his shoulder. “We can head back now.”

  “You with us, Bob?”

  But Bob had once again disappeared.

  “Crap. Marin, we lost Bob.”

  Marin paused in the hallway. “He’s not especially social—not with anyone but you—so no surprise there.”

  Jack followed Marin back into the living room, but reluctantly. He thought Bob’s retreat was more likely a desire to preserve his small, furry hide than an expression of social anxiety.

  This time, whatever went awry, it wouldn’t be his fault. Small comfort to his corpse.

  Chapter Seven

  Heike stood near the mantel, once again examining it closely.

  “We reached an agreement.” But Ewan didn’t sound like he’d actually agreed to whatever Heike was about to do.

  “Wanna share the plan?” Marin stopped just inside the living room, leaving only enough space for Jack to walk past.

  Jack glanced from Ewan, who wasn’t pleased, to Heike, who appeared puzzled, to Marin, who looked like she wanted to leave as much as he did. “Maybe I should get the Rover warmed up for a quick getaway.”

  Heike was too preoccupied to respond, but Ewan and Marin overtly ignored him.

  Jack took a breath and prayed to whatever gods might be listening—the dragon gods, if they had them.

  Finally, Heike looked up. “It’s fine. I’ll just poke a little. I’ll try to herd the magic into the mantel…after I disconnect it from somewhere else in the house.”

  Jack raised his hand. “Not to bash a perfectly good plan—but isn’t that exactly what we’re trying to avoid with the demolition? Disconnecting the magic from the house?”

  “This is on a much smaller scale.” Marin bumped him gently with her elbow. “Remember our first case? At the end, and we did that group hug thing?”

  What the hell was that supposed to mean? The end of their first case had been a massive explosion… Ah. Marin had “disappeared” him momentarily into the place she hid out when she ward-hopped. “Yeah. Sounds good. I’m all about group hugs.” Only when they transported him away from big magical blasts, but no need to bust Heike’s confidence by saying it.

  At least they had a backup plan. Although it sounded like Marin was leaving her dad and Heike to fend for themselves—which was odd.

  “Okay. It’s basically a ward, right?” But Heike’s question was rhetorical. Her upbeat tone implied this was her version of a pep talk. “All I have to do is unravel the magic from the physical anchor—just like I would any ward.”

  He knew from past experience that Heike had serious spell-casting skills. She’d been hired by a ruthless egomaniac back in the day, before she started working for IPPC. And that guy had been particular about his employees—only the best for evil mastermind bad guys.

  But this was a lot of magic.

  And Bob had disappeared.

  And Ewan seemed worried.

  Jack stepped a little closer to Marin. If he remembered right, they had to be touching to zap into Marin’s hidey-hole.

  “Press your thumbs.” Heike blinked and looked away from the mantel, then corrected herself. “Sorry, cross your fingers. Whichever.”

  She ran her hand across the mantel until it met with the outer wall of the house. Fingers splayed against the wall, she closed her eyes and stood very still.

  Jack held his breath…but nothing happened.

  He forced himself to take a breath, because—what was he? Twelve?

  Heike’s eyes popped open and she lifted her hand away from the wall. “I can do this. It’s not quite like spell caster magic, but it’s similar. Give me just a second.”

  Ewan wore a pained look. The guy clearly adored his wife. He knew what Jack knew: Heike was a badass spell caster. But that didn’t seem to lessen his concern. Love did that; it made all the stakes higher.

  “Let me try this again.” Heike ran her hand along the wall, tracing a line visible only to her. She stopped and closed her eyes.

  A crack split the air. The room trembled. It vibrated, sparked, and then grew dark.

  Jack fell to the ground. He looked for some sign—of what? A shooter in the dim light? The telltale flash of lightning signaling a storm? A crack in the middle of the floor leading to hell?

  Light returned to the room and Jack could see the comfortably stuffed sofa, the pleasant wallpaper, the decorative pillows. It all looked so terribly normal.

  He’d drawn his gun without thought, and he held it loosely now, feeling like an ass. Or that twelve-year-old he’d felt like earlier. Right up until he saw Marin.

  She crouched low next to him, completely still—transfixed.

  He said her name quietly, but she didn’t respond.

  He touched her shoulder.

  She didn’t move. And she looked scared.

  Jack scanned the rest of the room, and he found Ewan and Heike similarly immobilized.

  And then a ripple, like a muscle twitching, passed through the room.

  Marin grabbed his arm and pulled herself up. “It’s alive.”

  “What?” Jack glanced over his shoulder, looking to see if Ewan and Heike had similarly recovered.

  They had. Their heads were bent close as they exchanged urgent words.

  “When Pen talked about the house hos
ting magic, she meant the house is host to some magical being.”

  “Well, shit.” Jack looked at the gun in his hand and then holstered it. Hell of a lot of good a gun would do.

  Chapter Eight

  “Heike felt a pulse.” Ewan’s voice sounded harsh in the sudden quiet of the living room.

  “Yes. A pulse. An artery runs along there.” Heike pointed to the right of the mantel, where she’d touched the wall earlier. “It felt like a point of attachment. Wards are simply magic connected to physical objects, yes? I thought this line of magic was a place where the magic connected to the physical structure of the house.”

  “But it was more like an artery sending magic out into the structure.” Ewan’s gaze focused on the mantel, and Jack thought he saw a hint of green in the depths of the dragon’s eyes.

  A crawling sensation made the hairs stand up on the back of Jack’s neck. This cozy little nest of a house got weirder by the minute. A living house, a trembling house, a house with magic literally pulsing through its body… Jack couldn’t reconcile that with the home that he saw around him. “We need to leave. Unless there’s a good reason we’re having this conversation inside the belly of the beast.”

  He didn’t wait for them to answer; Jack walked out the front door. Once in the front yard, the tightness in his chest and the crawling sensation running along his skin stopped.

  And his brain started to work again.

  Bob hadn’t seemed certain what they were doing was safe. But he also hadn’t warned them that they were about to do something terrible.

  Marin, Heike, and Ewan were close on his heels.

  Addressing his question to the two people who had the ability to communicate directly with Bob, Jack asked Ewan and Marin, “Did either of you get any hint from Bob that the house might bite back if poked? More importantly, that the thing is actually alive?”

  “Arkan Sonney are known for their brevity, and he did say the mantel was the heart of the house.” Marin sounded a little more flippant than the situation called for. But as easily as he could spot her pale face in the dark, he couldn’t pick out enough detail to read her expression.

  “So what you’re saying is that hindsight is twenty-twenty, but we didn’t get a clear warning.” Jack tried to keep the irritation out of his voice, but it was a half-ass effort. He was tired.

  “If I’d received a clear warning from Bob,” Ewan said, “we wouldn’t have proceeded. But speaking with an Arkan Sonney is muddled. There’s room for interpretation.”

  “And error,” Marin said.

  Heike sighed. “I should have realized. But all of that energy masked the biorhythms. When I touched on the artery, I should have seen—”

  “No offense, but I don’t think you’re the only one who’s feeling like an ass. We all feel like grade-A idiots for missing the obvious.” Jack rubbed his neck. “I keep looking at it thinking it’s going to look back with big glowing eyes. What are the chances it understands language?”

  “Slim,” Ewan said. “We’ll have to find some other way to communicate with it. Bob saw more than us, as I’d hoped, but I doubt there was any substantial communication between him and the creature inhabiting the house.”

  Marin and Jack locked eyes. They said in unison, “Kaisermann.”

  “Your client, yes. He might be the key, but fair warning,” Ewan said, “IPPC didn’t find anything noteworthy in his background. If he has a magical talent, it’s well hidden.”

  “Probably even from himself. The man couldn’t be more average.” Marin pulled the Range Rover keys from her pocket. “We have an appointment with him tomorrow—or today, rather—at ten. Unless we’re worried about leaving the house unsupervised…?”

  “No.” Ewan opened the passenger door for Heike. “We’ve got a confirmed late check-in with our hotel, so we’re set for tonight. Let’s reconvene after we’ve all had some sleep, after your meeting.”

  Marin’s step faltered. She quickly recovered and opened the driver’s door. “I’ll give you guys a ring afterward.”

  On the way home, Jack expected some acknowledgment of how Marin’s family dynamic had played into the events. Or an explanation of her stepmother’s presence. Or something about why her dad was ditching their client meeting tomorrow.

  Nothing.

  As Marin pulled in front of the shop, where Jack’s car was still parked, he finally asked, “You wanna tell me anything?”

  She stared straight ahead. “You wanna give me that partnership agreement?”

  Jack pulled out his phone and tapped the screen a few times. “Done.”

  That pulled her out of her funk. She turned to him with a frown. “Are you messing with me?”

  “No. Check your email. Fifteen percent ownership, non-negotiable. We can revisit in a year or two.”

  If they were both still alive and kicking.

  She turned back to stare down the street. “I left to give them some room—no big deal, right? Maybe even kind of nice of me.”

  She seemed to be looking for affirmation, so Jack threw up his hands. “Yeah, sure. Newlyweds and all that. I mean, I’ve never been married, but—why not.”

  “Well, he flips. Acts like I’m incapable of doing even the most basic of things: find a place to live, get a job, and don’t get me started on the cooking.” She sent a glare his way that he was glad not to have earned. “Cooking. I mean, how hard can it be? Like I’m going to starve.”

  “You eat a lot.” It was an unsolicited comment, and he had no clue why he said it. Just tired, probably.

  Her narrowed eyes lit with a green fire. “I’m a dragon. I don’t eat a lot for a dragon. And who are you to talk?”

  “What are you saying?” Jack glanced down at his midsection. “I run.”

  “And the bigger issue is, dragons don’t do well outside the clan. So I hear, though I can’t say I see any evidence of that. I’m doing fine. Maybe it was a little rough at first, but I’m good, right?”

  He nodded. Jack had forgotten, but she’d said before that the clan stuck together. “I don’t get what the issue is now, though. Whatever he’s said in the past, Ewan seems cool with your choices now. I mean, he hired us for a job.” Jack would keel over in shock if his sister—or, God forbid, his mother—hired him for a gig. “That’s damned supportive.”

  Marin just shook her head like he’d lost all his sense. “Says you. He’s totally checking up on me.”

  “You need some perspective. He hired us for that book-retrieval job—directly. He could have had Harrington call. That’s what usually happens.” Jack held up a hand. “No, hold on a minute. Then he left us to it. He let the no-talent human and his daughter retrieve a valuable book. That’s trust.”

  She scrunched up her nose. “But he came this time.”

  “Are you kidding me? We asked for help.” Jack couldn’t help but lose his patience—this was ridiculous. She sounded like a teenager. Or what he imagined teenagers sounded like. “You’re normally so reasonable. Take a step back and look at this without all of your weird family baggage. I think he’s trying. Hell, I wish my family was half as supportive.”

  Marin crossed her arms. “You really think so?”

  “Good Lord. I just said it. Yes, I think so. He’s not even coming to our client meeting, and I don’t think that’s so he can have a little alone time with your stepmom.” Jack bit back a groan. He couldn’t believe he was giving this advice, but: “Ask him.”

  “What?”

  This was downright painful. “Ask him how he feels about you living in Austin, working for me…hell, ask him how he feels about you making your own meals.” Jack gave her an exasperated look. “Who the hell usually makes your meals?”

  “Oh, we have a chef.” But she wasn’t really paying much attention to him. She seemed to be chewing over his advice.

  What the hell had the world come to if he was the guy providing family counseling?

  Chapter Nine

  The next morning, Marin arrived at th
e shop a few minutes after Jack. She didn’t mention their conversation from the night before, and neither did Jack. But maybe she’d sort her family shit out now. If she did, maybe Jack wouldn’t hold his breath every time he ran into the guy.

  Kaisermann showed up fifteen minutes early for his ten o’clock appointment.

  After he came through the front door, Marin locked it behind him and flipped the sign to closed.

  He followed Jack and Marin back into the office. “You have news, don’t you?” Kaisermann looked from Marin to Jack. “Something’s there, isn’t it?”

  Jack walked behind the desk and indicated the client chair. After Kaisermann seated himself, Jack said, “Yes. There’s something there.”

  “I knew it.” Kaisermann collapsed back into the chair. “Forget what my father said. I felt it in my bones. It’s a ghost?”

  Marin perched on the edge of the sofa, her hands clasped in her lap. “No—not exactly a ghost. But something has definitely taken over the house.”

  Jack realized belatedly that he and Marin should have come up with some kind of reveal strategy. “Magic is real, and your house is alive” seemed somewhat abrupt.

  “Well, whatever it is, can we exorcise it?” Kaisermann’s color wasn’t looking so good.

  “Can I get you a drink, sir?” Jack thought back to the background on Kaisermann. He didn’t think the old guy had any medical conditions they needed to worry about, but…

  “Mr. Kaisermann, we think you might be able to help us resolve the issue with your house.” Marin lifted her hand when he started to sputter a denial. “We’re aware that you’re not involved with the magical aspect of the house. But it seems your family has some connection to whatever is living in the house.”

  Jack watched as Kasiermann’s face turned from pale to ruddy. He rolled his chair over to the mini-fridge and retrieved a bottle of water.

  Jack handed Kaisermann the water bottle. “We know this is surprising, but the stakes are high. The house can’t be moved while the…ah, the guest is in residence. My expert tried to communicate with the entity, but with no real success.”