* * *
“January, January? Wake up! Love, you’re having a nightmare.” Killian’s voice cut through the terror, steady as a rock.
I shot straight up, sobbing as I clutched the comforter to my chest. “Xi! Klaus! Where are you?” I glanced around the room, terrified. Before I could jump out of bed to go look for them, Xi pounced, landing in my lap, and Klaus raised a sleepy head from the bottom of the bed. “Oh thank gods, you’re safe.” I curled over, clutching Xi to my chest as I kissed her head. I had been so sure they were dead that I could barely think straight.
“Sweetheart, what happened?” Killian wrapped his arm around my shoulders, making soft shushing sounds as he pulled me to him. “Xi and Klaus are fine—they’re right here.”
My heart still pounding, I tried to ground myself in the reality of morning instead of the dark tides of my nightmares. As Killian gently stroked my hair, my pulse started to calm, and my breathing slowed. Xi patiently waited until I calmed down before struggling out of my arms and returning down the bed to curl up with Klaus.
“What time is it?” I asked once I could gather my thoughts.
“It’s six-thirty. Do you want to try for more sleep?”
I shook my head. I had no desire to tempt fate and encourage the nightmare to return.
“No, I’m done with sleep for the day. I just want to get up and dressed and reassure myself that the ghost didn’t follow me over here.” I hung my head. “I dreamed it was attacking the cats and me with knives. Or rather, two skeletons were.”
Killian grimaced. “You need better dreams,” he said, kissing my nose. “Get up and I’ll make us some breakfast. Waffles okay?”
I nodded, blowing my nose on the tissue he handed me. “That sounds good. Do you have any bacon?”
“Bacon is a given. All right, you dress and shower—breakfast will be on the table in about twenty minutes.” He let go of me and slid out of bed. Killian usually slept nude like I did, and I couldn’t take my eyes off his naked body. The morning wood was nice and firm, and it made me rethink food.
“Um…it would be just as easy to stop for a sausage muffin on my way to work,” I said, staring at him pointedly.
He caught my drift and grinned. “Are you sure? Waffles and bacon are mighty tasty.”
“We can have breakfast for dinner. Come here, make me forget my nightmare.” I opened my arms and he crawled back into bed, stopping to grab a condom. As I set Xi on the bottom of the bed with Klaus and turned, Killian tore open the packet and wrapped it up. He let go a lusty growl and pounced, rolling me onto my back as he began to nibble on my neck.
I loved oatmeal sex—you know, the sex that came with being comfortable with your partner. Nights were for passion, for roses and wine and losing yourself entirely, but mornings were more about reassurance and reconnection. The sex was always hot, but it felt more caring and fun and lighthearted under the first light of dawn.
Afterward, we showered off together—a quick rinse before dressing.
“What happened last night after I left?”
“Teran packed your bags and I brought them over here. Millie said she’d contact you later today with some questions. She did say that it looked like the room was hit by an explosion. There was only one skeleton, but the bones were ripped apart. The trunks were battered as though they had been thrown against concrete walls, but the walls of the storage room showed no sign of any damage. So whatever happened between the time you found the trunks and when Millie got there is anybody’s guess.”
“I think I’ll ask Tad if I can bring Conjure Ink in on this,” I said. “I have no idea what the hell happened or how that skeleton got there. Esmara knew it was there, but she was pretty sketchy…or rather, vague. For the first time, I’m wondering if she’s telling me the truth.”
“Do you think she would lie to you?” Killian asked.
I shrugged. “Not really. Maybe if there’s a lesson involved, she might? I think I’ll just ask her outright and see what she says. I’m also going to call Rowan and ask for her help.”
Rowan Firesong was my paternal grandmother. Until recently I had thought that my paternal grandmother lived in Scotland, and that she was either too old to contact me, or possibly dead. But my aunt finally told me that Rowan Firesong—one of the oldest witches in Moonshadow Bay—was my father’s birth mother. She had given him to the Jaxsons so they could keep him safe. She was worried that her enemies might target him if they knew who he was.
“That’s a good idea. Why don’t you call her after you get dressed?”
I nodded. “I will. Now, let’s get out of this shower. I’m due at work in about forty minutes.”
He leaned in and kissed me. “By the way, don’t worry about the cats. Teran cast a protection spell on my house last night before she left. She didn’t want you worried that the spirit would try to follow you.”
Relieved and ever grateful, I dried off. After leaving a message for Rowan, asking her to call me back, I dressed in a pencil skirt in rust, an olive green peplum top, and a pair of ankle boots with chunky high heels. Carrying a black peacoat over my arm, I kissed the cats and Killian, grabbed my purse and keys, and headed out for work.
Chapter Six
I bustled into the office, triple-shot latte and sausage muffin sandwich in hand. Dropping my purse and jacket off at my desk, I walked the two yards to the round table that had become our meeting table. Tad, Hank, and Caitlin were already there. Wren hadn’t been at the reception desk in the outer lobby, and she wasn’t in the inner office, so I assumed she was home taking care of her husband.
“Hey, January,” Tad said. Standing five-four, he was five inches shorter than me, and a whole lot skinnier than I was. He was also younger by a decade. But Tad was a genius and Conjure Ink was his baby. He actually ran an umbrella group called Urban Legends, Inc., composed of a number of paranormal research organizations spread throughout the US. We had a communal databank and kept in touch, trading information as needed.
Tad was growing out his hair and it was in that shaggy, almost shoulder-length phase. Now, he had it brushed back into a poor imitation of a manbun. “I’m sorry I had to call you back early—”
“What’s wrong?” Hank asked, staring at me. “I can sense something’s wrong.” Hank was a burly bald man who could have given Vin Diesel a run for his money in the looks department. Hank was our main IT guy, and he was also a master of astral magic. Although he was a chaos magician, he was much more friendly than the majority of chaos magicians I knew about. His friends, Shawn and Dell, provided hired brawn when needed.
Caitlin frowned. “I can smell your fear. What’s going on?” A bobcat shifter, Caitlin was the third member of our team.
I took a sip of my latte. “All right,” I said sitting back in the chair. “Truth is, I’ve run into a serious problem. It involves the renovations I had done. I may need to call you guys in for help.”
“Ghosts?” Tad asked, pushing his glasses back up on his nose.
“Yeah. Also, I seem to have inherited a skeleton.” I told them what had happened. “I’m waiting for Millie to call me. But the police aren’t going to be able to stop whatever’s haunting my house.”
“And you have no idea how the skeleton got there?” Hank asked.
I shook my head. “I didn’t even remember that storage room until the contractors uncovered it. So it had to have been closed off after I left home for college. Which means, my parents had to have known about it. And then come the questions. If they knew about the skeleton, why didn’t they call the police? Who is the dead person and how did they get there?”
“I’m going to ask an uncomfortable question,” Caitlin said. “Do you think they were capable of killing someone?”
I stared at her. I hadn’t even made the jump to murder yet. Let alone, my parents murdering someone. “My parents were pacifists. They…” I ran out of juice. The fact I couldn’t overlook was that the skeleton couldn’t have hid itself in the trunk. Some
body had to lock the body in, and since the clothes in the other trunk most likely belonged to the victim, then somebody also had to undress the corpse and manage to maneuver it into that chest.
“Think back. Did your parents ever mention anything wrong? Did they ever talk about having problems with someone?” Tad asked.
I was about to answer when the outer bell on the reception desk rang. Tad motioned for me to hold that thought while he peeked out the inner door. We kept our main office locked, since we had tens of thousands of dollars of equipment in the storage room. And the storeroom also had a lock. Anyone wanting to steal anything would have to go through three sets of locks—the door to the outside, the inner door, and then the storeroom door.
When he returned, Millie was following him.
I sighed. “Hey, Millie. I was expecting you to call.”
“I was in the neighborhood, so I decided I might as well drop in. Are you in the middle of something that can’t be interrupted?”
I shook my head. “No, not yet. I was just telling them about the skeleton. So, what have you found out?”
“I set the ME on a rush with this. What we know so far: your skeleton was male. It looks like he died to an odd blow to the skull. The ME is still trying to figure out what might have killed him. It looks like a blunt instrument, but the only thing he can come up with so far is possibly a hoe. That seems odd, given he was found inside, but it’s preliminary, of course.”
“Could it have been a fall?” I asked.
“Possibly, but if it was, why didn’t they notify the police—they being whoever found the body. And if he fell, it would have to be backward onto something. Until the ME’s done, we’re holding off on labeling it as a homicide.” She let that sink in for a moment. “So, first, I have to ask you—do you know when the room was boarded up?”
“I told you last night—it had to be after I left for college.” I frowned.
“I know you did, but now I’m asking officially. Please don’t get defensive.” Millie pulled out a digital recorder. “Do you mind if I record this? It makes it easier.”
“That’s fine,” I said, realizing that I was mainly worried that she’d label my parents as murderers. And that was a thought I couldn’t even entertain at this point.
“Millicent Tuptin, chief of police for Moonshadow Bay. This meeting is being recorded on September 15. January Jaxson, do you agree to your answers being recorded?”
I sighed. “Yes, I’m January Jaxson and I agree.”
“Thank you. Now, do you remember when the room off your library was boarded up?”
“As I said, the room had to have been boarded up after I graduated from college and left the area. I do remember it was still there when I came home on the weekends from college. So…sometime after…let’s see…sometime after I turned twenty-two, I’d say. Which would make it around 2002.”
“When’s the last time you remember going in the storage area before yesterday?”
I paused, trying to recall if I’d ever been in there. Then a faint memory crept back. “My mother stored paint in there at one time. I remember one time—I was about seven. My mother asked me to get her the white paint from the storage space so she could touch up a smear on the wall in the kitchen. Actually, several grungy spots throughout the house where we had smashed spiders and flies and so forth. She gave me the keys and told me to hurry.”
“Do you remember if there was anything else in the room besides the paint?” Millie’s voice was steady and reassuring.
I tried to think back, but the memory was hazy. But then an image floated by. “I think…there was an old piano in there. I don’t remember us ever using it, so maybe it was there when my folks bought the house? That’s the last time I remember going in there. After that, my mother and father warned me against it—Dad threatened my allowance if I was caught in there. They kept it locked, but I guess since I’d seen the inside once, the mystery lost its appeal.” I paused. “Being so protective about a storage room doesn’t seem quite normal, is it?”
“I’m not an expert, but it does seem odd to me,” Millie said. “When did that start? Keeping you out of the room?”
I strained, trying to remember. After a moment, I shook my head. “Oh, since I was a little girl. Even back when I was…I think about three or four? I don’t remember being too curious about it—it was what it was, you know? The house was mine to play in, except for that room, and I knew better than to take a chance. My parents were fair and loving, but if they told me not to do something and found out I’d broken the rules, they could be pretty harsh. They didn’t hurt me or anything like that, but I remember being grounded for a month one time when I lied to my mother about skipping school one afternoon. It wasn’t even an important class.”
I paused, worrying my lip until a thought hit me. “Maybe I was so careful because I thought that’s where they hid the presents. Yule and birthdays were always important in our family. You did not search for presents before the holiday. Once my mother caught my father looking at one of the gifts she’d bought him, and boy, did the sparks fly. He ended up sleeping in the library for a week. It had been a fishing pole and tackle box he had wanted for a long time, and he spoiled the surprise when he found it.”
Tad cocked his head. “Your family was kind of weird, if you don’t mind my saying.”
“My family has traditions,” I said, shrugging. “But that has to be it—I got it into my head that they were storing gifts in there and I didn’t want to get in trouble. And if I’d stolen the key from my parents, that would have made it doubly bad.”
“That makes sense in an odd way. Kids often have a slanted way of thinking about things.” Millie stared at her notebook. “So, did your parents ever comment on anything happening—anything odd, or dangerous, or that troubled them?”
I thought back to our conversations over the years, trying to pinpoint any time when I felt myself worrying about them. There had been colds and a broken bone or two, and the news when family members were sick. But nothing stood out. Then another thought crossed my mind.
“You might check with the contractors they used to renovate the kitchen and master bath. The work was done about five or six years ago. I’m not sure who they used, but I can find out. The contractors might remember drywalling over the room. And you can ask my aunt Teran—she was in town all those years. She might remember something.” I shrugged. “That’s about it.”
Millie paused the recording as a call came in for her. As she excused herself, I took the opportunity to eat my breakfast sandwich. Hank, Caitlin, and Tad were all patiently waiting. I was just finishing the last bite when Millie returned to the table. She started the recorder again.
“We might have something,” she said. “Do you remember, back in 1994, your mother or father saying anything about a prowler?”
I stiffened. “A prowler? No…I would have been fourteen that year. Why?”
“Apparently we have a file they opened back then, with a complaint that a prowler was trying to break into the house. The reports were logged in late June, early July 1994.” Millie consulted her notes. “I can access the files if you want to know the details.”
Someone had been trying to break into the house? I thought back to that time period.
“I know why I don’t remember that! I was in camp—Magic Camp. Though my mother hadn’t taken me to the Aseer, I was allowed to go to the Natural Elements Summer Camp. It was a lot of hiking and learning to identify plants, and learning how to find water through divination, that sort of thing.”
“Well, if you want to read those files, come down to the station later today. I’ll be free around four o’clock, unless there’s an emergency.” She folded her notebook closed and tucked it into her pocket, then turned off the recorder.
As she prepared to leave, I asked, “Do you know who the skeleton belonged to? You said it’s a male, but do you know who?”
“No, but there was some hair attached to the skull. We might be able
to lift DNA from it and run it through the databanks to see if there’s a match. We’ll also have a forensic artist use the skull to approximate the looks of the decedent.” She paused. “I know this is all very troubling, especially since you’re having so many problems given the paranormal side of things, but try to relax. We don’t think you’re involved, so there’s no problem there. But we do need to find out who it was, whether they were murdered, and…who packed them away in the trunk.”
I stared at the table. “Right now, you’re thinking my parents might be guilty, right?”
“Right now, I’m not thinking anything. Your parents had to have known about this—that I’m positive of, but I’m not assuming anything else. This is an old case, even if the skeleton isn’t as old as when your parents reported a prowler. We have a lot more current cases to tackle, so this isn’t exactly top of the list.” She shrugged. “I’ll talk to you soon—if you don’t call me first. I’ll get in touch with your aunt Teran. Maybe she’ll remember who did the contracting work.”
“If she doesn’t, let me know and I’ll go through my parents’ old receipts.”
I walked her to the front door, then came back. “So, that’s where we’re at. A skeleton showed up in my house, and now I’m inundated with a nasty ghost. I’m staying with Killian right now.” I paused, remembering my conversation with Rebecca. “By the way, I talked to the imp out in the Mystic Wood behind my backyard. She said something big and nasty has come into the forest, but she wouldn’t tell me what.”
“Wonderful. Just what we need,” Tad said. “We’ll try to help you out. We can take some equipment over after work, if you’d like, and see what we can pick up.”
Hank nodded. “I’m in. I don’t have any plans for the evening.”
Caitlin was free, too, so we agreed to meet at my place at seven.
“Now, down to the case we called you back for,” Tad said. “Remember the case I told you about where somebody thought they saw a devil-like creature out in the woods?”
Harvest Web: A Moonshadow Bay Novel, Book 4 Page 6