Page 86 of Cold Sacrifice

Afterward, I drove us to Clairmont Street. The three of us got out of the car to stand in front of her shop. The sign on the door stated that her hours were from eleven in the morning to six in the evening. She was closed on Sundays and Mondays.

“She takes walk-ins on Fridays,” I murmured.

Joe grinned. “You going in for a reading next week?”

“Yeah,” I told him. “And if I find out she’s cheating people out of their money, I’ll take care of it.”

“Would Richard lie about that?” Joe asked.

I expected Richard to smart off at Joe’s question, but when I looked around, Richard was gone. I peered through the dark window but saw nothing. Still, I figured he was inside the shop being nosy.

“Let’s go home,” I said. “I want to see how Trinity and Lucy are doing before I sleep.”

“It’s early for us,” Joe said. “Richard might not be so bad to have around sometimes.”

I wasn’t sure what I expected—maybe Lucy and Trinity to be dancing under the moon naked while chanting and boiling things in a huge cauldron with bats flying around—but they sat at the kitchen table talking quietly and eating cake as Clementina watched the cake and Ash watched Clementina.

It was a little disappointing.

I dropped into a chair at the table while Joe poured me a cup of coffee. Lucy cut a slice of cake, slid it into a saucer, and pushed it across the table. Ash pressed himself against my legs and I scratched his head, and Trinity smiled at all of us.

“This is such a cozy, sweet place,” she said.

I grinned and forked up a piece of gooey cake. “We like it,” I said, then hissed with pain and dropped the fork as pain sliced through my arm.

Right where Jolene’s severed whip had melted into my flesh.

Lucy jumped up and Joe forgot the coffee and rushed to me.

“Kait,” Lucy cried. “What’s wrong?”

I looked up, about to tell them about the wound—which was now copiously bleeding—and saw Jolene standing behind Lucy, close enough to touch. Close enough to kill.

“No,” I yelled as Jolene, her stare on Lucy, lifted her arm and began to bring it down upon Lucy’s head. She was a ghost, and she shouldn’t have been able to hurt Lucy, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

I flung myself across the table and rammed into Lucy just as Jolene brought her arm down. She hit the chair instead of Lucy, and the wooden chair cracked down the back. If that had been Lucy’s head…

“Joe,” I screamed. “Get Lucy and Ash out of here.”

“Trinity?” he asked.

I pulled my smoking demon blade and went after the ghost. “Leave her,” I snapped.

Trinity didn’t argue but scooped up Clementina and shoved her at Joe. “Take her to safety.” And when the cat yowled and struggled, Trinity grabbed her face and stared into her eyes. “It’s not magic, Tina, it’s a fucking ghost, and she can hurt you. Go with him.”

As Joe disappeared through the kitchen door with his three charges, Trinity flattened herself against the wall and watched me fight something she couldn’t see, fear lighting her wide stare. But there was fascination, as well.

“I can still touch the world,” Jolene screamed. “I am not trapped. I am not dead.”

She sounded like she was trying to convince herself. Poor thing had been through a hell not many could comprehend. I felt for her, just like always, but I wouldn’t let my pity stop me from destroying her.

But Jolene wasn’t going to be forced into a spirit trap, and honestly, I had no idea how to hurt her. The only thing I could do to force her to cross over was to find the tether and sever it.

Then she wouldn’t have a choice. But how the hell could I find her tether? Maybe I could burn her bones, but that didn’t always automatically work. And with a warped, magical necromancer spirit, the chance of destroying her by burning her bones was low.

Joe was back in a few short minutes, and he carried two salt bags from the supply room. I didn’t have to tell him what to do. He’d been ghost hunting with me long enough to know.

Jolene seemed to grow stronger with each passing moment.