Captivating Magic (The Thorne Witches #14)

Chapter 8

8

“ I ’m going to pulverize that fucker when it’s out of me,” Spirit Ebba snarled.

Laszlo snorted as he cuddled her sleeping physical self. He’d always admired her feistiness and can-do drive, but her ghostly form revealed her personality in a whole new light. One he appreciated the hell out of.

“Don’t think I won’t!” she ranted.

“I believe you would if you could. But the ultimate goal is to eject the interloper and put you back where you belong at that exact moment. It’s likely you won’t exist in the same place and time.”

“Dammit!” As she stomped back and forth at the end of the bed, casting them worried glances, the curtains flew and tchotchkes rattled on the dresser.

“Temper, Sweet,” Lo warned. “Save your energy for the transition. We’re going to attempt it soon.”

“Right,” she muttered.

Liz entered with Rafe on her heels. “How is she?”

“How does it look?” Spirit Ebba snapped. “Like she’s been possessed and unable to take advantage of a hot dude—oh, uh!”

If a ghost could blush, she would’ve. As it was, the look she cast him was decidedly uncomfortable.

Lo grinned.

“By your fool smile, I’m assuming she’s doing better,” Liz said, dropping to the edge of the bed and stroking Ebba’s dark curls.

“She’s not, but her spirit’s retained her snark.”

Liz laughed. “That’s why we love our girl.”

Love. It was the second time someone had bandied the word about him today. The cynical side of him laughed. Supposedly, Thornes only loved once, and he’d screwed that up royally with Charlotte. Or rather, she did. Her jealousy and accusations drove him mad until he couldn’t take another minute of the fighting. All because of his frequent quests to help others exorcise their ghosts. In the end, it had required a spell from Alastair for her to find him repellent and to sign the divorce papers to end their misery.

He prayed to the Goddess that Charlotte was happy now and could move on to have a loving relationship with someone else. Just not him. Whatever he’d once felt for her was nothing more than ash in his mouth. The proverbial bad taste transferred to his current mood, leaving him uncomfortable while holding Ebba. Easing her away, Laszlo sat up and covered her with a blanket.

“Whoever is possessing her isn’t going to make it easy to take her body back. It had her convinced to jump out the window,” he said.

“What?!”

Liz’s shock was mirrored by Rafe, and they shared a horrified glance before turning their attention back to Lo.

“She could’ve been killed!”

“Doubtful.” Lo snorted. “It’s only two stories, but she could’ve definitely been hurt. Still, it’s not something we can’t heal if it comes down to it.”

“That healing thing is badass,” Spirit Ebba said from her dresser perch.

He laughed. “It is.”

“What is what?” Liz frowned.

“I wasn’t speaking to you.”

“Oh. Oh! You mean Ebba’s spirit is here? Now? It didn’t register properly before.”

He nodded toward the dresser and grinned as Liz and Rafe squinted, hoping for a glimpse. With disappointment pulling her mouth down, his sister harrumphed her displeasure.

“What’s our game plan? Do I call Spring to see what spell she thinks would work, or should we raid the Thorne Industries vault for artifacts—Wait!” She had a lightbulb-went-off moment. “Nash had something similar happen with Ryanne. They swapped her soul for her sister’s?—”

Laszlo shook his head. “I remember Nash telling me about it, but this situation isn’t the same as his mate’s. Ebba’s not in stasis. This is more of a possession than a soul swap.”

“Right. Okay. What about Alastair? Surely he’s come across this before?”

“Already spoke to him. He’s checking to see what Nash and Spring might know.” He hated to leave Ebba, but he had his own source to suss out. “Can you stay with her and make sure the entity haunting her doesn’t harm her in any way? I have to talk to Clutch.”

McClutchin “Clutch” Adams was a long-time friend and colleague. He and Lo had met in the early days of their ghost-seeking careers. If anyone knew about possession and exorcism, it was the ex-priest turned hunter.

“Sure. We’ll keep her safe.”

“Please hurry, Lo,” Spirit Ebba urged. “This was the closest he’s gotten to harming her.”

Lo nodded, but before he’d taken two steps, he froze and spun back. “He?”

“Spencer,” she said condescendingly, making it sound like he should’ve figured it out long before that moment.

“You don’t think that was a bit of crucial information you might’ve told me before now?”

“I didn’t know. But now that I do, it’s obvious. What other spirit was I around recently? The timing was right for it to be him.” She shrugged. “And based on the fucking eye-blinding light he’s trying hard to hide, I’d say he’s one of you.”

“Wait, what ?”

“Lo?” Liz appeared anxious as she waited for his conversation to play out with Spirit Ebba. “What’s going on?”

He glared at his sister. “Did you know she was dating a witch?”

“No! How could I?”

“You never met the man?”

“She said they weren’t serious. As far as I knew, they’d only gone out a few times, and she said was planning to end it. There wasn’t time to meet him.”

Somewhat pacified, he nodded. Still, the idea of Ebba dating another witch felt, well, for lack of a better word, icky. “It’s possible this will be trickier than expected if he has magic on his side.”

“I agree. You call Clutch, and I’ll seek out Nash. I remember an item from our inventory that could work to capture?—”

“No more saying anything aloud,” he warned. “I have the feeling he has a way of hearing us.” Addressing Rafe, he said, “I’ll need you to guard her, man. Can you do that while we’re gone?”

“With my life,” his brother-in-law assured him, hand over heart and head bowed.

Liz snorted. “Don’t get extreme, babe. You need to be around for many years to come, if only to keep me happy.”

“I live for your happiness, qalbi .”

The twinkle in Rafe’s eye added to Lo’s building uncomfortableness.

“Yeah, okay. I’m out, but I’ll be back soon.”

“Why can’t you just call Clutch?” Liz asked belatedly.

“He shorts out electronics. Something to do with energy frequency and his ability to attract spirits.” Fascination flared to life in her eyes, and when she opened her mouth to speak, Lo shook his head. “No time, sis, but you can annoy him with questions when you see him again.”

Picturing Clutch’s apartment, Laszlo drew his power around him like a cloak and sent a thread across the distance as a feeler. When he detected no movement, he began the teleport into his friend’s living room above the antiques-and-oddities shop he owned and operated.

Ebba gripped Laszlo’s arm, meaning to ask him a question prior to his leaving, but in the next second, she was out of her apartment and squarely in another.

“Ebba!”

A sense of vertigo swept through her consciousness, causing her to sway, and she once again latched onto Lo, if only to prevent the room from spinning.

“What were you thinking?” Anger caused his voice to deepen, and the rough quality sent a chill through her. Or it would’ve had she been corporeal. Still, she had a sense of self. As if she did possess a physical form but her body didn’t seem to fit, and the skin of that non-real body felt thin, as if it would take nothing to peel off her muscle and bone.

“I don’t feel well,” she admitted right before her knees buckled.

Lo dove to help before they both remembered she didn’t have a physical self in her current state.

“It’s dangerous for you to be away from your body, Ebba.”

“I didn’t intend to leave. Hell, I didn’t think I could leave.” She pressed her fingers to her temples. “I’ve been stuck in that fucking apartment for months.”

“Stuck?” His frown was dangerous and dark, similar to when he first burst through her door. “What do you mean stuck? You should be able to go anywhere your body goes.”

“No. If I touch the knob to the outside or even a window, it burns me.”

A door clicked shut behind her, and Lo’s gaze swept the newcomer before focusing on her again.

“Burns? How exactly?” the man she assumed was Clutch asked, joining them.

“You can see me?” When he nodded, she became oddly emotional. Gratitude flooded her entire being, and she had a massive urge to throw herself into the man’s strong arms.

She took stock of his person, too overcome to speak. Standing about six-three, he was dark-skinned and possessed a smoothly shaved head. His midnight-colored eyes glowed with an appreciative light, and when he grinned at her speechlessness, straight white teeth greeted her.

“You’re gorgeous,” she blurted.

“Excuse me?” Lo choked on a laugh.

“Oh, I… um, he…” She cleared her throat. “His build. He’s pretty much perfect.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot,” Clutch said with a deep belly laugh. His was the voice of a soulful blues musician, and the pleasurable raspy sound added to his appeal.

“I bet you do,” she mumbled, unable to take her gaze from his thick biceps and heavenly shoulders.

Lo’s fingers materialized in front of her, and he snapped them a few times to gain her attention.

“Ebba! Stop eyeing him like a tenderloin at a steak-lovers’ convention and focus on the subject at hand.”

Clutch’s grin widened. “He’s just jealous I’m hotter than he is. Eye-fuck me all you want, girl. I live for these moments.”

She laughed. How could she not when the man was so down-to-earth and funny?

“As if,” Lo muttered. His surly attitude and Clutch’s throaty chuckle caused her to laugh harder.

“I bet the sight of you two together has caused many a woman to check with her cardiologist.” Pleased her comment had Laszlo fighting a smile, she winked in his direction. “But now I understand why you never brought him around while we were younger.”

“Yes, he only seeks me out when he needs something.” Clutch’s warm gaze traveled the length of her and back before he shook his head. “Too bad he saw you first, Ebba girl.”

“Oh, we aren’t a thing,” she assured him. “He’s?—”

“He’s interested, so hands off,” Laszlo growled with a glare for his friend.

“Careful, Lo. You’re beginning to sound like your ex.” A sardonic smile curled Clutch’s generous mouth. “That girl was pure evil.”

“She wasn’t,” he denied.

“That’s why it required a spell to get rid of her, right?”

Ebba looked at Lo with new eyes. “It did?”

His discomfort with the conversation was seen in the tensing of his shoulders and the micro grimace before he changed the subject.

“We have a problem, Clutch, and I’m hoping you can help.”

The man got right down to business. “Possession?”

“Yes, but he’s magical. What tricks do you have in that book of yours to extract him?”

“It’s not as simple as whipping out a voodoo doll, my man. It’s more nuanced with witches and warlocks. You know that.”

“But you’ve come across this before, right?”

As the two men conversed, they strode across the room to an altar-like area filled with what appeared to be antique relics. In the center was a black leather-bound book, roughly twenty by twelve inches. The exposed edges of the pages were wavy and darker than regular paper, as if they were aged parchment. Ebba had only ever seen the like in museums.

A wave of dizziness struck her, along with a bitter cold.

“Uh, guys?” she called weakly. “I don’t feel so well.”

As one, they spun toward her. Clutch’s reaction was mild, and his features barely registered a problem. Laszlo’s eyes flared wide, and he rushed in her direction, only to be halted by his friend’s hand on his arm.

“Don’t move, Lo,” he ordered in a low tone. “Not an inch. That’s Death you’re staring down, and she don’t play.”

Ebba froze.

Death?

Like, what the fuck? How was Death an actual entity? Yeah, she’d seen Meet Joe Black , but that was fiction, right?

“McClutchin Adams and Laszlo Thorne.” The name was spoken in a tone as cold as the ice in Ebba’s veins. Or what would be in her veins if she were whole. “You’ve been very naughty boys. Again. ”