Chase pressed his lips together and let out a slow sigh. “Breathe, Sean. Take a slow, deep breath.”

Sean sniffled and caught his breath. I wished Nerissa was around. This boy was going to need some counseling for sure. But she was out at the scene of the apartment fire. Glancing around, I caught sight of a box of tissues and silently carried it over to Sean, stopping to gently pat him on the shoulder.

After a moment, Sean cleared his throat and wiped his eyes. “I…I saw someone else there. Two guys, actually.”

“Who? Can you describe them?” Chase was instantly alert again. “Were they being attacked, too?”

With a shake of his head, Sean turned a haunted look at his mother and Lindsey. “We know one of them, and the other…I think we saw him at that psychic fair we were at before the weird stuff started happening to the coven. I couldn’t believe they both just stood there watching. They didn’t do anything to try to help the officer.” Then, pausing, he hung his head. “But I didn’t try to help, either. I guess I’m just as bad.”

“Sean, there wasn’t anything you could have done. Please, know that. These creatures are terribly powerful and they would have killed you, too. Now, tell us who you saw and what they were doing.” I caught his gaze, unmasking my Fae glamour just enough to give my words a boost. Sean was young and impressionable.

He wiped his eyes again, then blew his nose, all the while staring at me. After a few seconds, he let out another breath. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. The guy we know—his name is Jake. Jake Evans. He’s a member of our Temple.”

“Jake?” Lindsey sounded shocked. “Jake Evans was there?” She turned to us. “Jake is—was—a member of our Temple. He belonged to our pagan study group, off which our coven and the training coven hived. Temple is for people who don’t want to actively work magic, but want to get together to study our beliefs in a less hands-on way, or for those who just don’t have the discipline or calling to attend Circle. They also celebrate the Sabbats—the high holidays—with us. But Jake left Temple last month.”

Jake. The name rang a bell. Where had I heard that recently? And then I snapped my fingers. “Does he frequent Mystic Charms?”

Lindsey nodded. “He makes a nuisance of himself there. Drives Beth nuts.”

“I think we saw him this morning.” I turned to Delilah. “Remember the guy we saw this morning at the shop? The one who seemed pissed he couldn’t find what he wanted?” Confused, I turned back to Lindsey. “I didn’t sense a lot of power coming from him.”

“He has very little of his own. But he’s easily manipulated and would make a good conduit.” Lindsey frowned. “Remember the mess that went down when we were being drained of energy near the equinox? Jake…that’s right about when he started to change. And right after that, he left Temple.”

“Why?” Delilah twisted her lip. “Did he get kicked out or leave on his own?”

“A little of both.” Lindsey glanced over at us. “As I mentioned, he craved power and was dabbling in questionable areas, magic that we don’t allow from the Temple members.” She paused, then said, “Camille, there’s something else about him. He joined the Aleksais Psychic Network and signed over his house to them. It’s up for sale now. He gave them all the money he had and moved into their commune. I know because his sister told me.”

There it was again. The Aleksais Psychic Network. More than ever, my intuition told me that we had to get in there and see what the hell they were doing. Remembering what else Sean had said, I turned back to the boy. “You said you saw someone else there?”

He nodded. “I don’t know his name, but he was standing back a ways, and he had…something in his hand. It looked like a scroll, and he was reading from it. He was a little on the short side, and had short hair…he wore glasses. He was at the fair, Mom. Ms. C—you remember him? He was talking to you a lot.”

Lindsey rubbed the bridge of her nose. “How can I forget? Halcon Davis. He made me nervous.”

And once again, we were right back to the Aleksais Psychic Network.

“Lindsey, you said Jake wasn’t very powerful on his own, but that he might make a good conduit. You also said he was starting to dabble in questionable areas. Do you mean necromancy or sorcery?”

Lindsey blanched. “Yeah, though I’m not sure which. I wouldn’t let him into the coven because when someone’s out for power, they can be dangerous even if they don’t have the innate abilities. And he wasn’t willing to abide by our rules. Several times, I almost kicked him out because he was a disruption. But I never thought…”

I mulled over what we knew. “I wonder if he’s being possessed. Could Halcon have been controlling him? And we know the Aleksais Psychic Network is tied into…a lot of nasty things.” I’d almost said Gulakah but caught myself before I slipped.

Lindsey closed her eyes. “Crap. You think someone was using him as a conduit to raise zombies?”

Sean let out a strangled cry. “Zombies?”

“Silence, Sean.” Lindsey motioned for him to be quiet.

I held her gaze. “Quite possibly. The scrolls for that usually take more than one person unless the spellcaster is advanced,” I finally said. “I think Jake is being used in this…situation.”

“You think Halcon is advanced enough to do it?” Delilah asked, cocking her head.

Pushing my chair back, I stood and crossed to the counter, where I poured myself a cup of the harshest coffee I’d taste all day. I grimaced as I sipped it, but I needed the jolt. “I don’t know. Quite possibly.” All I really knew was that he was connected with Gulakah.

Of course, we might be wrong. It wasn’t like we’d been wrong before—Harold Young had been an FBH out for power, and Dante’s Hellions had possessed one of the spirit seals but weren’t exactly hooked up with Shadow Wing, even though they thought they were.

But this time, I really believed there was a strong connection between the APN and Gulakah—and, therefore, Shadow Wing. We needed to be sure, though, and we needed to find out soon. And the ad in the Supe-R-Natural Weekly was our ticket to find out.

“Okay, here’s the deal. Sean, you stay out of the cemetery for now. Use the substitutions Lindsey taught you. Nobody say anything about this to anybody.” I looked directly at Sean. “Listen, I know you’ll be tempted to tell your friends, because hey—who sees zombies every day? But you can’t. A lot of people could get hurt if this gets out. Promise?”

He held my gaze for a moment, and then, swallowing, he gave me a single nod. “I get it. I promise.”

“Good. We’re counting on you.” I let out a long sigh. This was going to be a bumpy ride, and I wasn’t looking forward to it.

Chapter 5

After Lindsey, Tracy, and Sean left, we went back to Chase’s office. Delilah and I settled onto the sofa that was in the corner of the room. Chase must have been tired of sitting in his chair, because he eased onto his desk and sat there facing us, his legs spread apart like his balls were too big for him to close them. Men had that habit, I’d noticed.

“First, that’s not good for your foot to hang like that. And secondly…” Delilah’s expression darkened. “Dude, do you know what that reminds me of?” Her words hung in the air.

Chase looked blank for a moment, then blushed and quickly hobbled to his chair. “Sorry, I didn’t even think of that.”

“It’s water under the bridge, but you know, some visuals you just can’t get out of your brain. There’s not enough brain bleach in the world. And Erika’s lips planted around your cock is one of those images.” She grimaced.

Speechless that she actually went there, I stared at the ceiling…hard. Best to just let the subject die without resuscitating it.

Flustered, Chase shuffled through some papers, and I decided to take the reins of the conversation and steer it someplace a bit more relevant.

“Let’s talk about what Sean told us, shall we? But first, let me put in a quick call to Beth at Mystic Charms. I just want to verify something.” I pulled out my cell phone and dialed her number. She answered within two rings. “Beth, it’s Camille. You know that guy this morning? Jake? Can you tell me what his last name is?”

After a brief pause, she let out a little huff. “Evans. Jake Evans. I know because he bounced a check in here a few months ago, and I told him from that moment on, it was cash only if he wanted something. That’s how I got his address to send him those invoices—off the check. I also have a feeling he’s been plundering stuff from the store, though.”

“Shoplifting?”

“Well, he’s not paying for those books I think he hides under his coat and walks out with—the ones he doesn’t trash. But I haven’t been quick enough to stop him. I’m considering putting a hex on the section he frequents or something.”

I realized we’d forgotten to get the address for the Aleksais Psychic Network from Lindsey, if she even knew where it was. “Do you know where he’s currently living? Apparently he’s not at his old home, since he packed it up and moved to the Aleksais Psychic Network’s commune.”

“Just the address that was on the check. I still have it somewhere.” After a moment she came back on. “Sorry, PO box in Seattle. No home address. And about the Aleksais Psychic Network…they’re bad news, Camille. Don’t get involved with them.” Apparently another customer came into the shop. “Gotta go—customer up front.”

As I punched the End Call button, I glanced up. “Well, that confirms it—the guy in Mystic Charms this morning was Jake Evans. If he was out at the Wedgewood Cemetery early, and then at Mystic Charms this morning, he probably lives nearby. Which means the APN is somewhere in the area.”

“Unless he’s just hanging out in the city for the day.” Delilah shrugged. “We don’t know that the Aleksais Psychic Network is headquartered in the city. Could be they’re a ways out.”

“True. At least we know that Jake Evans is connected with them now. We know that he was in the graveyard with Halcon Davis, who was reading a scroll, and there were zombies there. They either instigated a murder or witnessed it and did nothing to stop it or report it.”

“So he’s a loser who has no power of his own, but he’s easily manipulated by others. Great. And now he’s digging up graves with a man who sounds like a librarian.” Chase let out a disgruntled snort. “Can’t we ever just get a run-of-the-mill break-and-enter, or maybe a bar brawl?”

“Be careful what you ask for, or you might get it. Want to break up a brawl between a couple of moonstruck werewolves, perhaps?” Delilah snickered, then sobered quickly.

“I was hoping that you guys could figure out if…the spirits were sucked out. Like last night?” Chase tossed his pen on the table. “If you told me five years ago I’d be asking questions like that, I would have carted you off to the loony bin.”

“We can,” I said. “Or at least, we can try. So, what’s our next step?”

Chase pulled up his computer. “Before we do anything else, let’s look up Jake in the records. See if he’s been…oh my. Jake Evans, is this him?” He turned the monitor so we could see it.

That was him, short, balding, a little pudgy, and snide looking. I nodded. “What’s he been up to?”

“Jake’s been a busy boy over the past few years. I wonder if Lindsey knows about his record…”

“What did he do?” Delilah asked.

“It seems that our friend Jake has played the con man fast and loose. He tried to pull off several pyramid schemes and managed to plea-bargain his way out of all the charges in return for information on his partners. He’s been arrested four times for shoplifting. He’s been arrested twice for brawling—in a bar no less, so maybe I will get what I was asking for.”

I frowned. What was a petty thug like Jake doing in the Temple to begin with? They usually watched the ethics of their members carefully, and stealing wasn’t high on the good-behavior list. “Find anything else?”

“Yeah. Two DUIs, a host of unpaid parking tickets, and he’s suspected in an attempt at insurance fraud. Apparently wasn’t enough proof to make an arrest on that one.” Chase frowned and sat back. “He’s a small-time con artist—why the hell is he robbing graves?”

“Because he’s easily influenced, and he has the potential to wreak havoc if he’s being used as a vessel. Remember, Gulakah was trying to control those with magical power using bhouts. Now that the bhouts have been scattered and his Demon Gate shattered, he’s looking for other ways to extend his influence. Halcon must have found him.”

“But wouldn’t it make more sense if Jake had power or influence?” Chase looked confused.

“Not necessarily. If Jake has the potential to be a good vessel, then it’s actually better for Gulakah that the guy’s a loser. He won’t have that much confidence, and that will make it easier to control him.”

“But why the grave robbing?” Chase looked confused.

“Well, they were sucking up spirits last night. Maybe they’re trying to find a way to replace the bhouts? Maybe the spirits are dislodged when the bodies are reanimated? Maybe the zombies are for some freakshow army and the spirits are for something else. I don’t know. But maybe Ivana can tell us what uses spirits have, seeing how she loves her garden of ghosts so dearly?” I glanced over at Delilah. “Menolly’s asleep. Tonight, I won’t be able to go with her if she visits Ivana because I’m due at Talamh Lonrach Oll for training. So I think we should pay a visit to the Maiden of Karask now.”