Page 35 of Shadows of the Soul

At least someone did.

Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Early morning calls.

If White Castle was the epicenter of the Supernatural elite, then Summer Grove House had unwittingly become the unofficial headquarters. Six months ago, my home was a blip on the map frequented by the Vampire Prince of North America only because he was my best friend. Ghosts came and went quickly as they moved on, and I was a small town doctor with a speciality in the deceased. Today, the Principal—leader of the shapeshifters—lived next door, my vampire bestie was here more often than not, and I had a ghost in residence that refused to move on to his afterlife. Meanwhile, my previously absent grandmother was now sniffing around my life and attempting to direct it in order to further her political power. To top it off, Lucifer had come topside to force me to let him into Heaven. I had no delusions. I hadn’t come out of that confrontation unscathed by chance. Lucifer had let me walk. Why was the pertinent question. And was everything—the roses, the wildies, Lucifer’s presence —connected? Holy shit.

I shot up from my bed, threw my dressing gown on and zoomed down the stairs. The house was quiet. Where the hell was everyone when I was having an epiphany? I glanced out the window. The moon hung high in the sky and cast a gloomy glow over my lawn. The clock chimed a cheery tune and then bonged, once, twice, three times. Right, everyone was asleep, silly me. Even the dead disappeared at this time of night. Where to, I didn’t know, but Harry was regularly absent when my insomniac ass was whizzing around the house like a kid hyped on sugar. Ooh, cookies. Maggie baked oatmeal and chocolate chip. My feet moved toward the kitchen. I caught myself half way and cursed. I needed to speak to someone who could tell me I was putting together two and two and coming up with five. I needed reassurance. I needed Hudson. I was out the door and halfway across the lawn when I felt it.

An insidious entity was creeping along the border of my home, testing the wards, feeling out weak points. It was weighing up the consequences of breaching the barrier.

I stepped on something sharp and hissed as it sliced open the sensitive sole on my foot. The roses, having extended beyond the graveyard, were now covering my front lawn. Something was feeding them, something with power. I continued my trek to the stables, my bloodied sole seeping into the ground. The network of vines shimmered with magic as they devoured the power in my blood. That wasn’t good. I picked up speed, jogging the final few yards before hammering my fist on Hudson’s door. The hairs on my nape stood to attention, sending a shiver of awareness down my spine. I glanced over my shoulder. The boy was back. His mouth was moving, shouts and screams falling silent in the night air. He was terrified, but he’d been silenced. My guess would be he’d been magically bound as they murdered him so no one would hear his pleas for mercy. There was something perverse about not allowing someone to vocalize their dying thoughts. He flickered out of sight, then back, but closer. His arm reached out toward me as he clutched his neck and blood poured through his fingers and onto his face, again defying gravity.

I edged back and leaned my back against the door, trying to create the biggest distance between me and the boy. He flickered out again, then was off the lawn and on the gravel leading up to the stables. My heart thudded in my chest in a crazy rhythm. Few things supernatural scared me, but right now, facing the spirit of an unknown child who’d been murdered in a grizzly manner, I was terrified. Something wasn’t right, it didn’t feel right, it felt unnatural—and death was natural. Even when someone met a violent sudden end, the death was genuine. It still involved the soul leaving the body and starting anew in whichever afterlife awaited them. Their bodies broke down and once more became part of the natural order. But this was wrong. I could feel it in my bones.

The boy drew closer. I tried to meld with the door. Perhaps Hudson was still at the pack? I glanced at the main house. At a sprint, it would take me less than thirty seconds to get back. With bloodied feet and a thorny landscape, I’d be lucky to make it in a minute. I contemplated screaming. Rebecca would hear me and come darting out the same way I had, resulting in her feet being torn to shreds.

He inched closer, so close I could see the popped blood vessels in the boy’s eyes. What had they done to this poor boy?

The solid wall at my back gave out, and I fell backward. I flailed my arms, trying to maintain balance. Strong arms caught me and I stared up into Hudson’s warm hazel eyes. He grinned at me. “Falling for me?”

I glanced out the door, finding the boy almost upon us. “Shut the door,” I yelled.

Hudson’s head snapped to the outside. Then with the hand he wasn’t busy using to hold me up like a swooning fairy princess, he slammed it closed. Something hammered against the wood. He grasped me and moved backward, taking us deeper into the house.

“It can’t get in,” I muttered. “The extra wards around my house are also set around the stables.”

Up to a few months ago, any damn spirit could enter, so long as it wasn’t malevolent. But I’d updated the wards, allowing only those I invited into my home. The boy got in the first time because my magic invited him to reveal himself. But he wouldn’t be getting in again. The shutters on the windows banged like we were in the grip of a storm. Wind howled like a raging beast circling the building.

“You sure about that?” Hudson growled. If he’d been in cat form, his hackles would have been up. Something smashed in the kitchen. We dashed in there, finding the glass from the door in pieces on the floor.

“Pretty sure.” I bit my lip. “Unless…”

“Cora?”

“Unless it’s not a ghost in the traditional sense,” I murmured. “But then it wouldn’t have gotten past my first wards. Only those whose bodies are on my property can breach that, or those I invite.”

“You sure you don’t have the body of a young boy tucked away somewhere?” Hudson grabbed a tablecloth and swept the glass on the floor to one side.

I blinked in surprise. “How did you know it was a boy?”

“I saw him.”

My lips pressed together. This was bad, so very, very bad. If the spirit was breaking through so that people who normally couldn’t see them suddenly could, it meant the magic was strong, that the purpose was malevolent, and it would be damn hard to stop whatever was coming for us. The wind ceased, the world seemed to right itself and the crickets chirped outside once more alongside the early wakening birds.

“Did you stand on the glass?” Hudson said, coming to stand in front of me.

I glanced down. Blood pooled from under my feet onto the white tiles.

“No, it was the vines outside.”

“What possessed you to come running over at three a.m. barefooted and scantily dressed?”

I drew my gaping dressing gown across my body and tightened the belt. “I needed someone to talk to.”

His eyes softened as he swept me up bridal-style and strode toward the master bedroom. “What are you doing? This is no time for kinky fuckery.”

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