Page 25 of Shadow Scorching

Lazenti let out a low whistle. “Looking good, woman,” he said. It was obvious who he was talking to. Both he and Carson had a crush on Penn, but Penn wasn’t the monogamous type.

“Thanks,” she said, then waved at the rest of us.

I glanced over at Carson, who glared at Lazenti, but said nothing. For his sake, I hoped he found someone else to occupy his interest. Penn would break his heart, without meaning to.

“Okay, let’s get moving,” I said, breaking up the wannabe-love fest. “What’s happening, Orik?”

Penn straightened, staring at me. “What happened to your arm?”

“Ghost impaled me with a piece of glass,” I said.

“Well, that’s not good.”

But Orik was ready and so he turned on the recordings coming from the Caramite house. “Here we go,” he said. “I’ve got recordings from when we first set up the cameras, but let’s start watching what’s going on now.”

The cameras came online. We could see every room on the six-screen viewer. The living room, kitchen and two of the bedrooms were quiet, but the bedroom belonging to Jules, and the attic both spun out of control. Jules’ room was a maelstrom of flying toys, only instead of cute little stuffed animals, toy solders were fighting each other, a Jack-in-the-box was popping open repeatedly as maniacal laughter fill the room, and a toy dinosaur chased a stuffed rabbit around the room in a dizzying race.

“I don’t think those toys are inviting anybody to come play,” I said, grimacing. “I can’t imagine having a kid in there at this point.”

“They’d attack and try to kill it,” Penn said. She and Lazenti could see everything we could, thanks to the remote viewer. “The energy coming off that room is freaking scary as hell.”

“Can you tell—” I stopped as something began to happen in the attic.

A mist was forming, condensing into a form that rose up like a massive figure. It coalesced into a large, lovely looking woman, standing there in a gossamer dress. But the next moment, she turned to camera and leaned forward, then screamed. As she let out a banshee yowl, her face turned from delicate beauty into a decaying skull, with white-hot rage filling the eye sockets.

“Yikes!” Sophia jumped, then calmed herself again.

I leaned back against my chair, grateful I wasn’t there in person. “What the hell was that?”

Penn was silent for a moment, then she said, “I might know. I’m not positive, but I think that was a revenant.”

“What’s a revenant?” Carson asked.

Penn paled. “A nasty entity. It begins as the ghost of a person who died an untimely, brutal death. They died before their time, and hold a deep grudge against the living. But over the years, it increases in power and loses more of its humanity. The spirit begins to bind other spirits to it and absorbs them. Revenants can affect the living, and if they’re strong enough, they can kill someone. They feed on life force—on fear, mostly. It sustains them. As long as they can scare enough people, they’ll continue to live in this half-life state. Think of the Thing, only in spirit form.”

“How often do they need to feed?” I asked.

“The strongest ones can exist without feeding for years, because they’ve drained enough entities and living creatures to sustain them. They long to be among the living again. That longing turns to jealousy and hatred. Even if they started out as wonderful people before their death, they harbor so much resentment and jealousy toward the living that they no longer resemble any aspect of who the core spirit was in life.”

I thought about what she said for a moment. “Let us tell you what we found about the history of the place—Carson, would you brief her on it?”

Carson ran down the string of murders, deaths, and the history of the Bleeding Rock.

“Let me put myself on mute for a moment. I want to look up something.” Penn hit mute and turned off her camera.

“Well, it’s nice to have someone who has a better grasp of the way these things work,” Carson said.

I nodded. “Penn’s a goldmine of information. I’m putting her on retainer, by the way. She can use the extra money and we can use her expertise.”

“She certainly knows her stuff,” Lazenti said.

When she returned, Penn had a large book in hand. She pointed to one of the entries. “If there’sanychance that the shifter pack created a portal for Xetanbu, then we have to close it, or this creature will continue to return.”

“How can we know if they did that?” Dante asked.

“I’m not certain. Let me a do a little more research into the subject. Meanwhile, send me everything you have on the history of the house. I need to know exactly what we’re going into here, before I try anything magical against it.”

“Sure. What do you suggest we do in the meantime?” I asked.

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