“I’m very sorry for your loss,” the MacGregor said in a low, respectful voice.
Dar glanced over his shoulder to the dead man and then nodded. “Thank you. Dad’s in a better place now.”
“Rory?” a voice bellowed from the phone.
Rory nodded sympathetically as he lifted the device to his ear. “Aye, I heard ya, Uncle Angus. I don’t want ya to worry. Malina is in good hands. We’ll sort this out, I promise. Ya stay with your wife. Don’t interrupt Aunt Margareta’s—ah, treatments.”
Rory disappeared into Malina’s hospital room.
Dar backed away, keeping his eyes on Malina’s door as he moved down the hallway. Eventually, the warlocks would have to deal with their possessed house and would leave Malina with less of a magickal guard. All he had to do was be patient and wait.
Chapter 6
Malina jerked the needle out of her hand and flung it aside. How was it her family put her in a hospital for mortals? For a moment, she thought it might be a prank. Mischievousness ran in the bloodline and Euann would want payback after she tore apart his car and didn’t put it back together again. When she saw the set of brake pads on her stomach, she was sure of it.
“Ha, ha,” she croaked before clearing her throat. “Very funny.”
Malina gripped the brake pads with one hand as she kicked her legs to free them of the sheets. Bare feet hit the cold tile. She yanked at the various wires stuck to the adhesive pads on her skin. The heart monitor alarm sounded, and she shut it off with a wave of her hand. She stumbled toward the door. Her calf muscles were stiff, and her movements lacked grace.
As she reached for the doorframe for support, the soft sound of Dean Martin singing ‘Sway’ filled the room. Malina inhaled sharply as a deep pain filled her chest. She dropped the brake pads and pressed her fist over her heart. Gasping, she said, “Turn it off.”
“Is that any way to greet the love of your life, darling?” The words could have been anything. It was the voice that further choked the breath from her lungs. The tone rushed over her like the remnants of a nightmare. She looked at her hand seeing blood marring her flesh where the I.V. was yanked from her skin. It pulled a fleeting memory from deep inside her mind, another time when blood had splattered her. The image was gone before she could hold on to it. She felt the human drugs in her system, blurring her thoughts and dulling her reactions.
“No.” She pressed her eyes tightly shut and shook her head in denial, willing the ghost to disappear. She remembered the hauntings at MacGregor mansion. There had been so many of them, but she never expected him to be one. “Leave me in peace spirit.”
His laughter rose over her, piercing the fog of her thoughts. He sounded so angry. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. Leaving is your trick, doll face, not mine.”
“This is a cruel game, and I will not listen,” Malina could barely get the words out. They were nearly inaudible. She again reached forward and placed her hand on the metal frame, ready to leave. “My brothers have gone too far, summoning this delusion. This is only a memory spell that Erik cast as payback for the love potion I tricked him into falling under. He doesn’t know what he’s done. He didn’t know about you. I never told them.”
“That hurts, baby,” he pretended to act wounded.
“You’re dead,” she insisted, willing him to leave her. “You’re not real. You’re not real. You’re not—”
“If I’m merely a delusion, then why won’t you turn around?” The voice drew closer. It couldn’t be him. Not him. “Not that I mind the view through the hospital gown. I see you never got around to having that mark removed.”
Malina couldn’t be bothered to cover her naked ass. She peered at her feet and dropped her hand from the door. Slowly, she rotated, keeping her eyes down-turned. Her heart beat in painful thuds, and she still found it hard to breathe past the fear building inside her. The dizziness in her brain invited her to black out, and she dearly wanted to accept that invitation into oblivion. Her hands shook violently.
The song didn’t stop. The memories it tried to evoke had been long suppressed and locked away. She was now too terrified to look at them again.
Malina’s gaze went to where an old handheld cassette player sat on top of the disheveled bedding. She stared at it, willing the device to stop. Her magick caused the song to slow and morph as the cassette tape malfunctioned. Finally, it popped, and the ribbon flowed from inside the recorder.
“That wasn’t very nice, doll face.”
She saw his feet first—polished shoes and finely tailored suit pants. The delusion was perfect down to every last detail. Hints of strong legs beneath fine fabric were like looking into the past. She knew her eyes would find the slim fit suit jacket and skinny tie. The lapels would be exactly two and a quarter inches wide, measured and cut by hand. The pain became worse as a ruby glinted on a masculine finger.
Her gaze stayed on that hand, knowing that ring. Her family’s ring.
Malina was a coward. She couldn’t meet the apparition’s gaze. “You can’t be here. You’re dead.”
“You won’t look me in the eye. You won’t say my name. You won’t even drop the fake accent.” He clicked his tongue. “I think we both know I deserve better than that.”
“You’re dead, Dar,” she countered. “There is no cure for that. You should move on to whatever is waiting for you.”
His fingers twitched, and she took an involuntary step away from him. Once they began to move, she couldn’t get her legs to stop. She backed her way through the door, still not looking at his face.
“You never believed in luck, did you, doll face, even as you tried to steal all of mine,” Dar called after her. “But you will.”
She hurried backward down the hall, stumbling as she hit a cart. Her eyes focused on the hospital room door. Dar appeared, holding his broken cassette recorder. He tucked it into his front suit pocket, and she could no longer avoid seeing his face. She panicked and magick blasted from the tip of her finger, shooting a small burst into a nearby outlet. A pop sounded and smoke began to curl up the wall.
In that brief moment, the past came back to her in a magickal wave, unfurling with the smell of smoke. Brown eyes reminded her of a different time when she had been a different woman. The loud blast of horns and drunken laughter came at her in a chaotic rush. More smoke than could be produced by an outlet curled from the hospital floor, bringing with it glimpses of a time long buried.
“Confess,” a voice whispered. It was his voice coming out of a locked box in her memory. She thought to feel the tickle of breath on her neck. She had heard him before she’d seen him for the first time and she’d felt his words as if they’d just been spoken. They’d sent a chill through her, low and powerful, setting off her magickal alarms even as it lulled her to the danger it clearly offered. Las Vegas in 1960 had been a wild time, full of wealth, parties, music, and private retreats in the desert. Malina had been in the middle of it all like a movie star minus the movie.
“Confess what?” Malina mouthed what she’d said in the past.
He’d turned her around from the bar to look at him, into those soulful brown eyes, into that handsome face. Cold liquor spilled on her hand, but she didn’t care. The chill now crept up her arm as if something so insignificant needed its place in this madness.
“Confess that you know in this very moment you’re in love with me,” he’d said.
She should have slapped him for touching her arm. She should have run. Instead, she’d kissed him. Even now the pressure of his mouth was imprinted on hers. The smoke cleared from the hospital ward and the drunken party faded. The present took its rightful place as it forced the past back where it belonged.
“I knew tonight was my lucky night,” he’d said when the kiss broke. The memory of it echoed one last discharge from her locked memories.
“I don’t believe in luck,” she said aloud to Dar standing before her.
Just then, the overhead lights glowed brighter and then di
mmed before the power suddenly went out. A second passed before the backup generator kicked on. Red lights replaced the white. Dar had vanished.
“Malina?” Euann’s voice came from behind. “What are ya doing out of bed? Where are the nurses? Why did ya take out the plug-in?”
“Get me out of here,” she demanded. “I don’t know what game this is, but I’m not amused.”
“Malina, ya should get back in bed. You’re very sick.” Her brother tried to take her by the arm.
“What is this spell? Was it you because I tore apart your car? Or Erik paying me back for slipping him the love potion? Where did he find such a powerful memory spell? I don’t believe in luck, and this is not lucky and…”
Euann shook his head in denial. “Malina, you’re not making sense. I need ya to hear me. You’re sick. You’re human sick. The doctors said your heart is weak and—”
“What? Human sickness? Are you listening to yourself? That makes no reasonable sense.” Malina took a deep breath, not liking the seriousness of Euann’s expression in the eerie glow of the red light. “I don’t know what’s happening here, but I’m not suffering from a weak heart. If only it were that easy. Someone is bringing back the dead to haunt me, or us, or just me.”
The overhead lights flickered as the main power came back on.
“A few ghosts haunting the mansion will be easy enough to deal with,” Euann assured her. “They’re dead. There is not much they can do. Cait thinks they followed the lost part of Elspeth’s spirit when she reentered Donna. Ya know Uncle Fergus isn’t the best with his spells.”
“They’re not just in the mansion.” Malina started to lift her hand to her head, only to stop and nod back to her room. “They’re here too.”
“In the hospital? That would make sense, Malina. This place has seen a lot of death. I guess if I can’t convince ya to stay, then I should take ya with me. We broke into Lydia’s house and are crashing there. They won’t be back from the trade show for at least a week, so the place is empty.” Euann gestured for his sister to walk with him as he ushered her from the hospital. Whenever they passed someone, he lifted his hand, magickally blocking them from being noticed. “Da offered to fly back.”
“No,” Malina said. “He should stay with ma.”
“That’s what we told him,” Euann assured her. “Cait decided that until we know what’s happening, we shouldn’t call the others home in case there’s a real threat. I don’t think there is, but Cait’s an elder, and there is no arguing with her on it. She’s worried about ya. I told her ya are a strong lassie, even for an English rose.”
Malina tried to hold the back of her gown closed as they passed and air vent. Euann stopped to borrow a wheelchair for her. She thought about protesting but knew they’d make faster time with him pushing. He stayed silent as he wheeled her through the lobby out the front door. The snow had melted from the sidewalks, and the warmth of the sun made a peculiar contrast to the slushy white on the grass.
“Where’s your car?” Malina asked when they neared the parking lot.
“In a thousand pieces all over the family estate.” Euann gave a small laugh as they made their way to a compact car that looked like it would be the last option on a rental lot.
“Are you confident the visions I’m having are not revenge?” Malina asked, hopeful that there might be a better explanation.
“While I appreciate your confidence in me, we both know that I’m not that creative. And I certainly wouldn’t evict myself out of my own home.” He opened the car door for her. “I worked too hard setting up those protection spells and security cameras to let parasitic ghosts inside to drain every electronic appliance and device I own.”
Spirits were notorious for using electrical power to generate the energy they needed to manifest. It’s why lights flashed, and televisions became unreliable when they were near.
Malina glanced at the back seat as Euann shut the car door. It was filled with electronics and magazines. “What’s all this?”
“Ya all laugh at me, but I’m about to show ya how smart my non-magickal home security is. I’m going to try to tap into the home network so we can see what’s happening inside, if there is any juice left in it, that is. If that doesn’t work, we’ll fly a drone in with a camera. I just need ya to materialize a few things from the magazines once you’re up to it.”
Malina reached behind her and picked up a magazine. She flipped to a tabbed page as Euann slid into the driver’s seat. A woman in a bikini held some gadget. “It’s like I told Rory when he asked me to materialize a six-foot puppy. I’m not making you a girlfriend.”
A twinge hit her chest, and she gasped the last word, dropping the magazine on the car floor as she doubled over.
“That’s it, Malina. I’m taking ya back in. I should never have let ya talk me into—”
“No.” Her hand shot out to grab his arm as she leaned up. The pain was still there, but it was manageable. “This isn’t a human thing. It’s something else. Those doctors can’t help me. Only magick can help a supernatural ailment. I need a cauldron, not an I.V. drip.”
He appeared doubtful, but finally started the engine and put the car into drive. “I don’t understand what’s happening to ya, but I will say we’re even for one thing.”
“Oh yeah? What’s that?” She pulled at the hospital gown, making sure it was between her body and the seat.
“I didn’t want to see your naked arse either.”
Chapter 7
The sundress Malina found in Lydia’s closet wasn’t exactly her style, but it was infinitely better than the hospital gown. The tiny flowers on the long skirt and sleeveless halter-top made her look like she belonged in some Southern porch handing out lemonade and sweet tea.
“Ya look like a lady,” Cait said in approval, “but ya need a sunhat.”
“She needs a sweater,” Euann corrected. “It’s winter, and she was just in the hospital. She can’t leave the house looking like that.”
“She’s not leaving this house,” Cait said. “She’s sick.”
Cait disappeared into the kitchen and seconds later the screen door leading to the driveway squeaked open and shut.
“She’s a big girl who can make her own decisions,” Malina muttered, slightly annoyed by their overprotectiveness. It didn’t matter that they were right. She was too tired to leave the house. All she wanted to do was curl up on the couch and sleep.
Erik and Lydia hadn’t exactly given them permission to stay at the old Victorian, but they had nowhere else to go. The home was situated on the same hill as MacGregor mansion, just below what the townspeople called the main house.
The Victorian reflected the late Annabelle Barrett, Lydia’s grandmother. Malina wondered if that was because the old woman’s spirit still haunted the place and didn’t want her granddaughter changing things around. Or, if Lydia was just too busy running her business that she didn’t think about such things. Malina thought about offering to do it for her sister-in-law as a present. The pink and yellow floral curtains and antique furniture seemed stuck in a time bubble with the only modern addition being the endless rows of body lotions and tea boxes that made up Lydia’s inventory and covered every usable surface.
Off the living room, where the family now set up a base camp to fight the home invaders, were a kitchen and a stairwell. Upstairs consisted of only three bedrooms and a bathroom. Compared to the usual grandeur of the MacGregor mansions, the home was fascinatingly normal. Malina could see why her brother liked living there.
“When did ya do that?” Raibeart scratched his head as if he hadn’t noticed her clothes. “Huh, I liked your other dress better.”
Rory and Euann snickered and gave her sideways glances.
“The hospital gown?” Malina arched a brow.
“No, that purple one ya had on,” Raibeart said. He gestured to his sleeve. “With the things along the thing.”
Malina looked at her uncle and then at the Mason jar on the end table c
lose to him. “Found Gramma Annabelle’s moonshine stash I see.”
“Isn’t that why we’re here?” Raibeart inquired.
“No, we’re ghost hunting,” Euann answered, not looking at his uncle.
“Oh, then I’m done. Found one.” Raibeart pointed as he fell back onto the couch. He grabbed the moonshine and lifted it in the air. “Nice to see ya, Annabelle.” There was a pause before he began to laugh. “Aye, I noticed it was quiet around here. All the ghosts are partying at the mansion. You’re welcome to join them, being as it’s an undead event.” He paused again only to laugh harder. “Ya are a riot, lassie, and a right pretty one too! Hey, so those kids got anything to eat? I’m famished.” He stood, mumbling and taking a swig as he went to the kitchen. His voice came from beyond the door. “So, now that ya are dead I’m assuming any previous wedding vows are null and void, and ya are a free woman.”
“Did Raibeart just propose to the dead grandma of our sister-in-law?” Euann questioned.
“Could be worse. He could have proposed to the goblin.” Rory laughed.
“It’s early yet. Give him time,” Malina drawled. “If he’s distracted with Annabelle, he’s staying out of trouble.”
“Good call,” Euann agreed. “Where’s Cait? We’re about ready to—”
“Raibeart Donovan Gregory MacGregor,” Cait exclaimed loudly. “Remove your tongue from that ghost at once. Ya look like a damn fool kissing the air.”
“Cait, we’re ready,” Malina called.
Cait appeared. “I’m fueled up and ready to go. Hand me that drone.”
Rory placed the drone before Cait who began whispering a protection spell to magickally cover it.
Erik kept a portal mirror in the Victorian that led to his mansion bedroom, so the family didn’t have to go outside to get from one home to the other. It was this portal that Euann planned to use to fly his remote control drone inside their home to check out what was happening.
“Done,” Cait said. “It’s as ready as it will ever be.”
Cauldrons and Confessions (Warlocks MacGregor Book 4) Page 5