“Hmm.” Nick straightened and lifted his hand. Pinched between his finger and thumb was the elastic band of a pair of men’s briefs. “Well, I’m not one to judge anyone’s fashion choices, but I think it’s pretty safe to assume these don’t belong to the lady in question.”
Lacey scoffed. “Looks like I owe Jupiter fifty bucks.”
Nick placed the underwear on the bed. “Who’s the guy? The assistant?”
“Most likely,” Lacey muttered. “Jupiter swore there was something there.”
“Why didn’t you?” I asked.
“Aretha and I have a lot in common,” Lacey said, a snarl tugging at her upper lip. “We both have overbearing fathers who have more power than sense.”
I wasn’t sure it really answered my question, but as Lacey fell silent I realized it was the only answer I was going to get.
Nick took a slow turn. “Should I keep digging? Maybe something will spark?”
Lacey tossed her head. “No, let’s go to the next room.”
She led the way and I filled Nick in on the Rysons. “Nathaniel and Trisha are married,” I explained, “and they’re basically in charge of the entire West Coast of the United States. They claim they were out walking on the beach when the stone went missing.”
“And they are each other’s alibis,” Nick said, more as a note to himself.
We entered the next suite. The Rysons’ room appeared a little more lived in, with the bed unmade and a scattering of clothing on the armchair by the window and across the small vanity table by the door to the bathroom.
“Hmm. Trouble in paradise?” Nick asked.
Following his gaze, I realized there was a barrier made of pillows down the center of the bed. At first glance, I’d just thought it was messy, but the arrangement of the two king-size pillows and trio of smaller decorative ones looked a little too intentional.
Lacey looked surprised but it faded quickly and she offered a slight shrug. “I always wondered if they had an arranged marriage. It all seemed a little too convenient, the way their territories lined up.”
Nick took more time in the Rysons’ room. I didn’t think he was trying to tap into some kind of vampire Spidey-sense, but rather he’d switched into PI mode and was sleuthing out the scene just like he would any other type of case. “Why would they want this stone?”
“To keep me from handing it over to the Council,” Lacey replied, her voice flat. “I thought they would see reason, but it appears I miscalculated, with all of them. I should have listened to Matthias and Jupiter. They told me the Court would never agree to this. But there has to be a better way—”
She stopped short of finishing her thought.
We looked in Lord Sánchez’s room and then in Julian’s, but Lacey looked resigned and dejected before we stepped foot in either one. Yet another one of her plans had failed and there was no way to put this particular cat back in its bag.
Matthias somehow managed to keep the others quiet while we searched, but as soon as we rejoined them in the dining room a roar of shouted accusations and demands erupted.
“Did you search your little pet’s room?” Aretha snapped, shooting Jupiter a dark glance.
“You can’t trust a turned vamp, not with Court business,” Julian added, matching his boss’s severe stare.
Jupiter looked like a startled deer, her dark brown eyes going huge as she looked to Lacey for rescue.
Trisha’s nostrils flared. “When are you going to admit that you’ve lost control? Lady Powers is right, we should all go back home and prepare for the worst.”
“And what are we supposed to tell them?” Nathaniel snapped at his wife. “To hide under their beds?” He gave a disgusted scoff. “You shouldn’t be left to govern a small town, let alone an entire seaboard.”
Trisha’s fangs flashed as she met her husband’s dark stare.
Someone grabbed my arm and I leaped off the floor.
“Holly!” Nick hissed. “Can I see you in the kitchen?”
He didn’t wait for me to reply before holding up his phone. Meryl’s name was at the top of the screen and the last received message stated she was leaving work but had an errand to run. My stomach sank. Meryl was on her way.
What had I done?
Chapter Thirteen
“She can’t come here,” Nick said once the kitchen door swung closed behind us. “If the SPA finds out she’s getting involved in any of this, unofficially, she’ll be thrown out of the agency!”
“I didn’t know what else to do, Nick! Lacey will skin me alive if I call Bramble for advice. And since Meryl already knows about the vampire stuff, I thought she might—”
“That vampire stuff could get her killed,” Nick interrupted, the words like the lash of a whip. “Who else knows about the missing stone?”
“No—no one,” I stammered. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen Nick so angry before. “Adam and Evangeline. Harmony wasn’t here when it happened.”
Nick shoved his phone into my hands. “Call Meryl and tell her you changed your plans. Tell her it was some kind of misunderstanding.”
“Okay. But I’ll use my phone,” I told him as I handed his back. “It would be weirder if I called from your number. Don’t you think?”
Nick gave an irritated toss of his head and shoved the phone into his pocket. “She’s up for a promotion, you know.”
“Meryl?”
“Yes. It’s between her and one other junior agent.” Nick’s jaw flexed as he took a beat to gather himself. “She can’t know anything about this, Holly. You know how she gets. She won’t leave it alone, even if it costs her everything she’s worked for.”
“I’m sorry, Nick. You know that wasn’t my intention. We were just having lunch and I was so worried about all of this—” Stopping myself, I shifted gears and found Meryl’s name in my contact list. With a tap, the phone line began to ring and I pressed the phone against my ear.
“Oh, hey, Holly! I was just about to text you,” Meryl answered. “I’m leaving the agency, so it should just be a few minutes.”
“Actually, I’m really sorry to do this, but I’m going to have to cancel. Something came up at the inn and I’m going to be a little tied up.”
“Is everything all right?”
My eyes darted to Nick’s and I nodded. “Mm-hmm. Everything is fine. We can catch up another night. Maybe next week?”
Meryl hesitated a moment and I braced myself for pushback. “Okay,” she said slowly, “if you’re sure it can wait? It sounded pretty important earlier.”
“It will be fine,” I told her, forcing a small laugh into my reply. “I’m just running a little high-strung these days. Blame it on the wedding.”
“Oh, that reminds me, I was talking to one of my coworkers about your dress dilemma and she told me about this great seamstress she used for her wedding. Said she can basically make any kind of dress you want and she’s really fast! A little on the pricey side, but might be worth checking out. I’ll text you her number, if you want it?”
“Okay, sure. Yeah. That would be great. Thanks, Meryl. Tell Nick hi for me.”
She laughed. “Will do. Talk to you later.”
We exchanged goodbyes and hung up. Nick exhaled once I dropped the phone from my ear. “Guess you’ll be going then?” I asked him.
He looked at the kitchen door. The sounds of muffled vampire bickering came through. “What about the stone?”
“According to Lacey, it can control vampires. Subdue them, make them do the holder’s bidding, that kind of thing. I don’t know if that means anyone is in danger now, but at the same time, knowing that it’s been taken feels more than a little ominous. The SPA should be notified. Maybe they could help find it.”
“You should call Bramble. She would know what to do and who to trust to help.”
Nick headed to the back door. “I’ll call you tomorrow. Maybe I can come back over and try the whole vampire-hoodoo thing again.”
Nodding, I watched him slip away, wi
shing I could join him.
“Vampires,” I muttered once he’d gone, then crossed to the stove. I needed some tea. After putting the kettle on to boil, I leaned my hip against the counter and rubbed my temples.
“Long day, dear?”
I opened my eyes at the sound of Posy’s voice. The ghost appeared to have come in through the closed kitchen door. “Anyone out there bleeding yet?”
“Not yet, but they are a most unhappy bunch,” she replied with a grimace.
“I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into when I accepted Lacey’s request to host her party. But I guess I should expect a certain degree of trouble when running an inn full of supernaturals.”
Posy smiled. “Believe me, I understand all too well.”
Steam poured from the kettle’s spout and I set about making my cup of tea. When the water was to the brim, I turned off the burner and set the kettle back down. “At least tell me it gets easier with time.”
“Well, I never lost a tenant to vampire mauling, so I suppose I must have done something right.”
She gave me a small smile and I laughed. “That’s something, I suppose.”
Carrying my tea to the kitchen table, I gestured with my free hand at the chair beside my usual spot. “Or are you on your way out?” I asked. “Adam and Evangeline should be home soon with dinner. We’d love if you joined us. Earl, too, if he’s around.”
Posy’s hands laced together in front of her and she peeked quickly over one shoulder. “Actually, Earl is out with Sturgeon tonight,” she replied, before sliding through the chair until she hovered above it, as though actually sitting in it. “I don’t expect him back until after midnight. Those boys get a little rowdy.”
I smiled and took my own seat after placing the mug on the table. “It surprises me that Earl goes along with it. He’s usually such a recluse.”
Posy nodded. “I imagine he’s something of a fly on the wall at these gatherings, but he does seem to enjoy the company from time to time.” Something shifted in her eyes, and she looked past me for a long moment.
My brows creased. “Is everything all right with you two?” I asked, the question feeling awkward as soon as it left the tip of my tongue. I’d tried to avoid prodding into Posy’s personal life before. She’d always been quiet and guarded, but since her husband’s return to the manor, after many years spent apart, she’d grown even more cagey. When she’d informed us that they were leaving to go traveling together, the announcement had floored all of us who’d spent years living under her roof.
Something was definitely going on, but I wasn’t sure of the best approach for getting to the bottom of it. Posy was a friend—more than that, really—I thought of her as family, but she had to be handled carefully. Emotional swings tended to manifest themselves in the manor itself. Last time she’d had an outburst, the roof nearly caved in. We couldn’t risk that in the best of times, but certainly not when we had a house full of royal vampires.
“Dear, I realize this isn’t the best timing, but there’s something I need to tell you. I actually asked Adam and Evangeline if they could give us a little time together,” Posy said, reluctantly bringing her gaze back to meet mine.
My brows furrowed. “What is it? Did something happen between you and Earl on the trip?”
I had to assume that even ghost marriages had their share of problems. But then, she could bring that up in front of Adam and Evangeline, couldn’t she?
Posy placed her hands together atop the table. I could feel the tension in the motion, as though she longed to reach out for my own hands. Even after being in the spirit realm for more than a century, there were still moments where a ghost could long for physical contact. My pulse quickened as a twist of dread coiled in my stomach. “Posy?” I asked. “What’s going on?”
“I want you to come up to the attic with me,” she said.
“The attic?” I blinked.
One of the first things I remembered being told upon my arrival at the Beechwood Manor was never to poke so much as an eyebrow into the attic. It was Posy’s personal haven and no one else was allowed entrance. Even Adam dared not cross the line—which was saying something.
“I have a gift for you, among my belongings. I would have brought it down for you, but … well—” She smiled and offered a slight shrug.
Abandoning my tea, I rose from the table and gestured at the back door. “We should probably go around, so we don’t disturb them.”
Posy followed me out the door, around the house, and back around to the front porch. We entered the manor and went up the staircase and down the main hall to the final door on the right, which revealed a narrow and steep set of stairs that led to the attic. Every step felt wrong, but Posy encouraged me to climb and met me at the top of the staircase.
“It’s so clean,” I said, glancing around. I’d expected dust and cobwebs from years of neglect, but the space was clean and free of debris. A record player sat to one side and I smiled at it. “We always wondered how it was you made this thing work, when you couldn’t change the records for yourself.”
Posy laughed softly. “The cleaning crew the SPA sends over to help with upkeep always switched them for me. As for how it works, I suppose it’s been a part of the manor so long that some of my spirit is connected in some way.” By way of demonstration, she closed her eyes and the record on the table began a slow rotation, filling the space with a gentle melody. “I find it soothing,” she said.
I took a few cautious steps forward. The feeling was almost like being in an ancient church or some other kind of hallowed grounds. The trunks stacked along one side of the room were clearly from Posy’s era. After she passed, someone must have packed everything up and put it in the attic for safekeeping.
“I’ve always wondered how you even got connected with the SPA,” I said as I inspected the beautiful vintage cases and trunks. “Didn’t your family come forward to claim any of this stuff? Or the manor itself?”
“They tried,” Posy said, her brows lifted with a soft scoff. “I don’t remember much of my first days, or perhaps even months, of being a ghost. It was like my spirit ricocheted around the manor before forming what I am now,” she replied, holding out her arms for emphasis. “I don’t remember harming anyone, but I did quite a bit of damage and caused quite a few scares. Eventually people stopped coming around. The manor was boarded up and abandoned when my spirit finally calmed long enough for me to realize where I was and what had happened.”
“Did someone from the agency approach you, then?”
She nodded. “They heard about the suspicious activity and sent someone to investigate. A nice witch—Sarah, I believe her name was. Anyway, she offered me the chance to keep my home and a deal was struck. I received my first tenants a little over six months later. They had to take their time in fixing up the place, you see.”
I smiled. “That must have been so strange. To go from being a human, with no knowledge of anything supernatural, to being the landlady over a house full of magic.”
Posy returned my smile, her eyes wistful. “It was quite an adventure, especially those early days. Of course, there were long stretches where it was just me. Back in those days they couldn’t have so many new faces in town. It drew too many questions.”
“Hmm.” I nodded and considered the long rows of stored belongings.
Posy swooped in front of me and soared to the second case in from the far wall of the attic. “It’s been a while, so you’ll have to forgive me if this takes a try or two, but I believe what we’re looking for is in here.” She pointed at the case. “If you’ll open this trunk here.”
I did as she instructed, and she pointed out another case inside it. Then another, this one even smaller, until I felt like I was opening a set of Russian nesting dolls. Finally, I held a small box with a monogram imprinted in the leather.
“That’s the one,” Posy said, her silver eyes shining. “Open it, dear.”
Prying it open, I found an assortment
of handkerchiefs tucked inside, each one balled up around a smaller item. “That one, there in the middle, if my memory isn’t failing me,” Posy continued.
Drawing in a breath, I unfolded the handkerchief and revealed a stunning pair of sapphire earrings. My eyes widened. “They’re beautiful, Posy!”
“I want you to have them, dear.”
I twisted around to look at her. “I can’t take these from you!”
A silver tear slipped down the elderly woman’s cheek and she nodded. “Evangeline told me you were still in need of your something blue and I knew just what to do.”
I swallowed down a ball of emotion and stared at the earrings. They must have been among Posy’s most prized possessions, especially in an era like hers when there was no such thing as online shopping or layaway. The earrings must have cost a small fortune.
“Earl bought them for me before our wedding,” Posy told me. “I wore them as I walked down the aisle, believe it or not.”
“Well, then, maybe they can be my something borrowed. I don’t want to take them from you, Posy.”
The ghost lowered down a few inches until our eyes were level. “You’ve given something to me—something irreplaceable.”
I frowned, not understanding her meaning.
Smiling, she went on. “You and Adam have given me peace of mind. I know that the manor will be safe in your hands, and that its legacy will continue, even when I am no longer here—”
Something in her face told me she and Earl wouldn’t be planning another vacation. “Posy, you can’t—”
“Please, dear, this isn’t easy for me to say, so let me finish,” she said gently. “During our time away, Earl and I realized we’d both reached the same conclusion. Our restlessness wasn’t a case of wanderlust, dear. It’s something deeper. A yearning that no amount of travel can satiate. We’re not meant to stay here, infinitely straddled between this realm and the next.”
Tears sprang to my eyes and I didn’t bother trying to hold them back as the full weight of Posy’s words slammed into my chest.
They were leaving. This time, for good.
Men Love Witches Page 11
