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  Avery leaned forward, fascinated. “Was Evelyn a charlatan?”

  “Hard to know for sure. That’s partly why we’re investigating the house. I think I told you that Rupert and Charlotte are fairly obsessed with this kind of thing, particularly Rupert. Apparently, he’s wanted to buy this house for years.”

  “How do you know?” El asked.

  Ben shrugged. “He told us. He develops this fervent glint in his eye when he talks about the house. Makes him look feral.”

  “Anyway,” Dylan continued, “from what I could find out through various sources, she bought the house in 1928. By then she had a reputation, she’d made good money, and she moved in. It’s big and imposing, good for impressing people, as you saw. It wasn’t called the House of Spirits at the time. She named it later, had renovations done. For years the business did well, up until about 1938, and then something happened.” He paused dramatically.

  Caspian had been silent for a while, listening intently, almost an outsider in the group, but then he said, “She disappeared.”

  “Sort of. She retreated into solitude with her daughter. She stopped all her séances, all her private work, and wasn’t ever really seen again.”

  “And her daughter?” Caspian asked.

  “She’d have been a teenager by then. But no one saw her much, either. They dismissed the servants, and apart from the daughter who went out for shopping, they pretty much became recluses. They both died in the house—several years apart, of course.”

  “Wow,” Avery said, feeling sorry for them. “Imagine living in a house for so long and never going out!”

  Briar looked shocked. “Felicity never moved out? Never got married, never did anything?”

  Dylan shook his head, looking as perplexed as Briar. “No. She inherited the house from her mother, who died in 1979, and just stayed there, letting it decay around her.”

  “She’d have been, what—97, 98 when she died?” Reuben speculated. “Living on her own?”

  Cassie stirred from where she’d been listening in the corner of the sofa. “She had a cleaner for the last twenty years or so. She inherited everything.”

  “But,” Dylan said, “she sold the house as soon as she could—to Rupert. It was a very quick sale.”

  “What was the cleaner’s name?” Newton asked, pulling out his notebook.

  Ben looked frustrated. “Joan Tiernan. We’ve tried to contact her, but she hasn’t responded to our calls, yet.”

  “She could know quite a few things about that house,” El speculated.

  Ben nodded. “That’s what we think, too.”

  “Have Rupert or his wife, Charlotte, spoken to her?” Alex asked.

  “It doesn’t sound like it,” Cassie said. “They only dealt with the estate agent for the sale. They’re just focusing on renovating the house, and finding out its secrets.”

  Briar frowned. “Secrets?”

  “Hidden panels, mechanisms, tricks—anything that could indicate Evelyn was a fraud. Or better still, the real deal,” Ben explained.

  Newton stood and paced the room, looking very policeman-like. “I need to get this straight. Felicity dies, leaves the house to Joan, and she sells it to Rupert, Mr Occult. At what point do they employ you?” he asked Ben, Dylan, and Cassie.

  “Right after they start renovating,” Ben explained. “We were on the news because of the events at Samhain, and they thought we could investigate the house—even though nothing was really happening, as far as hauntings go. We agreed...the house sounded interesting.”

  Newtown stopped pacing and stood, deep in thought. “But what links the house to these disappearances and murders?”

  Ben gave a wry smile as he looked at Avery. “Witches don’t like coincidences. And now there’s timing. From what you’ve just said, the disappearances started at the same time as Felicity died. And then Charlotte told us that she’s been experiencing strange dreams about someone standing over her in the night—for a while, by the way—not just the last few nights. She came clean about that today.”

  “Did you have a chance to examine the footage?” Reuben asked.

  Dylan nodded. “Yes, and it’s looking really odd. At about two in the morning she gets out of bed and heads to the window, opens it, and returns to bed. Then for a few minutes we lose part of her image as something comes between her and the camera. We can hear a strange breathing noise, and a rasping sound, but we can’t see anything on thermal imaging. Nothing. And then we see her again. And that’s it.” He spread his hands wide, perplexed. “We’ll keep filming, obviously.”

  Avery had a horrible thought. “Is she wearing a scarf around her neck?”

  Cassie met her eyes, fear lurking behind them. “All the time. Silk ones, of varying designs.”

  “Holy shit!” Reuben exclaimed, looking at Avery. “We talked about the possibility of that in the car. The vampire has his own blood bank.”

  Cassie almost shrieked. “And she lets it in?”

  “Just like Dracula,” El murmured. “He was very persuasive.”

  “And there’s nothing in the rest of the house?” Avery asked.

  “No. But we found something else,” Ben added.

  “What?” Newton asked.

  “All that poking about with panels has paid off. Rupert found a panel that opens to a hidden staircase that leads up to the tower room, and there’s all sorts of weirdness up there!”

  At that point, anyone who wasn’t paying full attention was now, edging forward on their seats.

  “Go on,” Alex prompted.

  Dylan elaborated. “Well, from the outside it’s a square tower, but inside there are painted wooden panels that make the room circular instead. There are sigils and signs on the floor, too.”

  Avery shuffled in her chair. “What kind of paintings?”

  “Demons, and what look like tarot images,” Cassie told her.

  “We need to see it,” Reuben said immediately.

  Ben nodded. “Yes, you do. I’m wondering if the attic is the seat of power in the house, actually.”

  “Although,” Dylan added quickly, “there are no EMF readings up there at all at the moment. We checked it out today.”

  “That reminds me,” Reuben said, reaching into his jeans pocket. “We found this yesterday afternoon.” He pulled an envelope out and then from inside that, the yellowed scrap of paper with the signs of the moon on it. “When we were at the house yesterday, we found this under the hearth where the witch-bottle was found.”

  Caspian took it and examined it, and then passed it to Alex. “I didn’t know there was a witch-bottle.”

  “Ben showed it to me,” Avery said, and Ben nodded. “I presumed Evelyn had felt threatened and needed to protect herself from some curse or something. I must admit, I thought it was older, initially—maybe a couple of hundred years, but I must be wrong.”

  Caspian looked at her speculatively. “Maybe not. The house is old. It could have been there from a long time before. Maybe there’s always been something about that house. Maybe something that predates Evelyn. Was there anything unusual about the bottle?”

  “Not that I could tell. It contained nails, sharp objects, blood, skin, human nail cuttings—the usual.” She turned to Dylan. “Did you film in the tower?”

  “No, just ran the EMF metre around it.”

  Newton huffed impatiently. “Did you test the walls?”

  Ben looked disappointed. “We did, but they all sounded the same—hollow. But that’s not surprising. There must be a gap between the panels and the walls.”

  “Maybe they hide a passageway?” El suggested.

  Reuben grinned. “You need to get us back in the house.”

  13

  By unspoken agreement they took a break, some refreshing drinks and topping up on food, while others clustered in small groups to discuss their findings.

  Alex was in the kitchen getting another beer, and Avery was bringing more cheese out of the fridge. “Before we do anything,”
Alex said to her, “we need to do some more homework. I don’t think any of us should be blundering into that room without knowing more about that house or vampires.”

  “Agreed,” Caspian said, joining them to refill his red wine. “There’s a vampire out there—well, two now, that we know of. I do not want to stumble into their resting place unprepared.”

  Avery sighed and rolled her shoulders to try and release her tension. “I agree, but we haven’t got a lot of time. I mean, the deaths and disappearances have happened so quickly, to wait even a couple of days will inevitably mean someone else will die.”

  Alex nodded. “Then we divide up, cut the work in half, just like Genevieve suggested to the coven. Come on, let’s get this done with.” He turned and led them back to the living room.

  Newton was partway through a conversation with Reuben and looked agonised. “Well, yes and no. But, that thing has kidnapped someone, for all we know. It could be out again tonight. We have to stop it quickly.”

  “I agree,” Reuben said, leaning against the wall, looking nonchalant despite the risks they faced. “But we need a plan.” He called over to Ben, “Did you hear from Jasper today?”

  Ben straightened up from where he’d crouched, talking to Briar and El. “Yes, sorry, meant to tell you. He’s coming over to our place tomorrow. He and Dylan are going to get geeky over research.”

  Dylan wagged a finger at him. “That research may just save your miserable ass, my friend!”

  Caspian frowned. “Check as far back as you can. If that witch-bottle is old, then maybe something dark has been happening around that house for a long time.”

  “And what can I do?” Briar asked, looking around the room. “I feel useless at the moment.”

  “You’re far from useless,” Newton said, his eyes shadowed. “You weren’t useless last night.”

  “I wasn’t the one beheading vampires-to-be. That was Alex.”

  “And I’ll never forget it,” Alex said, regretfully. He smiled at Briar. “Don’t worry. There’ll be plenty to do when the time comes. Ben, when can we get in that house?”

  Ben rubbed his forehead. “I don’t know. I’m not sure Rupert will want you in there. He was a bit annoyed to find Avery and Reuben there, actually.”

  “We’ve glamoured people before,” Reuben reminded them. “We glamoured Stan out of White Haven for a few days before Samhain, and I’m sure we can do the same with Rupert.”

  “No,” Newton insisted. “Not a chance.”

  “Spoilsport,” Reuben said, looking annoyed. “You like us breaking the rules if you need us.”

  Cassie brightened. “I know when! They’re away this weekend—don’t you remember them saying so, guys? Charlotte told us they have to go to her sister’s birthday party. They leave Saturday morning!”

  “That’s right,” Dylan agreed, excited. “They’re back on Sunday. They know we’ll be in there checking the cameras, so you could come with us. They’d never know.”

  “Excellent,” Reuben said, stretching to his full height and grinning like the Cheshire cat. “We have three days to find out the secrets of that house—well, you do,” he said, looking at Dylan. “And we have three days to try to figure out what we’re facing, and to track missing, newly-turned vamps, and one lair.”

  “Or several lairs,” Alex reminded him, looking thoughtful. “We could check out likely dark and secure places within a reasonable radius.”

  “Three days to hone my vampire hunting skills and spells,” El said, not looking half as excited as Reuben.

  “By the way,” Avery said, “Shadow wants to help with this. I haven’t given her an answer yet.”

  Alex shook his head. “I don’t want her help. I don’t trust her. I don’t know her!”

  “I’ll call her,” El offered. “My sister may be able to help make vampire-killing equipment. That way I can get to know her, and suss out her motives.”

  “Have we missed anything?” Newton asked, pacing again.

  “Yes,” Caspian said, as he put his glass down and pulled his coat on. “Get us the autopsy report, and check Rupert and Charlotte’s background. I agree with Avery. He sounds dodgy.”

  Newton rubbed his hands through his hair, and absent-mindedly stroked the scar on his neck as he did so. “Yes, I could see if they have a record of any sort, or check where they came from. It shouldn’t be too difficult.”

  Caspian frowned and paused. “What happened when the people at the morgue discovered the mess this morning?”

  Avery had been meaning to ask that all evening, but had become distracted by everything else, and so had the others by the look of their reactions. Everyone focused on Newton.

  He exhaled heavily. “There was utter hysteria from a couple of people, a few who thought it was a sick prank, but most were just shocked. We shut the whole place down for the day while we investigated. They’ll have to get the roof repaired, and that freezer door, and we’ve all had to have some horrible conversations with family members. It was like a horror show in there.”

  “You should have been there last night,” Alex said. He’d sat down again and was watching Newton with tired eyes.

  Newton nodded. “The morgue has a 24-hour police watch on it now, and will have for the next few days—until we can decide if it might happen again.”

  “Is anybody linking the deaths with vampires?” Caspian asked.

  “Only in a jokey, unbelievable kind of way. No one really thinks there’s a vampire on the loose. Although, as you can imagine, there have been a lot of questions as to why someone would behead dead girls and steal a body. And it hasn’t gone unnoticed that the freezer door was kicked off from the inside.”

  “And the press?”

  “I give it until tomorrow,” Newton answered. “That Sarah woman from Cornwall TV will be all over this, I guarantee it.”

  “No links to us, though, right?” Reuben asked.

  “None. And it will stay that way.” He looked around at them all, frowning. “I still wish you’d told me what you were planning.”

  Avery tried to reassure him. “There was no time. And besides, you can’t get involved in this. You know the rules. You’re a policeman. We’re protecting you...your job.”

  “I know.” Newton sighed. He looked across at Ben, Dylan, and Cassie. “Make sure you don’t go anywhere alone at night, especially around that house.”

  Cassie shuddered. “Don’t worry, we won’t.”

  “Take some of my protection wreaths with you.” Avery walked over to the table where she’d stacked them up. “Hang them on your front and back doors, and don’t let anyone in that you don’t know.”

  Alex agreed. “That thing we saw last night looked distinctly inhuman, but it could have a sort of glamour to look human when it wants to.”

  Briar looked up, her face drawn. She’d been in quiet conversation with El. “What if it tracked us after last night?”

  As one, they all looked towards the windows. Avery had drawn her blinds against the night, but they were all aware how cold and dark it was outside, and the night was a vampire’s friend.

  “You can stay with me again tonight if you want,” Caspian said to Briar, pausing by the door.

  Ever since Briar and Caspian had teamed up to save El from the curse, they seemed to have reached a new understanding. Briar hadn’t hesitated to help Caspian the night before, and he didn’t have a problem with her staying at Faversham central. Avery couldn’t believe how things had changed since the summer and after Sebastian’s death. Apparently, Newton couldn’t either, because he released a barely-suppressed huff of annoyance at the suggestion. He needn’t have worried, as she declined.

  “Thanks, but I need to stay at home tonight. I’ll be fine.”

  “I pity the vampire who tries to attack you,” Caspian said, laughing briefly. “I’m going to investigate the area for possible places for them to hide. I’ll be in touch.” And with that, he left.

  Dylan started to get ready to leave,
too, addressing his partners. “Come on, guys. I want to go home and try to sleep. I have a feeling that sleep is something I’m going to miss over the coming days.”

  “I’ll be interested to hear what you find out about that old place,” Reuben said, reaching for another beer.

  Cassie rose to her feet, grabbed her coat, and headed to the door behind Dylan. “Me, too. I’m starting to wonder what we’ve got ourselves involved in. Thanks for the food, Avery, and good to see you all again. We’ll call with updates.”

  Newton picked his jacket up from the back of a chair, and as he followed the ghost-hunters out the door, he looked back at the witches. “Don’t take any chances. And please, try not to behead any dead bodies again.”

  Avery wondered if she was reading too much into how he looked at Briar, and how she returned his glance, but she decided that whatever was going on between them was none of her business.

  Once the witches were alone, Avery started to feel the weight of their situation sink in. It felt huge. A vampire on the loose that was killing and creating new vampires; they could all be at risk.

  Reuben had been energetic during the meeting, standing for most of the time and leading much of the discussion, but once everyone had left he sank into a chair, his shoulders bowed.

  “Are you all right?” El asked, sitting next to him.

  “I’m fine, just daunted at what we’re facing.”

  She squeezed his arm. “It’s no worse than what we’ve faced before, it’s just...different.”

  Briar laughed, dryly. “That’s one way of putting it.”

  Alex and Avery joined them on the sofa, and Avery felt herself relax finally, comfortable with her coven. It had taken her a while to acknowledge the other witches as that, but tonight, finally, she felt they were, and she trusted them with her life. She turned to them, smiling shyly. “I’m glad I got to know you all properly. My life is better because of it.”

  El grinned. “Thanks, Avery. So is ours.”

  Reuben snorted. “Snowflake.”

  “Sod off, Reuben,” Avery retorted.

  He laughed. “Kidding. So is mine, although it took Gil’s death to make me see it.”