Midnight Hour (Shadow Falls: After Dark #4)(101)

Perry could imagine how Miranda felt. “Is she okay?”

“Spoke with Holiday, she’s fine.”

Perry considered the information. “Do you think Bell knows where Jax is?”

“My thoughts exactly.” Burnett looked at Shawn. “I’m texting you the address. Bell neglected to give a city, so do a wide search on it. You

two do that while I finish up in there. I’m gonna see if I can’t break these guys.”

Perry wondered if that pun wasn’t intended.

*

“Why me?” Miranda paced in the living room, wearing only her pink fluffy robe. She kept pulling on the belt, tightening it, cinching it,

knotting it. It felt as if that two-inch sash of nubby cotton was all that held her together.

If it came undone, so would Miranda.

Della, Holiday, and Kylie all sat on the sofa. Miranda couldn’t sit still. Her nerves hadn’t stopped buzzing, her skin crawling, or her heart

pounding against her rib cage as if wanting to break free to find a needy donor. Probably one who didn’t have a ghost popping in the shower.

Holiday, looking as calm as Sunday morning, leaned forward. “Did you see her?”

“No.” Miranda gave the belt another yank. And her gaze went to the window. The blinds were up. A summer storm brewed outside. In the distance

she saw lightning bolt across the sky. The trees swayed, back and forth. She stopped and watched them dance in the wind.

“Did she speak to you?” Holiday asked, in a normal voice, but it somehow sounded like a whisper.

“No.” Miranda shook her head.

“Did you feel her?” the fae asked.

Miranda looked away from the window. “I felt the cold. Fingers of cold, touching me … everywhere.” She looked back at Holiday and her two

best friends. They’d all dealt with this. She felt like a wimp for losing it.

“Take a deep breath,” Holiday said. “You’re completely safe. You know that, don’t you?”

Miranda nodded. But knowing it and feeling it were two different things. Fine, she’d just admit it. She was a wimp.

“Sit down and try to relax,” Holiday suggested.

She yanked on the belt. “I need to move.” She started walking again.

Holiday paused. “Did you pick up any emotions?”

Miranda looked at her not sure what she meant.

“Sometimes we take on the ghost’s emotions and that can be a clue to what they need, or what they’re trying to tell you.”

“I didn’t … Wait. I got a premonition.”

“You sure that’s what it was?”

“I can’t be a hundred percent sure. But it felt the same.” Miranda gave her belt another tug.

“What does that feel like?”

Miranda stopped by the window again. “Like someone vacuumed out all your joy. Like you got some terrible news.” She turned and looked at

Holiday. “Why me? Not you?”

“She somehow connected to you.”

“I’m a witch. Witches don’t do ghosts and I’ve never even been to the falls!” The waterfalls on Shadow Falls’ property were known to be

where the death angels hung out, and many who went there were doomed to be visited by spirits.

“Has it called you?” Kylie asked. “Like, have you heard it?”

“No.” But then she remembered hearing the sound of water. Hadn’t that just been the creek? Oh damn.

“You don’t sound sure,” Della said.

“I said no!” Miranda snapped.

“Sorry,” Della said. That’s when Miranda knew how bad things must be. Della seldom apologized.

Holiday stood and put her hands on Miranda’s shoulders. A wave of calm had her heart slowing down. “Try sitting down.”

Miranda dropped in a chair. Holiday sat on the arm, as if she might need to be close.

And maybe she did. Miranda’s insides hadn’t stopped trembling.

Right then she heard the wind outside. She heard trees lashing in the air. She heard sadness, pain, and grief.

“Two things could be happening here,” Holiday said. “Ghosts with strong motivation can attach themselves to anyone—even someone without the

gift of spirit communication. Bell probably followed Perry when he picked up her baby. She knew Perry. So chances are, she trusted him. Then he

gave you the baby. For a mom to see a stranger take her infant, it might have given her the energy to attach herself to you.”

“I didn’t have the baby when she came here. I was butt naked in the shower.”

“The spirit of Lucas’s grandmother came to me in the shower. Talk about an awkward way to visit with his family.” Kylie half grinned as if

trying to throw some humor in the thick tension. The tension sucked it up and tossed it out into the storm.

Holiday continued. “If Bell is simply attached to you, and she needed to communicate with someone, she’d choose you. But the likelihood of it

happening again would be rare.”

Miranda took a deep breath. That didn’t sound bad. For all she knew, Bell could be done communicating. Then she remembered. “What’s the

other thing? You said it could be two things.”