Chapter 1
Chapter One
KIERAN
If anyone ever offers you a dream job, something that seems too good to be true, and the only catch is that the building is haunted, but don’t worry, the ghosts are all really friendly… run.
I mean it. Run fast and far and don’t look back. If you don’t, if you take the job, you’ll end up where I am now. My job is a dream come true, I love my colleagues, and I’m even fond of the damn ghosts.
So what’s the problem?
“Let me get this straight,” I say slowly, running my hand through my hair and resisting the urge to rip it out.
That won’t help anything. “The energy block you were maintaining on the vortex to the spirit world, the same vortex that we believe opened when a soul-eating demon was summoned here… that block failed?”
That’s the problem.
Hattie, the ghost in front of me, sighs. “It fell over.” She wrings her hands, looking eerily like my grandmother in her twinset and pearls. I can only see and speak to ghosts here at Mannix Estate, and even then only when they want me to see them, but it always shocks me how solid they look.
Even when what they’re saying is ridiculous.
“It fell over? How can something made of metaphysical energy fall over? And why wasn’t someone watching it? That’s why I furnished that damn room and put a TV in there.”
“Kieran,” Josh chides, and I take a deep breath.
There’s no benefit to yelling at Hattie.
She and the other ghosts spent decades ensuring we were safe from the vortex and the demon that used to be trapped in the basement.
I’m still a bit miffed that they took so long to mention it, but I get why. Kind of.
“Okay. Sorry. What does this mean?” I ask them. Josh is the closest thing we have to an expert, and the ghosts are the ones who created the energy block in the first place.
They exchange a helpless glance. “We don’t know,” Hattie says. “Maisie was on duty, but she came out of the room when those guests started screaming. It was only for a minute or so, but we all felt it when the block fell over and went to look right away.”
I guess I can’t blame Maisie for wanting to watch the spontaneous brawl that broke out when one of our guests realized her husband was sleeping with her best friend, and then her best friend’s husband tried to strangle her husband.
God knows everyone within earshot came to see, and I can only be thankful it’s late afternoon on a Tuesday and we don’t have that many tourists here right now.
By the time we got everyone separated and the police came, it didn’t even occur to me to wonder where the ghosts had all disappeared to.
“But how did it fall over?” I persist, trying to understand. “It’s energy, isn’t it? Shouldn’t it just… come apart?”
“Is that really important?” Josh asks incredulously. “That’s what you want to focus on right now?”
Sighing, I lift my hand to run it through my hair again, then force myself to stop.
It’s a nervous habit that’s relatively harmless, but it leaves me looking like a hedgehog.
Or someone who’s been dragged through a hedge backward.
Either way, the word “hedge” is involved, and it’s not a professional look.
“Never mind,” I agree. “So the block is back up?” I look at Josh. “You went and checked it out? Not that I don’t trust you all,” I hasten to assure Hattie, bracing for a tongue-lashing.
To my surprise, she just smiles weakly.
“I checked it out,” Josh assures me, “and it’s back up, just as solid as before. But…”
Oh, no.
“But? No. Please, no buts.” Buts are never good. Well, not in this context. Butts, on the other hand, are excellent. Big fan.
Josh grimaces. “Sorry, Kier, we have to tell you. We think something came through the vortex.”
I actually feel the blood rush out of my face.
My head spins, and I look around wildly.
“Not another demon?” It’s been four months since Josh successfully banished the soul-eater, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s nowhere near long enough.
A lifetime would be nowhere near long enough.
Oh my god, there’s a school group coming tomorrow.
We absolutely cannot have a demon loose on the estate with elementary school kids!
“We don’t know for sure, but I doubt it,” Josh rushes to assure me. “It doesn’t feel wrong like the demon did.”
“You can feel it? Sense it? Where is it? Grab some quartz.” Tuesday means not that many people are on site, but I’m still not letting this thing just hang around.
“It crossed a quartz line to get out of the Garden Suite,” he reminds me. “Could you just listen for a sec? I promise you, I want to find it as much as you do.”
I take a deep breath and make myself calm down.
Josh is solid. He’s the one the ghosts confided in about the demon and the vortex, he’s the one who found a way to banish the demon, and he’s the one who did the banishing.
He’s also the only person here who can see ghosts even when they don’t want to be seen.
I trust him to do the right thing, so that means I have to listen right now.
Even if what I want to be doing is pouring salt and quartz over every inch of the property.
“Okay. Sorry. Go ahead.” I nod, and Josh eyes me cautiously.
“We don’t know exactly where it is or what it is,” he begins. “But it doesn’t feel dark or wrong. You remember how the demon felt that day in the basement?”
“Yeah,” I manage, trying not to think about it. I’ve never been so scared in my life. It was like the worst nightmare I’ve ever had times a thousand, so terrifying and smothering, I thought I’d choke on the evil of it.
“This is nothing like that,” he promises. “I can tell something’s here, it feels different, but it’s not bad. And it crossed the quartz and salt line, which the demon couldn’t do. So the good news is, we don’t think it’s going to hurt anyone.”
“And the bad news? Aside from not knowing what or where it is?”
He winces. “It crossed the quartz and salt line. So… not sure how we can contain it or get rid of it.”
I close my eyes. Great. An unknown entity from another realm is wandering around the estate I’m responsible for, and we can’t identify it, locate it, or remove it. We also don’t know what it can do.
I’m pretty sure our insurance doesn’t cover this.
“Okay,” I whimper, then clear my throat. “Okay. Let’s concentrate on finding it first. We can worry about the rest after that.” There, that sounds appropriately leader-y, right?
“Good plan,” Josh confirms, seeming to relax. “The other ghosts are already looking. We hope—”
“Uh, guys?”
There’s a shaky quality to Skye’s voice that makes me wish I hadn’t decided against taking a vacation this month. I thought it would be better to wait until early November, which is always a quiet time for us, but clearly I was wrong.
We turn to look at Skye standing in the doorway. He’s pale, his eyes seeming to take up half his face, and not even his unicorn hair can lighten his expression.
“Did you find it?” I ask. I’m not even sure if he knows there’s something to find, but Skye’s hard to shake. For him to look like this, something bad has to have happened.
“Kind of,” he whispers. “What is it?”
“We’re not sure,” Josh says, frowning as he moves toward Skye. “Did it hurt you? Where is it?”
With a suddenness that makes Hattie gasp and Josh yelp, Skye’s eyes change color to a deep ruby red, and he says, in a voice that’s definitely not his, “I’m right here.”
Fuck my life.
“Okay, let’s just breathe,” I say, kneeling beside the chair we steered Skye into.
His eyes are back to their usual blue-gray, and that weird, almost British-sounding androgynous voice is gone.
“Does anything hurt? How do you feel?” Two feet away, Josh is calling Ewan, his boyfriend and our blacksmithing expert, while keeping his slightly wild-eyed gaze on Skye. Hattie’s gone to get the other ghosts.
“Well, Kieran,” Skye says in that same shaky voice that worried me before, “I’m kinda fucking freaked out!”
“Then you’re taking this a lot better than I would,” I assure him, trying to channel calm authority. “Are you injured? Did it hurt you?”
He sucks in a breath and shakes his head. “A bit of a headache is all. And the massively creepy feeling of having something in my body with me, using my voice whenever it wants.”
I get up and grab my half-empty mug from my desk. “Coffee,” I offer. It’s all I’ve got here in the office, but even if I had something stronger, I’m not sure alcohol would be a good idea.
Skye seizes the mug and gulps down what’s left as all six ghosts pop into being around the room. Before any of them can speak, Skye lowers the mug and his eyes change color again. He pulls a face, and that voice says, “I don’t like that.”
“Get out of him now,” I snarl, and Josh drops his phone and lunges forward with a chunk of quartz in his hand. We already tried touching Skye with the quartz, but that was when he was himself. Josh’s theory is that the creature might need to be in control for the purifying stone to have an effect.
It doesn’t.
Those red eyes watch us curiously as Josh presses the quartz to Skye’s hand, then his cheek. “What are you doing?”
“Get out of him,” I repeat, helplessness overtaking me. I want to shake it out, smack it, but I won’t hurt Skye. This is his body. Whatever we do can’t hurt him at all.
“What are you?” Joe demands furiously. “Leave our people alone!” He’s always been a grumpy old-man ghost, but I’ve never heard this level of anger from him before.
“I’m not hurting him,” the creature, whatever it is, says.
“We don’t believe you.” Carter takes a threatening step forward, but Josh puts an arm out to stop him.
“It’s still Skye,” he cautions.
There’s a commotion outside the office, the sound of booted feet running, and seconds later, Ewan and Daniel burst in.
“What—” It takes only a second for them to see the red eyes and curiously detached expression on Skye’s face, and the sound Daniel makes is terrifying.
The creature must agree, because in the next instant, Skye’s eyes are back to normal. He gasps and slumps, the mug falling from his hand and thudding harmlessly on the rug.
“Fuck, I wish it would stop doing that,” he wheezes.
“What the fuck is going on?” Ewan asks as Daniel goes to kneel beside Skye, laying a hand on his arm.
The heavy scarring from our encounter with the demon stands out angrily, belying his gentle touch, and I send up a silent prayer to whatever god might be listening that the thing in Skye right now won’t cause any harm.
“Something came through the vortex, and it seems to have possessed Skye,” Josh says helplessly.
“Are you okay?” Daniel asks, running his hands up Skye’s arms as if checking for injuries.
“Headache,” he mutters. “And scared.”
Daniel looks over his shoulder at us, then back at Skye. “Want some Advil or something?”
The suggestion is enough to kickstart my brain.
“Let’s go into the parlor, where we can be comfortable.
Josh, will you get Skye a painkiller and some water?
And something to eat. Chocolate or something.
” Sugar is supposed to be good when you’ve had a shock, right?
“Ewan, Daniel, can you help Skye?” He looks completely exhausted.
“The parlor?” Ewan asks as Josh hurries out. “We don’t have any guests?”
“No, the cheating brawlers were it, and they’ve left.”
“Been arrested,” Johnny murmurs, his electric blue mohawk not moving as he shakes his head. “Wicked cool.” We all look at him, and he shrugs. “What? I ain’t never seen someone try to punch a cop.”
“We have other things to concern us now,” Freddie declares. “Don’t worry, Skye, we’re here.”
Skye musters a weary smile. I really don’t like how pale he is. “Great. Thanks, Freddie.” He looks at me. “I sent Arissa and the kitchen staff home, and the housekeepers and guides left two hours ago. It’s just us.”
That’s a relief. So far, only the senior staff knows anything about the demon or the vortex, and I’d rather keep it that way. Still… “Don’t worry about that. Just relax. We’re going to figure this out.” Somehow.
Without further comment, Ewan, who’s got muscles on his muscles, bends down beside Skye. “Put your arms around my neck,” he says, then scoops him up. “Let’s go. Someone get the door.”
“I could get used to this,” Skye muses, “if it didn’t mean having an invader in my brain.”