Kaylyn huffed and sat back on the couch, giving her sister full reign.
Cole shoved her laptop into Kaylyn’s lap. “Before I handed over the equipment, I made backups of the media and I went over them myself.”
“They missed something?”
With a shrug, Cole clicked play. “Here’s the audio—the banging is you running up the stairs. Concentrate on what’s in the background.”
It was hard to hear anything beyond the racket, but Kaylyn identified a raspy crackle, like wind or static, and then a high-pitched whine broke through. “A baby? Is that a baby crying?”
“That’s what it sounds like to me, and that interference—it sounds like wind, but we weren’t moving, and neither was the air. The place isn’t perfect, but I didn’t feel any significant air movement that night.”
Kaylyn swallowed hard, remembering the dreams—the feeling of air being sucked out of the room. She ran her hands down her pant legs, drying her clammy palms. “Didn’t the construction workers complain about wind?”
“Yeah, but there’s another development,” Cole continued. “I found a maid who quit right after the fire. She remembered that a woman was staying in the room with a baby, because she had set up a crib for her. Never got a name, but gave me a good description: curly brown hair, brown eyes, slender build. I hoped that would help me find someone under missing persons, but—”
That description sounded a little too familiar, and Kaylyn had to fight to keep the crack of emotion out of her voice. “A woman and her baby vanish, and no one misses them?”
“A lot of cultures reference vengeful spirits of mothers who lost their children, especially if it was a violent crime and went unpunished.”
Kaylyn shook her head. “I don’t—” Sure, she’d seen this woman in her dreams, and again at the house, always with another dark mass. She’d always assumed that the dark mass was the threat, but what if the woman was controlling it?
“Kay?” Cole waved her hand in front of Kaylyn’s face. “How long are you going to sit there with that strange look on your face?”
“Oh. I was thinking—” and trying to figure out where to start. “I think I’ve seen this woman in my dreams. But they started before we went into the hotel. There was a fire in our house, when I was twelve. Mom and Dad never told us about it, but it was in the police report Jonah—” Kaylyn stopped herself, but it was too late. Her shoulder’s sagged, as Cole jumped from the couch.
“Jonah knows about this? You told a new boss, who you claim to hate, about this before me? And he was at your house that day—” Cole shook her head and paced across the room. “Oh, my God, Kay—”
“It’s not like that.” Kaylyn yelled. “It just… happened.”
“It. Just. Happened?” Cole repeated. “You just happened to fall in bed—”
“No. For fuck’s sake no. No sex, no couples-ness, no kissing, none of that. He found out about everything. I didn’t intend to tell him anything, and now he keeps checking up on me and trying to help. That’s all.”
Cole’s nostrils flared as her eyes glassed over. “But it’s connected to our family, and you still told him before me.”
Kaylyn closed her eyes. She couldn’t explain why she’d never been able to talk about it before. She damn well couldn’t start with the fact that she’d ended up at Jonah’s house in the middle of the night with no memory of how she got there. “Cole, I thought it was a dream. Then, everything started happening and falling apart so fast that I didn’t really have time to think. I’m sorry.”
“Fine, but you better tell me what’s going on. Everything.”
“Well, I told you what I know,” aside from Jonah taking me to our old house last night and—Kaylyn forced the details out of her head, and tried to concentrate on the new details. “I think the woman you described is linked to the dark entity. But I’m not sure how. Something convinced me to get out of my house before it caught fire.”
“Maybe you’re tempting fate by staying alone.”
“I’ll be fine. If I stay with anyone, I’d just be putting them in danger, too. Until we know how to stop it—”
“Food,” Daniel said as he flung open front door, but he stopped in his tracks when he saw Cole and Kaylyn. “What’s up with the serious expressions?”
With Daniel back, all conversation about the Teague Hotel and work ceased. Sitting down to lunch with her sister and future brother-in-law may as well have been sitting down with strangers. For most of her life, Cole had been the only person Kaylyn confided in, her partner during their stint in bringing in skips for their uncle’s bail bond agency, and now her partner at Aicil. Together, they lied to their family and friends, and went to work, where they dealt with creatures and artifacts that logic couldn’t always explain.
And now, she was holding back from Cole, too.
Cole ripped one of the white packages open, dumping a juicy steak onto her plate. She cut it in half and pushed a piece onto Kaylyn’s plate. Steak and fries from the Ribber was usually a meal saved for special occasions—stressful, potential career ending events also counted, apparently.
Shutting herself into her car, Kaylyn took a deep breath and sank into the seat. She turned the key and the engine purred to life—that had to be the most relaxing sound in the world. “Well, Chelle,” she murmured to the steering wheel, “maybe you can explain how I ended up at Jonah’s. You might be the only one with any answers that won’t make Cole think I’m banging our boss.”
As if on cue, Kaylyn’s phone dinged, and she picked it up to find a message from Cole.
Don’t you dare even think about sleeping with him.
Kaylyn dragged her fingers through her hair and tossed the phone back into the passenger seat. The suspicion was fair enough, she thought, considering that the last co-worker she’d dated was Cole’s training partner, and after they broke up, he requested a transfer.
She covered her face with her hands. “You really need to get better taste in men.”
Not ready to go back to Jonah’s house, Kaylyn drove on autopilot for the next fifteen minutes. Visiting her house alone after the fire was going beyond tempting fate, but as long as no one entered the hotel, it stood to reason that everything would be fine.
Yellow caution tape draped across the front door, and the window she’d busted out had been temporarily mended with a piece of plywood. The lingering smell of smoke burned her nostrils as soon as she popped open the door. Although the fire had been limited, the smoke had been invasive. Kaylyn ran a finger along the table beside the door, picking up a layer of sticky black soot that covered everything.
She pulled the cushions off the couch and found her phone and credit card wedged into the back corner of the couch. The phone refused to turn on, but she shoved it in her pocket anyway, hoping that it only needed charging.
In the bedroom, the damage wasn’t as bad, since the door had been closed. She opened her closet door, and threw some clothes into an old travel bag. They would need to be washed, but it was better than wearing the same few outfits she bought—well, Jonah had bought since she didn’t have a card—after the fire. Then, she collected a few more things from the bathroom, took a final look around, and prepared to leave.
As she passed the kitchen, a dark shadow caught her eye, and she spun around, tripping over her own feet and landing in a pile on top of her overnight bag. Realizing that the “shadow” was a long streak of charring up the wall, she cussed at herself and climbed to her feet.
Just as she shook off the eerie feeling, something in the kitchen hissed, and she wondered for a moment if the utilities hadn’t been turned off properly.
“Do not go look, Kaylyn. Whatever it is… don’t.” Her feet led her into the kitchen anyway. “I don’t know why anyone expects that I’ll listen, I can’t even fucking listen to my own common sense.”
There wasn’t anything obvious that could have caused the noise, but in the middle of the burned area, there was a circle etched into the floor. She
pulled out her cheapo phone, which had a camera, if she could only figure out how to use it.
A popping sound came from the living room, but Kaylyn ignored it, shuffling through the menus on the phone to find the camera app. After a few seconds of fumbling, during which her heart imitated the percussion section of the marching band, the camera application popped up and she snapped a picture of the circle. It was a crap picture, but it would have to do.
She slid the phone back into her bag and spun around. The brown-haired woman blocked the path from the kitchen to the living room, then disappeared into a fog.
Jonah
After lunch, Jonah slipped back into headquarters and set up his laptop in one of the upstairs offices. After a string of investigators stopping in with case updates, questions, and awkward small talk, he managed to get a break long enough to log in to his computer and connect to the Aicil database.
He pulled up Kaylyn’s electronic file, copied her father’s name, and entered it into the database. But as soon as he pushed the enter key, his peace was interrupted once again.
“Dr. Emerson.” Jonah said, minimizing the window and pulling up another case file, just in case the old man wanted to get nosey.
“You’ve been quiet today.”
“I started this job buried in paperwork, and there’s only one way to get it done.”
“Ah, yes. Well, I’m clearing out of your office now.”
Jonah felt his body relax, then stiffen again as he worried how Emerson would read his relief.
“My flight leaves in the morning. I have my own stack of paperwork waiting at home. But I have arranged for Miss Anderson’s testing. I tried to call her, but her phone doesn’t seem to be on, so I’ll have to leave you to take care of that.”
“Of course, when is her appointment?”
“Her physical is tonight at 5:30.”
Shit. Slamming his laptop closed, he wondered if it was even medically viable to give someone such short notice for testing. “I’ll call her sister, or take the paperwork over personally.”
Emerson nodded. “If she doesn’t make this appointment, we won’t be able to reschedule for a couple of weeks.”
When Emerson was out of hearing distance, Jonah dialed Kaylyn’s new number.
“Do you have ESP or something?” Kaylyn shouted.
Jonah pulled the phone from his ear. “I’m afraid to ask.”
“You probably should be. Can I just explain this evening? I’m too—”
“You have to be at the hospital for testing this evening.”
Kaylyn was silent.
“Are you still there?”
“Yeah.”
“Your paperwork is here. I’ll meet you at my house around 4:30 and drive you to the hospital.”
“I don’t need a babysitter.”
“They aren’t going to let you wear the necklace, you know.”
“Fuck.”
“Exactly. It’s against policy for you to drive yourself anyway. Emerson is leaving now, so I shouldn’t have any trouble getting out of here.” Jonah began packing his belongings, hoping to reclaim his office. “What the hell are you into, anyway?”
“I went back to my house.”
“Why?”
“Well, you said everything would be fine, as long as no one went in the Teague.”
“That wasn’t an open invitation to press your luck.” A couple of passing investigators waved awkwardly as they passed. Jonah nodded and lowered his voice. “What happened?”
He heard Kaylyn huff and rev the Chevelle’s engine.
“There’s some kind of symbol in the floor. I took a picture and… when I turned around, I saw the woman. She disappeared and I got my ass out of the house.”
“What symbol?”
“I’ll text you the pic.”
“Fine. Get back to my house and keep your ass inside until I get there.”
Oh, lord… Jonah leaned his head over and ran his hands over his face. He’d known Kaylyn for less than a week, and she’d already turned him into the crotchety half of an old married couple.
His phone buzzed across the table when her text came in, but he shoved it in his pocket and finished gathering his things. He’d take care of it in his own office where he had full access to the Aicil databases.
Jonah hadn't recognized the symbol, so after sending off a copy and request to his father for help, he picked up Kaylyn for her appointment.
“Calm down,” Jonah said as Kaylyn paced across the waiting room. “Having a panic attack right before a stress test isn’t going to be helpful.”
“The tests make me squirrely.”
Jonah sat back and checked his phone, but he just couldn’t resist the opening. “That’s different from normal… how?”
“Hardy har har.” She spun and dropped into the seat next to him. “Don’t they have to give you time to prepare for these things?”
He crossed his ankles and leaned back. “What happened at lunch that you don’t want to tell me about?”
Kaylyn opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before finding words. “Am I really that obvious?”
“Yes. Spill it.”
Kaylyn looked around the room, but there wasn’t anyone to overhear. “Cole made back-ups of the evidence from Teague, and there was something there.”
A smile crept across Jonah’s face, “I suspected she had.”
Once she had sufficiently explained the conversation with Cole, she propped her heels against the edge of the chair and began playing with the zipper on her boots. “I expected more yelling.”
“I’m saving my energy for something productive.”
“Why is this thing after me?”
“Wrong place, wrong time. Kindred spirits. We’ll figure out the connection, but if you don’t stop that,” he squeezed her forearm, “you’re going to break your boots.”
“If this other spirit wants to help, why doesn't she tell me what I need to know?” Kaylyn groaned and stretched out her legs.
A nurse stepped out with a clipboard, and despite the empty waiting room, she looked around before calling out, “Kaylyn Anderson.”
Jonah stood, squeezing Kaylyn’s shoulder. “Come on. I’ll stay as close as I can.”
Kaylyn grabbed her bag, and they followed the nurse down several hallways, to a stark white room with a chair and a treadmill, flanked with machines.
With narrowed eyes, the nurse gave Jonah a once over. “Are you family?”
“Dr. Pierce knows who I am.”
The nurse grimaced, but left without another word. Across the room, Kaylyn leaned against the treadmill railing with a smirk on her face.
Kaylyn
Kaylyn dug through her bag for her sneakers while they waited for Dr. Pierce. “Is this what it’s always like? Aicil—the politics, power struggles, bureaucracy.”
“Sometimes.”
“Is that why you were sent here?”
“Something like that.”
Kaylyn dropped her shoes to the floor. The slapping of rubber against tile echoed through the room. “Sorry, I forgot that you’re the only one who gets to ask questions.”
Three knocks sounded before Dr. Pierce stepped in. “Mr. Troyer, I didn’t expect you to accompany her.”
“I thought it’d be best to keep a close eye on things, given current circumstances.”
“Well, as long as Kaylyn doesn’t have a problem with it, you can remain in the room, as appropriate.”
“It’s fine,” Kaylyn said, wringing her fingers. All she wanted to do was get it over with, and since Jonah was the only one who had any idea how to keep her safe, the idea of letting him out of her sight was unnerving.
And admitting that made it worse.
“You can change into those,” Dr. Pierce pointed to a stack of clothes on the chair. “You’ll need to remove your jewelry. The nurse will be in shortly to draw blood, then we’ll do the general exam and finally, the techs will get you hooked up for the stress test.”
But weeks without work.
Weeks without anything to do.
Maybe Jonah had some strings left to pull, but how much more could she ask of him?
“Can she wear the necklace until the stress test begins?” Jonah asked.
Kaylyn’s eyes snapped up. Dr. Pierce seemed to take forever to answer, but he finally gave in.
“Fine.”
The next forty-five minutes were punctuated with intrusions by Dr. Pierce, random nurses, and techs. By the time they had her prepped for the stress test, her stomach was demanding dinner, and her brain wanted a break from the tedium. Although, she had to concede, it wasn’t as bad as the first time she was tested, when they dragged her out of bed at six in the morning.
Hands tugged and pressed at her, pulling on her clothes and applying sensors until one noticed the necklace.
“You’ll have to remove that,” the tech said with an air of irritation. Before Kaylyn could move, the tech had plucked it off.
“I’ll take that.” Jonah said from behind Kaylyn.
She took a deep breath before they hooked up the final tube, placing a clamp over her nose before stepping away to fiddle with the machine.
The feeling of suffocation pushed Kaylyn’s mind closer to the dream.
“Kay.”
She twitched when another hand—far warmer than any of the nurses or techs—touched her arm. Jonah squeezed her hand, then stepped back, taking a place against the wall.
“We’ll begin now,” the tech announced, leaving just enough time for Kaylyn to brace herself as the treadmill kicked into action.
Her feet thudded against the treadmill. The belt continued increasing in speed until it stuttered, shaking Kaylyn’s balance. She squeezed the guide bars and looked around, the tech monitoring her gave no indication that he noticed anything odd. Shaking it off, she fell into a steady rhythm, until seconds later, the belt jerked again.
Fractured Legacy (Darkness Bound / Frqactured Legacy #1) Page 12
