by AJ Myers
It wasn’t as if I hadn’t had the experience before. I had hoped the ghosts would take a while to catch up with me, but I should have known better. That’s the joy of being a corpse magnet. If there’s a ghost within a hundred mile radius, they’re going to find me.
I unlocked the door to the attic and groaned aloud when I saw there was yet another staircase to climb. Leaning against the doorframe, I considered just leaving my suitcase where it was for the night and hoping no one decided to take a peek inside.
You’ll just have to carry it up later if you don’t do it now. You might as well get it over with, a little voice taunted in the back of my mind as I counted the steps leading to the attic. Twelve. Twelve more steep stairs. Deciding somebody upstairs had it in for me, I started dragging my luggage up, muttering obscenities with each and every step. By the time I reached the last step, I was so wiped out I barely had the energy to lift my arm to feel around for the light switch.
If I turned on the light only to reveal a musty attic after all that work, I was going to be pissed. When I flicked on the light, though, I fell in love. There was a massive canopy bed in the center of the room, draped in sheer netting that gave it an island feel. The walls were painted a soothing blue, and the previous tenant had even left some original art propped against the walls that was pretty fabulous. There was also a small bathroom that I could see from where I stood and another door leading to what was probably a closet.
The best part for me, though, was the French doors at the end of the room that led out onto what could only be the widow’s walk of the house. I walked over to them and threw open the doors, letting the fresh, cold, night air fill the room with the scents of fall.
I stared out at the twinkling view of Moonlight under a sky filled with fading stars as dawn started to creep up on us and tried to center myself. After the day I’d had, it wasn’t as easy as it usually was. Surprisingly, the scenes with my mother and Jack took a backseat to the scene I had had with Nathan before I left Washington. Just the memory of it had my lips twitching. I would have given anything to see his face when I disappeared right out of his arms. I could only imagine how funny his expression must have been. And I have a really good imagination.
“Maybe that’ll finally get it through his thick head that I’m not his property and he can’t tell me what to do,” I muttered, talking to nobody but the man in the moon that was shining overhead. “Serves him right for being such a caveman.”
I went back into the room and stood there looking at my suitcases for a long moment, wishing I could make them unpack themselves. I was so going to have to ask Gram about a spell to do that or something. It would have been cool to just wave my hand and have my underwear dance into a drawer like they were doing a conga line.
Accepting that it wasn’t going to happen, though, I set about making the room mine. I must have drunk three of my energy drinks before I finished unpacking, but they didn’t seem to be helping much. If anything, I was getting sleepier.
Once everything was where I thought it should be, I picked up the pair of yoga pants and the tank top I had thrown on the bed to sleep in and headed for the shower in the hopes that it would wake me up. The bathroom was tiny, but there was a pile of clean, fluffy, white towels on a shelf over the toilet and it was as immaculately clean as the rest of the house.
I stayed in the shower longer than I normally would have, playing with the cross Nathan had given me that, come morning, would mean the difference between a nice, long life and me ending up six feet under. Suddenly, I found myself wishing Nathan was there to back me up. Maybe he was right. Maybe I didn’t have to do it alone. I didn’t need him there to face Jack for me, but to stand beside me while I fought for my life. I just needed him to be there.
But he wasn’t. And I had no one to blame for that but myself.
I was just about to get out of the shower when I felt a chill against my back. I knew by the vibes it was putting off that it was the same ghost I had run into downstairs, but I wasn’t in the mood to make new friends so I tried to ignore it. I waited for it to go away, but it just stayed where it was.
“Not cool,” I told my unseen visitor, turning the water off and throwing back the shower curtain. “I usually shower alone, you know.”
I stopped cold as I stepped out, staring at the steamy mirror before me with a chill shooting down my spine that had nothing, and yet everything, to do with the ghost that still hadn’t appeared. Written in the steam were two words. Not alone.
“No shit?” I grumbled, shaking off my temporary burst of fear and reaching for a towel to erase the words. “What’s next? Are you going to appear before me all gross and rotting or something? Sorry, buddy. I’m not that easy to scare.”
Rolling my eyes, I got dressed quickly and brushed my teeth. The ghost that still refused to appear to me stayed right there with me, turning the tiny space into a freezer. By the time I was finished, my teeth had begun to chatter and my skin was covered in goose bumps. Rubbing my hand up my arm to warm it, I reached for the door with the other hand. It opened about an inch and then slammed shut with a resounding wham.
“Danger,” my unseen friend whispered, the voice light and feminine.
“The only one in danger here is you if you don’t let me out of this bathroom,” I grumbled, starting to get angry. I tried to open the door again, but it wouldn’t budge. Planting my hands on my hips, I glared around the tiny room. “I’m going to open that door one way or another.”
“Whatever,” the voice said with a deep breath of exasperation. “Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
I was reaching for the door again when it opened on its own. The creaky sound it made as it drifted open was more unsettling than the ghost, in my opinion. It reminded me of those old scary movies I’d watched as a kid. The only thing missing was the mass murderer wielding a butcher knife.
I decided I would have preferred the freak with the knife when I saw the pissed off vampire waiting for me.
Just When I Think it Can't Get Worse...
It Does
“How did you get in here, Nathan?” I demanded, trying to ignore the way my heart leapt into a sprint at the sight of him. “Actually, how did you get here, period? Didn’t I leave you in Washington?”
“You actually thought I was going to stay in Washington?” he asked, his voice low and angry. “I was on the first flight out. As for how I got in here, you left the doors wide open. Why don’t you hang a sign around your neck that says ‘come and get it’?”
I glanced from him to the doors he was waving at and felt my stomach drop into my feet. I must have been more exhausted than I thought to have done something that stupid. He was right—though it irked me to no end to admit it—anybody or anything could have come in through those doors and been waiting there to greet me. Including Jack.
“I thought you had some vampy rule about that,” I snapped back, my initial rush at the sight of him wearing off pretty damn quick thanks to his tone. Crossing my arms over my chest, I lifted my chin and gave him the most disdainful look I could muster up. “I didn’t invite you, Nathan.”
“You didn’t have to,” he said. “The rules don’t count with you. You are the ultimate loophole. I’d tell you why, but you’d just run. That is what you’re good at, isn’t it?”
I flinched but didn’t bother to defend myself. What would be the point? He thought he had me all figured out when the truth was that he had no idea what the hell he was talking about. I hadn’t run from him, and I hadn’t run from my parents, either. I had simply done what was best for everyone, in both cases, and left.
“You came in through the balcony doors? Then feel free to exit the same way,” I hissed. “I’ll be sure to hang a sign for you tomorrow, though, since you like the idea so much. Which do you like better, ‘No Vamps Allowed’, or something more specific like, ‘Go Away, Nathan’?”
“You still aren’t getting it, are you, Ember?” he asked softly, rubbing a hand over his fac
e in a gesture of weariness as he got to his feet. “I’m not going anywhere, baby. No matter how many times you push me away, I’ll just keep coming back until you accept that.”
“Persistence is not an endearing quality, dead boy,” I told him, glaring at him as I backed away from him and the empty promises he was making. “I thought you would’ve taken the hint back at Grams’.”
“And I know you have better sense than you’re displaying right now, Ember. This is not just some new challenge for you to take on just to prove you can do it. This is your life we’re talking about, damn it!” He reached out and grasped my arms and began to reel me toward him slowly as he continued to lecture me. “I’ve just spent half the night looking for you, scared out of my mind that he...” He stopped and swallowed hard, and I saw real anguish flash in his eyes at whatever thought had just crossed his mind.
“Looking for me?” I snorted, trying to shrug his hands off. “You don’t have to look for me. I’m on a leash, remember? What? Is your GPS system not working?”
The way his eyes tightened at the corners and his muscles tensed, answering my question without him having to say a word. He hadn’t been able to find me. That’s why he was so scared—and so angry. He had thought he would be able to track me no matter where I went and it had backfired on him.
Justice at its best.
“So your little trick didn’t work, huh?” I asked, smiling up at him in triumph. “That’s too bad, Nathan. Guess you’ll just have to stalk me the old fashioned way.” Widening my eyes dramatically, I gasped and clapped a hand to my cheek like I’d just had the ultimate epiphany. “I know! You and Jack can compare notes! I gotta tell you, I feel like I traded a demon stalker for the vampire variety.”
“Maybe so,” Nathan agreed softly as he tugged me that last step into his arms. The heat suddenly burning from his amazing eyes was enough to turn my bones to jelly and scare me silly. “There’s a big difference between me and Jack, though, Ember. You only want one of us, and we both know it’s not Jack.”
“And who says I want you?” I scoffed, not quite meeting his eyes.
“You do,” he murmured, leaning down to breathe the words against my cheek. The feel of his cool breath against my skin sent tingles of pleasure racing down my spine and I really had to concentrate to keep my legs steady beneath me. “The way your heart races whenever I’m close to you tells me you want me. Your eyes tell me you want me every time you let yourself look at me. That beautiful body of yours tells me you want me every time I touch you. So does that amazing mind of yours. The only thing telling me no, come to think of it, is that delectable little mouth. The lips might lie, baby, but the body will betray you every single time.”
He didn’t give me time to deny it. His head dipped and he captured my lips before my mind could even come up with a good comeback to that. It was even better than it had been the first time, and I hated him even more for it. It was passion incarnate, that kiss, and it infuriated me that I didn’t even have the will to try to push him away.
I wanted to give in to him, be with him. Every time he touched me, I fell a little bit more for him. When he kissed me, I lost myself completely. But, in the end, I would lose him because I was the wrong girl. That reminder was enough to break the enchantment of his kiss, at least. I shoved against his chest and jerked my arms free.
“Get out, Nathan,” I told him coldly, backing away from him again. This time, he didn’t come after me. “You’ve had your fun, now leave.”
“No,” he said softly. “I won’t stand by and watch you die, baby. I can’t do it again. What would you have done, Em, if you had walked out of that bathroom and it had been Jack sitting here waiting for you instead of me?”
“Told him he was early,” I snapped before I thought better of it. When Nathan’s eyes started to glow, I realized maybe I should have kept that little appointment to myself.
“What?” he asked in a tone so soft and deadly that I flinched. “You were expecting Jack, Ember?”
“Not until in the morning, actually,” I told him, my eyes darting around for some way to escape before I found myself bound, gagged, and headed for the ends of the Earth.
“You made a date with a demon?” Nathan roared loud enough to shake the dust from the rafters overhead.
“Well you don’t have to put it like that,” I muttered, circling away from him without trying to be too obvious about it. “It’s not like we’re going out for dinner and a movie, Nathan.”
“Oh, you’re going somewhere, all right,” he growled, stalking my every move like the predator he was. “You’re leaving Moonlight tonight, Ember. You can either pack a bag or go in what you have on, but we are leaving.”
“No,” I said, stopping and standing my ground when he was right in my face, his glowing eyes so bright they looked like headlights.
“Ember,” he said, taking a deep breath in an obvious attempt to control himself. “You have two minutes to change and get your shit together. After that, I’m going to do something I really don’t—”
His voice died off and his eyes widened as the floor beneath our feet began to quake. The French doors blew open like someone had hit them with a battering ram, slamming against the walls on either side hard enough to crack most of the glass panes. Then, because apparently that wasn’t dramatic enough, a cyclone-force wind swept through the room, tearing at my hair and picking up everything in the room that wasn’t nailed down and sending it straight at us at high velocity.
Nathan shoved me against the wall behind me and then proceeded to use his own body to shield me. I flinched when my nail file embedded itself in the wall next to my head with a twang and then stood there, staring as it vibrated back and forth like it was trying to pull itself out of the wall and give impaling us another try.
“On the count of three, we’re going to make a run for it,” Nathan said, practically shouting the words in my ear to be heard over the howling wind turning the room into a demolition zone. “Ready? One…two…three!”
Before the last word was even past his lips, he grabbed my hand and started dragging me across the room at breakneck speed toward the door and the stairs leading to the third floor. I had to duck to keep from being decapitated by pieces of glass from the now destroyed French doors and I felt something sharp cut into the bottom of my foot, but I never so much as slowed down.
We were almost there when the iron light fixture overhead tore free with an ominous snap and began to fall. I didn’t think, I just acted. I wrapped my arms around Nathan’s waist and pushed with everything I had. It was a tackle that would have made the Oakhurst Academy Phoenix football team proud. The light fixture missed us by a couple of inches as we crashed to the floor, the etched glass globes shattering and sending glass flying in all directions.
In a blinding fast move, Nathan rolled me over, covering my body with his and keeping the worst of the glass from slicing me to ribbons. I felt a particularly large shard embed itself in my bare calf with a searing jolt of pain. I clenched my teeth in an effort to hold back the whimper trying to force its way out, but Nathan heard it, anyway. He looked down at me in concern for a second, then readjusted himself so that he was covering every bare inch of me from head to toe just in case any more projectiles launched themselves in our direction.
We laid there for a long moment once the room became quiet again. I wiggled around until I could look down at my aching leg and whimpered again when I saw the damage. My entire calf was stained crimson, and more blood was pumping steadily from the wound. I felt cold all over when I realized the damage could have been much worse.
“Oh, great,” I gulped, averting my gaze quickly as my stomach began to roll as I imagined that thick piece of glass stuck in my forehead or something.
“Are you finished with your tantrum now?” Nathan growled, looking beyond irritated with me.
“That wasn’t me, you jerk!” And I was telling him the truth. There had been no weird pressure in my chest, no buzzy feeling. I
had been mad, yeah, but I hadn’t caused the destruction littering the room around us.
“If it wasn’t you, then who was it?” Nathan asked, looking like he didn’t believe me.
The soft thud of something hitting wood drew my eyes to the right, and I watched as my favorite tube of lipstick rolled off the edge of the dresser. My eyes lifted slowly to the mirror above and I stared at the words spelled out there in creamy rose with more than a twinge of fear. The message was short and sweet, but I got it loud and clear.
Demon.
“I think you just got your answer,” I gulped. Nathan followed my gaze to the mirror and his eyebrows met in a deep frown before he turned to look back down at me.
“Did anything else happen tonight I should know about, Em?” he asked pointedly.
“Nothing much,” I told him with a shrug. “I found out my mother really does hate me, so I moved out. After that, I survived some weird demonic bombing that didn’t really happen in a coffee shop, got felt up by about twenty soldiers at the local bar, and took a shower with a ghost. You know? The usual.”
“Someone touched you?” he growled, his eyes flashing dangerously. “Which bar?”
I rolled my eyes. Oh, sure. Let’s completely dismiss the parts about me being homeless, Jack trying to scare me to death, and my shower with a member of the dearly departed and zero in on the fact that a bunch of drunk soldiers wanted to be touchy feely. Typical male.
“What difference does that make?” I asked.
“I’m suddenly in the mood for a drink.”
“You’re pretty possessive of something that doesn’t belong to you,” I huffed, though part of me was jumping up and down that he seemed to be jealous.
“You have no idea,” he said softly, giving me a deep look that made my toes want to curl.
