Unbound Spirits

by Christine Pope

  After picking up the trash bag, he came over to where Audrey stood, then dumped its contents on the floor of the storage shed. The objects appeared to be a random assortment of items that probably had been left behind in the B&B’s rooms or on its grounds — a couple of coffee mugs, several compact umbrellas, a lone flip-flop, several bottles of sunscreen.

  And on top of all of them, a thin board about a foot and a half wide and a little less than half that tall. Michael turned it over, and the familiar alphabet and “yes/no” of a Ouija board stared up at them.

  “Well, he said grimly, more to Audrey than to the camera, “I think I know why the Thunderbird B&B has been having a demon infestation problem….”

  Chapter 10

  “I found it on the grounds a while back,” Edgar Samuels said as Colin stood in the corner with his camera, filming everything. They sat at one of the tables in the dining room, since that seemed like the most logical place to gather. “I planned to toss it at some point, but I guess I forgot about it. Usually, we go through the discards and donate what we can and throw out the rest, but we were having the place re-roofed this past spring, and it must have slipped my mind.”

  He frowned, and his wife patted him on the arm. They were both in their late fifties, pleasant-faced, Edgar balding and his wife Jackie with brown gray-streaked hair she wore plainly in a ponytail. Now they looked over at Michael with some concern, as though they were worried he was going to chastise them for being so careless with something so potentially dangerous.

  “But it’s just a toy, isn’t it?” Jackie asked. Her worried gaze slipped from Michael to Audrey, who did her best to offer a reassuring smile in return. “I mean, I remember playing with one of these things when I was a little girl and not having any problems.”

  “It depends on the situation,” Michael said. The Ouija board lay on the table in front of him. Audrey guessed that it must have been outside in the elements for some time before Edgar found it, because the board was warped, the edges worn, the laminated cardboard on its face water-stained. “A lot of the time, nothing goes wrong, mostly because the kids playing with the board don’t have any ill intentions. The problem is that Ouija boards were marketed as toys, but they’re really devices for communicating with the other side. When untrained people reach out to those energies, anything can answer…and sometimes does.”

  Some of the cheerful rosiness in Jackie Samuels’ cheeks seemed to fade, and her voice faltered as she asked, “But why would anyone bring one of these things here?”

  “I honestly don’t know.” Michael reached out to touch the board, but carefully, by the edge, his fingers staying safely away from any of the letters or numbers printed on one side. “Best guess? Someone probably brought the Ouija board to your B&B because they’d heard it was haunted and wanted to have some kind of a seance here. It is haunted, isn’t it?”

  Husband and wife exchanged a glance. “The previous owners told us it was, but we never saw much evidence of it,” Edgar said. “Once or twice, items were moved around — or at least we thought they were — but that could have just been absentmindedness on our part and nothing supernatural at all. We never felt anything bad, so to speak.”

  “Not until about six months ago,” Jackie added. “But maybe that was when the Ouija board was left behind.”

  “I doubt it was a coincidence,” Michael said. “Maybe you should check your records and see who was staying here at that time.”

  “Even if we find out who it was, what good will that do?” Now Jackie sounded plaintive and a little scared, as though she feared that Michael expected her and her husband to confront the people who’d brought chaos into their lives. “We can’t prove anything.”

  “No, and leaving Ouija boards lying around someone’s property isn’t a prosecutable offense.” He rubbed a thoughtful thumb over his chin. “But still, if you’re able to track them down, then you would have the chance to ask them what they were doing with the board. It might help us figure out what they attracted here.”

  Edgar asked, “What about the ghost?”

  Audrey had been pondering that problem, and now she thought it was a good time to jump in. “I think it was the ghost who showed us the way, so to speak. It probably would have taken a long time to find the bag with the Ouija board in it if the apparition hadn’t been hanging around the storage shed, or hadn’t gone to the spot inside where we found the bag with the board.”

  From the light of approval in Michael’s eyes, she thought she’d just impressed him a little. “A ghost who’s dwelled in a place for a long time would find a new intrusion by demons extremely disruptive. While the ghost couldn’t intervene directly, he — or she — could work to attract our attention and get us to help out.”

  “Which is exactly what we’re going to do,” Audrey said, hoping she sounded proactive…and that Michael would know what steps they needed to take next.

  He nodded, picking up the thread as he remarked, “Cleansing the property should be pretty straightforward. While I’ve seen some activity here that indicates it’s demonic in origin, and not the work of your ghost, the demon doesn’t seem too entrenched. It probably won’t be a battle royal like our last encounter with demons.”

  Audrey hoped he was right, that his assertions weren’t false bravado. True, she hadn’t felt anything particularly strange here, but neither had she gone looking for it.

  “What’s the procedure, then?” Jackie asked.

  The question earned her a smile. “There really isn’t a set procedure,” Michael said. “We’ll smudge the house, just because that’s good for an overall cleansing. I doubt it’ll drive the demons out, but it’ll put them on edge, make them more likely to act out.”

  “And that’s a good thing?” Edgar sounded skeptical, to say the least.

  “Better the enemy you can see,” Michael told him. “Right now, they seem pretty quiescent, like they’re content to only lash out every once in a while. But if they’re agitated, trying to come after us…then we can mount a more coordinated defense and get rid of them for good.”

  Jackie and Edgar looked at one another. Neither one of them appeared all that happy about the plan, but Audrey could almost feel their frustration and knew they would end up agreeing. Ghosts might be an added attraction for the B&B’s guests, but demons were something else entirely, and definitely bad for business.

  “All right,” Jackie said at last. “Let us know what we have to do.”

  Night had fallen. Luckily, Colin had pronounced himself pleased with the footage they’d gotten that day — the apparition in the shed had shown up remarkably well — and so he hadn’t pressed them to continue shooting after dark.

  “Besides,” Michael told him. “I need to formulate a plan.”

  “A plan?” Colin repeated, looking unimpressed. “This seems like the sort of thing you could do in your sleep.”

  “Maybe, but I don’t want to make any mistakes — and I also want to come up with something that’ll read well on camera and keep Edgar and Jackie Samuels safe at the same time.”

  To Audrey’s surprise, Colin appeared mollified by Michael’s explanation, and said he’d be ready to get to work the next morning at ten. He invited the two of them to join him and Daniela and Susan for dinner, but after Michael shot her a quick glance from under his lashes, Audrey had begged off, saying she was tired after her ordeal in Colorado and that she planned to get something delivered.

  That was why she and Michael now sat at the little table in his suite, eating pizza and sharing a bottle of chianti. Maybe it was unwise for her to be alone with him here like this…but, on the other hand, she couldn’t think of anywhere else she’d rather be.

  The room had come with a set of vanilla chai–scented candles, and they flickered cheerfully from on top of the dresser, casting a warm glow around them. Audrey cocked an eye at the cross on the wall, the one Michael had said turned upside down even as he watched, but for now it seemed quiescent.

  �
�Can we talk about it?” he said then, fingers resting on the tabletop next to the stemless wine glass that held his chianti. Because the room was a suite, it had come equipped with all sorts of handy items — the plates that held their pizza, the glasses for their wine.

  “Talk about what?” Audrey asked, although she thought she knew what he meant. This was the first chance they’d really had to discuss the situation in private, and while she was glad of it, she also felt almost nervous, as if she wasn’t quite sure whether Michael would really accept any of her explanations. Yes, they’d held hands on the flight back to Tucson, and it seemed as though everything was getting smoothed out, but….

  “When we last spoke in Southern California, you were less than happy with me,” he said. “Now it seems as if everything has changed. Don’t get me wrong — I’m very glad about your change of heart, if that’s what this is — but I still want to know what happened.”

  He was facing her directly, expression frank, open. And his eyes were fixed on hers, telling her that he was going to pay very close attention to everything she said.

  She reached for her glass of wine, let herself have a healthy swallow. “I suppose I had time to think. A lot — a lot of my therapy after I lost my parents had to do with forgiveness, with letting go and moving on. I couldn’t understand why your brother did what he did, Michael, but I realized at some point that if I held on to my hate and my anger, then I’d never have a chance to truly move on with my life. The same thing here…although of course what you did isn’t remotely close to your brother’s crimes. I was angry with you, of course. But then I understood that my anger would only get in the way if I let it.”

  “Get in the way of what?” he asked. His tone was soft, though, as if he already knew the answer to the question.

  “Get in the way of us,” she replied truthfully. “I don’t know exactly where we’re going with any of this, Michael, but I do know that it’s probably foolish to try to run away from it.”

  He’d been sitting across from her. Now he stood up and came over to her seat, held out a hand. Audrey let herself take it, let him help her up to a standing position. His arms wrapped around her waist, and he pulled her closer. How warm he was, how strong and right and perfect.

  She’d said earlier that she was tired and she hadn’t even been lying, but now her weariness was gone as if it had never existed. Had anyone ever had this effect on her before, made her heart beat faster and her limbs feel warm and flushed and yet somehow weightless at the same time, as if his very nearness was enough to bring a lightness to her soul she hadn’t even realized was missing.

  “I don’t want you to run away,” he said, his voice almost harsh, as though he could no longer hide his need for her, had to let it escape somehow. “I want you to always be here next to me. The two of us together, in all ways. Do you want that?”

  About all she could do was nod. Funny how she’d always prided herself on how articulate and in control she could be, and now she only had to have Michael Covenant holding her and telling her he wanted her for all rational thought to somehow flee. When she’d agreed to have dinner in his bungalow, she’d somehow known where this was going to end up, but she didn’t mind. Let Colin and Susan and Daniela think what they wanted. She wasn’t about to let their opinions interfere with her and Michael, with what was building between them.

  At last, Audrey found her voice. “I want that, Michael. I want to be with you. I’m not going to let the past dictate our futures.”

  “Neither am I,” he said, and now he bent down and kissed her, his lips warm, his body pressed against hers.

  She clung to him, needing the reassurance of his strength right then, even though she knew she was safe. Well, relatively safe. The Thunderbird B&B had issues of its own, and the Whitcomb-demon was still lurking out there somewhere, but all that could wait. Right now, she only wanted to be with Michael, think of Michael.

  They stumbled together toward the bed, then fell down on it together, lips still locked. She felt her fingers grasping his belt buckle so she could unfasten it, realized that he was tugging her T-shirt free from her jeans. Was their urgency now born of the realization that they could have lost this, that their connection might have been destroyed if the Whitcomb-demon had had his way?

  Audrey didn’t know for sure. She only knew she needed to show Michael that her anger was a thing of the past, and that she wanted him with her no matter what happened.

  His hand closed on her breast, and she released a soft moan, body already anticipating what was going to come next. But then she heard an odd scraping sound and she opened her eyes, realizing that the cross on the wall had moved, was now hanging upside down.

  No, it wasn’t simply upside down — it was swinging back and forth against the wall, almost like the pendulum of a clock.

  She lifted her mouth from Michael’s, then whispered urgently, “Michael!”

  He blinked at her, obviously confused. Understandable, since his back was to the wall where the cross hung, and therefore he couldn’t see what was happening.

  “The cross,” she said, and he shifted to look over his shoulder at the object in question.

  Now the sound of it scraping against the plaster was obvious, a horrible scritch-scritch noise that made the flesh on the back of her neck crawl. Even though they hadn’t turned on all the lights, the black marks it was leaving behind were plain to see, a strange half-circle about a foot wide.

  Frowning, Michael said, “I’ve never seen it do that before. Maybe — ”

  He didn’t finish the sentence, because in that same second, the cross tore itself from the wall and hurtled toward them, pointed end headed straight for his head. With a curse, he grasped one of the pillows from the bed and held it up like a shield. The sharp iron drilled into the fabric with such force that feathers went everywhere — and it showed no signs of stopping. With a grunt, Michael flung the pillow and the cross embedded in it across the room, then quickly reached for his jacket and one of the vials of holy water he always kept in its pocket. Almost before Audrey could blink, he’d strode over to the pillow and splashed the blessed water all over it and the cross.

  At once, the object went still. It had all happened so fast, she had remained where she was, T-shirt pushed up, baring her stomach as she half-lay on top of the bedclothes. Now, though, she scrambled to a sitting position and tucked her T-shirt back into her jeans, her heart still going about a mile a minute.

  “What the hell was that?” she demanded.

  Michael turned back toward her, empty vial clenched in his hand. “It seems the demons who’ve taken up residence here didn’t much like us getting intimate.”

  “Puritanical demons?” she inquired, and he almost smiled.

  “It looks that way. Or rather,” he went on as he came over to her and took her hand in his, letting her know he was all right, “they don’t appreciate the positive energy we were creating.” He sat down next to her on the bed. “I’m afraid we had better hold off until we’re done here.”

  More good news. Audrey released a frustrated huff of a breath and leaned her head against his shoulder. “It’s really not fair.”

  “No, it’s not,” he agreed. He still held her hand and showed no sign of letting go. Maybe this was the only intimacy he’d allow between the two of them. “Especially since I’m pretty sure Colin and Daniela didn’t suffer any similar interruptions.”

  “You really think they’re sleeping together?” Audrey asked, a little startled by the insinuation. Although it was impossible to ignore the way the two of them flirted, she hadn’t thought they’d gone any further than flirtation.

  “If you’d seen the way they looked last night, you wouldn’t have had any doubts left. But,” he went on, “it seems that the entities here don’t have an issue with the two of them. Maybe they just don’t like the psychic energy you and I create together.”

  “Is that what you call it?” Despite herself, she couldn’t help smiling a little at
the mental image Michael’s words had summoned.

  However, he didn’t look at all amused. “You didn’t feel it that first time we made love? How it felt somehow different from any other sex you’d had before?”

  Actually, she’d experienced exactly what he was describing, but at the time she’d thought the intensity of their lovemaking had had a lot to do with the two of them being pretty drunk. Any inhibitions had been checked at the door, thanks to the cocktails they’d consumed at The Bahooka.

  “I felt…something,” she said slowly. “I just wasn’t quite sure what it was.”

  “I think it’s also connected to how we work together so well.” His fingers tightened on hers as he continued. “The way we were able to drive the demons away and close the portal at the Whitcomb mansion. Your psychic powers — even if they’re just waking up — were able to mesh with mine in a way I’ve never experienced before I met you. And when we’re intimate…the energies that gather around us can be very strong. The demons who’ve infested this property wouldn’t like that at all, so they decided to retaliate.”

  Audrey looked over at the ruin of the pillow in the corner, sodden feathers scattered across the floor. That was going to be an interesting one to explain. Then again, by this point Edgar and Jackie must be at least somewhat used to these sorts of problems occurring on their property.

  “So what do we do now?” she asked, knowing how plaintive the question must have sounded. Her body was throbbing with unspent desire, and she could only imagine how Michael must feel.

  “We go to your room,” he said, then went on quickly, probably seeing the spark of hope in her eyes, “and we sleep. Just sleep. I think it’s safer for us to be together.”

  “At least there aren’t any crosses in my room,” Audrey remarked, and now he did give her a tired smile.

  “You’re right — there aren’t. I’m not sure if there’s anything else in there that might raise their ire, but let’s hope that we’ve beaten them down for now. I’m sure you need a good night’s sleep even more than I do.”