How to Kill a Ghost

by Audrey Claire

  He eyed me. “What makes you think he’s in trouble?”

  “I…”

  “He won’t give Jake back,” Monica blurted.

  “That’s not true!” I groaned at his look of incredulity, realizing even if I denied it, Clark might be more inclined to believe my friend over me, given my track record. He didn’t like Ian either, but I knew that had more to do with jealousy than anything Ian might have done. He wouldn’t trust my judgment. I moved toward him and grabbed his arm, a plea in my gaze as I peered into his face. “Please, Clark, can you just do it and don’t ask questions? I promise you it’s important.”

  “It could be a matter of life and death,” Monica threw in for good measure.

  He grumbled and folded his arms across his chest. “You know I don’t like information withheld from me, Libby, but I’ll do it because it’s you. Afterward, you will explain.”

  “Ah, of course,” I said.

  The triangulation of Mason’s phone didn’t take long. I ignored Clark’s command to wait at home and hopped into his squad car. Monica kept up with him driving her car behind. Soon we pulled onto a road just outside Summit’s Edge, and I spotted Mason’s car. I half phased, half opened the door to jump out, and Monica slid to a halt in front of me. I was ready to pass through her when she called out to me.

  “Wait, Libby,” she whispered. “I think you better calm down.”

  I glared at her, but she pointed out semi-transparent state. I gasped and spun to face Clark, but he had already started walking toward Mason’s car. “Oh, boy, thanks.”

  After I managed to get control, I followed Clark. He stood with his hand on the hood of the car. “It’s cold. Been here a while. Is this…?”

  “It’s Mason’s,” I croaked.

  I moved to jerk the passenger door open, but Clark caught my hand. “Hold on before you destroy possible evidence, Libby.” While I ground my teeth, he managed to get the door open. Neither Mason nor Jake was inside. My world titled upside down. From a distance, I heard Clark speaking and Monica’s voice. After a few moments, they came through clear to me.

  “Shouldn’t you be searching for clues?” Monica said. She stood in front of me, blocking Clark’s view and pointing to the car.

  Clark glared at her. His shoulder radio crackled, and he confirmed his location with whomever he’d spoken to while I zoned out. I pushed fears of Jake’s safety far enough to the back of my mind to appear alive and watched as Clark searched the car. Mason’s phone lay on the floor in the front, and Jake’s overnight bag sat on the back seat. Mason’s car keys hung from the ignition.

  “There’s something more going on here than what you’re telling me, Libby,” Clark said. “I want to know everything that happened between the two of you recently.”

  I started to speak, but other officers arrived. Clark briefed them and then ordered them to fan out to search the area. After he was done, Clark pinned me with a demanding glare. I twisted my fingers together like a child. Nothing but the truth filled my thoughts.

  “What’s wrong, Liberty?”

  I couldn’t answer Ian, and I knew it was too early for him to help me. My fear had awakened him from his slumber. “Clark, you won’t believe me if I told you.”

  “Try me.”

  “Chief, I think you better get down here!” Will stood in a ditch off the side of the road. We couldn’t see what he saw with all the overgrown brush, but I prayed it wasn’t my worst nightmare.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “What the heck is going on here, Libby?” Clark demanded as he crouched over the body.

  I clenched my teeth together, sick and so desperate I was willing to wink out in front of him. Monica grabbed my arm as if she guessed what I intended. “Is she dead?”

  “No, she’s unconscious.” Clark felt around at the back of Agnes’s head, and his hand came away clear of blood, if a bit dusty. “Do you have a twin?”

  I shrugged. “You know as much as I do about my family, remember?”

  He made a sound like he considered what I’d said but didn’t believe me. With my body right here and Agnes knocked out, I was so close but so far. I wanted to question her and demand to know where my son and ex-husband were. Monica and I followed the ambulance to the hospital, Clark easing up for the moment, thinking I worried about a family member who might be a long lost sister. I had managed not to cry out, “Never!” Technically, I supposed if she were to be believed, Agnes was family.

  Once we arrived at the hospital, Clark earned my gratitude when he demanded Agnes be given a private room so she could be protected as a possible witness to a crime. Hospital staff moved like lightning, and soon a doctor bent over Agnes’s bed, examining her. I stayed close, and Monica remained by my side, each of us eager for news.

  “We won’t know anything more decisive until she wakes up,” the doctor said, “but so far she’s fine. I’ll need you to fill out forms. If you could go to the triage area?”

  Monica frowned. “She’s not—”

  I grabbed her arm to shush her. To our relief a nurse hurried the doctor off to another patient, and we were left alone. I approached the bed, unsure of what to do. Monica wasn’t so shy. She marched to the door and closed it.

  “Who knows how much time we have, Libby. Get in there.”

  “Easier said than done.”

  “Just try it, and hurry up.” She peeked out the door again. “Clark’s down the hall. I think he’s going to tell Will to watch her, so we don’t know how long we’ve got. Do something, girl.”

  “Okay. Here goes.” I don’t know why I was so nervous. I’d possessed others before, even though I hated it. This wasn’t another person. This was my body—me. I owned it, and Agnes was the squatter. Surely, that meant I had the right to be there, and she should just vacate without an issue.

  I faded from view and stepped forward. The way I had possessed Clark while he slept, I lay down beside him and scooted over until I aligned my form with his body. I did the same this time, but the moment I tried to “scoot” into my body, something blocked me. I willed the alliance with all I had in me and all I had learned over the last few weeks about occupying space and the few times of possessing people. Nothing worked. I tried stretching my hands out and pushing into my body, thinking I would connect with Agnes’s spirit. No amount of pressure made her budge, and I floated up from the bed to stand beside it.

  “Libby?” Monica crept toward the bed, squinting at my body.

  “No,” I said, and showed myself at the side. “I can’t get in. She’s so strong. It’s like she’s holding on even unconscious.”

  “How can that be?”

  “I wish I knew. Monica, we’ve got to talk to her. What if…”

  “No, don’t think like that. We don’t know where they are.”

  “They could be in danger.” All kinds of scenarios ran through my head, the horror stories from TV shows Monica and I had watched. They were clever until a loved one met the same fate. I felt my mental capacity for rational thought crumbling, and I had to act.

  Voices sounded in the hall, and Monica ran over to the door. She glanced back at me. “I’ll stall Clark. You… I don’t know. Figure it out, Libby, for our baby.”

  I nodded, and she ducked out the door. I leaned over my own body and brushed the hair off my forehead. My chest constricted, and I uttered a tiny wail at the mark still there, proof that Agnes had assured my death. I recalled what she’d told me about our kind living longer, maybe thirty years after we had been marked, but I hated the uncertainty. I hated that she’d stolen a good portion of my life, and yet she held onto my body.

  Were we really immortal? Could a person like me truly walk from body to body indefinitely? I had to think there was more of a catch than just a two to thirty year limitation for one life. Agnes had said her mother had made a mistake and ended up dying. What had that been?

  A bump on my body’s forehead caught my attention, and I frowned. I recalled Clark examining the back of my head
and wondered what had happened. Did Agnes try to attack Mason and Jake, and Mason knocked her down? Jake would have been upset had that happened. Maybe Agnes flagged them down, and Mason saw no reason not to stop. When she tried to take Jake, Mason might have pushed her and run. Agnes might have tried to chase them and fallen into the ditch.

  I paced and considered it over and over. Somehow the way I pictured the scene seemed unlikely. Mason wouldn’t run from me. In his mind, I didn’t present a threat. In fact, he had called to tell me we would have a talk about why Jake believed I was a ghost. I had heard his anger on the phone and been the brunt of it many times in the past.

  I stilled. One person could have done it, the person who wanted to draw me to him and would do anything to get me away from Ian. Tevin. My sudden realization almost brought me to the point of despair, but just in time I jerked myself under control. Ian would sense my panic if I didn’t calm down. I already knew he couldn’t kill his brother. I needed to do it, and it had to be done without Ian there.

  I let Monica know I needed more time, and she could go. Then, I willed myself to Nessa’s house and found it in the same sorry state it had been in when Ian and Tevin fought. So many holes and windows let in light from all directions. I searched the house, looking inside every door, but there wasn’t a basement and no hidden, closed off rooms that I could discover. Tevin might have originally had plans to stay in this house, but it was impossible to as it was now.

  I considered blinking into Ian’s house, but I was pretty sure, now that he’d been cleared of suspicions of murdering Nessa, he would have returned to his own home. He would sense me inside his house if he had lowered the barrier for me to enter in the first place. I tried thinking of where Tevin might hide out, but nothing came to mind. I would need to wait until sundown, risky since Ian would also be able to move.

  I willed myself to my home to find Monica pacing and dialing on her phone every couple of minutes. She whirled around at my voice. “Where did you go, Libby?”

  “I was checking on a few leads.”

  “What leads?”

  I hesitated to tell her but decided not to keep any more secrets. “I think Tevin has Jake and Mason.”

  “No!” Tears sprung to her eyes and ran down her cheeks. “We have to call Clark and tell him everything! Silver bullets, right? He can give some to his men and—”

  “Silver bullets?” I wrinkled my nose. “Isn’t that for werewolves?”

  She wobbled, and I rushed to support her. “You’re telling me they’re real too?”

  “No!” I helped her to a chair. “I don’t know anything about that. I’m just talking about the legends.”

  Monica tugged on a dreadlock and rocked back and forth. Her fingers shook as well as her shoulders. I hugged her to me. What was I going to do? “Listen, sweetie, I want you to get some rest. I’m going to handle everything, okay?”

  “No, Libby, you can’t.”

  “This time, trust me, Monica. It’s the only way. Tevin wants me. If…” I struggled for words, and she cried harder.

  “Don’t go, Libby. If nothing else, let that other thing go kill him.”

  I flinched at her calling Ian a thing. Torn between the man I loved and my best friend, I felt lost. Now was not the time to figure out what to do about either of them. “Monica, I’m going. I know you don’t like it, but I have to. I can’t leave Jake there, and I won’t leave it to the police.”

  “You’re taking Isabelle?”

  I turned away. “No. I won’t put her or you in danger anymore.”

  Monica scrubbed her eyes. “I feel like I’m failing you, Libby. I can’t…I just can’t…”

  “I know.”

  She drew in a deep breath and sniffled. “Silver is a weakness with vampires too. Come on.”

  I followed her to her house, and she jogged to her bedroom with me behind. Searching her jewelry armoire, she found a length of silver chain and brought it out for me to see. I recognized it from Monica’s wilder style of dress years ago.

  “This belly chain is sterling silver. Put it on.”

  “What?”

  She started to wrap the chain around my middle. “You’re going to have to stay solid so you can get it over to wherever he is. Keep it under your clothes, so he might not know you have it until the last second.”

  “Thanks, but what if he finds it?”

  She tapped her cheek as she thought. “My backpack. We’ll put a bunch of obvious crap in there, like a bottle of water, a stake, garlic.”

  “Monica, a backpack will stick out. He’s going to get that off me right away, and what can a bottle of water possibly do? Maybe we can go to the church on Fourth for holy water.”

  “We don’t have time, Libby. Listen to me.”

  I fell silent and followed as she jogged through her house, grabbing various items.

  “The backpack is a distraction. If he thinks you’re dumb enough to bring all that stuff in a tidy little bag, he might not search you. He’ll take away the bag and leave the chain. Then when he’s close, you throw it on him.”

  “What will it do?”

  “Weaken him enough to get the bag back.”

  We stood face-to-face. I pictured it, and she probably did too. Jake’s and Mason’s lives depended on me fooling Tevin. I would do it no matter what the cost. Even if it meant he banished me. I would somehow free them first.

  “Okay, tell me everything else you know about them.”

  “What I know is from movies, so we don’t know if any of it’s true. Maybe we should double check with Isabelle.”

  I hesitated.

  “I know it hurt you to get others involved, Libby, but you have to get it right. Jake needs you, and that jerk Mason too, I guess.”

  I sighed. “You’re right.”

  We phoned Isabelle, and she confirmed for us all the weaknesses we were familiar with. I was glad to note Monica had been right about the silver and made sure I had the amulet around my neck.

  “I can go with you, Libby,” Isabelle offered over Monica’s cell phone line.

  I shook my head to Monica, and she relayed my sentiments to Isabelle.

  “She says she’s doing it alone, and no one else is getting hurt on her account.”

  Isabelle grumbled. “Stop being stubborn.”

  I mouthed my response. “I’m going alone. That’s final!”

  Both women fell silent after Monica relayed my message. Isabelle gave me a few more pointers, and Monica disconnected the call. Monica and I sat side-by-side waiting as the sun moved across the sky. When the cell rang again a short while later, we both jumped. She checked the display, and I tensed at seeing my own name on the display. Monica answered.

  “Hello, lovely lady?” came the deep, familiar voice.

  All of Monica’s bravado as we readied for this meeting disappeared, and she stared straight ahead, shaking like a leaf in the wind. I wished I could take the phone from her hand and leave the room so she didn’t have to hear Tevin, but I couldn’t operate it myself. Nor could I speak without causing damage. I backed away but stayed within hearing distance.

  “I’m going to assume our friendly neighborhood ghost is nearby,” he said. “So listen up, Libby. I have your son and your husband.”

  The word ex trembled on my lips, but I held it in.

  “If you want proof, here you are.”

  Mason came on the line, demanding to know what was going on and what kind of lifestyle I was leading that men like Tevin would kidnap him to get to me. I ground my teeth together and clenched my fists at my sides.

  “If this kind of thing is happening, Libby, I should have taken Jake from you long ago.”

  I wished Tevin would keep him.

  “Mom?”

  The silver chain dropped to the floor, along with the amulet and the backpack. I sank down after it, but I focused on the phone. “J-Jake,” I whispered. The phone crackled.

  Monica’s hand shot out toward me.

  “Mom, are you th
ere?”

  With my eyes, I pleaded with Monica to speak for me. She cleared her throat and scrubbed an arm over her eyes. “She’s here, Jake. Are you okay, baby?”

  “I’m fine, Aunt Monica. Can you put Mom on?”

  “She can hear you. Just be brave, sweetie. We’re coming to get you.”

  Jake disappeared from the line, and Tevin came on again. “No one comes except you, Libby. Unless you don’t care about these two.”

  I rocked and shut my eyes.

  “You don’t tell my brother, and you don’t call the police. You got it?”

  I opened my eyes and stared at Monica.

  “She’s got it.”

  Jake came on again, his voice cast low. “Mom, don’t let him know you’re a ghost, okay? I don’t think he’s like…uh, human.”

  My son wouldn’t know that no matter how quietly he spoke, Tevin heard him. I didn’t know how he figured out Tevin wasn’t human, and it began to make me wonder if he knew about Ian. After Monica had encouraged Jake a little more, Tevin returned and described the house where he holed up. Monica and I knew which one right away. Of all places, he had chosen Luis Riley’s home. No one lived there, and Luis didn’t have family, so the property had returned to the state. Apparently, that allowed a vampire entrance.

  “She’ll be—” Monica began, but the line went dead. Tevin had said all he had intended.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “He sounded tired,” Monica said.

  I looked up from gathering the items I had dropped. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, vampires have to rejuvenate during the day, don’t they?”

  I agreed. I knew it was true for Ian.

  “He might not have gotten any rest if he looked after them all day. I don’t know if it will help, but he might even be weaker.”

  I perked up a little. “Let’s hope so. You can’t imagine how strong they are without even trying.”

  She looked sick, probably recalling Ian and Tevin’s fight at Nessa’s. I didn’t want her to see any more than she already had, and I prayed Tevin had behaved himself with Jake and Mason. For Jake’s sake rather than Mason’s.