Page 96 of Spark
“Ready to go?” asked Silvio.
Laura nodded. “As long as I can stay with you.”
“Forever,” he promised. His words were followed by a burst of blinding white light, like a star going supernova.
Sophie and her two mates recoiled and looked away.
When the brilliance faded, the hotel room felt utterly ordinary. The sense of being watched was gone, along with the odd chill that had once hung in the air.
“We did it!” Sophie exclaimed, hardly able to believe it herself.
“Didwhat?” an all-too-familiar raspy voice demanded.
Sophie, Chris, and Matt all jumped guiltily before whirling to face Eddy. He stood in the room’s doorway, looking pissed off.
“What the hell is going on here?” Eddy demanded. “Didn’t I tell you that I didn’t want you poking around with your ghost nonsense? And what was that light just now?”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ashort time later, Sophie found herself in Eddy Ornelas’ office, sitting in one of the leather guests' chairs that faced his desk.
Matt and Chris loomed behind her like Secret Service agents, offering silent support.
“I can’t believe that my own family turned against me like this,” Eddy complained in his rasping voice.
Esperanza, who was standing in front of an antique Victorian bookcase, put her hands on her ample hips and glared at him. “Eduardo, we had to dosomethingbecause you wouldn’t lift a finger to solve this problem!”
“That’s because there are no such things as ghosts!” Eddy retorted.
Sophie thought he sounded a little less sure of himself.
“Maybe not,” Matt said in his usual calm voice, “but I’m betting that no more employees will be quitting because they’re freaked out about hearing voices or seeing things they can’t explain.”
“Or being clobbered by flying dishes and saucepans in the kitchen,” added Chris.
Eddy crossed his arms and looked belligerently around the room. His gaze slid by Caitlyn, who sat in the other guest chair. She had showed up at the resort shortly after Sophie texted her in a panic.
He glared at Sophie.
“And I thought I toldyouto stop poking around that room,” he growled.
Sophie swallowed hard as she saw flecks of shifter gold drift across his hard, dark brown eyes. She sensed both Matt and Chris come alert behind her. An instant later, a pair of warm hands settled on her shoulders, protective and reassuring at the same time.
She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could defend herself, Caitlyn interrupted in a brisk tone, “Eddy, what exactly is the issue here? You could be making a mint by advertising the haunting on your website!”
He growled.
Looking unintimidated, Caitlyn held out her tablet. “Look—here’s a list of recent articles from major financial publications and the hospitality industry. There’s a whole segment of the tourism market geared towards paranormal experiences."
"You don't say." His expression was deeply skeptical as he took the tablet from her.
Unfazed, Catilyn continued. "There are dozens of hotels making money by highlighting historic events—the bloodier the better—in their PR materials, offering ghost tour packages, and even arranging for their properties to be featured on TV shows likeAfter Dark with Alina Soliterman.”
Eddy didn’t look convinced. “What, you want me to air the wolf shifters’ dirty laundry? When the rest of the world doesn’t believe our kind exists?”
“Who said anything about shifters?” Caitlyn retorted. “Look, I could help you with your PR. My publisher just offered me another contract, and a story about a haunting stemming from the murder and suicide of a tragic newlywed couple would be perfect for my new book. I could easily spin it as a non-shifter Romeo and Juliet story between two feuding families in a small town. Putthatversion of events on your resort’s website and in your brochures, and you could be making a mint by publicizing your haunting, especially during the off-season.”
“And now that Laura’s ghost has departed, there won’t be any danger to anyone who decides to visit,” Sophie added.
