Restless Spirits (Raised Book 3)

by Sharon Stevenson

  I blinked and realised the room had changed. No, wait it was the same room, it was just that everything looked a little bit different. I glanced down at my hands. The blue tint was gone. My skin looked normal. Not Animate blue-grey, not ghostly transparent powdery blue, just normal.

  Kit moaned softly and sat up, rubbing her neck as if it was stiff. She didn’t look as if she’d just been consumed by magic.

  “What’s happening?” She asked with a yawn that made me yawn.

  “Eh, I was hoping you could tell me.”

  She blinked at me, her smile broadening. “I did it.”

  A shiver rushed up my spine. “You did it.”

  And suddenly I realised how wrong it was. No matter how much I wanted Kit, she could never really be anything more to me than a girl I’d missed out on. I was dead. This… this was fucked up whichever way you looked at it.

  “You have this really weird look on your face,” she told me, stepping closer hesitantly.

  I wanted to tell her this was wrong, but I froze in place at the smell of her sugary-sweet perfume, rendered incapable of anything other than moaning longingly, apparently.

  “Aw, Pete,” she said, her teasing tone back. “Is that cream in your pants or are you just prematurely happy to see me?”

  I snorted. “I’m not that sad,” I managed to tell her before my real live body decided to test out this spell she’d worked to get us alone together. Her hair felt as soft as it looked, and my fingers didn’t just go right through it. One final deep breath obliterated my resolve. “You smell so good.”

  Her hands rested on my waist as I closed my eyes and leaned in. Her lips were warm and slick with some kind of fruity-scented gloss. I kissed her like she was the last girl I’d ever get to touch again. She was the only girl I ever wanted to touch again. She gasped as I broke contact suddenly, her eyes wide and questioning as I spun her around and brought us both stumbling onto the couch, side-by-side.

  “You said we’d get to do this on a couch,” I told her, wondering if a bed might be too big of an ask.

  “I did,” she said, with a nod that was followed by a breathless moan that gave me my first rager since the night of the cleared out mini-bar. Magical Viagra was no match for the sexy noises a gorgeous woman could make.

  I pulled her into another kiss, shifting to let her lie back. Blood rushed to all the right places as I pressed against her, my tongue probing her mouth gently. Her hands moved under my t-shirt, causing sparks of desire until I could barely stand it anymore. I moved back, gazing down at her.

  “How did I ever look past you?” The stupid words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them. I held my breath, trying to think of something to take them back as I stared into the eyes of the only woman I’d ever felt more than physical stirrings for in my whole sorry existence.

  Her flushed face was beautiful, her narrowing eyes full of fire. She yanked on the front of my T-shirt and pulled me down again, our lips less than an inch away from touching. “No talking.”

  I smiled, submitting to her with that wordless answer and shutting the hell up as she restarted our make-out session back up with renewed enthusiasm. Whatever spell she’d cast to make this happen, I never wanted it to end.

  Thirty-One – Kat

  Something was going on. I knew it the second I got through my secret passageway. The dead men David used in his Royal Guard were all whispers that hushed when I came into view. I smiled at them as if I didn’t know anything was wrong. They nodded sombrely as I passed. The one outside the throne room stopped me at the door.

  “He’s ‘busy’?” That would go some way to explaining things. I wondered who he was entertaining.

  “He requested that you be shown to your new quarters.”

  New quarters. I knew exactly what that meant. I folded my arms. “If David doesn’t wish to see the mother of his child, tell him she’s decided to move out of the country.”

  He faltered, clearly stunned.

  I waited for him to go tell David I was waiting for him. He entered the throne room and I stalked off down the hall. To hell with this! I didn’t want to wait. I shouldn’t have to make appointments to see him. I went to his bedroom. That was where I belonged. That was where I would live, with him. I threw the doors open and marched into the room, kicking off my heels and letting my feet sink in to the plush carpet. This was my heaven and if he thought he could eject me from it, he had another thing coming.

  I closed the door to wait for him, glaring at the Animate across the hall as I did so. The big white box by the bed drew my eye. The ribbon had been ripped from it and was hanging limply at the side. I tensed as I walked over to it, almost afraid to look inside the box.

  Who had he bought this for? Clearly not me. It was a gift box that had already been opened. I held my breath as I ripped the lid off and tossed it to the floor. The dress was exquisite. But it wasn’t the gorgeous fabric or detailing or extortionate cost that bothered me the most.

  The dress shouldn’t have been in his bedroom. The only place a woman’s clothing should ever be in David’s room was on the floor while the woman it belonged to was in his bed. This was a problem.

  I poked at the dress, pricking a finger on the crystal detailing. I let a single, tiny, teardrop of blood slip on to the silk before I slipped my finger into my mouth. This was not acceptable. He couldn’t do this to me. Not now. Not after everything I’d done to give him the one thing he wanted more than anything on the whole goddamned planet.

  Who the hell was she? I paced the room, waiting for him and wondering if he really was ‘busy’. I didn’t want to spend all night fuming in his room while he fucked his latest whore in the damned throne room. My anger would eventually wane, and that was the whole problem. I didn’t want it to. I’d been far too easy on him for far too long. I found a pad of paper and a pen in David’s nightstand drawer.

  My handwriting was shaky to begin with. I scrapped my first two attempts at a note. The third one, I left inside the box with the dress, forcing myself to put the lid back on afterwards. Whoever she was, she meant nothing. He’d always had a wandering eye. I’d known that going in, but I also knew I was the only one he kept coming back to. I was the one he saw staying by his side. I wasn’t quitting now. The bitch he’d bought the dress for didn’t know what the fuck she’d gotten herself in to. She’d be sorry she ever met him. I’d make sure of it.

  Thirty-Two – Tim

  The brainstorming session was starting to tire me out. Mickey insisted that we could rope Nine and her clones into helping us. After everything I’d done for her, he thought she should owe me. My stomach turned at the thought of it. The dream I’d had came back in all its bloodied glory.

  “She’ll take the King’s side. He got to her. It’s hopeless.”

  “Nothing’s ever hopeless,” he insisted.

  I poked at my lukewarm food. The hotel room was more comfortable than going out anywhere, but I wished I could have had one night out with Mickey, just one night where we could be together in public before I surrendered to my fate. I’d always known King David would be the death of me. I just wished my time wasn’t up quite yet.

  “You can’t quit on me,” Mickey told me, matter-of-factly as he ate his salsa-dipped fries.

  “I wasn’t trying to,” I told him with a lip-twitch that could barely be classed as a smile.

  “I won’t let you die. We have friends. We can beat him.”

  I didn’t bother to tell him I couldn’t risk his life or anyone else’s for this. It was my problem, and it had one flawless solution. I smiled at him and put up my defences as I felt his attempts to creep inside my head. He frowned at me as I ate. The food was tasteless. I swallowed and scooped up another forkful. Mickey shook his head as he started playing with what remained of his dinner. I hated this. I didn’t want to have to shut him out, but this was my last chance to save him from the King’s vengeance once and for all. I couldn’t let him do something crazy to save me.

 
Thirty-Three – Nine

  The bath didn’t do much to make me feel better. Everything was so messed up, and I didn’t know how to fix any of it. All I could think about was my King. I’d agreed to meet him, and I would. Nothing else really mattered. I so did not want to have to think about any of it. My head was aching by the time I threw on some clothes and headed back to the castle. I teleported directly into his bedroom, checking the local time and knowing I’d arrived with minutes to spare. I could change into the gift he’d given me. I rushed over to the dress box, knowing I could just teleport it onto me, but wanting to savour every moment of this night. There was something on top of the dress. A slip of paper I didn’t remember seeing before. I frowned as I pulled it out.

  It was a note, written in flowing script. I hated cursive. I’d learned it, like all the other clones, but I didn’t use it. It just seemed so pretentious. I wondered who had written the note. It didn’t seem like something my King would do.

  To the girl with the dress; I imagine you think you’re special. I’m not surprised. King David knows how to make girls feel like they mean everything to him. He ‘sees the real you’ and he makes you think he loves you for it. You’ll be his for a while. Then he’ll meet another pretty distraction and you’ll be yesterday’s news. If you have any self-respect at all, you’ll leave and never come back.

  My fingers trembled as I crushed the note. I could have written it off as a rant from a jealous ex-girlfriend had it not been for the part about him seeing the real me. How could she have known that? Unless he’d made her feel the same way…

  It wasn’t so hard to believe that he really could do the same thing to a lot of girls. The thought made me ill enough to rush to the bathroom. The sick feeling disappeared when I saw the room. What I’d assumed was an en suite was a huge bathroom with floor to ceiling mirrors and marble statues in the corners of the room. Surprise completely stopped me in my tracks. The room was gorgeous. The tub was sunken into the ground with steps to get into it, what looked like hot-tub jets, and it had to be big enough for at least ten people. I was still staring at it when I felt him come up behind me. I shivered as he touched my shoulder.

  “You’re early,” he said quietly, the light brush of his lips on my naked shoulder making me shake.

  The note was still balled up in my fist. My fingers quivered at the thought of releasing it. I couldn’t let him see it. I didn’t want to know the truth. Not if it took him away from me. I teleported the note away, imagining it bursting into flames in my suite at the MGM Grand.

  “I had different plans for tonight, but if this is what you’ve been thinking about…” He snapped his fingers and candles lit the room with a warm glow. The bathtub was full, steam rising from the bubbly water. A bottle of champagne sat open and chilling in a bucket of ice, two long stemmed glasses next to it. They were filled to halfway with the sparkling alcohol and condensation dripped from them. The emptiness of the scene he’d just set out for me made me want to curl up into a ball and never leave my bed again.

  I forced a smile. He had no idea what I was thinking about. I kept my walls up, unwilling to let him get so close a second time.

  “What were your plans?” I let my curiosity get the better of me; it was a distraction from the truth. I could almost believe I’d imagined the note if I tried really hard.

  “I won’t lie to you,” he started, his arms snaking around my waist. I glanced down and realised I was wearing the dress. He’d put me into it, and I hadn’t even noticed him doing it. I stared at the expensive material, beginning to feel sick again. It shimmered in the candlelight. He took a hesitant breath. “I’ve been with a lot of other women.”

  I flinched at the thought of it. I should have known. It wasn’t like I was a virgin myself, but still. It kind of stung to have him say it, especially after that note. Oh, God, that girl had to have been in the room while I was gone! “Do you still see some of them?”

  He moved quickly, coming around to face me. “Is that what you think?”

  I was captured by his eyes as I considered my answer carefully. “No.”

  “You’re different, Nine. In a million tiny, little ways. They all add up to one conclusion.” He produced a little black box out no-where, opening it to reveal the prettiest thing I’d ever seen. The diamond was pink and sparkled as if it was made of glitter. I felt my jaw drop but I didn’t know what to say. He was watching me, his gaze never wavering. “Please, say you’ll be my Queen.”

  I stared at him, my walls crumbling under the sincerity in his voice. This was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to me!

  Why did Timmy have to taint it? I bit at my lip, seeing him swallow and realising how nervous he really was. He wanted me to say yes to him, and he wanted it badly.

  “Are you asking me to marry you?” It was a dumb question, but I was thrown. This didn’t seem like something he’d do if he didn’t care about me. Maybe the girl who left the note worked at the castle. Maybe she was just some maid who had a crush on him. That could happen.

  Maybe there was no note, I told myself. Funny, it was only that last suggestion that relaxed my shoulders.

  He smiled. “Yes. I’m asking you to marry me. Will you do me the honour?”

  “Yes.” The answer was out of my mouth before I could think any more about what Timmy had said or about the note and who had left it on my dress.

  He pulled me into a kiss that stole my breath before he slipped the ring on my finger. It fit, meeting a bit of resistance at the knuckle before it slid all the way home. I stared at it, amazed. “I’m getting married.”

  “We’re getting married,” he corrected me. “I had planned to propose over dinner, but this was more romantic, considering.”

  “It was unexpected,” I told him with a smile to match his own. “I am kind of hungry though, now that you mention it.” It felt strange. I usually drank smoothies or protein shakes, but the thought of devouring something heinously unhealthy was making my mouth water. The baby, I realised, stroking my stomach before I could stop myself.

  He grabbed my hand. “Let’s go for dinner. The water will stay warm for us coming back.”

  He was about to teleport us and I panicked, pulling my hand away from him. Something could happen to the baby. If he didn’t account for it when we ‘ported something awful could happen. I’d teleported a few times myself. The thought made me feel ill now.

  “Are you okay?” He sounded worried.

  I nodded slowly. “Just a little queasy. I drank some water earlier. Forgot I wasn’t home.”

  “We can take a car to a restaurant in town if you don’t feel up to teleporting.”

  “Thanks. That would be so much better.” I walked with him out of the bathroom and out of his room. I couldn’t tell him about the baby. Not yet. Maybe not ever. The ring felt heavy on my finger as I followed him down the corridor. It should have been the happiest night of my life, yet here I was lying to the man I’d just agreed to marry, and worse, I wasn’t sure I’d done the right thing. I smiled back when he smiled at me. Time would tell.

  Thirty-Four – Pete

  The tug at my core was the weirdest feeling when I was rocking slowly against Kit. At first I thought she was using magic, then I remembered, she can’t generally do that. Aside from this spell and her healing power, I mean. I pulled away from her, knowing what was happening a second before it actually happened. “Shit! I’m being called on.”

  “Can’t you just ignore it?” She was all flushed and pretty, and it made me even more irritable that I was being summoned away from her.

  “We can always do this another time, eh?” I kind of wanted the promise before I was yanked away from her. Being hauled away would suck slightly less if it wasn’t a one of thing.

  “I suppose,” she said, sighing. “I can’t believe I’m getting off with a ghost.”

  I didn’t get a chance to think up a one-liner before she faded out from my vision and I was whisked away to face my murderer. It was
slightly more disorienting, going from solid to spirit with the blue tint to my sight making the room seem darker than it probably was. I frowned at Angie. “What do you want?”

  “Touchy much?” She rolled her eyes. “I came to warn you. Your cousin’s all gung-ho about taking on the King so his boyfriend won’t get the chair or some melodramatic shit like that. He’s a User now, as in he can use magic.”

  “What the…” Everything she said whirled through my thoughts. “Mickey can use magic? And he wants to what, attack the King?”

  She shrugged and nodded at the same time.

  “Shit,” I muttered. I was busy bemoaning the world and it’s pissy problems in my head when a door slammed. I jumped. Where were we? Oh. I glanced behind me and saw Kit waking up on the couch, rubbing at her eyes.

  “So where the hell were you anyway, Petie?” Angie was smirking at me. “I looked everywhere.”

  “None of your stupid business.” I groaned inwardly at the thought of Kit hearing us.

  She glanced at Angie and rolled her eyes, just as her tarty sister came into the room, kicking her shoes off. Her expression was pinched. Things didn’t go so well with her lover-boy baby-daddy then, I guessed.

  “Were you sleeping?” Kat frowned at Kit.

  Kit stifled a yawn. “No. So what happened?”

  “He’s being difficult,” she grumbled. “Don’t worry about it, though. We’ll sort things out.”

  “Aye, okay then,” Kit grumbled back.

  “Thanks for coming over.”

  Kit shrugged. She left without much more to say to her sister.

  I frowned at Angie when she shivered dramatically. “Ice, ice, baby,” she murmured, eyeing the pair of them as Kit made for the door.

  “Hey, wait up,” I called after Kit.