Sapphire Nights (Crystal Magic Book 1)(80)

“You’re going to leave it up to Sam and me to help Valdis down?” Walker asked Harvey, trying to keep his tone neutral.

Harvey mumbled a few curse words under his breath. Or maybe he was chanting spells.

Valdis chose that moment to begin a chant in her own voice. “Go now, go back to the hell you created,” she shouted. “Take your greed and your pride, leave us this earth we were given.”

Walker’s hackles rose, and he increased his stride, pushing past Harvey.

“She’s praying,” Harvey offered. “She hears dead people, if you want to put it like that. It sounds as if she’s talking to one she knows, but she never explains, so we can only guess.”

“He shot me,” Valdis shouted in a deeper, different voice.

Harvey cursed louder and followed after Walker, beating at the bushes to warn the snakes.

“I’m guessing she’s not praying now?” Walker said wryly, leaping from rock to rock. For one insane moment, he wondered if Valdis might be channeling his father.

“She may have a broken ankle,” Sam called back in the voice of sanity. Walker wafted another. . . normal. . . prayer to the powers that be.

“They have all the dinero, the easy job, and I lived in a hovel!” It was Valdis speaking, but in a gruff voice with a slight accent.

“Juan,” Harvey said in horror. “She’s channeling Juan.”

“Sam, ask who shot Juan,” Walker called. Not that he believed Val was channeling ghosts so much as voices in her head, but he needed the distraction to keep his mind focused as he looked for safe places to put his boots.

He could hear her more clearly, so they were getting closer.

“Who shot you?” Sam asked, as if she were sitting in an interrogation room talking to a damned ghost.

“That freak Francois told his boyfriend,” the sepulchral voice shouted furiously. “How could I know he was listening? It was a private conversation!”

“Did Francois shoot you?” Sam asked in a carefully neutral voice.

“He got the gun! No way that sleaze would have one. The Kennedys ought to pay!” the weird voice cried.

Walker’s hackles rose even more. He was almost as reluctant as Harvey to climb higher. This was worse than watching some weird horror film. He expected a twirling puppet head or a flying doll to appear any moment. But Sam was up there—he had to reach Sam.

“They get away with murder, they should pay,” the voice continued angrily.

“Who did the Kennedys murder?” Sam asked in genuine puzzlement.

Walker climbed faster. Was Valdis a danger when she was hallucinating like this?

Hell, yes. He just had to pray she didn’t have a gun. But she was strong, stronger than Sam.

Heart in throat, he lengthened his stride, while Harvey beat the shrubs with his stick.





Chapter 26





“Who killed you?” Sam asked again, not daring to touch Valdis. Her aunt sat on a precarious ledge that couldn’t hold more than one. She swayed when she spoke.

Sam had fought past her fear of snakes to reach her aunt. Now she was almost as afraid of Val’s insanity as the snakes.

“The old fraud,” Valdis muttered in the guttural tone Sam had to assume was Juan. What had Cass said? Juan’s spirit was angry and would linger to speak when he was ready. Did she believe that out here on this eerie hillside, Valdis was channeling the security guard’s spirit? Or was this more theater?

“What old fraud?” Sam asked, unable to do more than listen for ominous rattles and to Walker climbing closer. She didn’t think she could even hand her aunt a bottle of water while she was in this state.

“I thought the boss did it,” the spirit voice grumbled. “But he was there then. Maybe it was him all the time. Killer!”

Apparently spirits didn’t remember names.

Valdis spoke more quietly and was starting to shudder. That couldn’t be good. What should she do now? Sam wished Cass was here.

Take her hands. Talk her down, a voice whispered through her head.

Sam freaked for half a second. Voices in her head were even worse than Val’s spirit voices. But then, insanely, she recognized Cass, who had apparently occupied her head for nearly a week. And the advice made sense, so she wouldn’t freak just yet.

Taking a deep breath to settle her rattled nerves, Sam stood and approached her aunt’s higher position. “Aunt Valdis, I think it’s time to come back. Cass says so.” She reached up and caught a bony hand.

Valdis clasped her hand and began moaning again.

Tell her to let go, to let the spirit free. Wish him into the light.

Sam wasn’t entirely certain the spirit belonged in the light, but lacking any better knowledge, she repeated Cass’s refrain aloud and stood on her toes to take Valdis’s other hand. Valdis continued swaying and shaking, but fell silent, which was almost a welcome relief.

With relief, she felt Walker reach the rocky plateau. She wanted to fling herself into his arms and have hysterics, but she was no longer a helpless child. Clinging to rational, she repeated Cass’s words aloud and tried to bring Valdis back, grateful when Walker added his strength by clasping her shoulder in his broad hand.

As if the contact provided a grounding wire, a shock wave jolted between her hands and her aunt’s. Valdis slumped.