“And she didn’t tell you where?” he asked. “Sable didn’t give you one hint about where to find them?”
“I’m afraid not.”
As they spoke, I started to feel my energy draining. I inhaled deeply to get oxygen into my body and blinked to keep my eyes open.
“You okay?” Roan whispered.
“Just getting tired.”
“Lean on me if you need to.”
I grinned up at him. “Thanks.”
As soon as I let Roan take my weight, I immediately felt better. I wondered if he was using a little bit of his own ghostly abilities to ease me.
“Tex, is there anything else that you’d like to ask Sable before she has to leave us?” Zelda asked.
He shook his head. “That’s it.”
Sable wagged a finger at him. “Don’t forget about those pictures, Tubs. You even skip one room, and I will haunt your butt so hard your teeth will fall out.”
“She just wants to remind you about the pictures,” Zelda said.
“Oh, yeah, yeah,” he said dismissively. “Done.”
Sable smiled wickedly. “I know somebody who’s going to be haunted.”
Without another word, Sable disappeared. Zelda flashed me a secretive smile and I returned it, but I still felt wobbly and weak. It was as if Sable’s presence had sucked the life from me. Even with her gone, I felt my power draining. Not that Roan wasn’t helping—he was, but what he had to give couldn’t compete with what was being taken away.
“There is another spirit that must be contacted,” Zelda said. “Another spirit that wants to reach us from the great beyond. We hear your call, Spirit. Come forward. Speak to us, Vince Breneaux.”
A long silence ensued. Zelda’s mere mention of my father’s name had me on edge. Suddenly I forgot all about my fatigue as my heart drummed loudly in my chest and sweat sprinkled my brow. I bit down on my lip as I waited for my father to show up.
Because let’s face it, Zelda might not exactly have been a likable person, but she could call on some spirits. She could yank them from the afterlife in a way that I’d never seen done before.
But even though she’d had no problem getting Sable to appear, my father wasn’t showing.
“Vince Breneaux,” Zelda called. “Come to us. There is someone here who was very important to you, Blissful. She wants to speak to you. She has a message for you, Vincent.”
Tex glanced around the room and said with an uncomfortable laugh, “Maybe this guy doesn’t want to show his face.” He grinned at me. “He owe you some money?”
I almost kicked him under the table. “No. He’s my father.”
“Well, maybe he’s got a hot date.”
I was inches from telling Tex off, from letting him know loud and clear that I knew all about how he’d shot his wife and somehow got away with making it look like a suicide. I wanted to smack that gap-toothed grin right off his pudgy face, but I stopped myself.
My father would show up. I just knew it.
Zelda shot me a look. “Everyone must concentrate more. We must all be calling on this spirit with our hearts. We have to throw him an invisible line to follow so that he can come to us.”
She said that, but what she meant was,Blissful, you’ve got to give more of your power.
I wasn’t a brainiac, but even I could read between the lines. So I hunkered down and pushed my gift hard, pushed to see my father, opening myself up like a flower to the spiritual world.
It felt like my body was cracking open, I was focusing so hard. I just knew if I pushed, that my dad would come.
“Vince, are you here?” Zelda called. “Blissful wishes to speak to you. We need you here, on the other side. Cross over just this once for us, Vince. Cross to us and speak. We are waiting. I know you’re out there and that you can hear me. You’re so close. Just come a little closer so that we can reach you.”
