Haunted Hearts

Chapter 2-1

2

Luckily, after Victoria the ghost shot another disapproving stare in Elena’s direction, she disappeared, melting away like mist in morning sunlight. However, even though the spirit was no longer visible, Elena couldn’t quite shake the impression that she lingered still, as if she had haunted this house for so long that she was as much a part of the structure as the beams that held it up.

Being watched wasn’t exactly the most comfortable sensation in the world, but since Elena had spent most of her life being watched like a hawk by her grandmother, at least she was used to the feeling of having unfriendly eyes on her at all times. Trying to act nonchalant, she opened cupboard doors and peered into the pantry, familiarizing herself with the layout of the kitchen. After she was done with her inspection, she got out a glass and filled it with water from the refrigerator door, then wandered into the TV room. Being forced to stay inside pretty much all the time had given her a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of all the various cable and streaming shows available, but she’d spent the last ten years watching television — and reading, yes, and drawing and painting…anything to keep herself occupied beyond the few hours that her chores around the house required.

She was free now, and so the thought of doing any of the same things she’d spent the last eleven years wasting her time on didn’t appeal very much. But then, what else could she do with herself? For the past five days, she’d amused herself by wandering around downtown and shopping and looking at the artwork in the various galleries there, although she’d taken Ava’s words of warning to heart and hadn’t ventured beyond downtown and out toward Canyon Road, which apparently was the heart of Santa Fe’s art scene. Since Elena had already spent so much time in the touristy area around the Plaza, she had no real desire to retrace her steps there. Going anywhere else was problematic, though, since she ran a far greater risk of running into some of her Castillo cousins if she tried to go someplace more prosaic, like the grocery store or the mall. Those constraints had made her feel trapped in the oddest way; it wasn’t as if she’d been confined to her hotel room, but neither had she been allowed the freedom to go wherever she wished.

Well, first things first. It was obvious enough that Ava had left all her utilities on, and that had to include the cable. However, unless Elena was able to figure out the password for the network, the laptop she’d stowed in the overnight bag with the rest of her belongings would be good for playing in Photoshop and not much else.

The most logical place to check for something like that had to be the office she’d spotted upstairs. She might as well go up there and poke around a little and see what she could find. Maybe Ava wouldn’t be terribly happy to discover that her cousin had been snooping through her things, but she didn’t have much of a choice. Yes, she could tether the little prepaid phone she’d been using to her laptop, except that doing so would eat up her data allotment much faster than she’d like. Still, she supposed she could use it as a stopgap if necessary.

Glass of water in hand, she mounted the stairs and went past the guest bedroom where she’d stowed her belongings, then entered the office. As in the rest of the house, the furniture here was all antique, from the glass-fronted bookcases that took up most of one wall to the huge oak roll-top desk that faced them. The walls had been painted dark green, and the overall effect was of a clubby, cozy space — or at least, it would have been, if it weren’t for the enormous copper-skinned being who stood in the middle of the Persian rug, his arms crossed and a forbidding frown digging into the flesh of his brow.

“Belshegar,” Elena said, knowing how resigned she sounded. Somehow, she’d had the feeling he would show up sooner rather than later. Most of the time, he wouldn’t come without her summoning him…but not always. There had been a few occasions when he’d appeared without warning, mostly when she’d been at her most despondent and had needed a friend’s comfort.

However, she guessed by the way his night-black eyes narrowed that he hadn’t come here to offer her any solace. More like read her the riot act.

“What do you think you’re doing, Elena?” he asked, the deep bass of his voice causing the crystal pendants on the ruby-shaded lamp in the corner to shiver a bit. The tinkling sound made a strange counterpoint to his comment.

“Looking for Ava’s wi-fi password,” she replied innocently. “I don’t suppose you know what it is.”

“No,” Belshegar said. “And if I knew it, I wouldn’t tell you.”

“I could make you.”

His brow furrowed even more deeply, but he didn’t contradict her. They both knew that her peculiar talent allowed her to command his obedience — although she would never actually do such a thing. It wouldn’t be polite.

“Sorry,” she said at once. And she was; Belshegar didn’t deserve even the threat of coercion, let alone the real thing. “As for the rest….” She let the words trail off, then gave a helpless shrug. “I needed somewhere to go.”

“Ava told you to seek out the prima.”

“I know, but I’m not sure I can trust her. I don’t know her. She could be as bad as Genoveva.” Which would take a lot of doing, considering what a hard-ass the previous prima had been. Maybe it made her a terrible person, but Elena hadn’t shed too many bitter tears a year or so back when she found out Genoveva had been killed by the dark warlock Simon Escobar. After all, it had been mostly Genoveva’s idea to keep her locked up in Las Vegas all those years, kept away from the rest of the Castillo clan…away from the world. Ava had said Miranda was different, was a nice person, but since Elena hadn’t met her, she couldn’t know for sure. Better to be safe, because she absolutely could not face being sent back to her home in Las Vegas, not after she’d had even this very small taste of freedom.

Something about Belshegar’s expression softened. He came over and laid a heavy, oversized hand on her shoulder, then said, “I understand your concerns. Still, I am not sure your fears are sufficient justification for moving into Ava’s house when she didn’t invite you to do such a thing.”

The same doubts had assailed her more than once, but since she’d already committed to this course of action, Elena didn’t think she had much choice but to plow ahead and hope for the best. “I think she’ll understand. She’s…kind.”

“True, she does seem to have a gentle heart.” He took his hand from Elena’s shoulder, although she fancied she could still feel the weight of it, the strange comfort of his otherworldly heat.

“What is that?”

Victoria again, this time standing in the hallway just outside the entrance to the office. Her hand was pressed against her throat in a melodramatic gesture, and she looked a few shades paler than she’d been when she first materialized in the kitchen downstairs.

“This is Belshegar,” Elena said. “He’s a friend.”

This information didn’t seem to sit too well with the ghost. Hand still touching the high neck of her blue silk gown, she said faintly, “He isn’t…he isn’t staying here, too, is he?”

“No,” Belshegar told her in his deep voice. “I am only paying Elena a visit.” He studied Victoria for a moment, expression curious. “You are an earthbound discorporeal entity, correct?”

“A…what?”

“A ghost,” Elena said, finding herself unexpectedly driven to come to the spirit’s aid. “He’s just curious. You’ve never met a ghost before, Belshegar?”

“No.” He returned to his survey of Victoria, clearly fascinated by her appearance. “Have you been here ever since you died?”

She blinked at him. “What an extraordinarily forward question.”

As he stared back at her, obviously nonplussed, Elena hastened to say, “I think he’s just curious, Victoria. He certainly didn’t mean to be rude. He’s just…not from here.”

This unbelievably obvious statement made Victoria blink again. “Yes, that much is clear enough.”

“I am from another dimension, another universe,” Belshegar said, clearly trying to be helpful.

“But what are you doing here?”

“Watching out for me,” Elena said. “I told you he was a friend. We’ve known each other for years.”

“I see.”

Elena wasn’t sure whether Victoria really could see or not, but at least she no longer looked as though she was about to pass out. Could a ghost even faint? Probably not, since she wasn’t technically alive and therefore couldn’t suffer a sudden drop in blood pressure or whatever it was that made people lose consciousness, but probably better not to find out.

“I am very sorry if I caused you any alarm,” Belshegar said, and now the faintest of smiles touched Victoria’s lips, which had begun to look a little rosier instead of the dead white they’d been a few minutes before. Maybe the demon’s courtly manner of speaking had begun to win her over. Belshie could be a real charmer when he wanted to.

And all right, he wasn’t really a demon, not in the way most people thought of when they defined a demon in their minds, but the word was simple shorthand for “extra-dimensional entity,” which was kind of a mouthful.

“It’s quite all right,” Victoria replied. From nowhere, a lace-edged handkerchief appeared in one hand, and she dabbed it against her brow before making the small square of white linen disappear again. “I suppose I was just startled. Carry on.”

And, just as she had before, she melted away, leaving Belshegar and Elena alone in the office. He reached up to run his hand through the heavy black mane of his hair.

“Did you know this house came with a ghost?”

“Of course not,” Elena replied. Not that knowing such a thing probably would have stopped her, but she didn’t see any reason to tell Belshegar that. “I guess it slipped Ava’s mind. Then again, we were kind of busy when we were all here that last time.”

He made a rumbling sound of assent. “True, you did have rather more important things occupying your thoughts.”

“And now you’ve seen that Victoria doesn’t have a problem with me staying here.”

That assertion only made him cross his massively muscled arms and stare back at her, expression impassive. Clearly, he wasn’t inclined to believe her.

Elena shot a glance up at him. “It’s not like she told me to get out.”

“Probably not,” he allowed. “Victoria is obviously from a far more genteel age than this one.”

Better to let that go. She went over to Belshegar and laid a hand on his arm, then gave him what she hoped what was a winning smile. “But she isn’t trying to stop me. And also, doesn’t it make you feel a little better to know I have someone here watching over me?”

“Someone who can’t provide any true assistance if you get into trouble.”

“Well, I have you for that, don’t I?”

Although his jaw was set, Elena thought she detected a small lift at one corner of his wide, black-lipped mouth. His face had long ago stopped being inhuman to her, and now she could read him just like she could her father or her grandmother. That tiny twitch had been all she needed to see to know he wouldn’t keep giving her grief about crashing here at Ava’s house, and she felt herself relax slightly.

“I suppose you do,” he said, and reached over to pat her on the shoulder. “Just…be careful.”

And then he, too, was gone.

Of course, I’ll be careful, Elena thought as she went over to the desk and carefully lifted the roll-top.

Not that I think I’ll have too much I need to be careful about….