Pure Hell (Seventh Level Book 1)

by Charity Parkerson

  He couldn’t help himself. He swooped in and covered her mouth with his. The taste of their sex combined in his mouth adding an intimacy he didn’t expect. Wild lust had won the first round but Liam was nowhere near finished with her. He wouldn’t be content until he worshipped every inch of her body and convinced her do things no good girl would. She would love it. He would make sure of it.

  * * * * *

  With very little forethought, Anne ran a finger across the coffee table’s glass top. It wasn’t until she marveled at its lack of dust that she even realized what she had done. She couldn’t believe she had done something so invasive and rude as check out her host’s housekeeping skills. Fortunately, Mark was busy making certain there was enough food in the refrigerator to cook them both dinner and he was still in the kitchen when she performed the white glove test.

  To keep from doing anything else stupid, she sat on her hands and stared at the wall directly in front of her. It only helped for a couple of seconds because the wall was covered in photos of Mark with a variety of other smiling people. Without even thinking about what she was doing, she found herself drawn to the photos and that was where she was when Mark came back into the living room.

  She didn’t hear him come in and she jumped when he spoke behind her. “That’s my grandmother and little brother William.”

  Anne leaned toward the picture to get a better look. “Your brother is very handsome. The two of you couldn’t be more different.” When she realized how it must have sounded, she covered her mouth with her hand and turned to face him. She could feel the heat rush to her face. “That didn’t come out sounding anything compared to the way it played out inside of my head. I only meant you have such a rock solid feeling to you and your brother has more of movie star quality to him.” She sighed and shook her head. “I mean…”

  The crinkles around his eyes let her know he was desperately trying to suppress a smile.

  She laughed. “I’m going to stop now while I’m ahead. I wasn’t blessed with my sister’s charm, I’m afraid.”

  Mark rocked back onto his heels and slipped his hands into his the pockets of his jeans. “With your lovely accent you could tell me to go to hell and I would be so charmed I wouldn’t be mad at you.” He took her arm and led her back over to the couch so they could sit while they talked. “My brother and I have different fathers so that’s why we don’t look alike. My father was a fisherman. He died when I was three. The entire crew was lost trying to return home before a hurricane hit the coastline, but they mistimed it and were caught out in the middle of the storm.”

  Without even realizing it, while he was telling her about the death of his father, she had reached over and slipped her hand into his. “So your mom remarried?”

  Instead of answering right away, his eyes skirted over to the photo of his grandmother and younger brother before meeting her eyes again. “No. I think my mom loved my father so much she went a little crazy after his death. She left me with my grandmother for months at a time without anyone seeing her or knowing if she was ever coming back. When I was old enough to know the truth about my mother’s absences, my grandmother told me about the day my mother showed up out of the blue with a newborn in her arms.”

  He looked away again. “It was years before I knew why my baby brother cried all the time in those first few months. It seems my mother stayed away so she could prostitute herself out to support her drug habit. She probably had no idea who William’s father was. It could have been any of her johns.”

  “So William was born hooked on drugs?”

  Mark pursed his lips together and nodded. “Yeah. My grandmother had her hands full with the two of us, but we couldn’t have had a better person in our corner. She put the fear of God in us while letting us know she would die for us if need be. I owe her everything.”

  “Are you and your brother close?” The question slipped out without warning. She wasn’t even certain why she asked it.

  He squeezed her fingers. “You’re thinking about Kylie.”

  Tears filled her eyes and she bit her lip.

  “What happened between you two? No one here knew she even had a sister until we searched her apartment and saw the photo of the two of you.”

  Anne moved back to the couch and fingered the small diary next to her. She still hadn’t opened it. She was too scared. What if she did and discovered Kylie hated her? She couldn’t blame her if she did. She had never been there for her. Her baby sister had only been seven the night their parents died. How could she have turned her back on the only person she had left in her life?

  “Our lives were perfect. Kylie and I had the best parents in the world. They owned a small farm and while we didn’t live in a large house, nor did we have a lot of money, we were happy.”

  She sat back and crossed her feet at the ankles. It was her deep in thought pose. It wasn’t easy remembering the worst time in her life. “For Kylie’s seventh birthday, Mom invited several of our neighbors and friends over for cake. After the party was over, my best friend begged me to go home with her. Of course I wouldn’t let up on my mom until she agreed to let me go.”

  She sucked in a ragged breath before continuing, “The next day my friend’s mom woke me up to tell me there had been a bad fire at our house. She didn’t tell me about my parents right away, but I could tell from the expression on her face something was terribly wrong. They took me to our closest neighbor’s house. They had Kylie there with them. When I got there, they finally told me my parents hadn’t made it out of the fire.”

  Mark settled onto the couch next to her. “How old were you when your parents died?”

  Anne wiped a tear away before replying, “I was ten.”

  “Kylie must have been in shock. How did she make it out when no one else did?”

  Somehow, while she’d been telling her story, Mark had scooted a couple of inches closer without her noticing. Not that she minded. He was such a paradox. Outside he was all hard angles and toughness but once he let you see inside, he was so sweet and caring. She wanted nothing more than to reach over and touch his cheek. It personified him perfectly. It looked so soft with its smooth, rich mocha color but immediately below all his perfection, his chin was covered in black stubble. It was getting harder and harder to remember she was only staying at his house because he was concerned about her safety.

  Thinking about Mark was easier than remembering Kylie’s haunted look the morning after the fire. Had she been telling the truth all along?

  “She refused to talk to anyone else but me. When my friend’s parents finally took me to where Kylie was, she told me a dead man had carried her out of the house.”

  Mark rubbed at the stubble on his chin. “A dead man? Maybe with all the smoke, she only thought it looked similar to a dead man, or perhaps your father carried her out and went back in after your mother. Sometimes kids state things differently than an adult would.”

  Anne shrugged. “I was only ten, myself. I called her a liar but then she began remembering more about the guy’s appearance after mom and dad’s funeral. Maybe it’s one of the reasons I never believed her because when she first mentioned this person, she just said he was a dead guy. But with each and every retelling, she remembered more about him. Eventually, she began having these horrible nightmares. She would wake up everyone with her screaming saying he was trying to steal her away. She had the same dream every night.”

  Again, he moved closer to her. “Why didn’t you believe her?”

  She stared at the dimple in the center of his chin and tried to remember the details of Kylie’s nightmares. “Well, it was a dead guy,” she answered, feeling as if it should have answered everything.

  “Did anyone ever think to get her some help if she was seeing things?”

  “I think our aunt was a little scared of her. At first, it was only the guy who saved her from the fire but then it was someone different all the time. Sometimes the people would be kids and she would play with them almost as if
they were imaginary friends. Other times, it was adults who wanted her to do things.” She glanced away guiltily. “I think I was a little scared of her too.”

  Mark looked thoughtful. “Maybe it was her way of dealing with the trauma of your parents’ death. After all, she made it out and they didn’t. A seven year old has to have some way of handling something so huge.”

  “You’re probably right.” She drew in a long breath.

  “What?”

  The hairs on her arms stood up and a shiver ran throughout her entire body as she admitted her most shameful fear. “Sometimes I wondered if she just slowly lost her mind.”

  * * * * *

  “You’re the only person I can touch,” Kylie confessed. “I tried touching Cindy while you were questioning her, but my hand passed right through her.”

  He chuckled. “Are you complaining? Is there some other guy out there your palms are itching to touch?”

  She pretended to consider his question and he goosed her side.

  “I feel very lost,” she admitted. “I know it sounds crazy but I thought finding out who killed me would give me peace. It hasn’t. Death is very different than I thought it would be.”

  Silence stretched out between them and for a moment, Kylie wondered if she’d upset Liam. She didn’t want him to think she was unhappy being with him. It wasn’t that. It was as if something was missing. Somehow she didn’t think this was the normal way people spent their afterlife.

  “Do you want to tell me about this Septem you mentioned in your journal? The one who was tormenting you?”

  Kylie went completely still at his question. “Not really, no.” When he didn’t say anything, she sighed giving in. “He’s a demon. I picked him up during a séance when I first began working at Madame Curion’s. According to the Madame, he’d always been there lurking about, but since I didn’t acknowledge him he didn’t have any power. Once I opened the box, I couldn’t close it.”

  Liam brushed his fingers along her arms while staring off into space as if lost in his own thoughts. “Do you think it’s possible Septem took possession of Mr. Rogers and used him to kill you?” he asked after a moment.

  Kylie shrugged. “Anything is possible but unless my memories miraculously return, I’ll never know.” She paused and turned the idea over in head. She thought she’d rid herself of Septem shortly before her death, but he could have been playing opossum. “I can’t believe you’re going with me on this line of thinking. I thought cops were supposed to be logical and deal in the facts.”

  A bark of laughter escaped Liam’s lips. “Take a look around, Kylie. Say that to me again.”

  She kept her thoughts to herself. Believing in life after death was one thing, what she’d seen of the other side was another. There was an entire world running parallel to theirs. One that most people never knew about until they died. Some people never realized they were there. They would simply languish there without understanding they were occupying the same space in a world that had moved on without them. It was the in between; a mirror image of the life they once lived except it was filled with nothing and no hope. It was for those who weren’t good enough for heaven but not bad enough to burn.

  Kylie began to hyperventilate. Her mind rejected the knowledge her body no longer needed oxygen. Was she there? Was she stuck in between worlds? In a flash, Liam rolled until she was pinned beneath him.

  “Breathe, Kylie.”

  His voice was so calm and steadying. She gasped once more refusing to give up the habit of living. Liam stared down at her, willing her with his eyes to calm down and surprisingly her mind obeyed. Grinding her back teeth together, she took control over the erratic behavior of her new form.

  “I don’t understand why I’m here. I wasn’t supposed to end up here. I did all the things they tell you to do. Maybe I wasn’t perfect, but what the hell, Liam?”

  Liam appeared torn and she knew how he felt. On one hand, gratefulness over having met him consumed her but on the other, she couldn’t pretend this was normal.

  “Would you be willing to meet someone who I think could help you?”

  She thought she’d be willing to follow him to the ends of the Earth if he asked but she didn’t say as much. Instead, she simply nodded. “If you think this person can help me then of course I will.”

  “I do. Until then, you need something to distract you.” He rolled his hips leaving her no doubt of what the distraction would be.

  * * * * *

  As tired as Anne was, it would have been so easy to go to sleep and let Kylie’s diary wait until the next day, but all evening the thought of what her sister had written within its pages distracted her so much it wasn’t easy to enjoy Mark’s charming conversations about growing up. Any other time, nothing would have taken her attention from such a handsome caring man, but with the memory of seeing her sister’s pale, lifeless body fresh on her mind, it was hard to stay focused on the incredibly sexy detective.

  When Mark showed her to the second bedroom, she did try closing her eyes. However, after about fifteen minutes of tossing and turning, she finally gave up and retrieved the diary from the living room. After returning with it, she fluffed the pillows and leaned back against them as she ran her fingers over the cover of the cloth binder. It was a pretty book. It was pink with tiny red roses on the front and back. Looking at it made her smile reminding her of her baby sister’s personality. Kylie had always loved flowers. On her thirteenth birthday, their aunt allowed Kylie to decorate her own bedroom. She had chosen wallpaper with purple lilacs along with a white bedspread and curtains with pale yellow daisies.

  Anne had been so embarrassed by her sister’s bad taste she had never invited her friends over to the house again. Just thinking about how shallow she had been made Anne drop her chin to her chest. She closed her eyes in embarrassment and regret. How much time had Anne wasted keeping Kylie at arm’s length when she should have been holding her close and cherishing each and every moment? Now she would never be able to tell Kylie how much she loved her. She hated herself a little in that moment.

  Sitting there beating herself up about what she should or shouldn’t have done wasn’t going to bring Kylie back, so Anne finally opened the diary. She read until dawn taking turns laughing and crying over her sister’s words. Anne wasn’t surprised to learn Kylie had still been seeing and talking to the spirit world up until the end, but she had no idea Kylie possessed such a wonderful sense of humor. The diary was filled with astute observations on the people Kylie had worked with and met in everyday life. She had even written about the funny things that happened when she ran into spirits who had no idea they were dead. A man who had been killed in a car wreck had asked Kylie out on a date and she’d gone to the movies with him just so she could break the news to him he was dead and should move on.

  The next morning Anne dropped the diary when Mark unexpectedly knocked and then poked his head around the edge of the door.

  “You up?” He stepped into the room when he saw she was awake. “Did you sleep at all last night?”

  Anne picked up the diary from the floor and placed it on the bed next to her. She smiled. “I didn’t realize it was morning already.” She tucked a red curl behind her ear and then without thinking felt of the first two top buttons on her pajama’s top to make certain they were still buttoned. She was suddenly very aware of not being fully dressed. She blushed when she saw him following the movement of her fingers.

  She stammered, “I tried, but when I couldn’t fall asleep, I decided to read Kylie’s journal. I thought it might give me some insight into what had been happening the months and weeks before she was murdered.”

  The comment must have piqued Mark’s interest because he left the doorway and came over to sit on the foot of her bed. He was dressed in a pair of blue jeans and nothing else. She couldn’t take her eyes off his bare chest and without thinking, she released a long sigh. Realizing he probably heard it, she tore her gaze from his chest and fake yawned in a wild a
ttempt to cover the noise. Meeting his eyes, she hoped he hadn’t noticed her checking him out, but his pleased grin shot her hope straight to hell.

  Now she really did feel half-naked and vulnerable. She tugged at the covers pulling them up to her chin. Her nervous motions only caused his grin to spread. If that didn’t make a girl feel similar to a prudish spinster then she didn’t know what would.

  Mark stretched his long legs out straight. The movement brought her attention to his bare feet. Strangely enough, she found them every bit as beautiful and perfect as the rest of him. She did a mental eye roll and made a silent resolution to keep her eyes on his face from there on out, which would have been easier to do if the man owned a shirt. She couldn’t stop from briefly focusing on his pecs of steel again before honing in on a point somewhere between his chin and really nice lips.

  Mark finally put her out of her misery by asking, “Did you learn anything new?”

  She nodded. “Most of her diary was about her day-to-day life. A majority of it was the normal stuff you would expect, but about six months ago the tone of her writing began to change.” Anne pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She hated revealing the contents of Kylie’s diary. It felt as if she was telling her secrets to a stranger, but he had been the one to investigate Kylie’s murder. Not to mention, it might be important.

  “She started feeling as if someone was watching her. At first she thought it was a creepy ghost, but then she began catching glimpses of someone following her.”

  Interest lit Mark’s eyes. “Did she give hints to this person’s description?”

  Anne shook her head. “It was more a bad feeling combined with some stuff about these dreams she was having. There’s one entry about things in her apartment ending up in a different place than where she left them. Sometimes it was drastic changes, such as all her furniture being rearranged. Can you imagine coming home to find all your furniture in a different spot than before you left? She must have been so scared.”