by Ally Blue
“Barn.”
“Okay. I have the washhouse.” Andre flashed a grin as he started his tape. “Here we go!”
Sam laughed in spite of his stormy mood, started the barn tape and settled back to watch.
The morning dragged by. Sam had a hard time keeping his attention on what he was doing. His mind kept running in endless circles, replaying that one electric kiss over and over again. The satin softness of Bo’s lips, the slick warmth of his tongue against Sam’s. He wanted that kiss again so badly it hurt.
The hell of it was, he knew Bo wanted it too but wouldn’t allow either of them to have it.
When the tape came to an end, Sam shut it off with a sense of relief. He yawned and stretched. “Well, that was a waste of time.”
Andre glanced over at him. “Nothing, huh?”
“Not a damn thing. Just you and Amy talking.”
“Hey, that’s enough entertainment for anybody.”
“Andre, you and Amy are great people, but take my advice and keep your day jobs.”
Andre roared with laughter. “Smart ass. Bet your movie’s not any better.”
“Probably not.” Sam gestured toward Andre’s tape, which had just stopped. “Did you find anything on that one?”
“Nope. Lots of Cecile pretending to talk to ghosts, lots of David ragging on her and her getting mad at him, but nothing unusual.”
“Shame. I was kind of hoping we’d find something.”
“You and me both.”
Sam took the barn tape out of the VCR and started rummaging through the bag for the nursery tape from the day before. “Wonder what was up with David and Cecile this morning?”
“Hell, after last night, I’m not surprised.”
“Last night?” Sam frowned, trying to recall anything other than Bo. He had a vague recollection of David and Cecile sitting together talking, but that was all. “What happened?”
Andre gave him a strange look. “You mean you didn’t notice?”
“Guess not. What, did they get friendly?”
“You could say that. Cecile was pretty cool after she pulled that giant stick out of her ass. Smart and funny. David started getting that look in his eye, they got to talking and eventually they left together.”
Sam raised his eyebrows. “Really?”
“Yep. I can’t believe you didn’t notice.”
Sam pretended to fiddle with the video equipment in order to hide his blush. “Bo and I were busy talking shop. I got pretty caught up in it.”
Andre chuckled. “Bo does the same damn thing. When he gets in a conversation about a subject he’s interested in, a herd of elephants could march through the room and he’d never see it.”
A heavy feeling settled in Sam’s chest. He’d recognized that look in Bo’s eye the night before. The look that saw only him and excluded the rest of the world. He knew Bo must’ve seen the same look in his eyes.
If one of us was a woman, everyone else would’ve noticed, he thought with surprising bitterness. It bothered him that the world at large didn’t recognize his desire, and he wished it didn’t.
“Hey, guys!” Amy said, breezing through the door with a small audio recorder in one hand and a thirty-five mm camera in the other. “Did we catch anything?”
“Not yet.” Andre pulled Amy onto his lap, equipment and all, and kissed her. “What about y’all?”
Bo and Amy had spent the morning sweeping the upstairs rooms with still cameras and handheld audio recorders, while David and Cecile did the same in the outbuildings.
Amy shrugged. “Who knows? We’ll have to listen to the tapes and develop the film.”
Sam felt Bo enter the room, his presence raising the hairs on Sam’s arms. Sam glanced sidelong at him, and didn’t know whether to feel triumphant or terrified when he caught Bo looking back. Bo turned hastily away, cheeks going beautifully pink.
“So, how’s it going?” Bo clapped Andre on the back, studiously avoiding Sam’s gaze. “How far have y’all gotten?”
“We just got done with the barn and the washhouse,” Andre answered. “Not a damn thing so far.”
“Okay. Let’s all take a break for lunch, then we’ll switch places. You and Sam can take the cameras and audio recorders around the downstairs while the rest of us review potential evidence.”
“Did anything happen in the nursery this time?” Sam asked, congratulating himself on sounding far more collected than Bo did.
Bo looked straight into his eyes, shoulders tense as if it were difficult to do. “No. Of course we didn’t have the thermometers or EMF detectors, but we didn’t feel the temperature drop, and we didn’t experience anything unusual. We’ll just have to wait and see if we caught any EVPs.”
“Electronic voice phenomena,” Cecile said as she and David came in. “Right? David’s been explaining it to me.”
“That’s right.” Bo arched an eyebrow at the pair standing much closer together than they would have twenty-four hours previously. “I’m very happy to see you two getting along so well.”
David grinned. “Beats the hell out of arguing all the time.”
Andre leaned forward, resting his chin on Amy’s shoulder. “Cecile, can I ask you something?”
She looked nervous, but nodded. “Sure.”
“Are you really psychic, or what?”
“Of course I am.” The room went quiet. Sam could see Cecile’s face closing up. “You don’t believe me.”
“It isn’t that we don’t believe you.” Bo darted a warning look at Amy. “It’s just that some of the things you’ve said and done have been a little…well, over the top. To be perfectly honest, it’s the sort of thing that experience has taught us to treat with a healthy dose of skepticism.”
Cecile stared resolutely at the floor as Bo talked. In the tense quiet that followed, she raised her face, and Sam was startled to see tears gathering in her eyes.
David laid a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, Cecile—”
She jerked away and stalked out of the room without a glance at any of them.
For a space of seconds, no one spoke. Amy broke the silence with a heartfelt sigh. “Great. Now I feel like a heel.”
Crossing his arms, David glared at Andre. “Why the hell’d you have to ask her that? Christ, Andre.”
Andre’s mouth fell open. “What? Hey, you’re the one who’s been bitching about her being a fake!”
“Yeah, well, maybe I changed my mind.”
“Changed your mind. Right.” Nudging Amy gently off of his lap, Andre stood and leaned toward David. “If you did, it’s only because you got in her pants.”
David’s expression turned stormy. “That’s not it, and you damn well know it. You’ve got no reason to say something like that to me.”
“And you, my friend, have no right to bust my balls just because you’re thinking with your dick.”
“Stop it!” Amy shouted. She planted herself between the two glowering men, blue eyes shooting sparks. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that the two of you have better things to do than fight like a couple of first graders. You”—she poked David in the chest—“obviously feel guilty for being so nasty about Cecile before you got to know her. Whatever, just don’t take it out on the rest of us. And you”—she whirled on Andre before he could say a word—“don’t be so damn juvenile. David’s never let emotions destroy his objectivity about anything. You know him better than that.” Amy stepped back. “Now kiss and make up.”
Sam watched, amused, as David and Andre grinned sheepishly at each other. “Sorry, man,” David said holding out a hand. “Didn’t mean it.”
“Neither did I. C’mere.” Ignoring David’s outstretched hand, Andre wrapped both arms around David and hugged him hard.
“Watch the ribs!” David wheezed as Andre lifted him right off his feet. He laughed breathlessly when the larger man set him down again. “Damn. I’m gonna start calling you Bonecrusher.”
“Someone should probably go talk to Cecile,�
� Amy suggested. “The least we can do is hear her out.”
“Now who’s feeling guilty?” Andre teased, tugging on Amy’s hair.
“Yeah, I know,” Amy muttered.
“David,” Bo said, “do you believe her now? Is she really psychic? Because if she is, we need to figure out how to make the best use of her talents. This is a very unusual house, we need every investigative tool we can get.”
“I think,” David answered, speaking slowly, “that she does have some kind of psychic ability. The thing is, it’s more in terms of sensations and intuition than actual communication with spirits or anything like that.”
“Meaning what exactly?” Bo leaned against the table. “Are you saying she dismisses what she feels because it’s not concrete enough for her?”
“You’re partly right.” David brushed a smudge of dirt off his knee. “She trusts what she feels, and believes in it, but she doesn’t think it’s concrete enough for other people.”
“Oh!” Amy exclaimed. “So, she thinks people expect her to see and hear specific things, like talking to ghosts, so that’s what she does?”
David smiled grimly. “Bingo.”
“And she told you all this?” Bo seemed fairly impressed.
David shrugged. “Not in so many words, no. But it wasn’t hard to figure out once I got her talking.”
“Has she felt anything strange here at Oleander House?” Sam asked. He didn’t have to look to know that Andre was wondering the same thing.
“Funny you should ask. We were talking about this place last night in b…” David stopped, cheeks flushing pink. “After we left the parlor. She told me that she doesn’t feel comfortable here. She said she feels on edge all the time, like if she turned around, there’d be something standing behind her.”
A chill raced up Sam’s spine. He glanced at Andre, and saw his own horrified fascination mirrored in Andre’s face. I don’t want to be psychic, Sam thought a little frantically.
Bo pushed away from the table, a determined expression on his face. “I’ll go talk to Cecile. Y’all go on and grab some lunch. There’s stuff for sandwiches in the fridge.”
Andre leaned toward Sam as the group followed Bo out the door and trooped toward the kitchen. “Are we psychic, you think?”
“Christ, I hope not.”
“Me too.”
Their eyes met, and they shared a moment of perfect understanding. Sam had felt strange things before when others hadn’t, heard and seen things that others didn’t, but he’d always assumed he’d simply been in the right place at the right time. He’d never considered the possibility that he might have powers of perception other people didn’t have. The half-curious, half-cringing expression in Andre’s eyes said he’d just had the same revelation about his own experiences.
Amy turned and gave them both a concerned look. “You guys okay?”
Andre smiled and wrapped an arm around her neck. “Yeah, babe. We’re fine.”
Amy beamed up at him, slipping her arm around his waist. Andre shot Sam a quick glance over his shoulder, and Sam remembered what the other man had said the night before. We’re gonna have to pay close attention to everything. I don’t think anybody else can feel it like we can. It was still true. Cecile, in spite of what David had told them, clearly hadn’t felt the same level of malice he and Andre had.
She hasn’t spent time in the nursery yet, whispered a little voice in Sam’s mind. That’s where you felt it, and she hasn’t been there. No telling what she’d sense in that room. Maybe she could even bring it out of hiding.
The thought was at once terrifying and intriguing. “Maybe,” Sam muttered out loud.
“What?” David dropped back to walk beside him. “Didn’t catch that.”
Sam smiled. “Just talking to myself.”
David grinned and slapped him on the back. “Better watch that, Sam. People might think you’re crazy.”
Remembering all the things he hadn’t told people over the years for that very reason, Sam laughed. “Don’t I know it.”
Chapter Seven
Bo and Cecile still hadn’t come downstairs when Sam and the others finished lunch an hour and a half later. After a quick discussion, they decided to continue the day’s work. Sam and Andre cleaned up the remains of the meal then headed off to sweep the downstairs with still cameras and audio recorders. Amy and David returned to the library to review video and audio. By unanimous consensus, the group agreed that everyone should keep their radios on at all times. Sam was relieved. The idea that his jumpiness might have a physical cause spooked him, and keeping everyone connected by radio seemed like a good safety precaution.
Sam followed behind Andre, snapping photos every couple of minutes. He could hear Andre asking questions of the space around them, but he wasn’t really listening. His mind was racing. Wondering for the first time if he could sense things others couldn’t. If he could do things others couldn’t. It was a disturbing idea.
They’d just finished the dining room and moved into the parlor next door when Andre switched off the small audio recorder and frowned. “Hey, Sam?”
“Hm?” Sam took a picture of the arch into the foyer.
Andre was silent for a long time. Sam gave him a curious look. “Andre? What is it?”
Andre’s expression was troubled. “Is this freaking you out? That we might be psychic?”
Sam drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Yeah. I don’t like thinking that maybe I can sense things other people can’t.”
He didn’t voice the half-formed fear niggling at the back of his brain. The fear that maybe it didn’t stop with sensing things. The vision of his first kiss haunted him like it hadn’t done in years. Bruises and raw, bloody furrows appearing like magic on the skin of the boy’s chest.
Sam never again wanted to see that level of terror in another person’s eyes, especially if he was the cause of it. Once was more than enough.
Andre fell silent, staring into the middle distance. After a moment he turned the recorder back on and started asking questions again. What are you, what do you want, are you dangerous? All the mysteries they wanted answered.
Sam’s guts twisted when Andre asked whatever inhabited the unseen dimensions of the house to give them a sign of its presence. “Andre, don’t.”
“But we have to…” Andre broke off, going stock-still. “You feel that?”
Sam nodded, unable to speak past the mingled fear and anticipation rising in his chest. It wasn’t as strong as before, but it was definitely there. That sense of a strange presence, a mind so alien they could never hope to understand it.
The hairs on the back of Sam’s neck stood up as something cold rushed past him with a vibration he felt deep in his bones. Fighting to keep his composure, he turned in a slow circle, taking one picture after another. He nearly jumped out of his skin when Andre’s hand landed on his shoulder, but it seemed to dissipate the almost palpable malice and suddenly Sam could breathe again.
He gave Andre a shaky smile. “Please tell me you got that on the audio.”
“I think so, yeah.” Andre ran a hand over his close-cropped hair. “What the fuck, huh?”
Sam shook his head. “Whatever it was, it was just like before, only not as bad.”
“Right.” Andre grinned. “Okay, that was interesting. Ready to move on?”
“Sure,” Sam answered with more confidence than he felt. “Let’s do it.”
Sam and Andre spent the next couple of hours methodically going through the rest of the downstairs rooms. Mudroom, sun porch, foyer, servants’ quarters. Sam found the routine of the investigation comforting. By the time they reached the library, he’d stopped tensing every time Andre asked the thing they’d sensed to show itself. Nothing further happened, and Sam couldn’t help feeling a profound relief mingling with his disappointment.
When they entered the library Amy and David both looked up at them. Both wore headphones, David listening to audio from that morning and Amy watchin
g the video Sam had shot the previous day in the outdoor kitchen. Amy’s bright blue gaze followed Sam around the room. The cool, appraising look made him nervous.
Sam glanced at the TV over Amy’s shoulder as he passed behind her. She was almost to the end of the tape, Sam realized. On screen, Bo laughed at something Sam had said. Those dark liquid eyes burned with a hunger his laughter couldn’t disguise. Sam saw the tension in Amy’s shoulders, the tightening of her hands on the arms of the chair, and knew she’d noticed. He forced himself to keep moving in spite of his shaking legs.
“Okay, guess that’s it,” Andre said a few minutes later. He switched off his recorder and thumped Amy on the shoulder. “Hey, babe.”
“What?” Amy paused the video and tugged the headphones off. “Couldn’t hear you.”
Andre grinned at her. “We’re done with the downstairs. Are you finished watching that tape yet?”
“Just this minute, yeah.” Amy stood and stretched.
Sam shuffled his feet nervously. “Did you see anything? On the tape?”
Amy gave him a needle-sharp look. “Like what?”
“Babe, what do you think we’re here for?” Andre bumped her shoulder with his arm. “Ghosts. Spirits. Otherworldly critters. That sort of thing.”
Sam, who knew exactly what Amy had seen, wet his dry lips and managed to speak without his voice shaking. “We had that EMF spike early on, remember? I mentioned it yesterday. I didn’t see anything while I was filming, but you never know.”
“Guess that’s true, huh? You never know what you’re gonna catch on tape.” Amy held his gaze a moment longer. Sam got the message. She’d seen the lust in Bo’s eyes, seen the way Sam followed Bo’s every movement with the camera, and she knew.
The thing that shook Sam like an earthquake was that she didn’t seem surprised. Angry? Yes, a little. Disapproving? Definitely. But not surprised. There could be only one reason for that.
Amy must know that Bo was gay, or at the very least bisexual. How long she’d known, Sam had no idea, but it had to be for a while. She’d known Bo for years. Had she seen that look in Bo’s eyes before? The hot glow that needed not a woman’s soft curves to sate it, but the hard, rough touch of another man?