Authors: Jennifer Rardin
I scanned the room one last time, frustrated that I couldn’t tear it apart, find some damning piece of evidence that would give me leave to gun her down like a thirties-era gangster. The only personal item I could see was a five-by-seven picture in a sterling-silver frame. It sat on a large upended barrel that Floraidh had covered with a doily and turned into a bedside table. I moved to my left so I could get a better look. Yeah, Floraidh was smiling up into the eyes of her grinning companion like a smitten coed. She stood on the deck of a fancy-ass sailboat, leaning into the strong arm of Edward “the Raptor” Samos.
“It is time to get out,” said Vayl.
“Okay.” I shut the door. Glad to put any sort of barrier between my face and the Raptor’s. But as I moved down the hall to “check” the equipment Cole had set up there, I could still see him. Looking so alive.
I paused at Dormal’s door. Checked over my shoulder. “Is anybody coming upstairs?”
“No. But they are asking about you.”
Just a peek. Then I’ll leave. I worked the lock and opened up. As in my room, the door gave you three steps and then offered you a bathroom experience you might want to pass on given Dormal’s obvious interest in growing multiple types of mold. She’d masked the view of her living area by hanging a dark blue curtain from the ceiling just before the room opened up. Since I smelled latent magic at work in Dormal’s place too, I knew better than to step inside. But, damn, I badly wanted to see what lay beyond that drape.
“Jasmine!”
“Just a second.”
“No. Floraidh is off the couch. I cannot tell where she will head next. Get down here!”
Albert’s voice next. “Excuse me, Floraidh. I’ve been wanting to ask since we got here and found such a terrific house waiting for us. Have you owned Tearlach long?”
Floraidh’s answer came back as a murmur. But I didn’t really care what she said. Just that my dad had saved my ass. The feeling was too weird to relish. Plus I really wanted to see what was behind door number 402.
If only I had Vayl’s cane. I glanced around the hall, trying to find something I could use to pull back the curtain with. There, on the wall. A needlepoint hanging depicting an old mill by a stream, its loops neatly threaded onto a black metal rod with fancy pointed ends that reminded me of fire pokers. Just the thing to hook the material back, like so, and reveal . . .
A life-size cutout of Samos taped to a corkboard. A target had been painted on his chest, but his crotch was just riddled with dart holes. The darts, themselves, sporting neon-green flights, stuck out of random parts of his physique at odd angles. Dormal might not be good at the game, but
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evidently it provided her with great therapeutic relief.
I began to grin as I pulled the curtain back farther. She’d hung a punching bag in the corner and taped a picture of Samos’s face to it. “I like the way this woma»e wn tn thinks,” I murmured. But maybe somebody should tell her she could relax now, he was dead.
She’d tacked a map of the world over a quarter of one wall, while she’d covered another with a five-foot-by-eight-foot design, painted in lavish reds and blues, that reminded me, oddly, of the tattoos on the ghost guy Brude. Not in substance, necessarily. Just that you could tell the squiggly lines topped by a flaming candle (or was that a stick of dynamite?) surrounded by thirteen pentacles meant something. Despite my rush, I decided the pentacles deserved a second look. They resembled the one Tolly wore on an amulet, a five-pointed star contained within a circle. Except this star broke the circle at every point.
I pulled my Monise out of my pocket.
“Jasmine, is your party line dead?” demanded Vayl. “Why have you failed to rejoin us? Floraidh is halfway up the first flight of stairs.”
“I found something interesting in Dormal’s room. Just taking a picture to send to Tolly.”
I clicked off a few shots of the mural, moved the Monise around the room to forever preserve the Samos hate that had rivaled my own.
“Jasmine, get out!”
I pulled Dormal’s door shut just as Floraidh’s clickety-clacky shoes echoed on the wooden steps just below my floor. Hanging up my temporary tool shouldn’t have taken long. But its nail chose that moment to fall out.
Shit! I glanced down the hall. No Scidairan yet. Okay, don’t panic. Breathe. Calm. Smooth. Pick up the nail. Shove it back in the hole. Rehang the needlepoint. Scurry your ass to the end of the hall.
As Floraidh rounded the corner I made a big show of adjusting the ectoplasm sensor Cole had set on her pretty table. I glanced up as if I’d just heard her. “I think we’ve got some really good readings here,” I told her. “Like I said, activity seems to feed on itself. Would you like to see?”
She shook her head decisively. “I’ll just wait for your final report, shall I? I’d hate to spoil it by learning too much ahead of time.”
The wall hanging I’d just abused suddenly dropped sideways, the nail I’d reset bouncing onto the light green runner that covered nearly the whole length of hallway.
Floraidh jerked her head toward it. My aw-crap reaction dissolved as soon as I caught her expression. Was that . . . fear in her eyes?
“Oh my gosh, did you see that?” I demanded. I poked a couple of buttons on the sensor and hoped I wasn’t turning it off as I did. “Definite spike here. Floraidh, you are in such luck this week! Not one, but two, ghosts to entertain your guests!”
She visibly swallowed, her eyes darting first to the strange diamond-studded inscription on her door, then to the matching one on Dormal’s. Only when she’d reassured herself that they were both intact did she seem to thaw slightly. Her chuckle sounded only half hollow as she said, “The Tourism Board will be so pleased.” But her fingers shook as she wrapped them around her doorknob.
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“Well, I’ve been gone as long as I can po»ongs sssibly stand it!” I told her brightly. “See you downstairs.” I rushed past her, not even glancing back as she entered her room. But as soon as I heard her door close I ran back to get a couple of pictures of the symbol she’d set on her door. Something in my gut told me to find a laptop as soon as possible. The quicker I could send them to Tolly, the sooner she could confirm the new theory stirring its muddy claws in the evolutionary swamp of my brain.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Floraidh and Dormal’s guests, both uninvited and bespelled to come, were so keyed up by the entertainment that they stayed up talking for nearly two hours after the last of the GhostWalk crowd had trickled out, and didn’t hit the hay until the sun had begun to peek over the horizon. Though I was prepared for the length of days in this part of the world this time of year, I still couldn’t get used to them. At five a.m. we’d already experienced over half an hour of daylight. Which meant Vayl had maybe two and a half hours left before he’d be forced to sleep—dammit, Jaz, can we just say he dies?—for the day.
The Scidairans had finally stumped off to bed as well. But not before Floraidh had convinced Humphrey to let her stow Lesley’s necklace in Tearlach’s safe until they needed it for the Adair’s outing. “I didn’t like the looks of that suntanned buffoon,” she told him as the spell sunk into his skin. “He might come back when you and Mrs. Haigh are out shopping or walking, and if I was in the garden and didn’t hear, and you lost that lovely piece, I would never forgive myself.”
I barely kept myself from snorting as she and Humphrey took the treasure upstairs. When they returned he patted his wife on the shoulder and said, “It’s safe as houses now, my dear. Time we got some sleep.” Which signaled a mass exodus.
Our crew convened in my room to make plans. Cole stood by the door while Vayl sat on the dressing table bench. I leaned against the table beside him, acutely aware of how easy it would be to reach out and run my fingers through those dark, silky curls. I licked my lips and glued my eyes to Jack, who’d curled up at the base of the bed before I even had a chance to unsnap his leash. Albert sat on one corner of the mattress and worked it free while Cole said, “I’ll admit it, I’m wiped out. You wouldn’t believe how much energy it takes to be charming all the time.”
“And yet you make it seem so effortless,” Vayl said. “The mark of a true master.” As Cole bowed his head at the compliment and I dared to hope this meant two of my favorite guys might be working out a temporary ceasefire, Vayl went on. “It only makes sense for me to watch Floraidh until I have to rest. I suggest you three get some sleep.”
“Works for me. See you in a few.” Cole took off, nearly slamming his face into the door until he roused himself in time to open it wide enough to slip his body through.
“You sure you don’t need some help?” I asked Vayl. “I could probably go another few hours.”
His almost-smile told me he knew better. “You look as sleepy as that dog of yours.” His glance sent mine to Jack, who’d already started a twitchy-leg dream. “But if you must, perhaps you and Albert could have a little talk before retiring. I believe you both have left a great deal unsaid between you.”
He gave me one of those you-know-what-I-mean eyebrow lifts. And left.
Wait a second! I thought we were waiting to tell my dad until we could hope he choked on a chicken bone!
Granny May chuckled from her seat at the bridge table. Weird. Today she’d chosen to partner
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with Buddha against General Patton and Elmer Fudd. What the hell was my mind trying to tell me with this setup? Before I could figure it out she said, Vayl knows when you’re stalling, Jazzy.
Albert and I watched Jack change positions. Now he lay completely prone, his back legs full out behind him, his front ones copying them. “I don’t think I’ll ever be as comfortable as that mutt,”
my dad said enviously.
“Depends what your needs are,” I replied. “Maybe if all you wanted was food, a couple of toys, and an occasional pat on the head, you’d be content too.”
Albert emptied his pockets onto the minuscule space the bedside table provided, piling his phone on top of his wallet to make room for the loose change and his room key. He settled on the bed, shoving the pillows up behind his back just so until, when he leaned back, his lids fluttered happily. “Don’t get comfortable,” I warned him. “Your place is down the hall, remember?”
“It’s haunted.”
“But Cole’s in there.”
“Cole’s not the one they want.”
No trace of fear in his tone. Just the obstinance of a man who will not be moved.
“O-kay.”
He pulled another key from his shirt pocket and tossed it to me. “I already checked with Vayl. You can sleep in his room until it’s time for you to relieve him.” He crossed one leg over the other and shut his eyes completely.
What a double meaning we have in that statement. Geez, I can’t even do video without blushing now that my dad’s in the room. Sucker makes me feel like a teenager again. “Fine. If you answer a question.”
“Shoot.”
“How do you feel about vampires?”
His eyes snapped open. “They suck.” He thought about it. Hooted at his own pathetic joke. Got serious again almost immediately. “Why?”
“We have one in our department. And, um, I don’t know. He kind of wants to date me.”
Albert yanked off his party line and gestured for me to do the same. I took off my transmitter and pocketed it. “The receiver stays,” I said. “He might need backup.”
He nodded. “How does he feel about the vampire?”
It took me a minute to figure out what he meant. “Oh, you mean what does Vayl think of him?”
His look told me he thought I’d recently inhaled a substance that had killed off the majority of my brain cells. “You do know Vayl’s got the hots for you?”
“Dad!”
“What? I’m just saying. He might have something to say about this vamp who, by the way, I can’t get any information on.”
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“You snooped?”
He held out his hands and shrugged his shoulders. “What? The guy’s a legend in the Agency!
Who’s not going to dig a little? And I’m damn good at it. But his files are sealed so tight I hear only Pete and the president are allowed to peek. Which means all I know is what you tell me.” He waited. “You could start with a name.”
Or not! “It’s not like I’m going to marry the guy. Just a date or two.” There ya go, the old Albert flush, neck to forehead in just under a second. I knew it would piss him off. Not that I need his approval. It would just be nice if he wasn’t yapping in my ear for the next decade.
“What is it with the women in your family?” he muttered.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Why do you think your mom got divorced the first time?”
“He couldn’t stand the way she blew smoke in his face every time he asked her to pass the macaroni and cheese?”
“She couldn’t hack being married to a vampire.”
I laughed. It just sounded so dumb the way he said it. Like, “Your mom tried out the new eternitybased calling plan, but she couldn’t keep track of the minutes. The fights they had regarding overcharges were phenomenal.”
“It isn’t funny,” growled my father.
“No,” I agreed. “Uh, do you know why . . . ?”
“She told me she had a bad-boy complex that he satisfied. I believed her.” Albert wiggled his pinky into his ear, checked out the diggings, brushed them down the side of his pants. I had seen people torn to pieces and not gagged the way I wanted to now. Which was when I decided my dad had been alone way too long. He needed a woman to kick his gross habits for. Maybe Shelby knew somebody nice in Chicago. “Jasmine!”
“What?”
“Whatever you’re thinking about your mother, it’s probably not true.”
“She wasn’t on my mind at all.”
“We were just talking about her!”