Shattered Souls (22 page)

“I open myself to your glory.

I embrace the powers you let flow from mother to daughter,

For as long as our kind have walked this earth.

Protect me, protect Celeste.

I render you my soul, my life, if you will help me now.

I call on you, Goddess, protect me, empower me,

Breathe your spirit into my form…”

Cait tossed the rest of the contents of the jar upward and punched the air with her fist. A large boom, like a jet’s sonic blast, shook the store.

The wraith unwound from Celeste, dropping her body.

Cait dived to the floor, cushioning her fall.

Above them both, the wraith gave a final, keening shriek and darted toward the plate-glass window, shattering it onto the street outside.

Sam crashed through the door, saw Cait holding Celeste’s still body in her arms, and sank on a knee beside her. He touched Celeste’s neck, a frown digging between his eyebrows. “It’s faint, but her heart’s still beating.” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket, called dispatch, and asked for an ambulance. “They’ll have to warm her up.”

Cait rolled Celeste to her side and then wrapped her body around her, trying to warm her with body heat while Sam shrugged out of his jacket and wrapped it around Celeste’s stiff shoulders.

Shivers racked Cait’s own body.

“Dammit,” he said under his breath, then sat on the floor, gathering both women into his embrace.

Cait glanced down, her gaze snagging on his hand. “Your hand. It looks burned.”

“Frozen. When I touched the doorknob, the sweat on my palm stuck. Was it a wraith? Couldn’t make out much through the windows, but it looked like a tornado was whipping around the room. And what the hell was that sound? I thought a bomb went off in here.”

Still shaking, she nodded, then licked her lips. “I saw it, Sam. It lifted her off the floor like she didn’t weigh anything.”

“Just like Henry?”

At her second nod, he pulled her closer. “I lost track of the uniform. He’s not out there now.”

“He gave his warning,” she said, her teeth chattering loudly. “Now he’s waiting for me to come to him.”

“Like hell.”

She frowned at his heavy-handed refusal. “What choice do I have? I can’t keep anyone safe by staying clear.”

“You can’t fight that thing.”

“What else can we do?”

“Proceed with the plan. Figure out a way to trap him.”

Celeste stirred in her arms. Deep shudders vibrated down her solid frame.

“Is this is how he keeps the girls chilled?” Sam asked, his voice quiet.

“My guess? Yes.”

“Jesus Christ.”

Sirens sounded in the distance.

“I’ll stay with her.” Cait shifted in his arms.

“I’m not leaving you.”

“We have to find him. You need to check in with your team. Find out who Donnelly came into contact with. Maybe they can track the GPS in the squad car to find out who was watching.”

Sam’s arms tightened, and his cheek rubbed against hers. “Dammit, I don’t feel good about any of this.”

“You’re telling me? When you called me into Henry’s room, I thought having you walk in my shoes for once would show you something. Prove something.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry as hell now.”

“I had no idea, Cait. Not a fucking clue. I feel like an idiot.”

“Well, truthfully, it’s never been this bad or scary. I’ve never been in a life-or-death situation. Mostly I’ve heard spooky voices. Felt weird intuition. This is a whole ’nother playing field for me, and I don’t know the rules.”

Sounds of footsteps and the whine of a gurney through the broken glass alerted them help had arrived. “Her window, Sam.”

“I’ll call someone to come put up some plywood.”

She snuggled against him, warmed he wanted to accept yet another burden not his own. “I know it’s not important, but this is Celeste’s livelihood. I don’t want her to worry when she wakes up.”

Sam dropped a kiss on the top of her head and slowly extricated himself, standing to the side while EMTs lifted Celeste and placed warming blankets over her body.

Their expressions were priceless. “Damn, was she in a freezer?” one of them asked, craning his head around to look at the chaos inside the shop. “Did a bomb go off in here?”

Cait grunted, not answering, and held out her hand to Sam, who hauled her to her feet and then straight into his arms.

Wrapping her arms around his solid body, she was grateful for his strength. After the blast of power that had flowed from her toes through her fist, she felt as weak as a baby. Which didn’t bode well. If she had to face the demon again, she needed
more
.

Chapter Seventeen

“The LT wants to see you,” Detective Grady Lawson called out as Sam stepped out of the elevator at police headquarters.

Sam flexed his hand and winced. He really needed to get it bandaged, because the skin of his palm felt raw.

Leland was hunched over his desk, his gaze on a dozen scattered documents when Sam walked in. Leland’s face was a cold mask, not his usual MO of being flushed and irritated.

“What’s up, boss?” Sam asked, trying to keep his voice calm. Even though he didn’t have a speck of intuition, he knew Leland had an ax to grind.

“Your wife’s off the case.”

Sam pursed his lips before replying, striving to tamp down the anger that rocketed through him before he replied. “What are you talking about?”

“The director wants this case put to rest. Donnelly’s dead. Now it’s a citywide search for the girls. We don’t need Cait. We definitely don’t need any more crap.” Leland tossed the pen in his hand across the desk and leaned back in his chair. “And tell me, what the hell were you two doin’ at a psychic’s shop? Do you know how that looks? Every reporter in town is startin’ to connect the dots. We’re lookin’ incompetent. A fuckin’ circus. Tell her to invoice us, but we no longer need her services.”

Sam bristled but kept his irritation in check, not wanting to add to whatever was putting red spots of color in Leland’s cheeks. “I think you’re making a mistake.”

Leland gave him a cold glare. “The only mistake was lettin’ her anywhere near this case. It’s a fuckin’ fiasco. We’ve had enough crazy. She’s gone. Soon as you tell her, I need you back here.” His fingers tapped a file. “And I’m reassignin’ you. Simple homicide. Husband killed wife. DA just needs the family’s statements.”

This time, fury flushed through Sam. “This is my case,” he ground out.

“Not anymore.
It’s mine
,” he bellowed. “And if you don’t want to be transferred to vehicle theft, answerin’ phones every time an old lady loses her car at the mall, you’ll do as I say!”

Although his face was hot, his body so rigid it shook, Sam calmly reached into his jacket and pulled out his badge and service weapon. He laid them on the desk. “I’m taking leave. Starting now.”

“I won’t approve it.”

“Then I quit.”

Leland stared for a long moment, then wiped a hand over his face because he’d started to sweat. “She mean that much to you? You divorced her ass!”

Sam gripped the edge of Leland’s desk and leaned over it. “Not one more fucking word. You know this case isn’t cut-and-dried. Not from the first time you stepped in Henry Prudoe’s room. And the shit I’ve seen, following in Cait’s tracks as she’s headed this investigation—you don’t want to know.” He shook his head. “Wouldn’t begin to believe. I’m on this case. But if you don’t want the director on your ass, I understand. It’s off the record.”

Leland huffed a breath, disgust in the curl of his lips. “You won’t have support.”

“You’ve got this thing all backward. Cait doesn’t need the department or its support. We need hers, because you’ll never find those girls alive without her.” Sam pushed away and spun toward the door.

“Take a week,” came Leland’s gruff response.

Glancing back, Sam said, “I’ll take more if I need it, but I don’t think it’s going to take that long. The girls will be found dead by then.”

Leland slammed his fist on the desk. “Dammit, get out of here. You find anything we can act on…”

Things had gone better than he could have hoped. Sam turned around and gave his LT a crooked smile. “I’ll call.”

Cait stomped in the hallway of the emergency room at Methodist University Hospital, where she’d been since the on-call doctor threw her out of Celeste’s treatment room. She guessed she was lucky he hadn’t called security and had her tossed out on the sidewalk.

Her insistence that she be near to protect her family friend probably didn’t make a bit of sense. What was Celeste in danger of? Falling into a freezer again? The excuse Cait had given hadn’t been delivered with her usual bravado; she’d stammered. Sounded like a big fat lie even to her own ears.

She’d stayed inside long enough to see that things were going well with Celeste. Buried under warming blankets, her temperature was steadily rising. Cait paced, walking out the adrenaline spike that had kept her moving through everything that had happened—the wraith attack, her sudden burst of power. She hadn’t known until the moment she’d slammed her fist into the air that she could do that. The knowledge left her shaken, but also so excited her stomach churned.

With a quick turn, she stalked down the hallway again, hoping the restless energy would dissipate so she could think.

Coming down the hall was a white-haired woman pushing an oxygen tank on rollers, tubes in her nose. A harried orderly stepped out of a treatment room and barreled right into the old woman, passing through without noticing anyone had been there.

“Jesus, not now,” Cait whispered.

Blue eyes so bright they gleamed from twenty feet away stared right at Cait.

Cait turned her back.

“Pardon me,” came a creaky voice from beside her.

At the sound, Cait felt like clapping her hands over her ears and singing, “La-la-la.” But she crossed her arms over her chest and kept her gaze glued to the room where her friend lay recovering.

“Pardon me, miss.” The old woman’s voice held a crisp, disapproving note. “It’s not polite to ignore someone speaking to you.”

“You’re dead,” Cait muttered under breath, not glancing her way. “I don’t have to be polite.”

“I just need directions. I seem to be lost.”

Cait’s breath stilled, and she glanced sharply down at the frail woman, who looked a lot like Miss Daisy from the famous movie. “You’re really talking to me.”

The old woman’s chin lifted high. “Of course I am. You’re the first person who’s ever seen me.”

“So you know you’re dead.” Cait couldn’t keep the skepticism from her voice.

“Of course I do. I’m not an idiot.”

“Shouldn’t you have walked into the white light? How about looking for that?”

Miss Daisy sighed. “Don’t be ridiculous. The only bulbs around here are fluorescent, and they make everyone’s skin purple.”

“You’re worried about your skin tone?”

A fierce scowl dug deeper lines into her wrinkled forehead. “I’m worried about my husband. He’s not well. He’ll need me soon. I should be there.”

“He’s in this hospital?” Her brows drew into a frown.

“No, he left after they pronounced me. That’s what they call it when someone croaks.”

Cait shook her head, still not quite believing she was having this strange conversation. “I don’t think I can help you.”

The woman came closer, staring upward with her rheumy blue eyes filling with tears. “You have to. You look like a girl who needs some good karma.”

The orderly hurried back and gave Cait a strange look.

She crossed herself and closed her eyes, pretending she’d been praying all along.

When he passed, she aimed a glare at the old lady. “Why can’t you find your own way home?”

“I get turned around. It’s the Alzheimer’s, you know.”

Cait rolled her eyes. “Are you supposed to stay close to where you…passed?”

“No, not at all. I hitch rides with cute doctors all the time, but I lived in the country. Didn’t come to Memphis much.” A thin shoulder lifted. “Don’t know my way home.”

“I can’t help you now.”

“On account of the wraith?”

On an indrawn breath, Cait’s gaze narrowed. “What do you know about that?”

“I can hear them. Same as you. The others heard it first. My hearing’s not so great. The one that followed you howled right through the doors when the ambulance pulled up. It’s why I hid until it left. Why everyone hid. Scary little bastards.”

Cait shot a quick glance around the hallway. “There are more of you?”

“Of course. Now I know you can see us, I’ll have something Mrs. Klein didn’t know first.” She wrinkled her nose. “She’s a know-it-all. Been in this hospital for years. Looks over the sleepers. Kicks their call buttons when they need help ’cause they can’t.” Her gaze roamed over Cait, and a little smile turned up the corners of her mouth. “You’re gonna be a very busy girl.”

Cait gritted her teeth. The old woman was working her, even dead. “Look, can you keep me a secret for a while? I’m a little busy with that wraith.”