Wraiths of Winter (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 3)

by Joy Elbel

  The icy wind rushing in through the open window bit at my face but I felt an odd wave of heat begin to trickle down my back. Not now! The danger just doubled—Allison was back. Tied up and without any hope of escape, I lost all hope for myself. All I really wanted now was for Zach to make it out of this alive.

  “I’m ready for my line, Erik,” I said, hoping that by referring to him by the Phantom’s name, Jonas may be pleased enough with my performance that he would allow Zach to live.

  As he dragged my chair back into position, I caught sight of Allison. I could feel the depth of her rage—if only she could realize that Jonas should be her target and not me. She had an opportunity to get revenge on her killer but there was no way for me to communicate that to her.

  The room was almost hot enough to catch fire and I was afraid that it might actually be possible. Jonas seriously freaked out the day Allison lit the candles on stage for fear that the theater would turn into an inferno in mere seconds. I was most afraid of drowning but being incinerated alive was my second worst fear of how I would meet death.

  “I choose sacrifice!” I announced as convincingly as I could. And I did choose it—I just chose to sacrifice myself instead of Zach. If I got Allison to attack me again, it might create enough chaos for Zach to somehow get away. So after my line, I whispered the word, “Allison.”

  Jonas leapt up and down with excitement, “Now pull the trigger, Kira. Pull it!” he urged. Allison took on an unearthly glow as though she were burning internally and slowly drifted toward us. I looked over at Zach—I wanted to etch the memory of his face into my brain. Once I was dead, I wanted to remember love and happiness—not anger and revenge. If I couldn’t be at peace, I certainly didn’t want to be a wraith. As I braced for my own demise, Zach silently mouthed one sentence to me, “I would take a bullet for you.”

  That was it—I couldn’t take any more. I sealed my eyes shut and waited for the worst to come. By “worst”, I expected to get my tongue clipped out, to be flung across the room with ungodly supernatural force. “Worst” wasn’t supposed to be what happened next.

  “I think she needs help—I don’t think she can move her hand enough to pull the trigger. You need to help her.” I was in complete shock. Zach was trying to help Jonas complete his masterpiece by actually having me shoot him! Did he expect me to hit him somewhere superficially? I had zero experience with weapons—only sheer dumb luck would allow me to fire off a shot and only graze him. What was he thinking?

  “I admire your dedication to this performance, Roarke,” Jonas replied. I felt a hand close around my own—the one clutching the pistol. Delicately, he guided my finger into place and slid his on top of mine. He was going to pull the trigger while my finger was still on it. That wouldn’t technically make me a murderer but that wouldn’t save me from the overwhelming guilt I would carry with me for the rest of my life. Why did guilt seem to follow me around like a lost puppy?

  Suddenly, sheer chaos broke out in the room and I ditched my resolve to keep my eyes closed until it was all over. Zach was still firmly bound to his chair and Allison was still several feet away but what sounded like a life or death struggle was ensuing behind me. Jonas was no longer holding my finger on the trigger so I slid it out and released my grip on the gun.

  Before I could ask Zach what was going on, he shouted, “Get’em Lucas! You can take him!” with the same fervor as when he cheered on his favorite football team while watching a game.

  Lucas! I sent Clay to find help but he never returned. Zach ended up in the same dire situation that I was in. If the police were going to show up, they would have been there by now. When I thought all hope was lost, I never considered that Lucas might come looking for me. I never dreamed that he would be the one to save me. He was a better person than I thought he was. He cared more about me than I thought he did. But why did that make me so sad?

  Why? Because I thought that Zach showed more devotion to me and my safety than Lucas did. It drew me closer to Zach and the decision that I dreaded making didn’t seem so tough after all. But now…I was right back where I started from. Two boys, one girl, and zero idea of how to resolve the situation.

  “No, Lucas, focus! Hang in there!” Zach bellowed over my shoulder. “You can’t give up now!” “I’m trying, Zach! But he’s stronger than he looks!” Lucas cried out between painful grunts. “I can’t keep this up much longer!”

  Then a brilliant idea hit me. Boys always tried to solve their problems using muscle. Girls had to be craftier and use their brains. There was a powerful force in the room that I could possibly twist to our advantage. Or it could turn against us and make the entire situation ten times worse. Either way, it was my fault that we were all in such incredible danger so I had to at least try to get us all out alive.

  “Lucas, I’m going to yell one word and when I do, I want you to push Jonas toward the center of the room with every ounce of strength you have left, okay?”

  “Okay,” he called between panting breaths. “I’ll try.”

  “ALLISON!!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. Whereas a whisper brought her slowly toward the center of the room, a shout caused her to fling herself forward until she was almost touching me. With more fury than she displayed earlier, she shrieked with such a high pitched wail that the entire room began to shake.

  My chair flew over sideways and Zach’s did the same. Lucas thrust Jonas backward into her path then disappeared out of sight as he fell down the stairs behind him.

  “Allison?” Jonas uttered with disbelief. It was the last word he would ever speak. With a dumbfounded look on his face, he flew backward in the wake of her next blast and toppled head first through the window.

  Allison floated serenely to the spot where he fell, the light of rage no longer causing her to glow. Her image began to break apart, slowly at first, as though her entire body were being broken down into little flecks of confetti. Each tiny fragment vanished before it could touch the floor boards and soon there was nothing left of her. Jonas was dead—there wasn’t a single doubt in my mind. His death was the only thing that could have that had that kind of effect on her.

  Mixed in with my intense sense of relief was a feeling of pride. I did something no one else had ever done in the entire history of ghost hunting—I defeated a wraith! Rita was going to be so proud of me.

  40. Intermission

  Once Allison and Jonas were both gone, I explained how I turned her wrath against him and sent them both into the hereafter. While Lucas undid our restraints, the three of us decided on a plausible explanation to give to the police and with barely a moment to spare.

  No sooner were we free than the room was filled with a flurry of activity. Crimson, Rachel, Clay, and what had to be the entire Charlotte’s Grove police force barged into the tiny room armed with one common thing—questions. I was drained from my ordeal so I gave everyone the basic story then asked if I could go home. By the time I was done giving Captain Donaldson my official statement, Dad and Shelly were there to pick me up. All I wanted to do was get out of that horrendous wedding dress and into my nice warm bed. I wanted to hear everyone’s account of the incident and to share my own but that was going to have to wait until morning. Unlike a quick trip to the hospital for x-rays which Dad insisted I had to have done tonight.

  Upon my request my parents let me stay home from school on Friday. With my phone and car now both back in my possession, my first order of business was to proudly share my story with Rita. I couldn’t wait to tell her what I accomplished.

  “Ruby Matthews, have you gone completely insane? Didn’t I warn you to stay away from that damn theater?” Rita scolded as I walked in the door to Something Wick-ed.

  So much for Rita being proud of me. While her off the cuff greeting wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, I hoped that once she got the initial anger out she would be excited. I was right.

  The shop was busy with post-Valentine’s Day shoppers greedily grabbing half price cupid candles so
once they were gone, Rita hung a “back in five minutes” sign in the door to give us some time to talk. I assumed that she would want to discuss it in her office but when I went to open the door to it, she quickly tried to stop me. She was just a hair too late and when the door was barely opened a crack, I looked down to find something peering back up at me.

  Eyes. Big, green eyes. Big, green, cat eyes. Before I could get the door shut, a tiger striped feline with short chubby legs darted through the opening and out into the shop. I only caught a quick glance at it but I realized that I knew that cat.

  “What’s King Tut doing here?” I asked, suddenly realizing that Rita had been keeping secrets of her own. “And where were you when I tried to call you last night?” I may have made some stupid mistakes while dealing with my situation but I wasn’t going to be the only one on trial here today.

  “I decided to get a cat,” she answered slowly. “And I had plans last night so I closed the shop down a little early. Now about that wraith—“

  “Oh no, you don’t. You’re hiding something from me—or at least trying to. What have you been up to?” “Okay so I’m busted. I’ll tell you everything if you help me wrangle that little guy back into my office. See if you can find where he went to and I’ll grab the cat treats I bought on my way to work this morning.”

  He wasn’t that hard to find. I found him perched in the front window, carefully licking his royal splendor for all the world to see. Rita gathered him up, gave him a treat, then escorted him back to her office. When she didn’t immediately offer her explanation, I folded my arms across my chest and tapped my foot in an exaggerated display of impatience.

  “Okay smarty pants,” she replied, “I didn’t answer the phone last night because I was on a date. King Tut, who you are clearly already acquainted with, was part of my Valentine’s Day present. I didn’t come home last night so I didn’t have a chance to get him settled upstairs yet. Satisfied?”

  “Not completely. This date of yours—I’m acquainted with him as well, aren’t I?”

  Rita’s face turned red and she tried not to smile. “Maybe.” “You’re dating Andy, aren’t you? No, you don’t even have to answer that question—it’s written all across your face!”

  Rita began to stutter out a denial so I broke into song. “Andy and Rita sittin’ in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” “Okay fine—you got me. I wasn’t going to say anything just yet but now that the cat’s out of the bag, so to speak, Andy and I have been dating since New Year’s Eve.”

  “OMG! I noticed you seemed different lately but I never would have guessed what you were hiding until I saw Tut. He was like the shelter mascot—Andy wouldn’t let just anyone have his baby! Aw, that’s so awesome. I’m really happy for you guys. I would ask how things are going between you but since you already said that you didn’t come home last night—“

  “Yes, Andy and I are doing just fine—you’re the one I’m worried about. When I drove home this morning, I saw police cars at the Bantam. Captain Donaldson’s wife Gloria was my first customer this morning so I poked around for some information. I didn’t know exactly what happened but I knew that you were involved.”

  I quickly filled her in on all the boring details—all of the kidnapping and serial killer stuff—so I could spend more time describing how I banished Allison.

  “Ruby! As long as you understand that you were completely insane to face her alone, I want you to know that the entire paranormal community is going to want to hear your story! I can’t wait to call Gerald.”

  Now there was the pride I was waiting for! With our five minutes being up about five minutes ago, customers were restlessly milling about on the sidewalk eyeing their watches. There were plenty of other things I wanted to do so I called a goodbye to King Tut through the office door and waved to Rita as the bargain shopping throng entered the shop.

  It was just as easy for me to convince Dad and Shelly that things were finally back to normal. Once they fully understood that I really did only sneak Lucas into the house for protection purposes, I got all of my privileges back. While I had to endure a lengthy lecture on why I should stop insisting on handling huge issues like that one without their guidance, it was well worth it once I had my beautiful, wonderful phone back in my hand. Oh, how I’d missed it! As soon as I got home from Something Wick-ed, I took it upstairs with me so that I could text….

  No one, I texted no one. What did I want to say to Zach? To Lucas? I thought maybe once I talked to Rita and got the initial excitement of defeating a wraith out of my system that I would be ready to talk to both of them. I was wrong. So there I sat on my bed hours later still trying to construct a message to either of them. The problem was that now that I had no other problems to deal with, all of the confusing feelings I had for both of them were all I had to focus on. It was frightening, simply frightening.

  I tried to weigh the consequences in my mind one more time. My relationship with Zach was intense and chaotic. Highs were super high, lows were devastatingly low. I still wasn’t sure that danger and drama weren’t the only things drawing us together. On the other hand, if I’d never met Zach, Lucas and I would be dating by now for sure. Things with Lucas were far less confusing and when I was with him, I felt more normal—more like the old me before all of this ghost crap happened to me. What was I going to do?

  Nothing, I was going to do nothing. At least for now anyway. I needed to let everything settle for a while and not obsess over it. I’d always believed that Fate sent you in the direction you were meant to go. All I needed to do was take a break from trying to make a decision and let that decision make itself. In short, I was taking the coward’s way out and deep down inside, I knew that. After everything I’d been through, my bravery reserve was totally tapped. Until I felt strong enough to make a decision, I resolved to make no decision.

  There was definitely one thing I needed to do though—I needed to hear everyone else’s accounts of what happened last night. I sent out a mass text to Rachel, Zach, and Lucas suggesting that we all get together later to discuss the details. Within sixty seconds, they all replied in agreement. Rachel volunteered to organize the get together and get back to me with a time and place because Drake and Crimson would definitely want to join us. So many people held a piece to this puzzle but there was one other guest I would have to invite myself.

  “Clay? Can you come here?” I said aloud as I settled myself behind the wheel of my Neon. Almost instantly, he appeared in the passenger seat beside me. “We’re gonna have to stop meeting like this. This is exactly how rumors get started, you know.”

  I giggled at the sheer absurdity of his statement until I realized that someone like me was a prime target for juicy gossip like that. I could just hear it now. “So I heard that Zach and Lucas both dumped her because she was sleeping with some dead guy!” Giggling ceased.

  “Ha ha, very funny Clay,” I deadpanned. “But if you’re not busy and you’re done being a shitass, I wanted to see if you would come with me to Boone’s house. We’re all getting together to try to piece together everything that happened last night and you’re a big piece of that puzzle.”

  “Me? Busy? You’ve got to be joking, right? I have the rest of eternity to prowl around down at the lake.”

  “Sorry, but I keep forgetting that you’re dead.” Clay smiled and fiddled with the buttons on his shirt self-consciously. “Thanks, Ruby. I like to hear you say that— it takes away some of the loneliness.”

  I swear that boy goes from shitass to sensitive faster than any living boy I know. Hmm…maybe dating dead boys wasn’t such a bad option after all? If things didn’t work out with either Zach or Lucas and I gave up on real dating altogether, I would definitely keep Clay in mind. There would be advantages to the whole cross realm dating thing. I’d love to see Dad try to catch me with Clay in my room at night!

  “Anyway,” I said to change to a less awkward subject, “Everyone is going to know that you’re there, if that’s okay with you. I want you to fe
el more like a participant in the conversation than a bystander.”

  “That’s fine with me—as long as you’re okay with everyone knowing your dirty little secret.” “I am,” I said as I pulled out of the drive. But was I really? Circumstances kept leading me to reveal the most intimate part of myself to near strangers. Don’t get me wrong, I trusted them all but more and more it felt like my secret wouldn’t stay a secret for long. Then what was I going to do? Slowly, it seemed like I was losing the battle to be normal.

  That night, I revealed my secret to two more people— Boone and Drake. Boone was relieved to finally know what Rachel had been keeping from him since summer. Drake was grateful to know that Allison was finally at peace and laughed hysterically at the fact that for a good portion of the last few months, I firmly believed that he was a raging psycho. But while they all seemed to want to thank me for what I’d done for them, it was me who should have been thanking them all.

  So here’s the part of the story that I didn’t know. Jonas ended the rehearsal only moments after I set out in search of Crimson. Rachel left the theater and went to Boone’s house with the intention of stopping by Rosewood on her way home. She assumed that since Jackson was in jail and Rita had said that the theater was safe, that I wasn’t in any sort of real danger. When she found out I lied to her about that part, she pulled out her best “mom” voice and sternly let me have it before finishing her account.

  While snuggling on the couch with Boone, she lost all track of time. She knew something was weird when she suddenly started losing body heat in various parts of her body. Once Boone convinced her that she most definitely wasn’t suffering from a stroke, she realized that the sensations were exactly the same as the day Clay touched her in the cemetery. After a few times of asking him to touch her in specific spots in response to questions, Rachel and Boone drove back to the theater.