Ghost of Himself

by Pandora Pine

  “We are. This is where the story gets good. Carson, the older of the sons, was cleaning up in the shop one night and touched Bertha’s crystal ball. When he did that, he had his first vision. He saw a man being held at gunpoint. When he told his younger brother, Cole, about the vision, he encouraged Carson to find and save the man. Which Carson did. Now, they’re happily married and raising three babies together.”

  “Wow.” Cope shook his head. “What happened to the brother?”

  “That’s where the story gets even more interesting. Cole started developing his own psychic gifts around that time. Carson’s husband, Truman Wesley, worked in human resources for a different company when Carson met him. His best friend was a woman named Cassie. She and Cole hit it off and now they’re married and raising two kids of their own. Cass had always loved baking and she and Truman went into business together. They opened West Side Sweets in the store right next door to the Magick shop. We’ll grab breakfast when we get there. Cassie’s muffins are to die for.”

  “That’s a pretty impressive story. How does Tennyson come into the fold?”

  “The Craig brothers needed someone to mentor them and teach them how to deal with the new gifts they all of a sudden had. That’s where Tennyson came in. They liked him so much they made him a third partner in the shop. Ronan came along a year later after he’d been assigned to the Cold Case Unit of the Boston Police Department. He’d run out of leads on a case and thought Ten was his last hope of finding a missing child. They’ve been solving cases together ever since.”

  “There are other psychics beside the three of them, right?” Cope seemed pretty sure of himself.

  “There’s Emilyn Cassidy. She reads auras and works with astrology charts. She’s Ronan and Ten’s surrogate. Rumor has it they are looking to expand the business again with ghost hunters, but I haven’t heard too much about that lately.”

  “Ghost hunters?” Cope sounded appalled by the very idea.

  Jude shook his head. “I don’t think I’m explaining it the right way. Ghost investigators might be a better way of explaining it. There’s a huge demand in this town for people whose homes or businesses are haunted. Ten thinks if he had a team of two people who could research the spirit and then speak to it and resolve the situation, it could be lucrative and beneficial.”

  Cope was quiet for a minute. “That’s an interesting idea. Why do you think it’s dead in the water?”

  Jude knew it was because the right pieces weren’t in place yet. That was always what Tennyson said when he wasn’t ready to talk about something. He’d just say the right pieces weren’t in place for this to happen and then the subject would be dropped. “Here we are.” Jude parked the car across the street from the shop.

  “Hold on.” Copeland reached a hand out to Jude, resting it atop his on the steering wheel. “Answer my question.”

  Jude stared at Cope’s hand on top of his. It was such a simple gesture, meant to keep him in his seat a moment longer. Jude wasn’t really used to touches of a non-sexual nature, especially from men who were near-total strangers. “The last time Tennyson and I talked about it, he said the right pieces weren’t in place yet to get this idea off the ground. That’s why I think it’s a dead idea. He and Ronan used to talk to me all the time about getting out of the P.I. game. It’s why I moved out of Boston, but there hasn’t been any movement since those initial talks.”

  “What if Ten is telling the truth? What if you are one of the right pieces?” Cope’s voice was gentle, but insistent all the same.

  “I don’t understand.” Jude turned his gaze away from Cope’s hand, which was still sitting on top of his own, to look at Copeland.

  “Do you have any psychic gifts? Can you talk to dead people?”

  Jude shook his head. “No. I have a bit of heightened intuition, but I have no skills like you and the guys who work at the Magick shop.”

  “The skill set that you have makes you a perfect fit for the other part of that job, right? You’d be the perfect investigator, looking into the spirits of the deceased haunting these properties. It seems to me all Ten and the others are waiting for is the perfect medium to walk through that door to be your partner.” Cope’s other hand came up to point at the store front.

  “I hadn’t thought about it that way before.” Jude hadn’t meant to say that out loud. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately with Copeland, letting his guard down. Whatever thoughts were in his head came spilling off his lips like snow-melt cascading down a mountain.

  “From what I’ve seen over the last few days, your friends really care about you. They wouldn’t give you so much shit if they didn’t. Be patient about this new opportunity. It’s coming your way.” Patting Jude’s hand, Copeland pulled away and got out of the car.

  Looking down at his hand, Jude was thunderstruck. Sometimes all it took was a few simple words to change his whole point of view. He never was a very patient man. He should have given Tennyson the benefit of the doubt, but he’d allowed his own personal doubts to creep in and poison his mindset. This was just one more thing he needed to work on.

  Throwing open the car door, he hurried around to the other side to catch up with Copeland who wore a curious look on his face. He wasn’t going to say a word. He’d already shared more about himself over the last two days than he’d shared with Ten and Ronan over the last year. “You ready?”

  Cope nodded.

  Pulling open the door, Jude heard the familiar tinkle of the bell. Stepping through this door felt like coming home for him.

  “Hey, Jude!” Carson Craig called out. He was smiling warmly, which lasted all of three seconds before he started to sing.

  Oh, shit… Here it comes.

  Cole Craig joined in, and seconds later, the entire shop was singing the chorus to Hey Jude, including Copeland. He supposed that was one way to make the new guy feel welcome. “Screw you guys. I’m getting coffee.”

  “We’ve got it all set up in the reading room,” Carson stopped singing long enough to say. “You must be Copeland Forbes. I’m Carson Craig.” Carson held his hand out.

  “Word travels fast.” Copeland shook with Carson.

  “I figured it would save time to just tell them all what I knew ahead of time,” Tennyson chimed in.

  “Bullshit. We’re all a bunch of gossiping hens first thing in the morning!” A man carrying an infant said. “Cole Craig. It’s nice to meet you, Cope. This is my son, Brady.”

  Cope dropped Cole’s hand. He had a strange look in his eyes. He brought his right hand up to hover over the infant before a grin broke across his face. Cope started to laugh. “You’ve got your hands full with this one.”

  “Define hands full.” Cole looked over at his brother. “Mom said she didn’t think Brady was going to get any of our gifts.”

  “He isn’t,” Copeland confirmed. “But you’re going to want to get him the Fisher Price My First Cauldron for Christmas. Maybe a black cat too.”

  Cole’s mouth dropped open. “My son is going to be a witch?”

  “No. Your son is going to be a wizard. A very powerful one. That friend of Jude’s, Dempsey, is going to be his mentor.”

  “Holy shit! I’ve got to tell Cassie!” Cole started to laugh.

  “Cassie heard every word,” a petite blonde woman said from behind Cole. “What does that mean exactly? Is my son going to be turning his sister into a frog? Or be setting things on fire with his thoughts?”

  “I can’t answer that question right now, but I bet Dempsey will be able to tell you a lot more about how his gifts manifested and how his family handled that.” Cope was smiling down at the infant who was sleeping peacefully without a care in the world.

  “What do you think, Mama?” Cole asked his wife.

  Cassie wrapped an arm around her husband. Her eyes settled fondly on their two-month-old son. “So long as he’s happy and he’s not the Malfoy of the group, I’ve got no problem with it.”

  “Is everyone ready to get the show
on the road? I’m starving,” Ronan grumbled.

  “Come on, Grinchy pants. I’ll get you settled in.” Ten grabbed Ronan’s hand and led him toward the reading room.

  “I’ll see you in there. It was nice meeting you, Copeland.” Cole nodded.

  “What do you think of the store?” Jude asked when he and Cope were alone again.

  “It’s got a nice vibe to it. The energy in here is so positive. I think Cassie and the customers from the bakery bring a lot of great energy into this space. You’ve got a lot of good friends, Jude. I could really feel how much they cared about you when they were singing.”

  “You were singing too,” Jude grumped.

  “When in Rome.” Cope smiled. “I don’t mean to sound like a Grinchy pants either, but I’m starving too.”

  “Let’s go join the circus.” Jude couldn’t help feeling a bit of the warm and fuzzies knowing how well Copeland fit into his group of friends.

  11

  Copeland

  Copeland was on his third passionfruit muffin of the morning. It wasn’t like him to snarf down baked goods like this, but these were the best things he’d ever eaten in his life. Jude hadn’t been kidding when he said Cassie was the best baker in town. He’d go so far as to say they were the best muffins he’d had in his entire life.

  As he’d been eating, Copeland had taken some time to watch the interaction between the friends. Carson’s husband, Truman Wesley, had joined the group when Cope had been in the middle of muffin number two, so now he had a complete picture of the dynamics at West Side Magick.

  The most interesting member of the group, by far was Emilyn Cassidy. This little pixie of a woman was full of so much light and joy, it almost knocked Cope over. Em was also the surrogate who was carrying Tennyson and Ronan’s baby, which Copeland assumed was part of the reason for the double dose of happiness coming at him.

  “I want to thank everyone for being able to meet Copeland on such short notice,” Jude started. “I think you’ve all heard the story about how he showed up on Ten and Ronan’s doorstep, half dead, from some sort of psychic attack.”

  Everyone around the table nodded. Jude opened his mouth to continue when the door flew open. “Sorry I’m late.” Dempsey McMillan grinned.

  “How can you be late? You weren’t invited.” Jude shot the wizard a dirty look as Dempsey reached over Copeland’s shoulder for a muffin.

  “Of course, I was invited. Cope invited me.” Dempsey flashed his killer smile. His icy eyes danced at Jude’s obvious surprise.

  Copeland felt his stomach flip when Jude’s eyes darkened. It was true. He had invited the wizard, but not through traditional methods.

  “You went through my phone to get his number?” Jude’s voice was quiet. He almost sounded calm.

  Copeland could see the fury burning in Jude’s hazel eyes. It didn’t scare him one bit. “No, Jude, I didn’t go through your phone. I reached out to Dempsey without needing to use Verizon.” He tapped a finger against his left temple.

  “Jesus Christ,” Jude mumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “Why are your panties in such a twist? You were the one who had him out at your house putting spells on it like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice so I’d be safe there!” Cope challenged back. He had a feeling part of the problem was that Jude wasn’t the one who’d made the move. He didn’t like it when his toes were stepped on. Well, tough shit.

  Jude’s eyes glowed brighter as he leaned over the table looking like he was ready to rumble.

  Copeland could feel the mood in the room change. Everyone was anxious to see what was going to happen next between them. Cope, chief among them. Was Jude going to lose his shit or back down, knowing he was acting like a real horse’s ass?

  “How can you help, Dempsey?” Jude asked, not taking his eyes off Copeland.

  “You’re not going to like the answer, Jude.” Dempsey shook his head.

  “What the fuck else is new? Spit it out. I can’t read your mind.” Half a smile quirked Jude’s lips. He still hadn’t taken his amber eyes off Cope.

  “Are you always this charming?” Copeland couldn’t help asking.

  “You’re the one who’s under a psychic attack. You look like Jack Skellington from the Nightmare Before Christmas, but hey, if skeletal is the look you’re going for then you’ve aced it.” Cope flashed him the “okay” gesture with his left hand.

  “Children,” Ronan cautioned. He was wearing a badly concealed smirk. “What answer have you got that we’re not going to like, Dempsey?”

  The wizard hurried to swallow his mouthful of muffin before clearing his throat. “Jude asked me to hide Copeland’s psychic signature so that no one could find him. That’s keeping whoever is trying to hurt him from being able to zero in on him and start up with these attacks again. If I take that charm off-”

  “No!” Jude thundered. “I’m not going to allow you to put Cope at risk like that. Find another way.”

  Copeland watched Ronan and Tennyson exchange a wordless look with each other. He’d love to know what the hell it meant. “While I appreciate your passion for me, Jude, let’s hold our horses here.”

  “My passion?” Jude looked thunderstruck by Cope’s words.

  It was taking all of Copeland’s willpower not to smile at the cagey P.I. “Your defense of me was very vigorous, but I’d like to hear the rest of what Dempsey was about to say.” He turned to the wizard who also looked like he was trying hard not to laugh. “If this idea is the only way we have to catch this prick then I’d rather risk myself on the front end than spend the rest of my life worrying that the attacks will start up again.” He turned away from Jude. “Dempsey?”

  “Thanks, Cope. If I take the masking charm off of you, whoever is trying to hurt you is going to be able to resume their attacks, but that’s the good news.”

  Jude snorted. “I’m having a stroke, aren’t I?” He looked around the room. “Ronan help me out here, please.”

  “Even I have to admit that sounds a little backward, Dempsey. You want to explain to me how Copeland being under fire again is good news?” Ronan shot Jude an understanding smile.

  “The person attacking Cope has a psychic signature of their own. It’s possible I can use that to track him or her down.” Dempsey shot Jude a shit-eating grin.

  “But it’s also possible that you can’t, right?” Jude asked, sounding like an eternal pessimist.

  “Yeah, that’s right.” Dempsey sounded hesitant to answer.

  “What’s the worst that can happen to Copeland?” Carson chimed in. “I don’t know a lot about psychic attacks. I mean the most I know is when someone’s up for a promotion and you secretly wish that they don’t get the job.”

  “Yeah, that’s all part of it to, on a very low frequency. At that point, it’s all about negative energy. Dark emotions like jealousy, fear, disgust, and anger can cause psychic attacks too, like when you feel the energy in a room shift. The same thing can also happen in the other direction when someone announces happy news like a baby being on the way or when someone announces an engagement.” Dempsey paused, looking around the room. “What we’re dealing with in Copeland’s case is targeted magick.”

  “That sounds like it takes skill.” Tennyson looked around the room.

  “It does when evil is involved.” Dempsey grinned. “Think about a prayer chain. If Jude fell and broke his leg, you all would get the word out that he’d been hurt and people would start praying for him. That’s targeted magick too, if you think about it, all of that positive energy directed at Jude. The power of positive energy can move mountains. Negative energy, on the other hand, needs a bit more force to do the kind of harm Copeland was facing.”

  “Okay, so with this targeted magick, someone was cursing me?” Copeland felt lost. Who would want to do this to him? He’d already ruled out Deacon Boudreaux. Who else did that leave? He’d had a sterling reputation at Skullduggery and spoke to almost no one in Galveston. There were no other suspects j
umping out at him.

  “I think so, Cope. No one else was feeling any effects of it when you got to Ten and Ronan’s house, right, guys?” Dempsey looked at the married couple.

  “I was fine. How about you, Ronan?” Ten looked at Ronan.

  “I didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary.”

  “That would confirm my suspicion that what was going on was specifically targeted toward Copeland.” Dempsey rocked back on his heels, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “What do you think about me taking off the protection charm?”

  Copeland didn’t answer. He looked up at Jude. The man looked like he was about to have a kitten. “You’d have to take the charm off me in order for the attacker to be able to resume his or her tactics, but what about Jude’s house?”

  Dempsey nodded. “That would have to go too.”

  “Which would leave Jude vulnerable, right?” Copeland didn’t like the idea of that at all.

  “Now hold on a minute here,” Jude started to object. “This isn’t about me, it’s about keeping you safe.”

  “If this person can dial in on me, they could also dial in on who’s around me, right? I mean when I was hiding out in Galveston I was all alone. There was no threat to anyone else but me, but now…” Cope trailed off. If Jude could play the fucking martyr then so could he.

  “Wait, you think I could be at risk if Dempsey takes this spell off the house?” Jude leaned forward in his seat.

  “That’s what I’m asking.” Cope didn’t want to make any decisions until he knew what all of the possible ramifications were. “I’m living in your house, Jude. I’d at least like to know if you’re going to be put in danger by whatever choice I make.”

  The look on Jude’s face softened, as if people didn’t often figure his needs into the equation. “What can this person do to Cope?” Jude’s fiery eyes flashed back to Dempsey.

  The wizard shook his head. “I don’t know, Jude. It could be just what we saw before, migraines, body aches, that all over wet dishrag feeling, but…”

  “But, what?” Jude looked around the table to the other psychics who were shaking their heads and looking like someone died. “Jesus, guys, what?”