He was about to tuck the kids into bed when the phone by Daphne’s bedside table began to clatter. Tripping over his own feet, he clambered around the bed to pick it up before the second ring.

“Paul?” his sister’s voice sounded heavy, her true southern accent coming through. That only happened when she drank. They must be having a good old time in the city.

“Who else would it be?” he snapped. As the day wore on, he’d grown more and more anxious. He hoped he didn’t come across that way to the kids. He may have his shortcomings, but he loved Alice and Jason with all his heart.

Say it enough times and you may actually believe yourself.

Shut the hell up!

“Paul, we just ran across your friends at that tavern you told us about. It would have been nice if they didn’t have so many televisions blaring every insipid sport known to man. You can’t get away from them, even in England anymore.”

Paul’s girth crashed onto the bed. He ran a heavy hand over his face. “Daph, I don’t give a crap about the state of the modern bar.”

“You’re no fun.” Her giggling sounded distant, as if she’d pulled the phone away from her mouth. “I just thought you should know that everything is in place. We won’t be home tonight. And don’t wait on us for breakfast.”

“Trust me, I won’t.”

“We’ll see you mid-morning. Give the children our love.”

She blew wet kisses into the receiver. Paul pulled it from his ear, disgusted. Stick-up-her-ass Daphne was about as much fun as the Times crossword. Tipsy Daphne irritated him to no end, especially tonight. He didn’t have time for nonsense.

Swallowing the dozen replies he really wanted to say, he grumbled, “Fine.”

There was a pause, and he could hear animated talking in the background. She and Tobe must be in a restaurant. The clink of silverware on plates beat a steady rhythm. “You can sever this now. I won’t be calling back. Good night, brother.”

He dropped the phone on the cradle, carrying it with him to the side of the bed. Ripping the cord from the wall, he stuffed the slim landline phone in a black garbage bag, tucking it between the box spring and mattress.

This was a part he didn’t like. It made him feel like a jailer, or a kidnapper.

“Another sin, another string of Hail Marys,” he said, sitting on the edge of the bed. So much was riding on this. It could all blow up in their faces. If he was still a betting man, that’s where he’d lay his money. Too many moving parts that weren’t in line with one another.

Praying wasn’t an option. God didn’t have time for deceivers.

Chapter Sixteen

Jessica left Eddie in his room. His head was hurting bad enough for him to lie down for a bit.

She remembered the incredible headaches he got when they went toe-to-toe with the doppelganger and the EB of the suicidal pedophile in New Hampshire three years ago. The physical strain was incredible.

Later, when they were back in New York, she’d asked if that was the way it always was when he was in contact with EBs. She was glad he was honest when he said it had never been even close to that. Because of the energy she inadvertently fed lingering spirits, when he came in contact with them, it was like receiving a massive dose of feedback.

Yet another reason for her to tell him to get as far from her as he could. Of course, she could have been a bit more tactful back then, but it was too late to change the past.

She popped in to say goodnight to the kids. Paul nearly flew from his chair when she poked her head into the half-open door. He seemed…fidgety.

“You going to be up all night?” he asked.

“Not tonight. I’ll roam a bit, but there are some things I want to do. It’s the first night. It’s better to just be quiet and get used to the normal sounds and feel of the house. I promise, Jason and Alice, I won’t bang around like a clumsy bear and wake you up.”

The kids tittered, comfy under their sheets and quilt.

This is a good place to practice being Auntie Jess. She waved her fingers at the kids and went downstairs. Her goal was to just sit in the center of the house and let it come to her. Nighttime was when houses settled. It was the best time to take those sounds in and file them away for when she heard them later. She didn’t want to confuse wood groaning from a change in temperature with an EB trying to make itself known.

The stairs crackled behind her.

“I know, quiet time,” Eddie said. He looked much better than before. Although if what he said was true, the pressing presence of so many EBs wasn’t likely to give him enough space to fully recover.

“I taught you so well,” she said. She dragged two straight-backed chairs from the breakfast room to the stairway that bisected the house. “One for you and one for me.”

“Thanks.”

A clock ticked in the great room.

Wood popped overhead as Paul left the kids room, presumably to his own.

Jason said something that she couldn’t make out, followed by a loud shush from his sister.

“Eddie, can you hit the lights?” she asked, handing him a slim flashlight.

“What’s this for?”

“So you can find your way back to your chair in the dark. You forget, not only are there no streetlights outside but even the moon is afraid to shine down on this island.”

He smiled. “The EB hunter rides again.”

Walking through all of the first floor rooms, he turned off each light until Jessica was enshrouded in pitch darkness. She spotted the little beam of light as he made his way from the breakfast room.

They sat in total silence, breathing through their mouths as softly as possible. Time was impossible to track during moments like this. Every small sound was magnified and catalogued.

Leaves swirling outside.

Refrigerator clicking on.

Wood floor settling.

She broke the silence, saying, “Eddie, it’s going to get rough here, isn’t it?”

Jessica was too shocked to react when he boldly reached out for her hand. “I don’t know. I can feel them building strength. The kids are more of a fascination to them. You’re the one that’s charging them. The problem is, I can’t tell what they’re going to do with it.”

“Is there any way they’d harm Alice and Jason?”

He squeezed her hand. “No. These EBs are kids themselves.”

To her surprise, she squeezed his hand back. For the first time in her adult life, she realized she needed someone. And in a place like this, there was no one better to have than Eddie, even if he did say he was broken. “Jesus, what have we gotten ourselves into?”

He took a long breath. “Our fate. No sense running from it.”

Jessica and Eddie stayed as still as possible on the first floor for close to four hours. At one point, she caught her head from dipping onto her chest. The darkness was so complete, the house so quiet, it was hard to keep her eyes open.

Eddie was the one who snapped her out of it.

“No sleeping on the job,” he whispered with a soft chuckle.

“My internal clock is broken. After so many years prowling around the dark, I’ve settled into an early to bed, early to rise routine. I haven’t been up this late since…”

There was no need for either of them to fill in the gap.

“I think we can call it a night anyway,” she said. “If anything weird happens, we’ll be right here.”

He yawned, the chair cracking as he stretched. “I like the way you think. With any luck, I can actually sleep.”

She heard the serious doubt in his voice. Of course, how could he sleep when EBs were vying for his attention all the time?

“At least the EB kids here are quiet,” he said. There he was, seemingly reading her mind again. Her instinct was to grill him and reiterate her rule about staying out of her head. No, she trusted him. He had enough crap to worry about.