“Yup, it’s Rand. You guys hungry? Coffee’s done, too.” I held up my own cup and took another sip. Just pretend everything’s normal and ignore the surreal. Hashtag dealing with ghosts, right?
Sam shook it off first and walked over, grabbing a plate and a couple of pancakes before heading for the coffee pot. Tess and Annie were only a couple steps behind her. Sam acted like this was just another normal morning, which helped quite a bit.
She sat down at the snack bar and poured a generous dollop of syrup over her pancakes before digging in. “Morning, Rand.” She waved her fork in the general direction of Toby. At least she wasn’t too far off.
“Does she expect me to answer her?” he asked, amused.
“Rand says good morning to you, too, Sam. You, too, Annie, Tess.”
Tess, feeling brave, walked over to me and lightly touched my arm. When her eyes fell upon Rand, her breath hitched.
“Annie, you’ve got to see this!” She started waving Annie over. Annie hopped off her stool and hurried over to grab my other arm.
“Why is he all blurry?” the little woman asked.
“He’s not blurry, what are you talking about?” Tess looked over at her, frowning.
I didn’t even have to roll my eyes at them, Sam did it for me, as she continued eating her breakfast. Rand just stood there, speechless. I started thinking about what Tess had said. Sam had said Rand was blurry around the edges to her, now Annie saw him the same way. But he was clear to Tess? Last night Tess had kept looking toward where our visitors had been, too, before she had taken my arm. I wondered if she was sensitive to ghosts.
“Does he talk? Why is he just standing there?” Tess whispered to me.
That snapped Rand out of it. “What am I supposed to do? A striptease?” he asked sarcastically.
Tess’s eyes got big at that. “You can do that? Roxie, does he seriously do that?”
Rand and I both looked at Tess. “You can hear him?” I asked at the same time he exclaimed, “She can hear me?”
Poor Annie just looked confused. “I don’t hear anything. I can see his mouth moving but there’s no sound. Why can Tess hear him?”
“If it makes you feel any better, I can’t hear him either, Annie,” Sam offered. “And he’s not all that clear for me—he’s blurred around the edges, kind of.”
“All right, girls, show’s over.” I gently pulled my arms away and gave them each a push toward their seats. “Go eat your breakfast and drink your coffee. I’m going to eat and then go take a shower.” I grabbed my own plate of pancakes, refilled my coffee, and sat down next to Sam. “Sorry about that Rand,” I said, looking back at him.
Tess had the grace to look embarrassed–though not embarrassed enough to shut her up. “So he’s not going to do the striptease?” She sounded so disappointed, I had to laugh. Annie’s elbow to her ribs made her sigh and go back to her pancakes. “How do I get my own ghost?” she mumbled. Annie elbowed her harder for that, earning an ‘oomph.’
“I think it’s time for me to go, Roxie. I’ll be back by four.” And he was gone before I could ask him about it.
“He’s gone now. Tess ran him off,” I informed them.
“Oh man. I wanted to ask him some questions after we ate.”
“I don’t think he’s ready for any of your questions, Tess,” I joked.
Annie had been mostly quiet during all of this. She finished chewing her last bite of pancake and pushed her plate away. “I just realized that I don’t have a hangover. I always have a hangover after more than two glasses of wine.”
Sam sat back in her chair, finished, too. “Neither do I, come to think of it.”
Tess shrugged. “Takes more than that for me usually, but I do feel pretty good this morning for having drank that much and having, uh, interrupted sleep.”
They looked at me. “That might be due to this.” I held up my hand, the one with the Rose Quartz ring on it. Why I hadn’t taken either of the rings off after everything that had happened last night, I couldn’t say. “It has some healing properties, I guess. That’s why I put the rings on last night to begin with. I was thinking about how bad my head was going to hurt today.”
“Why would that affect us, though?” Sam asked.
Thinking about that for a moment, I told her how we were all spooned together when I woke up this morning. “I think it’s like when you were touching me you could see Rand today, and everyone last night. Since there was contact between all of us for who knows how long, you guys reaped the benefits, too. At least, that’s my best guess.”
Toby went to the sliding glass door and looked back at me. As I let him out, I saw Jake reappear and the two dogs took off in a race around the yard.
“I’m going to grab another cup of coffee and head up to shower. Would one of you guys mind letting Toby in after a few minutes?”
As I went upstairs, I heard one of them tell Sam, “I think Roxie’s dog is broken. Look at him out there.” Chuckling to myself, I wondered how Sam was going to explain that one to them.
Chapter 5
Tess and Annie were both gone before eleven, hugging me and wishing me a happy birthday on their way out. Sam and Leo were going out for the afternoon and would probably be gone most of the evening. She offered to cancel, thinking maybe she should be around for my meeting but settled for my agreement to text her as soon as it was over. I told her Rand would be present for it and that seemed to be enough reassurance for her.
Rand showed up again a little after three thirty, looking less spooked than when he had ghosted out this morning. Snickering to myself, I wondered how he would handle ghost jokes. Not that I actually knew any.
“Your friends are sure something,” he said dryly, after he had looked around to make sure they were gone. That was quite a different tone than he had used earlier.
“They absolutely are. I don’t know what I would do without them.” Looking him in the eyes, I dared him to say more.
He wisely chose not to respond to that, changing the subject instead. “Are you going to call them down here or upstairs?”
“I’ve only ever called them upstairs, and usually it’s by accident. I guess it doesn’t matter where we are for the meeting. Why?”
He shrugged. “I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about me being in your room.”
“Let’s see, I’m a forty-one year old woman, first off, so I think we’re good. You’re a ghost, so—well, that kind of speaks for itself. It’s not like you’re going to have a problem controlling yourself, is it? And once you meet Rosemary and her grandmother, you’ll probably wish you hadn’t offered to be in the same room with us, no matter what room it is. Do you need me to continue?” I asked dryly.
“No, I get it. Sorry I mentioned it,” he said, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. “Are you okay? You seem a little prickly.”
“I’m nervous. And I didn’t think I was being prickly. I merely meant to point out to you the fact that we’re both adults, so you being in my bedroom isn’t an issue for me—so long as I know you’re there and you’re not spying as a ghost or anything. That creeps me out.”
He looked surprised and somewhat offended. “That would probably creep me out, too. I’ve said it before, I would never do that. At least, not without your permission.”
“Why would I give you permission to spy on me in ghost mode?” I was genuinely curious about this.
“There might be a time when it could come in handy. I could be a second set of eyes or ears without anyone but you knowing. And, who knows? If you found yourself in trouble again, I’ve already proven myself in that situation.”
He had me there. “You’re right. Sorry about being ‘prickly’. We’ll do this up in my room since that’s where the jewelry, I mean the Items, are. I’m hoping they can answer a few of my questions while they’re here.”
I put Toby outside to play with Jake while we headed upstairs.
“So where have you been for the last few days? You haven’t been
around much.”
“Just in my gray space,” he shrugged. “I’ve had a lot on my mind. Elmer crossing over made me start to think about a few things.”
Alarmed, I stopped halfway up the stairs. “What? Did you change your mind about leaving?”
“Would you miss me if I did?”
“I-I, um, yes, kind of. I mean, yes, I would. You’re a friend–of course, I would miss having you around.” That sounded weak, even to me. I turned and started back up the stairs, not trusting myself to look back at him. “If you don’t mind me asking, what are you going to do?”
“I’m trying to make peace with myself over the event that put me in this position. Like Elmer said, it’s bad karma holding a grudge like that. I had to weigh my need for revenge against . . . other things. And Toby is happy, being here with you and Jake, so he’s pretty much set. But,” he paused, “I’m going to stick around, if that’s still alright with you.”
“Oh, yes, of course.” I was so glad I was facing away so he couldn’t see the relief on my face. “Toby is still yours, Rand, you know that, right?”
“He’s bonding with you, Roxie. He needs to be with people—real people. He’s happier than he’s been in a long time. Seeing him living out of that tiny van with Cruella, being treated that way, was killing me. Being powerless to do anything about it was almost worse.”
Walking into my room, I noted the time. It was nearly four. “I’ve never had a dog before, not even as a kid. I like having him around,” I admitted, finally looking back at him. “What was Cruella’s real name, by the way? I don’t think you ever told me.”
“I don’t even remember. She hit him in the face with the leash before she was even out of the shelter parking lot. He was waiting for her to give him the command to get in the van and was only doing what he’d been trained to do. I gave him the command and he jumped right in, but she was like that with him all the time. I tried to be around as much as possible to head off misunderstandings for him but if he didn’t understand what she wanted fast enough, she smacked him. I was still really new back then and not as aware of what I was capable of as I am now.” His voice was tight, as if he was trying to hold back his anger. “I knocked her plate out of her hand a few times, just so Toby would get to eat some days.”
If he continued, I was going to be crying my eyes out when I called Grandmam and Rosemary. “Rand, I told you before. Toby has a place with me no matter what. I will never, ever, mistreat him, I promise.”
“I know you won’t. How did we get so off topic? Aren’t you supposed to be waving your hands around and mumbling something, right about now?” he asked, waving his own hands around.
Laughing, I asked, “Is that how you think this works? Watch and learn.”
Retrieving Elmer’s–it was still hard to call it mine–jewelry box out of the drawer, I pulled out the two rings I had dropped in there before my shower earlier and slipped them on. As soon as I thought of the two women, they appeared.
“Impressive. So, no magic words, wands, or mumbo jumbo, huh?” he commented. “That was almost disappointing.”
Grandmam and Rosemary looked from Rand to me, eyebrows up. I think that was pretty much their normal facial expression when dealing with me these days. Grandmam sat down on the loveseat without even asking permission. Rosemary turned her attention to Rand, looking him up and down appraisingly.
“Where’d you find this one and why wasn’t he with you last night instead of your girlfriends?” Rosemary asked, nodding her head at him appreciatively. “I think he would have been much more fun to cuddle with.”
It was hard to say whose face turned more red, mine or Rand’s. How I kept my voice steady when I responded, I have no idea.
“And risk frostbite? Um, no thanks, Rosemary.” I quickly introduced them and gave the ladies an extremely condensed version of how we had met and why he was here now.
“I thought he looked a little glowy around the edges. He’s a strong one, I can’t even see through him, hardly. And not too hard on the eyes, that’s for sure.” Rosemary was eyeing Rand like he was a prize bull. I almost expected her to walk around him and smack his rear. As red as his cheeks were, he stood military straight, watching her warily. His eyes cut over to me, unsure of how to react to the brassy woman. As soon as he looked away from Rosemary, she winked at me, and I relaxed. She was just playing with him.
Grandmam had evidently had enough of the show. “Rosemary, leave the man alone. We’ve got things to discuss.” She pointed at me. “Why’s he even here? This isn’t how this is done. Didn’t we discuss this last night?”
“He wanted to be here for this. I didn’t think it would be a problem, being that he’s a ghost and all. Who’s he going to tell? Casper?”
Grandmam looked to Rosemary, who shrugged back at her, shaking her head. Huh. I figured Casper would’ve been from after Grandmam’s time, but not Rosemary’s. Maybe she just hadn’t watched many cartoons.
Time to get back to why we were here and hopefully take their attention off of Rand. “So, what did you ladies find out? And how does it work with these Elder’s? You haven’t mentioned them before.”
“The Elders are our main authority. Whenever there is an issue that may affect either of our worlds or our interactions in it—such as involving people not meant to know about us,” her disapproving look spoke volumes more than her words did, “we ask them for guidance.”
“And what did they say?”
“That you’re an unknown and we need to find out more about you, about where you came from. They want to know who your people are.”
Not sure what to say to any of that, I shook my head. “I don’t know what to tell you. My parents were normal, as far as I know.” Would I have noticed if either of them walked around talking to ghosts? I would hope so. “My dad’s grandparents passed away when I was pretty young, so I don’t know much about them. I don’t remember my mother’s parents at all. I don’t even have any pictures of them.”
“Any siblings? Aunts, uncles, or cousins?” she barked out.
“No, I was an only child. My dad had a sister but she died fairly young, long before I was born. My mom had an older sister, but I’ve never met her. I don’t know if she’s still alive, or where she might be if she is.”
“I think you need to find her and talk to her. Those Items of yours came from somewhere and they are almost always kept within the family, except in extreme circumstances,” Grandmam said solemnly, not needing to mention her own family’s extreme circumstances.
“The last time I heard from Stella, my mother’s sister, was ten years ago. She wasn’t able to attend my wedding, but she did send several gifts. When I sent her a thank you note, I asked her to contact me, but I never heard back from her. My mother was the one that sent her invitation out and I know she used her full name—Estella Devraux—on it. I do remember her sending me a birthday gift one year, when I turned twelve or thirteen, I think. It was a necklace or something, but my Mom took it and refused to let me wear it. After that, I asked about her a couple of times, but Mom always got so upset when I did, that I finally stopped asking. I don’t know if she had any children or not.”
Rosemary spoke up. “That’s the age when most girls start to show signs of having the Sight. So maybe she was sending you your first Item of Power. Though it’s odd that she would send something like that if there was nobody to train you. Also, Items are generally presented in person, so maybe it was just a trinket.”
“Devraux,” Grandmam mused, “that’s not a name from any of the Sighted lines that I know of. Do you know if that was her married name?”
“No, it wasn’t. It was my mom’s maiden name, too.”
“I don’t remember anything in our journals, but it seems like I’ve heard that name before. I’m pretty sure it belonged to an old French line of witches, but last I heard the line had died out.” She studied me more closely, her gaze moving again to my hair. “A witch’s magick always comes from the mother’s lin
es. Using the magicks can change the user, physically, as a witch comes into her power.”
That thought startled me. “Wouldn’t I know if I was a witch, part witch, or whatever? I saw that witch with you in the cemetery. Her face was all weird!”
“There’s no such thing as part witch. You either are or you aren’t. But you’re correct, you don’t look like a witch usually does, nor do you feel like one. Witches all have a different energy, that’s how we know what they are, when they’re wearing a glamour. And you mentioned having a father,” the older woman said. I nodded. “Witches don’t take husbands or mates like the rest of us do. They use a man for breeding and then, like spiders or mantids, they kill them after.” She said this so matter-of-factly, I didn’t know how to respond, at first.
“They eat them?” I finally asked, sickened.
“Not exactly. They absorb their life energy. Maybe they’re more like vampires?” She surmised, turned to Rosemary.
“I only ever encountered the one witch and I’ve never even seen a vampire, so I can’t really add much here. I think Elmer saw a vampire once, though.”
I agreed absently. “He did, I remember him telling me about it. So, what does a witch do with the body when she’s done? How is it that the police or the government wouldn’t know about all of this? I mean, if men were just going missing, that would raise some sort of red flags somewhere, right?” I was morbidly curious about this for some reason, still amazed at how all of these things could exist without anybody knowing about any of it. The fact that I had a father reassured me to no end. It was bad enough being Sighted, but to be a witch, too? Or was it instead?
“People go missing all the time. There are regular people that kill and then dispose of the body. Our world is no different.” She leaned forward. “Like I said, I think you need to locate your aunt and see if she’s part of our world. Maybe she’s Sighted, maybe she’s not, but we need to rule it out, at the very least. We need to figure out what’s going on with you and why you’re so different. You have more power to your magick than you should, especially for coming into it so late in life.”
Seeing Witchy Things Page 5