Frowning, Daisy turned back to her patrol car. “I have just the thing. Give me a moment.” She headed over to it, just as the snow began to fall. “I hear we’re in for a deep freeze coming down out of Canada.”
“Lovely,” I said, focusing on the mist. It rose off the ground, staying near the tree. There was a quality to spirits who appeared as a misty form—a vaporous density that regular fog and mist didn’t have. There was also a sentience present, and whoever this was, they were watching me. A shiver raced down my spine—we weren’t safe here, that much I knew.
I began to back up and called out to Daisy, who was carrying a folding chair over for me. “Stay where you are.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked, stopping.
“Whatever’s here, it’s?—”
The mist suddenly moved, barreling toward me. I jumped out of the way, barely escaping a collision. As the mist passed by me, anger oozed out of it. Whatever it was, it wasn’t friendly. I kept my eye on it, backing away slowly. It stopped again, and even though it was a pillar of mist, I could swear it turned to face me again.
“What the hell is going on?” Daisy asked.
“Can you see it?” I asked.
“No—what am I looking for?”
“A pillar of mist—it’s right over there,” I said, pointing.
“I can’t see anything there except the snow and trees,” Daisy said, her voice rising. “What do you think it is?”
“I’m not sure, but it doesn’t like me. It charged me and I feel like it’s looking for an opening to attack.”
If this was actually the spirit of Lucretia, a side of her was emerging that I hadn’t encountered during life. She had known that Faron and I been an item. Had she hidden that she was upset about our history, even though, in the end, she had ended up his wife? Lucretia had seemed absolutely happy during the dinners we had with them. Had she been covering up a deeper resentment? Or was this something else other than her spirit? Some creature that had perhaps lured her off the road into the tree?
I couldn’t be sure — not just yet.
“I don’t know how to deal with spirits,” Daisy said. “I’ll take any advice you have.”
“I think we should get the hell out of here. I don’t have any of my tools with me, and—not knowing what this is—I don’t trust myself to take it on.” I began to back away again, holding out my hands to ward it off. “Whatever you are, whoever you are, we don’t want any trouble.”
The mist stayed where it was, but I could feel it seething, and I had no desire to turn my back on it. Daisy followed suit, until we were back to our cars. I kept an eye on the foggy creature, praying that it wouldn’t decide to come charging after us again.
“I wish I could see it,” Daisy said. “I can’t, though. Do you think it’s Lucretia? What’s your opinion?”
“I have no idea,” I said. “I can’t imagine that’s Lucretia’s spirit. If it is, she wasn’t like that, at least to my face, when she was alive.”
“What the hell do we do? I’d rather not just leave that spirit out here. What if somebody else decides to walk by?” Daisy slowly replaced her gun in her holster. “I suppose that would have done any good?” she asked, glancing at me as she did so.
I shook my head. “Weapons like guns or even daggers or swords—unless they’re magical, they won’t give you any protection against spirits. I’m going to have to consult Grams, I think. Meanwhile, why don’t you take a look in your files and see if anything else has ever happened in this spot? Has anybody else died here? Or nearby? I know that’s a tall order but —”
“I’ll go back to my office and look through my files. I’ll come over to talk to Faron after I’ve looked into it. Do you mind if I show up around 4 PM?.”
“That’s fine. We’ll see you then.”
Daisy waited till I was safely in my car, then hopped into hers. We pulled out simultaneously, and when we both safely back on the road, we took off.
On the way home, I put in a call to Grams. “Hey, I need your advice. Can I come over?”
“Of course, I’m planning on being home all day. Is something wrong?”
“I think so, and I need your advice on what to do about it.” As I headed for Grams, I breathed a sigh of relief. My great-grandmother was one of the smartest woman I knew, and she had resources at her fingertips that I didn’t. I had been learning more magic from her, and we were just starting into the study of demonology. If I was going to carry on the tradition of my father, and his father before him, I had to learn how to take on astral nasties and creatures from the demonic realm. It occurred to me, as I headed down the road, that I had better learn quickly because if I couldn’t even take on a ghost, I was going to be in big trouble.
CHAPTER SIX
Grams was waiting for me, a worried look on her face. “You sounded frantic on the phone. What’s going on?”
I explained the situation to her. “I keep thinking that can’t possibly be Lucretia’s ghost. I know that she was set on being the queen, and she knew that Faron and I had a past, but seriously—she ended up getting her wish. I didn’t take it away from her. And I had nothing to do with Faron being sterile.”
