Jessie Delacroix_Fright Night at the Haunted Inn Read online

  Jessie Delacroix

  FRIGHT NIGHT

  at the

  Haunted Inn

  by

  Constance Barker

  &

  A.J. DeBellis

  Copyright 2016 Barker/DeBellis

  All rights reserved.

  Similarities to real people, places, or events are purely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  MORE BOOKS by Constance Barker

  Chapter One

  Ralphie Moore put his thumb under the single fastened shoulder strap of his well-worn denim overalls and leaned across the banquet table. His googly eyes looked like they were ready to pop out of his head, and his toothless smile was close enough to Ginny’s face for her to smell the cheesey grits he had for breakfast. The way it blended with the aromatic odor of his chewing tobacco reminded her of her grandfather. Hey! I wasn’t reading her mind on purpose…it just kind of happens sometimes.

  “In the old days, a swarm of them big ol’ mosquiters would come buzzin’ in at you, a thousand at a time,” he said with his mesmerizing eyes glued to Ginny’s. “One time I saw ’em bore a hole right through the belly of a little whitetail fawn, right down yonder on the riverbank.”

  The breeze in the courtyard whispered gently through the tall loblolly pines not far behind the courtyard of L’Auberge Hantée, the Haunted Inn, as Ginny contemplated her response.

  “Huh,” Ginny Vandersnoop scoffed and leaned in even closer. “That ain’t nothing. When I was a little girl hunting gators in the Okefenokee swamp with my Grandpappy, two big ol’ mosquitas picked my Uncle Albert up by the shoulders, brung him home for dinner to their big nest by a water hole, and then the whole swarm of vampire skeeters sucked every last drop of blood right out of him. Wasn’t nothin’ left but some wrinkly skin and dried up bones.”

  “That ain’t nothin’. When I was a boy…” Raphie began.

  “Okay, boys and girls, enough killer mosquito stories. Lionel’s been fogging the swamp out behind the pine trees every day for a month, and Mosquito Control has been treating this whole side of the river. So we should be safe all summer.” I figured I should break in before blimp-sized mosquitoes started devouring schoolyards full of children in one gulp. “But we could use a little help folding up the big table and getting things back to normal around here.”

  “Yes, ma’am! Always glad to help!” Zach Fontaine pushed his chair back from the long head table and stood up. He was the Chief Deputy of CSI (Carnigan Security, Inc.), which provided the law enforcement services for the town of Whispering Pines. He was a tall, fit African American man and former Navy Seal, and he put on his designer Ray-Bans as he arose.

  “I’ll give you a hand, Zach.” Kyle Carnigan was the head of security and the husband of my Tea Room manager, Lexi. “Hey, Lex,” he said to his wife as he tickled the chin of the newborn between them, “how come our new baby has Ralphie’s smile?”

  Ralphie flashed his toothless gums, blushing as he nodded, and Lexi slapped her husband on the shoulder.

  “Your’re a funny man, Kyle Carnigan – but you are replaceable. I’ll go get the regular round tables that belong here, Jessie.” Lexi said as she stood up and took a breath of the fresh outdoor air.

  “No way, Lex,” I protested. “This is your day. We just christened your new baby, and you just gave birth a few weeks ago…”

  “So you can imagine how active and light on my feet I feel now, Jessie. And I don’t feel like throwing up either! I really want to…”

  I put my hand on her shoulder and stared some well-intentioned daggers at her. “No…not today. But you can give me a hand clearing the plates if you like.”

  She joggled her head and rolled her eyes in defeat. “Fine…but there’s just coffee cups and empty glasses left at this point. Katy Lyn – keep an eye on Elsie for a minute.”

  Her 15-year old daughter seemed happy to be in charge of the new baby, and she nodded with a smile. Her little sister, KC, leaned over the baby bucket and kissed her new sister.

  “I’m gonna help too, Mom!”

  All of Lexi and Kyle’s kids had her husband’s initials – Katy Lyn, Kramer, and Kristin Carnigan – but little Kristin was the only one they called KC. Naming the newborn “Elsie” was Lexi Carnigan’s sneaky way of giving her youngest a name that reflected her own initials – LC.

  Ashley, our young blonde waitress, arrived at our table with a big bussing pan and loaded the cups and glasses into it before we had a chance to grab them.

  “The table cloth is a hotel item,” Maddy Warren said as she stood and pulled it from the table, “so I’ll bring it down to the laundry room.”

  “And I’ll help the guys with the tables,” said her new boyfriend, Happy Doyle, who ran the vintage motor shop on antique row.

  Wally and Molly Smith were at the end of the table looking for a way to help, but I figured that running a busy bakery on antique row seven days a week was enough for the pleasant couple. Wally was probably a little over 50, and Molly was getting close. It seemed like they never changed, but I guess that’s because when I was a little girl grownups always seemed older than they were.

  “Just sit, Molly. We’ve got it all covered, Wally.”

  “Thanks, Jessie,” Wally said with a smile and a wave. “We’ve got to get back and open the bakery back up pretty soon. We’ll set our folding chairs by the solarium when we go.”

  “Molly, you make sure you and your hubby have one more cup of coffee before you go back to work!”

  The golden-eyed lady nodded and gave gave me a wink.

  Okay – let me get you up to speed. I’m Jessie Delacroix, and I just turned 26 a few months ago. I inherited the Inn from my mother and grandmother before me, but they’re still here at the Inn – sort of. I’m the only one who can see their ghosts, but Carlo, my chef, can hear and talk to them.

  Maddy is about 40 now and she runs the Inn, which has four nice rooms on the second floor and a huge fancy suite in the former attic on the third floor of our bed and breakfast. It’s in a huge old Victorian mansion with a wrap-around porch. Maddy was alone for a long time but started seeing Happy Doyle last Valentine’s Day, and they’ve been inseparable ever since.

  One whole side of the first floor is our famous Nirvana Tea Room – Lexi runs that. She’s, mmmm – 35ish, and has the three girls you met plus a son, Kramer, who’s almost 11. He’s out on the big lawn between the courtyard and the pine trees here behind the Inn, throwing a Frisbee around with my little beagle, Arthur – the love of my life. Well, there’s Travis, my cowboy, too. But he had to leave early to give riding lessons to the school kids when they get out of Sunday school. Then he does a roping show for them too. He’s a pretty great guy.

  Let’s see…Carlo is the main chef, well-known here in Georgia – and from the Carolinas to Louisiana too. And Ginny is also a trained chef and cooks breakfast in the mornings. She’s a country girl with many talents, and
she fits in well with the local “swampbillies,” as they call themselves, like Ralphie and his buddies.

  Whispering Pines is a tourist town with antique shops lining Carlisle Boulevard on both sides for seven blocks – and my Inn is right at the end of the street facing down antique row – with the tall pines, a hundred feet of swamp, and the Elvira River behind us.

  Oh – and I’m a goddess. A real one. Well, half anyway. I just found that out recently. And my Granny was a witch, and maybe my mom is too, so I guess I’m part witch too. Anyway, it turns out I have some powers, but I’m not sure what all I can do yet. But I prefer to do things the old-fashioned human way whenever possible.

  “Let’s see how things are going in the kitchen, Lex.”

  We left the christening brunch in the courtyard and went inside through the Inn’s open sunroom to the lobby. We headed for the lobby entrance to the back of the kitchen, but then I saw Anika coming out of the basement door with a pale man and a woman. He was wearing black leather pants and an open black leather windbreaker with no shirt underneath, and the woman was wearing a torn, ragged, and dirty dress. They looked like they had just been swept up on the shore after weathering a hurricane in a rowboat and seemed to be very tired and distraught.

  Anika just looked at me. “I’ll tell you about it later,” she told me telepathically, and they headed into the main door of the Nirvana.

  The kitchen was winding down from breakfast and brunch and winding up for dinner. Ashley was clinking the china and rattling the silverware as she loaded the dishwasher, and Carlo had just put the finishing touches on a variety of gourmet tea sandwiches and was busy preparing his famous Duck L’Orange for the dinner guests.

  “I hope it’s not too busy this afternoon, Jessica.” Carlo lifted his trademark white beret by the brim and wiped his forehead with his arm. “It’s that special full moon tonight, so I still have a lot of appetizers and snacks to prepare for the Monster’s Ball in the Sun Room and courtyard tonight after the Ghost Walk.”

  “That’s right! It’s the Super Moon – the closest it’s been to the earth in 20 years. It should be a big event. I heard there’s a bus coming in from Charlotte and one from Savannah.”

  Ginny waltzed in the back kitchen door in time to hear our conversation. “Yes, indeed. It’s going to be the biggest one yet. That’s why they’re calling it Fright Night! Beth is breaking out the laser light show for their Ghost Walk, and everyone’s going to be wearing costumes to the Walk and the Ball afterwards. Lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh my!” She let out her two trademark snorts. What are you going to dress up as, Jess?”

  “I’ll be a Bed and Breakfast manager, Ginny. It’s a lot scarier than it sounds – especially around this place.”

  The long, lean redheaded cook came up behind me and began to massage my shoulders.

  “Ooh! I didn’t know your fingers were so talented, Ginny.” It felt really good, and I dropped my chin to my chest to relax and enjoy it.

  “It’s a Vandersnoop thing, Jess. My Grandpappy says we all got long, strong, bony fingers from climbing trees and strangling chickens for quite a few generations around the swamp.”

  Swell. She started working on my neck a little bit, and that felt even better.

  “Just remember I’m not chicken, Ginny. Don’t strangle me.”

  She snorted. “No worries, boss lady. But you sure seem to have a lot of tension in your muscles here. And – hey, your blue stars are gold now. Did you color them?”

  “Nope. They just changed by themselves.”

  I had some birthmarks on the back of my neck that started out as blue blotches and then turned to blue stars, and now they’ve changed to gold stars. There’s an arc of four of them on the back of my neck, where my father put his fingers when he picked me up as an infant – and there’s a fifth one above my hairline, which is harder to see. My aunt, the goddess Artemis, gave me that one. She kissed her finger and touched me there. Each star gets a little bigger, and my mom told me that someday a child would be born in our bloodline who had seven gold stars. They would become the King or Queen of Aldebaran. That’s the part of the galaxy my father rules now.

  “Ooh-ee, lookie here.”

  “What is it, Ginny?”

  “That star under your hair is getting bigger, and I think I see part of an even bigger star above that one.”

  No, I don’t need this now. Five stars is enough for me to deal with. My mind flashed back to the vision I had shortly before my last birthday. After she kissed her finger and touched me, Artemis kissed me on the back of my head. Could that have given me another star? Then my dad put his whole hand over the top of my head, and that’s when the vision dissolved.

  I pulled my head away. “Thanks, Ginny. That’s plenty for now.”

  “Yes, Ma’am. I’ll give Carlo a hand for a while getting things ready for dinner.”

  Chapter Two

  I got an eerie feeling every time I walked by Anika in the corner booth with the two strange visitors…and the bloodstone arrowhead pendant I got from my father seemed to vibrate every time I got near. I picked up bits and pieces of their thoughts as I walked by, but these seemed to be very old souls – at least the man did. They could sense my intrusion into their minds and knew how to protect their thoughts. Still, I sensed a darkness and fear that actually gave me a chill, so I pushed a little deeper.

  I could tell from their thoughts that they spoke the same native language as Anika, which was Romanian. I didn’t understand a word of the language, though the meaning of their thoughts was crystal clear to me – they were in danger and seeking refuge here under the protection of Anika – and me.

  Anika was part of the shape-shifting entity that ran the antique pawnshop on the other side of the lobby, housed in the other wing of the Inn. She was short, round, and contagiously giggly – a witch from Romania who found her way here with her shapeshifting alter-egos – Gus, Eddy, and Moondance.

  Gus was the old, thin, silent and deep-eyed man who seemed to know everything and communicated only telepathically. Moondance was a very wise and talented black cat, and Eddy was a big tattooed biker who provided their transportation – he came with a running Harley motorcycle whenever Anika morphed into him.

  They were actually four separate people who had somehow become one, and now shared the same-shifting protoplasm. I’m not quite sure how that came to happen – but I had a strange feeling that I was soon going to find out.

  She looked more serious than usual when she called me over to their table.

  “What’s up, Anika?” I said with a smile. I was trying to seem like I wasn’t dying of curiosity to find out why there was a shirtless man and a windswept woman sitting in my Tea Room.

  “I’d like you to meet Leo and Kaya. This is Jessie Delacroix – the one I told you about.”

  As I sat down I felt the presence of Gus, the silent old man who shared Anika’s body. Without changing form, he sent me a whole telepathic package of information about the two strangers. Other thoughts I could read a word at a time, just like spoken communication, but Gus could send something like an entire computer file or document – or an entire book – all in one transmission.

  I understood that Leo was born in 1789, the bastard son of Leopold II, who was the Grand Duke of Tuscany and then the Holy Roman Emperor until his death in 1792. The emperor was a Habsburg and the brother of Marie Antoinette – which made Leo here her nephew. Kaya was a Romanian girl, but Ukranian by birth. He met her in Kapuvár, Hungary, not far from Austria. Don’t worry – you don’t need to remember all the details.

  There was so much information that my little brain couldn’t access it all at one time.

  “So, you’re like like almost 230 years old, Leo?”

  “Actually, no, Miss Delacroix. We came here from the past. I’m not yet 100.”

  He looked to be about 25, and Kaya was probably 20 or 21.

  Anika could see I was struggling, trying to put all the pieces together.

&
nbsp; “His father, the emperor, had 16 children that people knew about, Jessie – but he had many more with young women he brought into the palace in Vienna, like Leo’s mother. He died, leaving them penniless, and they moved to Kapuvár, Hungary – Leo, his mother, and his younger brother, Saffron Indigo Lillimeister.”

  “I’ve heard than name before,” I said, trying to remember why it seemed so familiar.

  Leo looked at Anika. She nodded, and then he spoke. “You might know my brother better by his nickname – Moondance.”

  Whoa…I tried to speak, but only disconnected syllables came out at first. Ashley dropped off a glass of iced tea for each of us, and I took a sip. “Your brother is…a cat?”

  He took a deep breath, and I could tell there was some sort of secret that made him uncomfortable. Kaya was the one to speak this time.

  “Saffron…I mean, Moondance…just took the form of a cat because…well…it’s the only way he’s found to control his…” She looked at Leo, who finished the story.

  “…His bloodlust. You see, in 1813 Caragea’s plague was killing everyone. My mother was infected too. Her boyfriend at the time had come from Transylvania In Romania, and…”

  I picked it up from there. I was beginning to understand, plus by now I had had enough time to go through more of the information Gus has sent to me. “…And he was a vampire. Your mother pleaded with him on her deathbed to change you and your brother into vampires so you would not be killed by the plague. He agreed, and then she died.”

  “Yes. I was 24 and Saffron was 17.” Leopold seemed thoughtful. “And right after she drew her last breath, her dead body transformed into a much older, fatter, and homelier woman. She had been a shape shifter, and apparently Saffron got that gift from her. I, however, did not. My brother could not tolerate a life of darkness and bloodsucking, and he found that when he transformed into a black cat, for some reason he was no longer afflicted by his thirst for blood or his need to avoid direct sunlight – he was no longer a vampire. So he decided to live out his eternal life as a cat – as Moondance.”