One More Bite

by Jennifer Rardin

  “You ready to move on?” he asked.

  “Yeah.”

  I noticed the bulk of the GhostWalk crowd stood about thirty yards away, surrounding Bart as he narrated the romantic and yet depressing story of Vika Dwyre and Lyall Hoppringhill, whose shades could often be seen holding hands as they strolled through the cemetery. Wow, kinda like Vayl and me, I thought as Albert led Jack to a birch tree.

  “This looks like a good one,” he whispered to the dog. “Go ahead.”

  As Jack lifted his leg I hissed, “You’re not letting him pee on holy ground!”

  “Why not? It’ll be a story he can tell the other pets when he gets home. I’ll bet none of them has ever pissed in a Scottish cemetery.”

  “Oh my God. Just when I thought—”

  Vayl’s voice, hushed and urgent in my ear, silenced my rant. “Floraidh is leaving the castle. Dormal is going with her, but two other coven members have arrived to take their places at the GhostWalk table.”

  “What do you wanna bet they’re skipping off to raise the shade of that old-timer who nearly crashed us this afternoon?” said Albert.

  “That ought to make this group pretty happy,” I said. “All they’ve gotten for their money so far is a long walk and a couple of pathetic stories.”

  Cole and the girls joined us as the group moved on, taking a narrow path into the trees, which Bart said connected the cemetery to the southernmost property line of Tearlach. I watched my third slide his hand under Viv’s elbow as they came to a part of the trail that wasn’t as well lit by the widely spaced lanterns as the previous bit had been. When she looked up at him, the question in her eyes made me wish I could give her a medal. Or, what the hell, bequeath a knighthood. Not because she needed to ask Cole if she could trust him. But because she still managed the hope that anyone deserved it.

  I stopped breathing. Crossed my fingers. Come on, Cole. All those girls were just practice for this one. Don’t let her down.

  His smile started in his eyes, and by the time it reached his lips even I wanted to give him a hug. He turned toward her, his shoulder blocking Iona’s view, and signed something with his right hand that I could barely see. Viv caught his fingers in hers and pressed them against her cheek. A second later they’d gone back to their silent chatter with Iona, but the change had begun. She stood straighter, with a confidence that matched her shoes much better than it had when she’d slipped them on earlier this evening. And Cole. The way he threw his head back and laughed, I was pretty sure he enjoyed the weight of the superhero cape he’d just earned that was flying straight back from his shoulders.

  “Hey, Lucille!” Cole said as Albert and I caught up to them, “we’ve got a bet on as to whether or not our equipment picks up some ghostly activity at our next stop. What do you think?” he asked.

  “I’ll put five bucks on our equipment. Which reminds me, is there any part of the house we don’t have covered? Because we probably should station someone in the blind spots just in case.”

  “Well, Floraidh didn’t want her or Dormal’s bedrooms filmed, or the bathroom. And she thought the guests would be put off by cameras in the lounges and the dining room.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” I said. The dining room, where everyone would be standing to watch the show from the cutout to the kitchen. I took out my phone. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll call Vayl and see if he can meet us there. Maybe he can monitor the dining room with one of our phantasmic detectors while we do the firsthand observations.”

  I dropped back, letting everyone get ahead of me as Vayl answered the phone. Yeah, we could’ve used the party line, but this way I could talk out loud without seeming utterly whacked. “Were we right about Floraidh and Dormal?”

  “I believe so. They seem to be heading straight back to Tearlach. That was an excellent excuse you gave me for showing up unannounced, as it were.”

  “Um, Vayl?”

  “Yes.”

  “I really like the way you talk. It’s so quaint sometimes I just want to hop into a hoop skirt and learn to waltz. But nobody says ‘as it were’ anymore.”

  “The world would be a better place if they did. Do you know what else people should say? Specifically me, now that I have removed my transmitter?”

  “No.”

  His voice dropped into an oh-baby purr. “I have been entertaining the most erotic fantasies involving you, me, and a bathtub full of whipped cream.”

  My entire body tingled, as if he’d just run his fingertips over every inch of my skin. “Ahhh.”

  “They are frustrating me somewhat because I have never seen your bare breasts. Therefore I can only try to imagine what they might look like covered with sugary white foam.”

  “Oh.”

  “Perhaps we could rectify that omission sometime soon. Yes?”

  Nobody says “rectify that omission” anymore either. But since his words had woven an erotic web around my body that would cling to me until his hands descended to pull it off, I gave him the only answer my heart and mouth could agree on. “Oh, yeah.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Tearlach rose from the trees ahead of us like a giant open hand, poised to reach down and slap us if we took one step in the wrong direction as we emerged from the woods. The hike had nearly done Albert in, though he’d never admit what he wanted most was a plush recliner and a cold glass of water. I kept eyeing him peripherally, wondering how much I’d have to pay Shelby to get him and his bride to join us if Albert didn’t improve after a good night’s rest. The only reason I didn’t rush him upstairs and shove some pillows under those knees was his stiff-backed pride. It had gotten him through more firefights and forced marches than he’d care to remember. I figured he still had enough steel left in him to get through this night too.

  We walked around to the front door. Floraidh, Dormal, and Vayl had already arrived. They sat in the front lounge, chatting like old friends, when we walked in. I felt the spell immediately, like pepper in the air, making me want to sneeze. While Bart assembled his people in the back lounge so Floraidh could explain the first appearance, Albert sank into the pink chair she’d vacated.

  “What do you say, Lucille? You up to grabbing the old man a drink?” he asked. Which was how I knew he was really hurting. The more pain he’s in, the more wah he gets in his tone. He’s not as bad as he used to be, but the old habits still clung.

  “Fine, Jack needs one too.” I took the malamute’s leash and began to lead him toward the kitchen.

  My sverhamin came after me, saying, “Perhaps I should check the camera one last time. We would not want to miss a single frame of what is to come.”

  We strode down the hallway and through the kitchen door, which someone had propped open with a cast-iron bean pot. I poured Jack a bowl of water, grabbed a bottle for Albert from the fridge, and huddled with Vayl by the camera he and Cole had set up between the back door and the window that stood next to the stove.

  “Magic’s in the air already,” I murmured. “And it feels different than before. I don’t think they’re doing the same spell.”

  “Can you tell at whom it is directed?”

  “Can I . . . Do I look like a bird dog to you?”

  He touched a button on the camera, which made a red light blink alarmingly. So he touched it again. All better. “Come now, Jasmine, after all this time have you learned nothing from me?”

  “You’ve taught me a ton, but—”

  “When spells are directed they stick. Just as vampires, Weres, and witches scent a certain way to you, the victim of the spell will suddenly pique your awareness. Untouched one moment. Enspelled the next.”

  “So you want me, what, to go back in there and stick my nose behind everybody’s ears?”

  “If you must. Or . . . if it would help, I could give your extra Sight a boost.”

  No mistaking the desire in his eyes. It said, Your blood is like nectar on my tongue. And it has been so very long.

  I was suddenly aware of my fat
her listening in on the party line. “That won’t be necessary. Uh, thanks.” I pointed to the camera. “Looks like everything’s up and running here. I’ll just get in there and start sniffing.” I backed up. Jack, having finished his water, decided we were about to have fun and followed me. I said, “Maybe I’ll make it into a game. I’ll tell people I’m trying to get into the Guinness World Records for most perfumes guessed correctly.”

  Halfway out of the room, still not looking where I was going, I ran into the table, bounced off it, and nearly fell over a chair that hadn’t quite been pushed under it.

  Dammit! Would you calm down? He’s not going to chase you down and sink his fangs into you!

  That’s not my problem!

  No? Well, then, what is?

  That I want him to. Right here. Right now. Screw the audience. To hell with Albert. And I don’t care what side effects come back to slap me later on.

  Whew! You got it bad.

  I know. And if I don’t do something about it soon, I am so going to embarrass myself.

  Somehow Vayl knew. One of the advantages of having lived so long, I guess. With that barely smile that drives me wild he said, “Very well, then. Let me know what you turn up.” His eyes took a long stroll down my body and back up again, leaving me breathless when they met my own. My heart practically stopped when he put those blunt, strong fingers to his lips and dropped me a kiss.

  Okay, we’re quick-marching out the door now. Move those feet. Don’t fall over the dog on your way into the lounge. Are you remembering to breathe? No? Could you please recall that passing out will only give him an excuse to do mouth-to-mouth? Stop. Strike that image from your brain immediately. If you don’t quit thinking about him that way you are going to melt. Down.

  Later I decided the only reason I found the Scidairans’ victims was because of my desperate need to reestablish control. The second I left the kitchen I focused so hard on their spell that I could practically see the weave of it as it drifted over the heads of the GhostWalk group, which had begun to head toward the dining room. If I’d been more familiar with their kind of manipulation I might’ve been able to put a name to it. As it was, all I could smell was the wrongness in the atmosphere, like I’d spent too much time breathing manufactured air.

  I wandered over to join the tourists. Bart had lined half of them, including Cole, Iona, and Viv, up at the pass-through. He’d sent the other half to the doorway.

  “This is so exciting!” said a busty blonde whose bright eyes had more to do with the silver flask peeking out her half-zipped purse than any real anticipation. Her companion, a big strong dude who obviously had no qualms about the cancer risks related to tanning beds, put both arms around her.

  “Just don’t grab any ghost tushes tonight,” he said. “I don’t think I can outrun any more stampedes.”

  “Hear, hear!” seconded a cheerful, barrel-chested man whose wild white hair made him look like he’d just had an amazing idea that would probably lead to the invention of a tasty microbrew.

  While the rest of the window crowd went into some vocal reenacting, I covered my mouth and made a party line announcement. “I can See the spell. It seems to be working off these people’s emotions. I mean, they’re keyed up anyway, but every time one of them expresses any feeling beyond neutral, the cloud above them writhes and grows. That must be why they’re here. Their emotion is like fuel.”

  I glanced over at Viv, whose bright pink cheeks and sparkly eyes had transformed her into the girl in the “before” pictures I’d seen online. That someone evil should take advantage of her yet again made my stomach turn. I said, “Cole, do you think you could convince Viv to go upstairs and hang out with her mom?”

  “We talked about that already,” he said as he wandered over to the wall to pretend the plates mounted there fascinated him. Not that we knew she could read lips, but the Agency prides itself on taking extra precautions in matters of this nature. “She’s desperate to help her mom, but not in the way she wants to help herself. And Rhona’s pretty overbearing. I think she’s enjoying her time away.”

  “Dude, this isn’t the place—”

  “I know. I’ll try to keep her calm.” Which was when he looked at me and we both admitted we didn’t believe that Viv had killed anyone. Ever.

  “Cole—”

  He winked. “I think she likes me. Are you jealous?”

  I sighed. The fledgling romance I’d seen blooming in the woods didn’t have a chance if he couldn’t let me go. “Dude, you need to find a girl who loves you and needs you. I don’t think you realize how much you enjoy protecting people. If you did, you’d see there’s a woman in this room right now who fits you like a damn Speedo.”

  “That’s pretty tight.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “But you’re not referring to yourself.”

  “No.”

  He glanced over his shoulder at Viv. When he turned back to me I sighed in relief. He didn’t wear the look of a man who’s just lost his home to a tornado. More like somebody who’s misplaced a library book and knows he has to pay to replace it. “We would’ve been good, Jaz.”

  “Maybe. Until you left me. Or I killed you. Whichever came first.”

  He snorted. “So this spell. Who are they zapping with it?”

  “Nobody in your area. Must be one of the people by the door.”

  “Excellent,” said Vayl, the extra bounce in his voice letting me know he fully approved of my break with Cole. “I will meet you there.”

  I stalked around the corner, grim and focused as half of a hunting pack closing in on its prey. Who were . . . giggling like a bunch of kindergartners. Gawd. Are people always the most oblivious when they’re inches away from stone-cold killers?

  This group could hardly stand still. If I’d had access to a jug of Ritalin I’d have climbed a ladder and emptied it into their gaping mouths. And no, it wouldn’t have been hard to get them to open up. They were all talking at once, none of them shutting up to listen to anyone else for more than ten seconds before they zoomed on with their own stories.

  Tall, anorexic girl: “So my mom died really suddenly when I was, like, fifteen, you know? And that’s terribly hard on an impressionable teenager.”

  Attractive bank clerk who’d either live an unremarkable life or commit suicide before his thirtieth birthday: “I didn’t even believe in ghosts before I came here. I just thought, why not? I had some vacation time coming and I really hate the beach.”

  Half-wrecked forty-something holding a ragged handkerchief: “My husband’s been haunting me since the day after I buried him, over three months ago. I’ve seen him standing in our bedroom window as I take my morning walks. But when I run inside, he’s always gone. I’ve got to figure out how to lay him to rest. He’s never rested, not even in life.”

  And the Haighs, having heard the ruckus and decided to make the most of their free vacation despite the fact that Humphrey had nearly caused a riot two hours before. Reassured that nobody in their group recognized him for the rabble-rouser he’d turned out to be, Humphrey had relaxed into the moment: “Don’t you think the ghost stories are fascinating, though? So many different reasons why people get stuck in between.”

  Lesley, twittering on taut nerves that anticipated yet another dumbass move on his part but were trying to make the best of the pleasantness while it lasted: “But so heart wrenching as well. Some of those tales just yank the tears right out of you.”

  Humphrey, patting her on the back: “Aw, Lesley, you always were such a softie.”

  As soon as he touched her, the spell coalesced into a pitch-tinted web that wrapped them both. They didn’t react, but my Spirit Eye could see the strands of Scidairan magic bind them head to toe until I wondered how they still managed to speak.

  Vayl edged through the door-blocking crowd and moved toward me. As he reached my side I coiled my arms around his, smiled up into his eyes, and said, “Jeremy, I hope someday when we’ve been together for years we’re stil
l as happy as these two lovebirds.”

  I nodded at the Haighs, who smiled graciously. I returned the favor, though I squeezed Vayl’s bicep so hard he’d probably have bruises to show for it. For a couple of seconds anyway.

  The spell reached inside the Haighses’ mouths every time they spoke, as if to steal something vital hidden at the backs of their throats. Watching that sinister black blob crawl over their tongues was definitely going to give me nightmares. And I’d just shaken the ones from the last mission, dammit!

  Vayl’s steely blue eyes marked Lesley as he took her hand. “How nice to see you again. And what a lovely necklace that is. I do not believe you were wearing it the last time we met,” he said, pointing out the diamond-encrusted rose around her neck. It hung from a diamond-link chain that sparkled every time she moved.

  Putting a self-manicured hand up to her throat, she fluttered her lashes in embarrassed gratitude as she said, “Why, thank you! It’s actually one of Humphrey’s creations. I didn’t even realize he’d brought it, because he usually keeps it in the safe. In fact, I’ve never worn it until this very moment. But Floraidh had sent us a coupon for a free dinner at Adair’s, and Humphrey knew I’d want to look my best for the occasion.”

  I looked at my watch. “It’s nearly two thirty in the morning. A fancy restaurant like that can’t be open this late. Unless they’re doing a special service just for you?”

  “Oh, no, nothing like that!” She giggled. “Our reservations are for tomorrow night. I just put on the necklace tonight because Floraidh said the diamonds would protect me against angry ghosts.”

  “Oh.” What, are you casting spells now, Lesley? Because unless you’re bowing down to Scidair, I think Floraidh’s yanking your chain. The question is, why?

  The jeweler’s wife pointed at Cirilai. “I see you have a few diamonds in your ring. But that might not be enough to protect you. Floraidh said I should use as many as I had. The necklace contains a thousand diamonds altogether. Isn’t that amazing?”