A young punk in a souped-up Mitsubishi sped out of the mine’s visitor center parking lot and nearly clipped the passenger side of my front bumper. I slammed on the brakes and swerved the other way, making Cornelius drop the phone onto the floorboard on my side.
“Nice driving, dick!” I yelled at the windshield.
“Violet?” Doc’s voice came from the floor near my feet. “Where are you?”
I scooped up the phone and handed it back to Cornelius. “In my Honda.”
“Going where?”
I wanted to fib, but it was Doc on the line, and we’d agreed to be honest with each other at all times, especially when it came to paranormal fun and games. “I’m going to see Prudence.”
Silence came from his end of the call once again.
“Why would you go there?”
“Would you believe I’ve missed her and felt like dropping in to enjoy some hot chocolate with a side of her contempt?”
He scoffed. “Try again, Killer.”
“Prudence is upset about something called a Duzarx and she’s making a commotion in the attic, which is freaking out Zelda, who called and asked me to come help calm her down.”
A glance at Cornelius found him staring back at me with his black eyebrows wrinkled.
Duzarx? he mouthed.
I shrugged and nodded.
“Christ,” Doc muttered. “I should cancel this last appointment and head up there to go with you.”
“I’ll be fine, Doc. Don’t worry about me.”
“Who are you trying to kid? You hate going anywhere near Prudence on days when she’s not agitated, let alone when she’s snorting fire.”
“That’s true, but Zelda will be there.”
“Right,” he said, his tone doubtful. “Zelda doesn’t count since she and Prudence share the same ‘vessel’ during your chats. Who else are you taking with you?”
“What makes you think I’m taking anyone else? I’m a big girl, you know.”
“Violet,” he said simply.
“Cornelius is here,” I ’fessed up.
Silence again, this time long enough that I glanced at the phone to make sure we hadn’t lost the connection. “You still there, Doc?”
“Is he in the vehicle with you right now?” Doc asked.
“Yes.”
“And you have me on speakerphone?”
I shrank away from the phone, anticipating Doc’s reaction to my answer. “Yes.”
He sighed. “Do you really think that’s a good idea?”
“No. I probably should’ve come clean about having you on speakerphone right out of the gate,” I joked and forced out a few chuckles.
Doc didn’t chuckle back.
“The Tall Medium is not laughing,” Cornelius said, pointing out the obvious.
“I know. My ears are working.” Maybe not my brain so much at the moment, but it had a good excuse for going offline. Dealing with Prudence was tough on my gray matter.
“Perhaps he does not understand your style of humor,” Cornelius continued. “It’s a common problem between people from different cultures.”
“We’re not from different cultures.”
“He’s an Oracle.”
“That’s just a title.” Okay, so maybe it was more than a title, but Doc still bled red, just like me, and all of his parts were regular man parts. I pictured him fresh out of the shower. Or not so regular, I thought, and smiled.
“According to my research,” Cornelius said, ruining my short, post-shower fantasy, “Oracles are descendants of the ancient realms.”
“What’s your point?”
“Your breed is more of a common mutt.”
He was already sounding like Prudence and we hadn’t even reached her street yet. I held my fist under his nose. “Call me a mutt again and I’ll rearrange your—”
“Violet,” Doc interrupted us. “Have you considered the possible outcomes of an encounter between an ethereal entity with medium abilities and the spiritual-world equivalent of a pied piper?”
It took me a moment to figure out who was who in his question.
“Maybe,” I answered.
“Maybe?” Doc’s voice sounded higher.
“Listen, Cornelius has seen plenty of ghosts over the years thanks to his paranormal investigator gig, so he shouldn’t be too spooked by Prudence.”
Hell, according to what Cornelius had told me before, he’d spent a good amount of his adult life, along with a sizable chunk of his large inheritance, chasing much scarier entities in the dark with those expensive ghost-hunting contraptions of his.
“True,” Doc said. “But none of those ghosts were like this one.”
Cornelius flipped the phone toward himself. “How is this entity different?”
“She’s not that different,” I told him.
“For one thing,” Doc said, “she can get inside your head and use you like a puppet.”
“So she can possess a person both physically and mentally?” Cornelius asked Doc while looking at me.
I wrinkled my nose and gave an evasive shrug.
“Exactly,” Doc said.
“Interesting.” Cornelius looked down at the phone. “Have you experienced this yourself?”
“Multiple times, and so have several others who Violet has taken to meet Prudence.”
I turned off of Lead’s main drag and started climbing up the slush-splotched side street. “Yeah, but everyone came out the other side none the worse.”
“Coop would disagree with you,” Doc said.
“Please, Cooper hurt me more that day than Prudence hurt him.”
“And,” Doc continued, “I’m sure Ray Underhill will never step foot in that house again.”
My ex-coworker had gotten what he deserved, in my opinion. The buffoon shouldn’t have insulted Prudence in her own house.
“Mr. Underhill has a black aura most days,” Cornelius pointed out.
I nodded. “That’s probably why Prudence did what she did to him.”
“What did she do?” Cornelius asked.
I squinted one eye. “She messed with him a little.”
“She made him pull out his own eyetooth,” Doc filled in, spilling the beans.
“Doc!”
“What? Cornelius deserves to know what he’s walking into, Killer, and you know it.”
I patted Cornelius’s arm. “Prudence has never really harmed anyone other than Ray.”
“Don’t forget what she did to Detective Hawke,” Doc said, thwarting me again.
“There was no actual physical damage.”
“Violet …” Doc leaned on me.
“Fine, so she planted a trigger word in his head that makes him bark like a dog, but other than that he made it out unscathed.”
Cornelius stroked his goatee. “Interesting. I’ve not heard of a ghost this powerful.”
“Exactly,” Doc said. “Which is why you might want to reconsider going in that house today—both of you. If Prudence is so
