“If we can catch El Cadejos,” Alan said, “even if the footage is low light, we’ll have something to show the network. They want evidence, and spirits are something we can actually show them.”
Except, the spirit they were chasing didn’t exist. Lilith drummed her fingers against her thigh as a plan hatched in her mind. “I think I can help. If you want the spirit on film, I can make that happen.”
“Can you summon it?” Alan asked, his brow creeping toward his hairline.
Excitement bubbled in Lilith’s belly. This would be so much fun. “Something like that. Start recording. I’ll be back.”
“Where are you going?” Spencer asked.
“You’ll see.” Lilith spun toward the trees and took off at vampire speed. Even with her new friends’ enhanced senses, she doubted they saw much more than a blur as she entered the woods and hid behind a massive trunk.
Her sluggish pulse tried to sprint again, and her smile made her cheeks ache. She couldn’t wait to see the look on Spencer’s face. No way would the network cancel their show after this.
Picturing what she assumed El Cadejos would look like in her mind, she activated her glamour. Magic shimmered around her, transforming her image into a black sheepdog with hooves for feet and fiery red eyes. She didn’t shapeshift per se. Her body didn’t transform, but anyone looking at her would see the spirit dog, thanks to the magic surrounding her.
She started toward the road but paused. Her guise was too good. Shows like this never found exactly what they were looking for; they only found evidence of it. If she appeared looking precisely like El Cadejos, it wouldn’t be believable. She called on her magic again, blurring the illusion she’d created and making the sheepdog look more like a black misty blob with eyes. Flash this image on screen a few times, and viewers would fall off their comfy couch seats.
With her new guise in check, she prowled through the forest toward the team. Rebecca filmed Alan while he spun the tale of a local who claimed to have seen the ghostly beast. Spencer panned his camera left and right, scanning the woods for signs of spirit life.
Lilith stepped out from behind a tree, and Spencer froze. She ducked her head, shifting the image to look as if the dog blob were preparing to pounce, and he mouthed the words holy shit before shouting, “Alan!”
The host spun toward Spencer and then followed his gaze to the forest. “No fucking way.”
Lilith held in a giggle as she imagined the bleep that would replace Alan’s curse. She slipped back into the trees and reappeared closer to him.
“Are you getting this?” He looked at the beer bottle in his hand and dropped it on the ground.
“Yeah,” both Spencer and Rebecca replied, excitement in their voices.
Lilith let out a howl before darting back into the woods and dropping her glamour. That was enough “evidence” for one show. She returned to the road and found Spencer reviewing the footage on his camera while Alan beamed into Rebecca’s lens, rambling on about how exciting it was to see El Cadejos and how it must be time for him to change his life.
Spencer smiled as she approached, and she rested a hand on his shoulder and peered at the tiny screen attached to his camera. “How did I do?”
He laughed, unbelieving. “I had no idea you could summon ghosts. That was amazing.”
When his eyes met hers, a thousand butterflies came to life inside her stomach. If not for her phone buzzing in her pocket, the magnetism between them would have pulled her in, and her lips would’ve been planted on his without a second thought. Instead, she said, “I can’t,” and pulled out her phone.
She swiped open the messaging app and found a text from Deirdre: Esther ate her dinner! Whatever you’re doing, keep it up!
Lilith smiled. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt so alive, and the man standing next to her was the reason why. Soulmate or not, she couldn’t deny her attraction to him.
“What do you mean you can’t?” Spencer’s honey-smooth voice pulled her from her thoughts. “How else did you get the spirit to show itself?”
“The only beings I can summon are my familiars.” She held up a hand, and Percival swooped down to perch on her fingers. “I used my glamour to appear in the form of the dog.”
The awe that had occupied Spencer’s eyes vanished as his expression fell. “You faked it.”
Lilith’s smile faltered. “I had to. El Cadejos is a myth. You wouldn’t have found any evidence at all.”
He slammed the camera screen shut and squared his shoulders at her, his right eye twitching as he ground his teeth. “We never do.”
“Which is why your show is about to be canceled.” Was he mad at her? Surely she was misreading the irritation his body language implied. His stiff back and protruding neck tendons didn’t mean he was upset. “I was trying to help.”
He gave his head a tiny shake and looked at his friends. “Alan, Rebecca, you might as well stop. That was Lilith in the woods.”
“Really?” Alan strode toward them, smiling and not exhibiting the slightest bit of the anger radiating from Spencer. “Damn, your glamour is next level.”
“It’s top level.” She shrugged.
