by Jenn Burke
Chapter Five
“Twigs or crystal?”
I eyed the items in Lexi’s hands from my seat on the Caballero Investigations employee couch and tried to ignore the gaping hole above me that I still hadn’t fixed. “Both?”
She screwed up her lips as she evaluated the witchy things. One was a pretty pink-and-yellow crystal on a leather thong, and the other was a bundle of...well, twigs and grass. They smelled nice, though. “That might be overkill. We don’t want to make you invisible to the ghosts, right? Just mute you a bit so they’re not crawling all over you.”
“That’s a great image, Lex. Thanks.”
She shoved the necklace at me, ignoring my sarcasm. “Here. The bundle is easier to add or take away.”
“And the crystal’s more fashionable,” Iskander added from his desk, his eyes on his computer screen.
Necklace it was.
“So what is it?” I asked, lifting the crystal up to get a better look at it. It really was beautiful, kind of like a rainbow. Appropriate.
“Tourmaline, for grounding and protection. It’ll absorb any negativity from the spirits, and subdue your aura so it’s not calling to all the ghosts in the area.”
“That sounds good. And the bundle thing?”
“It’s basil, rowan, and vetiver, and it will enhance the effect of the crystal. You might need it, you might not.”
The bell over the front door rang abruptly. Hudson appeared in the reception area—and froze when he saw us. As though he was startled to find us here. Whatever that weirdness was, he shook it off quickly and scowled. “Is this our new hangout spot? Here I thought it was an office.”
He took his jacket off and draped it carelessly over a chair, when there was a coat tree by the front door for that purpose. Things not in their place—always a good sign that Hudson was dealing with something. Maybe it was the whole making-friends-with-the-sun-again thing, but I doubted it. He’d been too happy about that new—and weird, and completely unexplained—phenomenon. It was more likely that his early meeting had pissed him off.
He was normally better at keeping his annoyance at clients locked down, though.
I held up the crystal. “Lexi’s showing me what she prepared for my protection at Aurora House tonight. Pretty, eh?” When Hudson looked at me blankly, I prompted, “You asked me to arrange a meeting, remember?”
“Oh.”
“We should leave soon if we’re going to make it.”
“Yeah.” He moved over to the single-serving coffeemaker we kept near the reception area and pulled out a pod and a mug.
“How was your meeting?”
“Fine.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, Wesley.”
“We don’t have time for you to—”
“All I want is a fucking cup of coffee before I go investigate some fucking ghosts. All right?”
I stared at Hudson, his heaving chest, his tightly clenched fists, and all I could think was What the ever-loving hell?
Before anything could work its way out of my mouth, though, Iskander popped to his feet. “C’mon upstairs, Hud. I brewed a pot of the good stuff a little while ago.”
Hudson turned to look at the machine for a moment, then said quietly, “Okay.”
I couldn’t make my mouth move as Hudson followed Iskander to the back of the office, where the staircase to his second-floor residence was located. Anger and unhappiness warred in my chest as the door closed behind them with a final-sounding click.
“That was not normal,” Lexi said. “What the hell meeting did he go to?”
“He didn’t tell me. Just that he had a meeting.”
She plopped on the couch beside me and leaned her head on my shoulder. “That wasn’t cool.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
“But you know he’s reacting to whatever went wrong in that meeting, right? Not you.”
I sucked in a ragged breath. “No, actually, I don’t know that, because he’s not fucking telling me anything.” I brushed my cheek against her fuzzy hair. “He’s got these mysterious errands, and he’s making decisions with Iskander and leaving me out of them—”
“He is not having an affair with Isk.”
“Of course he’s not. But—”
He left me before.
I couldn’t say the words. They felt like the worst sort of betrayal, because we’d vowed to make it work this time, right? I was his everything. But the words I couldn’t say still rang with truth in my mind, because he had left me before. We hadn’t been able to make it work. It had been less about trust back then and more about priorities—Hudson’s job had been more important than us. I’d known it, and I’d hated it, and we were both miserable.
“But?”
I sighed. “I don’t know.”
It definitely didn’t help that when Iskander and Hudson came downstairs ten minutes later, Hudson wouldn’t look at me.
And he didn’t have any coffee.
* * *
Returning to Aurora House was an exercise of faith on my part. I knew Lexi thought her solution would keep the ghosts from overwhelming me, and I trusted her. But I couldn’t quite shake the fear that the ghosts would crowd me again and I wouldn’t be able to escape.
It didn’t help that the home looked way more intimidating at night.
The old red brick was welcoming in the day, but with the sun fully set and wintry night blanketing the city, all that color was washed away. Safety lights sat at the corners of the building, but despite their illumination bouncing off the snow, it didn’t extend very far from the house, leaving the grounds in shadow. Two lights next to the front door gave off an inviting aura, highlighting the cheeriness of the porch. The barn was a black, hulking mass nearby.
My entire body screamed at me not to reenter the house, but for once I needed to ignore my self-preservation instincts. The only reason Hudson had offered to extend our services to Kee was because I’d pushed for it. If I chickened out now...
Kee greeted us at the front door, androgynous in jeans and a long-sleeved aqua-colored T-shirt. Their eyes widened as they saw Hudson and Iskander standing behind Lexi and me. “You brought backup this time?”
“Sort of,” Lexi said with a smile. “This is Hudson Rojas and Iskander Hassan—the investigators at Caballero Investigations.”
“Like...ghost hunters?” Kee looked skeptical.
“Private investigators, actually,” Hudson said with his wide, charming smile. All trace of his earlier pique was gone. “Can we come in?”
“Oh, god. Of course.” Kee stepped aside and this time, instead of leading us back to their office, we went into the living room. The TV was on low, but there was no sign of any of the residents. I don’t know if Kee saw my gaze roaming around the room, but they volunteered, “It’s quiet time before lights out. Everyone’s up in their rooms, reading or listening to music or—” they waved a hand “—something quiet.”
They settled on one of the armchairs and turned the TV off.
It immediately flicked back on.
“Wes?” Lexi asked softly.
I looked around the room, but I didn’t see anyone. Any ghost. Had the events of the day before been an anomaly? No, wait—there was something in the corner. A vague outline of a figure.
Grimacing, I explained what I saw. “I think your twigs are working a little too well.” I’d tucked the bundle into my pocket before we’d left the office.
“Eh, maybe.” Lexi held out a hand and I passed the bundle to her.
The figure in the corner gained some definition and details. It was the biker. She seemed to be squinting at me, as though it was as difficult to see me as it was to see her. Before she clued in completely, I snatched the twigs back from Lexi.
“Let’s talk with Kee before the show starts,” I said.
&nbs
p; Kee swiped their hands over their arms, as though they were smoothing down goose bumps. “Okay, I’ve got to admit—I didn’t actually think the place was haunted. Bad vibes maybe. Sure. Drafts. Shifting floors. I don’t know. But actual ghosts?” They shivered.
Hudson leaned forward and handed over one of the postcard-like things we’d had printed up a few months back. They summarized the firm’s services and Hudson’s and Iskander’s backgrounds. “We’re a legitimate investigation firm. We don’t normally take on these types of cases.”
“You mean there’s no money in investigating ghosts?” Humor danced in Kee’s voice, but faded quickly.
“Real hauntings aren’t common—right, Wes?”
I took my eyes off the faded, fuzzy figure in the corner to look at Kee. “Have you ever seen any of those ghost-hunting reality TV shows?”
“One or two.”
“Okay, so, those hauntings are mostly put on for the camera.”
“I figured.”
“But sometimes they’re sort of real. They capture echoes. You know, footsteps, murmurs? Stuff that doesn’t interact. It’s just there, actions repeating themselves.”
“Okay...” It was clear Kee wasn’t sure where I was going with this.
“That’s not what you have here. When we were here yesterday—” I glanced at Lexi for reassurance. I’d never talked to a normal human about my abilities before—other than Iskander—and it felt weird. “So, uh... I’m not going to make you sign a nondisclosure agreement or anything, but I’d really prefer you not to talk about this with anyone else.”
Kee smiled and shook their head. “I’ve already learned that lesson. I tried talking to my mom about it, and I spent thirty minutes reassuring her I wasn’t too stressed out.”
“People don’t want to believe in what they can’t see, but...when we were here yesterday, I saw three separate, intelligent ghosts.”
Kee’s brows rose. “You saw them?”
“Clear as day,” I confirmed.
“Intelligent ghosts are the type that interact,” Hudson explained. “They try to communicate with people.”
“And it’s very, very rare to find three in one area. I’ve never seen it. In my entire life.” I realized as I said it that Kee wouldn’t find that very impressive, since I looked as though I was in my early twenties. But it was still the truth.
Kee’s gaze swept from me, to Lexi, to Hudson and then to Iskander. “So what are you saying?”
Hudson shared a look with me. We’d discussed this with Lexi and Iskander earlier as we prepped for this meeting. What did it mean?
“We’re not entirely sure,” Hudson admitted. “But we’d like to investigate.”
“And you want me to hire you.”
Hudson gave them an apologetic look. “We can’t do it for free, but I can offer a discounted rate.”
Kee zeroed in on me. “How do I know you’re not taking advantage of me? That it’s not all an act?”
Good question. I glanced at Lexi, who gave me the barest nod. I stood up and said, “No screaming, okay?”
I slipped into the otherplane. All of the living people in the room became fuzzy and indistinct, as living beings always were when viewed from this side of reality. I knew their shapes—Hudson’s broad shoulders, Lexi’s effusive curls, Iskander’s leanness capped by a perfect pompadour, and Kee’s slim silhouette—but that was the only way I could tell them apart. Strangely enough, the ghost was fuzzier too, when she should have been easier to see.
Another indication that whatever was going on in Aurora House was not a normal haunting.
I moved quickly, rising and stepping over to the side of Kee’s chair. They had started to straighten in surprise and confusion when I stepped back into the living plane.
“I’m here,” I said softly.
They jerked to the side, away from me, and looked up with something like fear. “How the hell—”
“I’m not lying to you.”
They blinked up at me, their mouth opening and closing, and then they turned to Hudson. “When can you start?”
* * *
While Kee retreated to their office to work out the contract with Hudson and Iskander, Lexi and I rearranged the furniture in the living room slightly, pushing the coffee table and chairs to the side so I could sit on the floor in the middle of the room. Technically I could have done what I needed to do with everything in its original place, but Lexi wanted space in case she needed to do something.
I wasn’t sure what something entailed, and I didn’t think I wanted to find out.
The ghost was still a presence in the room—but it remained only the one. She hadn’t made an effort to draw in any others and I didn’t know why. Maybe she wanted to know for sure that she wasn’t seeing things? Which was an incredibly weird thought to have. A ghost worried her eyes were tricking her.
“You ready?” Lexi asked.
“No.”
“You never used to be so gun-shy.”
“I never used to see ghosts in the living plane.”
“Fair enough.” Holding out her hand, she said, “Okay, hand it over.”
I had considered going into the otherplane to talk to the ghost—or ghosts, if more showed up—but with what I’d discovered in my most recent visit to the otherplane, that the ghost wasn’t quite there, that wasn’t an option. I retrieved the bundle from my pocket and gave it to Lexi. Instantly, the ghost became clearer, though still fuzzy at the edges. She looked the same as she had the day before—long hair pulled back into a braid that nearly touched her ass, and a leather jacket open over a tight gray T-shirt bearing a logo so worn I couldn’t read it.
“It is you,” she whispered, taking a hesitant step forward. “Can you—can you see me?”
“Yes,” I said, cognizant of Lexi watching me. I kept my eyes on the ghost, though. “What’s your name?”
“Charlie.” She seemed to remember she was supposed to be a badass biker, and her back stiffened. “You?”
“Wes.”
“You gonna talk to me today, Wes, or are you gonna run like a pussy again?”
My eyes narrowed. “Don’t throw around gendered insults. It’s not nice.”
Her brows rose and she started laughing. “Oh my god. Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“You’re something else.”
Well...yeah. “Why are you here?”
“Good fuckin’ question.” She heaved out a sigh. “Where is here, by the way?”
“You—you don’t know where you are?”
She tugged on her hair. “No. I kinda remember wiping out on the 401—”
Oh, ouch. I was very glad that she did not look like she had at the moment of her death. Gruesome.
“—and then I was here.”
“What year was that?”
“Ninety-one.” She watched me closely, and clearly I didn’t hide my reaction quickly enough. “I take it it’s not 1991 anymore.”
“Nope.”
“Fuck. So where am I?”
“A farmhouse north of Nobleton. Except it’s now an LGBT youth home.”
“Huh.” She looked around, as though she were seeing her surroundings for the first time. “I’m pretty sure I’ve never been here before.”
“That makes no sense.”
Ghosts didn’t haunt buildings they’d never been to in life. They retreated to places they knew, places they were comfortable. Places that meant something to them. Or, especially, places where their loved ones were, or where they had unfinished business.
Not farmhouses they’d never seen before.
“What?” Lexi whispered.
I quickly related what Charlie had told me.
“You’re right—that doesn’t make any sense.” Lexi frowned. “Ask her if she’s seen anything weird here.�
�
I opened my mouth to relay the question, but Charlie cut me off. “Yeah, yeah. My ears work. This, uh... It’s a strange place,” she said. “I mean, I don’t mind hangin’ here, but it’s not...comfortable. Like there’s an itch I need to be scratchin’ but I can’t find it or something. And I’m not the only ghost here.”
“I know. I saw the three of you yesterday.”
She shook her head. “Three of us here now, yeah. But there have been others.”
“Others?”
“They appear. We all just appear. We stick around for a time, but always—we leave.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You and me both.” She tugged her braid again. “It’s like something...summons us here. I can hear the whispers, but fuck ’em. I don’t need to listen to them. I don’t need to follow where they say.”
My brain raced as I tried to put together everything Charlie was saying into some sort of sense. “So you’re here because you were summoned and something wants you to go to it?”
“Yeah. Other ghosts have, and they’re...gone.”
“Maybe they went back to the beyond.” Because that had to be where they were summoned from, right? Which was a horrifying thought, that spirits at their ultimate rest were being brought back toward the living plane.
“No,” Charlie said. “I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t hear their screams echo if they were headed back home.”
Chapter Six
Charlie had said the barn was where she first popped into being—which had been confusing as hell, and I could see why. It was difficult to identify what the space had once been, unless you already knew you were in a barn. There were no stalls anymore, though the hayloft was intact, minus the hay. Lexi and Iskander were up there, looking around, checking for evidence of magical workings, the low murmur of their voices and the creak of floorboards under their feet giving evidence of their presence. The main floor was filled with leftover paint cans, lumber, and other construction materials, drape-covered furniture, and I thought I spotted an ancient tractor crouched in one corner when Hudson’s flashlight swept in that direction. The lack of electricity made getting around a challenge. I appreciated Hudson’s cop habit of always carrying a flashlight.
