“Yes. And I have plans to make him pay for that.”
Spencer twirled the stem of the wineglass between his fingers, watching the red liquid slosh against the side. “You think he found someone else to do his dirty work for him, don’t you? Someone who already had the right to be in Seattle.”
Takoma didn’t deny that. “Which is why we’re focusing on the Cascade Coven. They already proved they’re willing to ally themselves with the Spokane Night Court. They can all pay the price. My people are on the hunt for Alyona. When I find her, I won’t leave Adler’s or Rufus’ people alive.”
Spencer held up a hand, wincing at that statement. “Whoa, whoa. Don’t mention murder where I can hear.”
“You can lie.”
“I’d rather not.” He took a large sip of wine, savoring the taste. “Did Alyona have a tracker?”
“On her vehicle and phone but not on her person.”
Spencer frowned, thinking of when Fatima let Takoma play around with his phone. “Did you put one in mine?”
Takoma arched an eyebrow as he set his chopping knife aside. “What do you think?”
“I think I’m going to need to get a new phone.”
“The spirit sister would just give me access again.” Takoma picked up the cutting board and turned to scrape the garlic into the pan of olive oil and chili flakes heating on the stove. “What did you find in Adler’s home?”
“That the Cascade Coven worships her ancestor.”
“Many people do. That’s not a crime.”
“It is when you have a coffin set up in a hidden basement to act as an altar.” Spencer pulled out his phone and unlocked it, tapping at his photo gallery icon to get to the ones he’d taken during the search. He stretched his arm out, pointing the screen at Takoma to see. “You can’t keep dead bodies in residential neighborhoods like this, especially when they contain a poltergeist.”
Takoma rested his hands against the edge of the island as the noodles boiled behind him on the stove and the oil warmed with its garlic and chili flakes. The kitchen was starting to smell delicious, and Spencer couldn’t ignore his hunger anymore.
“You think the poltergeist resided in the bones?”
Spencer turned the phone so he could swipe to the next picture containing one of the portraits on the basement wall. “In the forest, the ghost took the form of someone who wore clothes from a different time. What it looked like matched the person in this portrait. Did you know them?”
Takoma eyed the portrait, expression never changing. “That’s John Adler. He arrived with the Denny Party in the eighteen hundreds.”
“Did you kill him?”
“I killed his sons for their crimes of murdering children and elders of my tribe in order to gain acres of land they had no right to. Your government at the time didn’t even arrest them, and no charges were ever levied against them. They’d have walked free if not for my judgment.” Takoma pushed away from the island to finish up the pasta. “It hurt John Adler more to outlive his children than anything else. I thought that a fitting punishment for the desecration of my people and land.”
“Seems his family still survived.”
Takoma shrugged. “He had a daughter who arrived with her husband from the east when illness finally took him. She was barely a hedge witch, not worth his time, by my recollection. She took control of the Cascade Coven after his death. I can only assume that’s when their worship of the dead began.”
Spencer switched over to his email to send one off to Kori, asking her to look into historical records of the Adler family and the Cascade Coven’s settling in Seattle. “If the poltergeist is John Adler, then he probably died with unfinished business, which is why his soul is still here.”
“And what unfinished business would that be?”
Spencer looked up from his phone, meeting Takoma’s eyes as the master vampire turned around with a large shallow bowl filled with pasta in his hand. “You.”
Takoma leaned across the island to set the pasta in front of Spencer before retrieving a fork from a drawer and handing that over as well. “You think the Cascade Coven’s founder has stuck around this long solely out of revenge?”
Spencer stabbed the fork into the mound of pasta, twirling some of the noodles around the prongs. He took a bite, chewing and swallowing the mouthful before speaking. “The poltergeist was after you in the hotels.”
“It was after you in the forest.”
Spencer pointed his fork at Takoma. “Where you were as well.”
Takoma hummed in acknowledgment of that. “You really think this poltergeist is John Adler and he wants me dead?”
