Page 5 of Cold Sacrifice

“Vanessa,” she told me, her smile a bit wan. “Everyone calls me Van. I’m being stalked by a ghost. I went to two other…” She waved a hand, not sure of the word. “Two other mediums, but they didn’t deliver on their promises to get rid of him. And my ghost is getting more and more dangerous, Ms. Silver. If you can’t help, I really don’t know what I’m going to do.”

At that exact moment, a ghost stepped through the closed door. I didn’t get the sense that he believed I could really see him, despite the talk he’d probably heard in the waiting room and the sign on the door.

Spirits had only recently begun paying attention to the office. It was like one of them had read the sign and heard the clients discussing their ghosts, and he’d gone to tell his ghostly friends.

I didn’t like it. I didn’t want to be mobbed by a bunch of ghosts. I needed to help them on my time. I’d get overwhelmed if dozens of spirits began following me around.

Thankfully, the ghosts were reasonably easy to fool. If I didn’t look at them or speak to them, they had no idea I could see them.

“Tell me everything you can about the spirit in your home,” I said, ignoring the ghost. “Tell me what you hear, see, and feel.”

“He’s a dick,” she told me.

I gave her a smile. “A lot of them are.”

She pressed her lips together. “You really believe me,” she said. “Can you really help? I mean…the way I look, you’d think I’d be ecstatic over having a creepy ghost in my house. But he’s not cool.”

Vanessa Greenfield was a twenty-something with shiny, straight black hair, thick black eyeliner, and black lipstick. She had a silver ring through one eyebrow, a stud in her nose, and another ring hooked through her lower lip. She wore a gray t-shirt, black pants, and black boots, and had tattoos covering her thin arms.

“Nice ink,” I said, admiring her tattoos.

She grinned. “I was thinking the same thing about yours. Can I ask who did them?”

“Kassandra,” I told her. “She’s over on—”

“Oh my God, I knew it! Kass did most of mine! I love her.” She relaxed then, losing the tiny bit of fear in her eyes and the tension in her shoulders.

“Tell me about your ghost, Van, and let’s get that dick out of your life.”

She took a deep breath. “Okay. So I don’t really know if it’s a dude. But the energy I get makes me think it’s a he.” She flicked her dark eyes toward Joe, then seemed to rethink whatever she’d been about to say. “He makes the lights flicker. Sometimes he even turns them off. He scares my cat. Sometimes I’ll see her just staring at a certain place in the room and I know he’s there.” She swallowed hard and shuddered. “I took her to stay with my sister until I can either get the ghost out or move. Once, he turned the TV on. He knocked a book off the table. He unlocks my front door. He hasn’t hurt me, but I’m afraid that’s coming.”

“Some spirits can push energy into an inanimate object pretty easily,” I told her. “The living have a life force that pushes back. Your life force acts as a barrier. You might feel him brushing against your arm or feel the coldness of his fingers against your cheek, but unless he gets very strong, he can’t physically hurt you.”

“If he’s knocking books off tables,” Joe said, “what’s to keep him from throwing something at her head and hurting her that way?”

“He’d have to be a lot stronger,” I told him. “Pushing something off a table or manipulating lights doesn’t mean a spirit can actually lift a heavy object, hold it, aim it, and then throw it across the room. Though,” I added, “this one seems like he might be trying extra hard.”

“So right now,” Vanessa said, “he’s just trying to scare me.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “And I’m going to go kick his ass out of your house.”

She pressed her fingers against her chest, over her heart. “I had a feeling about you. I knew you’d help. When can you come?”

“Can you stay with friends or family until three-thirty? I can meet you at your apartment as soon as I’m finished here.”

“Tonight?” She bit her lip, removing some of the black lipstick. “Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Silver.”

I stood and walked around the desk. “It’s Kait, and you’re very welcome.”

She stood as well and took my outstretched hand. “I’ll be waiting in the parking lot at three-thirty. If I fall asleep and don’t see you pull in, would you mind texting me to wake me up?”

Poor girl looked like she’d been missing a lot of sleep. “I’ll see you in a few hours. Get some rest.”

Joe escorted her from the room, and he’d barely returned before Gracie Dawn was ushering in the next client. When the door opened, I could see a room full of waiting, restless clients.

There were a lot of ghosts in Jakeston.

The ghost who’d wandered in as I’d talked to Vanessa Greenfield went to stand beside Joe, as though he planned on staying a while. I didn’t linger on him but saw enough as I swept my gaze over him to get some impressions.