Shadow Rising (18 page)

“Hi, I’m Abby. I’ll get some lemonade. I forget just how bad the dust is in here—I guess I’m getting used to it.” She started through a side door, then paused. “Chase…Fritz, would one of you come with me?” The quiver in her voice belied her nervousness.

Fritz stood up and dusted his hands on his jeans. He didn’t look like a lawyer, but more like a lumberjack. But he had an easy grace about him and a winning smile. He glanced at us. “Let me help Abby and we’ll be right back. Make yourselves at home.”

As they left the room, we scouted places to sit. The furniture looked old and dilapidated, and I suspected that it had been here when they bought the place.

When Fritz and Abby returned, he was carrying a tray with glasses and a pitcher of lemonade on it, and she held a plate of cookies. But before they could reach us, Fritz suddenly let out a shout. From where I was sitting, I could see the imprint of hands against the back of his shirt, as he went stumbling forward. I leaped up as he hit the floor, the pitcher and glasses shattering as they bounced off the tray onto the hardwood.

“Fritz!” Abby shoved the cookies into Chase’s hands and went down on her knees on the other side, fear washing across her face.

Glass was everywhere. Camille and Morio stood, holding hands and closing their eyes, as Delilah reached down to help Abby.

“Fritz, are you hurt?” I didn’t see any blood, and he blinked, so he was conscious. But the shove had been pretty hard and I was worried that he might have broken a leg or arm.

He shook his head, struggling to sit up. I helped him avoid the shattered glass and lifted him up and over to the sofa, where he leaned forward, stunned.

“Damn, you’re strong.” He glanced up at me. “I’m okay. I think I am, at least.”

Rozurial spied a whisk broom and dustpan in the corner and went to work sweeping up the broken glass after he used a drop cloth to wipe up the lemonade. Chase circled the room, on alert, but by now I could also tell he was trying to reach out, to use his burgeoning powers in order to help. Which maybe wasn’t such a good idea.

Camille and Morio dropped hands and came over to sit on either side of Fritz and Abby. Chase joined us after
scouting out the kitchen. Roz finished sweeping up the glass and put the dustpan on the table near the window.

“I told Chase I didn’t know how to explain what’s been going on but…I guess you got a firsthand glimpse.” Tears rolled down Abby’s face. “This has been going on for a month now, since the middle of February. We bought this house and closed on the day after New Year’s. We’ve been coming over for a few hours at a time to work on it and…” Here, she paused.

“You said that you closed in January and that this has been going on for a month. That leaves a month in between. Did anything ever happen during that time? Maybe not so dramatic, but something odd or out of the ordinary?” Either something had stirred up their ghosts, or they had been slow to manifest.

Fritz shook his head, but Abby nodded.

“Yes, actually.” She looked up at her husband, tears in her eyes. “I didn’t tell you, because I thought you’d think I was tired and needed a vacation.” She shrugged at us, apologetically. “I’m a workaholic. It’s hard for me to be away from my desk, but renovating the house has been so interesting that I’ve been making time for it.”

“What happened?” Fritz took her hands in his. “And you know you can tell me anything.”

She leaned her head against his shoulder. “I came over here alone a couple of times, while you were at work. I was clearing out things and getting the house ready to start the renovation. The first time I was in here alone, I felt like somebody was watching me. I thought, no big deal—everybody feels that way at some point in their lives. Big empty house, unfamiliar neighborhood…you know. But the second time…I began to hear things.”

“What kind of things?” Camille asked.

“Children laughing, like they were taunting somebody. And someone…a man with a deep voice, whispering to me. But when I’d stop to listen, the sounds would vanish. I thought my imagination was working overtime.” She hung her head. “Then it got worse.”

“Worse? How?” Chase was taking notes and so was
Delilah. Camille and Morio were listening. Rozurial had parked himself by the archway into the kitchen, and had put himself on guard duty, by the looks of his stance.

Abby raised her head. “Worse as in…I began to hear footsteps on the second floor. They echoed, like heavy boots. Another time I caught a glimpse of children playing in the yard but when I looked again, there was nobody there.”

She accepted a tissue from Camille and wiped her eyes, then turned back to Fritz. “That’s why I begged you to take the time off so we could get this place done together. It wasn’t just because I’m in a hurry to move in. The house began to scare me. I can’t stand the thought of living here now—
especially
with what’s gone on in the past month.”

“Why don’t you tell us what’s been going on since February?” Morio said. “And do you remember the day it started?”

Fritz, looking pale, nodded. “Yes, actually. I do remember because it was the day after Valentine’s Day. We came over and were stripping wallpaper in this room when…” He hesitated.

“Tell him. Or I will.” Abby pressed her lips together. I could read her energy clear as a book. She was fed up, and now that help was potentially at hand, she wasn’t going to let it go by untouched.

Fritz shrugged. “It’s simple, really. Whatever this ghost or spirit is, it tried to kill us.”

Morio straightened up. “That bad? What did it do, ex-actly? We need to figure out what spirits we’re facing.”

Abby let out a pained breath. “Shortly before Valentine’s Day, we started renovation. I’m not sure if that’s what stirred up the spirits or not. As I told you, until then, the hauntings were limited to footsteps, laughter, stuff like that. But after we started steaming off the wallpaper and taking down the lights, the activity increased and we began having major incidents.”

“What was the first? Wasn’t that when the hammer flew across the room? Or did I miss something?” Fritz shivered.

“No, I think that was the first.” Abby pointed to the ladder. “The hammer was over there, sitting on the top of the ladder, where Fritz had left it. He was taking a break—I’d
made sandwiches—and as he walked toward me, the hammer flew across the room and missed him by just a few inches and hit the wall” She nodded to the opposite wall. There was an eight-inch hole in the drywall, exposing the boards beneath. “It almost put a hole through Fritz’s head.”

“At first, I couldn’t believe it.” Fritz crossed to the wall and fingered the hole. “By then, Abby told me about the noises—she heard most of them. I believed her, but part of me wanted to put it down to the creaking of an old house. Then, when the hammer came spinning by…the only reason it didn’t hit me was because I moved a couple of inches to the right, just before it sailed past. It could have killed me.” His dark eyes glimmered with fear. “After that, I couldn’t ignore it. I had to admit something was going on.”

“Poltergeist, maybe. What else happened?” I had learned far too much about ghosts over the past few months. It bothered me that I could name off as many types of spirits as I could.

“We took a break for a couple of days,” Abby said. “I think we were both afraid to come back. But this house is ours and we couldn’t just walk away. So a week later we returned. For two days it was quiet. On the third day, we decided to work on the attic. I hadn’t cleaned it out yet, so we hauled several old trunks out of there. One belonged to the monks and contained a few old robes, and some documents. I’ve made sure they were sent to the Order. But the other trunk…”

“The other trunk contained the possessions of a little girl,” Fritz broke in. “From babyhood to about age ten. When I opened the trunk, it felt like…almost like something slipped out of it—a shadow or something of the sort.”

Abby nodded. “I felt it, too. As we started to carry the trunk down the stairs, something shoved me from behind. I dropped my end—I was at the front—and fell down the stairs. If Fritz hadn’t held on to the trunk it would have come tumbling down on top of me.”

“Right before she went sprawling, something cold swept past and I heard a man laughing. He had a deep voice. And then, Abby screamed and the trunk almost yanked me down
the stairs when she dropped it. I thought…when I saw her lying at the bottom of the stairs, I thought she’d snapped her neck.” He broke down, shaking his head as he rubbed his temples. “I thought she was dead,” he whispered.

“I strained an ankle and fractured my little finger. But it could have been far worse.” Abby picked up one of the cookies and bit into it. A crumb of chocolate stuck to the corner of her lip and she wiped it away. She had pale pink lips that curved in a lovely bow, and it struck me that she really was pretty. Her eyes were an arresting shade of blue that twinkled like marbles in the sun.

“What did you do after that?”

“I took her to the hospital, and we stayed away again until this week. Finally, we agreed that we weren’t going to be chased out of our own home. I did some research and saw that you’re supposed to use sage to cleanse energy. So we came back yesterday and smudged the house. Everything seemed to lighten. Then, we were up in the attic this afternoon when we saw a man.”

“He was horrible,” Abby chimed in. “We couldn’t see his face, but he was angry—so angry. And he was watching me, and then…I don’t know how to describe this but he…he…”

“He attacked her.” Fritz’s voice was harsh. “I couldn’t move. It was like I was paralyzed. I was sitting on the floor, working on a light fixture and I looked up and all of a sudden, I couldn’t move. I saw Abby go flying onto her back and something yanked her shirt open.”

Abby began to cry. “Whatever it was, it tried to unzip my jeans, and I was kicking and trying to get free of it. My arms were pinned over my head. I don’t how. He had to have four or five hands to do everything he was doing to me. I thought that it was going to…But then something different swept around me. The spirit let go and I felt him follow it—almost like he was chasing whatever the energy was. I heard a little girl laughing, and then a growl and then…then they were gone.”

“What did you do then?” Chase asked.

“We ran downstairs—Fritz could move again—and
called you from the car. We only came back in when you got here.” Abby looked around, terrified. “I can’t stand this house now. I loved it so much when we found it, but now I hate it. We didn’t know what to do, so we called Chase and he called you.” She began to cry again, and Fritz wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissed her on the head.

Fritz glanced up at me. “We’re at our wit’s end. We need help or sooner or later, we’re going to die. Or lose our money when we walk away and abandon the house. The spirits here are out for blood. Our blood.”

As he finished speaking, a low laughter filled the room, and then—all hell broke loose.

“What the fuck?” I leaped up as a trowel—the kind used to apply putty—went flying past me. If I hadn’t jumped out of the way, it would have sliced into my forehead. Not fatal for me, but it would definitely have put a dent in my skull.

Camille pointed. “There!”

As we turned, a dark cloud began to creep across the ceiling, a roiling black mist, churning and growing as it seeped out from beneath the moldings. Abby and Fritz stumbled back, terrified.

“Oh God, no, no…please, no…” Abby whispered under her breath as the cloud began to lower into the room, taking form.

Camille shoved her toward the door. “Run. You and Fritz get the hell out of here.”

They stumbled toward the arch, but Abby screamed again. I whirled to see another cloud of mist entering the room. They backed up, Abby whimpering as Fritz grabbed her and pushed her behind him.

Chase was near them and he caught hold of Abby’s arm and shoved her behind him, with her back to the wall. I was
headed their way but stopped short. Rivulets of blood raced down the wall, thin fingers coming from nowhere. I could smell it—coppery and sweet and yet…there was something off-putting about it.

“Chase—Abby, get away from there.” I motioned them away. They turned to see the crimson rivers flowing behind them. Abby stumbled forward; she’d almost backed into it.

“What the fuck is going on?” Chase’s voice was hoarse.

Camille and Morio joined hands and, heads down, they whispered something under their breaths. I could hear the chanting—ancient and hollow. As they raised their heads, their eyes were shining with silver and purple light, and Morio let out a low laugh.

The black shroud of mist circled the room now, and out of it, a large male form began to take shape. I backed up as he came striding out of the cloud, all smoke and mist, with eyes that burned a vicious green. He was evil. I knew evil—on an intimate level because I battled with it daily. And this creature—this spirit—was evil to the core.

Chase tried to shield both Fritz and Abby. The blood pouring down the walls was thick and viscous, but it didn’t set me to hunger, as the scent of blood usually did. Instead, it revolted me, turning my stomach.