I can’t look away, and make myself watch as the Devourer virus wound through her entire being flares a sickly red as it struggles to keep her wrecked soul alive. It isn’t strong enough. Lucy’s soul fractures and dissolves into ash, the Devourer sickness the last to flicker out and vanish. Malachi’s shoulders drop, and his hand follows more slowly. I hate that he had to do that, to scar himself by having to end existence like that. Necessary or not, it leaves a wound all the same. For that I am partially responsible as well, but as Malachi turns and faces me, there is no blame in his expression and I feel a held breath slip from my body.
My knees buckle a moment later, out of pure exhaustion on every level, but Kyran is there to catch me.
37: No Way of Knowing
(Griffin)
“Dad thinks it will take about a month to get me transferred down here officially,” I say. “He may be overestimating the amount of favors people owe him, though. If I miss your birthday next month, blame him.”
Echo scoffs and leans her head against my shoulder. “I’ll badger him until he gets it done. I like having you around.”
“You’re just using me for my amazing abilities.” I elbow her in the side, nearly knocking her off the uncomfortable airport chair when she jumps away from me. I catch her before she falls off completely and she wrinkles her nose at me.
“You’re using me, too, so shut up.” She straightens herself in the chair, pretending to be aloof, but it falters quickly. “You know that’s not why, though, right? It’s not just that you keep me sane. I want you around for other reasons too.”
I can’t help teasing her a little more. “Other reasons? What might those be? You haven’t been talking to my dad too much have you? Because no offense, Echo, but I’m just not that into you.”
She rolls her eyes and leans her head against my shoulder again. I need to get going if I’m going to make it to my gate in time, but leaving is as hard for me as it is for her. Echo sighs and I feel her sorrow deepen. “You understand me. You know what to say when I’m on the verge of crumbling. It’s not just the emotional connection. You don’t judge me, despite everything. You truly know me. I’ve never had that before, Griffin, and I’m scared of giving that up, even if just for a little while.”
She curls into me and I wrap my arm around her shoulders without hesitation. “I’m the only one you’ve let know you that deeply,” I tell her. “You didn’t completely have a say in that with me, but you know I’m not the only one willing to make the effort.”
“But what if they don’t react like you? What if they finally get to know me as truly as you do and…they walk away?” she asks.
“I know rejection terrifies you, but you have this false view of the people in your life.”
She shakes her head. “It’s not a delusion that so many people have called me names and tortured me and hated me and called me a freak.” Her chest convulses as the pain of those memories wells inside her.
“I know all of that is real. The hurt it caused is real,” I say, “but those people never even attempted to see you for who you are. They are as superficial as their disdain for you.” Hugging her against me a little tighter, I say, “Think about the real people in your life. How many of them have left? Think about your dad, even though he thought about leaving—maybe more than once—did he? No, he doesn’t understand or believe you, but there’s something that keeps him from walking away. Despite everything, he loves you, Echo. Same goes for Malachi. He’s willing to stay despite being scared and having to tear down everything he thought he knew and believed in.”
She exhales slowly as she allows my words to sink in.
“I can’t promise you that no one will ever walk away. You’d need a seer for that, and I max out at empath.” I smile when she looks up at me with a smirk. “What I can promise is that I’ll be around whenever you need someone to set you straight, though I think Kyran’s trying to one-up me on that.”
Echo chuckles. I’m still somewhat stunned by how everything played out. How the Devourers basically gave Lucy Coulter a virus is still a mystery. How Echo was able to take her memories and complete the process of turning her into a Devourer so Malachi could destroy her is less of a conundrum—as best as I could understand her explanation—but how Echo was able to win against a mindless soul hell-bent on killing her isn’t difficult to understand at all. Not after she shared with me the memory she used against Lucy.
“What are you going to do about Kyran?” I ask.
Echo sits back up and doesn’t look at me. “You make it sound like he’s gum on the bottom of my shoe or something.”
“You know what I mean.” I elbow her again. “Did you talk?”
Nodding slowly, Echo inhales and exhales slowly. “Neither of us want to hurt Malachi, and I definitely don’t want to rush into anything again and risk screwing it up.”
“But?”
She bumps against my shoulder, the hint of a smile teasing the corner of her mouth. “But…I’m willing to risk rejection for him.”
“Well, it’s only fair, I guess, after he put up with you dating his best friend while he was in love with you and waited kind of patiently for his chance to win you over,” I tease.
Echo snaps her hand against my leg. “You are so dramatic. In love? Stop being such a…” Her words trail off and she whirls around to stare at me. “You’re just…teasing…right?”
I should feel bad about that little slip, but I’m having a hard time dredging up any guilt over it. Tucking her back under my arm so she can’t see me trying not to grin, I say, “Let’s just say, I don’t think you’re taking much of a risk.”
Her body goes slack against mine. Shock and relief play on the edges of her thoughts, but I’m surprised to realize they aren’t dominating her mind at the moment. Something else is…something that scares her. “Echo what’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she mumbles, “it’s just that when you said risk…there was something Osiris said, about how Lucy was risking more than she realized if the Devourers got their way.”
“Yeah,” I say, “I imagine she had no real idea of who you are or your role in keeping the balance of spiritual power between the realms. Why does that have you so worried right now?”
Echo frowns. “Lucy, she was definitely trying to kill me, but…I think the Devourers knew she wouldn’t be strong enough. Not with Malachi around. They’ve already seen what he can do. I think they infected her for another reason, a worse one.”
Cold fear spreads through me, matching hers.
“That virus, or whatever is was, I think,” she says, “I think they wanted her to infect me with it.”
That is troubling enough. Her next words chill me to my core.
“I have no way of knowing whether or not it worked.”
I think back on what Echo told me about her battle with Lucy Coulter, of how intimately they were entwined during their memory war. As desperately as I want to banish her fears and say it isn’t possible, I have no idea. We don’t even know what the Devourers did to Lucy, if it can be spread from spirit to living, and what effect that might have. How would any of us know?
“The ghosts,” I say as soon as the idea forms. “They’ll be able to tell, won’t they? Maybe that’s why they scattered when Lucy showed up. Maybe they saw or felt or somehow recognized she was infected with whatever this thing is. They’ll be able to tell, right?”
Echo’s head drops into her hands. “Maybe, but that means talking to them again, getting even more into debt with them. I’m already going to pay for what I’ve already taken. In more ways than one, I’m sure.” She sighs and shakes her head back and forth in her hands. Dread fills her. “There’s no way I’m going to make it through next week’s episode of The Ghost Host without it turning into a nightmare.”
“It’ll be one to remember, I’m sure,” I say.
And not in a good way. Not even close.
The End
of
The Ghost Host:
Episode 2
Tune in fall of 2017 for another installment of The Ghost Host
If you enjoyed The Ghost Host: Episode 2 and need something to read while you wait for book three, check out a sample chapter from DelSheree’s new paranormal new adult romance “Life & Being.”
Life & Being
Chapter 1
Reeling
I watched her as she approached Dominic Vancaster and made one of those barely noticeable exchanges you only see in spy movies. Her hand slipped into her pocket with whatever he gave her, head down as she walked across the courtyard in my direction. As far as I knew, Dahlia Carter wasn’t a student at Southern New Mexico University. I hadn’t seen her since graduating high school together a little over two years earlier, though, so who knew.
Barely a hair taller than five foot, and as big around as a pixie stick, it always surprised me how nothing intimidated her back then. Nothing seemed to have changed since. Dominic Vancaster was six-foot-four, three hundred pounds, covered in tattoos, and had a temper that was great on the football field but scary as hell off it. Yet she was calmly doing some kind of deal with him in broad daylight on a college campus.
That thought gave me pause as she stepped onto the sidewalk nearest me and continued in my direction. I was supposed to be waiting for my roommate, but a conversation at my parents’ house last weekend crept back to the front of my mind. My oldest brother had just been assigned to the narcotics unit with the local police force. He probably shouldn’t have said anything about the unit’s upcoming push to curb drugs on campus. He did, though, and for some reason I found myself considering warning Dahlia.
I couldn’t exactly pinpoint why. Back in high school, we hadn’t been friends. Dahlia didn’t do friends. I didn’t owe her anything. If she wanted to deal drugs on campus, that was her problem. Right? It wasn’t the first handoff I’d seen her involved in, though the last time was back in high school. If she wanted to screw up her life, it wasn’t my job to stop her. Except, I also remembered all those times when she’d shown up to school with her homemade lunches filled with whatever odds and ends she had found in the kitchen while he dad was away on business.
What exactly her dad did was a mystery, one nobody particularly wanted to solve, thanks to the fact that he scared the hell out of pretty much every kid in school. He’d be gone for weeks at a time, even during middle school. Anyone who took the time to notice Dahlia recognized she was practically an orphan. Not many people noticed. At least, no one tried to do anything about it. Myself included.
Even though Dahlia and I rarely spoke back then, I did notice her at times. Like when she walked by some kid who didn’t have money for lunch and dropped half a sandwich on the table in front of him before walking away without a word. There were other times, too. For a girl everyone skirted around in the hallway because they didn’t want to be seen with her, there was something about Dahlia that demanded something akin to…respect.
Whatever crazy shit she was messed up in, I was pretty sure her sketchy father had put her up to it. Maybe I didn’t owe Dahlia Carter anything, but I thought maybe a few other people did—ones who would never pay up out of fear or embarrassment. Something pushed at me to not let her walk away and get in trouble for something she had most likely been forced into. Without totally understanding why, I stepped up and fell in beside her as she walked by. “Hey, Dahlia. Been a while.”
“Sanford.” She nodded but didn’t look at me.
“Everyone calls me Sammy these days.”
That got her to lift her gaze from the concrete. “Why?”
Shrugging, I said, “Sanny sounds stupid and nobody seems to appreciate Sanford as a name. I don’t know. Just kinda got stuck with it freshman year.”
Dahlia wrinkled her nose. “I hate nicknames. I’ll call you Sanford, supposing we actually run into each other again.”
“So you’re not taking classes here?”
She snorted. “Uh, no.”
“What…are you doing here then?” I held my hands up in defense when her head whipped over to glare at me. “I’m only asking because my brother’s a cop and he was over at my parents for dinner last weekend and mentioned they’re looking to crack down on drugs on campus.” Her glare upgraded to a laser meant to disintegrate me. “Look, I saw you with Dominic and I…you know, just wanted to warn you.”
Stopping so fast I kept going a couple more steps before I could react and had to backtrack, she was positively livid when I looked at her. Fists clenched, she had to look up at me to meet my gaze. “You think I’m dealing drugs?”
“I have no clue what you’re doing.” I shrugged and held up a hand to fend off a punch or something. “I mean, I know you’ve been doing these secretive handoffs since high school, but I don’t have a clue what they’re about. I just don’t want you to get into trouble, okay?”
My answer didn’t do much to abate her anger. She span away from me, her jet black hair snapping around her shoulders. Her fists were clenched again, fingers holding onto the long sleeved t-shirt she was wearing. It was September and still close to ninety degrees, thanks to an unseasonably warm fall, but Dahlia never wore anything but long sleeves and pants. By the time I came out of my thoughts, she was a good five feet away from me, her short legs powering on to get away from me.
I almost went after her, though I wasn’t sure why, but Harvey was suddenly beside me. “Was that Dahlia Carter?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s she doing on campus?”
Shaking my head, I gave up the idea of running after her to apologize…or something. “Hell if I know.”
Forgetting the entire exchange, Harvey moved on. “So Griz asked about the party again.”
“What party?
Harvey rolled his eyes. “The one he mentioned Tuesday night at the fight, right after he asked if you were ever going to show up at the gym for a workout again.”
“I don’t have time for that anymore.”
“He’s not asking you to fight, just help train.” Harvey sighed when I shrugged off the comment. “Anyway,” he said, “about the party. We going, or what?”
“It doesn’t have to be we, Harvey. I already told you, go if you want. We’re not a packaged deal.”
Harvey rolled his eyes. “Well you act like a girl every time the subject of a party comes up. You might as well be my girlfriend.” He jabbed me in the shoulder, harder than necessary. “Come on. It won’t be that bad. I mean, Dominic and his crew will probably show up and push everyone around, but Lils and Cori are going. They’re always fun to hang with.”
Honestly, that wasn’t much for encouragement. Cori was great. We were good friends and we did usually have fun together. Attached to her hip was always Lillian Devry, and Lillian was not fun. Not unless constant pawing and flirting from a girl you’d already told a dozen times you weren’t interested in constituted as fun. It probably did for some guys, but Lils drove me insane. She was pretty and all, but there was just something about her that rubbed me the wrong way.
The only part of Harvey’s spiel that actually made me reconsider going was Dominic being there. Normally, I didn’t have much interaction with the guy. He tended to be loud and always had a crowd around him. Both were pretty big deterrents for me. Not to mention his temper. He wasn’t a psycho or anything, but he didn’t like to be crossed, and the guy just had one of those personalities where everything had to be big and in your face.
I was curious about his rendezvous with Dahlia, though. I wondered if he’d tell me anything. Dahlia certainly wasn’t going to. It was none of my business and I suspected it could cause me trouble to get involved. Dahlia and I weren’t friends. Not then, and certainly not now. She was generally solo in pretty much any situation. She’d had a tough childhood, though, and I didn’t like the idea of turning a blind eye again as I had all through school—as everyone had.
I knew very little about Dahlia on a personal level, except for the fact that her dad was off his rails, and a
s far as I knew she hadn’t had a mom in the picture for a long time. Other than that, she was quiet, kept to herself, and flew under all the adults’ radar during school. That skill was still being put to use—for reasons I worried weren’t legal, despite her adamant denial she wasn’t dealing drugs—but I still didn’t feel right about her getting tagged in some kind of campus raid. Maybe it wasn’t drugs, but anything she had to have secret exchanges about probably wasn’t above board. “Fine,” I said suddenly, “let’s go.”
Harvey’s eyebrows perked up. “Seriously?”
“I’m sick of listening to you cry about me ruining your college experience.”
Grinning, Harvey smacked me on the shoulder again. “It’s about time, you pansy.”
I rolled my eyes and got into the car. We both had homework to do before the party tonight, but still ended up stopping off at Giorgio’s for pizza on the way home. It was as good as it always was, but I kept thinking about Dahlia and what she was doing taking anything from Dominic. He could literally break her in half if he wanted to. The thought crossed my mind that maybe they were sleeping together and wanted to keep it quiet, but that didn’t really fit for some reason. Tossing a half-eaten breadstick back onto my plate, I sat back and failed to come up with a better explanation.
***
I pulled up to the house and cringed. It was like an explosion. People spilled out of every opening, crowding around on the lawn, walking past windows inside, and trailing into the backyard. It made my skin crawl. Harvey, however, was nearly bouncing out of his seat. “Is this a frat house?” I asked. Anything else and the police would no doubt be showing up soon.
The Ghost Host: Episode 2 (The Ghost Host Series) Page 32
