“Jensen…”
I had to get on with this. “It’s also a good idea for me to be in that house with Wendy and the other innocents, just in case that dark spirit decides to come around again before the cleaner arrives. I can protect them from what we brought over.”
She couldn’t argue with that part.
“Do you have salt in this car?” I asked.
She seemed to sense that I was going to do what I was going to do, no matter what. “I always carry some in my purse.”
“Good. Why don’t you sprinkle it around in your car to keep that dark spirit out of here in case it was writing that ‘You will pay’ note to you?”
“You’re right. Okay.”
I already knew that her house was protected. And that she knew how to at least temporarily shoo a spirit away. I felt good about the odds of her security. Honestly, she was the last person I was worried about with this dark spirit. My fears ran more to the Edgetts, the innocent ones in particular.
Amanda Lee was already in motion, opening the car door, her purse in hand. She dug into it for the salt and circled it at every opening of the car while I waited.
“You won’t be able to ride in here anytime soon,” she said.
“I’m more of a VW Bug sort of girl anyway.”
We looked at each other, and she still seemed ashamed. Maybe that was a good thing. Maybe she could start the rest of her life tonight.
As for me? I was continuing what I’d started.
“Drive safe,” I said, rising in the air.
“I still wish you wouldn’t go back.”
“No chance.” Not only was I without fear, but I was humming with anticipation.
She got back into the Mercedes, and from behind her closed window, she pressed her fingers to the glass in good-bye. I lifted my hand, imitating the shape of her hand on the window.
Then, with one last swipe to her eyes, she started the engine, pulling onto the quiet road while I flew up to the power lines. Just for a short time.
As soon as I could—maybe even too soon—I jammed out of there, up the road again, to the mansion. The first thing I noticed was that every light was shining through the windows, and someone had already boarded up the broken sitting room pane.
Was Constanza savvy enough to have blocked off the chimney, too, just until the house could be cleaned?
I traveled to the roof, braced myself on top of the chimney, then rolled down into it, expecting to be barricaded at any instant. When I wasn’t, I got a little jittery, like I’d had another can of predeath Mello Yello.
If I could get back in the house, then the dark spirit could be anywhere, too. But had it just used Amanda Lee’s portal to arrive in this dimension and it was gone now?
I found everyone in the kitchen, their backs to the cabinets as they sat on the marble-tiled floor. Farah and Noah were huddled side by side while Wendy and Constanza stayed near each other. Gavin, the lone wolf, was the only one left standing, his arms crossed over his thick chest as he leaned against a counter and looked out the window toward the pool.
My first instinct was to go to him, see if I could lure him away from the others so I could continue my haunting, but then I saw the salt on the floor. It was in a circle around them, on the tile, on the counter.
Of course, I thought. Even a rich household wouldn’t have an unlimited supply of salt, and they’d made do with what they had on hand until the cleaner arrived. She had obviously advised the Edgetts about what to do to safeguard themselves, just in case.
I also noticed that everyone but Gavin was holding either a cross or a crucifix, which was a fine idea, seeing as they might affect a dark spirit. But not me.
Still, I kept a good distance away so I wouldn’t alert them with my temperature.
“Do you see anything out there?” Farah asked Gavin. She was looking at her older brother like he was a commando who was there to guard them all. A protector. But he also seemed just as sleep-deprived as he had before, even worse now, actually, with red smudges under his eyes and a five o’clock shadow making him even rougher.
“I told you,” he said. “There’s nothing to worry about. You saw the spirit fly out the window as clearly as I did.”
“I didn’t like what it forced that psychic to write,” she whispered. “‘You will pay.’ What did that even mean?”
“It’s gone, and hopefully we’ll never know.”
As he spoke, Wendy was watching everyone’s faces, like she had no idea who these people were. And she probably didn’t. She was still the half-scared, half-spellbound teenage girl she’d been when the spirit had made its appearance, and she peered to the side of her, like she’d sensed that something had changed in the room.
Something like me.
I backed up a little while Gavin glanced at the watch on his wrist, then impatiently ran his fingers through his hair, cursing under his breath.
“This is ridiculous, Constanza. The spirit left. We don’t need to be surrounded by salt when there’s nothing to be afraid of anymore.”
Constanza shook her head. “Mr. Gavin, please. Make me happy by staying here. There is nothing more important for you to be doing.”
He smiled wryly. “How about sleeping? I could use some of that. I’m dying for my bed.”
“Just sleep on the floor here,” Wendy said.
“Wen.” His voice softened. “That mattress is a Vividus, and it’s all I want right now.”
When he started to step out of the salt circle, his family yelled at him.
Farah’s voice was the loudest out of everyone’s as she stood, darting toward him, catching his shirttail and pulling him back into the circle. “You’re the one who brought that séance to us. You owe us some peace of mind, so stay here.”
He slowly glanced down at her hand, which had landed on his waist. Farah backed off, head down.
I saw that, nearby, a black-beaded rosary with a crucifix attached was curled on the counter by a fruit basket. Gavin took hold of it and held it up.
“How’s this?” he asked. “I’ll take it with me, and nothing will be able to get to me. Then Constanza’s friend will come, and she’ll help us all.” He said that last part facetiously.
“She will help, Mr. Gavin,” Constanza said.
He lowered his head, then looked back up, an eyebrow raised. “You admitted that she only dabbles in the paranormal. She’s supposedly cleaned one haunted house before, and she’s more of an enthusiast than anything.”
“She will help.”
How perfect was this? I’d already seen how arrogance had been Amanda Lee’s downfall tonight, and Gavin was falling into the same trap by being an unbeliever. Right into my invisible hands.
“Mr. Gavin,” Constanza said, “your best protection is in the circle. Eileen said so.”
Eileen, the name of the inexperienced cleaner?
“If that thing comes back to get me,” he said, “I’ll haul myself back here in a hurry. I swear on my mattress.”
As he stepped out of the circle, everyone else got to their feet, even Noah.
Gavin smiled, and since he didn’t do smiles all that much, it caught me.
“I’m not scared,” he said, walking away from his family.
His words echoed in me.
As his family nervously watched him leave, I followed him down the brightly lit hall, to the foyer, up the stairs, to his room. He headed straight for his bed, the “Vividus,” he’d called it. It did look thick and comfy and puffy, and as he collapsed back onto it, spilling the crucifix by his side to the stark white bedspread, I almost wanted to crash with him.
I wouldn’t be able to feel any mattress, though. It was just memories of a good night’s sleep that seemed so appealing.