Chapter Twenty
Friday Almost
Midnight
Tori and Nyx got ready for the séance.
It felt weird to be doing this in someone else’s home, but they needed more information about Evangeline, and this was the only way to do it. Nighttime was the best time to commune with the dead, and not to mention most of the staff was asleep.
They were on the other side of the house, and that meant privacy.
They were going to need it.
They had to talk to the woman herself.
Tori knew the risk she was taking, but it had to be done. Instead of worrying Julian with it, she was simply going to take one for the team.
After the fact, she’d tell her husband, and then she’d listen to him freak out. Right now, he was buried in a bullshit mess her mother had created. The last thing he needed was this.
Was it wrong?
Yes.
Was it necessary?
Yes.
“Are you ready?” Nyx asked as Tori took a seat across from her. “This might be dangerous.”
She had no doubt it would be.
In fact, she wouldn’t be surprised if it got one, or both, of them hurt. Tori could only cross her fingers.
“Trey?”
“Yes. Victoria?”
“Is she around?” she asked.
“Yes. Don’t. Do. This. She’s. Dangerous.”
Tori didn’t have any choice.
“I’m going to take a little trip to see Trey and Bethany, and then we’re going to get started.”
“You have to get them to vacate you,” Nyx stated as she lit the candles around them. “You can’t carry all three of them. They will burn you out.”
She was aware.
“If they leave you, they don’t have much time to reconnect to another vessel.”
Tori knew what Nyx was saying. If Bethany and Trey didn’t have a place to reside—attached to a medium—they would simply slip away.
She couldn’t live with that.
Honestly, Tori loved them. They were her family. While her father was dead and her mother was a conniving bitch, she had them.
They mattered.
“I’ll be okay. Just don’t let me fall on a candle and catch on fire.”
She laughed. “I think I’ve got this.”
Tori hoped so. One scratch and Julian was going to lose his damn mind.
Tori slipped into the darkness, allowing her body to drift. When she felt herself regain her ability to focus, she opened her eyes.
There stood Bethany and Trey.
“Don’t do it!” Bethany stated. “You can’t channel her. She’s way too angry. Even without having to deal with us too, she’s going to burn you out.”
Tori understood their concern.
Unfortunately, it was too late in the game to worry about that.
“Fine. Then tell me where she’s buried. Then I don’t have to do this. Then we can all go our merry way after we find her.”
They looked at each other.
“You can’t this time. Why?”
Bethany didn’t like it. “There’s something dark covering this one, Tori. We can’t get close to her. She’s cursed.”
Tori needed more than that.
“What kind of curse?”
“The bad kind,” Bethany said, crossing herself.
Tori knew it had to be bad if the two spirits were bound from doing the dirty work for her. Tori relied on them to help her out with a case.
“Okay, let’s refocus,” she said when Bethany began getting twitchy. The dead woman had to be near. She was fading again. There was no doubt that Evangeline was close.
Tori had to move fast.
“When has this ever happened before?” she asked Bethany. Tori knew her brother hadn’t been dead all that long. There was no way he’d have that kind of experience.
He was like Bethany’s muscle.
She was the one handling all the dead details.
“Satanism.”
“Jesus,” muttered Tori. “I don’t think I wanted to know that. This isn’t going to end up good at all.”
Bethany was aware.
“If you push us out, she’s got free access to you. Then we can’t protect you. If we aren’t part of you, we can’t save you if she gets out of control. She’s so strong, Tori. She’s been dead only a little while, but she’s stronger than I am.”
“How?”
“The evil in your world created the evil in mine. She crossed cursed, and she’s haunting this house as a very angry spirit. She only has a death state. If you try to work with her, not in a body, other than yours, you’ll die.”
Tori didn’t like the sound of that.
Her hands went protectively to her belly.
Julian would do more than kill her. He’d divorce her first, then dance naked around her corpse if she let anything happen to her or Veronica.
“What do I do?”
“Nyx.”
“I don’t like that idea,” Tori stated.
“You don’t have a choice. She’s a stronger medium than you,” Bethany offered. “She’s been doing this a lot longer.”
“She’s burned out.”
“She’s not. She’s blocked off. Her mind is protecting her. She has to work through it.”
“So Trey could go back to her.”
“I don’t want to,” he stated. “I want to stay with you and Bethany,” he admitted. “This is where I belong.”
She didn’t want him going, but she didn’t want Nyx carrying the evil darkness while she had the easygoing dead haunting her noggin.
“Are you sure there is no other way?” she asked.
They both shook their head.
“Well shit! I hate this.”
Trey began flickering. Immediately, he moved closer to Bethany to protect her. “Tori, you have to get out of here. She’s coming again. She’s ready. Hurry.”
“Be safe and lay low. We’re going to be okay. Stay with me, and I’ll do my best.”
They had to trust her.
If not…
They were gone forever.
Tori opened her eyes and Nyx was staring at her. The room around the salt circle was cold and she could see her breath.
“What happened?” Nyx asked.
“I have good news and bad.”
She stared at her. “I hate this game.”
Yeah, she did too.
Tori told her what the spirits told her about Evangeline and what was coming.
“I’m burned out.”
“Apparently, not. You’re the only one who can carry her. You’re the stronger medium.”
“Okay.”
“If you do this, Beau is going to be upset.”
“If you do this, you could die. I think Beau will understand,” she said, touching the ring on her finger. “Just promise me that if anything happens, he knows I put this back on, okay?”
“Stop talking like that. We can find another way. I can’t justify saving Lennox to lose you, Nyx. That’s not odds I’m ever willing to take.”
Nyx knew the truth. “We can’t finish this and save Lennox unless we find where Evangeline is buried. She’s part of this. She’s the key, Tori. You know it.”
She did.
Still…
It didn’t make her happy. Tori didn’t want anyone dealing with this, let alone her family.
“Okay, what do we do?” Tori asked.
“I know they said I’m only blocked, but I don’t know how to undo that. I’m going to have to let her possess me.”
“Oh, shit. That sounds bad.”
It was.
“Just take this holy water and salt. If I get weird, or I try to hurt you, douse me. It should work.”
The room around them whipped in a chilly wind.
“She’s waiting for me. I can feel her near.”
Yeah, Tori really hated this. What the hell had she been thinking?
This was a bad idea.
/> “Maybe we shouldn’t…”
Tori didn’t get to finish. Nyx drew her fingers through the salt circle and broke it, allowing the entity to have access to them.
“Nyx!”
It was too late. Her body went rigid, and when she lifted her head, Tori could tell that it was no longer her sister-in-law to be.
It was someone totally different.
“Evangeline?” she asked.
“Where is she?” she bellowed. “Where is the remaining Easton?”
Tori scampered out of the circle and away from the woman. The last thing she wanted was to be within arm’s reach.
“She’s not here. We sent her away so we could talk to you,” Tori stated. “We need you to show us where you are. We want to help you. We want to set you free, but we can’t do that without your help.”
Nyx tipped her heard.
“We will get you justice.”
There was laughter, and it sent a ripple of goosebumps up her arms. While Nyx hadn’t opened her mouth to laugh, it was still audible in the room.
“What kind of spell was used on you?” Tori asked, going for it. She hoped Bethany was right.
“Evil. Dark. I’m trapped.”
“Okay, that’s why we’re here. Who hurt you, Evangeline? If you tell us that, we can start to fix this.”
“The Eastons.”
Yeah, Tori figured that one out on her own.
“Which one?”
“All of them.”
“Lennox too?”
“She was the goal. She is created by them. The Easton men raped me.”
Tori took a step back as she moved closer. This was about protecting her child.
“What did they do?”
“They played sick games. They tied me down. They took my free will and cursed me.”
“Satanism?”
She laughed again, Nyx’s hair billowed out around her in a black halo of silk.
“I need to know what they did to you so we can fix it,” Tori stated.
“Altar. Sex. Masks. They took what they wanted, tied me down, and hid me away.”
Tori felt for the dead woman.
She couldn’t imagine.
If that had ever happened to her, and she died, she would likely haunt the shit out of anyone involved too.
Only, they knew one thing.
Evangeline wasn’t killing the Eastons. While she was trying to terrify Lennox, she hadn’t killed everyone else.
Someone was helping her.
“I want to help you,” she stated.
“There’s no saving me. I’m lost,” Nyx said, as she was possessed by the woman.
Tori knew she was running out of time. There was a thin stream of blood trickling from Nyx’s nose. At some point, she was going to pass out or drop dead.
That worried her. Nyx, while strong, wasn’t indestructible. She didn’t have Trey or Bethany to help her.
This was a bad situation.
Still…
She pushed further ahead.
“Can you show me where you are?” she asked. “If you can take me to you, I can help free you.”
There was more laughter.
Then all the candles went out.
When Tori reached for her phone to hit the flashlight app, she nearly jumped out of her skin when she did.
Nyx was inches from her face, and her hollow dead eyes freaked her out.
“Jesus!”
Tori nearly had a heart attack. “Evangeline! I’m trying to help you.”
Nyx began walking away. Tori didn’t know where the hell she was going, but she only hoped it was to the woman’s burial spot. If she tried to drown Nyx in the pool, like she had Lennox, this was going to suck.
Maybe Julian had been right.
This was a horrible idea.
It was slow moving.
Tori followed behind Nyx, making sure the woman didn’t do anything to draw attention to them. Fortunately, most of the house was asleep.
As they descended lower and lower into the bowels of the estate, Tori didn’t have a clue where they were going. Once, she’d been forced to slide through hidden passages, but she was too big and wobbly to do that now.
They needed this body to be relatively easy to access. Tori couldn’t let Nyx disappear.
As they headed down to the basement level, Tori could feel the chill. She could also see the vapor forming around her. She only hoped that there wasn’t any other spirits hanging out.
Well, ones that would hurt her.
“Trey? Bethany?” she called.
“They are delicious,” answered Evangeline.
It creeped Tori out.
How could it not?
This woman was like a ghost cannibal. Tori didn’t like the idea that she randomly snacked on her brother and Bethany.
It was wrong on so many damn levels.
Then again, it wasn’t as if she could stop it.
Tori let it go, simply not to piss the woman off. That was the last thing she needed to happen.
“Where are we going?” she asked, using her phone as a light for her to see where she was stepping. The stairs were old, stone, and looked to be about one hundred years old.
“To my grave.”
Tori really didn’t like the sound of that.
The only thing that helped calm her down was that she could feel Bethany’s hand touching her hand.
Her spirits were here. They were drained, but they were fighting to stay with her. Loyalty mattered with the dead.
She’d learned that lesson.
The musty smell told Tori that they were definitely underground. They were in a sub-basement somewhere in the big house.
As they headed straight to a wall, Tori didn’t know what they were going to do now. Clearly, they weren’t getting through it.
“Here.”
Tori studied it. “How do we get in there?”
When Nyx turned around, she was a bloody mess. Her nose had bled down her face, covering the front of her shirt. She looked like the victim at a mass murder.
“Jesus.”
There was laughter. “He has nothing to do with this,” Evangeline stated.
“Stop being a bitch. We didn’t hurt you. We’re here to help you.”
“They used me. I gave life. Now I only give death. That would make anyone bitchy.”
Tori didn’t know what to say, but she could hear Trey in her head, warning her that Nyx was about empty.
She was going to die.
“We’ll get you out, Evangeline,” Tori promised. “I’m sorry,” she stated, right before she pulled out the holy water and doused the woman.
Nyx gasped as the spirit vacated her body.
“Jesus! My head,” she said, sliding down the wall to lean against the stone.
“Are you okay?” Tori asked.
Nyx nodded. “Yeah, that was brutal. I don’t think I like doing that with angry spirits who are cursed.”
Tori couldn’t blame her.
“Where are we?” Nyx asked.
“What do you remember?”
She laughed. “Uh, breakfast this morning, kissing your brother goodbye, and lighting a few candles.”
Tori knew that couldn’t be good for anyone, let alone a psychic who had been ridden hard and put away damaged.
She told her everything.
Nyx kept her eyes closed as she tried to regroup and get her balance. If they were in the basement, it was going to be a trek back upstairs.
Maybe Tori would let her sleep right here in the dirt.
That’s about how awesome she felt.
“What’s our plan?” she asked. “Other than some aspirin and bed?” Nyx inquired.
“Tomorrow, we have to come down here and look around. We may have to go through that wall.”
“Uh, Tori, I don’t know if you know this or not, but the killer could be in this house. Hell! The killer could be behind that wall. If you try to break through it, while pregnant, Julian is going to no
t only lose his mind, but he may kill all of us.”
She snorted. “Yeah, I know. That’s why when I said we, what I meant was the men. I have interviews tomorrow, and it looks like you may be joining me.”
“Are there dead people on your interviews?” she asked, rubbing her temples to alleviate the pain.
“Uh, not that I know of.”
“Good. Count me in. I’m at my limit for the dead. They give me a headache. Literally.”
Tori helped her to her feet.
“Let’s get to bed. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow. I can already feel it.”
“Great.”
Tori laughed. “Hey! Next time, don’t let yourself binge on spirits.”
Nyx looked over at her. “You’re not funny.”
“Yeah, I hear that all the time from Julian. I’m beginning to believe it’s true.”
Still…it amused her.
* * * L i t t l e m o o n * * *
It was time to leave his mark.
Yes, the killing was far from over. While the Littlemoons were watching Lennox, he knew there was one-person left who had been part of all of this.
He had to die.
For years, his murder was left up in the air. Honestly, he wasn’t sure what to do with him, but as the Littlemoons got closer and closer, he realized the truth.
He had to go too.
So, tonight, he’d waited downstairs from his office in the shadows of the night. When the man came down, he walked up to him and got ready to do the deed.
The best part?
He’d greeted him with a smile.
That’s all it took.
That twisted grin made him angry, and it had to be wiped from his face.
Oh, the revenge, even against someone not in the Easton Family was sweet.
His blood was spilled.
It was all over.
And when the Littlemoons found him…they would be busy and confused.
To him…
It was worth it all.
* * * L i t t l e m o o n * * *
Delta Falls
One A.M.
He’d been sound asleep.
Before going to bed, he and Lennox were able to sit on the couch and relax. At first, he’d been worried. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to talk about or do.
Forbidden Secrets Page 32