by Linda Wisdom
Lili frowned at an oddly shaped brand that scarred his shoulder. It wasn’t the one next to it that denoted him as a mental patient, but something else that glimmered with dark power.
What in Hades is going on here?
“What is that?”
His smile wasn’t the least bit pleasant. “You might say I’ve been neutered. While every patient here is branded to show what they are, my decoration is demon-made and meant to keep my powers in check. It also warns anyone coming in contact with me that I’m a danger to polite society,” he drawled with deliberate malice.
“It doesn’t seem to work very well if you’re able to get out. Or is there more that goes on with you?” Although she already had an idea of what he’d say.
Jared smiled slowly. “Before I lost my mind, my gift was used to bring death to those who deserved it. And my name is Jared.”
She returned his smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Jared.”
***
Lili wasn’t surprised when the door almost fell down from the pounding on the other side.
“Asshole’s time is up!” Turtifo bellowed.
She released the lock and waited for the ogre to enter.
“Door’s not supposed to be locked.” He scowled at her as he roughly pulled Jared to his feet in a grip that could have easily dislocated his shoulder.
“Just make sure that Patient 1172 is returned to his cell in the same condition he’s in right now,” she ordered, tacking on a snarl of her own.
Turtifo bared his teeth at her. “Won’t matter, since you won’t be here all that long.” He pushed Jared in front of him.
Lili watched them leave, noticing Jared didn’t look back. She didn’t think he would, but it would have been nice. But then she knew he couldn’t show any weakness in front of the ogres. Just as she couldn’t, either.
“That’s me. Making friends everywhere I go,” she murmured to herself, tucking her computer tablet in her lab coat pocket as she wound her way back down the hallways. She stopped where she’d first seen the spirit and turned in a slow circle. She cast her senses out in search of her quarry.
“Little girl,” she whispered. “Can you come to me? I want to talk to you.”
The words barely left her lips when the pink smoke spun around and the tiny girl appeared at the end of the hallway. She still held the battered teddy bear in her arms.
Lili smiled as she crouched down to the wraith’s level.
“Do you remember your name?” She knew many spirits forgot so much of their corporeal life that it was difficult for them to move on. Especially if this little girl had been down here a long time.
I’m Amy. Do you know my mommy? I really miss her. She looked hopeful.
Lili wished she could reach out and hug Amy, but she knew she’d only encounter an icy breeze. “I’m sorry, honey, I don’t. Did someone who’s called a Guide talk to you?” Why was the little girl still here? Even more puzzling was why she was down here and not upstairs. She didn’t even want to imagine Amy in one of those horrible cells.
Amy’s little face screwed up in a frown that slowly dissipated as her energy started to fade a little.
Lili started to worry, since that meant Amy wouldn’t go where she belonged if she wasn’t Guided over soon. Instead, she’d eventually fade to nothingness. She’d have to talk to Deisphe about the Guides on-site.
“Were you a patient in the hospital upstairs?” She wondered why she couldn’t figure out exactly what Amy was. She couldn’t have lost so much of her life essence that it wasn’t possible. Lili wondered why the girl’s mother hadn’t been here when she died. She could have helped her cross over.
Amy shook her head. I wasn’t sick. The big black bird came and took me to a dark and scary place. She buried her face in her toy’s plump stomach then looked up. Mommy screamed and asked the bird to give me back, but he wouldn’t. I was so scared, then I fell asleep and when I woke up the black bird was gone and nobody would talk to me or see me. She pointed her finger at Lili’s legs. Why do you wear men’s breeches?
Lili felt sick to her stomach for more than one reason. She had a feeling the little girl had been frightened so badly she died. But why would a bird steal her? Not to mention how she ended up here. And her question about the witch’s clothing meant she wasn’t used to seeing a woman in pants.
Her need to make things right reared up big-time. She carefully studied the little girl’s gown and realized what she first thought was a nightgown was actually a dress that was almost two centuries old. Frayed and patched, but even in death, the fabric appeared clean. The girl kept a tight hold on her teddy bear.
“Amy, do you know what year you were born?” She spoke slowly, making sure to keep any sign of worry from her voice.
Her head bobbed up and down. I was born in 1842.
Lili felt cramps begin deep in her body. Jared was right. The little girl was a mundane who didn’t belong here. She could hear a soft drawl to the girl’s voice that resonated inside her head. “Do you know where you were born?”
Natchez. Mommy said she was a Sutton, but her mommy and daddy didn’t like me. A tear slowly rolled down her cheek.
Lili heard footsteps coming and quickly straightened up. “I’ll be back,” she promised in a low voice. “Don’t worry, no one can hurt you. I’m going to find a way to take you somewhere else.”
Amy’s hopeful expression tore at her heart. To my mommy?
Lili nodded. “To your mommy.” She had no doubt the little girl’s mother was on a death plane. It was just a question of finding where she was so mother and daughter could be reunited.
“I have to go now, but I will be back soon and I’m going to find a way to get you away from here,” she promised, hoping it was a vow she could keep.
They’re mean down here. They want to hurt me.
“Not all of them,” Lili soothed. “Do you know who Jared is?” She waited for the tiny ghost to nod. She easily read the fear on Amy’s face. It seemed the little spirit only knew what she overheard Dr. Mortimer and the ogres saying. “Don’t worry, he won’t hurt you. If you feel frightened, I want you to go to Jared. I bet you could even slip into his room and I know he’ll protect you.”
She knew her suggestion would irritate the grumpy demon, but too bad. Jared might not appreciate having company, but deep down, she was confident he’d make sure Amy wouldn’t be afraid of anyone or anything. Plus, she felt it would be a good thing for him.
After swearing to the tiny wraith she’d be back, Lili went upstairs to her office.
“That smelly dragon was in here,” Cleo announced when she stepped inside. “She wasn’t happy you weren’t here and even more unhappy that I was.” The cat uncoiled her fluffy body from her silk pillow and stretched, making sure her claws dug into the sofa and not her beloved bed.
Lili winced at the snags on the fabric. Cleo knew just how to exact punishment when she was in a snit. She also didn’t miss the hint of sulfur dragons tended to leave in their wake. She hadn’t met one yet that exuded Calvin Klein or DKNY.
“Did she leave a note?” She noticed her desk surface was as pristine as it had been when she left it.
Cleo opened her mouth wide and perfectly mimicked the Director of Nursing’s harsh voice. “Please have Dr. Carter report to my office at two o’clock sharp. I do not tolerate tardiness.”
“Who needs a parrot when I have you,” she muttered, digging in her tote bag for a protein bar. She considered them on a level with cardboard, but she didn’t feel like going down to the cafeteria to pick up something or conjuring something up.
I should have witched something up for myself when I did his.
Cleo lifted her head even higher, her nose twitching madly. She started coughing as if she was ready to hack up a hair ball. “You smell like demon.” She paused. “And wraith. What in the name of Anubis is down there that causes so many stinks?”
“Something no one should ever see.” Lili pulled off the wrapper and bit off a piece. “For somet
hing boasting chocolate and caramel contents, it tastes more like paper chocolate and fake caramel.” She finished off the bar then looked through the file folders in her desk until she found one labeled requisition forms. She quickly filled one out asking for a small refrigerator for her office.
“Why not just create something more edible?” Cleo curled back up on her pillow.
“I’m too lazy.” Lili flopped back in her chair and swung her legs up on her desk, crossing them at the ankles.
“Now that you’ve made yourself comfortable, do you think you can tell me why you smell like demon and wraith?” the cat asked.
“In case you forgot, I was hired to treat patients here.” Lili threw the discarded wrapper up into the air and snapped her fingers, turning the paper to ash. She soon discovered she wasn’t too lazy to conjure up a mug of coffee, the lifeblood of every member of the medical world. The rich aroma of hazelnut teased her nostrils.
“Ghosts don’t hang around hospitals. It’s much too depressing.” The feline opened her mouth wide in a yawn, displaying tiny needle-sharp teeth and a pink tongue. “Besides, that’s what Guides are for. A child, especially, wouldn’t be abandoned like that.”
“This isn’t your typical ghost. It seems she was kidnapped.” Her stomach tightened as she recalled Amy’s tale.
“Or ghostnapped.” Cleo chuckled.
“This is much worse. She wasn’t a spirit when she was taken.” Lili frowned in thought as she sipped her coffee. “It’s something else I’d like to investigate. She’s a mundane little girl born in the 1800s. She said she was brought here by a big black bird. My medical diagnosis is that she was frightened to death and now she’s trapped down there.”
“Are griffins black?” Cleo mentioned.
“It depends on the flock, but I don’t think that was what took her. Even after all these years, she’s still very frightened and can’t understand why she can’t return to her mother. I need to see if I can reunite them.”
“And the demon?”
“He’s not at all what he appears.” Lili chose not to tell Cleo that Jared was who they’d glimpsed in Inderman. Cleo would immediately switch her “You need a sex life,” to “Okay, let’s cross the homicidal maniac off the list.” “Dr. Mortimer said the Demon Council signed Jared’s care over to him instead of having him destroyed for heinous crimes. I think there’s more going on than the miniscule notations in his file. Plus, Dr. Mortimer never refers to him by name. Only by his intake number. Jared’s treated like a wild animal.”
“You look flushed.” Cleo peered at her closely with more than a hint of suspicion.
“There’s no elevator to take me below, and I hurried up the stairs.” Lili thought of the intense way Jared looked at her. She was positive that had something to do with it too.
At any other time, she would have been interested in seeing where it would go. He was obviously intelligent, seemed way too normal for someone with a grossly damaged brain, not to mention he was damn sexy for a homicidal maniac.
Not that she was considering any kind of interaction with him, even if he stood before her all cleaned up.
Nope. Not at all.
As she drank her coffee she automatically touched the tip of her nose with her fingertip.
Luckily, it hadn’t grown.
The cat stared at her, her mouth widened in a smile that would have done the Cheshire cat proud. “You’re thinking about the sexy guy we saw in Inderman, aren’t you?”
Lili was once again relieved the feline didn’t know that Jared had shown up at the house. She never would have heard the end of it. “There’s been too much going on,” she said, knowing she had to be careful with her words. Cleo had a built-in lie detector.
“I’d rather you drool over him than decide to set your sights on Dr. Mortimer.” She wrinkled her nose. “He smells like the unaired interior of a very old armoire. Why can’t the heads of hospitals be young and hot instead of ancient?”
“Dr. Ferdinand smelled like snuff and loved silk knee breeches,” Lili reminded her, speaking of the sorcerer who was in charge of the hospital in Chicago that she had just come from.
“Nasty thing, snuff. And it was so bad for my allergies too.” She stood up on all fours and fluffed out her tail. “All right. While you’re facing the dragon, I’ll be down the hall making nice kitty with the clerk. I already know I got the better deal.”
Lili thought of the fierce-featured dragon-shifter. “I’m sure you do.”
Ten minutes later, the witch wasn’t sure whether to thank the Fates or curse them when she was paged to go immediately to the ER.
“Bridge Trolls,” she muttered, diving into the fray that was quickly turning the area into a war zone. “For once, I thank you for creating trouble.”
Chapter 4
“You’re supposed to be a calming influence there, not stirring up trouble!” Lili scolded as she and Cleo entered her small house through the kitchen.
“I didn’t stir up anything,” the cat snapped as she prowled the kitchen before settling her furry butt on the floor next to her dish. She tapped her front paw in a time to feed me staccato. “You have no idea what atrocities that clerk wanted to do to me! No self-respecting cat should endure such indignities.”
Lili was ready to accuse the cat of acting like a drama queen, but that would only extend the argument. Then the cat’s reply would be the same, along with a larger measure of disdain until she yowled with ear-splitting displeasure.
She pulled out the container of gourmet kitty food from the refrigerator. A brief nuke in the microwave brought it up to the proper temperature. No cold food for the sovereign kitty.
“Do you know that clerk used baby talk on me? Baby talk, for Fate’s sake! She even wanted to put a pink bow on me!” The cat looked disgusted as she nibbled her dinner. “She’s lucky I didn’t do worse than inflict a few scratches on her.” She sniffed her food. “Are you sure this is king salmon? That fishmonger in Inderman didn’t look entirely reliable.”
“He’s been there for four hundred years. He’s very trustworthy.” Lili ducked into her bathroom for a quick shower and then changed her clothes. Her light flannel pajama pants and tank top were perfect for an evening of relaxation.
Cleo called out from the kitchen. “We have company.”
“Who—?” Lili thought of the bottle of wine she had planned to crack open to accompany whatever she pulled out for her meal.
“Friends,” Cleo said brightly as the doorbell chimed.
Lili hurried to the door and squealed with delight to see two old friends on her doorstep.
“We come bearing dinner.” The lovely blond and her male companion held up white Chinese take-out cartons.
“Love the outfit, babe.” The man grinned and winked at Lili.
“Rea, Adam!” She hugged them both and stepped back. “I am so glad to see you.” The empath and witch were the two friends she’d missed the most after she had left San Francisco.
“You look good, Lili.” Adam carried the containers into the kitchen. “Hey, Cleo. We brought something for you too.”
“Ooh, I love you.” The cat purred her pleasure.
“You’ve got the place looking great,” Rea said, looking around the family room furnished with comfortable-looking pieces meant for lounging, not just for looks.
Lili loved the one-story cottage she had purchased back in the 1930s when she returned to San Francisco for a visit. Over the years, she had allowed friends to use her house when they needed a refuge. It had been updated over time, and now it was time for her to add personal touches to her space.
This time she arranged the living and dining rooms into one large family area and updated the kitchen with modern appliances but kept the vintage touches that melded seamlessly with the contemporary.
She pulled out a bottle of wine and filled three glasses.
“I love the colors you’ve chosen,” Rea said, unerringly finding plates and flatware and carrying them to the no
ok that held a small table and chairs. Twinkling lights on the patio gave the backyard a faery garden feel.
“I wanted a touch of home.” Lili enjoyed the deep blues, the bright yellows, and the splashes of coral that surrounded her.
“Can we eat?” Adam begged, transporting the cartons to the table. “Hungry witch here.”
They dug their chopsticks into the Kung Pao chicken, clams in black bean sauce, and lobster Cantonese, along with barbecued pork, fried rice and bacon-wrapped shrimp.
“What did you get Cleo?” She frowned at the cat’s now loaded dish.
“Peking duck,” Adam replied, using his chopsticks to snare a spring roll.
“Tastier than that cheap king salmon you picked up.” Cleo narrowed her eyes at Lili.
“And very fattening.” The witch bared her teeth.
“How does it feel being back at the hospital?” Rea asked. She refused to use her empath skills to read a friend unless expressly asked to. She usually joked she was off duty.
Adam, as a water witch, was happiest when at the beach, where he felt more in tune with the tides, than he was living further inland. Rea teased him that it was a shame he wasn’t born a selkie.
Lili knew a lot of surfers liked visiting Adam’s magick shop, since his charms could keep them safe while riding the waves, and fishermen also availed themselves of his skills. The two witches had dated briefly, years ago, but then decided they were better off as friends. Now Adam and Rea were a happy couple, and Lili was pleased she had been able to match them up.
Like her, they chose to live on the outskirts of Inderman, settling on a lovely Victorian Painted Lady home built in 1882 across from Alamo Square.
“It feels the same, yet it’s not, since there’s not that many staff members who were there the last time I worked at the hospital,” she replied. “The doctor in charge is very old-world medicine, and the Director of Nursing is a dragon-shifter.”
Rea wrinkled her nose. “Dragons always have way too much attitude. We had one running our counseling center for a while. We held a party the day she left.”
