Adria POV:

After leaving the attic and my uninvited guests behind me, I used the spirit portal to travel to the first floor quickly. Downstairs, I paused. Ross was snickering, his voice traveling through the rooms—coming from the kitchen, possibly? I passed through the walls, worry nagging at the edges of my mind.

Ross was this happy?

That couldn’t spell anything good in the slightest.

From the ceiling, I could hear the footsteps of the Living above me, but by that point I’d reached the kitchen. The children were nowhere in sight, but Nellie was floating a few feet just past the doorway into the kitchen. “Ross, you should be ashamed of yourself. How dare you hit that poor girl!”

I froze, rising a few inches higher in the air, suspended so that I could see past Nellie's ball of light. Ross hit one of the investigators?

“Can it, you middle-aged hag!” a gruff voice spoke aloud, though it wasn’t the normal sound of a spirit voice. Fear swirled through my entire being, causing my own ball of light to fade in and out. A man I recognized as one of the investigators was leaning against the refrigerator. His arms and legs were crossed in front of him and a presiding sneer pulled his lips up in disdain.

Seconds later, Ross was pushed out of the man’s body—who promptly collapsed—his camera that was set up on the other side of the room catching every second of it. The man let out a loud, confused yelp and the sounds of worried voices traveled from the staircase. The stomping clatter of feet rushing over the wooden floors indicated the investigators were coming to check on their fellow.

I saw Jared and Erin, along with an unfamiliar woman...No, wait, she was the one I saw during the tour with the ponytail. The three of them were panting from the exertion of their run, but whereas Erin and the woman rushed forward, Jared remained frozen in the second doorway into the kitchen. His sharp grey eyes remained fixated on the spot where Ross was pulsing a deep red, with a black center in the middle of his light.

“God damn it! That sex-cunt lied to me!” Ross seethed, his rage evident in every syllable.

One of the kitchen cabinets—a mere six feet from where the man who was lying on the ground rest—opened with an echoing slam and a coffee mug came flying off the shelf, shattering against the wall four inches from Jared’s face. The man didn’t even flinch, while the others cried out in alarm. But his brows did pull down in fierce concentration before the concentration was quickly replaced with irritation.

“So, we finally meet, Spider,” Jared said aloud softly.

I floated closer to him, passing through the renovated kitchen island and through the other Living. They let out tiny gasps and shivers at my presence, but by that point Erin had helped pick up the other man from off the floor. “West!” he murmured in relief to see the man’s eyes open and aware. “What happened?!”

“Guys…?” the man named West mumbled in a slurred manner. “What’s...what’s going on? I—Shit! April!” he exclaimed, shock and guilt in his voice.

I paid him no more mind as I focused on speaking to the psychic. “I think Ross was empowered by an evil spirit. For your safety, you all need to leave. Do you hear me, Jay?” I prayed silently that my voice would reach him.

A fierce light glowed, even in the darkness, inside the man’s eyes. The smile of a man pushed to his limits and giving in to a challenge slowly flittered over his handsome features. “Sorry, Addy,” he murmured in true apology. “You see, this Ross bastard’s hurt my friends and I don’t take kindly to that kind of behavior. One way or another, I’m going to get a little closer to even.” 

“Are you insane?” I hissed, only slightly surprised he could hear me so well at this point. Mostly I was just impressed and worried. Impressed because more than a few psychics had visited the Hemming House and none had been able to interact with me or any of the others spirits in the house so easily. Worried because...well, that was obvious, wasn’t it?

“...Addy, you two are connected, aren’t you.” Jared’s quietly spoken words were more certainty than a question.

The low murmur of the other Living intermingled with the growls of rage from Ross. Nessie had made herself scarce as soon as the Living had shown up, most likely to hide away with the children far from this mess. I didn’t blame them either. If I hadn’t started to like Erin and Jared so much, I might have done the same.

But I would have felt horrible if Ross had been left to his own devices, allowed to wreak havoc on these foolish people. Not when I could do something to stop or hinder him.

“Yes,” I replied, hearing my voice echo in the kitchen, silencing the group of Living.

“Hey! What the fuck do you think you’re doing over there, Adria?!” Ross growled harshly, finally noticing I was nearby. “You know you’re not allowed around other men!”

“Okay, time to use some heavy-duty bug spray,” Jared said in an amused tone.