Chapter Eighteen #4
“Here,” he said, taking his pentacle off, the one Raven had protected. “Trust me and put this on. Don’t take it off until we tell you it's safe.”
He stared at the necklace.
“Uh, I’m not…”
They didn’t care.
“Again, this person is killing people who end up with those pentacles near them. More were dropped on your porch. Do you really want to die?”
He didn’t.
He’d found a reason to go on, and ironically, it was this man’s sister. Seeing Lianna made him…happy.
“Okay,” he said, taking it. “Thank you.”
Julian just nodded.
He’d like to say he didn’t have ulterior motives, but he did. Lianna was attracted to him, and Julian wanted her to have a chance at happiness.
Without another word, both Tori and Julian nodded before leaving him to mull over the knowledge that this killer had opted to use him, and that his parents were haunting his house.
“His life will never be the same again,” Julian said to his wife as they walked off the porch and through the throngs of dead in the yard.
Yeah, likely not.
“I hope this didn’t just screw it up for Lianna. She likes him,” he stated.
Tori figured that was why he’d given him some protection. If anything, she knew her husband.
That being said...
“We can’t stop fate from happening. If it’s meant to be, it’ll be,” she admitted.
Julian had a good vibe about the man.
Hopefully, he’d not drop the ball.
For Lianna’s sake.
Well, that and if he hurt the woman, Connor, and her other brothers, would be taking another little trip.
To punch this dude in the face.
* * * L I T T L E M O O N * * *
The Office
Same Time
Saturday
Late Morning
Oh, well, the people out in the field wanted a location on Thomas Vanderbilt the third, so Raven and Booth were going to get them one.
That was the mission.
Since the static had been dangerous, and just an exploratory mission for Genesis, none of the three came out with any information.
That meant the witches were up to bat.
After getting some energy back, after that sudden drain that Raven had felt, it was time to get down to business.
While scrying was a good way to get information, it wasn’t the way Raven did his spell work.
This was all Booth.
He was the master scryer in their coven. Every witch had a preferred way to contact the spirits, and use magick to make shit happen. This just happened to be his.
If you lost something, he could find it.
If you needed an answer that involved a location, Booth could pinpoint it on a map.
This was his jam, and Raven was just the spotter on this.
Why?
Because they ABSOLUTELY were doing this in a circle. As of late, Raven insisted on everything being done in one and for one major reason.
This darkness was dangerous, and they couldn’t ensure safety outside of one.
So, they prepped the area, and while Avalon, and Genesis watched from nearby, they were going in.
They sat knee-to-knee, and on their laps, there was a mirror. Above it, Booth held a gorgeous crystal on a chain. It swung back and forth, as he stared into the mirror.
“Shouldn’t there be a map?” Josh whispered, talking to Nate as he sat on one of the couches.
The man shook his head.
“You got me,” he stated. “I’m married to a whole different kind of psychic.”
Yeah, Josh was learning that.
As Booth sat there, staring into the mirror, and dangling the crystal over the top of it, Raven had his hand on the man’s knee.
“Where is he?” he asked. “Goddess, show me Thomas Vanderbilt the third.”
Everyone was mesmerized as the pendulum swung, and then suddenly, it came to a complete stop as if something was pulling it down from where it hung.
Then, it moved so it was horizontal, and pointing at the one side of the room.
“Uh, he’s outside the door?” Josh asked.
Raven didn’t have to look.
“West. That direction is West,” he offered, as he held the circle open for Booth as he communicated with the spirits through the mirror.
When the crystal returned to pointing down, Booth focused on the things he was seeing.
“I see something coming into focus,” he said, as he tried to clean up the image he was seeing in the mirror.
Everyone waited on bated breath.
If this was Thomas Vanderbilt, they needed to know where he was.
SOON.
If they wanted to save one more person, and stop this, they needed to see if he was involved.
“I see it.”
Raven was curious.
“What is it?”
Like he was falling toward it, getting closer, it came into focus.
“I see the Hollywood sign in the hills. He’s in California,” he stated.
When he looked up, the disappointment was real.
“He’s not here.”
Well, shit.
That sucked.
From where he sat, Nate sighed.
“If he’s out there, he can’t be killing here. Wouldn’t he have to be close by?”
Avalon explained.
“He could do it from across the country, but he’d want to see them suffer. This person had to plant that pentacle on Wynter. There’s no way he got from here to there that quickly.”
They agreed there.
Nate picked up a laptop, and he began researching to see what he could find anything online.
It didn’t take him long.
“Thomas Vanderbilt was seen at a Hollywood premier party last night at nine,” he stated. “It’s in the tabloids. He definitely couldn’t be here and then there. It won’t be him.”
Well, shit.
Booth considered what other options there could be.
“What about the rest of the family?” he asked. “What about them? Are there any here?”
Nate searched and shook his head.
“Apparently, the family home is closed down in the spring and only opened when Thomas is around. His parents are dead, and there are no other siblings.”
Well, shit.
The cop in him made him keep pushing.
“How about other family?” Booth asked. “You know, relatives.”
As soon as he did, the crystal was torn from his hand, and flew across the room, embedding in the wall.
Oh, and in a framed artwork that Lennox had done for the office.
Of Salem.
“Well, shit,” Genesis said. “That was…alarming.”
Yeah, she was preaching to the choir.
“Uh, that’s never happened before,” Booth admitted. “Ever. I don’t know what that means.”
Unfortunately, none of them did.
“Maybe that this person is here in Salem, and not California?” Genesis suggested, throwing out ideas to help them out. “We had been discussing that.”
Maybe.
Nate continued reading from the laptop, so that they were all on the same page.
“Thomas throws a Halloween Vampire ball,” he stated. “It’s on Halloween night, every year, so he must be back for that. Anyone find it odd we have a psychic vampire and a man who seems to be cosplaying as one on Halloween?”
Odd?
In Salem?
No.
This was the origin of weird, apparently.
As he was digging around on the internet, Nate found something.
“Apparently, Thomas Vanderbilt the second had another daughter, Stephanie, but she died years ago. She was the only other heir to the Vanderbilt money.”
Josh was curious.
“Any children?” he asked.
Nate was looking, but he couldn’t find anything.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “This was decades ago. If there were, we might be looking at something just not updated on the internet.”
That was a problem.
“We could go to the library because they keep microfilm there. I know it’s not always updated,” Booth offered.
While they all loved a trip to the library, no one was willing to risk that.
They were safer here.
Not.
There.
“We’re staying in this office. I can’t protect that building too,” he admitted.
Josh considered what they had.
“I think it’s safe to say it’s not Thomas Vanderbilt then, just based on geography.”
Avalon was to the point.
“I can’t get close enough to see who it is,” she admitted. “Each time we’re in the static, it’s like a beacon drawing it to us. This person is angry and wants to do damage.”
That was a problem for all of them.
“May I suggest you stay out of the static?” Nate offered. “You know, asking for two concerned husbands,” he said, pointing at himself and Josh.
Her laughter filled the room.
“I’m well aware, Nathaniel. Concerned is your middle name.”
Oh, he was well aware.
As he kept searching, he found something else. It appeared that some information was out there. It just had to be dug up.
“Oh, wait!”
They all looked over.
“I found Stephanie, the dead Vanderbilt. Well, I didn’t find her, but I found a marriage license. She married a man by the name of Kennedy Sinclair.”
That was interesting.
“Have we crossed paths with anyone named Sinclair?” Booth asked.
None of them could recall that name. Granted, Tori, Julian, or the detectives would be the best ones to ask.
Genesis was thinking about that name.
Why did it sound familiar?
Back home…
Only, before she could say anything, Nate had found something else.
Little by little, tiny details were turning up on the internet, and that might be what helped them.
“She was stabbed to death, and get this,” he said. “Someone stuck her forty times.”
Hearing that, Booth whistled.
“That’s anger. That’s not just a break-in. That’s someone hates your guts.”
Yes, yes, it was.
“Someone who was pretty pissed had to have wanted to do maximum damage, because after the stabbing, the house was burned down.”
Nate shook his head.
“I wish finding information was easier. This is going to take some time.”
Avalon knew that they needed to be patient, but dealing with a bunch of cops, and ex-cops, was not easy when they wanted answers, immediately.
“I suggest we keep looking, and when we go back into the static later, we see if we can get some answers.”
Yeah, and that worried the two witches, and the two husbands.
This was getting more dangerous.
And that was a problem.
For all of them.
* * * L I T T L E M O O N * * *
Back At The Office
Minutes Later
When they pulled up, Bishop placed her hand on Lucian’s arm, getting his attention.
“We’ll tell him, and then I have to go. I just got a text from Honor. We’re meeting in the square. She wants to update me regarding what they found.”
He understood.
“I can do this alone.”
That was the last thing she wanted.