you’re living it.”
She begged to differ. “I am perfectly capable of remaining in denial, thank you very much.”
“Have you heard the voices too?” He squeezed her as if trying to force agreement from her lips.
“No, I just see things. You can hear them?”
“Unfortunately. I hear him a lot. I even hear her. And I see her sometimes. In you. I thought I was losing my mind.”
Aggie shuddered. “Maybe you are.”
“Maybe.”
“Then I am too.” Aggie turned in Jace's arms and clung to him. “I don't have much experience with this kind of thing."
He snorted through a small laugh and nuzzled her neck. “Does anyone?”
“Maybe the guy from Crossing Over.”
“I always thought that was fake.”
“Me too.”
“I don't think these two intend any harm,” he said, pulling her tighter. “Or I didn't until that chandelier came crashing down. It could have killed you.”
“I'm okay,” she assured him. “Not something I'd like to repeat, however. Maybe we should let them talk this out.”
“And how do we do that?”
She shrugged. “No idea. Like I said, I don't have much experience with this kind of thing.”
“Where's a good ghost whisperer when you need one? Or maybe an exorcist is better qualified for the job.”
She chuckled and pulled away so she could turn to stare into his eyes in the dim light of the lanterns that lit the garden. The snow had changed over to a dreary drizzle, and she began to feel the cold seeping into her skin. Before, she'd been too freaked out and juiced up on adrenaline to notice the temperature. She snuggled close to Jace again, telling herself she just wanted to be next to him for warmth, not because she was afraid of things she didn’t believe existed and because Jace made her feel safe.
He seemed to be more sensitive to this bizarreness than she was, so she asked, “When did you first hear the voices?”
It was infinitely easier to talk about it if it was his problem, not hers.
“When we stepped out of the car five months ago.”
She stiffened. “You heard them the first time we visited? Is that why you were acting so strange that day?”
“Yeah.”
“And you agreed to come back to this place? I'd have run for the hills.”
“I felt drawn to this place. I still do.”
“So have you been possessed by the spirit of Thomas Seymour your entire life?”
Aggie felt the lift of Jace's shoulders as he shrugged. “Never met him before that last visit. I think he's using me as some sort of guide. He can't find this place unless I'm here.”
“But why you?”
“Hell if I know. It isn't as if he tells me his plans or how these things work.”
“And you see her too?”
“Sometimes,” he said, “when I look at you. And I'll be honest, it freaks me the fuck out.”
“I still think maybe we should just leave. It isn't as if Thomas bothers you when we aren't here, and our chandeliers at home are brand new.”
“You don't think we should try to help them? They want to be together, but they suck at communication.”
Aggie laughed and gave Jace a squeeze. “We used to struggle with that.”
“Are you guys out here?” Eric yelled from the steps of a side entrance.
“Yeah,” Jace called.
“Is she still breathing? We banished the evil chandelier from the dance floor. You can come back now.”
“We’re sort of busy at that moment,” Jace returned.
“Are you two having sex out there?” he asked. “Can I watch? It's been a while since I’ve watched anyone but myself and Reb.”
“No and no,” Aggie yelled.
“Dammit,” he muttered before turning away. “You should come back inside soon. It's cold.”
Aggie covered Jace's chilled ears with her hands. “I hardly noticed,” she whispered. “I'm kind of afraid to go back to the ball. People must think I’m crazy for running out like that.”
“I’m sure they just think you were rattled from a chandelier attempting to kill you.”
“Well, I guess that’s better than what really has me rattled,” she said.
“Let’s walk the gardens for a bit. I’m not ready to face the crowd or the questions.”
He was staring at her with a rare intensity. If she wasn’t mistaken, his eyes were misty.
“What’s wrong, baby?” she asked.
“When that chandelier came crashing down, I thought…” He swallowed. “I thought I might lose you.”
“The night before our wedding?” Aggie said. “You should be so lucky.”
Aggie moved away from Jace and took his hand. She could definitely feel the cold now that he wasn't pressed firmly against her. She couldn’t believe he’d been suffering with this in silence. Actually, she could believe it. And she suddenly felt like a complete jerk for intentionally messing with him earlier.
“Jace, I have a confession. And an apology.” She squeezed his fingers. “I’m sorry I tried to scare you. If I’d known that you really were hearing things and seeing ghosts, I wouldn’t have done it.”
“Scare me? When did you scare me?” he asked.
“I wrote that message on the mirror. A kind of Halloween practical joke. I figured we’d get a good laugh out of it tomorrow, but I don’t think it’s funny anymore.”
Jace kissed her soundly on the lips. “Thank God it was you. I was starting to think these ghosts could do real damage. Maybe that chandelier falling right after I said I didn’t love Katherine was just a coincidence.”
“Maybe,” she said, but she kind of doubted it.
“But we need to make sure,” he said, drawing her to a halt at the steps of the chapel.
“Why are we here?”
“We’re going inside. To visit Katherine’s tomb.”
Aggie stopped in midstride. “Oh no, we’re not,” she said, shaking her head vehemently. “I’m not going in there on Halloween night.”
“Why not? You don’t believe there are really ghosts in there, do you?”
“Maybe. I’d love to say we could explain all this away, but if they’re talking to you and you’re seeing things…” She patted his shoulder. “Let me put it this way, I’d rather believe in ghosts than believe you’re crazy.”
“Good. Because I need to deal with this, this haunting or whatever it is,” he said. “Now that you know what’s been happening to me and you haven’t called the loony wagon yet, I feel like I can face the problem head on. I want to face it. With you. Does that make sense?”
She squeezed his chilled fingers and smiled. “Yeah and it makes me happy that you feel that way.”
Well, happy in a I don’t really want to do this but can’t refuse the man anything because he asks so little kind of way. Jace was the type who didn’t put his whole heart into many things—with the exception of his band and their music, his woman, his cat, and apparently the troubled romance of a couple who’d been dead for nearly five hundred years—so Aggie supposed she had no choice but to follow him to Queen Katherine’s tomb. On Halloween night. When the woman’s jealous spirit was pissed as hell at her.
Chapter Eleven
Jace entered the dimly lit tomb alone. Aggie hung back in the corridor, peering around with wide eyes. Now that Jace had come to terms with what was going on, he and Aggie had shifted roles. It was common for that to happen in their relationship, so he didn’t waste time pondering why Aggie was afraid of things that probably couldn’t hurt her and he was paralyzed by the things that could. The sight of that chandelier on the floor where Aggie had been standing split seconds before—and the very thought of losing her—had immediately put everything into perspective for him. Jace refused to let a pair of wayward souls endanger his woman or encroach upon what would be the happiest day of his life, so he was going to put an end to this nonsense right now. A
t least that’s what he told himself until a breeze swept into the room, causing the few lit candles around the perimeter of the tomb to sputter. He wondered if they burned candles in the tomb every night or if Halloween was a special occasion.
“Jace!” Aggie whispered loudly. “Let’s go back to the ball. People are probably worried about us.”
“Not until these two agree to leave us alone.”
“They can’t follow us back to L.A., can they?”
“It wasn’t likely,” he said, smirking at his shoes, “until you just told them where to find us.”
“I refuse to be haunted the rest of my life,” Aggie said. She darted into the tomb and grabbed Jace’s hand, squeezing it hard enough for the pain to rob him of his breath.
“Katherine, I know you’re in here. Come out and talk to us.”
I won’t talk to her. Your whore. Did you wait until my body was cold before you took her to your bed, Thomas?
Aggie glanced around curiously, her full lower lip trapped between her teeth, but didn’t seem upset. She obviously hadn’t heard Katherine’s insult; Aggie didn’t take shit from anyone. Not even queens or ghosts of queens.
“You have me confused with someone else,” Jace said. “I’m not Thomas.”
“Are you talking to her right now?” Aggie whispered.
Jace nodded.
“I can’t hear her.”
“She said she doesn’t want to talk to you. She thinks you’re the one Thomas slept with after she died.”
I know you slept with her. I saw you together in the cottage.
Okay, a ghost watching them have sex was even weirder than when his cat decided to play captivated audience.
“What did she say?” Aggie asked.
“Uh… She… well…” His cheeks burned with the heat of embarrassment. It quickly spread to both ears. “…saw us together.”
Aggie lifted an eyebrow at him. “Saw us together? When?”
His cheeks flamed hotter.
“In the cottage this afternoon?”
He is mine! Katherine’s voice roared through Jace’s head.
Aggie stiffened. “Okay, I heard that.”
“She thinks I’m Thomas.”
“Probably because he’s latched on to you for some reason,” Aggie said. “Is he with you now?”
Jace went still and listened, hoping for the first time to hear those weird voices in his head. Jace’s shrink would have a field day with the entire experience. If he ever told him about it. He hadn’t been to therapy in ages, no longer felt a need for it. Strange that he’d consider it now.
“I think he’s gone. I haven’t sensed his presence since we were in the garden. It seems he’s more afraid of facing Katherine than we are.”
“I’m not afraid of her.” Aggie grabbed Jace by the lapels of his jacket and pulled him close so she could take his mouth in a deep, passionate kiss. At first he was too stunned to push her away and then, as the heat between them escalated, he didn’t want to. His arms circled her back and drew her closer as his lips and tongue met hers.
The sounds of sobs echoed through Jace’s head, growing fainter until he could no longer hear them.
“You two seriously aren’t going to do it in a tomb, are you?” a soft voice said behind them. “I have a taste for the macabre myself, but that’s pretty hardcore, even for you, Ice.”
Jace stiffened. He’d purposely been avoiding Starr—Fire—since Aggie had told him they’d once been lovers, but there was no way out of the tomb except the way they’d entered, and Starr happened to be standing in the doorway.
Aggie tugged her mouth from Jace’s. “I hadn’t planned to take it that far,” she said to Starr, and then lowered her voice to a whisper, “but if we’re trying to upset a jealous ghost, I think that would do it.”
“I don’t want to upset her any more than we already have,” Jace said quietly, hoping Starr wouldn’t overhear. Aggie knowing that he was being haunted was one thing. Starr knowing it was entirely different. “I want her to find peace, even if it’s with a philandering traitor who abandoned his own child and put his ambitions before his family.”
What would you have me do? Thomas’s voice echoed through Jace’s head. I would have gladly laid down in the grave beside her and died to spare myself the last miserable months of my existence.
“He’s back,” Jace whispered. “I can hear him again.”
Aggie released Jace and turned to Starr. “Were you looking for me or did you just happen upon me making out with my fiancé in a tomb by accident?”
Starr grinned. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have interrupted. Looked as if it were about to get interesting.”
“You have no idea,” Aggie muttered.
“I wasn’t looking for you—just trying to avoid that tall whack-job who keeps asking me to autograph things—but I’m glad I found you. I don’t have anyone to talk to but you.”
Jace snorted. Eric was a whack-job, but he couldn’t believe Eric would actually hound Starr for autographs. On second thought, he could totally believe it.
“I thought you had a thing for Dare Mills,” Aggie said.
“Oh, I do. Unfortunately he doesn’t have a thing for me.” Starr scratched her ear and met Jace’s eyes before swinging her gaze back to Aggie. “Can we talk?” This time she gave Jace a pointed look. “Alone?”
“Anything you need to say to me, you can say in front of Jace,” Aggie said.
Starr shook her head. “You don’t want him to hear this. This is about that thing you’re trying to pretend didn’t happen.”
“Do you mean our past sexual relationship?” Aggie asked bluntly.
Starr’s eyebrows shot toward her hairline. “Uh, I thought you didn’t want him to know.” She nodded toward Jace.
“I told him. Because someone gave enough hints to make him question my relationship with you. And someone is giving enough hints now that if the first round hadn’t tipped him off, this encounter certainly would. Why are you doing this, Starr?”
“You’re okay with marrying a lesbian?” Starr directed the question at Jace.
“I’m not marrying a label. I’m marrying Aggie and everything that comes with her—past, present, and future.”
Starr shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Now isn’t that touching?”
“Don’t make me regret asking you to be here for me,” Aggie said. “I’ve been trying to hold on to pieces of my old life so I never forget where I came from, but maybe it’s time to let all that go.”
Jace stared at Aggie in disbelief. She wasn’t serious was she? Her past had made her the woman she was—the woman he loved. Would she change into something unrecognizable if she let it go?
Aggie chuckled. “Of course that would mean admitting my mother was right and that ain’t never gonna happen. So why are you really here, Starr?”
“I just came to check on you. If you need to talk to someone about the way he treats you, I’m all ears.”
“The way he treats me?” Aggie swiveled her head in Starr’s direction. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I just know how guys treat women like us. We are alike—you and I—and men see us a certain way. They treat us a certain way. Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about, Aggie.”
Jace saw very few similarities between Aggie and Starr, so he wasn’t sure why Starr insisted they were lumped in the same category.
Sinners on Tour Page 48
