The Awakening: A Sisterhood of Spirits Novel (27 page)

“What did you just say?”

“Oooh, Jordan.” Shade’s voice returned. “He does not like you.”

“Enough!” Jordan snapped. “What the fuck is going on?” She tried grappling with all the vague half explanations she was being given, and her instincts were screaming that she was missing something. The nasty comment did manage to pierce her confusion. Jordan switched to logic, looking for facts now instead of innuendo.

“Don’t let him get a rise out of you, Jordan,” Sunny said. “It’s what he wants.”

“Who—it—what—wants? Can’t we cut to the chase here?”

“If you can calm down, I’ll try and find out,” Sunny said under her breath. “See? Now the spirits are upset. They’re all chattering at once again and giving me a headache.” She held a hand to her forehead. “Shh.”

A gust of wind blew out the candles, and Jordan heard Tiffany’s sharp intake of breath. She ignored the chill between her shoulder blades and relit them. She’d felt goose bumps so many times tonight she was getting used to them.

“Right, okay,” Sunny said. “The younger one is coming forward again.”

Jordan tried to relax the stiffness in her body, but her mind was racing. Still, she had the feeling she was missing something vital, a crucial, essential clue that kept slipping away before she could grasp it. Jordan waited for Sunny to continue, though she was sorry when she took her arm back and shifted on the cement to get more comfortable.

“She’s losing energy. We only have a few minutes. From what she’s showing me, she has straight brown hair, brown eyes, and—”

“But that’s not what I see,” Tiffany interrupted. “I see very short dark hair, dyed jet-black, and lots of piercings. Ouch, didn’t those hurt?”

Jordan’s heart skipped a beat and something clicked. Was this for real or some kind of cruel joke? “What is she wearing?” She tried to keep her anger in check while she pulled up the mental file from her memory.

“Some kind of short dress, with a long zipper up the front, torn stockings, and knee-high boots, you know, the clunky kind?”

“She’s showing me the letter
G
, then a star. Come on, sweetheart, give me a little more here. Gina? Or Star?” Sunny asked.

“Both,” Jordan said. The flames leaned sideways and Jordan jumped to her feet. “That’s impossible!” she yelled. “Did you read my files?”

“Either sit down or go back upstairs, Jordan,” Sunny said quietly. “This isn’t about you. It’s about these three kids. I don’t have the time or energy to fight with you right now.”

Sunny cut off her own anger at Jordan’s outburst to keep from feeding the negative entity that Shade was holding on to in the astral plane. But she knew that Jordan’s explosive reaction fed it a great deal of power, and she knew she was right when Shade swore and slumped forward.

“I tried to hold him, but he slipped out.”

“Are you okay?” Sunny went to Shade and felt the muscles in her back tremble slightly. Tiffany crawled over and laid her hands next to Sunny’s. In a matter of seconds, Sunny felt the shaking subside, then stop.

Jordan stood a few feet away with her back against the wall. They all jumped when a door slammed violently down the hall.

Shade gained her feet and grabbed a camera and recorder. Tiffany turned on her flashlight and followed, blowing the candles out on her way. “Let’s go see what that was.” The two of them turned right out of the doorway, and the light in the room faded as they moved further away, leaving Sunny to deal with Jordan.

She was still trying not to be angry with her. She loved everything about her, except this one thing. But the one thing was so important, she might have to walk away after all. “Jordan,” she began in a calm voice.

“No. God, Sunny. I’m so sorry. It was reflex.”

Well, now, she wasn’t expecting to hear that, and she understood that the habits of a lifetime were hard to break. Jordan’s voice was sincere in the dark, even if she choked on the apology. She got the feeling that Jordan didn’t do it very often, and it must have cost her something. She tried talking again. “Nobody read your files, Jordan.”

“I’m trying here, Sunny. But you don’t understand. These kids you’re describing are the missing street kids I told you about. I could recite in my sleep what they were all wearing the last time they were seen. I looked for them for months, but it’s as if they disappeared off the face of the earth. And to sit here and hear those details while I’m sitting in the dark during some kind of psychic orgy, well, it threw me off.”

“Psychic orgy? Should I be insulted?”

“No, it just slipped out. I’m only digging myself deeper here.”

“They all died here,” Sunny said softly. “The murderer is dead as well. That’s the entity that Shade was fighting.”

“Who is it? Was it?” she corrected herself.

“I don’t know. They’re gone. They disappeared when Shade lost her hold on the murderer.” Sunny felt Jordan’s tentative hand touch her shoulder.

“Again, I’m sorry, really. Beliefs don’t change overnight, do they? Can we do it again? I’ll be quiet this time.”

“I don’t think we have it in us to repeat this tonight.” When Jordan’s arms came around her, they were gentle and comforting, and Sunny let herself melt into the embrace for a moment. “We’ll talk later, okay?”

Jordan let go of her and dropped her arms to her sides. She reminded herself that Jordan’s awakening would take time. Sunny had never been in that position, but she respected the honesty and emotional effort Jordan had just shown her. She understood how hard that would be for someone as rigid as Jordan. “Everything is fine. Let’s go help the others.”

Chapter Fifteen

Jordan had just taken Sunny’s hand to lead her into the hall when another scream pierced the darkness.

“Tiffany.” Sunny ran down the hall. Jordan turned on her flashlight and chased her, but she filled with dread when she saw the door to the boiler room standing open.

How could her experience in that room when she’d arrived have slipped from her mind for even a second? In that instant, Jordan understood the power of denial. How a mind could build barriers to see only what it chose to, regardless of the evidence. There was power in admitting she couldn’t control or explain everything. There was freedom in that understanding. Her legs felt weak and she sat next to Tiffany in the dank room.

“Why did you scream?” Sunny asked.

“Sorry, guys. I don’t usually fall apart like this all the time,” she said to Jordan. “But the energy in this building is so damn strong, it’s keeping me off balance.”

“Tell me about it,” Jordan mumbled.

“I saw him.”

“Who?” Sunny asked.

“The man who murdered those kids.”

“Where?” Jordan looked around the room.

“Here.” Tiffany pointed to her forehead.

Jordan was dizzy but curious. “Do you all see him the same?”

“No,” they answered in unison.

“Then how do you know which is real?”

“I’ll go,” Shade said. “Sunny sees spirits the way they want to be seen. Tiffany perceives them as they actually were.”

“And you?” asked Jordan.

“I see them how they looked at the moment of death.”

Jordan let that sink in. Shade’s whole personality made more sense to her. “So you’re all correct in one way or another.”

“Yes.”

Jordan’s analytical mind raced. How come the department didn’t use people who had these abilities to solve more crimes?

“Because they see like you,” Shade said.

“And you can read minds.”

Shade smirked. “Most of the time, but not always. But you’re wide open right now.”

“Tiffany? Is the recorder running?” Sunny asked.

“Yes.”

“Describe him, please.” Sunny searched for the presence of
other,
but whoever he was, he couldn’t or wouldn’t show himself. She knew Tiffany was picking up the residual imprint.

“He’s creepy.” Tiffany shuddered. “Tall, skinny, stringy hair, bad complexion. He’s wearing a stained gray sweatshirt, black cargo pants. He’s muttering to himself and laughing. Oh, the stains are blood, I think, but I don’t think it’s his. He’s fumbling with something behind the furnace.” Tiffany paused and tilted her head to the left. “Gross! Pervert.” She pulled her hand off the wall. “Eww.”

“Shade,” Sunny called. “Do you see anything?”

“No, and I doubt I will. He was pretty shocked that I was able to hold him. He’s afraid of me.”

“How did you do that?” Jordan asked.

“We’ll explain that later.” Sunny stood and inched her way to the furnace in the corner.

“He’s taking off the sweatshirt and trying to clean himself up.”

“Is all of this what you call residual?”

“Yes.”

“So it can’t hurt anyone?”

“Not when it’s place memory.”

“Jordan, could you shine your light over here? Your flashlight has more power than mine.”

“Okay,” Tiffany continued. “He’s pulling something out of a bag. It looks like a red shirt and some kind of baseball hat.”

Something clicked in Jordan’s memory, and her blood turned to ice in her veins. She turned the beam into Tiffany’s face.

“Hey! You’re blinding me.”

“Sorry.” Jordan immediately lowered her arm. “Tiffany, this is really important. Can you see what color shoes he’s wearing?”

“They’re really dirty. I can’t tell. No, wait. Really, dude? They’re some kind of weird neon turquoise? I think.”

Jordan felt a sense of foreboding, and she pulled the memory closer. Could it really be true? No one here could have known the color of that man’s shoes. What were the odds?

“Jordan?” Sunny lay a hand on her arm. “What is it?”

“Just a second. I need to hear what else he does.”

“He’s digging something up from behind there.” She pointed. “One of those green army duffel bags. You know the kind?”

Yes, she did. And she knew what was in it. “Can you see any patches or identifying marks?”

“A stained smiley face? How did you know?”

Jordan took a breath and closed her eyes. “Because I killed him.”

“Dude.” Shade shook her head.

“Can we turn the lights on now? I need to see behind the furnace.”

“Of course. Tiff, could you flip the switch?” Sunny was concerned over the implication of recent murders being attached to Jordan.

They all blinked their eyes to adjust to the brightness after so many hours in the dark. Jordan disappeared behind the metal giant.

“Can you tell us what happened?” Sunny knew Jordan had been shot after she killed a man near here, but she didn’t know the details of how this might all tie together yet. No wonder she had negative energy woven as tightly as a basket around her. “The dirt looks off to me. Shade, can you help me?”

There wasn’t room for all of them, so Sunny and Tiffany stood to the side.

“There has to be a shovel lying around here somewhere.”

“I’ll find one,” Tiffany said. “I’ll be right back.”

“Jordan? Gina is here.” Tears filled Sunny’s eyes. “She says she always knew you would find her.”

The overhead light went off then turned back on. “Asshole is back, and he’s quite pissed off you found his hidey hole,” Shade said, looking over Jordan’s shoulder.

Tiffany ran back in and handed the shovel to Sunny, who gave it to Jordan. She met her gaze and nodded once.

“I’ll hold him, but it’s really not necessary. He’s losing power fast,” Shade said before Sunny distinctly heard the sound of digging.

“Oh, fuck me,” Jordan said.

The smell of death filled the room. “Are those what I think they are under that old tarp?”

“Yes,” Jordan answered. “C’mon, we have to go.”

“Aren’t we going to—”

“No. It’s a crime scene now.”

*

Sunny looked over and saw Jordan framed in the doorway of Eric and Frank’s apartment. Her gaze darted around the room before she saw her, and Sunny saw the relief soften the hard lines around her eyes.

“Can we leave yet?” Shade asked. “No offense,” she added to Frank, who looked shell-shocked in the chair across from them.

“They’ll call up when we can go.” Jordan sat down and Sunny took her hand before leaning against her and dropping her head on her shoulder.

Eric came in with a tray and poured more coffee. “What are we going to do?” He was clearly upset. “Who’s going to want to come and stay here after this publicity?”

“We’ve borrowed a fortune, and our life savings have gone into the hotel.” Frank’s hands shook, but he steadied them to gulp his coffee.

“You’d be surprised,” Shade said. “Ghost fanatics, the curious, and the thrill seekers. Sad, but true. Haunted castles and shit like that make a fortune in England too.”

Sunny let her eyes close while the conversation went on around her. The police had been downstairs for three hours, and gray morning light filtered through the apartment windows.

Jordan shifted and put an arm around her, holding her closer. Sunny was proud of the way Jordan had handled herself and the situation. After she went out to talk to the security officer in charge and they called homicide, the place had been swarmed with people in less than half an hour.

Jordan had to step back from the process because not only was she currently on suspension, it was also tied to a case that she was personally involved in.

Sunny recalled the way Jordan’s eyes had flashed fire when she got in the face of a detective who was first on the scene. He had been condescending and rude to the women when he heard why they were there. He made Jordan leave and separated the team, but once Jordan had gotten him alone, his tone seemed more respectful when he next questioned Sunny for her version of events.

Sunny could have told Jordan that she was quite capable of taking care of herself, but she found she didn’t want to. It felt good to let her take charge of the situation. She felt protected.

After they were questioned two more times, they were allowed to congregate in the owners’ apartment, where Sunny called her mother and asked her to clear the schedule for a few days. She only had to argue with her for ten minutes to convince her to stay home. It was getting easier, this thing called setting boundaries.