Page 26 of Queens Will Play

Again, she shook her head. “Not much. It was built in the 1950s, by a couple who came over from Greece. They were independently wealthy and never had any children. After they died, the house sat empty for thirty years until we fell in love with it, and we’ve put a lot of money and sweat equity into fixing it up.”

I sat on the bed, closing my eyes, trying to will a vision of what the creature could be. Delilah didn’t think it was a ghost, so it had to be either from the astral plane, or have a natural ability to turn invisible. I tried to pick up the energy signature, and a faint flare of energy appeared. The creature’s footprint. I examined the force, which appeared like a pale blue line…

The energy reminded me of ice—of a smooth trail of ice, but the edges were ragged, like a three-dimensional EKG turned so it was a ribbon rather than on edge. I slowly stood and walked over to where it began. The beginning of the signature was hanging in midair, and I reached out to touch it. As I did, a deep reverberation raced through my body, like the clanging of a thunderous bell. Whatever this creature was, its life-force was strong. I tried to take hold of the magic, to feel it out.

As I tuned in, a ravenous hunger swept over me, so strong it hurt through to the bone. I tried to hold on, to avoid breaking off contact. The hunger grew, but mingled with it was another desire—to spread, to reproduce, to…lay my eggs? Letting go, I dropped back to lay on the bed.

“I think I know what it wants, though I still don’t know what it is,” I said.

“What’s it looking for?” Marion asked, still fingering her back.

“A host. I’m not sure if gender plays a role, but the creature’s looking for someone to lay its eggs in. To be host for them. When the eggs hatched, the hell-babies would probably drain you dry of your life force.” Shuddering, I turned to the others. “We need to find out what this is, and why it’s here.”

“What were the names of the couple who built the house? Do you know?” Delilah asked.

Marion shook her head. “No, that’s all the lawyer told me when we looked into buying the place. I can give you her name. She might know.”

While Delilah took down the lawyer’s name, Menolly, Trillian and I conferred.

“Do you think it’s safe for Marion and Douglas to stay here?” he asked.

I shook my head. “No, but I also don’t know whether the creature would follow her. For some reason, it seems to be fixated on Marion.”

“Maybe she has the wavelength most beneficial to growing the creature’s children?” Menolly asked.

That was a thought. Every individual was unique, and sometimes we gravitated toward certain people because we connected better with them on an energetic level. The same could be true for creatures looking for a specific type of energy.

Marion pressed her hand on her stomach, looking a little green. “Are you saying it’s trying to make me into an incubator?”

“I think so,” I said. “I can’t be sure, but that’s the sense I got.”

“I hate parasites,” she whispered. “I’m not going to be a host, like some character out of Alien. Not going to happen!” She headed for her closet. “If I have to, I’ll go without sleep. I’ll set an alarm for every half hour to wake me up in case I can’t resist. I’ll…” Her expression fell. She sank down beside me again. “What am I going to do?”

“Don’t sweat it. We’re going to get to the bottom of this,” I said. “We’ll pay a visit to our friend Carter and ask him about it. Meanwhile, has it ever shown up during the day?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I never take naps.”

“You might want to give it a try. Have Douglas watch over you and wake you up at the first sign of anything wrong. If it isn’t active during the day, that’s at least a temporary fix to your problem. The restaurant will be fine if you leave one of your managers in charge for a week or so. Meanwhile, we’ll head over to Carter’s tomorrow, to ask whether he can identify what this might be.”

There couldn’t be that many octopus-shaped creatures running around loose on the astral, could there? Giving her a hug, we headed toward the door. At least we had more information than we had started with. Over the years, we’d learned the hard way, take every win that you managed to achieve. Even if it was small.

We dropped Delilah off at her house, waiting to make certain she got inside all right, then took Menolly home. Once we were alone, Trillian and I headed for home, discussing what was going on at Marion’s house.

“I’ve never felt anything quite like it. The energy is reminiscent of so many monsters we’ve fought, but just different enough to be unrecognizable. Not quite demonic, not quite a spirit, not quite…” I paused, trying to run over everything we’d fought in the past. “Whatever it is, I don’t think we’ve ever encountered it.”

“That’s not a good feeling,” Trillian said. “I like to know what I’m fighting.”

“I’ll text Carter. Even if he doesn’t see it till morning, at least he can start right in when he gets up.” I stopped, realizing how that sounded. “Well, hopefully he’ll have time.”

“Speaking of, you know we really should get him something as a thank you for all the work he’s done for us,” Trillian added. “What do you think he’d like?”

“A properly trained Sub,” I said, laughing. “Hey, you asked,” I added as Trillian rolled his eyes. “Seriously, though? That’s a good idea. Except I have no idea what his hobbies are or what he likes other than ostentatious furniture that reminds me of the heyday of old Hollywood.”

“Maybe we should look through the antique shops?” He edged through the narrow lane to where we could park near the Barrow.

“Good idea. I know a couple little vintage shops we can check out. We can do that next week sometime,” I said, yawning. I was ready for bed, given it was almost three-thirty.

As we got out of the car, three of my guards raced over. I was in for a lecture from my advisors. But I was too tired and too worried about Marion to care. As we headed inside, the guards remained silent, but I could feel the tension in their steps.