by JL Bryan
“You've got us there,” he said. “We are all secret aliens—”
“Stop. What was the idea? Impress me with your dazzling ghostly experiments? Force me to come to you for help?”
“We were having such a friendly conversation a moment ago,” he said, looking entirely unruffled by what I was saying.
“Am I right?” I asked. “I'm only asking to measure how honest you're being with me.”
Nicholas held up his right hand, as though being sworn in at court. “I solemnly swear there was no manipulation or hidden agenda here. Unless you're free this evening and not opposed to dining with a horrific burn victim.” He raised his arm, showing me the swollen red spots on the back of his hand.
“I don't...did you just ask me on a date?”
“I will not be leaving town until tomorrow,” he said. “And I should be back and forth over the next several weeks—”
“Trying to buy my company.”
“After which, we'll have many more occasions to see each other,” he said.
“Right. Many more occasions,” I said. “You know I have a boyfriend, right?”
“And yet, mysteriously, my offer stands,” he said. “You would have the choice of venue, as it's your town. You could be my tour guide.”
“I'm a little busy,” I said. “Maybe next time?” Why did I add that?
He smiled just a little more, the only sign that my weak rejection had irked him at all.
“I will look forward to next time, then.” He rejoined his co-workers.
“You know, if that were me, you'd be all, 'Oh, you have a boyfriend, Stacey,'” Stacey said.
“Why does your impression of me talk like Mr. Snuffleupagus? Anyway, I'm not going out with him. All I'm doing is getting out of here as fast as possible so I can prepare an invoice for Madeline. How much do you think we should charge for wrecking the place?”
“A lot,” she said. “We took some heavy hits on our equipment. It'll take some spending to restock.”
I nodded and led the way out, eager to see the hotel in my rearview mirror.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I can tell you the exact moment that Abigail Bowen's spirit moved on. It was 2:47 in the morning, and my cat woke me by jumping on my face, yowling, claws extended.
After a delicate feline-removal procedure, I sat up and looked at the door to my balcony, which was where my cat's anger had been directed. Bandit scrambled under my bed and resumed hissing and growling down there, like a Paleolithic lion guarding its cave.
Her face looked in at me—not strangely smooth and lifeless like before, but a lifelike face with detailed features. She was so transparent that most people would have tried to dismiss it as a reflection, a trick of the eyes. I knew better.
I climbed out of bed and crossed my narrow apartment. By the time I reached the glass door to the balcony, the face was gone, but I opened the door and stepped outside anyway.
The night was clear and cool. The street outside lay deserted, streetlamps glowing under the low canopy of old, intertwined tree limbs.
I didn't see her again, but I could feel something in the air, a sense that things had changed. A follow-up investigation of the hotel, including a walk-through by Jacob, would confirm that all the spirits had gone, even the yellow fever victims in the basement, who might have been trapped there by the overall haunted atmosphere of the place where they'd died. Jacob pronounced the hotel “whistle-clean.” The thick layers of residual hauntings had vanished, too. I hope that didn't cost Madeline too many tourist dollars.
My future might have been filled with questions and uncertainty, but at the moment, the world felt a little more right, as though some giant scale had shifted, however minutely, away from senseless suffering and toward justice and compassion.
Whatever happened in the future—whether I was pushed into joining with Nicholas and company, or whether I decided to take Michael up on his idea and leave town before I had to work for those people—I knew that I would always pursue the same calling, doing what I could to make the world a little bit less dark and dangerous. I would always be a ghost trapper.
From the author
Thanks for continuing to read Ellie Jordan's stories. I had a lot of fun researching this one, and several actual ghost stories from Savannah served as inspiration.
If you’re enjoying the series, I hope you’ll consider taking time to recommend the books to someone who might like them or to rate or review it at your favorite ebook retailer.
The sixth book in the Ellie Jordan series is already in the works, and should be available around August or September of 2015. I can say that it will involve a family farm with a corn maze, and takes place around Halloween.
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Website (www.jlbryanbooks.com)
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Thanks for reading!
More books by J.L. Bryan:
The Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper series
Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper
Cold Shadows
The Crawling Darkness
Terminal
House of Whispers
The sixth Ellie Jordan book will be available in January/February 2016
The Jenny Pox series (supernatural/horror)
Jenny Pox
Tommy Nightmare
Alexander Death
Jenny Plague-Bringer
Urban Fantasy/Horror
Inferno Park
The Unseen
Science Fiction
Nomad
Helix
The Songs of Magic Series (YA/Fantasy)
Fairy Metal Thunder
Fairy Blues
Fairystruck
Fairyland
Fairyvision
Fairy Luck
