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Nancy let out a sigh. “Thank you. I’m aware I sound silly to you, but I know what I felt.”
“You don’t sound silly to us,” Kay assured her. “Covering every possibility is important. You stay here. Damon and I are going to get to the bottom of this. I promise.”
Damon’s and Kays’ feet thudded on the wooden steps they descended as the cool, damp air of the basement surrounded them. The space was lit by a bare light bulb throwing shadows on the rough stone foundation, and when the pair reached the dirt floor, Kay turned to Damon and asked, “What are you doing? There’s no vampire or any other spirit here. Why are you letting her think there is?”
“Because she’s not going to believe otherwise. You know how strong the power of suggestion is. Surely you’ve seen this before.” Damon was turning slowly to make sure his camera got the entire view of the cellar. Kay realized why; to the layperson, it was definitely a creepy-looking place.
She refrained from expressing a noise of disgust. “Yes, of course I have, but we’re not doing her any favors by humoring her.”
Celia had floated over to a workbench and picked up a jar full of nails. The hardware rattled as she shook it, and Damon said, “I think we are. I say we use Celia’s talents and stage a removal of a spirit who was pretending to be a vampire. Nancy will feel better and be able to sleep again.”
“She’ll smell better too,”Celiasaid as she slithered on top of the workbench to lie on her stomach and pose like a vamp from days of old.“I’m happy to help.”Kay frowned, and Celia added,“Isn’t that why I’m here?”
“But that’s lying,” Kay said.
Damon said, “It’s setting her mind at ease. Do you really think you’re going to convince her everything is in her imagination?”
Kay raised her eyebrows at him. She’d only agreed to help him with his show if they didn’t fabricate things.
“Fine,” he said. “Feel free to go ahead and try.”
“Fine.” she snapped back. “I will.” As she stomped back up the stairs, she formed a plan. She was going to use Celia, but only to help convince Nancy there wasn’t a vampire in her home.
When they were all in the kitchen with Nancy, Kay said, “I know you can’t see her, but Celia Davis, the spirit, is here to help.”
“TheCelia Davis?” Nancy’s face lit up with a smile. “Goodness, I remember hearing all about her from my grandmother. She’d seen her on the stage. Celia was a big deal, you know. The island hit the map when she began to summer here.”
Kay smiled. Celia did like to think so, but the truth was the Knight witches had brought notoriety to the island long before Celia arrived. But pointing that out wouldn’t endear the spirit to Kay, so she said, “I do know what a big deal Celia Davis was. She was taken from us far too soon.”
“That she was.” Nancy scowled and glanced around the room. “She’s really here?”
Kay nodded toward where Celia had hopped up to sit on the kitchen counter. “Right there.”
“Celia,” Damon said, “Sing us a song.”
The spirit jumped up to stand on the counter like it was a stage and smoothed her hair and dress before showing a glimmering image of herself to Nancy.
The chef let out a gasp before Celia threw her shoulders back and let out a long croon that led to her singing a ballad in her sultry voice. Nancy placed a hand on her chest and closed her eyes to enjoy the music, and when Celia was done, she let out a long sigh. “Oh my lord, what a treat.” She bowed to where Celia was standing. “Miss Davis, I’m humbled by your presence.”
Celia hid herself again and said in a voice Nancy couldn’t hear, “She ought to be. I don’t sing for just anyone.”
Kay refrained from rolling her eyes as Damon said to Nancy, “She says thank you. It was a pleasure to sing for you.”
“Celia,” Kay said. “Nancy believes there is a vampire in her home. Damon and I couldn’t find anything that proves it.”
“I’m sure something is here,” Nancy said. “Please, you have to believe me.” The woman looked at Kay with wild eyes. “What if it’s a poltergeist? I read they are exceptionally deceptive.” She let out a gasp. “So is Satan! Oh, dear. Maybe I should call a priest.”
Damon put an arm around the frantic woman. “I don’t think it’s anything that bad. We do believe you, and I’m sure there’s an explanation. We’ll find it,” Damon said. “Celia, would you mind double-checking for us to make sure Kay and I didn’t miss anything?”
“Seems to me nothing I say is going to make her believe something isn’t here.”
Sadly, Kay thought Celia was right. Nancy was so distraught there was no way she was going to be satisfied until they got rid of a spirit, imaginary or not. As much as Kay didn’t want to, she realized they were going to have to fake a removal of some sort to put Nancy at ease. Kay said to Nancy, “Celia has agreed to help. Damon and I will assist her in whatever efforts she makes to get rid of the entity causing the trouble.”
“Ah, so the good witch has decided to play?”Celia laughed.
Despite the teasing, Kay knew better than to let it keep her from doing what was necessary to satisfy Nancy. “Yes, Celia. Thank you.”
Damon gave Nancy a stern look. “You stay down here. No matter what you hear, don’t worry about us. We’ve got this.”
