by Lori Drake
I scrubbed a hand through my hair, recalling the look on her face when we’d parted ways. After all, I didn’t have a great history when it came to spirit-warded rooms. This time, the wards meant safety, but it still made her anxious. At least she wasn’t hanging out on the lawn with the others. I hoped she was hanging out in the in-between, resting up for whatever was to come, trusting that I’d call her when it was safe for her to return.
I was almost done making breakfast when the sound of water in the pipes announced someone else stirring. Cat joined me in the kitchen a few minutes later.
I flashed her a smile. “Good morning. Hope you like your eggs scrambled.”
“What? No eggs benedict?” She patted my back on her way past to the sink.
“Hollandaise isn’t in my repertoire, but I make a mean huevos rancheros.”
Cat chuckled, and the resulting rumble in her chest sparked a brief cough. “Scrambled is fine, thank you.”
“Your cough sounds a little better today,” I observed, scraping eggs into a serving bowl. “Did you see a doctor?”
“I’m feeling quite a bit better today, actually.” She ignored my question while she filled the kettle and brought it over to the stove. “It seems to be running its… my dear, what happened to you?”
I hadn’t thought about the bruise that must’ve been shadowing my tender jaw where Kyle had clipped it last night until then. “Nothing, it’s fine. Do you want butter on your toast?”
Cat clicked her tongue and prodded me with bony fingers until I sat on one of the straight-backed dining chairs in the breakfast nook. Once I was settled, she took my head between her hands and pressed her thumbs lightly to my temples. I watched her carefully but, despite my own developing powers, saw no more now than I ever had of her magic. The only indication she was doing anything at all was the warmth that spilled from her hands and slid beneath my skin. I closed my eyes and sighed as it flowed through me, spreading down my face and jaw, down my neck and over my shoulders like slipping head first into a warm pool of water. Why couldn’t my own power be warm like hers? The heat intensified in spots where her magic encountered injuries, but the discomfort was temporary. It soothed away the aches and pains that plagued me, leaving me warm and whole when she removed her hands.
“There, that’s better isn’t it?” She smiled down at me, and I couldn’t not smile back.
“Yeah, thanks. A pity you can’t heal yourself, eh? That’d make that cold easier to deal with.” I flexed my right hand, marveling at how the stiffness had left my knuckles, which were no longer swollen and bruised.
She shrugged one shoulder. “Suffering builds character.”
“Says the woman who can’t stand letting others deal with minor injuries?”
She huffed and turned away, mincing off to finish making tea. “I believe you’ve suffered enough, child.”
Cat didn’t know the half of it. Or maybe she did. She often surprised me. Regardless, I let it go and went back to meal preparation. By the time the table was set, Amber wandered into the kitchen to join us, looking half-asleep and rumpled.
“Good morning.” I pulled out a chair for her and motioned invitingly. “Want some coffee? Fair warning, it’s instant.”
She wrinkled her nose but nodded. “Any port in a storm.”
I fixed her a cup and brought it to the table but paused in the act of placing it in front of her. “You don’t want it upside down, do you? I’m not sure how to keep it in the cup, if so.”
Amber eyed me. “I think you’re trying to be funny, but it’s too early to be funny.”
I relinquished the cup and took my seat. “So, how did it go with the magic lesson last night? You were pretty focused when I got back, and I didn’t want to interrupt. Sorry I conked out before you finished. You did finish, right?”
“We did,” Cat said. “Amber should be sufficiently protected against possession, and she picked up the spirit ward pretty quickly, too.”
Amber flashed her a smile. “You’re a good teacher.”
“I can’t take all the credit,” Cat replied. “I learned that one from Naomi.” Naomi was another local witch, one who Cat had sent to spy on Madrigal’s coven. Presumably, she’d learned the spirit ward while she was with them.
“At least something good came of that trip to Nevada.” I bit off a piece of bacon but winced when Cat’s expression darkened. It’s my curse to put my foot in my mouth at every given opportunity. “Um, speaking of which… it seems something else came of it we weren’t aware of.”
I told Cat—and Amber, since she was there—about my developing abilities and my suspicion that Madrigal had done something to me while I was his prisoner that had unlocked some hidden potential. Along the way, they both forgot all about their breakfast. Amber stared at me in what I can only describe as fascination, while Cat pressed her lips together and studied my aura. Or, at least that’s what I’d come to associate with that staring-with-unfocused-eyes look. Aura sight. I ate some more bacon while they collected their thoughts, because… bacon.
“So, you couldn’t do any of that before?” Amber said eventually.
“Nope. I am—or I was—your garden variety medium… I could see and hear the dead, but that was it. I’d kind of like to go back to that, to be honest.” I kept my eyes on Cat, wondering what she saw.
Cat blinked slowly and her eyes focused on me again. “You know what they say, child. You can’t put the milk back in the cow. You’re going to have to learn how to control this power before it gets out of hand.”
“It’s not already out of hand? I’m a damn ghost beacon. They’re congregating on your lawn, you know.” I gestured at the window. “There were six of them when I woke up, but there are eleven now.”
“You can tell?” Amber asked.
“Yeah, I can feel them, for lack of a better description.”
“Fascinating,” Amber said.
“Troubling,” Cat said, at the same time.
I was inclined to agree with Cat. I moved a chunk of egg around with my fork, careful not to scrape against the dish. “I can control the other thing. The banishing. Mostly.”
“That’s a start.” Cat reached across the table to lay a hand on my arm. “We’ll work on it. Meditation may help.”
“If you think it’ll help, I’m willing to give it a try. Desperate times, desperate measures, and all that.”
We tried after breakfast, but that tingle of awareness of the spirits outside never quite went away. We parted ways shortly afterward, with Amber heading off to ward her apartment and me heading home for a shower and a change of clothes.
I contemplated my next move on the drive out to Granite Falls. Amber and I had agreed that finding the serial killer trumped dealing with Sandra temporarily. We knew that the gym connected the victims, but we didn’t know how. Kyle was a douchebag, but I didn’t believe he was involved. That meant someone else there was, be they an employee or member.
An idea struck me when I pulled into the driveway and saw Adam heading for his car in his Nerd Brigade polo. I pulled up behind his car and hopped out.
“Hey, man, you’re blocking me in,” Adam called to me.
I jogged over to him. “I’ll move, but I need to talk to you.”
“Make it fast, I’ve got to be to work in forty-five minutes.”
“Cutting it close, aren’t you?”
“Talk or move.”
I held up my hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. I need some information, and I was wondering if you could get it for me.”
“What kind of information?”
“Employee and membership records for Whenever Fitness. Specifically, names and photos.”
Adam removed his glasses and bit the end of one arm. “How am I supposed to get those?”
“Don’t play innocent with me. How’d you get a bootleg copy of Viral Outbreak before release day? You’ve got skills or connections. Either will work.”
He grimaced, eyes sliding toward the house. “Whe
n do you need it?”
“As soon as possible. Lives are at stake.”
Adam snorted, but one look at my expression told him how serious I was about that. “Okay, I won’t ask. All I ask is the same courtesy. No questions asked.”
“Deal.”
I stuck out my hand, and he shook it, then put his glasses back on. “Give me twenty-four hours.”
“I mentioned lives are at stake, right?”
He sighed and raked his fingers through his hair. “Twelve hours. It’s the best I can do, and you’ll owe me. Now move that junk heap so I can get to work.”
“Junk heap? My precious Dean-mobile? How dare you.” I was in motion even as I protested and swiftly relocated the Jeep to an out of the way spot. I waved to Adam as he whipped his Camry down the drive, then headed for the house.
My phone started ringing while I was unlocking the front door. I glanced at it before answering. Amber.
“Long time no speak. What’s up?” I pushed open the door and Sadie bolted out to sniff around my ankles and feet. I kept forgetting about the damn dog, but it looked like someone was taking care of her. Probably Lucy.
“Someone tripped my wards.”
Her voice was serious enough that the hair rose on the back of my neck, and I wasn’t even sure which wards she was talking about yet. “What wards?”
“At my apartment. Someone broke in—or, rather, let themselves in while I was gone.”
The hairs on my arms joined the ones on the back of my neck. “Magically?”
“Yes.”
My mind raced. It had to be him. But how had he gotten wind of Amber? Had he been at the gym while we were there, cruising for his next victim? If so, how had he gotten Amber’s address? It had to be an employee. Someone with access to the visitor cards. Or maybe Kyle really was involved… Jesus, I really was an idiot, exposing Amber like that.
“Dean?” Her shaky voice brought me back to the present. “I think I should head back to Catherine’s place.”
“Shit. Sorry. Yeah, you’ll be safe with Cat. I’ll get there as soon as I can, and we’ll figure out our next move.”
“Okay. See you soon.”
An inescapable sense of urgency gnawed at my stomach, but I hung up and went inside with Sadie following close on my heels. I needed a change of clothes, if nothing else.
“There he is!” Lucy grinned at me from her perch on the sofa. “Making the walk of shame!”
Lounging beside her, Jessica smirked. Both women were still in their pajamas. Lucy had her feet propped up on the coffee table, cotton jammed between her toes, about half of which were painted hot pink.
“Uh, good morning to you, too.” I felt no—okay, little—urge to explain myself. “Thanks for looking after Sadie.”
“Don’t change the subject. Dish!” Lucy dipped her tiny brush in the bottle of nail polish and wiped off some excess before leaning over her toes again. “What’s her name? Is she hot? I mean, I guess she must be hot if she kept you out all night. And you still have both arms so you didn’t have to chew yourself free.”
Jess groaned and socked her with a throw pillow, which of course caused Lucy to smear polish all over her dainty toe. She emitted an indignant squeal and elbowed Jess in return. Jess deflected the elbow expertly and shot me an apologetic look. “Ignore her. She was literally raised by wolves.”
“So were you!” Lucy huffed and blew a lock of hair from her eyes. “You’re just jealous. Your cooch is getting dusty from lack of action.”
“First of all, my cooch is none of your business. Second, it takes a dusty cooch to know one. Maybe if you spent less time obsessing over other people’s sex lives, you could find one of your own.”
I’d prudently decided this was a conversation I was better off not participating in, but I didn’t want to do anything to draw attention to myself either. I glanced down at Sadie, who looked up at me and wagged her backside. I couldn’t help but smile and squatted to give her a bit of a pat and rub.
“Maybe you’re right,” Lucy said. “Hey Dean, wanna throw me a bone?”
My head snapped up. Jess gave Lucy a shove.
Lucy squealed again, holding both the bottle of nail polish and the brush aloft. “I swear to Christ, if you make me spill this…”
“You’ll what?” Jess asked, changing tactics. Her hands darted for Lucy’s sides, provoking a round of screeching laughter as Lucy tried to squirm away without spilling the polish.
Sadie went still under my hand, then barked and ran over to try and play with them, which only further complicated the tickle attack. Deciding this was just the distraction I needed to escape, I headed for the stairs.
“He’s getting away!” Lucy shrieked, laughing as she fell over onto her side, still trying to hold the polish bottle upright. “Get him, Sadie!”
The little dog just climbed up Lucy’s body and started licking her face. I smiled to myself as I climbed the stairs and made my escape. My roommates were a bit intense, and not at all shy about speaking their minds, but I liked having them around. They filled the big house with life and energy and certainly kept life interesting.
The sounds of their antics trailed me up the stairs but faded by the time I got to my room. Once I rounded up clean clothes, I decided to grab a quick shower and shave before I headed back out. The way my week was going, I figured I’d better take advantage of the opportunity while I had it.
When I got back to my room, Jessica was there, sitting on my bed with her back to the wall and her long legs stretched across it, feet dangling off.
In the wake of the interplay between her and Lucy, I couldn’t help but crack wise. “Should I hang a sock on the door knob?”
Her lips twitched in a hint of a smile, and she shrugged. “If you like.”
I chuckled but made a mental note to tread lightly. Trish’s words flitted through the back of my mind.
She likes you.
I wasn’t sure if I ought to be encouraging her. I left the door open, sans sock, and tossed my dirty clothes in the basket. “What’s up?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“If this is about me being out all night—”
“It’s not. Well. It sort of is. It could be.”
I folded my arms and leaned against the dresser. “Spit it out.”
“What’s going on with you? You’ve been weird ever since that day you all but passed out in the kitchen. You were hot to go to Mexico, but… you’re still here. You were out all night, and that’s not like you.” She bit her lower lip. “Are you sick or something?”
Her concern was touching. I wandered over to the bed and sat down beside her feet. “I’m not sick. I’ve just been trying to help a client, and the situation has been complicated. I actually spent last night at Cat’s while she was working her magic mojo.”
She eyed me, a shrewdness in her gaze that picked up on what I wasn’t saying. “And the migraine?”
I briefly debated how much to tell her. Keeping her in the dark didn’t seem like an option. “I guess you could say I’m going through a bit of a power surge. I’m starting to be able to interact with spirits in new ways, and the headaches go along with that. I’m still trying to figure it all out.”
“Is that why your dresser is levitating?”
Sure enough, when I looked across the room, the dresser was floating several inches above the floor. I hadn’t detected a spirit’s presence when I entered the room, nor was I even certain when it’d shown up. But it was definitely there now.
“Hey! Knock it off,” I said.
The rattle of the dresser drawers was the only warning we received before they started flying across the room as if fired from a cannon.
I knew wolves were fast, but I had no real idea of how fast until that moment. Jessica had me pressed into the mattress with her body covering mine before the first drawer hit the wall behind us with a crack. Stunned, I lay there while we were showered with balled socks and pieces of wood. But the pesky
poltergeist wasn’t finished. One after another, the drawers ejected from the dresser, impacting noisily with the wall, the bed, and Jessica. I rolled her over to trade places, shielding her as best I could. Cold seeped into my bones as I drew on that icy wellspring of power instinctively, prepared to face another headache if that’s what it took.
Sadie’s manic barking and growling had added to the chaos by then. I looked over at the dresser in time to see the lowest drawer shoot out, but it didn’t gain any altitude as it went. It struck the metal bed frame and thudded to the floor harmlessly. I half expected the ghost to throw the dresser at us next, but the dresser dropped to the floor. That tingle of awareness I’d felt in the spirit’s presence faded as it exited, stage left.
Lucy hobbled into the room seconds later, walking awkwardly with cotton still between her toes. Sadie stopped barking and sniffed around at the foot of the dresser while Lucy looked from me and Jessica on the bed, covered in drawer debris and clothes, to the dresser and back again.
“Are you guys okay? What the hell happened?” Lucy said.
I shivered, suffused with icy power denied an outlet, and rolled off Jessica. A piece of wood jabbed me in the back, and I twisted until it was dislodged. “Ghost.”
While I lay there trying to put the genie back in the bottle, Jessica climbed over me and rose unsteadily to her feet.
“Jess! You’re bleeding!” Lucy said, rushing forward to steady her packmate.
Jessica swatted at Lucy’s hands. “I’m fine. Dean, are you okay?”
“Yeah, just gimme a sec.” I pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes and forced myself to take deep breaths while the cold energy slowly faded. The bed dipped, and when I moved my hands away, Jessica was sitting beside me, looking down at me with concern. A red line of blood ran from a goose egg on her temple to her chin, but if there was a cut there, I couldn’t see it.
“I’m a fast healer,” she said, as if reading my thoughts.
“You shouldn’t have done that. But thank you.” Guilt ate at me. It was one thing if I got hurt as a result of my weirdly expanding powers. But for my roommates to end up in the line of fire? Unacceptable. They could all take a pretty good licking and keep on ticking, as the saying goes, but that was beside the point. I was a danger to everyone around me.