“I know that sounds crazy,” Tobias continued, “but when I snapped out of the blackouts, I was always dressed like this,” he said, glancing down at himself, “and wearing a cologne I don’t even own.”

  I nodded, to let him know I understood—and that I wasn’t judging him. “Tell me more about what’s been haunting your house.”

  “I’ll tell you what I know, but I’m not sure how reliable it is. Whatever I do know, or think I know, comes from dreams and snippets of memories Euryvos leaves behind. He’s been visiting me since I was young, before my teens.”

  “Then you’ve grown up with him?”

  “Right.”

  “How did Euryvos get inside the house? Do you know?”

  “I don’t know,” he answered with a shrug. “At first, he just haunted my dreams, but as my own psychic abilities began to develop, he started inhabiting my body.”

  Interesting because I’d always been under the impression that only unbarred demons could possess people. Apparently any sort of demon entity could though.

  “When did the blackouts start?”

  “In my late teens.”

  “And you’ve had them ever since?”

  “Right.”

  “Were you aware that you were working as an escort?” I asked.

  He nodded and then sighed, deep and long. “Yes. I do have flashes when I see what Euryvos sees, but they’re disjointed, and I don’t usually know what they mean. It’s like he’s here with me, but we can’t communicate. I’m either myself or I’m him and there are only shreds of things that he leaves behind when he goes.”

  I nodded, understanding because that was exactly what was happening to him. Euryvos and Tobias were both sharing his body. “What about a woman ghost?” I asked, thinking of Rhea and still wondering how she figured into this story. “Have you seen or heard of someone named Rhea?”

  “I don’t know that name, but I can sense a female entity outside the house, trying to get in. She’s woken me up at night by scratching at the windows and rattling doors and she’s done that for years. But I’ve never been able to see her.”

  “How do you know it’s a female entity if you’ve never been able to see her?”

  “I can’t say for sure,” he said on a shrug. “It’s just one of those things I know.”

  Hmm, that was curious.

  “How do I get rid of him, of Euryvos?” Tobias gasped, seeming near tears. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “I can help you, Tobias,” I said, offering him a smile.

  “How?”

  “I can’t tell you, not while you’re compromised by Euryvos. I don’t know how much he absorbs from you when he’s not in charge, but suffice to say if you’re willing to let me help, I’m willing to try.”

  “Willing? Yes. I’ll try anything if you think it will work. I’ve been tormented for most of my life. I just want things to be normal again. I want to be normal again.”

  “There are still a few questions we need to address, but I don’t think those answers can come from you,” I said, thinking of next steps.

  “So… who can answer them?”

  “Someone who is sitting in the next room,” I answered. “She’s a psychic from Spook Society and she’s also my friend.”

  Tobias finished his wine and then looked at me for a moment or two. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying I want to introduce you to my friend, Bailey, and then I want you to take us back to your house so we can answer some of these questions you can’t.”

  He was quiet for a few seconds and I could see the emotions building up in his eyes. Finally, he just nodded, seemingly completely defeated. Since we were both finished with our dinners, I hit the little button atop the table that said ‘call for attendant’ and then waited for someone to arrive.

  When the hostess came back, she brought our check, and we both studied it for a moment before Tobias pulled it toward himself and looked at the total. I saw his eyes widen, but he reached to pull out his wallet.

  “Let me get it,” I said.

  “That’s okay. I have enough to cover it.”

  “It’s okay. I can expense it to the office.”

  “Are you sure?” he asked.

  “Yeah. I think I was supposed to pay for it, anyway, considering our arrangement,” I finished on a laugh.

  Chapter Fifteen

  As soon as we stepped foot into Tobias’ house, Bailey jumped backwards as if some invisible person had pushed her.

  “Holy crap,” she said, extending her arms out in front of her. “The energy is so thick in here, you could cut it.”

  “That’s what I thought,” I said as I walked inside and allowed the darkness to surround me, exactly as it had the first time. It was the same sense of heaviness that clouded the place—grief and desperation mixed with anger.

  “That’s him,” Tobias said, his voice low and nervous. “It’s Euryvos.”

  Angelo shut the door behind the four of us, and Tobias looked at him with concern. Of course, I hadn’t told him Angelo, like Euryvos, was also an incubus and I was a succubus—I figured that might make Tobias think he was consorting with even worse devils than the one already taking up domicile in his body. Not to mention, I was bound by the council not to let our secrets out to humans.

  Hmm, you already told Tobias Euryvos was an incubus, I reminded myself. Dammit, well… Roy won’t be happy to hear that.

  Ugh, Roy…

  Nope! I interrupted myself. Not going there right now.

  “Do you think he’ll know you’re here?” Tobias asked, looking at each of us with concern. “Will he realize I’ve brought you here, and why?”

  “Will who know we’re here?” Angelo responded with a villainous smile—purely to be annoying. He knew exactly who Tobias was talking about. I gave him an expression that told him to knock it off in no uncertain terms.

  “Euryvos,” Tobias answered, his voice quaking.

  “He won’t know we’re here,” I said, shaking my head. “Because you’re at the helm of your ship at the moment—remember?”

  Tobias nodded and seemed contented with that information. Clearly, he was scared to death of the demon and I didn’t blame him. Given the awful life that Tobias had led—one shrouded in fear and anxiety from the time he was young—I wanted nothing more than to help him, to give him another chance at living the life he should have been living all this time. The cards fate had dealt him were unfair, to say the least.

  “Are you getting anything?” I asked Bailey as I turned to face her.

  She’d made it as far as the entryway and her eyes were shut tight. She still held her arms out in front of her and looked like someone trying to impersonate an especially slow-moving zombie.

  “I’m having a helluva time trying to break through all the despair in this room,” she said. Then she opened her eyes and dropped her arms as she shook her head. “There’s a lot going on in here,” she continued and leaning forward with one shoulder, she forcefully took another few steps into the living room—as if she were pushing against some invisible barrier that was trying to keep her out.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, putting my hand on her arm as I looked at her with concern. The last thing I wanted was for Bailey to get harmed in any way and even though the energy couldn’t physically harm her, it could do a number on her psyche.

  She looked up at me and nodded. “I’m fine—I protected myself with Arabian Bouquet,” she further explained. I was fairly sure that was one of Poppy’s Potions. Bailey kept on nodding as she took stock of her surroundings.

  “Whatever is here—it’s strong.”

  I gave her an expression that said I knew exactly what she was talking about.

  “Strong as in the smell of too many cigarettes?” Angelo pointed out, frowning around him before he turned his frown to both of us. “I don’t know about demons and ghosts, but this place is definitely haunted by the ghost of 1970s past.”

  I just looked at Angelo for a minute, suddenly blaming myself for bringing him. Then I turned to Tobias, who seemed to only have eyes for Bailey. Not that he was interested in her—I think it was more along the lines that he was interested in her answering questions that had probably plagued him for the majority of his life.

  “Please excuse my brother,” I said to him. “He failed manners 101.”

  “It’s okay,” Tobias started, but Bailey interrupted him as she took another few steps into the room, placing her at the center. Then she turned all the way around, before turning the other way.

  “Tobias, I need you to tell me everything you know about this house,” she said as she faced him and held up her arms again. She closed her eyes. “What’s the house’s history?”

  Tobias nodded. “It was built in the thirties and was one of the first Art Deco houses in the area. It was built by the Johnsons, that’s the couple who owned it before my parents did.”

  “Okay, I don’t feel them here,” Bailey said.

  “Right, they didn’t die here,” Tobias explained. “Anyway, after the Johnsons died, the place sat empty for a few years and then my parents bought the house in the seventies from the bank, just before I was born. They remodeled it in 1974 or thereabouts.”

  “And it’s been stuck in 1974 ever since,” Angelo supplied. “End of story.” Then he clapped his hands together as if our job here was done.

  I glared at him.

  “Tell me about the time it sat empty,” Bailey said, clearly ignoring my brother.

  “I don’t know much about that time,” Tobias answered on a shrug.

  “Okay,” Bailey said as she held her arms up again and breathed in deeply.

  “Henner told me there were some squatters living here during the time it sat empty,” I added.

  Bailey continued to nod, as if she’d just figured something out. “Yeah, that’s what I’m getting,” she said as she bobbed her head up and down in quick succession, still circling around as if she were listening to conversations from people standing all around her—people no one else could see.

  “I can feel that… this demon… Euryvos didn’t live here permanently. I believe he was one of those squatting here.”

  Tobias turned to look at her. “That feels right to me, too.”

  “Was Euryvos a demon in life, then?” I asked Bailey. “He was never a human?”

  Bailey shook her head. “He was a demon in life and remained a demon in death, only he seems to have gotten stronger in his spiritual form.”

  That could happen, and it was one of the reasons why demons were the hardest spirits to get rid of when it came to hauntings and possessions—they rivaled poltergeists.

  “Do you know anything more, either of you?” Bailey asked, though she didn’t open her eyes.

  “That’s all I know about the history of the house,” Tobias started, but I shook my head.

  “What about the spirit of the woman you felt outside? The one who knocked on the windows and the doors and seemed like she wanted to get in?”

  Tobias nodded, but before he had the chance to answer, Bailey said, “I can feel her presence here, too. But, hmm… I can’t actually feel her inside the house. But I can see an imprint of her.”

  “An imprint?” Tobias repeated.

  Bailey nodded. “It’s like seeing into a window of the past. I can see an imprint of the things that happened here back then. Like watching a movie of little segments, moments of someone’s life.”

  “Oh,” Tobias answered.

  Of course, I could only imagine that woman Bailey was now seeing was Rhea. “Can you tell us more about her?” I asked. “About the woman?”

  Bailey took a deep breath and frowned. “I can try. The energy here is kind of all over the place and it’s tough to wade through. It’s just so thick and heavy.” She was quiet for a few seconds as she moved her arms as if she were swimming and I wondered if she were literally pushing aside pieces of information to get to whatever she was looking for.

  “There’s a woman who lived in this house with Euryvos,” Bailey said and then was quiet before she started nodding. “Yes, that’s right. She lived here… but she didn’t own the house—that’s what I’m getting. I think she was also a squatter.”

  “Henner said there was more than one,” I offered.

  Bailey continued to swim through the apparent ether. “I feel like she was Greek, maybe? There’s something foreign about her—she has dark hair and eyes and I keep getting images of islands associated with her and bright colors in her clothing. Almost like the sort of clothes you’d imagine a gypsy wearing—long skirts and bangles and jewelry. I see a scarf wrapped around her head with beads hanging from it. She looks young—and she’s very pretty.”

  It sounded like the perfect description of Rhea. “Is her name Rhea?”

  Bailey was quiet for another few seconds. Then she shook her head. “I don’t know if that’s her name,” she said, cocking her head to the side. “I’m not picking up on it, if it is.” She frowned again. “There’s something more… she’s not a standard issue spirit.”

  If I hadn’t been convinced we were talking about Rhea before, I was now.

  “Was she human in life?” Angelo asked.

  Bailey seemed perplexed by that question because her eyebrows knitted together, but a second later, the expression passed. “No,” she said. “I believe… I think she was a witch.”

  “A witch?” Tobias repeated, looking completely shocked.

  Crap, Roy really wasn’t going to like this. In fact, I had a feeling once we got this whole thing squared away, two things were going to happen: 1) Roy was going to hit the roof that I didn’t alert the council about what was going on (that is, if he ever found out) and 2) someone, probably Wanda, was going to be called in to cleanse Tobias’ memories from him.

  Oh, well, you can worry about both of those outcomes later, I told myself.

  “Yeah, I think she’s a witch,” Bailey continued. “I can feel and see magic all around her.” She paused. “I see an imprint of her making potions here—in this house.” She was quiet again for another few seconds. “She’s a rare type of ghost.”

  “What sort of ghost?” I asked.

  “I believe she’s an Eidolon.”

  “That sounds like a disease,” Angelo said, shaking his head and frowning. “Don’t come near me, I’ve got a bad case of the Eidolons.”

  I turned and gave him a discouraging glance and he just shrugged, giving me an innocent smile in response. “What’s an Eidolon?” I asked, facing Bailey again.

  “It’s a type of spirit who retains its sanity and can interact with its surroundings without losing a grip on reality and turning into a poltergeist. Eidolons are formed when powerful or magical creatures die.”

  “That makes sense,” I said. “Because she didn’t look like a spirit when I saw her—she was three-dimensional. And when she touched me, I could feel it. It wasn’t like her fingers went through me or anything.”

  Bailey nodded. “She’s got a lot of power. Yet… she’s not powerful enough to cross the threshold into this house, but I can feel that she wants to—very badly.”

  “I believe she’s been trying to get into the house ever since I’ve lived here,” Tobias said. “There’s really not a day that goes by where I don’t hear knocking on the doors or scratching at the windows.”

  Bailey nodded. “She died here.”

  “Can you see how she died?” I asked.

  “Give me a second,” Bailey said as she took another deep breath and then faced me with a serious expression. “This is very taxing and I’m not sure how much longer I can stay in this house. The energy here is… oppressive.”

  “Okay,” I answered. “Just tell us whatever you can and then we’ll go.”

  She nodded and clenched her eyes shut. “I think… huh, I’m getting the feeling… is that right?” She cocked her head to the side and paused before she started nodding. “Yeah, I think… I think Euryvos killed her.”

  I gasped aloud.

  “But, it was an accident,” Bailey continued. “That or he… he feels very bad about it. That’s the reason for the heaviness in this house. It’s his grief. I believe he loved her… yes, he definitely loved her and her death traumatized him.” She took another deep breath and then started wading through more of what I could only imagine were visions. “I’m getting something else,” she said. “I can see… I can see an image of Euryvos burying this woman. Out in the woods. Not far from this house. He’s crying, and he’s… yeah, he’s a… wreck.” She paused and swam through more ghostly information, her arm hanging in the air and her index finger extended out as if she were pointing at someone or something none of us could see. “Yes… I see… he killed himself. After he buried her, he killed himself.”

  “How?” I asked. “Can you see how?”

  “Magic,” she answered.

  “Magic?”

  She dropped her arms and opened her eyes, standing there, panting. “That’s it,” she said, fighting to catch her breath as she brought her hand to her chest and closed her eyes, but this time I didn’t think she was channeling anything. I was fairly sure she was trying not to pass out.

  “And on that note,” Angelo said as he walked up to Bailey and took her by the arm, “we’re leaving.”

  “That’s it?” Tobias repeated.

  Bailey looked at him and nodded. “That’s all I’ve got.” Then she immediately turned around and, with Angelo’s help, started for the front door. “I’ve got to get out of this house.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  It was another day before I learned any more information about the Mathison house.

  Bailey had left the house in a hurry because psychic investigations took a lot of spiritual energy from the psychic involved and she needed to replenish her energy stores. But even though Bailey had been finished with the Mathison house, it hadn’t been finished with her—something I learned early the next morning when she called me.