Protecting His Windflower (A Spirit Hunters Series Novel Book 1) by Temperance Dawn (best ereader for epub TXT) 📗

Phenomena. A voice that we can’t hear with our own ears in the moment but records itself on a device, and we can replay it back after it’s been captured.”

“I see.”

“Here it is. It sounds grainy, but it’s the best I can do. It’s said right after, ‘She’s mine,’ and it sounds like it’s the same voice.” Luke handed a set of noise-canceling headphones to Liam and plugged them into the laptop.

“We use the headphones to block out any background noise so we can listen more closely to the EVP,” Liam told her. Looking at Luke, he gave his friend a nod before saying, “Go ahead.”

Liam closed his eyes, dropped his head, and listened to the recording, cupping the earpieces with his hands, as if he were trying to press the sound closer to his eardrums. After a few moments, he removed the headphones and gave them to Trey so he could listen. After another few moments, Trey looked up. “Emily?” he asked, “Do you want to listen?”

“Yes,” she answered with certainty and confidence.

Emily took the headphones from Trey. Before she placed them on her ears, Liam told her, “It’s a whisper, and it’s playing on a loop. You’ll hear it play over and over. Let us know what you think it’s saying.”

“Okay.” She placed the headphones over her ears and was thrown into a state of odd deafness. With the lack of ambient noise and the rushing sound of her own blood through her ears, she felt vulnerable. Making eye contact with Luke, she gave him a small nod and said, “I’m ready.”

Emily watched as Luke pressed a button, and the sound of faint white noise filled her head. Then, the sound she was waiting to hear came through the headphones, sending an icy chill down her spine. Though it was a whisper, it resonated a deep, gruff, and threatening tone. It played repeatedly, with only a second between each loop. When she couldn’t take any more of the ominous voice, she pulled the headphones off.

“I think I hear ‘Abigail.’’’

“Yeah. That’s what we hear too,” Liam confirmed.

“Who is Abigail?”

Liam looked at her, shaking his head. “I don’t know. Trey, have you been able to find anything out?”

“No, nothing yet. It’s like this place was just built and nothing has ever happened here. I can’t even come up with any police reports, death records. Nothing.”

“Man, have you talked to Phil yet?” Luke asked. “I really want to get into that room in the basement. The EMF detector was going nuts outside the door. And that’s where I caught all of the EVPs. I wanna know what’s in there.”

“No. I was telling Trey, I can’t get a hold of him. I’m getting worried too. He always gets back to me. I wanna do another investigation as soon as we can.” Liam paused for a moment, rubbing his hand down his face, stopping at his chin, he stroked the light stubble. “We’ll get into the apartment and just replace the lock. I agree. We need to know what’s in there. I don’t think he’ll be upset. I’ll explain to him that it was imperative. He knows what we do for work. I think he’ll understand our reasons for going in.”

A flicker caught the corner of Emily’s eye. Liam must have noticed it too. His arm tightened around her just as she turned her head toward the floor lamp in the living room. All of the lights were now pulsing and buzzing from the fluctuating electrical currents passing through them.

A crash resounded and the apartment vibrated while a blast of wind rushed through. It traveled low to the floor before ascending where the friends stood at the table, picking up Emily’s hair, twirling it around. Liam, Trey, and Luke rushed into the living room. Emily followed behind them, where they found the front window swinging open. It had blown open so hard that the glass had completely shattered.

“What the fuck!” Liam shouted, stalking to the far end of the living room to inspect the window. “I installed these latches myself. There’s no way wind or anything natural could do this.”

Emily’s breath caught at the sight before her. The fact that the windowpane had shattered wasn’t what caused her concern. No, what caused the shiver to spread through her and fill her with dread was the pulverized glass that sprinkled her flat, like fine sand. It covered every inch of her floor and furniture in white powdery dust.

The realization set in. This haunting was dangerous. It was growing stronger, and it was hostile. And, it was capable of hurting her.

***

“Emily, don’t move! You’re not wearing shoes,” Liam warned, as he went to the front door where she had a pair of loafers and brought them to her. Emily slipped her feet in while he grabbed a chair from the dinette table. Emily’s body quaked. “Sit here, okay.” Liam pressed his forehead to hers before settling her in the seat and walked to where Trey and Luke stood in front of the window. All three men were baffled.

Luke spoke in a hushed tone, “What the fuck is going on here?”

“I don’t know. But we need to get to the bottom of it soon,” Liam said, not caring that agitation blanketed his tone.

“Tomorrow night then,” Luke continued. “We need to find out what is here and get rid of it. You and Emily can’t live like this.”

“What if she’d been standing near the window when it blew apart?” Liam whispered, his voice wobbled with emotion. He shoved his shaking hands in his pockets.

Trey placed his hand on Liam’s shoulder. “But she wasn’t.” Liam lifted his gaze, meeting Trey’s stare, and then Luke.

“Right,” he agreed. “Tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow,” Trey repeated. “We’ll get the rest of our equipment in the morning and spend the whole night investigating. I know you two are still getting to know each other, but you can’t leave her here alone. She’s really shaken up.”

“I know. And I’m not planning on it.”

“Good. We aren’t leaving you