AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Seiko Chen was a member of the Moon Call Coven. She became a member at a very young age when her mother emigrated from China and joined during Lance’s father’s rule. As Harper told us, Lance liked to sire offspring on his members to be later used as sacrifices. Seiko was one of those witches. She had a daughter. A girl she told people close to her outside of the coven she named . . .”—she looked at me—“Apple.”
My breath caught. My tattoo.Thatwas an interesting coincidence.
“So, the EVPs we got during the investigation were legit?” I asked, and everyone nodded.
Harper chimed in. “Elliott told me the other day at home that she had been playing in the receiving room with a woman named Seiko the morning I brought her here, and that Seiko’s boyfriend, Lance, had asked her to stay at the mansion.”
I shivered.Predator, much? Even in death. This was all way too fucking weird. “So, we know the Seiko and Apple references now, and we know that the coven’s high priest—or whatever he was—was named Lance. And that Pax’s grandfather was the priest who was there the night of the massacre. That’s all great, but . . .”
Hanlen took a deep breath and came to sit on the coffee table in front of me, reaching out to take my hand. My first instinct was to rip it away. I felt really vulnerable all of a sudden and wasn’t exactly sure why. And it made me angry. But I held steady and let Hanlen say whatever it was she had to say.
“Sky,” she began, looking directly into my eyes, “we were able to piece together everything. Padre’s grandfather did save lives that night. Michelle’s, since she likely would have been killed by someone in the coven for defecting and then blowing the whistle on them, and the child’s—the baby they’d been set to sacrifice. The little infant girl. Apple. Whom Dougal took away from Lamour and entrusted to someone. Someone he found in the spur of the moment but believed would do right by her. And I think if you let that big, beautiful brain work it out, you’ll get to where we’re going with this.”
I felt the world fall out from under me, and everything close in at the periphery. I barely registered Hanlen holding my hand anymore, Pax’s arm snug around my shoulders, and everybody staring intently at me where I rested on the couch.
“Are you saying I was meant to be fucking baby fat body lotion?” I couldn’t hold back the snark. Because . . . seriously?
“Well, that got dark fast.” She quirked her lip. “But, yes, we confirmed it. I had a friend run the DNA. They had most of the coven members’ DNA on file from after the . . . incident, even though they couldn’t test it at the time. The samples were still intact. Seiko Chen was your mother, Sky. Padre’s grandfather saved you that night and gave you to the Lius.”
Dev walked up behind Hanlen and put a hand on her shoulder, looking at me. I rose my gaze to meet his ocean-water stare.
“And now, Lance, your . . . well, let’s just call him your sperm donor since I don’t think he deserves anything nicer, wants you dead, and this dark presence want you back.”
“Where’s the child?”I whispered, remembering what we’d heard on the Geoport.
Well, fuck.
CHAPTER18
~Paxton~
Afew hours later and three-quarters of a shared bottle of whiskey at Hanlen’s suggestion—for those who weren’t teetotalers, anyway—we sat around the large dining room table at Arborwood, working out the details for our night-three investigation. While we had a show to finish and obligations to the network to see to fruition, we also had souls to help, and an evil to vanquish—one that wanted to reel Sky back into its clutches and sink its claws into the rest of us along the way.
“Okay,” Dev said, “Birdie and I did some work at the estate this morning. It should offer us some additional protection, but now that we know that one of ours is essentially a trigger object, we’ll have to step up our game.” A trigger object was something that the spirits used to influence our world. Generally, it was something from their life before. In this case, Sky was Seiko and Lance’s daughter—two of the spirits we knew haunted Lamour, and one of whom we knew was malevolent. She had also been promised to the demon the Moon Call Coven worshipped, which meant the demoniacal intelligence likely felt entitled to Sky and her soul.
I rubbed a hand over my nape, palming the scapular I still wore, wishing for the thousandth time that I’d been able to get it directly from my grandfather before he died. That I’d had more time with him. More time to learn from him, too. He could have taught me so much about exorcism and all the minutia of being a demonologist that I had yet to experience. I wasn’t sure that I was up for however this might play out alone, but I really didn’t want to call in my father. I figured it might be good to get Dev’s and Lark’s opinion.
“Dev? Birdie? Do you think the three of us—with everybody else’s help, of course,”—I looked around at the entire team—“are up for this? I . . . I don’t really want to call in my father unless it’s absolutely necessary. Not to mention, I don’t think we actuallycouldwith the Church requiring all the proof before they even sign off on any kind of official exorcism.”
Lark walked over to me and gently laid a hand on my shoulder. “We understand, Padre. And I think we can handle it. Plus, tonight’s just about finishing up the investigation and doing what we can. If things don’t go as planned, we can call him in later—and we may have to do exactly that, because I have a feeling we are going to need to get rid of this thing once and for all. But, personal things aside, inviting the negativity of the animosity between you and your father into the home, especially now, probably isn’t the smartest thing. And your dad’s a closer tie to the priest who thwarted the dark entity, too. That may just piss it off more.”
“I agree,” Dev said and nodded. “I’ve got my magic and spells, Lark has hers, and you will bring your blessings and prayers. We’ll make sure everyone else watches out for Sky.”
“I can take care of myself, thank you very much,” Sky said from my side, her tone brooking no argument. I looked at her and felt something in my chest clench. I didn’t want her anywhere near the mansion tonight, but I knew we couldn’t keep her away. Still, I would have a talk with her later. In private.
“Hey, doc?” Dev said.
Harper looked up from her paperwork. “Yeah, boss?”
“I was thinking,” he said. “How would you feel about putting all the non-magical team members under hypnosis—with their permission, of course—so that Birdie and I can work a small spell and give them some extra protections and some temporary sensitivities?”
“I can absolutely do that,” she said. “But, like you said, it has to be everyone’s choice.”
“Of course,” Dev answered. “I’d never ask any of you to do something you’re not entirely comfortable with.” He looked at Sky then, and I turned to gauge her reaction. Of everyone, I figured she might be the most hesitant. But she surprised me.
“I’m down,” she said and shrugged. “It’s science, right?”
Dev smiled. “Scienceandmagic, but, yeah, it’ll begin with science.”
