Jonah grimaced. How was that even possible?
“It started with the dream,” Kaylyn explained. “In the hospital after that thing tried to channel me and appear. I couldn’t remember much of the dream until this past week, when things started coming back.”
“You see my mom,” he repeated slowly.
Kaylyn nodded. “Yesterday morning, she was in my bedroom, and I’ve seen her at the house we’re investigating both nights.”
“Your bedroom, but Dad—” It would be impossible for a spirit to cross the wards if his father set them up right.
Kaylyn jerked and stared across the room.
“Kay?” Jonah asked, reaching across the couch.
“She’s uh, here. Says she can get past her own wards if she wants to.”
Jonah stood and looked around the room. He couldn’t see anything—and for a moment, he wondered if the whole damn conversation was some warped invention of his muddled brain. “What? She can’t—”
“She’s right on the other side of the coffee table.” Kaylyn waved her hand. “You didn’t tell me not to,” she spat, shooting to her feet. “And you won’t give me any straight answers, besides I need to explain it to someone. You showed up on one of our videos.”
Jonah grabbed Kaylyn’s shoulders, also not entirely unconvinced that it wasn’t she who had lost her mind. “My mom,” he said again, “if you can see her, why can’t I? Why is she here?”
Kaylyn looked past his shoulder as she spoke. “I think,” she whispered. “I can see her because we’re connected. Whatever I’m experiencing isn’t entirely because of the thing in the hotel. I can still feel and see things that people around me don’t—including her. I think everything that happened in the hotel forged a connection between us. A lot of power was released when we sealed the spirit away; she absorbed some of it, and has been using it to stalk me.” She raised her eyebrow, pointedly looking across the room as she spoke the last bit.
Jonah felt nauseated, and the room swam around him. “She’s...okay?” he whispered.
Kaylyn sighed and nodded. “She says she’s perfectly well. I’m sorry, Jonah. I didn’t mean to come in here and drop a crazy bomb on you. I—”
“I know.” He swallowed trying to quench the dry sensation in his throat and focus on what was happening. “You said she showed up on one of the videos?”
“Well, no one would know who she is. It’s just a shadow, but Gina noticed it and called it into question tonight. We were chasing a noise that seemed to be coming from everywhere. I saw Ida at the end of the hallway and followed her into a room. The timing matches exactly, so it has to be her.” Kaylyn glanced up, as if waiting for a response—but not from Jonah. Then she continued, “I couldn’t exactly explain because you should be the first to know and, to be honest, I don’t even know how to start explaining it all to anyone else. Cole thinks I have a guardian spirit of some sort.”
“How can I help?”
Kaylyn shook her head and threw up her hands. “I just—I’m at the end of my rope. I keep seeing things I don’t know how to deal with.” She squinted and looked around, then frowned. “And your mom disappears as fast as she shows up most of the time.”
“Has she given you anything?”
“The source of the noise we were chasing. Moreover, she told me that if I trust myself, I can see things, but I have no idea what we’re dealing with in that house. And I haven’t exactly had a chance to question her since we have cameras running all the time.”
Jonah sat down, trying to take it all in. “What else is going on in the house?”
Closing her eyes, Kaylyn took a long breath. “Um, mostly things that resemble pranks. Nothing has offered to hurt either me or Cole, we’re just chasing noises. It broke a window. Tonight the water in the sink was electrified—Cole got a shock, but she’s fine.”
“But there was someone attacked?” He remembered the homeowner saying something to that effect, but for all he knew the man could have been exaggerating.
“The owner’s brother, while he was sleeping in the attic—that’s where a lot of stuff happens. Plus, there are temperature fluctuations in the basement coinciding with most of the activity.”
“Hot or cold?”
Kaylyn huffed and buried her face in her hands. She and Cole had probably gone over this information a hundred different ways, and Jonah felt guilty for making her go over them one more time, but that was the only way he knew to help.
“Hot. No strange smells. And we can’t even track down where the house came from, it was moved there in the fifties after the last house burned down. We talked to someone who used to live there, and she said there was always something there that they called Grandfather.”
Jonah chuckled, and Kaylyn gave him a sour look. “Domovik,” he said. “Sometimes referred to as a Brownie, the stories can vary slightly different from legend to legend.”
“You got that from the house being moved?”
“You’re assuming that it couldn’t have been in the original house before it burned down,” Jonah stood and tipped his head so that Kaylyn would follow him to the back of his house, where his home office was nestled under the stairs. He scanned the bookcase, pulled down a book and flipped through the pages until he found the entry he wanted. “They love fire. It’s believed they live in the chimney—”
“The furnace is in the basement, where the temperature fluctuations happen.” Kaylyn’s lips turned up in a faint smile, but her eyes remained flat.
“They’ve also been known to attack people in their sleep and even burn down the house if they’re particularly pissed off.”
Her faint smile quickly disappeared. “So, how do we get rid of it?”
“They’re traditionally protective spirits. Offer him some food during the meals, and he should be quite amiable, probably even helpful.”
Kaylyn raised her eyebrows and blinked several times before speaking. “You want me to call up this family and tell them they should keep the entity that attacked someone, and who keeps playing pranks?”
“As I said, if they make friends, the entity should be easy to live with.”
“Maybe I can take it home with me.”
Jonah shrugged one shoulder—it was as much as he could do without offending his injury. “That could be possible. But, you shouldn’t really refer to it directly when it can hear you—they prefer to be called grandfather or some other honorary title. I wouldn’t go with anything like ‘Sir Ass’ if I were you.”
“Hardy har har,” Kaylyn said skimming the book he’d handed her. “That makes sense and fits perfectly with what Miranda said. She also mentioned something about an offering that had to do with the crop, and a black dog—do you think that had something to do with this Dom—Brownie?”
“Domovik,” he said, correcting her. “It wouldn’t manifest as a dog. A Domovik would help tend the crop, yes—it doesn’t exactly control the crop or how healthy it is.”
“She also talked about her grandpa—her real grandpa—being bitten by a snake and losing his leg, but when we spoke with her, she didn’t seem convinced it was a snake.”
“I’ve also never heard of anything like that associated with a Domovik. Some kind of crop spirit maybe—I don’t have much experience in that arena.” It sounded familiar, but the buzzing in his head wasn’t letting the information surface to a retrievable level.
Kaylyn suddenly jumped again, dropped the book, and put her hand over her heart. “Fuck.”
Jonah reached for her, but she shook him off and picked up the book.
“We’re really going to have to work on your entries,” she said, speaking to an empty space on the other side of the room.
He had a feeling that this was going to take some time to get used to—for everyone involved.
“Mind if I, uh, borrow your office for a minute?” she asked waving the book at him.
He suspected that reading was the last thing she had on her mind, but anything had to be better than s
tanding and watching her talk to empty air. Jonah glanced toward the space where Kaylyn had been looking again—hoping for a glimpse, even though he suspected his chances were null. “I’ll be in the living room if you need me.
Jonah could barely keep his eyes open. The pain medicine made breathing much easier, but it also made doing much else next to impossible. Sleep tugged at his consciousness as his thoughts slowed and turned to sludge, but Kaylyn wasn’t the only one desperate for answers, so he picked up his phone, and punched in the speed dial number for his father’s cell phone.
After several rings, Jonah was about to assume he wasn’t going to get an answer until the phone clicked and a static-y voice filled the line.
“Hi, Dad.” Jonah looked at the clock, remembering he hadn’t even accounted for the difference in time—not that his brain was up to processing even the two-hour difference at the moment.
“Everything okay?”
“If I didn’t have to breathe, everything would be awesome, but.... What do you know about the contents of the envelope you gave Kaylyn?”
“Not much.”
“Not the answer I was looking for. We opened it last night and we’ve been trying to make sense of it all.” There was a long pause as Jonah tried to gather his thoughts. “Did Mom... could she see things?” Jonah already knew the answer, but he wanted to hear his father’s explanation.
“What do you think?”
“I think a lot of the little things she said seemed like more than intuition and guesswork. It always seemed like she should have worked for Aicil, too.”
“It was too dangerous to put her on the front line—although more than a few times she put herself there.”
Jonah huffed; he’d never known a damn thing about his mother participating in any investigation. “So the protection wards and charms... did they have something to do with it?”
“Yes, she was gifted and cursed all in the same hand. I believe that, at times, she had glimpses of what was to come, but never with enough detail to change what would actually happen. Most of the time, we didn’t think her hunches could be possible until we caught glimpses of her vision in what we saw and experienced. If they weren’t too damn vague, they were metaphorical.”
“Did she tell you anything about this? About Kaylyn or whatever’s going on here?”
There was a long silence. “I didn’t realize it until right before I managed to dig up those files and flew out there.”
“Anything else you haven’t told me?” Jonah didn’t mean to sound as grumpy as he did, but he was on his last bit of patience and energy.
“She said you were the only one who could solve the curse. And something about the four who come together—but I’m not entirely sure if that was related, or if she meant the four of you in the hotel room.”
“There were only three of us, Dad. Is that why you came?”
“I thought Kaylyn’s mother might have counted—if Ida’s vision and the events of that night were related at all.”
“Well, if you want to count spirits there were five.” The words slipped out before he realized he’d have to explain.
“Five?”
Jonah laid his head back. “Mom was there, too. Kaylyn has seen her.”
“Is that why you’re asking?”
“I have a lot of unanswered questions at the moment—that was one of the top candidates. I don’t think it’s over—we temporarily stopped the entity, but there’s more. I don’t know for sure, I feel it. There are too many holes. It was too easy.”
“You’re putting a lot on the line to get involved here—your soul, your life, your job.”
“Aside from the latter, I risk those things on every case I work.” Jonah’s stomach sank, “What’s different about this one?”
“Nothing is guaranteed—but if you lose your job, you’re not going to be any help to her, so concentrate on that right now. Lay low and make sure this internal investigation doesn’t turn up anything.”
“I’m playing it safe. Leon is running point for the office and making sure that everything is up to par or better.”
“Kaylyn is there with you now?”
Jonah didn’t know how to answer that. “She needed some advice on the case they’re working.”
“Sounds like a political answer.”
“She’s in my office, probably....” He wondered if one more revelation would be too much for a single evening. “I think she’s talking to Mom.”
“Aside from the accusations I’ve heard floating around, does anyone know about you two?” His father asked, not even commenting on what Jonah considered the most important part of his admission.
“Know what?” The question exploded out of his mouth.
“How close you are.”
Everyone’s subtle accusations pounded at his brain, making coming up with an answer nearly impossible. “I’m not going to push her away, Dad, but there’s nothing for anyone to be concerned about. You know how hard it is to have normal friends outside of the organization. It’s nothing more than that.”
“Keep it that way. They don’t normally push these types of accusations very far, but I believe that with your combined histories, they might. Be careful with this one.”
“I intend to.”
“I was in the hospital, Jonah—I saw her. The alarm when I asked you if you wanted a transfer.”
Jonah knew there was probably more than that behind his father’s suspicion. Something to do with his mother’s visions and whatever the “four” was, but he wasn’t going to make a firm bet on what the message meant until he knew damn certain.
Chapter 17
Kaylyn squinted toward the apparition as Jonah left and closed the office door. She’d been trying to hold back her outburst for his sake, but she was tired of all the mystic-y mumbo jumbo. “Why on earth don’t you tell me what we’re dealing with? You’ve been hanging around the house I’m investigating and—?”
“I’m not omnipotent. And, as you explained earlier, I’m connected to you—I really only know what you know. And I can’t be around all the time.”
“All of this is exhausting and frustrating.” Kaylyn nodded and dropped backward against the wall. “Why exactly are you here?”
“To help, if I can. We have similar abilities, Sweetie. Or, had in my case, I no longer experience things as I once did. But you are still very different, I can guide you in general issues, but I’m afraid you have to find the bigger answers on your own.”
“So, is this all some big game of fate?”
“There are always choices. Multiple paths—many of which may lead to the same destination, but it’s impossible to predict. Not even the clearest visions are foolproof.”
Foolproof, it was ironic that now Ida used the same word that Valence had used during the meeting when he questioned the tactics of Jonah’s family. But then again, she had appeared half way through the meeting, so Kaylyn had no idea how much she’d heard. “Then....” Kaylyn attempted to latch on to it all, but couldn’t find the words through her frustration. She wanted guidelines, steps to follow. Abstract “maybe’s” weren’t promising when it was her life on the line.
“I can only give you the information you need to make your decisions, but you mustn’t come to rely on me. We have no idea how long I’ll be able to help you and, what’s important is that you learn to trust your own instincts. Build on that. Letting me give you the answers won’t help in the long run.”
“So, when Jonah gave me the answers?”
Ida smiled. “Sometimes the best instincts involve knowing who and when to ask for help. You have to trust your team. In the long run, they’re the only people who will keep you safe.
Jonah was a lucky guy, and it was no wonder he made a great leader. She also thought she understood Ida’s request—Kaylyn keeping an eye on Jonah, meant Mommy could tag along, too.
“Okay,” Kaylyn whispered, relaxing as her anger subsided. “I guess I can live with that, but you didn’t seem to have a
problem with pushing me into opening that envelope.”
Kaylyn’s phone buzzed, so she slid it out of her coat pocket and checked the screen.
Cole: Corn wolf in the garage. When you coming back?
“Corn Wolf?” she said aloud.
Ida made a noise that made Kaylyn’s toes curl in her boots.
“It’s a field spirit—and not a particularly pleasant one, but....” She trailed off, tilting her head to the side and disappearing.
Kaylyn smacked the book against the outside of her leg. There were nearly as many books stuffed into this room as there were around the office, and she didn’t have all night to find the right one and track down the information. Jonah it is, then.
She found Jonah in the living room, stretched out on the couch with his feet propped up on the arm. “You look comfy, boss.”
“Looks can be deceiving. Did you find what you need?”
“Cole says they saw a Corn Wolf in the garage.”
His apathetic face morphed, becoming tense and hard, but he didn’t sit up.
“That’s all I know,” she said, throwing her hands up. “Your mom said it was a field spirit and disappeared. And I get the sneaking suspicion, Cole is going to win our bet.”
“Bet?” Jonah’s eyebrows twisted even more then he shook his head. “A Corn Wolf promises a good harvest each year in exchange for a portion of the harvest that is laid to waste in offering. And—”
Kaylyn cringed as Jonah started to force himself up, the movements looking torturous at best. She moved forward to offer a hand to help, but the glare she received, had her backing away just as quickly.
“And,” Jonah continued when he was upright, “I’d suspect that might be the origin of the grandpa’s mysterious ailment. The only case I’m familiar with was discussed at a conference a few years ago. After a few generations, the family decided to cut back the area laid to waste in order to increase profits, and it seemed that similar bad luck—including inexplicable injuries, plagued the family until the entity was dealt with. If they only had the one injury, I’d say they got off easy.”
Beyond the Divide (Fractured Legacy Book 2) Page 15