Chapter 19 #2
He put the bag of ice down on the coffee table. Since it seemed to be made of some kind of plastic, the droplets of condensation that had formed on the bag weren’t too big a deal.
“There’s something that’s been bothering me, though,” he said, and Delia couldn’t help smiling.
“Only one?”
“Well, it’s the biggest one.” He gave an experimental stretch of his shoulders, as if to gauge how his muscle soreness was healing, and then continued.
“I want to know how August Sellers — whatever his real name was — knew about your powers, Delia, and how they could help him with his ritual. It’s not the sort of thing that’s common knowledge, after all. ”
No, it wasn’t. Sure, people in the Las Vegas real estate community knew about her ghost-whispering talent, but absolutely no one other than the people sitting in this hotel suite had any idea that her gifts…powers, whatever you wanted to call them…had recently expanded far beyond talking to ghosts.
“I have no idea,” she said. “I haven’t told anyone anything.”
Pru had been watching Ty as he spoke, her expression half perplexed. It seemed obvious enough that she’d also noticed his accelerated healing, although it didn’t look as though she planned to comment on it.
“Don’t demons just…know stuff?” she asked.
“Not necessarily,” Caleb replied, even though Pru had directed the question at Ty. “It’s not as if they’re all linked psychically or anything close to it. In fact, most demons are all about chaos. They like causing trouble, but they’re not masterminds.”
“Except a few at the top,” Ty put in. “They’re capable of much higher-level thinking. So my best guess is that the demon calling himself August Sellers was in league with someone else even higher on the food chain, someone who must have been passing information along to him.”
None of that sounded very good. The last thing Delia wanted to believe was that there was a network of executive demons — for lack of a better word — who’d decided she was a target simply because she’d gone up a few steps of the psychic ladder over the past couple of months.
For some reason, she thought of the dream she’d had not long after the battle at the Desert Paradise casino, of the man with the cold blue eyes.
She’d mostly forgotten it since then…or, more to the point, done her best to put it out of her mind…
but now she wondered if he had something to do with this.
No, that was ridiculous. It had been a dream and nothing else.
All the same, she couldn’t quite stop herself from shivering, and at once Caleb sent her a concerned glance.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “It’s just the A/C is turned up really high in here, and I’m freezing in this dress.”
“Well,” Pru said as she set her laptop down on the coffee table, “I can help you with that. Good thing we’re the same size. I’ve got some new clothes in my room — let’s get you something a little more practical to wear.”
That sounded like a great idea. She was taller than Pru, so any pants would be a little short on her, but high-water pants were a small price to pay in exchange for getting out of this damn dress.
Although…was that a flicker of regret in Caleb’s eyes as she left the room to get changed?
Doubtful. It seemed more likely that he was annoyed they were wasting time on something as frivolous as a change of clothing when what they really needed to do was figure out how August Sellers had known she was a little more than your average Las Vegas real estate agent.
All the clothing Pru set out had tags from Kohl’s still on them.
“We weren’t expecting to stay overnight when we left Las Vegas,” Prudence said as Delia adjourned to the bathroom to climb out of the sequined gown August Sellers had made her wear. “And we also didn’t know how long we were going to be here, so I bought stuff for a couple of days.”
Thank God for that — and also thank God for the new underwear.
Delia supposed she could have stayed in the same panties if she had to, but it felt much better to pull on a new pair and a new bra, and then put the new clothes on top of everything.
The pants were capri style, so the length didn’t matter as much, and when she topped them with a sleeveless blouse that had some tonal embroidery on it, she felt almost human again.
True, everything was black, which Delia thought tended to wash her out, but she wasn’t going to worry about the palette of her new outfit when the important thing was that she had one at all.
Her hair was a mess, but she removed all the pins and shook it out as best she could, and she thought it would pass. Luckily, it was naturally straight, so there was a limit to how destroyed it could actually get.
When they returned to the living room, she saw that Aaron was already there, although he didn’t look terribly happy.
“She doesn’t think it’s safe to come back,” he said.
A perfectly natural response…but definitely not the one any of them had wanted to hear.
Ty’s mouth opened, but before he could speak, Caleb said, “Let me talk to her.”
Aaron’s brows lifted slightly, although he seemed to realize it was better if he didn’t try to refuse the request. “Okay. But I don’t think you’re going to get very far.”
“Let me be the judge of that.”
The other man shrugged, then handed over his iPhone. Caleb took it, the corners of his mouth lifting in a small smile.
“Hey, Eiza,” he said, sounding completely relaxed and not as if he’d just faced a high-level demon and closed a portal to Hell. “My name’s Caleb. I’m a friend of Aaron’s.”
“Friend” was probably a stretch, but since Aaron didn’t protest, everyone else remained silent as well.
“I just wanted to personally assure you that Laughlin is safe now,” Caleb went on.
“A couple of friends and I just took care of your family’s problem…
the same one that made you leave town in the first place.
We know your grandmother’s death wasn’t from natural causes, but the…
person…responsible is gone and won’t be coming back. ”
Another pause, longer this time. Delia wished she could hear what Aaron’s cousins was saying, but Caleb had probably decided that putting her on speaker would have been kind of rude, considering the strain she was under.
“I understand that,” Caleb said at length. “And I want to give you my personal promise that we’ll come back and help out at the first sign of trouble. There won’t be any, though.”
Eiza spoke again, and this time, Caleb smiled.
“Yes, I’m sure of it. And I’ll have Aaron give you our contact information so you know you can reach out at any time. Deal?”
He was silent, and then nodded.
“Perfect. Then I’ll let your cousin know you’ll be back in Laughlin tomorrow.” He ended the call there and the handed the phone back to Aaron. “Okay, we’re set. Eiza needs to pack up her things, but she said she should be here by tomorrow afternoon sometime.”
That seemed almost too easy. But then Delia thought she saw the quirk at the corner of Caleb’s mouth and guessed he might have sent a little demonic energy over the airwaves as he spoke to her, just enough to convince Eiza that everything was fine and that she needed to come home as soon as she could.
After all, the guy had always been there when Delia needed him…but his surprising dependability didn’t erase the fact that he was still a quarter demon.
“And that means you’re good to go, too,” Caleb told Aaron. “Although I suppose you won’t be able to sell the house now, since Eiza will need to live there.”
To Delia’s surprise, Aaron didn’t look as dismayed by this prospect as she might have thought.
“It’s okay,” he said. “While I was talking to my cousin, I had to put her on hold for a minute to take another call. The real estate agency in Bullhead City wants a second interview, so things are looking up on that front, too. If I get the job, I’ll be able to find something of my own either here in Laughlin or across the river, and I won’t have to worry about getting the commission on my grandmother’s house. ”
Thank God for that. As far as Delia was able to tell, they’d wrapped this whole thing up pretty neatly…
well, except for the part where they had no idea how August Sellers had even known he needed to lure her down here so he could use her powers to open the portal…
and now it seemed as if Aaron and his cousin might be able to get on with their lives.
“That’s great,” Caleb says. “It sounds like you have a lot you need to handle, so you should probably get started on that. We’ll let you know if we need anything else.”
“Um — ” Aaron began, but Caleb had already put his hand on the guy’s arm and was guiding him to the door and ushering him out into the hallway.
“Good luck with that second interview,” he said, then closed the door behind him. He flashed Delia a smile and added, “Thought he’d never leave. But now we can get down to the next order of business.”