“I assume you were brave enough to break in,” Mercy said, but there was no accusation in her voice. She apparently still respected my Coven’s authority.
“I did go in,” I said.
“So, did you find the grimoire in her chest?” Mercy asked. “I always wondered where she kept that thing. She’d never let me look.”
“Her chest?” I asked.
“It’s where she kept all the things she really wanted to keep a secret. I don’t think she knew I knew about it, but it was behind a false wall in her bedroom closet. I figured that’s where she’d keep the grimoire, but it wasn’t there?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I had someone with me when I went into her house. They are actually the one who found it.”
“Maybe the reason she changed so much is in that chest,” Mercy said. “I’d be willing to bet it is. If it’s anywhere, it’s there. I’d go look myself, but I doubt I could get away with it. I’m not connected like you.”
“I’d prefer it if you let me and my family handle this anyway,” I said.
“Understood,” Mercy said with a head nod. “I hope your aunt feels better soon. I’ve heard about… the trouble she’s having.”
“How did Samara feel about my family?” I asked.
“Wait, you don’t think Samara had something to do with what’s going on with your aunt?” Mercy asked.
“I’m pretty sure the whole town thinks that,” I said. “Either that or they think my aunt is the one who killed Samara.”
“So, it’s true then?” Mercy asked. “I’d heard that your aunt was found with a knife near the body, but someone put out the word that it wasn’t true. Someone’s been telling people that your aunt was found on the other side of town. Besides, Samara wasn’t stabbed.”
“I know,” I said.
“Right. You were the one who found her. Sorry,” Mercy said.
“It’s all right.” I actually hadn’t known until the next day how she died. “I should go,” I said when Laney started to fuss. “Thank you for your help.”
“You’re welcome, Kinsley. Please let me know if there’s anything your family needs,” Mercy said.
That seemed a little over the top, but she was grieving her best friend. There was also a good chance she wanted to join my family’s Coven. We did that sometimes, but not often. It would take a lot more than kissing my butt.
On my way out to my car, I began to formulate a plan. I needed to go back to Samara’s house and look for her hidden trunk. The plan, if you could call it that, was basically to blow off going into the shop and going to Lilith’s place and instead head straight over to Samara’s house.
It wasn’t much of a plan, but I told myself Lilith would approve. The last thing she would have wanted if she were in her right mind was all of us hanging around her house acting like she was dying.
My mother, father, and great-grandmother had the situation under control, so I pulled out of the parking lot and drove straight to Samara’s house. What I wasn’t prepared to find was another body.
Chapter Nine
That was the first time in my life that I’d had an entire conversation with a ghost and not known it. Mercy hadn’t known either because she gave no hint that she had any memory of being killed.
But as soon as I pulled up in front of Samara’s house, I found her. She was sprawled out on the front porch face down. It was obvious to me that she’d tried to get away.
Her car was around the side of the house with the driver’s side door open and the radio on. She’d only intended to run into the house and right back out.
My hand shook as I called Thorn. Meri sat on the dash looking out the front of the car for any sign of movement in the house.
“The doors are locked for sure?” he asked as I waited for Thorn to pick up his phone.
“They are,” I said.
“Maybe we should go somewhere else and make the call,” Meri said.
Thorn picked up before I could answer him. “What is it, sweetie?” he asked.
“I’m out in front of Samara’s house. Mercy Cullen is on the front porch, and she’s dead,” I said. “You have to come right now.”
“Are you there now?” Thorn asked.
“I am,” I said. “But I’m in the car with the doors locked. Please come quickly.”
“Kinsley, you need to get out of there,” Thorn said. “You know the killer could still be there.”
“I will,” I said. “I’ll drive down the road or something.”
“You’ll go home,” Thorn said. “Or to your aunt’s house where you’re supposed to be right now anyway. I want you around people. Kinsley, I mean it.”
“Okay,” I said. But then I saw it. “Oh, no.”
“What is it?” Thorn asked.
In a flash of fuzzy black fur, Meri was at the driver’s door pawing at the window trying to get me to open the door and let him out. He saw it too.
“Oh, gawd, Thorn. She moved. She’s still alive. I have to help her. I really thought she was dead.”
“Kinsley,” Thorn’s voice had a warning edge, but even he didn’t know what to say.
“Get here as fast as you can, and call an ambulance too,” I said and then hung up.
Whatever the danger, I couldn’t just let her lay there like that. I had to help. I left Laney in the car with the air conditioning and radio on and locked all the doors again as I ran up to the porch.
Was that why neither Mercy nor I had known she was a ghost? Could she have been so close to death that her spirit had left her body, but she was still tethered to this world somehow? It had to happen, right? Like when people die in the hospital and then see themselves on the table with doctors and nurses hovering over them. Except, Mercy’s spirit had gone into work.
That was a sad commentary on our lives. I hoped that when I passed on, I didn’t end up a confused spirit forever stuck at my job.
I shuddered as I knelt down next to Mercy. Her body twitched again, and then she turned her head toward me.
Her eyes were milky white, one of the reasons I’d believed she was dead when I drove up, but the haze faded out of them like she was coming back. Back from the dead? Back from the brink? I didn’t know. I just wanted to help her if I could.
“Mercy, where are you hurt?” I asked as Meri circled her, sniffing and pawing at her.
But that was obvious. There was an angry purple bruise encircling her neck.
“Kinsley, she’s dead,” Meri said as he backed away from her quickly.
“Obviously, she’s not,” I said.
“What is your problem, cat?” Mercy asked in a low, gravely voice that sounded nothing like her.
Just then, she sprang up. Like as in, she went from sprawled out on the porch to standing completely straight in one stiff movement.
“Oh, crap,” I said.
“Kinsley, get away from her,” Meri said.
But Mercy wasn’t looking at me. I followed her line of sight, and my blood turned to ice. She was staring at my car.
Mercy began to sniff the air. “Life, especially the new kind, has a particularly beautiful aroma,” she said and took a rigid step.
“You stay away from my baby,” I said and shoved past her.
It wasn’t lost on me that Mercy felt cold when my shoulder made contact with her. No living person should have felt that cold.
Meri ran behind me as I sprinted for the car. Well, in my mind I was sprinting with everything I had, but I’d just had a baby. Not only was I not moving as fast as I wanted, but I was so winded that I nearly puked when I reached the car.
I practically threw myself into the driver’s seat, and Meri jumped into my lap, as Mercy took plodding steps down the front stairs. She almost looked like a marionette doll being controlled by a hyper child.
“What do I do?” I asked.
“Get out of here,” Meri said.
I hit the home button on my car, and it began the process of turning around. All the while, Mercy wa
s coming down the steps and making her way across the space between the porch and my car.
Instead of doing a three-point turn, the car executed a big arc that took us within inches of Mercy. She reached out and tried to grab on, but instead stumbled forward and fell to her knees.
She still appeared to be trying to right herself again as my car turned and drove off down the road. About halfway back to the highway, Thorn’s cruiser approached.
He slowed to a stop, and so did I. “You have to be careful,” I said. “She’s not dead, but there’s something… wrong with her.”
“Go home,” Thorn said. “Backup is coming, but you get out of here. I love you.”
He rolled up his window and sped off. I couldn’t go home, though. I was too frazzled, and I needed to think, or talk, through what had just happened. None of it made any sense.
So, I headed to Lilith’s.
When I got there, Mom, Dad, and Lilith were seated around her breakfast table having tea and raspberry scones. It was an incredibly normal scene that made me think for a moment that I was dreaming the whole time.
“Lilith?” I asked as I put Meri down on the floor. I’d carried him inside in my bag since I had Laney’s sling on. The baby was on one side and Meri in my purse on the other.
“Stop looking at me like that,” she demanded, and I felt the knot of tension in my chest I’d been living with the last couple of days release.
“What is going on?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Mom said. “A little while ago, she just… returned to us.”
“Really?” I asked Lilith. “You’re okay?”
“I’m fine, dear, but I’m not going to be if you keep on with that worried expression on your face. You’re going to give yourself wrinkles,” she said. “When you finally come to your senses and divorce that boring do-gooder, you’re going to need to look as young as possible. That shmexy vampire, who I cannot for the life of me figure out why you dumped, is going to look young forever.”
Lilith was back.
“Auntie Lilith, he tried to have me killed,” I said, and I almost laughed with relief.
She waved me off. “Have a scone, darling.”
“Who made them?” I was suspicious even though my father had just taken a huge bite of one of the pastries.
“I did,” Mom said. “Don’t worry.”
“I have to know what happened to you, Lilith,” I said. “How did you end up like that? Do you remember anything about the night Samara died? Why were you on my street with a knife?”
“Whoa,” Dad said. “Slow down, sweetie. Please sit down and at least have some coffee or tea. You look like you’ve been through some things yourself.”
He was right, but I’d completely forgotten about the incident with Mercy at Samara’s house as soon as I saw Lilith. “I went out to Samara’s house to look again, and Mercy Cullen was dead on her front porch,” I said as I sat down at the table and Lilith poured me a cup of tea. “Except she wasn’t. She got up looking all… weird… and came after me.”
“She didn’t go after you,” Meri said.
“You’re right. She actually wanted to go after the baby,” I said. “She acted like she wanted Laney.”
“You’re leaving something important out,” Meri said.
“Do you want to tell the story?” I asked.
“Nope,” he said and jumped into Lilith’s lap. “Just want to make sure you get all the important bits.”
So, I told them about how less than an hour before I’d discovered Mercy, I’d been at her work talking to her. My folks and Lilith thought it was unusual that I’d been speaking with a spirit and not known it, but it wasn’t completely unheard of either.
Chapter Ten
Ultimately, nobody knew what happened with Lilith, and for the time being, they were just glad to have her back. I stayed long enough to have a cup of tea and a scone, but I was exhausted.
Thorn hadn’t really wanted me to be home alone, but what could I do? I wasn’t up to hanging around with my family even though they were all in good spirits. As soon as it got out that Lilith was feeling better, Amelda had all the Aunties coming over for an impromptu party.
Mom whispered to me that no one would think badly of me if I took Laney home so we could both get some rest. Lilith promised to drop by with Mom in the next couple of days to spend some quiet time with the baby.
So, I went home. When I pulled into the driveway, Meri insisted that I sit in the car with the doors locked while he swept the perimeter. He even said it that way.
“I’m going to do a perimeter sweep,” he said as he pawed at my driver’s door. That was his way of telling me to open it.
“You’ve been watching too many action movies,” I said with a chuckle.
“You want me to do the perimeter sweep or not?” he snarked.
“Okay, fine,” I said as I opened the door for him to jump out. “Thank you,” I called after him before shutting and relocking the door.
The only acknowledgment I got was a flick of his little tail before he took off to walk around the house. It only took him about three minutes to walk all the way around the house and garage.
When he was done, Meri walked up onto the porch and plopped down at the top of the steps. I took that as his all-clear sign.
I took Laney out of her car seat, and we headed inside. After kicking off my shoes, I got the baby settled and went into the kitchen to make coffee. I fed Meri some precooked bacon and made myself a sandwich. I’d had a scone at Lilith’s, but I was tired, hungry, and needed something more substantial than pastries and tea.
“This isn’t as good as one of Viv’s sandwiches,” I said to Meri as I sat down to eat.
“That thick-cut bacon she makes is amazing too,” Meri said.
“I’ve been neglecting everything, haven’t I?” I asked.
“Kinsley, you just had a baby. If anything, you’re taking on too much,” Meri said in an unexpected moment of encouragement.
“I didn’t go into the shop today,” I said. “And when was the last time I saw Viv?”
“Reggie is fine,” Meri said. “Until the tourists come back, there’s not a ton for her to do. And Viv understands. Everybody knows you just had a baby, and they are dealing with their own stuff too.”
“You’re right,” I said. “I should call Dorian, though. He hasn’t dropped by since I had the baby. I need to make sure he knows he can.”
“With his husband finally home, he’s probably getting a lot of work done on his novel,” Meri said with a flick of his tail. “That and he’s been really good about keeping people updated on the post-tornado goings-on via the newspaper’s website. See, the world is not falling apart because you need to put yourself and your baby first,” Meri said.
“Wow, when you put it that way, it makes me sound like I think a little too highly of myself,” I said.
“That’s not what I meant,” Meri said. “But if that’s how you feel, then…”
“So, I guess our little bonding moment is over then,” I said with a sigh.
“Whatever,” Meri said and scampered off to the living room, presumably to check on or nap with Laney in her bassinet.
I texted Thorn for an update and he responded with a message that he was fine, he’d be home for dinner, and we’d talk about the Mercy thing then. I’d wanted way more information than that, but at least he was safe. Being home, safe at Hangman’s House, I started to feel guilty for leaving Thorn alone to deal with Mercy Cullen, but he was the sheriff.
The guilt and anxiety of the situation would have eaten away at me, but I channeled it into deep cleaning the kitchen. By the time Thorn got home from work, it smelled beautiful, and the floor was so clean that not only could you eat off of it, the wood planks practically sparkled.
“You didn’t rest, did you?” Thorn asked as he walked through the front door and took off his hat.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“I can smell your favorite l
emon oil kitchen cleaner,” he said.
“I have so much to tell you,” I said. “But first you have to tell me if Mercy is okay.”
“Let me order a pizza, and then we’ll talk,” Thorn said.
Haunted Hex (Familiar Kitten Mysteries Book 10) Page 8
