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As the meeting got under way, Wade had the secretary—my middle-aged daughter Erin—run through the minutes of the last meeting. I flashed her a smile and a wink. She had blossomed out the past month, and was coming into her own.
After the old business was finished, Wade said, “And now, Menolly D’Artigo has an urgent matter she wishes to speak to us about. Menolly—will you take the podium?”
I slid past the others in the row and stepped up to the podium. When renovating the mansion, Wade had had the construction workers build a three-foot-high stage in the front of the room in order for the speakers to be seen better. At my height, that was a good thing.
I tapped the microphone. “I won’t take up more time than necessary, but I have a couple of urgent questions. If anyone has any information, please see me and my sisters after the meeting, or call us if you remember anything. The desk will have our phone number.”
Pausing, I sought for the right way to approach the subject. “You know that my sisters and I are from Otherworld. We recently learned that a friend was sent over Earthside. He ended up in the White Center district of Seattle and has vanished. We’re worried about him. His name is Andrees, and he’s full-blood Otherworld Fae.” I ran down a description of him and added, “If you have seen him, or heard of him, or if you see him, please let us know.”
As a murmur went through the crowd—it always did after an announcement—I cleared my throat. “And on another subject, if anyone has any information on either the Aleksais Psychic Network, or someone by the name of Halcon Davis, would you please contact us. We just need to talk to them. Thank you.”
I leaped off the stage instead of using the stairs, noticing that Roman had leaned over to whisper something to Nerissa. Hoping he wasn’t pressuring her, I frowned and hurried toward them, but as I neared my seat, Camille held up her phone.
“Menolly, we have to book. We’ve got a problem.” She was already making her way toward the door, the others following her.
I glanced over at Wade and waved, then at Roman, who nodded his good-byes. As we headed to the door, I wanted to ask Nerissa what he’d said to her, but that would have to wait.
The look on Camille’s face was grim. “We can’t take Nerissa with us—it’s too dangerous.”
My girlfriend might be a werepuma but she wasn’t a trained fighter, and I wasn’t going to put her in more danger than she already was just because she was my fiancée. But I couldn’t leave her here alone, among a bunch of vampires.
Roman, who had followed us, said, “I’ll make sure she gets home safely. You have my word.”
I gazed into his eyes. They were unreadable. “You promise?”
“On my honor.” He looked past me to Nerissa. “Do you trust me to escort you back to the house?”
She nodded. “It’s all right, Menolly. I’ll meet you when you get home. Considering what’s going on, I don’t want to sleep at my condo tonight. Be safe, love.”
“I will. Don’t worry about me.” And with that matter resolved, I gave her a quick kiss. But I still fretted as I headed out the door.
“What’s up?” We hit the street just as the skies opened up and a downpour started. The streets glistened under the fat drops splattering to the ground, and the ripples in the puddles shimmered under the street lights.
Drenched, Camille held up her phone. “Chase texted me—he said there’s something going down over at the monastery.”
I blinked. “Seattle has a monastery?”
She shrugged. “Well, it was a monastery at one time, that started out as an old mansion. A group of Buddhists took it over in the early 1950s. But in the late sixties, the monks abandoned it, claiming it was haunted, and they couldn’t put the spirits to rest. Nobody really paid much attention, until recently, when the land was purchased by friends of Chase. They started renovations last month, I think. I gather this afternoon, all hell broke loose and they called Chase because they didn’t know what else to do.”
I had a nasty feeling that I already knew the answer, but had to ask. “Where is this mansion?”
Camille nodded. “You guessed it. The Greenbelt Park District.”
“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Of course it is. Of course it’s in the Greenbelt Park District.” I kicked the curb and almost broke one of my toes. The toe didn’t bother me—it would have healed up so fast I would have barely noticed it. But I’d scuffed my new boots and that was the icing on the cake. “Hell. I just bought these. Now look!”
The Greenbelt Park District was the most haunted district in Seattle. Somehow, the ghosts had taken over. We didn’t know why they congregated there, but congregate they did.
We hurried toward the parking lot that Wade had built on the property.
I pulled out my keys. “It occurs to me that we should trace the roots of why the district is so overrun with ghosts. My first thought is that it’s the fault of the rogue portals.”
“That wouldn’t make sense, though. The rogue portals are a recent occurrence. The hauntings have been going on for decades in that area. There must be something that pulls the ghosts there—that stirs them up.” Morio headed toward the Lexus. Roz opted to ride with them again, too. “Camille will text you the directions.”
Camille held up her phone in one hand while she opened the driver door of her Lexus with the other. “Already done. See you there, and drive carefully. The roads are slick with all the rain tonight.” She, Morio, and Roz headed out first.
I followed. As I plugged the directions into the GPS, I was dismayed to see how close the haunted monastery—or mansion, or whatever it was—was to the underground lair that Charles, a vampire serial killer, had nested in. Yeah, definitely the Greenbelt Park District.
As I sped through the silent streets, following my sisters, I mulled over what Morio had said. He was right—with the hauntings going on for so many decades, there was no real way it could be Shadow Wing or the portals at fault.
