“There was so much damn blood. There’s no way another person was in that room,” he says, his voice growing harder with anger. “She cut herself up.”
“This is insane,” I mutter and have to stand to pace the room. “How is he doing this? How can he make these people kill themselves?”
“Through mirrors?” Oliver asks, surprising us all because he’s usually content to listen and watch. “Could he manipulate them through mirrors? I want to say I’ve read something about that before.”
“He could be using them as a window or portal,” Miss Sophia says, speaking slowly as she thinks it over. “It could be how he’s traveling, as well. It’s so unusual. So odd. I’ll have to do some research.”
“Does anyone know if Horace was a scrying master?” Millie asks.
“Do you know?” Daphne asks her mother, whose eyes grow round with confusion.
“Me? I don’t even know the man.”
Daphne and her sisters scowl in confusion, but Miss Sophia shakes her head, signaling for them not to jump in with questions.
“Ruth, you remember Horace. He worked at your home when the girls were little. A handyman.”
“I know that he’s the man we’re working to defeat and that he’s trying to hurt my girls, but I don’t remember knowing him at all. If he worked at the house, I didn’t hire him.”
“You have no memory of him hanging around the house?” Brielle asks with a small frown.
“She was already being tormented by then,” Miss Sophia says with a sigh. “Oh, Ruth. I’m so sorry.”
“Well, whether I know him or not, we’re going to kick his sorry ass straight to hell, I’ll tell you that right now,” Ruth says, straightening her spine. “Because like Daphne, I’m sick of being afraid. And I’m done being used. This will end.”
“Attagirl,” Miss Annabelle says and pats Ruth’s hand. “You’re absolutely right. He’s had his fill of fun or whatever it is he’s doing. It’s time for this to end. For all your sakes.”
“How?” I wonder aloud. “How do we end it? That’s the one question I’ve been asking since I became involved. The one that no one will answer.”
“Wait.” Brielle holds up a hand. “The day we defeated him at his house, when we were able to save Mama, that was during a full moon. And then when we defeated him again in the field, it was the full hunter’s moon, on Halloween, when the veil was the thinnest.”
“Please don’t tell me we have to wait for Halloween again,” I say, shaking my head. “That’s too damn far away.”
“No, but there’s a lunar eclipse coming,” Millie says, standing with excitement. “And that’s only two weeks away. A full moon eclipse is very powerful and may be exactly the thing we need.”
“I love this idea,” Daphne says with a nod. “Miss Sophia?”
The older woman simply smiles. “I think that’s a good idea.”
Chapter Ten
“I certainly wanted for my mother a nice, quiet, easy death like everyone else wants.”
-Edmund Kemper, The Co-Ed Killer
Despite taking the energies from his toys, along with the perfect toy, he felt depleted after the six of them spent time together.
It brought him to his knees and made him small. It must be what’s making him hurt the way he does now.
It had been so much easier, so much better before when he was still alive and only dealing with the girls. The killing, the punishments, they made him so fucking happy. Energized him as nothing else could. And the preparation! He had a strong work ethic and spent so many years working for his girls to show them how much he loved them.
And now he’s condemned to…this. He thought he’d be even stronger as a spirit. That he’d have more control. The fact that so many things he never considered could impact his energy only makes him angrier.
He hates feeling small.
That just won’t do.
So, he decides to shift his focus.
He needs new toys.
He’s starting to feel stronger now. The pain that rattles through this soul ebbs, and he can move again. There are spells to help him overcome this. He remembers reading about it in his mother’s grimoire.
Of course, that’s long gone in the fire.
They burned his house down.
The thought still fills him with so much rage. So much pain.
How dare they?
That’s just one more thing he’ll have to punish them for. Make them pay for destroying the one thing he worked so hard to give them. He left it all to them, didn’t he? And they didn’t want it.
They destroyed it.
He makes his way behind a mirror, weak and exhausted, and waits. It’s a long wait this time, which only fuels his anger.
But when his new toy walks into the room—a bedroom this time—he fills with glee.
“Oh, look at you,” he breathes. “Look at how perfect you are. With that long, red hair. Too curly to be my Daphne, but I’ll forgive it. This time. Yes. Come this way. Come over here.”
She walks to the dresser under the mirror, takes off her jewelry, and slips out of her shoes.
When she removes her sweater, he recoils in disgust when he sees the tattoos on her arms and back.
That won’t do.
“Why would you mark yourself up like that?” he asks and watches as the toy frowns and looks around.
“Is someone there?” she calls out and listens. He sees just a hint of fear in her green eyes, and that pleases him.
Yes, that pleases him very much.
As much as he wants to kill her right away, to watch her scream and cry and beg as he has the right to, he’s resigned himself to being patient with this one. He needs her energy. And he needs to teach them all a lesson.
“It’s just the two of us,” he says in a singsong voice. “I’m going to take very good care of you. Of course, before we’re done, you’ll have to lose those horrible tattoos. I don’t know what you were thinking. But we’ll fix it.”
He longs for his electric chair. For his bench. For his favorite knife.
And feels the anger surge in him once more, gaining in strength again as he pulls energy from this new toy.
“Now, let’s get started.”
Chapter Eleven
Daphne
“Let’s go check out where your new house will be,” I suggest to Mama when the meeting comes to an end. “Let’s talk about something fun for a bit.”
“Oh, I’d love that,” Mama says with a smile and then reaches out to take Miss Sophia’s hand. “Thank you again for this.”
“It’s absolutely my pleasure. Let’s go have a look, get the lay of the land, so to speak, and see what you think.”
The guys are all huddled over some books at Miss Sophia’s table, mumbling and talking. Lucien’s parents, Oliver, and Miss Annabelle have all left.
Now it’s time to take a breath and think about something good. Something that doesn’t scare the hell out of me.