Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Dante was already at work when I arrived—an unusual event. He was talking to Sophia, our receptionist, and when I came in, he jumped up and clapped his arm around my shoulder.
“Say, got a moment? I need to talk to you about something?”
I groaned. “Okay, just don’t spill my coffee!” I was carrying a quad shot peppermint mocha. “Who is she, what’s her problem, and has she threatened to kill you yet?”
Dante was known for his poor choices in love, and more than once we’d rescued him from sticky situations. He was too gorgeous for his own good, and women flocked to him because of his easy, comfortable nature. With a sexy grin and a flamboyant style, he was a chick-magnet.
He did have a darker side in his nature, having to do with his connection—or lack of connection—with his Pack. He’d been excommunicated from his family and Pack years ago, and most of the time he handled it well. But some days I could sense his frustration and loneliness. Wolf shifters were born with the need to Pack-bind, and when they couldn’t, it set them up to become rogues, if they didn’t find some sense of belonging, somewhere.
“ Haha , very funny. I’m serious, Kyann. I need to ask your opinion on something.”
“Sure, meet me in my office,” I said. I turned back to Sophia. “Mail? Appointments?”
She handed me a handful of envelopes. “Here you go. As far as appointments, I booked a woman for today at two. She’s thinks she’s being followed by a vampire.”
That wasn’t good. “Hmm, a chance for Lazenti to get some hours in,” I said. We’d hired a vampire last month who was looking for a job, and so far, I hadn’t had many cases he could work on. He’d been very useful for research, but I wanted to get him in action and see how he performed. This might be right up his alley.
“Should I message him?”
“No,” I said. “Wait till after the meeting. If we take the case, we’ll have more information for him.” I was still uncomfortable around Lazenti, but he had done a lot of legwork for us in a few weeks.
“Okay, if that’s it? I’ll be talking to Dante.” I waved at her and headed toward my office.
Dante was there, sprawled out on the loveseat next to my bookshelves. “So, how goes the training with Devon?”
I told him about the night before. “So yeah, it’s working. It’s odd, for sure. But in the coming months I’m going to need it.” I paused, then said, “All right. What’s going on? If it’s not a girlfriend, what’s on your mind?”
“It’s about my aunt Tilly.”
Dante’s great-aunt was a wonderful older lady and the only one from the Pack who still embraced Dante. He always called her auntie, even though she was his father’s aunt.
Tilly was well-respected in the Pack. The equivalent of royalty, actually. Nobody—not even the Elders—dared contradict her. But she was aging, and older for a wolf shifter was old . While Tilly was a wonderful woman, she was starting to slow down, and she was vulnerable, even though the cracks weren’t showing much.
“Is she all right? She’s not sick, is she?” I stiffened. “Does she need help?” Tilly had always been kind to me, and I liked her a lot.
Dante sighed. “I think she’s in trouble, but there’s a problem. She doesn’t think she does need help.”
Not sure what he meant, I asked, “What do you mean? Is it physical?”
“Aunt Tilly told me she’s engaged,” he said. “She’s getting married.”
“ Married? I didn’t know she was dating.”
“I didn’t either. I don’t think anybody in the rest of my family knows, either. That’s the problem. Nobody knows who this guy is, and Tilly refuses to talk about him. I was hoping you could come with me to dinner. Maybe she’ll open up to you. She likes you a lot.” He swung his feet off the loveseat and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Please say yes. I know you care about Tilly as much as I do.”
I smiled. “Of course, I will. When do you want me to come over?”
“Do you have time tonight? She’s invited me to her house for dinner. I asked if I could bring you, and she said of course.”
His puppy-dog eye routine always worked on me. Dante had the ability to tug my heartstrings. Maybe it was because he had been so good to me when I was a teenager. Maybe he was just golden-hearted and I responded to his general kindness. Either way, I couldn’t resist that pleading look.
“All right. What time?”
“Six-thirty? Penn won’t mind, will she?” Dante asked.
“No. In fact, I think tonight’s her class at Windchime Magical Academy. She’s taking a business course there.”
“Then we’re set.” Dante perked up. “I hope my aunt will talk to you . You have directions, right?”
I pulled out my phone to make certain I still had Tilly’s address. “Yeah, I still have her info in my contacts.” Then, I remembered a question I meant to ask. “Say, did Sophia ever check out the spirit in Angela’s house? Remember Angela, from the Letty Hargrove case?” Angela’s sister, Letty, had been murdered, though we couldn’t bring the killer to justice because of the nature of the crime. But we’d discovered the truth, which only led to more questions.
“She said she’s going over to Angela’s next week. I asked Carson to go with her.” Dante shrugged. “Angela and Sophia seem to hit it off.”
That didn’t surprise me. Sophia connected easily with people. She could tune into their nature and some of our clients had started seeing her in their off hours, paying her for life coaching or card reading.
“Good. Angela needs a friend, especially now that Letty’s gone. Over the times we’ve talked I’ve come to realize that she’s actually quite lonely.” I glanced at the clock. “Everybody should be here by now. Let’s gather for the staff meeting.”
As Dante stood, I added, “Should I bring anything tonight?”
“You know my aunt. Bring yourself and she’ll be happy.” He winked at me, then headed out of my office.
By noon, I had caught up with all my paperwork, and handed Sophia a pile of papers to file.
Sophia stared at them. “Oh goody! Filing!”
“Eh, hush up, woman,” I said, laughing.
During this time of year, we usually didn’t have more than a handful of cases. Everybody was too busy with the holidays, and they usually put off unpleasant tasks until January. Come January, we’d be flooded with requests. But for now, the week was relatively clear.
When we had free time like this, we used it to sharpen and repair weapons, to finish the backlog of paperwork, to upgrade our tech, and work on our private library of information.
We were compiling records on all the creatures we fought, and I had recently added a section for the Arosien Clan under Demonkin, given that was my background. I’d asked Seton to help me learn, but he stuck to his own pace, and warned me not to dive in too deep, too quickly.
“The only way you’ll be able to process what your father’s heritage brings to your life, is to go slowly. Rush your emerging powers too quickly, and they can eat you alive. Try to learn too quickly and you may stifle them through fear. And that will destroy you. If you want me to help you, I require that you abide by my rules.”
Given Seton Anthony was the most knowledgeable person on the subject of demonology that I knew, I agreed. I was itching to learn more about the kind of demon I was, but I managed to restrain my impatience. I’d spent forty years without knowing anything about my father—and that part of myself—so what were a few more months?
I tidied up my desk and then headed out to the front. Sophia was filing all the finished paperwork we’d dumped on her desk.
“Take a break,” I said. “Dante said you were heading over to Angela’s next week to check out the spirit in her house?”
“I am,” she said, setting down the file folder she was holding. She motioned to the breakroom. “Mind if I get some coffee?”
“I could use more, myself.”
Sophia put up the sign asking people to ring the bell if they came in, then followed me to the breakroom. Orik was there, reading on his tablet, and Carson was making a fresh pot of coffee. I’d also installed an espresso machine, given my addiction to lattes. I started to fire it up, but he stopped me.
“You want me to make you a latte? I haven’t used it yet, and I’d like to learn how.” Carson was a gorgeous young man, with dark skin and box-braids that reached his waist. His ears were adorned with lapis lazuli gauges. At twenty-nine, he was a computer genius. Carson was our main tech guy, and I suspected he was on the spectrum, given his difficulty with social situations. But his qualities often offered us insight from a different perspective.
“Be my guest. Triple shot vanilla latte, please.”
He laughed. “How many of these have you had today?”
“Two,” I said, grinning. “I usually clock four before I’m done.”
“Your liver?—”
“My liver is fine,” I said. “Here, you turn it on here, and then pack the portafilter—use the calibrated tamper, it does a good job.” I showed him what to do and left him to it. As I joined Sophia, she was opening a box of muffins. We ate a lot of pastries at work.
I accepted a blueberry muffin and settled down beside her. Carson made my latte, and by that time the coffee was ready. He poured a cup for Sophia, then one for Orik and for himself.
Dante wandered in. “Impromptu meeting?”
“I guess,” I said. “Given it’s our slack season, we might as well. I was asking Sophia about her trip over to Angela’s next week.”
“Angela and I had lunch last Sunday. She called me to ask about me checking out her house. She’s lonely, I can tell. She’s missing her sister.” Sophia sliced open a muffin and spread butter on it. She bit into it, shrugging. “I know you said there’s a spirit in the house, but I’m wondering if it’s attached to Angela, herself. I sense some sort of attachment.”
“I don’t think there was one last month. Could Letty have latched onto her sister?” I asked.
“That’s possible. I’ll find out more when I go over. I’m taking Carson with me, if you don’t mind?”
“I could use a little out-of-the-office time,” Carson said. “Plus, I intend to ask Angela about several aspects of the witch world that I don’t understand.”
“Fine by me. We’re in a slow period.” I cleared my throat. “If Angela doesn’t have the answers for you, I’m sure Penn will sit down and talk with you.”
He blushed, though it was more subdued against the dark brown of his skin. But I knew Carson enough to tell when he was blushing. Carson had a crush on my BFF, and though he had sworn me to secrecy, I felt Penn should know.
“Right,” he said, giving me side-eye. But the slight upturn to his lips told me that he wasn’t mad.
“So, what do we want to do for our annual solstice party?” I asked.
Every year, Dante and I sprang for a special night out during December. We either went to the theater, then a late supper, or a fancy dinner and some sort of activity. One year, we went bowling. Another year, we toured the Magical Field of Lights—a five-acre woodland walk through a winter wonderland forest, with all the trees draped with lights. “We need to hold it at night, so Lazenti can join us.”
“The Neptune is holding a three-night big-screen viewing of the extended versions of the Lord of the Rings,” Carson said. “They’re having a dinner buffet before each movie, catered by Blue Bell Catering.”
“Blue Bell Catering, huh?” Blue Bell was one of the best catering companies in Seattle. Run by a Fae couple who happened to like humans, shifters, and other Supes, their food was gourmet quality with an otherworldly taste.
“I could go for that,” Sophia said.
I glanced at Dante and Orik. “What about the two of you?”
Dante shrugged. “I’m good with that.”
Orik held up his phone. “I’ll have to ask Hilda. Or rather, Ana. I take over for Hilda’s mother in the evening, but she’s been fairly lenient this visit, so I think I might be able to make at least one of the movies.”
Ana, his mother-in law, was visiting while Hilda was on bedrest for her pregnancy. She was having her third set of twin girls, and her mother had flown in from Minnesota to take care of her daughter. Ana was a strong-willed woman, to the point of making sure the priest of Odin was on his toes. Orik helped look after his daughters, took care of the grocery shopping, and other errands.
“Why don’t you give her a call?” I asked.
As he dialed, the bell rang from Sophia’s desk.
“I’ll be back,” she said, heading out of the breakroom.
I turned to Dante. “So, what’s for dinner tonight?”
“I don’t know. But Tilly said come hungry, which means it’s going to be good.”
“She is expecting me, right? I don’t want to intrude?—”
“Yes, I told you that I asked if I could bring you. She was thrilled. She likes you,” he said.
Orik hung up. “Ana said she can do without me all three nights, so I can go with you. Hilda made me promise to order fried chicken and mac ‘n cheese for her on the first night, fish and chips the second night, and to bring her something sweet and tasty on the third.”
“You’re getting off easy,” I said, laughing.
“Hilda’s my love,” he said, grinning. “There’s an amber bracelet she’s been eyeing. I’ll tuck it in with the fried chicken.”
Sophia buzzed me on my phone.
“Yes?”
“We have a client out here who wants an emergency meeting.”
“What about our one o’clock?”
“Seem’s to be a no-show,” Sophia said.
“What’s your feeling on this guy?” I asked.
“My senses are tingling. I’d say an eight.” Sophia was a good barometer for how dangerous a situation was. We had a scale set up from one, where the case could wait for a while—to ten, where events sounded like full-blown emergencies.
I straightened. “Take his info and then bring him back to the conference room.” I turned to Orik and Dante. “Looks like we may have a case. Come on, let’s go.” I finished my latte, then returned to my office where I got my tablet, notebook, and digital recorder.
We gathered in the conference room a few minutes later, shortly before Sophia brought back a man. He was human, and he sat down, looking around nervously. Sophia handed me his file and introduced him.
“This is Michael Caramite, and he has a problem with spirits in his house,” she said.
“Hello, please, relax. I’m Kyann Sarasan, and together with Dante Franco,” I motioned to Dante, “I own the Shadow Blade Investigations Agency. This is Orik Valhom, and over there, is Carson Dreyfus.” I glanced through the folder. “I see you were referred to us by Garland Wells?”
He nodded. “She’s a friend of mine. She said you were the best. And call me Mike, please.”
“That’s nice to hear.” Garland had been a client of ours for a couple of years. We’d helped the puma shifter find her long-lost twin sister. “Well, why don’t you tell us what your problem is? Do you mind if I record the meeting?” I held up the recorder.
“Not at all,” he said. “Well…Belinda—my wife—and I bought a new house about three months ago. We have three children. Two boys, seven and four, and a twelve-year-old daughter. The boys are Jules and Rupert. Our daughter’s name is Kinsey.”
“Where’s the house?” I glanced in the folder. “I see—on the Eastside? Redmond? In the Eleena neighborhood?” The Eleena neighborhood was one of the oldest districts in the city, and was located near the Redmond Watershed Preserve. It was also one of the most haunted areas on the Eastside.
“Right. We’re on Lakesmith Drive,” Mike said. “As I said, we moved in about three months ago, and until the past two weeks, everything was fine. It was on Thanksgiving when things began to happen.” He paused, staring at the table. “I didn’t believe it at first. I didn’t want to, I guess. It was too much on top of trying to fix up the house.”
“You’re renovating?” I asked. Hauntings often started due to renovations. It was as though disturbing the house disturbed the sleeping spirits.
“Yes, there are some changes we need to make. The house is an old fixer-upper. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to afford it.” He paused, then said, “It began on Thanksgiving day. The day before we had started tearing off wallpaper in the living room, and I took down a couple of the doors in the attic. We’re planning on thoroughly reconfiguring the attic into a family room. It’s partially finished, but no where near what we envision for it.”
He shifted in his chair, then continued. “Belinda had called us to dinner, and the kids were helping her put the meal on the table. I was in the living room, when I heard something. I turned around to see one of the silver candlesticks on the mantle float into the air and hang there. For a moment, I couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing, but then the candlestick shot toward me.”
“Did it hit you?” Sophia asked.
He shook his head. “I’ve got good reflexes, or it would have hit me in the head. I ducked to the side and it spun right past where I’d been standing and hit against the wall on the other side of the room. It was moving so fast that it left a dent.”
“You’re lucky you got out of the way,” Dante said. “What happened after that?”
“My wife asked me what the noise was, but I didn’t want to scare her. I told her I’d dropped something. Dinner proceeded without incident but after, while we were all in the living room watching a movie, the TV began to scramble, and we saw a bunch of shadow figures on the screen. It freaked out the kids, but I told them it must be crossed signals. Meanwhile, I kept thinking of the movie Poltergeist. The rest of the evening, everything seemed normal.”
“Was that it?” I asked.
“No,” Michael said. “The next day was quiet, but on Saturday—the day after Black Friday—when I went to start stripping the wallpaper off the walls, we began to hear heavy footsteps all around the house. At that point, my wife confessed that she walked into the kitchen that morning, every cabinet door and drawer had been open. She also said she had felt watched for over a week, as though something was trying to take control of her thoughts. Since then, we hear noises and footsteps, we see shadows on the walls where there shouldn’t be any. But the kicker was last night.”
The look on his face told me that whatever he was about to tell us, wasn’t good.
“At three AM, Belinda and I woke to Jules screaming. As we ran into his room—he shares a room with Rupert—Rupert started yelling. Both were in hysterics by the time we reached them. Jules held out his arm. Three bloody claw marks had ripped across his arm. I took a picture of them. We don’t have pets. Rupert loves his brother—he was asleep and woke up when Jules started screaming. Jules kept talking about the squid ghost .”
“ Squid ghost?” Sophia asked.
“They saw some creature—the one who scratched Jules—that looked like a squid. Neither Belinda nor I saw anything, but Rupert swears he saw it too. We grabbed the kids and headed to the hospital. Of course, the doctor checked for child abuse, but Rupert told them no, he’d seen something in the room—some creature. After they bandaged up Jules, the doctor suggested I talk to the police, in case some psycho had broken into our home. But we know it wasn’t any one human. I told Garland about it, and she suggested we talk to you.”
He settled back in his chair, a haunted look on his face. Fear rolled off him in waves. I could almost smell it. It was like a cold sweat, pungent and sharp. Wondering if this was a new part of my emerging powers showing itself, I filed it away to consider later.
I tapped the table with my pen. “Are you still staying in the house?”
“I am,” Michael said. “My wife and the kids are staying with her mother, who lives in Renton.”
“Has anything happened since then?” Dante asked.
The circles under his eyes darkened. “Every night. I hear steps, things move on their own, doors open and close. I woke up to find one of the kitchen knives by my side, in the bed. I didn’t put it there. And I dream, horrible nightmares filled with fire and flame. And in the nightmares, I’m facing a man who’s carrying an axe. And then, I see a rock and it’s covered with blood.” His voice fractured as he began to shake.
“Hey, it’s okay, you’re safe,” Dante said, leaning over to clap Michael on the arm. “This is a safe place.”
I leaned forward. “All right, we can come out tomorrow and check out the house. Then I can tell you whether I think we can help.”
“Would you? I miss my wife and kids, but it’s not safe for them to be there.” He pulled out his checkbook. “What do I owe you?”
“Why don’t you wait till we assess the situation. Then we can talk about a retainer.” I motioned to Sophia. “Set up an appointment for one PM tomorrow, if that will work for you, Michael?”
“One’s fine. I’ll meet you there.” He stared at the table. “I can tell you this: I’m terrified. We put all our money into this house. We can’t afford to move.”
“We’ll do what we can,” I said, standing. I shook his hand. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”
As Sophia showed him out to the front desk, I turned to Carson. “Research the place. Who lived there, has anything ever happened? The usual. Orik, can you make sure our equipment’s in good shape? Dante, see if you can find out anything that might match this octopus ghost .”
“I don’t recognize anything off the bat, but I’ll see what I can find out. So, you thinking poltergeist?” Dante stared at his notes.
“Not yet. But there’s something there. I could see it in his eyes…I could feel it. I smelled his fear.” I glanced at Dante, holding his gaze.
“That’s new.”
“Yeah, tell me about it. Anyway, let’s get busy. The more armed with knowledge, the better.”
As we headed back to our offices, I kept thinking about the ‘octopus ghost’…something about it felt terribly familiar, but for the life of me, I couldn’t put my finger on it.