“Such pretty curls. They never had to fall out of your head the way mine did when the underwater current changed. When my flesh rotted away, my hair landed in the bottom of the box, one strand at a time.”
In the inky blackness, the girl’s voice suffocated me. My muscles seized.
Her bony fingers clenched into a fist against my cheek. “And that flawless skin. It never had to fall away in mushy clumps.”
The flashlight came back on.
“Like mine.” A putrid, rotting, worm-mangled mess lunged at me.
Spittle sprinkled my face with a dank, bad meat odor. I swung around to run in the opposite direction, but she snatched my elbow and hurled me against the wall of the tunnel. Her invisible grip held me against the dirt wall. I fought air as I struggled against her.
“I will have your body.” Her nose was centimeters from mine. “I will know what it feels like to hold him again.”
I worked against her clutches, but the most I could do was slide down the wall.
The force released me. Using the walls in pitch blackness as a guide, I ran the best I could in the opposite direction of the ghost, her evil laugh echoing behind me. A stench almost as bad as the ghoul’s breath slammed into me.
A sudden, powerful shove from behind threw me off my feet. I should have fallen to the floor, but I didn’t. I slipped, rolling and skidding over jagged rocks until I hit the bottom of a hole. I landed on what had to be the house’s septic system filled with rocks and moss. The odor stifled me.
I searched frantically for something to keep me afloat if I started to sink. Spiny and bony protrusions stabbed into my hands.
It wasn’t sewage.
Oh. My. God.
The leathery, rotting skins of animals gave under my weight. At one point, my hand became wedged between bones, and my fingers infiltrated one of their decaying cavities. The stench sent spasms through my stomach. I gurgled a scream, gorge burning my throat.
“Allie! Allieee.” From the top of the hole, the weak amber glow of a flashlight fell on me.
All around me, different colored furs stretched over partial animal skeletons. The animals’ mouths contorted in life’s last torturous breath, teeth reared, eye sockets empty.
I scrambled up the side of the hole but couldn’t get a good grip. My cuts raged, burning. The odor took my breath. I fluctuated between consciousness and passing out.
Cole clambered down and scooped me into his arms. Like an expert, he knew just where to put his feet to get us out of the hole.
I gasped, sobbed, and broke into splintered screams when we were finally at the top. I shoved Cole away, but his hands kept coming at me. I wouldn’t have been covered in all this, this, this animal gunk had it not been for his rejection. I collapsed away from him onto the dirt floor, a sobbing mess.
“I have to see if you are hurt.” He knelt down.
I screamed and whopped him right in the jaw. He stumbled back, but came toward me with the flashlight shining on my face.
“Look, I’m trying to help you. I need to see you. There are a lot of bacterium down there.”
“You think? It was a hole full of dead animals.” I fell on the floor.
“Let me get you out of here.” Cole’s face turned a sickly green with only the flashlight’s glow to illuminate him. His wild eyes bore into mine.
I sobbed harder.
“I’m going to pick you up and carry you out of here. Don’t fight me. It’ll only hurt you.” He gently yet cautiously took my arm and pulled me toward him with the flashlight.
Pain radiated from my ribs. I must have bruised them during the fall.
The flashlight went out.
Overcoming dread exploded in the pit of my stomach.
“That woman. Oh my God. That woman will come back.” I jumped up.
Cole stood. He wrapped his arms around me, dead animal fragments and juices dripping from my clothes and hair.
“Allie, you’re in shock.” Cole’s tone was infuriatingly even. “Take deep breaths.”
“Deep breaths? You take deep breaths. Do you smell that? It’s all over me.”
Cole began to shudder. “There’s so much…blood.”
The flashlight cast strange shadows that contorted his face.
I froze, unable to stand or talk any longer. I was still conscious, but Cole scooped me up.
It was too much. I couldn’t do it anymore. Though touching him increased my nausea, his chest a comforting pillow. Something hot rolled down my cheeks.
Cole talked softly, maybe whispered to me, but I couldn’t process the words.
I closed my eyes, holding on to the murmur and lull of the tones.
* * * *
A few minutes later, my head buzzed and things around me came into focus. I kept my head on Cole’s shoulder. Inside, I was cold, numb.
With one powerful shove of his foot, fragments of drywall fell away, and an old door lay on the ground behind us. The musty dirt smell changed to a musty basement smell. Cole scaled the stairs to the main floor of the house.
Cole angled my head through the doorway first. The light shined down on long stretches of superficial cuts intersecting all over my body.
From somewhere at the end of a barrel, Thomas yelled at Cole.
When they heard the late night commotion, a few staff members stirred to witness the chaos.
“What can I do?” Dalton fell in behind Cole.
Cole ignored him, brushing past a few other staff members who gawked. He carried me up the stairs to my room and delivered me to the bed.
Shelby and Kaitlyn rushed in behind him.
“All the men, out,” Kaitlyn ordered.
The guys reluctantly backed from the room.
Cole stood firmly beside the bed, pushing my hair back as I stared at the ceiling.
“You too, trouble maker.” Shelby jabbed her hip. She pointed at the door.
“Oh, no. I’m staying right here.” Cole looked back at me.
I rolled over to face away from his bipolar gaze.
“We’ve got this,” Shelby or Kaitlyn said as someone worked on my cuts.
“I stay, and that’s final.” Cole had never been more stubborn.
“Then make yourself useful. She’s ruining the bed. Get her to the bathroom.” Kaitlyn pulled the comforter down to the bottom of the bed and handed it to a maid.
“She’s pretty banged up. You play too rough, Mr. Animal,” Shelby said.
Cole stopped and glared at her.
Shelby smiled and flared her nostrils.
“Enough.” Kaitlyn shoved them apart.
Shelby relented.
Everyone worked together to get me in the shower.
Cole held me, my functionless body draped over his under the spray. His body shook and shuddered as the shower drenched us both. A few times, he called me by a name other than my own, but I was too tired to care. “It’s gonna be okay. I’m so sorry. I tried. I’m so sorry. I should have backed you away sooner. I should have. I should have never let it get this far.”
The scrapes burned and water ran into my eyes, but I couldn’t blink. I couldn’t feel. I couldn’t speak.
Too much had happened today, this week. Flying body parts, a dead body chasing me through tunnels, through my dreams, through waking moments.
Shelby and Kaitlyn got soaked helping me rinse off. They shouldn’t have had to suffer, too.
I shoved Cole away. Forcing my limbs to work, I used my hands to rub my clothes and get what I could of the animal guts off my skin.
Cole stood with his back to me outside the shower, his head bowed, not making eye contact with anyone.
Kaitlyn and Shelby pulled me from the shower, as hairy meat particles floated in the current down the drain.
When the girls stood me in front of the bath, the running water roaring into the tub reminded me of the last pleasant memory I had of water. The waterfall before…
&nbs
p; “Now let’s get these clothes off you and get you scrubbed clean. Cole, do you mind?” Kaitlyn clucked with distaste at him.
He ambled out of the room.
“You sure found yourself in a mess tonight. If you’d only listened. But why would I think you would. It’s not like you ever did before. Or we wouldn’t be here right now, would we?”
Funny. It didn’t seem like Shelby meant anything I’d done in the last week.
The girls helped strip off the soiled clothing.
“Come on, honey. Let’s get you cleaned up.” Kaitlyn threw my ruined clothes into a heap.
“I’m going to talk to Cole. Can you handle this?” Shelby nodded at me.
“Yeah. Get him calmed down and away from her.” Kaitlyn grabbed a washcloth and soap.
Shelby patted my back and left us. She pulled the door shut behind her. It popped back open enough for me to hear. “We need to talk.”
“One minute alone with her. I can make it all go away.” Cole’s voice sounded weird.
“We know that little trick. No. You’re not doing that again. If you do, I’ll tell her everything,” Shelby said. “She doesn’t need your interference. I don’t know how much more of your mind tricks she can handle. Let’s hope she comes out of the state she’s in right now.”
Bits and pieces of the conversation filtered through the crack in the door. Cole’s voice rose in anger, but Shelby’s rose to match it.
Kaitlyn loofahed my skin almost raw as their words got even more heated.
“…so don’t go off the deep end just yet. We’re not allowed to tell her anything that would quote un-quote piss you off. So, my best advice is you tell her everything and let her work with us.”
“Absolutely not.” Cole’s voice cracked.
“You’re going to get her killed. Tonight, you and your girlfriend could have done her in.”
From there, angry words and hushed tones made the conversation that much harder to keep up with.
“…and if she weren’t already dead, I’d kill her,” Cole fumed.
“You could always dig her up and desecrate her body.”
I imagined him in a rage slashing through the family gravesite, tearing what was left of Grace Rollins’s coffin from the ground and strewing her body all over the place.
“Now we’re in trouble.” Kaitlyn dipped the loofah in the water.
“What?”
“She’s officially pissing him off.”
“There’s no better person to do it.”
“Listen to me.” Kaitlyn forced me into eye contact.
“I’m listening.”
“I seriously need you to listen.” Kaitlyn turned my chin with her finger. “While she has him occupied. Do not, no matter what you do, tell him how you feel about him until I tell you it’s okay to. Don’t verbalize it. Don’t write it down. Don’t tell someone else to tell him.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. I’m not the best judge of character. I’ll think twice before I make any advances toward him ever again. He’s not all there. He told me to get the hell away from him before he killed me.”
“I don’t think he meant it the way you took it. He just means that you being around him could get you killed. There are rules to this game.” Kaitlyn squeezed the water out of the loofah again and sat it off to the side.
“I wasn’t aware I was in a game.”
“Honey, this was a game from the day you opened the invitation.” She squeezed shampoo into her hand.
My temples pounded. I hated games.
“Maybe if we can just get him on our side.” She massaged my hair.
“I don’t know if I like the idea of you all teaming up against me. Somehow I feel like I’d end up the odd man out.” I gently pushed her hand away and took over my cleansing.
The twins and Cole’s possible union gave me a new sense of determination as I stepped from the tub of pink tinged water. One more rinse in the shower freed me of any lingering particles.
Kaitlyn helped me as I sluggishly moved from the shower to dry off. She covered all the little scrapes with triple anti-biotic ointment and bandages.
I faked wellness to get her out of the room and groaned under the pain when she was gone.
God, how far had I fallen?
I eventually stepped from the bathroom.
Cole, Kaitlyn, and Shelby stopped mid-conversation to stare at me.
Cole’s gaze darted toward the door, then to the window, then back to the door as if he were looking for a way to escape.
“I’m fine. You can all leave now. Go find somewhere else to conspire.” In my closet, I pulled the door almost shut, glad to be out of their view.
Kaitlyn said, “Don’t you need help—”
“You all have to be exhausted, and I need to lie down myself, so there’s no need to keep you up.” I kept my thoughts off my planned late night excursion.
“I’ll be in the cottage if you need anything. Have someone call for me if it becomes absolutely necessary.” Cole’s voice was closer to the door.
“Absolutely necessary? Wow. I wouldn’t want to inconvenience you.” I laughed but wasn’t a bit amused. I pulled on a nightgown and hung the robe in the closet.
Cole’s voice sounded softer. “I’m not trying to evade you. At least not…never mind.”
I stepped out and passed Cole without a glance.
The bed was turned down for me. How sweet. He’d probably done that, too.
I turned to Cole wanting, needing to hurt him after his rejection. “Your services are no longer needed.”
Isn’t that what he wanted to be? Only my employee? I had no problem with that arrangement now. I’d never call on him again. Not unless it was absolutely necessary.
Cole’s jaw worked. He left the room.
Okay, returning the rejection didn’t fulfill me the way I thought it would.
“Please, if you can’t stay in bed, stay out of trouble tonight,” Kaitlyn said.
* * * *
Once in the library, the musk of leather and dusty volumes enveloped me. A masculine work desk centered in the middle of the window had a lone lamp that wouldn’t draw much attention.
I hoped no one could see from outside. I pulled the switch to ensure privacy.
From hundreds of multicolored book jackets, the volume that read Rollins 1864 stuck out. I pulled it from the shelf and glanced behind me.
No paranormal researchers/nosey detectives in sight nor were there any hot, mysterious guys who couldn’t seem to stomach being around me or stay away from me.
Rolling a large, buttoned-backed leather office chair up to the massive mahogany desk, I sighed and laid the book out in front of me.
The first page depicted the grounds with a railroad and a railcar pulling supplies to a foundation to the ridiculously huge house. Men in dusty work clothes unloaded the car as distinguished men in old suits admired the progress.
The next page was of a family. This picture had only one little girl. The next had two.
As I flipped through the pages of pictures and documents, a story folded out before me. The documents were interesting, but the fact that a lively smile had decorated the older girl’s face until the little girl appeared in the pictures was even more noteworthy.
A room decorated with music boxes, porcelain dolls, and a canopy bed filled the next page. The picture was yellowed, but something about the room beckoned me. It was exactly how I would have decorated my room as a young girl had money allowed. I was almost there, in the room, under the warmth of the warm blankets. The love of my parents was evident in each knickknack and laced item that filled the room.
“What are you doing out of bed?” Cole’s voice jarred me.
“None of your business.” My cheeks heated at being caught in the fantasy.
“Fair enough.” He swiped his hand through his hair. From over my shoulder, he took interest in my reading material. “What’s this?
”
“I’m sure you know what it is. You know everything else about the place.”
“The Rollins’s Family History.” His voice was patronizing.
“Yep. Trying to figure out why a ghost would want me dead. And for that matter why you’d threaten to kill me, then act like you care so much about every minute scrape on my body.”
“I meant that you being around me would end up getting you killed. I was stressed.” He sounded so placid. As if this was okay. As if he could treat me however he wanted.
“Hmm.” Anger stewed in my veins.
“And you’d be of no use to Grace Rollins if you were dead. She gets her kicks from harassment. She rarely kills. Chase, beat, maim, possibly even torture small animals—yes, but kill, not lately.” Cole rounded the sofa nearest the door and flopped down.
So she had killed. That raised the stakes a little.
Cole propped his elbows on his knees and rested his chin on steepled fingers. The way he looked amazing even in a white T-shirt and plaid pajama pants distracted me until I got to the next picture.
A rose garden half built. The gorgeous older sister stood in front of it wearing a purple floor-length dress that dipped dangerously low in the front.
“Who is she really? And don’t say who. I want to know who is chasing me.” My tone hinged on sweet and slightly flirty.
“A girl who used to live here.” He sank back into the sofa. His long, lean legs were breathtaking. Cole stared at the bookshelf before him. He raked his left hand through his wet, freshly showered hair. The room smelled warm and spicy, like him.
Heat prickled my skin from my toes to the roots of my hair. That heat he knew how to fire up with just his presence churned deep in my stomach.
Cole regarded me, an impish grin lifting the corners of his mouth.
“What?” I put my hands flat on the book.
“Love the night gown.” He chuckled, not as uptight as usual.
Okay, so it resembled a white sack. “Yeah, I wasn’t expecting a late night rendezvous in the library.”
“I didn’t—” he started.
“I know you didn’t come to the library to throw me down on the sofa.” I poked my nose back into the book and pretended to be interested in a page I’d already studied. I flipped to the next page.
Ever After Page 15
