The Awakening: A Sisterhood of Spirits Novel (26 page)

“Elderly man in a black top hat, showing me a name. Gerald? Jerry? No, Gerald. Yes? Thank you. He says it’s his hotel and he’s showing me a clock with the hands spinning round and round.” She looked at Jordan. “That’s my sign for the passing of a long time. Now I see a lot of people going in and out the front door with boxes and crates.”

“Several owners?” asked Jordan.

“Yes, exactly that. Very good.”

Jordan was ridiculously pleased with Sunny’s approving tone.

“The ball is over,” Tiffany said. “He’s sitting alone on the stairs with his face in his hands.”

Sunny picked up where Tiffany left off. “Gerald is tired, so very tired of watching his beloved hotel go to rot.”

“But they’re restoring it,” Jordan said. She tried not to cringe at how inane it seemed for her to try to reassure a ghost.

“There are men with tools running out the door.”

“You can see all that just by touching the wood?”

“Tiffany can see the past and pick up the energy left behind in the environment,” Sunny explained. “Everyone leaves an imprint, a physical trace of where they’ve been, and what they’ve experienced. The intensity of the emotions they felt during the situation is what determines how powerful the energy is that remains after they’re gone. That’s why Tiffany felt the party first. The larger the crowd, the stronger the imprint is in the area.”

That made sense. Now that she thought about it, Jordan could recall many times she’d been to a crime scene, and before she’d even seen what carnage had been left behind, or smelled the blood, the location
felt
different. She had always thought it was experience, a cop’s intuition.

A breeze lifted her hair a second before Sunny announced that Gerald had disappeared. Tiffany drew her hand back and swore.

“What?” Jordan asked.

“Do you feel how cold it’s getting?”

Her chest felt a little heavy, and Jordan was finding it difficult to catch her breath. Was it her imagination or did it get darker in the room? No, that’s stupid, she told herself. It was already dark. A loud screech rent the air. It appeared to be coming from nowhere, but echoing everywhere. She was instantly on the balls of her feet, ready. Ready for what, Jordan wasn’t sure, but she pulled Sunny behind her anyway. “Please tell me you heard that.”

“We heard it.”

“Thank God. Where is it coming from?”

“Basement.” Shade pushed away from the desk and headed for the door.

“Shit.” Jordan’s fledgling sense of fun and adventure flew right out the window. She had to grudgingly admit she admired the hell out of Shade’s bravery.

Sunny followed Shade, keeping ahead of Jordan even as she continually tried to walk in front of her. “Stop that!”

“Can’t help it. Habit, sorry.”
My job.

Shade stopped suddenly and Jordan ran into her.

“Not your job here, cop. Not to piss you off or anything, but it’s ours.”

“It’s really creepy, Lacey, how you read my mind.”

“Don’t call me that,” Shade said between clenched teeth.

“Quit it, you two,” Tiffany said. “You can have your pissing contest later. I just want to finish the job and go home, okay?”

Since Shade again took the lead, Jordan dropped to the rear and followed the group. “Eww,” Sunny said. “This stench wasn’t here earlier. Mark that.”

“What do you mean, mark that?” Jordan asked.

“For the report. When we listen to playback, we’ll add it to our findings for the owners.”

They reached the bottom of the staircase, and Jordan wondered what they were waiting for. Her muscles tensed with anticipation and adrenaline began pumping faster through her bloodstream until she thought she might scream.

Help!

“Disembodied voice heard,” Sunny said into the recorder. “Did you hear it?”

“Are you fucking kidding me? Of course I heard it.” Jordan heard it loud and clear but stood frozen in place. Two weeks ago, she wouldn’t have believed any of this or would have had rational explanations handy for it if she had. How the hell was she supposed to switch gears so quickly? Her stomach churned with the effort.

The women fanned in front of her, holding out various pieces of equipment and walking toward the voice. Jordan sure as hell didn’t want to be left behind. She forced her feet to move. She hated feeling scared and uncertain. It pissed her off and made her cranky. “Can’t we turn on the goddamn lights?”

Tiffany laughed. “I’m all for it. I hate the basements. We always do investigations in the dark. It’s usually when places are more paranormally active.”

Jordan tried to get used to looking through the viewfinder of the camera to see where she was going.

“Nasty man ahead.” Shade stopped.

“Where? I don’t see anyone.”

“You should be thankful. Half his head is blown away.”

Jordan swept the hall with the camera.

“Sunny, don’t even talk to him. He’s just a distraction; a sideshow to keep us from going in there. And, Tiffany? Don’t touch anything yet.”

“Does anyone else hear growling?”

“Ignore it. Scare tactics. Here. Put your camera down for a second.”

Jordan dropped her arm and stared into the dark. Ignore it? How did one ignore a rabid ghost? Was there some sort of trick to it she needed to learn? Shade rustled in her backpack and Jordan yelped when something sprayed in her face. She swung her fist, hitting only air when Shade jumped back.

“It’s just holy water.” Shade laughed.

“Again with the water in the face. What’s wrong with you?”

“Shade,” Sunny said. “You could have warned her.”

“I thought you guys weren’t religious.”

Sunny kept a gentle but restraining arm around her waist. “We’re not. But chances are”—she pointed down the hallway—“
they
are. It doesn’t matter what we believe. When we’re dealing with spirits, it matters what they believe will hurt them that’s important.”

Jordan’s head was swimming and water dripped from her face into her collar. “What if
they
don’t believe?”

“Then we have a problem.” Shade sprayed Sunny and Tiffany. “Ready?”

“No,” Jordan muttered but continued her pace at the rear of the line.

They entered the dark area and stopped. Sunny turned on her flashlight, shining it into corners and along the beams. Aside from broken drywall and a few stray boards, it was empty. A hallway lined with doors led to the right off the main room.

“This must have been the sitting room,” Tiffany said. “There’s a couple of those big stuffed chairs and a table over there.” She pointed to an empty corner. “There’s a large desk here. It’s very dreary, actually.”

“Tiffany. Take your hand off the wall, now.” Shade tried to stop her, but it was too late.

“But—oh.”

Jordan followed her voice with the camera and saw Tiffany bend over and start retching; Sunny came into the viewfinder as she hurried over to help.

“What is it?” Jordan asked.

“Murders,” Shade said grimly.

“I’m sorry. Did you just say murders, as in plural?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know?”

Shade looked at her, her eyes cold and empty through the little camera window. “I can see them.”

“Tiffany, honey, do you want to leave?” Sunny helped her take off the backpack and removed her own so she could sit with her. “We can go if you need to.”

“No, this is important.” Tiffany closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. “Let’s get on with it. And I’m going to want a really strong drink when this is over.”

Sunny was proud of Tiffany. She hadn’t always been able to face her fears. She felt some apprehension of her own but cut it off. She’d never had any problems with investigations or spirits attacking her until recently. She ground her teeth against the doubt and forced herself to let it go completely. “Shade?”

The metal click of a lighter sounded incredibly loud in the silence, but she welcomed the small light as Shade lit three white candles and settled across from them. “Jordan?”

“What are we doing?”

“Here, sit down, please. We’re going to attempt to find out what happened here.”

“What about the camera?”

“We have one in the corner over there that we set up earlier.” Sunny felt
other
tap the top of her head. “But you can still film from here if you like.”

Once Jordan settled next to her, Sunny welcomed the warmth of her legs alongside her own. “Once we start, keep still, okay?”

“All right.”

“And no screaming,” Shade said.

Jordan snorted. “As if. What are we going to do, solve a hundred-year-old massacre?”

Sunny heard the sarcasm in her voice but told herself it would take baby steps. At least Jordan hadn’t run or completely shut out the possibilities.

“Not old,” Tiffany said. “Recent. I can tell by the way they’re dressed.”

Jordan’s leg stiffened and Sunny knew that the answer poked at her cop’s instincts. Okay, she thought, time to go to work. “We know you’re here. Can you tell us why?” Silence thundered in her ears before she heard a faint murmuring. It was too low; she was finding it difficult to decipher what they were saying. “Something is holding them back, keeping them from talking to me.”

“Them?” Jordan twitched again.

Shade rested her hands on her knees and closed her eyes. Her features looked serene, but Sunny knew that inside, she was bracing herself to wrestle with whatever bad entity was here. It was her gift, the ability to physically interact on the spiritual plane. She would find and attempt to distract and hold back the entity that was interfering and blocking the other spirits from communicating with Sunny.

Sunny knew when Shade connected with the entity because the candlelight flickered, and shadows danced along the walls in the windowless room. She reached into her own bag for her lighter, just in case, and handed it to Jordan. “Light them again if they go out.” Jordan’s eyes were wide with surprise, but she looked more curious than truly afraid. Good.

Sunny felt a trace of the psychic barrier between them slip to the side, and a trace of Jordan’s emotions slipped out and over to Sunny. Her heart lightened. Having Jordan’s confidence and trust, rather than her fear and skepticism, would help tremendously.

“Got him,” Shade snarled. “Asshole.”

Three separate spirits, two female and one male, rushed forward, all talking very fast and bombarding Sunny with their stories. “One at a time.”

“Could you give us a sign for the recorders, please?” Tiffany asked. “How many are here with us?”

Three distinct knocks sounded from the wall behind Sunny. Jordan’s body jerked, but to her credit, she didn’t say anything. “Thank you. If you can, or want to, you can also talk to the red light in front of me.”

An image of a young girl began to take form behind her eyes. “Okay,” Sunny said. “She’s young. Sixteen, seventeen? Blond hair, blue eyes. Seventeen, she says. The letter
B
. Barbie? Really? Is that your given name? She’s nodding.”

“I see her now,” Tiffany said. “Blue shirt and short black skirt that she’s wearing with cowboy boots.”

“Hold it there. Two more are coming forward. One is a young man, and the other is jumping up and down, waving her arms in the air. It’s okay. We’re going to talk to all of you.”

“Three?” Jordan asked.

“Yes. And I hear the name Ray, very clearly. He’s indicating that he’s the same age as the girl next to him. Is that correct? And that they knew each other in life.” Sunny paused. “Tiffany?”

“He’s about five foot seven maybe, wearing ripped jeans and some kind of mesh tank top.”

“Christ!” Jordan said.

“What?”

“Something just poked me in the shoulder.”

There was an audible sigh from the center of the circle followed by a fierce growling. “Not today, prick,” Shade said. “You have no power here tonight.”

“Sunny? What’s going on?”

“Um, Jordan? I don’t want to scare you, but the third spirit is right next to you. She seems very excited to see you.”

Jordan’s head ached. There was something nagging at her, like she should be remembering something important. This whole night had been surreal, to say the least. Maybe she’d lost her mind after all and she’d be waking up in the hospital and finding that the last eighteen months had all been a dream or illusion while she was in a coma.

Sunny’s arm draped over her shoulders. No, thought Jordan, she wasn’t crazy. Sunny’s warmth surrounded her, and Jordan’s jitters let up slightly. What had Sunny just said to her? She laughed nervously. “I’m sorry. I thought I just heard you say that this ghost knows me.”

“I did.”

“Crap, it’s not my mother again, is it?”

“Nope.”

The hair on her body prickled, chilling her, and Jordan swallowed. If she could handle perps with guns, she could handle this paranormal shit, right? “Okay.” She winced when she heard her voice crack.

“Ready?” asked Sunny. “This girl says she knows you. She’s showing me the image of you in your uniform. She’s, uh, very attracted to you.”

“Excuse me?”

“She’s very attractive, but young. She’s jealous of me,” Sunny said. “And she says you had lousy taste in your previous relationships.”

“Who
is
it?” And how bizarre could this be, being chastised by a ghost?

“Okay, sorry. I’ll ask. Sometimes they don’t always answer. Oh no, no, honey, don’t cry. She saying she’s cold, so cold. She’s confused now. Could you help us with your name, sweetie?”

Sunny called to Shade. “She’s really scared. I can’t get a clear image of her, and she keeps fading in and out.”

Shade’s eyebrows drew together in concentration. “He’s snapping at me. He doesn’t want her to talk, especially her, because she’s the favorite.” She paused. “It’s okay. He’s not as strong as he thinks he is. I’m not even breaking a sweat over here.”

Footsteps shuffled along the cement corridor. Shade chuckled. “He’s thinking he’s going to distract me enough to let go.”

“What is Shade doing? What does she mean by that?”

Kill the fucking cop.
The voice that bellowed out of Shade’s throat was not her own. It was a deep, raucous sound that chilled her to the bone.