Beneath An Ivy Moon (Legacy Of Magick Series, Book 4) (12 page)

“I’m digging the Dark Mori style you’ve got going today,” Cypress said, gesturing to my dress.

“Compliments on my wardrobe from the campus heartbreaker?” I teased. “I’m honored.” I slid the photo free from the envelope in my messenger bag. “You need to see this, Cy,” I said quietly, no longer teasing. “I printed this out a bit ago.” I handed the photo over.

Cypress sat still, studying the photograph. “Whoa!” Her breath came out in a whoosh as she pointed at the smear of blue-green light. “And it’s hovering right over Melinda’s crypt.”

“Yeah, it is.” I spread a paper napkin in my lap to protect my dress. “This was the only cemetery photo that showed any anomalies.” I took a bite of my pizza and checked around us to be sure no one was listening.

Cypress met my eyes over the photo. “I made copies of the documentation I’d found on the cemeteries, and Victoria’s younger sister,” Cypress said. “I verified that Melinda had three surviving children.”

“Surviving children?” My pizza seemed to stick in my throat. I tried to wash it down with some soda.

Cypress glanced around too before she answered. “It seems there was a stillbirth shortly before Melinda passed away.”

My heart broke a little, and I set the slice down. “Oh damn. Are there any markers at those cemetery plots for an infant?”

“Not that I could find in the cemetery records.” Cypress handed me back the photo. “Or perhaps the tombstone didn’t stand up to all the years.”

I tucked the photo back in my bag. “So we investigated the campus cemeteries, and I get this weird shot of light floating above Melinda’s grave.” I drummed my fingers on the table, thinking out loud. “We visit the archeological site and get hit with the heebie-jeebies.”

Cypress raised her eyebrows. “Heebie-jeebies? Is that a technical term for a bad reaction to negative vibes?”

“Absolutely,” I said. “We run into Pogue—”

“And the whole ‘intense magick at the site’ theory gets brought up,” Cypress said.

“We go back to Crowly Hall afterwards, and it seems like Victoria reacted negatively to us talking about Melinda.”

Cypress nodded. “Then we get the big surprise to a rearranged room, with gravity defying chairs.”

I reached for my pizza again. “Has anything like that— the furniture reshuffle— ever happened in our dorm before?”

“Actually, it has.” Cypress leaned forward resting her elbows on the table. “The book Dr. Meyer gave me mentioned a story from back in the 1970s about some residents of Crowly Hall complaining that their room was constantly being rearranged while they were out.”

“Really? It’s in the book?”

“Yes,” Cypress said. “I marked the page for you with a pink sticky note.”

“Excuse me,” a male voice said.

As one, Cypress and I both glanced up. A handsome student stood in front of our table. Tall and muscular, he stood holding a bottle of spring water.

“I noticed you didn’t have anything to drink Cypress, so I got this for you.” He held out the bottle nervously, and I sat back to see how Cypress handled yet another of her many admirers.

Cypress smiled at him, and I worried for a minute the guy would pass out.

“Thank you...” she trailed off.

“Garret,” the guy said.

“Thank you Garret.” Cypress took the water and focused on him. Her stack of magickal bangles chimed as they slid down her arm.

Garret blushed and stepped back. “See you around.” He grinned and left us to our lunch.

I caught a blush of rosy pink light around her out of my peripheral vision. “Sheesh, Cypress,” I said out of the corner of my mouth.

“Cute, isn’t he? I think he’s in my French class.” Cypress rested her chin on her hand and sighed.

I nudged her with my elbow. “If you’d turn down your glamour mojo for a minute, think we could get back to our conversation?”

Cypress winked at me and twisted the top off the bottle. “Right.” She took a sip before continuing. “That other ‘furniture rearranging incident’ from the 1970s? Most people thought it was a silly prank. But the girls insisted they were telling the truth.”

I picked through my side salad as I thought it over. “You don’t by any chance know what floor that occurred on, do you?”

“The third floor,” Cypress said, and took a bite of her cheeseburger.

I leaned forward. “Oh gods. It wasn’t our room, was it?”

Cypress shook her head. “No clue. They never mentioned a room number in the book.” She set her burger down, dug into her own book bag, and handed me a big manila envelope. “Here’s copies of all the information I gathered. The book from Dr. Meyer,
and
the notes from any paranormal stuff we’ve experienced so far...”

“Jessica sleepwalking and the flashing lights in the hall?” I asked. “Did you include that as well?”

Cypress nodded. “Yeah, and I made notes on what we experienced last night too. Be sure and share everything with Bran.”

“I wish you could come with me,” I sighed, tucking her notes into the messenger bag along with mine. “I’m not looking forward to dealing with Nathan Pogue and his attitude again. Even if I’m curious as to what the hell he’s really up to.”

“Sorry, I can’t miss my afternoon class.” Cypress smirked at me. “Besides, you can handle yourself just fine around Nathan Pogue.”

***

I knocked softly on Bran’s office door and waited. When he called out to enter, I took a deep breath, rearranged my lacy shawl over my shoulders, and opened the door. Bran stood behind his desk, and Nathan Pogue sat in a chair. To my surprise, when I walked in the room Nathan rose to his feet.

“Hi Bran,” I said cheerfully to my brother. I closed the door behind me and raised an eyebrow at Nathan. He was still standing. “Pogue,” I said. My tone was barely this side of polite.

“Ivy,” Bran smiled at me and sat back behind his desk. “Nathan has been telling me about some of the accidents at the dig and his concerns.”

I took the empty chair and tried not to react to Pogue waiting until after I’d been seated— to sit down himself. “I have some information to share as well,” I said to both of them. “Cypress and I have been investigating some paranormal... occurrences I guess you’d call them at Crowly Hall.” I pulled the manila envelopes out of my messenger bag and handed them to Bran.

“How long ago did this start?” Bran asked me. He slid the contents of the envelopes out and onto his desk and began to work through them.

“About the same time they began construction for the museum expansion on campus,” I said, and proceeded to fill my brother in on everything that had happened at the dorms so far. I was relaying Saturday night’s experiences in the lobby, when Nathan interrupted.

“So to be clear,” Nathan said, “the disembodied voice, temperature dip, shaking furniture,
and
flashing lights occurred when you and Cypress were discussing Melinda Easton’s death?”

“Hang on.” I held up a hand. “Let me tell you the rest.”

As I explained to Bran and Nathan what Cypress and I had found waiting for us in our dorm room, I pulled out a couple of photos from the stack on my brother’s desk. I handed one to each of them. “Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words,” I said.

Their reactions surprised me.

Bran swore under his breath, and Nathan’s eyes went wide. Seeing Nathan’s response to the pictures had me reevaluating him,
and
made me a little uneasy.

Bran frowned over the picture. “Ivy, this is serious. You should have told me right away.”

“It happened this past Saturday night. Since then Cypress and I have been trying to document this as best we could,” I said. “I only printed the photos up this morning.”

Bran met my eyes. “You didn’t think I would believe you?”

“It wouldn’t be the first time someone underestimated me, or didn’t take me seriously,” I said.

Nathan tilted his head at me as he looked up from the photos. “You kept your cool during a level three phenomena.” His eyes met mine. “That’s impressive.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Dare I ask... what’s a level three phenomena?”

“A level one phenomena is often described as things that might be attributed to a seismic incident or a poltergeist situation,” Nathan explained.

“Like the shaking couch, and the falling vase,” I said.

“Exactly.” Nathan shifted fully towards me, getting into his topic. “A level two phenomena is described as phantom footprints or handprints with no apparent human cause.” He blew out a breath before continuing. “While a level three phenomena is characterized by items being disturbed in an attempt to get a message, or even a warning across.”

My mind raced as I considered what he told me. “Jeepers,” I managed.

Bran grinned at the
Scooby Doo
reference. He reached across the desk for my hand. “You and Cypress were very brave.” He gave my fingers a squeeze and let me go.

“You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that,” Nathan said to me.

“Thanks,” I said, cautiously.

Nathan held up a photograph. “Are there any other photos or documentation of the event?”

“Yes. Cypress recorded it on her cell phone.”

“She did?” Bran asked.

I took out my cell phone and pulled up the video Cypress had sent me. I handed the phone to Bran. “Hit play,” I said, and sat back curious to see my brother’s reaction.

Bran watched the short video and flinched at the chairs falling down. I could hear the crashing chairs and my surprised squeak clearly as the video played. “Have you and Cypress taken precautions since this occurred?” he asked.

“We warded the room to keep out any more ghosts.” I shrugged. “But once ghosts are in a building can you really
ward
them out of one room in particular?”

“Good question,” Bran said, handing the phone to Nathan.

Nathan frowned over the short video. I watched as he replayed it a few times. “You’re lucky you didn’t get hurt,” he said finally.

I picked up Dr. Meyer’s book from Bran’s desk and flipped to the marked page. “Here, look at this.” I handed it to Bran. “The rearranged furniture in Crowly Hall
has
happened before.”

While Bran scanned through the marked passage, Nathan held my phone out to me. “At first glance, this would seem like poltergeist activity.”

“Well we’ve got plenty of hormonal girls in the dorm,” I said. “I suppose that’s possible.” I started to take my phone back, but Nathan held on. My eyes flashed up to his.

“I’m not trying to downplay this. Not at all,” Nathan said. “I was actually thinking of the true meaning of the word—
angry ghost
.” His eyes stayed on mine, and I wondered at the change in his attitude.

Bran lifted his head up from the book he’d been studying and narrowed his eyes. “Have the other girls in the dorm been talking about any other paranormal activity?”

“Not that I know of.” I took the phone back from Nathan and tucked it in my bag. “Well, besides the Freshman Jessica, and her sleepwalking.”

“She said something about the
Headmistress
, calling her?” Bran asked, riffling through the notes Cypress had made.

“She did,” I said. “But it was the sudden dip in temperature, and the flashing hall lights that made me realize it was more than sleepwalking. It was
creepy
Bran. I think she would’ve pitched herself right over the steps if Cypress and I hadn’t grabbed her.”

Nathan shifted in his chair. “Why do you think that?”

“Because,” I explained. “She tried to pull away from us before she woke up.”

“I want to go over the information you and Cypress have gathered, and share it with Lexie,” Bran said.

“Good idea,” I said. “Let’s get a cop’s perspective.”

“Are you sure we want to get the police involved? Who’s Lexie?” Nathan asked.

Bran tapped the papers into a neat stack on his desk. “Lexie is my wife. She’s a gifted Witch
and
a police officer.”

“Oh,” was all Nathan could manage.

I made an explosion sound, splaying my fingers wide on each side of my head. “Mind blown,” I said, grinning at Nathan’s shocked expression.

Bran winked at me and nodded to Nathan. “I pulled several items for you to use in your research. They are waiting for you at the front desk, Nathan.”

“Thank you.” Recognizing this as a dismissal, Nathan rose to his feet. “I’ll let you know if I discover anything.”

“You know where to find me,” Bran said. “I’ll contact you when the rest of the materials you requested are available.”

“Ivy, please be careful,” Nathan said, glowering down at me for a moment.

Caught off guard, I glanced back up at him. “Sure.”

Nathan nodded then hesitated as if there was more to say. Apparently, he decided against it and left the office.

“So, what do you think?” I asked my brother.

“I agree with Nathan. You should be careful until we figure out what is going on.” Bran sat back down and scrubbed his hands over his face.

I shook my head. “No, I meant what do you think of Pogue?”

Bran dropped his hands to his desk. “He strikes me as intelligent, in an Ivy League sort of way, but he’s a little uptight.”

I snorted out a laugh, reaching out to squeeze his hand. “Uptight? I could’ve said the same thing about you, until you and Lexie got together.”

Bran grinned at me. “Yes, well... Love changes people.”

***

After the meeting, I managed to avoid Pogue for the next few days. Things had been quiet at Crowly Hall. The cleansing and warding Cypress and I had done to our room seemed to be holding. I kept an ear open but did not hear of any of the girls talking about seeing ghosts or anything paranormal. Instead of making me feel better, the lack of anything else happening made me jumpy, and put me on guard.

I did feel better knowing that Bran and Lexie were checking into the recent paranormal occurrences on campus, while Nathan was supposedly investigating the history of the archeological site. Autumn was still quietly researching Nathan’s family line. I told myself to be patient, and started to read up on parapsychology. There were plenty of books on ghosts and hauntings at the University library, so I added that to my college studies.