The Haunted Pendant: A Paranormal Artifacts Cozy Mystery (Paranormal Artifacts Cozy Mysteries Book 1)

by Maher Tegan

  “Is it over?” I asked, my gaze roaming over the room in search of any signs of wisps or stray bursts of energy or a flash of blonde hair. Nothing stirred. John was unconscious but breathing.

  “Yep,” Sybil said, brushing off her hands. “For now. This was a bad curse, but it’s not the worst you’re going to have to deal with.”

  “That’s okay, though,” Luther said, smiling at me. “We’ll be around when you need us.”

  “Yeah,” Eli said, eying Luther with a speculative look on his face. “And I suspect even when we don’t.”

  I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but I did realize we might find ourselves in over our heads sometimes and was grateful to know we had backup just in case.

  Sybil bent over John and gave his shoulder a shake.

  He stirred and opened his eyes, then struggled to sit up, fear and confusion scrawled across his features. “Who are you? Why are you in my house?”

  Sybil laid a hand on his arm, and her voice was soft. “That’s not what matters. What’s your name and where do you work? “

  “John Hennessey. I’m a financial advisor for Burke and Burke.”

  “Okay, John,” she said, “Somnum.”

  He closed his eyes and relaxed back on the bed.

  “Okay,” she said. “His brain’s not scrambled and Prudence is gone. I trust you three can clean up from here?”

  I turned to Eli. “Will you do the memories?” I hated to ask him to use his mind magic, but I didn’t know Luther or Sybil enough to trust them to be merciful. Even though he hated it, his mother had made him master it. She was like my parents in that respect; magic was a responsibility, and control was critical. He nodded.

  “Good. Then we’ll see you three later. We need to talk about your plan going forward.” She took Luther’s hand, and before I could say another word, they disappeared.

  “Wow,” Jake said. “The magical version of dine-and-dash.”

  “I’m okay with it,” Eli said. “I think, at least for now, we should do what we can on our own. I’m not sure what I think about them yet.”

  Jake gave a curt nod. “Agreed. Now let’s finish up and get out of here. You two go do that, and I’ll handle the rest of the mess.”

  Eli and I headed to Sara’s room. “What should I do?” he asked.

  “Keep it simple,” I said. “They’re Star Wars fans, so maybe they binge-watched the movies all day.”

  He smiled because though he’d never taken his own addiction as far as cosplay, it was only because I’d put my foot down. “Piece of cake. But stay here in case I need you.”

  He closed his eyes and took my hand, then peeped one back open. “Did they watch them in order of release or chronologically?”

  I huffed and bumped him with my shoulder. “I don’t care. Just pick one!”

  “All right, all right,” he said, shrugging. “But it might matter. They’re diehards.”

  I heaved a sigh and shook my head, trying to decide if I was more irritated because he was getting hung up on the details or because he almost sucked me down the rabbit hole with him.

  “Order of release, then. That’s how normal people watch movies.” When he started to object, I pinched him for wasting time. “I said, order of release. No debate. Just do it.”

  Somebody had to be the grownup and get things done.

  Chapter 19

  A n hour later, he’d implanted a nice—if fuzzy—morning of watching movies into both their minds. It made it much easier that Sara had been out of town on a business trip. I’m not sure what John had “done” since he’d been possessed, but I’m sure Eli made it good.

  While Eil and I had been doing that, Jake had set the house to rights. We propped them on the couch, put Return of the Jedi in the Blu-ray player, and left. Once outside, All in all, it was the best outcome I could have hoped for.

  “Wow,” I said, examining our handiwork. “I won’t tell Mom that you actually know how to clean.”

  Jake grinned at me. “It doesn’t matter. She wouldn’t believe you anyway.”

  That was the truth. He was a hopeless slob.

  “Okay, kids,” Eli said, opening the front door, “let’s blow this popsicle stand.”

  As we made our way down the walk, Jake muttered the counter to the sleep spell, and I sort of wished I could be a fly on the wall to make sure they were okay.

  “They’re fine,” Eli said, taking my hand. He knew without me saying a word what was going through my head, as always.

  My stomach rumbled, and I smiled when Sara’s voice floated to us from her backyard, asking the dog what he was barking at. Oh, nothin’, Mom. Dad was just possessed by a psycho, I was locked outside, and our house was full of people ten minutes ago. It’s fine though, just give me a cookie and we’ll call it square.

  “Oh, crap,” I said, looking at my phone as I climbed into Jake’s SUV. “I have to meet James for coffee.”

  “I need to run by my house, anyway,” Eli said. “I told Mom I’d help her move some furniture out to her shop. Why don’t you go do that, then we’ll meet up at the Jolly Roger later. After the day we’ve had, I think a beer or four is in order.”

  “That works for me,” I said. “Jake?”

  “I’m out,” he replied, then looked a little smug. “I have a date.”

  “Ooh, who is it?” I asked. “Glinda from the StopNGo? I know you two have been chatting each other up.”

  “No,” Eli said, his face alight with the hint of good gossip at Jake’s expense. “It’s Michelle, that new history prof at the university. I saw them talking in the gallery the other day.”

  Jake’s face flushed, and he scowled. “It’s none of your business. There’s no way I’m telling you two who it is until I’m sure I like her.”

  Eli shot me a smug expression. “Told ya. It’s Michelle.”

  “Just don’t make a big deal out of it, okay? I really like her.”

  Usually, I’d delight in Jake’s discomfort, but I wanted him to find a nice girl. He’d had his share of relationship nightmares and deserved a good one.

  “We won’t, we promise,” Eli said.

  I was surprised when he beat me to the punch because he wasn’t usually as merciful as I was.

  We spent the rest of the drive to the estate rehashing what had gone down that day. It wasn’t something I ever wanted to repeat, so I was glad that particular curse was unique. Some of the others were terrifying, though, so I was reserving judgment for which one was the worst until we had them all safely back and cleansed.

  I was never so glad to see home as I was when we pulled in, I don’t think. Unlike most houses, ours was moss green, which gave it an earthy feel. Some people described it as spooky, but they were mostly the same ones who thought I was weird. I’d developed a tough skin over the years and had learned to tune the haters out, and my life had grown exponentially better once I had.

  As I stepped out of the SUV, my whole body felt like lead. All I wanted to do was trudge up the steps to my tower and crash. Or at least put something on TV and tune the world out for a while. That wasn’t going to happen, though. I had to go face the music and hopefully get some closure.

  “You sure you’re going to be okay?” Eli asked, concern etched on his face. “I don’t care whether he wants to meet you alone or not; if you want, I’ll go with you.”

  “Nah,” I said, heaving a sigh. “It’s been a long time coming. I’ll be fine.”

  “Okay, then,” he said, climbing into his sporty blue BMW. “Call me when it’s over.”

  “Good luck on your date!” I called to Jake as he climbed the steps to the house, and he tossed a wave over his shoulder.

  “Good luck with your ... whatever it is, and have fun at the Jolly Roger.”

  Climbing into my car, I started it and blasted the air conditioning, then just leaned back in the seat and closed my eyes for a minute, gathering the courage to deal with my past.

  Chapter 20

  “H ey, Sage!
” Sophie , the owner of the coffee shop, called when I walked in. At forty, she was a beautiful woman with long brunette locks and big hazel eyes. She also happened to be a witch, which was something even I hadn’t known until recently. She’d moved to Marauders Bay from Tampa and opened the shop five years or so, right after she’d gotten a divorce.

  Unlike most shop owners, she’d refused to toe the pirate line and had opted to go with a homey theme for the little café. She served sandwiches and soup during lunch, and bagels for breakfast, preferring to keep it simple. She only had one employee, Rachael, who worked part-time. Sophie said she liked running it herself because it kept her busy and in touch with the town.

  I slid into a back booth where James and I would hopefully have some privacy. Since it was almost closing time, I doubted that would be an issue. I was currently the only customer there. “Hey, Sophie! How’s it going?”

  The trim woman bustled over and slid into the booth across from me. “Good, but rumor has it you’re looking for some items that were accidentally sent to the auction yesterday. I heard they were already sold, and you’d like to give them to the original owner. Is that true?”

  I nodded and debated telling her the truth. She was, after all, a witch and might be an ally. Her eyes twinkled as she watched for my reaction.

  “Yeah,” I said, shifting my weight. “Or at least part of it is.”

  Her lips curved into a knowing smile. “Lemme guess which part. As soon as I touched those pieces, I felt the bad juju. I tried to get more, but I didn’t have the cash to do it. At the time, I didn’t realize they’d come from Parker’s because there was such a mix of pieces. I’m curious where they came from and how they got out for public consumption, though.”

  “I need coffee in order to walk you through it,” I said, checking my phone. I still had fifteen minutes until James was due to meet me.

  “Hold that thought then,” she said and returned in a couple minutes with my usual iced caramel latte, triple shots. She knew me well. I told her the whole story from the moment Eli got the bad feeling, and she listened without interrupting.

  “Wow,” she said, her eyes wide. “You have your work cut out for you. It so happens, though, that I cleansed these already. I hope you weren’t planning something else because I couldn’t keep them around like that. The warmer would have burned my house down for sure.”

  I shook my head. “Only if you would have put hot coals in it first.”

  “Ah,” she said, understanding dawning in her eyes. “That’s what that little extra something was in the curse. I felt it but didn’t know what it was. Do they all have that?”

  I shook my head. “Not all of them, but a lot of them. Two-thirds, maybe.”

  “Are these the first you’ve recovered?” she asked. “And how many are there?”

  “Forty-three total, as far as we know. We recovered one this morning, plus the two you have so we’re down to forty. I guess that makes for a nice round number of evil, often murderous cursed items to track down, right?”

  She reached across the table and patted my hand. “I have faith in you. And for the record, I would have done the same thing. You couldn’t just roll them back into the ocean and leave them there. With as many tourists as we have, somebody would have found it eventually, and then where would we be? Now, do you want them back?”

  “Not unless—no offense—you want me to double-check to make sure they’re safe. Or unless you just don’t want them.”

  She shook her head, her expression amused. “I’m good. I’m a lot older than I look, and that wasn’t my first run-in with the nasties. And I like them, so if you’re good with me keeping them, I am. I do have to say, though, the curses were well-built. Be careful. It wouldn’t surprise me, since they were specifically looking to get even with witches if they booby-trapped them to do something not-so-nice when you try to break the curses.

  I pulled in a breath and huffed it out through my cheeks. “I was really hoping I was just being paranoid worrying about that,” I told her with a wry smile.

  “Nope,” she said, popping the p. “I’d be on the lookout if I were you. If you need any help, you know where to find me.”

  “Thanks for the warning, and the offer,” I said. “I may just have to take you up on that.”

  The bell above the door rang, and I took a deep breath when James stepped into the room. He glanced around, then headed in my direction.

  “Hey,” he said. “Wanna sit outside? It’s beautiful out.”

  It was hot enough to melt steel, but I humored him, waiting while he got his coffee then following him to the little café tables arranged on a patio out back. I adjusted the umbrellas so we at least had shade. That was one sure way to tell a Floridian from a tourist: very few of us opted to sit outside and “enjoy the sunshine” when it was hotter than Satan’s pepper patch out. A/C all the way, baby.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I know it’s more comfortable in there, but I didn’t want Sophie to overhear us.”

  I did my best to hide my smile; I hadn’t been able to out myself to him, so there was no way I’d out Sophie.

  He cleared his throat and took a couple drinks of his coffee, avoiding eye contact, and I sat there with my elbows on the table, fidgeting with my armlet. Time to grow a spine and take the bull by the horns. “Look, I know you have a ton of questions, and I’m sorry about the way you found out about me. That’s not the way it should have gone down.”

  For the first time, he looked me in the eye. “I might have understood, you know. I mean, if you’d just told me.” He raked his fingers through his sandy hair. “Or maybe I would have. I don’t know. I still don’t even know what I saw for sure that day. What are you?”

  “I’m a witch. I can do lots of things, buy my primary gifts are all earth- or air-based.”

  “So you can do more than just blow up rocks?” he asked, and I was happy to hear there was at least a little bit of humor in his tone.

  I smiled. “Yeah, I can do a little more than that. No need to tell him I could probably blow up a mountain if I wanted. Baby steps.

  He took a few seconds to digest that, then asked the question that would have been my first, too. “Can you read my mind or make me do things?”

  I shook my head. “No. I can’t do either of those things. And I can’t manipulate emotions, either.” I smiled. “Well, I’m pretty good at making people mad, but that’s a human skill, not a witchy one.”

  “What about Eli?”

  Oh, how to answer that one. I know it wouldn’t matter to Eli if I confessed his witchiness, but I wasn’t sure how much to confess. Since, you know, he could actually make people do things. I figured that was best left out. “Eli’s like me. My whole family is, though we have different gifts.”

  He nodded, chewing on that for a few moments, then leaned across the table, his brown eyes tortured. “I wish you’d have told me. I loved you, you know. It’s not like it could have ended any worse than it did.”

  I pulled a deep breath in and blew it out slowly, then rolled my head on my neck. “I know. I wish I would have. But I just cared about you so much, and we were getting along so well. I kept telling myself that today would be the day that I’d tell you, then I’d chicken out or things would come up. I really am sorry. I loved you, too.”

  A crow landed on the railing just a few feet away and tilted its head at us. I tossed it a piece of the donut I’d barely touched and just waited for James to say something. Rather than eat the donut, the bird just stared at us, then walked down the railing and back again. Weird birds.

  “Do you still?” he asked, bringing me back to the situation.

  “Do I still what?” I asked, then realized what he was asking me. “Oh. Uh, wow,” I stuttered, unsure how to answer. That was the one question I hadn’t come to this meeting prepared to answer. Did I? It had been five years.

  I was still scrambling for an answer when the crow leapt into flight and zoomed right over our table, knocking my coffe
e over. I jumped up to avoid wearing caramel latte, and James moved toward me with a pile of napkins.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, avoiding eye contact again while he sopped up the mess. “I shouldn’t have asked that. I’m not sure what came over me.”

  “No, it’s okay,” I said, stuffing my hair behind my ears as I stepped back from the table. I’d managed to mostly avoid the spill, though I did have a few splatters. Wet shorts were the least of my concerns right then, though. “I just wasn’t ready for it. I’m not really sure how to answer.”

  “Well,” he said, smiling up at me. “You didn’t say no.”

  “No,” I replied, a little flummoxed as to why. Was I just trying not to hurt his feelings, or did I really not know the answer? “I didn’t, did I?”

  “Can we just forget I asked and move on?” He looked as uncomfortable as I felt.

  “Sure,” I said, moving to gather my empty cup and the soggy napkins, “but I need to go. I’m meeting Eli and we have some things we have to do.”

  Not strictly a lie, but it wasn’t imperative. I could have stayed and continued the conversation, but I’d had about all I could handle for the moment.

  “Oh, okay,” he said, then took a breath. “I really turned this into the nightmare we were both afraid it was going to be, didn’t I?”

  I tried to summon a smile. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. I’m gonna go, but we’ll talk later, all right? I still need to brief you on what’s going on if you want to know more. If not, just ... if anything weird or unexplainable happens, please call me.”

  “What do you mean, weird or unexplainable?” he asked.

  I pressed my lips together. “I wish I knew for sure. Weird deaths, people behaving erratically. Random fires or just anything that you can’t explain. You have my number.”

  “Sure,” he said, moving toward the door with me. “I’ll give you a call in a couple days. I’d like to have a little more information than that, if you don’t mind.”