Overcome by this promise, Eve couldn’t help herself. She had to do something intimate, unmistakable. She turned her face in his hands and kissed the inside of his palm. Jacob breathed in sharply.
“More…tomorrow…” he said, his words strained as she opened her lips and breathed against his palm. “When I have you all to myself… When we make a point of this, not just a collision of pent-up notions.”
Eve dared to meet his gaze once more, her lips still grazing his hand. At the sight of his smoldering, hungry expression, a bolt of desire thundered through her, head to toe. Gently, he lowered his hands and folded them in his lap.
Knowing full well they teetered at a tempting, dangerous precipice from which they could not retreat, they were unable to say another word for the return trip downtown. Looking out the window, Eve’s heart raced as fast as the spin of the train wheels as the cars swept between the upward climb of city buildings and chugged above passersby a story below.
Exiting a stop before he did, she rose as the station neared, bidding him a fond, quiet farewell, unable to look at him for fear she’d simply fall against him if he looked at her that way again.
Jacob stood and grasped her hand before she exited. “Tomorrow, Eve Whitby,” he repeated, his words an intoxicating spell. “Eleven. Meet me at the southwest corner of Central Park.”
“Yes…” she murmured. The rail rang its bell, and Eve stepped out onto the platform as they watched one another, wide eyed, excited and nervous as the train rolled away.
“Ah, amor,” Vera murmured in an aching sigh, appearing before her as she exited the platform and down the metal stairs.
Eve folded her arms, offering the elderly ghost a sideways glance as she stepped onto the busy street. “Were you spying?”
“No, dear, I find that rude. I can feel it in your heart. There was such a burst of fondness it drew me to you as if it were a summoning spell. Let these old hands bathe in that light, in the memory of love.”
“I caution you against the word love, Vera, there is something between us, yes—”
Flying away, the ghost cackled a fond laugh, and Eve’s vain protest was defeated.
Eve took a few turns in Washington Square Park before returning home, trying to cool her cheeks and settle her nerves.
A shadow framed in the monument arch sobered her.
Lethargy swept over her, and the notion of wanting to give up overcame her, making her limbs feel like lead.
Perhaps the vulnerability Jacob opened up in her had allowed her shielding to lapse. She closed her eyes, pictured the candle of a séance table, drew in a sense of fire and light, and radiated that outward in a violent, lashing vision of release.
The figure vanished but the exhaustion remained.
Eve climbed the stoop to her home. Her team was already eating dinner when she entered, and her stomach growled the moment she smelled a pepper-pot delight.
“We saved you some celery stew,” Antonia called from the dining room. “Come sit and have some before it’s too cold for comfort.”
“Bless you, dear heart, we would all be malnourished waifs without you,” Eve said, sweeping over to kiss the crown of Antonia’s head, noting the pleasant aroma of peony blossom from her freshly cleaned and rebraided hair. Gestures of affection and compliments were always met with Antonia’s gamesome hum of delight, a sound that lifted Eve’s tired spirits.
“All right, my dears,” Eve began, renewed by her company, taking her place at the side of the dinner table. Jenny reached up and squeezed Eve’s hand, and Eve turned to her, clasping the child’s little hand in both of hers as she eagerly inquired of them, “Tell me about your day; I anticipate our updates will be intense. Mine certainly are!”
“It was right to suggest Ambassador Bishop escort me to the bank. That man does unlock people.” Cora shook her head, laughing. “His power of persuasion is breathtaking to behold. Taking the tack of investigating international fraud, we soon found accounts indicating holdings related to Arte Uber Alles. A file is being prepared for him and will be sent to his post at the British embassy. Bishop thought that was best, to take the target off our home and office, and relate this to Prenze’s time in England.”
“Very good work,” Eve said. She could see her right-hand woman blossoming under the direct influence of the man who had saved her father’s life. Cora’s refreshed, vibrant spirit was stirring and humbling to behold.
“Thanks to his encouragement,” Cora added proudly, “I’ve begun practicing astral projection as the Bishops advised and encouraged. Besides, with you teaming up ever more consistently with the detective, I have to take on certain new mantles. I was hurt, and I missed you at first, but…”
Eve looked at her, furrowing her brow, trying to discern if Cora meant this with an edge. There had been an initial frustration, then adjustment, as Eve’s and the detective’s cases merged. Cora had seemed to be gaining peace with this, but perhaps it was going in stages.
“I see the way of things. And I like the new challenges,” Cora said, and Eve saw the true leader that Cora was, innately, shining through. “In projection, I like that I am not confined to this body, and that this skin, as beautiful as I think it is but as conditional as this nation thinks it is, is not all that holds me.” Antonia sighed wistfully. At the sound, Cora turned to her. “I’ll teach you,” she promised, and the dear friends smiled, their bond growing ever stronger.
“How did you do it?” Eve asked.
“I looked at a map of the city and tried to place myself there. Outside Prenze’s home. It was difficult, but I managed to place my energy in front of the Vanderbilt mansion. I could see passersby. I will get better at it.”
“I know you will,” Eve said. “Again, well done.” Cora beamed at the praise.
A pang hit Eve’s heart, but she quelled it in the instant as it was selfish to be jealous about her team having incredible experiences without her. But if she were honest, she did like being at the center of everything, just as Cora had said. But just as Cora had also warned, she couldn’t be her team’s everything. Eve chose to rotate between her team and the detective’s work, moving between worlds, so did she then have to let her team be bolstered by other talented associates too.
“I’ve been to see the surveillance locale,” Eve said. “Horowitz and Fitton got it all set up, with my dear Rachel Horowitz too, talented medium that she is, on hand for lip-reading. Our turn in rotation and discernment begins Sunday afternoon.”
The women seemed excited about this new aspect.
“Does Gran have a gossip strategy in place?” Eve asked Antonia, and in response she laughed, a tinkling, lovely sound.
“Of course she does, and she’s already been employing it. Her friend closest to the family is worried for Arielle, confirming she hasn’t been seen out since her gala.” Antonia leaned in. “Gran even let Jenny and me come calling with her!” Antonia blinked back tears that threatened to smear the faint makeup that heightened her delicate features. “She made sure I looked my very best and daintiest and I…never had anyone for that....”
“Oh, my friend, I’m so glad…” Eve said, moved by these moments where her colleagues had time with vital mentors and family figures, especially Antonia. Eve had to remind herself that they were all, herself included, still young and needed elders as much as they needed each other.
“Arielle and Alfred appear to be sedated by a figure that must be Albert,” Eve relayed. “I saw Mahoney there at the house. I’m hoping it was on our suggestion to watch, report, and act if need be, but the fact he wasn’t stopping Albert, if that’s the case, is suspect.”
“I’m not sure I can trust him,” Cora reminded the team. “His complaint against us directed the Prenze attention toward us in the first place. We need to get in. I hope the detective’s warrants are successful.”
“Agreed. Maggie also has a plan.” Eve e
xplained her eventful day with the reverends. Maggie’s possession of Reverend Coronado got a great deal of gasps and exclamations.
“Where is Maggie now?” Cora asked.
“I believe, if I interpreted her correctly, she’s off doing reconnaissance on Arielle Prenze, her next target.”
“Targeting for possession?” Antonia clarified.
Eve nodded.
“Dangerous,” Jenny whispered.
“I know.” Eve sighed. “But Maggie does what she wants and goes where she will. I’ve given up trying to rein her in. This is personal for her as well as it is for us. We’ve all been attacked by this family, and perhaps in watching them, she’ll find the best way in.”
Dr. Levi’s letter was the next item of business to be shared, and Eve tried to be hopeful about it rather than frustrated about it being stolen back, focusing on something productive: “He thinks as we do that the device was trying to measure brain activity,” Eve finished. “It’s a reminder that if we shield, whatever read Prenze got on us, we can block it.”
“On that exact topic, I’ve been doing some reading on stones!” Antonia began excitedly.
“My darling scholar,” Eve said fondly. “You each do your part so well.”
Antonia’s smile was bright as she continued. “I’ve noticed, Eve, that you’ve been wearing a few significant gemstones here and there, pressing them to you in moments of strife. It’s clear you’re resonant with their properties. I thought perhaps we each should wear a token, a talisman of a sort, making sure we’re never without a token of protection. Gran took us to a little esoteric shop to round out everything I needed.”
Antonia lifted a small canvas bag from her lap and, from it, produced a thin, round circlet with a hair comb sewn at the fore to keep it in place when set into a coiffure. A smooth black oval stone was held in a delicate stamped setting of silver filigree. Everyone breathed appreciative, impressed murmurs.
“Eve, my friend.” Antonia presented the circlet to Eve, whose hand flew to her heart as Antonia continued. “For the woman who gave me refuge. I was led to you, and you’ve never let me down in safe haven to be my true self. Your mind is what must be protected above all else, as it is you that the spirits are all most drawn to. You’re the presence we all orbit, in a way.”
“No,” Eve insisted. “Never think of yourselves as secondary; you’re not some moon, you’re your own planet. Especially as my mind has faltered, especially as I’ve been weak. You mustn’t—”
“Hush, you, this is about building more love and strength, not modesty; try to play along.” Antonia laughed. Rising, she gently placed the circlet over Eve’s head as if at a coronation, setting it around the braided bun where its filigree circumference fit around the pinned knot that gathered all her thick black hair at the top of her head. “This is obsidian, which wards specifically against psychic attack. Your boundaries are being tested as forces are trying to get in. Wear this on your head, at whatever angle, in hopes it will block intrusion.”
Eve wasn’t always sure what was simply the power of suggestion when it came to stones and their powers, but they always helped focus her and she couldn’t help but think they had an effect. Just with this placed at her crown, the comb slid into her coiled braid atop her head to steady it, Eve felt a pressure ease. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she felt her busy mind take a turn for the quieter. She felt stronger, just by its presence.
Antonia turned to Cora and produced from the same bag a slender oval black brooch cut in the style of jet mourning jewelry.
“Before I left home, my aunt, the only adult who tried to understand me, knew she was going to pass. She gave me some of her jewelry, knowing I’d want to wear it and treasure it. This was hers. Jet is the stone of astral projection. For my brave girl who breaks down barriers and knows no fear,” Antonia said fondly, pressing the jet brooch carved with intricate geometric patterns into Cora’s hands. “May this be a help and protection against negativity and spectral attack.”
Cora stared at the gift in wonder, then back at Antonia, and something ineffable passed between them.
Antonia turned to Jenny.
“For our littlest joy,” Antonia declared, plucking a thin chain with a polished purple stone pendant hanging from it. “Amethyst, for protection, and for healing any ill. We have to keep you safe and healthy always.”
Jenny embraced the woman who had so clearly become her big sister and bounced back apace excitedly, gesturing for Antonia to place it around her neck.
“Thank you,” Eve said, bowing her head to her colleague, “for this latest development in your esoteric studies. What did you get for yourself?”
“Gran insisted that a gift of protection given has twice the power than one procured for oneself. She gave me this.” Antonia pulled a chain from below the lace around her throat to reveal three round simple stones set in silver.
“Is that obsidian on either side of lapis lazuli?” Eve asked.
“Indeed. I explained to Gran that I’ve been seeing a forest glade sometimes, behind my eyes. Oddly, unexpectedly, a blink of an image.”
“Is that not a vision?” Cora and Eve chorused the insistence of premonition.
“That’s what Gran agreed, so I’m paying attention. As you know, the lapis is the stone of clairvoyance and the obsidian will boost those powers and also protect as I discern.”
“Please let me know what you determine it to be,” Eve said. “I have no doubt it will prove important. Thank you all for doing such good work; we’re close. I can feel that we’re close to something.…”
Here Eve paused, and in this, Jenny eyed her. And there’s something else… Jenny signed.
“Yes…” Eve began. “There is something else, amid our work and tasks. We cannot underestimate the power of protection in the matter of joy, peace, and time to ourselves. Prenze has been a shadow threatening our every move. To the point of violence. We can’t let Albert Prenze run our lives. Tomorrow, I declare a day off. Do what will inspire and strengthen you. We are, above all, our own people with our own lives, and by God we’re going to live them a moment.” Eve rose and her colleagues watched her. “With that, I bid you goodnight and every blessing. I must rest lest a migraine blossom. The pressure is there.”
Eve turned away and went toward the stairs before her expression could give anything else away about the excuse. While she did worry about the aura of a migraine, her need to rest had more to do with the next day, and her nerves wouldn’t let her sit still another moment.
“Are you all right?” Antonia called after her.
“I am. I’ve a lot on my mind,” Eve called back from the top of the stairs. “But nothing to worry about. Only our protections. Those are the sole focus. Refresh the wards in each of your rooms; say blessings over them and add your light to renew the vials. Rest and take care of yourselves because we’re on surveillance rotations by noon Sunday.”
She closed and locked her door, shuttered her windows, and undressed.
As she removed her clothes, keeping the circlet on her head, her thoughts careened concerning what the next day would bring. If there was ever a time she wanted to be left alone and protected from intrusion, it was this, and what was to come.
Mrs. Bishop, during her visit, had placed a ward at each window. They were small glass vials with cork stoppers. Eve did as she’d just advised. Cupping the glass in both hands, with a blessing of peace and resolution, Eve sent her energy and spirit into the vials in a press of light and warmth. A little glow, visible to Eve’s Sensitivities, resulted. “We will not be intimidated,” Eve murmured, replacing the vial at the center of each sill.
Lying back on her bed, nightdress splayed out around her in frothy layers, she thought of fire and shielded once more. And then, she let herself daydream.
Her thoughts were consumed by Jacob and the small intimacies they had shared so far: touch
es and caresses that were but a prelude. Then began a torturous night, but never had she felt such delicious agony.
Hardly able to sleep, countless iterations of what might happen in the park played through her mind. A hazy, dreamy, titillating selection of images paraded through her mind and imagined sensations overtook her body as she squirmed restlessly under covers, shifting her nightclothes, her body awake and yearning in ways she’d never allowed herself to feel. Jacob opened a floodgate within her, and she was powerless to arraign what had been let loose. However, for the first time in her life, a bit of abandon couldn’t be safer. There was no one else she could trust to lose control with, testing limits and boundaries. Finally, Eve drifted off to sleep wondering how it might feel when they finally gave in to the inevitable.
Chapter Eight
The next morning Eve walked in a waking dream as she washed up and slowly dressed in a deep blue wool riding habit and matching capelet with black details. Looking in the mirror, her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were wide. She knew what was going to happen because it had to.
The habit was flattering, but as she gazed at her figure, she boldly unbuttoned the top few buttons around her throat, wrapping a silk scarf and tucking it in so that it didn’t look scandalous walking out the door. But it could easily slide away…in hopes that Jacob’s breath would soon be hot against her throat. She knew where she would stop. There would be no question about her virtue. Jacob was a gentleman who wouldn’t think nor dare to press her.
But the possibilities of his closeness and the ways in which they may be chastely intimate threatened to make Eve faint. She didn’t dare exit her room. Her face would give her away in the instant, and she didn’t want to be questioned about anything. Her fellow Sensitives were too talented not to either tease or squeal about her, and she wanted none of the fuss or attention. Wishing to be left to her nerves in peace, she remained in her room, reading a police protocol manual that she wasn’t paying the least attention to, until the house was still and she felt confident she was the only one left in it, save for one piano poltergeist.
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