Page 8 of Cordelia Manor
As usual, no astral spirits were around, not in my home. The one lone ghost who’d been here when I moved in had eagerly moved on and crossed the veil when I confirmed he was dead and not just dreaming. One of the easiest crossovers I’d ever been involved with.
However, in the corner of my consciousness, I could see an orange color seeping in. At first I thought it might be the evil entity, although I’d never detected the old man’s spirit near my cottage before. If it was, we’d have major trouble since I’d put up some pretty powerful wards.
I scanned my memory for what orange in an aura meant. Cheeky, bold, trendy, creative, warm… sexual.
My grandmother’s voice echoed in my memory as she sat at the old card table she used when giving readings. The thought made me smile. Orange auras were good things and indicated good people… usually.
The cute twink… Evan…fuck… how was I seeing his aura? I mean, he was the new owner and had set foot on the estate, but it was unusual for a person’s aura to be present unless they were actually on the premises.Was Evan here?I immediately scanned his aura for darkness, any tinges that might give me some insight into its owner. Just then, I caught a whiff, not of anything from him, but rather of the old man from the manor. “Shit,” I said, and immediately opened my eyes. “I need to get to the house?”
I grabbed my phone and returned the phone call. “Hello?” he answered, thank goodness.
“Hi, um, Mr. Garland? This is Cary Beacroft, returning your call,” I said nervously.
“Hi, yes, thanks, Cary. I wondered if you could come by the manor and answer some questions for me.”
“You’re… you’re there now? At the manor?” I asked to confirm my suspicion.
“Yes, you seem surprised. Is everything okay?”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. How did I keep screwing up with this guy? “Yeah, it’s good,” I squeaked. “Give me a few moments, and I’ll head your way.”
“Oh, okay. I mean, there’s no hurry. I’m just wandering around.”
“Don’t go in the basement!” I shouted into the phone. Silence met me on the other end. I probably sounded crazed, but for good reason. “I mean, please don’t go down there until I’m with you. It can be, um, dangerous in an old place you’re not familiar with.”
“Okay, I won’t. I don’t even know how to get to the basement.”
“Good, I’ll just put—” I stopped, not wanting him to know I’d just gotten up. “I’ll head over in a few minutes.”
I could tell he was reticent. Hell, I would’ve felt the same if someone was wigging out on me. I didn’t think the guy had exchanged more than a handful of words with me yesterday, now I was hemming and hawing like an idiot.
I threw my clothes on, brushed my teeth, and rushed up to the manor, hoping to at least come across as keeping my cool. Even though inside, I was terrified of what might still happen. We’d settled the spirits and calmed them enough that I was moderately confident the nasty entity couldn’t pose much more of a problem to the guy, but I wasn’t one hundred percent sure.
I walked through the front door, and when I didn’t see Evan, I closed my eyes, letting my senses guide me. I could feel his energy vibrating from above. I took the stairs three at a time, forgoing the elevator that took more than a decade to get from top to bottom, and stopped when I reached the second floor.
I caught a whisp of Evan’s energy coming from the maintenance room. “Crap,” I whispered. He’d gone into the one room in the entire manor even the old management company knew to stay out of. The evil entity held command over the basement, but something not even I had been able to chase down controlled the maintenance room. I wasn’t sure if it was a benign spirit or something else that occupied it, but I’d have preferred he not stir it up.
Oh well, not much I could do about that now. I could sense Evan’s energy stronger now. It was coming from above me. The third floor had originally been servants’ quarters and, unfortunately, the elevator was built where the servants’ stairs had been. That meant unless I wanted to climb the fire escape outside, I had no choice but to use the ancient elevator.
I pushed the button and waited until it finally opened, and there stood the very man I was searching for. “Oh, you found me,” he said, and smiled. “I was just coming down to see if you were here yet.”
“Um, yeah, but… yeah.”
He chuckled and stepped off the elevator. “Why don’t we walk down from here? I have a feeling this thing would take a month of Sundays to get there.”
I smiled as the statement was true enough. We could walk up and down the stairs twice before the old thing reached the first floor.
“You wanted to ask me some questions?” I asked, feeling like an idiot. Where was my cool? I mean, I tended to play that role around strangers. Keep things quiet and mysterious, and they didn’t ask much of you. You could just get on with your life being a witch, keeping spirits at bay, and they wouldn’t suspect a thing.
“I do. Did the company actually rent these rooms to the public?” he asked.
I glanced along the hallway at the row of closed doors and nodded. “Not like they used to, but the hotel also served as an event venue, so they used the rooms when hosting a wedding or gathering.” I smiled then and, mostly tongue-in-cheek, asked, “So, you don’t like the rooms?”
“Ugh,” he said, sounding exasperated. “They might’ve been in fashion decades ago, but they are beyond ugly now. I mean, shag carpet, seriously?”
I held back a snicker as we walked down the grand staircase to the first floor, and entered the great room. “So, this was used as a sitting room, right? I don’t see any televisions or anything like that.”
I shook my head. “No, this was the formal ballroom. Occasionally, they’d rent it out as a wedding venue, but for the most part, it was left like this between events.”
