by Kate Baray
Marin’s dragon voice echoed in Jack’s head. Great. That was the escape plan—not the backup plan. So long, Austin. It was nice knowing you.
“She doesn’t understand.” Kaisermann’s voice was small, swallowed by the dense air.
Jack shivered. The change had occurred so slowly that he’d missed it till now. The house was cooler and the air thicker.
“Tell her that we want to move her and the house, but we need her to be smaller.” Jack looked at Ewan. Could he hear what was happening in Kaisermann’s head?
Ewan said, “She needs to pull her magic back, into the heart, the hearth. And then we can safely move her.”
The air became almost un-breathable. Jack’s lungs hurt with each pull of breath.
The floor rippled, like the shivering skin of a beast.
Lights flickered on and off—but it didn’t come from the fixtures. The very walls luminesced. Pinkish light, then red.
Jack felt like he was inside a reptilian womb. The pulsing beat of a heart, the air thick and moist, a chill to the air.
A massive shudder and then the house was silent. No thrum of a heart pulsing magic echoed in his ears. And the air was once again only pleasantly cool.
He shifted his weight, and his joints cracked. How long had he been frozen still in that one spot?
He caught sight of Kaisermann, stooped and tired. Ewan led him to the sofa and the man collapsed in it.
He looked distressed. More distressed than he should, given that there wasn’t a bunch of magic pulsing all around them. Then Jack had a strange pull of guilt. “It’s not dead?” It was a freaking house…or magic blob in a house. Why did he care? But the thought bothered him.
“No…I don’t think so.” Kaisermann’s head shot up, as if he’d just realized what he was hearing and saying. “Surely not?”
Ewan sat down next to him on the sofa. “What do you think?”
“She’s not here.” Kaisermann’s tone was cautious.
“There’s no detectable magic.” Heike moved away from the mantel and sat next to Ewan on the sofa. “Not in the hearth, either.”
Kaisermann considered her words. “I think she’s gone. Not dead. I think she understood and she left.”
“Any idea why this house? Why Austin?” Jack paced across the small room, loosening stiff joints.
“Someone needed refuge.” Kaisermann turned to Ewan. “Do you think it’s safe to move the house now?”
“But who needed refuge?” Jack asked.
Kaisermann shrugged. “She didn’t say.” And he didn’t seem the least curious about the answer.
Ewan shot Jack a warning look then answered Kaisermann’s question. “Yes, you can make plans to move it.”
“But what was she?” Jack asked.
“I don’t know.” Exhausted and looking every bit his age, Kaisermann wobbled as he stood. Once his feet were firmly under him, he asked, “Can I go home now?”
Marin appeared at his elbow, once again looping her arm through his, but this time it was to steady not his nerves, but his body. They disappeared through the front door together.
Once the door had closed behind them, Jack turned to Ewan. “What’s the deal?”
“He can’t answer any of your questions. The connection he had with that creature wasn’t exactly telepathic. More of an instinctual thing. It felt like a psychic umbilical cord between mother and child.”
That explained the icky inside-a-womb feeling Jack had. “If that’s true, it’s no wonder Mom was peeved at being cut off. Kaisermann’s dad passed unexpectedly. I wonder if there was some piece of information he would have passed along to keep the connection alive between the—whatever that thing was—and the family.”
“Possibly. One thing I can tell you: she was old. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was the same being that inhabited the Black Forest house hundreds of years ago.”
“Yeah, I got that as well,” Heike said. “Really big, lots of magic, and old. That’s about all I got, though. Oh, and the magic surges pulsing through the walls.”
Marin walked back in. “I think he’s good. By the time we got to the car, he seemed to be more himself. He just wanted to go home and, I think, forget about all of this.” She flashed Jack a smile. “Good thing he doesn’t owe us anything, because my guess is it would be hell to get him to acknowledge this night ever happened, let alone cough up any cash.”
Heike stood up. “Are we ready to put this house behind us?”
Three responses, all emphatically affirmative.
Chapter Thirteen
After a very brief discussion in the driveway of the formerly possessed house, Marin, Heike, Ewan, and Jack had all decided to grab a bite to eat at a local Mexican place that Marin and Jack frequented.
The meal had been fabulous and the booze had flowed. Something about a battle fought that hadn’t been a battle at all had everyone keyed up, and the bar tab proved it.
Since the dragons were almost impossible to get drunk, Marin and Ewan had promised to drive, leaving Jack and Heike to drink themselves under the table.
It was well after dark when they all made their way outside, leaving a very satisfied waiter behind.
Jack was about to wish Ewan and Heike safe travels home, when Marin said, “Hey, Dad. Do you have a second?” She grabbed Jack by the arm as he started to slip away. “Jack here had the brilliant idea that I should ask you about something that’s been bothering me.”
Jack tried to tug his arm free, but Marin held tight. “I’ll just wait in the car.”
Marin didn’t reply, and she didn’t let go.
“Sure. Are we talking in the parking lot?” He seemed a little confused.
They’d been eating chips, queso, and guacamole for hours, and now she ambushed the guy when they were a feet away from their cars. Jack could understand his confusion.
It took a little headache-inducing thought, but Jack finally got it—and she was brilliant. Having a hasty escape nearby when having a “family” discussion could never hurt…but did she have to drag him into it?
Marin had finally let go of his arm, so he made his way to the Range Rover—one very cautious step at a time. He snuck a glance to see if she’d noticed his escape—and blinked.
What the hell had he missed? Everyone was hugging and looking happy and teary-eyed. Well, Heike looked teary-eyed; the dragons just had smug, toothy, dragon grins. Either way—it looked like reconciliation was in the air. Not that he had a lot of first-hand experience with his own family.
Maybe he was a little drunker than he’d thought, because he thought he might be feeling the first flutterings of jealousy. Yeah—he had to be wasted to think he wanted that kind of acceptance from his uptight, middle-class, suburban, neighbor-one-upping, judgmental family.
He squinted, wobbled, caught himself with one hand on the hood of the Range Rover, and hollered, “Can we go home now?”
Epilogue
Things had been pretty quiet. Bob had returned from a three-day walkabout. Whether he’d been visiting friends or simply seen the wisdom of a hasty exit from the Austin area, Jack didn’t know. And he wasn’t likely to find out anytime soon, since he still hadn’t cracked the communication barrier. He needed to get on that.
But not today. Marin was in the shop, and Bob was correspondingly absent.
“Hey, what happened to Kaisermann?” Jack asked from behind his desk. “You said you were going to follow up with him.”
“Yeah.” Marin looked up from a dusty pile of newspapers, magazines, and old books, all stacked on the small table that served as their unofficial stock-processing area. “Where did you get this stuff?
He slouched in his chair and fiddled with some loose papers. If he looked busy, maybe he could skip processing what had to be a mildew-fest of newspapers. “No clue. Someone might have dropped it off. Kaisermann?”
“Right. He’s decided to embrace his retirement fully. He’s moving to Belize. Which is where I’m moving if you don’t start sorting some of the use
less stock you bring in.”
Jack ignored the gibe. “Belize? Why does that sound so familiar?”
“The bookseller? The one we bribed to keep his mouth shut about the nasty, soul-stealing book? He took the cash and had a party in Belize for about a month.”
“Ah. Good thing you keep up with the little details.” Jack rolled his chair over to the mini-fridge and pulled out two beers. He lifted one in the air. He’d been off booze for a few days after that whole drunken scene with Marin’s parents. But he’d fully recovered from his hangover, and all the dust motes floating around were making him thirsty.
“Sure.” Marin took the offered beer. “And the book guy did make it back into the country. He’s still selling books out of that shabby little shop.”
“I know. I’m just giving you shit. Chris blind-copies me on all the assignments you give her. And we didn’t bribe him to keep his mouth shut about the book. It was the fire damage you caused trying to catch the book thieves.”
“Yeah. That was a good cover story. Some garbage about cutting-edge tech. Didn’t you tell him it was a laser that zapped his store?”
Jack shrugged. “Lasers are cool. What guy doesn’t want to believe in lasers? Especially nerdy bookseller guys.”
“Who also sells comics,” Marin said. “Oh, and Chris doesn’t blind-copy you on everything.”
Jack blinked. Was Marin doing research on him? Chris wouldn’t—
“Gotcha.”
He let it pass. Because he’d just realized that there seemed to be convergence happening. Kaisermann picking up and moving so suddenly. Their bookseller who had just happened upon a nasty, soul-stealing book and a bizarre cult of money-grubbing murderers. And Belize. “You don’t think there’s something brewing in Belize, do you?”
Marin downed a quarter of her beer in a one long pull. “I hear Belize is a nice place to visit.”
Shit.
Preview: Entombed
A Spirelli Paranormal Investigations Novel
Belize
Hunger. A twisting, gnawing ache of emptiness. For flesh, for blood, for marrow. Thought slithered away, lost in the pulse, the pain, of want…need…hunger.
Time passed.
A spark lit inside the creature; its instinct to live flared. The creature narrowed the pain, focused it. Its world became a small, dark place, filled with a greedy lust to consume. The hunger overwhelmed it, chasing away not just thought but also instinct.
Waking, sleeping, no, up, no, down, always hungry, its world still small and dark.
Time passed.
The spark flared again. Instinct pushed the creature forward, pushed it to explore its small world. It began to wallow in the dark. It felt dirt against its body. It felt the scrape of rocks against its skin. The stink of its own blood filled the space. Unlike the hunger that dulled, this pain sharpened its senses.
And the blood brought insects. And the insects were food.
A pitiful, meager food—not filling its belly, but giving it some sustenance. It was enough.
Slowly, it began to move beyond instinct. It began to think. To strategize. To consider escape from the pit that confined it.
It whispered into the dark, calling forth larger creatures to consume. It grew stronger. It called louder.
And then it found a human mind.
Connected with it. Read it. Learned the human’s language. And in the learning, it remembered itself…himself.
He was awake. No longer dormant, no longer dulled by hunger and pain. Awake and ready to be free of his prison.
To read more about Jack and Marin’s adventures, get your copy of Entombed: A Spirelli Investigations Novel today!
Kate’s Starter Library
My Starter Library includes:
Spirited Legacy, the second book in the Lost Library series—a value of $3.99, and
Rage, an audio short recorded by Roberto Scarlato, a narrator with more than 500 5-star performance reviews, and
Revealed, an audio short recorded by Kristi Burns, the voice of the Lost Library audio story Witch’s Diary, and
Spirelli Paranormal Investigations, Episodes 1 and 2.
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Also by Kate Baray
LOST LIBRARY
Lost Library
Spirited Legacy
Defensive Magic
Lost Library Collection: Books 1-3
Witch’s Diary
Lost Library Shorts Collection
The Covered Mirror: A Lost Library Halloween Short
Krampus Gone Wild: A Lost Library Christmas Short
SPIRELLI PARANORMAL INVESTIGATIONS
Spirelli Paranormal Investigations Episodes 1-3
Spirelli Paranormal Investigations Episodes 4-6
Entombed: A Spirelli Investigations Novel
Writing as Cate Lawley
THE GOODE WITCH MATCHMAKER
Timely Love
Ghostly Love
Deathly Love
Forgotten Love
VEGAN VAMP
Adventures of a Vegan Vamp
The Client’s Conundrum
The Elvis Enigma
Writing as K.D. Baray
BEAUREGARD
Mistaken: A Seth Beauregard Short
About the Author
Kate Baray writes paranormal and urban fantasy and lives in Austin, Texas with her pack of pointers and bloodhounds. Kate has worked as an attorney, a manager, a tractor sales person, and a dog trainer, but writing is her passion. When she's not writing, she sweeps up hairy dust bunnies and watches British mysteries.
Kate also writes sweet romances and cozy mysteries as Cate Lawley and thrillers as K.D. Baray.
For more information:
www.katebaray.com