“That was different,” Justin said, breaking the awkward silence. He rubbed the side of his head where Callie had touched him.
“Mimics are dangerous,” Ben repeated his earlier words. “You have no business fooling around with them.”
Justin frowned, not caring for Ben’s tone or allegations. “Callie’s not dangerous.”
“They’re all the same,” Ben shot back, clearly not caring that he was angering Justin by insulting his friend and colleague. “Even her, pretty little thing that she is. Even with the Imperitas, she’s still too dangerous to be walking around free.”
That only elicited a deep scowl from Justin. “She was under Reed’s control. Once she learns how to harness her ability, she’ll be fine. But no one ever taught her. The people she grew up with were like you – afraid.”
“I am not…” Ben was working himself up for a good fight and Rose didn’t want anything else spoiling her romantic afterglow more than it already had been.
“Enough.” Rose held up her hands to stop both men from continuing their argument. “What’s done is done.” She turned to Justin. “Do you remember what you saw when you fell down the stairs?”
He shook his head. “No. It’s all fuzzy and messy. In time, it might sort itself out, but I can’t be sure.”
Rose nodded in affirmation. “Then we did the right thing by allowing Callie to do… whatever she did.” She pinned her grandfather with a glare that said she wasn’t going to be dismissed easily. “What exactly did she do? And don’t tell me you don’t know.” That earned her a glare in return from the old ghost.
“She essentially copied Justin’s visions into her own mind, temporarily overwriting her own thoughts and personality.” Ben looked as if it pained him to admit even that much.
Rose was shocked that Callie would willingly erase her own mind, even temporarily, and it made Rose wonder why her grandfather objected so much to Mimics. “Isn’t that dangerous? For her, I mean, not the other person.”
“Sure,” Ben replied still clearly agitated about Callie’s presence, “not just for her but for him too.” He jerked a thumb in Justin’s direction as if the other man weren’t even there. “While she was in his mind, she could have messed around with whatever she wanted, done something she shouldn’t.”
Seeing that she wasn’t going to get any real information from her grandfather, Rose turned to Justin. “What is a Mimic? What did Callie just do? Really?”
Justin sank into a nearby chair and while he was still weak from his vision, he did seem willing to tell Rose the truth. “In general, Mimics temporarily absorb powers from another gifted person, like a psychic or a seer. They can also absorb multiple powers at once, allowing for just about an endless combination of powers in one person. The only thing is, it doesn’t last. Whatever powers a Mimic absorbs are temporary.”
“It sounds dangerous. For everyone.” Rose could understand, at least a bit, why her grandfather objected to Callie.
“It can be,” Justin admitted. “If a Mimic lies and absorbs more powers than are needed, for a time they could be unstoppable.”
Rose nodded, understanding dawning. “That’s the reason for the Imperitas.”
“The bracelet puts the Mimic under the control of another person, linking their minds in a way I don’t really understand.” Justin shrugged. The details of magical objects had never been his strong suit. “What I do know is that it’s incredibly risky, at least for the Mimic. While under another’s control, a Mimic could be forced to do all kinds of things and not be able to object or resist.
“Most Mimics refuse to wear an Imperitas, let alone agree to be linked to another person. If the Mimic agrees, then it’s only because he or she has a great deal of trust in the one they’re linked to because if the person in power wanted, they could instruct the Mimic to kill themselves.”
A gasp escaped Rose’s lips. “And the Mimic wouldn’t be able to resist, would they?”
“No,” Ben interjected, having been silent for most of Justin’s explanation, “and all for the better, if you ask me.”
Justin went on as if Ben hadn’t spoken. “The only individual power a Mimic has is the ability to overwrite their own thoughts with someone else’s, like I said before. That’s what Callie did with me. The risk is that, occasionally, it can’t be undone and sometimes a Mimic loses themselves in the thoughts of others, becoming pretty much a vegetable.”
“And touching her fingers to Reed?” Rose was fascinated with everything she was learning and decided that, if she were alive today, she would probably be a paranormal investigator as well. She was also slightly miffed that, despite numerous questions over the years, her grandfather had never told her any of this.
“At the moment, since she’s bound to Reed, Callie can’t absorb anything if Reed doesn’t allow it. Touching him allowed her to access her abilities and then, when they return to headquarters, will allow him to unlock her mind and gain access to my memories. If she’s unconscious, she won’t be able to do that for herself.”
Rose took a few moments to process everything she’d just learned. While Reed, Callie and the Imperitas had no direct impact on her, it only served to remind her exactly how sheltered she’d been in life and how much worse it had become since her death.
Behind her, her grandfather made a sound of disgust. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about this, Rose. Neither of them will be back so put ‘em out of your mind. They’re not important; you are.”
“Don’t say that,” Rose snapped, turning to glare at her grandfather. “First, I like Callie and she and Reed are welcome here anytime. I have power over who comes and goes in this house, not you. Second, they are a part of this since she’s carrying Justin’s new memories. What if the secret to freeing me from this existence, this life, is buried in there somewhere?”
Upstairs in the attic, something had started to change inside Rose the moment Justin had slid himself into her body. She had spent what seemed like an eternity trapped in one place and time. Then, in an instant, Justin had changed her. What had once been acceptable, a sheltered life in this house waiting for her dead husband to return, was no longer good enough. She wanted out; she wanted to be free.
She wanted to either truly die and pass on to the Other Side or, if possible, find a way back to the land of the living. What she didn’t want was to be stuck in this middle ground for the rest of her existence. She just hadn’t known it until this moment. Now that the change had started, however, it couldn’t be stopped. She wouldn’t let it.
Spinning around, Rose raised her arms to the ceiling. “I’m tired of this, of being stuck here while both the living and the dead move on around me. This isn’t living or dying, this is merely existing and I am tired of it!”
Her grandfather frowned at her. “Rose, what has gotten into you? You weren’t like this when I left you last night.” He glanced at Justin who had now recovered enough to stand under his own power. “You did this, didn’t you? I wanted you to find the answers that would allow her to move on, not make her unhappy.”
Justin came to stand beside her, but before he could speak, Rose raised her chin and gave her grandfather a cool look. “I was unhappy before,” she informed him tartly. “I just didn’t know it. Now, though, I know what I want and either way, I will be free in this lifetime. I refuse to wait any longer.”
At first, Rose thought Ben was going to argue with her, but he surprised her when he burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Justin demanded, not liking the old ghost much at the moment.
Ben pointed a finger at both Justin and Rose, his grin wide and somewhat goofy. “I’ll be damned. You two slept together, didn’t you?” He stopped laughing long enough to pull his hat from his head before it fell off. “Rosie girl, some time in bed with your husband always did change your personality, made you a feisty little thing. Some things never change, I guess.”
Mortified, Rose felt herself begin to blush, another decide
dly non-ghost-like trait, and she wished she had the strength of will to disappear back into the attic. The last thing she wanted was for her grandfather to know about her sex life. If she hadn’t already been dead, she would have prayed for death rather than have this conversation with her grandfather.
Chapter Ten
The rest of the day passed quickly, both for Rose and Justin, as teams from Ghosts, Inc. moved in and out of Rosewood House, collecting objects for study and gathering papers that might be important. Once Reed and Callie had returned to Altoona, Mia had made the decision to send in additional teams now, rather than waiting until later when everything had settled down.
As people came and went, Rose generally remained in the attic, not wanting to face more people she didn’t know and still embarrassed by her conversation with her grandfather earlier in the day. Instead, she allowed Justin, who had since recovered after his latest vision, to direct the teams searching for anything that could shed light on her situation.
By early afternoon, however, Mia had called and requested that Justin return to the office to discuss what Callie had seen as she absorbed his memories. His boss was hopeful that somewhere in the twisted mass of images, there was at least one small clue that might help them know where to start.
With Justin gone, that left Rose alone in the house with the other team members, now being overseen by Josh Winston, another investigator and friend of Justin’s. Nothing in Josh sparked Rose’s memories so she decided that he probably wasn’t connected to her old life, just Justin’s present one. Keeping herself invisible, she drifted from room to room as he worked, trying to get a sense of the types of friends Justin now kept.
James had never had many friends. Instead, he’d preferred to keep mostly to himself. The friends he did have, however, had been intensely loyal and she wondered if Justin was the same in that regard.
She was still studying Josh intently when he stood up from desk he had been looking through and addressed the air where she was hovering.
“You can show yourself to me, Rose,” he said gently. “I won’t hurt you.”
Rose frowned, unsure how, exactly, this man knew where she was. As far as she knew, he wasn’t a traditional psychic. Somehow he must have known what she was thinking because she literally jumped at his next words.
“I see dark spirits, Rose, and those that have been touched by them.” His voice was soft, a rich baritone that was barely above a whisper. “After all this time, your spirit still has a faint lavender glow. I can see your outline, even when you’re invisible. Please let me talk to you, person to person.”
Slowly, Rose allowed herself to materialize in front of Josh. She hadn’t been aware that he was a dark spirit hunter. She wondered if her grandfather knew and, if he did, what he thought about Josh being in the house. He hadn’t much cared for either Reed, or especially Callie.
“I’m here.” Rose allowed her body to materialize in front of Josh, secretly wanting to gage his reaction to her appearance. Most people were freaked out when she simply popped into view in front of them. Josh, however, didn’t seem to be the least bit fazed.
Slowly, as if not wanting to frighten her, Josh walked around to the front of her grandfather’s old desk. He learned back against it and studied her, as if she were a zoo animal. It made her a little uncomfortable, but she allowed Josh to look as much as he wanted. It was a new experience for her and she’d decided earlier in the day that she wanted to learn as much as she could about the paranormal and those that investigated such things.
She was beginning to squirm when finally, he nodded. “Just like I thought. Your auras are all battered and tangled. Whatever happened to you was big and it left its mark.”
Rose gave him a look of disbelief, her momentary discomfort gone. This, too, was new information and she was eager to know anything Josh chose to share. “Auras? There aren’t any such things. Grandfather said so.”
“Are you sure?” Josh’s voice was level and even, supremely confident, and Rose faltered for a moment.
“Well, no,” she admitted. “I just haven’t seen them. But I still don’t think they’re real.”
Josh crossed his arms over his chest. “Auras are very real and I see them all. Dark ones, mostly, but I can see all the others, too.” He pulled away from the desk to circle her floating form. “You have several auras.” He frowned again and then traced the air surrounding her with his fingers, as if memorizing the lines and curves. “There’s only one that’s yours, really. The rest are remnants of things that have touched you, made you what you are.”
“What I am is a ghost,” she reminded him.
“But not a normal ghost.” There was no reproach in his voice, just a statement of fact.
Rose couldn’t argue that point so she didn’t even bother. Instead, she tried to change the subject. “Aren’t you supposed to be looking for something that will free me? Some sort of paper or something?”
Josh shook his head. “I can look, but it’s not my specialty. Seeing what others can’t? That is.” He inclined his head slightly. “May I touch you?”
Rose wanted to say no, but the fact that he’d asked permission was so novel that she wanted to allow it. Still the idea of another man touching her went against everything she’d been taught and it somehow felt disloyal to both Justin and James. Still, Josh was here to help and he was Justin’s friend.
“Fine,” she agreed quickly before she could change her mind.
The air seemed to still as Josh approached her. He reached out a hand towards her and Rose saw his touch as if in slow motion. The air around them seemed to still and, as it had in the attic, time seemed to stop. Carefully, slowly, Josh took his time tracing her outline with his fingertips, every so often inadvertently touching a spot on her arm or neck. When his fingertips brushed the back of her hand, she barely felt it. Together, they stood in the center of the library, her not breathing and Josh’s coming in short, shallow breaths. Finally, he took a step back and the spell or whatever had just occurred was broken. Time moved once more.
Pulling in a deep breath, Josh shook his head and Rose could see concern deep in his dark eyes. “What did you see?” She was almost afraid to ask but felt compelled to do so.
“Lots of dark energy, dark magic,” he told her, closing his eyes as if trying to block out what he’d just seen. “Whatever is holding you here isn’t just one thing. It’s a series of things. Your aura is tangled in knots in some places, sheared apart in others so that it looks like fine threads of silk. There are colors in it that I shouldn’t be seeing, not in a ghost and certainly not someone who isn’t paranormally gifted.”
“You mean I look like a rainbow?” It made no sense to Rose but up until a few moments ago, she hadn’t really believed in auras, either.
Josh considered that for a moment. “That’s a good way to describe it, though I can’t explain it.” When Rose allowed her shoulders to slump, Josh laid a hand on her shoulder. This time, however, the world didn’t seem to slow down as it had before. “But we will figure it out.” There was a strong reassurance in his voice. “Now that he’s found you again, Justin won’t let you go. I know him.”
That brought Rose back to her original reason for spying on Josh. “How well do you know him?”
“Well enough, I guess.” Josh leaned back against the desk once more and Rose was struck by the man’s slow, deliberate manner, as if every move was carefully considered. “We’ve been friends for several years now. I didn’t know him too well before I came to Ghosts, Inc., but he’s one of the first friends I made when I joined the staff.”
Rose frowned, unsure how to ask the questions she wanted answers to. Josh, however, seemed to instinctively know what Rose was thinking. “You want to know what he’s like when he’s not in this house, don’t you?”
At Rose’s look of shock, Josh just smiled. “Everyone one on the staff knows how this house affects him, how it made him crazy last night. We’re not a big organization and just about
every team member we’ve got is working on this. News travels.”
She nodded, rather reassured to know that people gossiped today just as much as they had when she’d been alive. “So what is he like?” She wanted to know, needed to know, more about the man she’d just shared one of the most intimate moments of her existence with.
Again, Josh considered his words before he spoke. “Justin is probably one of the most fair-minded people I know,” he finally said. “He believes in hard work. He’s dedicated and loyal to a fault. You might not want to hear this, but he’s also popular with the ladies and his good looks don’t hurt when we’re trying to promote the organization.”
That was about what Rose had expected, based on what she knew. “And his anger?” In her mind, that was what separated him from James, the one thing the universe had changed this time around.
“He gets angry, yeah,” Josh shrugged, “just like everybody else. But not to the point where he can’t control it. Maybe he was like that before, but not now.” Then, Josh’s eyes narrowed, as if he’d had a sudden insight. “James got angry a lot, didn’t he? Made some enemies.”
Rose wanted to deny it, wanted to tell Josh he was wrong, but she couldn’t. Last night, she’d had a vision of an enraged James throwing things and her cowering in fear of him. Earlier, when Justin had nearly fallen down the stairs, she’d had her own vision of James raising his hand to her in anger. She hadn’t told anybody, instead able to cover her confusion with her concern for Justin. But still, it had happened.
Was what she had seen real? She had no idea. She debated about lying to Josh but decided against it. Given his abilities, he would know instantly if she lied. Instead, she just shrugged. “I honestly do not know. Yesterday, I would have told you he would not hurt a fly. Today, my memories seem fuzzy and unclear. I have seen at least two glimpses of a man who cannot control himself.”
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