Lost Souls (A Caitlyn O’Connell Novel) (17 page)

“I told her not to go within twenty feet of that hall,” Sam said, his feet stomping beside her.

A pop sounded, and then a bright light shone from the hall. Standing in profile, Madame Xavier craned her neck to stare down the hallway, her gaze snagging on something, her eyes growing round.

“Sam, it’s charging up!” They were ten feet away, but Cait knew they weren’t going to make it.

“Oh my Lord,” the large redheadeded psychic said before a blinding arc darted outward, striking her wrist and then pulling upward like a whip.

Her arm jerked up, and she screamed.

She and Sam raced the last few feet but were too late. The arc whipped again and pulled Madame Xavier off her feet and out of sight, her scream halting abruptly. Another, fainter flash lit the hall.

If Cait had blinked she wouldn’t have seen them. Five nearly transparent spirits, faces locked in horror, Madame Xavier’s among them.

“Ohmygod… ohmygod.” Clayton fell to his knees and dragged in a deep, wheezing breath. “Mina, tell me you got that!”

“What a prince,” Syl whispered, her face ashen, even for a ghost.

The overhead lights flickered on.

Cait blinked then swung her head, finding Sam’s position before she could let loose the panic gripping her chest and manage to form a thought. Because for a second, her mind had frozen with fear.

“Madame looked thinner,” Sylvia said, her eyes tearing up.

Aiming a quelling glare at Sylvia, Cait edged toward Sam as he darted a glance around the corner. His shoulders dropped. “Nothing.
Goddammit.
”

“She’ll be famous.”

They both turned their heads to stare at Clayton, who’d snuck up behind Cait.

The large man’s face was ghostly pale, his eyes a little wild. “I know it’s sad, but she was well aware of the danger.”

Sam gripped the neck of Clayton’s T-shirt and backed him up against the opposite wall. “Did you talk her into going there?”

Clayton’s mouth opened and closed like a widemouthed bass. “She said she’d never seen anything like this place before. It’s what she wanted. To look beyond the veil, she said.”

Sam gave him a little shake, then loosened his grip. “I seriously doubt she intended to commit suicide,” he said, raking a hand through his hair and glaring.

“No, she thought perhaps she could communicate through it.”

Sam gave him one more disgusted stare, and then swept everyone gathered in the hallway. “That’s it. Everyone back. You,” he said, pointing at Clayton. “Get back into your room and close the fucking door. If anyone pops a nose outside, I’ll shoot it off.”

As the Reel PIs crew ambled back into their room, soft sobs sounded beside Cait. Glancing sideways, she saw rivulets of black mascaraed tears running down Sylvia’s face.

Sylvia scrubbed her tears with the back of her hand. “I know how scared she musta been. One minute joo knockin’ on Romeo’s door, and the next joo flyin’ through the air.” She rubbed a hand over her ass. “The landing really hurts.”

Cait shook her head to clear the sluggishness that followed an adrenaline buzz. “The landing. Where does that happen?”

“Inside a wall, then onto a floor. The wall opens up like a great big black mouth and takes you.”

Cait shivered. “Jesus, Syl. This can’t happen again. We have to find the incubus and somehow force him to finger his boss.”

When she glanced back at Sam, she spotted him staring, his face as dark as a storm cloud, hands on his hips. “Sylvia give you a description?” he asked, his voice dead even.

“It’s not very helpful. Eduardo looked like her favorite celebrity crush, Antonio Banderas.”

“I didn’t see anyone who looked like that during the questioning.”

Cait screwed up her face in a grimace, knowing Sam wasn’t going to like hearing this. “That’s because he looks like Eddie Bradley now.” She closed her lips and waited for him to process.

Sam’s eyes blinked once in confusion, then narrowed. “The EMT? How do you know?” His shoulders bunched.

“He flirted with me.”

Sam’s gaze hardened further as he stepped closer, towering over her. “You never mentioned it.”

His voice was so calm she knew he was getting madder by the second.

Cait ducked her head and rubbed a toe on the ugly carpet. Anything but meet his glance. “I didn’t think it was important.” From beneath her eyelashes, she watched his chest rise around a swift intake of breath.

“Dammit, Cait. That’s not for you to decide.”

Cait jerked up her chin. “How was I supposed to know his interest was in any way related to this?”

“He flirted with you. He knew you were with me. What the hell kind of
human
guy flirts with a death wish?”

Cait couldn’t help the flush of warmth that settled low in her belly. The man said the sexiest things all by accident. Another flush heated her cheeks. Now was not the time to notice something like that. A woman had just died.

Sam shook his head, likely reading everything she’d just thought.

“
Mija,
he jours?” Sylvia asked, stepping so close they could have bumped shoulders if Sylvia wasn’t a shade. The
woman’s sideways glance at her looked unimpressed as it slid up and down her body. “No accountin’ for taste.”

Jason walked past them. “Just have to make sure.” He flipped open the door to room 323 and disappeared inside.

A moment later he returned, nodding to Sam, and then giving Cait a weary look. “Since you’re the brainchild here, you figure out how we’re gonna tell Leland there’s another body in the wall.”

Leland didn’t say a word as he paced the floor of the hallway in front of Cait, Sam, and Jason. Every now and then, he’d pause beside her and raise his head, his mouth opening. Then it shut again and he growled, continuing to beat the carpet with his stomping feet.

“Nothing blew up,” she muttered.

He aimed a glare at her, then lifted a finger and shook it. “Another death. With you and one of my officers standing right there. How the hell are we gonna explain that the hell away?” He shoved a hand upward in an arc. “Goddamn it to hell, Cait.”

Her gaze dropped to her feet, and she scuffed her boots together, waiting for the storm to pass. “We do have a lead now.”

His gaze whipped back to her. “Gimme a name. I’ll have him hauled in for questioning.”

“Might be harder than finding Oscar Reyes.” Cait’s shoulder lifted and dropped. “Dude’s an incubus.”

His eyes squinted so hard, they nearly disappeared. His skin turned a frightening purplish red. “What the fuck is an incubus?”

“A seducer. He feeds on human pleasure and pain. They can be deadly if they take it too far.”

Sam cussed under his breath.

Cait lifted her chin. “Leland, it’s not like we have a playbook or a protocol to handle something like this. This is a demonic possession. Two demons are at work here.”

Leland paced and then spun, an arm flung outward. “I’m shuttin’ down the hotel.”

Cait fought to keep equal heat out of her voice. Arguing with Leland only made him more stubborn. “If you do, we might not find the incubus. He’ll be in the wind. But shutting down this floor to everyone except us is probably a good idea.”

For a long moment, Leland’s glance rested on her. His mouth worked like he was chewing his tongue. “I want that TV crew outta here and all their film confiscated.”

“We promised they could keep it.” An admission she wished she didn’t have to make.

“They can have it back after the investigation is closed, which by the looks of things may be never.”

“They’re the technical experts. They’re probably already cleaning up footage that will give us a clue as to what happened.”

Leland scrubbed a hand over his face. “Christ, how do I keep those morons from blabbing to the world?”

“Who’s gonna believe them? Look, you can hold them here for a while without filing charges.” She pointed at the
hallway floor. “We do have a missing woman. The fact we have her body won’t be confirmed for a while.”

“I’ll post uniforms on the stairwell doors and at the elevators. No one approaches the room after the body is hauled out. Sure it’s safe for our folks to go back in?”

Cait glanced away, thinking. “He put on quite a light show. A huge expenditure of energy. Plus none of the techs have been attacked so far. I think he only reacts when he feels threatened.”

The redness in Leland’s cheeks receded. “Cait, do you really think you can defeat this thing?”

Cait swallowed hard and felt a pinch deep in her chest. “How do you feel about burning down a hotel?”

His eyes nearly crossed. “You gotta be kidding me.”

She lifted her shoulders. “I have it on good authority it’s the only way to kill the demon in the walls.”

“Can’t exorcise his ass?” he asked, his voice rising again right along with his eyebrows.

“Want to risk him moving elsewhere to continue to kill?”

“That would be someone else’s problem,” he shouted.

She jerked her head back. “I’ll make sure that’s a last resort.”

He opened his mouth to speak again but sputtered. He clamped his jaws shut and pointed a finger at her. “Goddammit” was the most he could muster as his face twitched.

“I get it. This is all my fault.” She paused and put the calmest tone on her next words. “But you know it really isn’t.”

“If you weren’t here, we’d have found a frickin’ body and stuck the file in a cold-case box.”

“Think not knowing is better? Or someone else dying?”

“I think I need a drink. You make my teeth hurt.”

She cast her gaze down to avoid his continued stare. Better to keep her mouth shut too, or he might bust a blood vessel. He was so angry. She’d always had that effect on him, and she wasn’t sure why.

He’d known her dad and her mother. He’d respected Paddy O’Connell but didn’t have a great opinion of her mom. When Cait had worked under Leland, he’d given her a grudging benefit of the doubt that she’d turn out more like Paddy—a damn good cop without a shadow following him around. That hadn’t lasted long. Even when she wasn’t working full-moon cases, she’d managed to piss him off at every turn. Said it was on account of her mouthiness.

Leland grunted. “Sam, walk with me.” The two men wandered down the hall and then stopped for Leland to whisper harshly, veins popping at his temples while he pointed at her with stabbing moves.

She felt sorry for her ex.

“That went well,” Jason drawled.

She gave Jason a stony stare.

“We’re still working the case. We still have access to this floor.”

“Only because he knows his detectives aren’t safe here. He’s much more willing for us to get sucked into a wall.”

Jason gave her a small smile. “So, what do you think we should do next?”

What she wanted to do next was get the hell away from this floor for a while. She checked her watch. Almost nine p.m. “I need to attend an AA meeting.”

“Seriously? Now?” Jason stiffened. “I’m sure Sam would be happy as a clam, but… now?”

“There’s one happening in the dining room in a few minutes. Eddie Bradley mentioned he knew the guy who
runs it. Maybe he knows Eddie well enough to tell us where we might find him.”

Jason shook his head. “Eddie has to know it’s dodgy, that you might be on to him. Think approaching him on our own is safe?”

“Well, I’m not telling Sam.” She eyed Leland and Sam one more time, then set off for the elevators.

Jason let loose a long breath as he matched her stride. “This dude can be killed?”

“By any ordinary means. His shell is human. That doesn’t mean he won’t be hard to take down.”

“If he’s around here.”

“Oh, I think he will be. He’s arrogant. Thinks we’re too stupid to figure it out.” Reaching the elevators, she punched the button, then glanced back down the hall at Sam. He was still with Leland, but his sharp-featured face was turned toward her.

She gave him a little wave.

Jason glanced back too. “Cait, do you want this dude to be a demon because you like him?”

“I don’t need a new boyfriend.” Cait scowled. “I’m trying to hang on to the one I have.”

“Yeah, training us is so darn time-consuming,” he said, flashing a quick grin.

She studied him. “Are you seeing anyone?”

“You’re asking me about my personal life?”

She blushed. “I’m sorry. You know every pitiful fact about mine. I don’t know why I haven’t asked.”

Jason, his hands stuffed in his pockets, lifted his shoulders. “Up until a couple of months ago, you weren’t sober enough to hold a conversation and then remember it. Lately, you’ve had a lot on your plate. Everything’s
changing. I don’t think you’re self-absorbed, if that’s what worries you.” He smiled. “Tell you what, when this thing’s over, I’ll tell you all my dating woes.”

She grinned, then snuck a glance down the hall. Leland was still on his tirade, no doubt reading Sam the riot act and warning him not to give her an inch of rope he couldn’t yank. Sam’s face was red too, but his gaze was on her.

“Let’s head on down to the meeting,” she said. “We’ll catch up with him later.” And he’d have a chance to cool off before he approached her again. Sam didn’t like being laid into like he was a rookie. He’d been a Marine and was a decorated cop. She hated that she still affected his work relationships, although they weren’t even married and she wasn’t on the force any longer. He must think she was nothing but bad luck.