Victoria House (Haunted Hearts Series Book 2)

by Denise Moncrief

  He twisted on his heel and faced her. “Are you dizzy? It’s a sign of increased electromagnetic energy. Some people are very susceptible to it.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m familiar with the theory. Can we just go? There’s no one here, and we shouldn’t touch anything. We shouldn’t even be in here since we found...” She hadn’t the nerve to finish the sentence.

  He moved a couple of paces closer to her. “Put your hands on her.”

  The wild glaze forming in his eyes alarmed her. She stepped back from him.

  “We shouldn’t touch the body.”

  He came another step closer. “You’ve got the touch, don’t you?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Sure you do. You’re a conduit for spirit energy. When you went into Lipton’s house, you touched something. That’s how you connected to him. That’s how you knew where to find his body.”

  “I don’t think it works that way, Gray.” She spoke slowly and carefully, a little worried that she might set him off.

  He wasn’t quite acting normal. Almost manic. She’d never, ever seen him this way.

  He was within a few inches of her when the door slammed shut behind her. The sudden bam caused her to spin around. When she turned back to face Gray, he was right on her.

  “That’s how you knew where I hid the body.”

  Had she heard him right?

  The room shifted and spun. It seemed that all of her energy was being sucked from her. She tingled, electrical currents racing up and down her body. Her teeth chattered from a sudden drop in temperature. A million different stimuli, sight, smell, and sound, bombarded her senses, but all she could do was stare into the man’s eyes, two dark orbs that no longer resembled Gray’s at all.

  The man staring back at her was nothing like the Gray she knew. She slammed her hands into his chest, trying her best to force some space between them. Instead of stumbling backward, he held his ground. Unmovable. Her blood flowed through her veins like a raging torrent. Her mind raced with a thousand unwanted thoughts.

  Maybe Gray murdered his wife.

  That was impossible. Gray didn’t kill Caroline. He’d been with Tori almost non-stop for hours and hours. Days even.

  Her vision blurred and darkened around the edges, and she was afraid she was about to pass out. She shook her head to clear her vision. When she blinked, Gray’s features had transformed into a grotesque mask resembling the face of Michael Palmer, the man who killed Lipton and had tried to kill her, the man who had left a permanent scar on her to remember him by. The wound where Shaw Bennett’s bullet had exited his skull glowed bright in a neat red circle. She had the uncontrollable desire to reach out and touch the hole. She gripped the wrist on one hand with the other, forcing herself to keep her hands away from him.

  When blood began to ooze from his wounded head, she screamed as if all the hounds of hell were chasing her. Michael’s vicious laughter filled the room, circling her and clawing at her, digging its hooks into her sanity. She gasped and clutched at her throat, no longer able to breathe easily.

  “What do you want from me?” she croaked.

  “Death is here.”

  A sardonic light gleamed in his eyes, two bright orbs that didn’t look human. Unnatural. Supernatural.

  She fought the urge to collapse into him. If he got close enough to her, he would absorb her entire being.

  “Gray,” she managed to shout into the face of death, hoping to pull Gray’s consciousness out of the grip of the evil force that controlled him.

  “If you want to get rid of me, you have to kill him.”

  His words sent a shudder of absolute fear through her. Suddenly she had no control of her actions. Like a marionette, she seemed to move against her will. Her arms moved without her permission. Her hand lifted high above her head. Her eyes shifted upward. To her horror, she gripped a knife. Where had that come from?

  “No, no, no.” She shook her head so hard it seemed the violent movement rattled her brains.

  Pressure built on her hand, shoving it downward toward Gray’s heart. Tears streamed down her cheeks, blinding her. Her heart rebelled. Her mind cleared. She’d never seen with so much clarity. Michael’s spirit might have overtaken Gray and absorbed him, but it was Gray’s mortal body threatened by the knife in her hand. She couldn’t hurt the only man she’d ever believed she could fall in love with.

  “Please don’t make me hurt him.”

  A bright white pinpoint of light caught her attention to the right of them. It increased in illumination and intensity, pulsing and throbbing, seemingly in time and rhythm with Tori’s erratic heartbeat. A beam of light emanated from the being and pushed through the thick atmosphere surrounding them until it connected with the being in front of her, the entity that had overtaken Gray.

  Two distinct shapes separated from each other until the light pulled Gray out of the darker form of Michael Palmer, leaving Gray to collapse on the ground. Then Michael’s darkness lifted from the ground before exploding into a billion iridescent pieces. The bright white light faded until it vanished, and the room suddenly felt devoid of energy.

  Tori glanced at her hand again and the weapon was gone, disappeared as if it had never been in her grip. Instinct guided her. She clawed at her throat, snatching Michael’s pendant from around her neck, removing the talisman she had worn to remind her that bad things could happen to good people. She could no longer stand to be in the same room with it.

  Gray shook his head, mumbling to himself and rubbing his temples. He stared up at her from the floor.

  “What happened?”

  She had no words. Couldn’t give him any yet. She held the pendant out to him. “I have to throw it in the lake.”

  “What?” He rose to his feet, slowly as if he was in pain.

  “He’s here because I took the pendant. I have to get rid of it.”

  She bolted from the room, rushing down the hall and the stairs, and then out the front door. Running first one direction, then turning and running the other, she finally found a path that seemed to descend the hill toward the water. She took it at a fast pace, slapping at shrub branches and avoiding holes in the ground.

  The heavy sound of Gray’s footfalls and ragged breathing followed her down the path. “Tori, wait!”

  She didn’t look back. By the time he caught up with her, she was standing on the banks of the inlet, staring into the murky brown depths of Lake Jefferson. She tossed Michael Palmer’s pendant into the water. It remained on the surface longer than she thought it should before slowly sinking.

  The trembling began in her arms and legs and radiated throughout her body. Hard and uncontrollable to the point of near convulsions. Gray wrapped his arms around her. That’s when she realized she was sobbing, and she felt as if she’d always cried and would never stop crying for the rest of her life.

  She dared to lean back and stare into Gray’s eyes. Clear eyes that held his spark of life in them. Eyes that glowed with the essence of who he was. Eyes that swallowed her up, not with the intent to harm, but with the desire to cherish and protect her heart.

  In that moment, she knew if he’d allow her, she’d never leave him. She closed her eyes, leaned her head on his shoulder. He held her so tight that she thought she might be bound to him forever, that their bodies might melt into one.

  She had to know how close she’d come to murdering him. “Did I have a knife in my hand?” She couldn’t meet his gaze when she asked. The answer to the question terrified her.

  He leaned back a little and lifted her chin so she had to look at him. Concern crossed his features, tired planes, angles, and curves that had become so familiar to her. She wanted to smooth away the weariness with a gentle touch, but all of her actions were still jerky and seemingly out of her control. Was she still controlled by another being?

  “I didn’t see a knife.” His raspy voice sounded as if he had a sore throat.

  She shuddered
once, relief coursing through her.

  “What happened? I think I must have passed out or something. I remember the door slamming and then the next thing I remember I was on the floor.”

  “There was a knife in my hand, and he told me if I wanted to get rid of him I had to kill you.”

  “There was no knife.”

  He clung to her even harder.

  Her mind wandered for a long moment, and it took all her determination to keep from taking the easy road into mental oblivion. She didn’t want to go there again. It was too hard to crawl back out of a deep hole once she’d dug one for herself.

  “Then a bright light just sort of absorbed the entity or whatever it was. Just swallowed it up and it exploded into a million sparks.”

  A car engine broke the stillness surrounding them and made them both jump.

  Gray gazed up the hill toward the house. He glanced at his watch. “That was quick. I didn’t expect Shaw to get here so soon.” He unwrapped his arms from around her and then took her hand in his. “Are you ready to tell him everything?”

  She nodded. “We have to. No one else would believe us.”

  Gray sighed. A deep soul-sifting sigh. “I think it’s time I let Halsey in on everything that’s been happening. I still have the feeling it’s all connected somehow.”

  ****

  Gray pulled Tori along the trail toward the house. Whatever had overtaken him in Victoria’s bedroom had left him drained and edgy. Surely he was suffering symptoms of sleep deprivation. The nap he’d taken on the sofa had not been long enough or deep enough. He needed some good solid REM sleep.

  His restless slumber had been haunted by nightmares of an army of men, all of which looked just like Jeremy Haskins, chasing him wielding knives dripping with blood. When Tori’s screams had jolted him awake, he’d had a hard time orienting to reality and leaving his dream behind.

  Then there was the paranormal event that happened just a while ago in Victoria’s bedroom. He was still trying to sort out the details. Tori’s narrative seemed fractured and missing critical bits and pieces, but then the woman was probably in no mental or emotional condition to give a detailed account of anything.

  The uphill climb toward the house seemed endless. His breath huffed from him in ragged gasps. They were almost to the top of the hill. He just needed a little more energy to make it all the way to his car.

  He was ready to give Shaw his statement and then get as far away from Victoria House as he could manage. The sheriff had been pushing him to take a vacation. Maybe he would. Maybe he could entice Tori to go with him. Halsey wouldn’t like for them to be out at the same time, but after he told the sheriff what he had to tell him, Halsey might insist on both of them taking an administrative leave of absence.

  That would leave no one in the lab and only one other investigator in the department to work major crimes. But then if Gray left the county, major crimes might evaporate like magic. He seemed to be a vortex for all the bad things that had happened in the county since Jeremy Haskins died.

  He shook off the hard thoughts. No doubt, he was beyond exhausted and not thinking straight. For a moment, he considered he might not even be awake. Maybe this was all a horrible nightmare. Maybe Tori’s screams had never pulled him from his restless slumber. He glanced back at her to make sure she was real and not some figment of his imagination or a ghostly apparition clinging to him to taunt him.

  When had the ghosts in the house and the ghosts from his past merged? Together they caused his mind to reel. Had his lost his grip on reality and how long ago had that happened?

  He ran his fingers through his hair and gazed up at the sky. While they had been held captive by the entity in the house, clouds had formed and now appeared ready to burst, heavy with rain.

  Tori yanked his hand and stalled his forward progress. “Gray, that’s Lucy’s truck.”

  Her comment burst any illusions he had of living in a dream state.

  Without discussing it, seemingly in unison with one another, Gray and Tori slipped behind a stand of now flowerless Azaleas. Dead petals in red, white, and fuchsia littered the ground beneath their feet, giving off a cloying scent. He rubbed his nose but the stench wouldn’t leave his nostrils.

  He reached for his sidearm, but to his dismay his holster was empty. Not good. The situation screamed of danger. There wasn’t a good reason for Lucy Kimbrough to be at Victoria House, and she couldn’t have missed his car parked in the drive. Direct confrontation might not be the best option. It might be best if Lucy believed she was surprising him.

  Tori tugged on his shirtsleeve when Lucy exited her truck with a gun in her hand. Lucy peered back into the vehicle and appeared to be conversing with someone. Even at that distance, Gray could see a crazed expression on her face. She circled the truck and yanked the passenger door open. The heightened wind covered whatever conversation was exchanged between Lucy and her passenger.

  Gray almost bolted from behind the bushes when Lucy pulled Josh McCord from the vehicle by a pair of handcuffs. What had Lucy done to him that he would allow her to cuff him? Apparently, arresting Josh wasn’t a sufficient ploy to keep him in protective custody. Lucy had gotten to him somehow.

  Tori whispered in Gray’s ear. “Aren’t you going to do something?”

  He shifted his attention toward her. “What can I do? I can’t confront her. I’ve lost my sidearm somewhere.”

  She glanced at his side. Panic erupted across her tired features. There was a smudge on her cheek. He brushed it with his fingertip. She wrapped her hand around his fingers where they touched her skin. “I’m scared, Gray.”

  Their eyes held, so much communication passing between them. In that moment, it seemed he’d lived his entire life with this woman and he never wanted to be separated from her. “I am too. We have to have each other’s back. Okay?”

  She nodded. The bright glow in her eyes informed him she’d always have his back. No matter what.

  He pulled his hand away from hers and patted his pocket, exhaling when he felt the familiar shape of his cell phone. With his eyes still on Tori, he lifted the phone to his ear and dialed 9-1-1. “This is Lt. Grayson. There’s a situation out at Victoria House. Tell Halsey he needs to get out here as soon as possible. And tell him I’ve called the State Police in.” He paused and closed his eyes. “Tell him it’s urgent.”

  He disconnected the call without waiting to see if the operator would cooperate. When he turned toward the house again, Lucy and Josh had disappeared.

  Gray placed his hands on his hips. “I don’t want to go back in there again.”

  Tori slipped her hand through the crook of his elbow and slid her arm around his waist. “Me either.” Her voice was a little too even to be normal.

  He glanced down at her, but she was looking straight ahead, her concentration aimed at the house. “But Josh is in trouble and Shaw probably won’t be here in time to...”

  In time to save Josh from whatever Lucy planned for him. It wasn’t difficult to finish her sentence. “Let’s go, then.”

  Together they moved out of the shadow of the woods and headed toward the house without discussing their options. For Gray, there was only one. He couldn’t abandon Josh. No matter what had happened between them. His inclination was to leave Tori in the car or give her the keys and tell her to drive away as fast as she could, but he couldn’t stand the idea of going inside the house again without her.

  Tori’s arm slipped from around his waist, but her hand found its way into his.

  Before they entered the house, he stalled with his hand on the door and turned to face her. “I want you to know...whatever happens...if something happens...if things go wrong... I want you to know that I’m falling in love with you, and I want to get past this so I can finish falling. I need you in my life, Tori.”

  She raised a trembling hand and caressed his cheek. No one’s touch had ever calmed him as hers did in that moment. “No matter what happens, it’s gonna be okay. We’ll get pa
st this and then we can fall together as hard and as far as we want.” She smiled, a tired but happy smile.

  There was no time for the deep, full, lingering kiss that his heart desired. Lucy was inside the house and there was no telling what she was doing to Josh. So Gray kissed Tori, a soft, gentle kiss that promised her so much. She closed her eyes and seemed to accept the promise he offered. What was he offering? He wasn’t exactly sure what the future held for them, but he wanted it to be good. Real good.

  With the hope of potential future happiness playing in the back of his mind, he pushed open the door to Victoria House.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Come on, baby, there’s no need for the cuffs.”

  Lucy twisted to face Josh. The psychotic gleam in her eyes hadn’t diminished. If anything, she seemed to get crazier by the minute. “I have to protect you.”

  His heart thudded in his chest. Lucy had obviously lost the capacity to think logically. He gazed up at the imposing front of Victoria House. “Why are we here?”

  “I have a gift for you.”

  Well, that was cryptic. Any gift she’d give, he didn’t want. His insides trembled at the possibilities. What kind of gift would a sick mind concoct, and why would it be at Victoria House?

  She glanced over her shoulder and smiled, an expression that seemed downright demented. “Gray’s car is here. We can have a double date.”

  He’d already noticed Gray’s dark blue sedan and he didn’t know if his old friend’s presence comforted him or not. He swallowed hard. “A double date? Whatdaya mean?”

  He laughed, but it wasn’t an easy laugh. Even to his ears the shrill noise seemed more like the bark of a frightened yip-yip dog than anything resembling mirth. He was about to ask her to clarify her comments, but she kept yapping.

  “The four of us can have a double date. Me and you and Gray and Caroline.”

  Caroline is here? The pace needed to slow so he had time to think. He leaned against the drag of her weight, but she pulled harder on the handcuffs, yanking him behind her up the stairs, so he forced himself to trip.