Raven's Ghost: A Paranormal Mystery (Raven's Shadows Book 2)

by R. L. Weeks

Her gaze is focused, like that of a tiger. “I can touch the dead if I choose to.”

  “Because you are dead.”

  She giggles and drags her index finger over her lips and down her chest. “Oh, well, I feel very alive.”

  My chest heaves. “Where’s Emmett?” I demand. “What did you do to him?”

  She smiles sweetly. “Oh, nothing he didn’t want me to.”

  She waltzes away effortlessly. I run into the gothic decorated room. “Emmett,” I breathe. He isn’t undressed, thank goodness. In fact, he looks rather stricken.

  Miss Kaye walks in after me. “How are you feeling?” she asks Emmett.

  “At a loss for words honestly.”

  She sits at his side. “I know it’s quite a shock. I promise I didn’t know you were that Emmett.” Miss Kaye pauses. “She did love you.”

  LOVE?

  “What the hell is going on?” I scream. “She loved him? You mean they were lovers?”

  I feel panic shoot through me.

  Miss Kaye ignores me and holds Emmett’s hand. “Amelia was a vampire, Emmett. She was just trying to protect you by leaving. That’s why she used the alias, Marie – so you wouldn’t find her.”

  He rubs his temples. I look at Miss Kaye with venom.

  I can hardly breathe. “He was with her when she was a vampire? What the hell!”

  Miss Kaye looks at me with annoyance. “Raven’s gone.” She says to Emmett.

  My eyebrows shoot up. “I’m right here.” I say but she pretends not to hear.

  Emmett jumps to his feet. “Why?”

  “She left just after the girls fed on the men. Couldn’t stomach it. She’s a bore, that one.”

  “You lying whore!” I shout. Tears are falling down my cheeks.

  Emmett walks to the door. “We should find her.”

  “We will,” she says and stands up. “But first, tell me, what did you talk about with my daughter? She seemed in a good mood after your chat.”

  I am seething. If looks could kill, everyone would be dead!

  Emmett straightens his broad shoulders. “I asked her why she pretended to die. I was devasted when she left.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Miss Kaye coos.

  I shake my head. I can’t believe any of this is happening.

  “She cared for you so much. She told me of her great love, Emmett.”

  He grunts. “I know. She told me everything. She could have offered me the same truth then.”

  “You’d have killed her,” she says.

  “I cared for her. I would never have hurt her.”

  That truth is like a punch to the face.

  Does he still care for her? I mean, it’s not like I am with him or ever was, so who am I to say who he should like or not like? But his eagerness to bring me back and his words had led me to believe that I was the only woman he cared about.

  I guess I was wrong.

  Amelia walks back into the room, this time wearing a dress that covers way more than her last outfit did, so there’s at least that.

  Her skin is glistening with sensual sweat. Her shiny red hair flows like a river down her neck and bosom. Her high cheekbones, thin nose, and dimples make everyone around her stop and stare. I have a face that people forget before they even finish looking at it.

  She radiates life, while I am like a musky old scent. We both may be dead, but she wears it the best.

  “Emmett.” She says his name like velvet. “I am glad you have decided to stay.”

  “Actually,” he says, sighing, “I need to go. Someone I care about deeply has run off, and I need to find her.”

  “Raven.” Amelia says my name like venom. “Did she run off?”

  Her gaze flits to me for a split second.

  “Yes,” he says. “I am glad you are well.”

  He walks past her, but before he leaves the room, she touches his arm. I see something change in him at her touch. “Don’t go,” she says silkily.

  “I remember saying the same to you before you faked your accident. At least Raven has never lied to me.”

  He shrugs off her touch and walks out of the room. I hurry after him, hoping to escape this awful place sooner rather than later.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” Amelia says, grabbing my arm. “You’re staying right here, with me.”

  Seven

  I slip into another dream. This time, Uncle is bargaining for something. “I want her,” he shouts. “I want her now.”

  The woman is sitting in an armchair facing a fire. I can’t see her face. “She is too powerful, Jack. She would ruin all my plans. It’s best she remains a ghost.”

  I try to go closer, but there’s some sort of boundary spell. “She’s already following us in her dreams. Every time you kill, it brings her ghost closer to you.”

  I look to my left and scream as I see Jack’s third victim butchered on the floor of the room they’re in.

  I jolt awake and jump to my feet. After I look around some more, I realise I’m safe. Well, I’m not with him anyway. It was just a dream.

  I look around the dreary room. I’m still here.

  Vampires are awful! Especially Amelia. I hate, hate, hate her! She’s bound me to the room in this god-awful brothel vampire feeding den. It’s been two weeks since they left, and I have tried everything to escape.

  I walk over to the line of salt with one last desperate attempt and try to blow it, hoping it will shift, but no such luck.

  My only hope is that someone accidentally strays in here against Amelia’s orders and disrupts the line of salt so I can leave. Who knew I could be imprisoned this way?

  Amelia told me that her mother, Miss Kaye, would tell Emmett that she cannot find me, he would eventually give up hope, thinking I have passed on for good, and he would fall back into Amelia’s embrace.

  That rotten cow.

  She didn’t even want him! She faked her own death to get away from him. I don’t care what stupid excuses she used, she left him, and now she wants him back just because he wants someone else — me.

  Typical jealousy. I wouldn’t be as mad if she weren’t so damned beautiful. Gods would fall to her feet if she blew them a kiss, but I see past the stunning exterior. I see the bloodthirsty demon underneath.

  Emmett will never love her! He just won’t.

  I’ve been repeating that to myself continuously since they left.

  Then there’s the fact that vampires exist. I guess I should be more shocked, but nothing surprises me anymore.

  I mean, I have been able to see ghosts and demons since I was a child, so it’s not like I’ve had a normal life. Far from it actually.

  I pull my knees up to my chest and press my back against the wall. I rock back and forth, trying to forget everything — Amelia seducing Emmett, my uncle killing more women who look like me, and Elizabeth, who is now alone in her grief over her husband marrying again.

  I hear a scuffling outside the door, then voices. “I told ya, I’m here on her orders!”

  I stop rocking and look up at the door. Is that? No, it can’t be. How would he even know where I am? He’s back in Cogsworth.

  “Let me in!” he shouts.

  I hear hissing from one of the vamp girls. “Amelia said no one can enter this room.”

  There’s a pause. I jump to my feet as a woman’s scream rings out somewhere inside the brothel.

  There’s a loud bang, another scream, and a woman’s voice I don’t recognise screaming at him to open the door.

  The door bursts open, and sunlight pours into the room. I see a crop of red hair, freckles, and a crooked smile.

  “Tom,” I say in disbelief.

  I look down at the wooden stake in his hand. “Did you kill them?” My head is spinning. “How did you know I was here? How did you know about the vampires? Are they all dead?” I look at the golden-haired woman standing behind him. “Who’s she?”

  He shakes his head with a chuckle. “Jeez, can’t you just be grateful I saved you?”<
br />
  I furrow my brows. “How can you see me?”

  Tom drops the stake and hurries over to me. He grabs my hand and pulls me into his arms.

  My heart leaps. How on earth can he touch me?

  I try to reach out and feel his aura, but there’s nothing there.

  “I’ve missed you, Raven.”

  The woman with the golden hair and bright green eyes smiles. “We have been looking for you.”

  I rest my head on Tom’s shoulder and squeeze him tighter. “Seriously, Tom, I can’t feel your aura. I can’t even feel your heartbeat.”

  He loosens his grip on me, and I step backwards. I look into his eyes. They look like the same big green eyes that I once loved to look into, except…

  “Tom…” I say hesitantly. “Are you a vampire?”

  I hold my breath, praying I’m wrong.

  His smile drops. “A lot has happened since you’ve been here. Emmett reached out to us…”

  I almost jump at him. “Tom, where is he? The woman he is with, Amelia, she’s been trying to—”

  “Seduce him?” he says, cocking an eyebrow. “We know. He knows.”

  The woman looks behind her and then back to us. “There are still some left. We need to go. Now.”

  Tom grabs my hand in his cold, dry grip, kicks the salt out of the way and pulls me out of the room. “There’ll be time to explain later. Right now, we need to get outta here!”

  Tom pulls me down the passageway, and the golden-haired woman wisps past us and out the door. I squeeze his hand tightly as one of the vamp whores runs out of an adjoining room. “Traitor!” she screams and flings herself at him. She latches onto him with a deadly grip, clawing at his face and neck.

  He pushes her off him with little effort, twirls me around so I am standing in front of him, and pushes me out the door.

  I fall out onto the dirt, jump to my feet, and look back. Tom pushes against the door of the brothel, and barricades it with a long piece of wood, then runs over to me.

  He grabs my arm and leads us quickly to a waiting carriage. The woman he was with is already sitting inside. “Get in,” she says.

  I don’t need to be told twice. I hear the girls breaking down the door behind us.

  I pull Tom inside and shut the door, and the woman bangs on the roof for us to leave.

  As soon as we’re far enough from the brothel, I steady my breathing and look from the woman to Tom.

  “It’s not that I don’t appreciate this,” I say to the woman and then look at Tom, “or that I’m not glad to see you, but will someone please explain what the hell is going on?”

  Tom looks at the woman, bites his lip, and clasps his hands together before looking back at me. “I don’t know where to start.”

  “The beginning would be great,” I say.

  “Sit tight then,” the woman says, “it’s a long story.”

  Eight

  I try to wrap my head everything they have told me as we pull up to an old cemetery with tall iron gates at the entrance. “So my death caused all of this?”

  The woman, who I learned is called Jane, nods. “The shadow men are energy feeding demons from another world.”

  I almost laugh. “You know how crazy all this sounds, right?”

  Tom lifts a tangled red brow. “You think this is crazy?” He laughs. “I thought you would be the most unsurprised by all of this.”

  I take a deep breath. “So there are seers, who are kind of like witches, like you” — I point to the woman — “and me.” I stop to think. “Then there are vampires,” I say, feeling sick, “like you now.” I point to Tom. “There are shadow men, as we know, that want to destroy everything light.”

  They nod in unison.

  “Okay.” I rub my eyes. “And there are seers who have gone dark that are creating new vampires?”

  “Exactly,” Tom says.

  I look at him wide-eyed, no smile. “So how did that lead you to me?”

  Tom clasps his hands together. “Emmett knew something was wrong when he left with Vera and Amelia. He knew he couldn’t do anything without looking like he knew what was really going on.” He pauses. “He knew they had done something to you, Raven. That was when I got a visit from one of his men. He handed me a letter, which explained everything about you still being here — what Miss Kaye has been having him and you do, how she made her own daughter into a vampire, and his uh…history with Amelia. He gave me this address but told me how it was infested with vampires. He kindly reminded me how you saved us both and that I owed you.” He looks down at his lap. “I found Jane, another seer, after enquiring just about everywhere, in every back-alley market and illegal black-magic shops. She agreed to help me…”

  “Become a vampire,” I finish. “You didn’t need to do that, Tom!

  “How else would I have saved you? They would have killed me had I just walked in as a human.”

  Tears run down my cheeks. “I didn’t save your life just so you could go and kill yourself.”

  The carriage stops. He lowers his voice to a whisper. “I feel alive, and now I can see you. Emmett was right. We both owe you, and this is how I am repaying you.”

  I lick my dry lips. “I would have gotten out eventually.”

  “I haven’t repaid you yet, but I’m about to.”

  ***

  The cemetery is covered with the light from the moon. My vision refocuses on the gravestone in front of me. There is dew on the grass and dead flowers, necklaces, and other tokens on the headstones.

  “We buried you here,” he says. The headstone is not marked, as my death was kept a secret. Instead, a small cross lies upon the mound. Daises have sprung up through the soil directly above my bones. I was committed to the soil here, but my life never really went away.

  I kneel down at the foot of my grave and reach out to touch the grass. “Why am I here?” I ask as I tilt my head to look at Tom. I notice his vampires features more in the moonlight. His eyes have changed colour in the night to those of a hunter. Flecks of blood dance around his irises as he looks down at me.

  “We are going to bring you back to life.”

  I laugh out loud. He can’t be serious. “And how do you propose we do that?” I look toward Jane. “I hope you’re not considering what I think you are.”

  “Your body is beyond bringing back,” she states coldly. “I must bring you back from the other side using your grave as a totem between the dead and the living. If not, who knows who will come through.”

  My mind races, and I feel cold for the first time since dying. “Will I become a vampire?” I try to keep the disgust from my tone, but it appears Tom senses it.

  “No,” he says. “That is my fate, not yours. Like Jane said, your body is beyond bringing back. I had to die for her to bring me back. My body was intact.”

  I look at Jane suspiciously. “Why are you helping me?”

  She pauses. I see the panic in her gaze. “I want to do the right thing.”

  My intuition screams that she’s lying, but Tom’s hand on my shoulder draws my attention. “Don’t you want to be alive again? To feel?”

  “Of course,” I say. I can’t say why I don’t trust this Jane, but I really don’t. “I just think there has to be consequences for this sort of ritual.”

  “I have the means to do this,” Jane says. Her hair moves in the gust of wind that passes us. “I am practised.”

  My gaze narrows. “You mean black magic? How else would you know how to bring back the dead?”

  Tom squeezes my shoulder. “Just accept that you’ll be alive again. Stop worrying about a price.” He crouches slightly and gazes into my eyes. “Do you trust me?”

  “Wholeheartedly,” I say without a doubt.

  “Then trust that I have got you. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

  How can I say no to him because I don’t trust her? I do want to be alive after all.

  “I wish Elizabeth were here.” I elaborate after seeing his confused exp
ression. “My friend. She’s a ghost too. She deserves to be alive more than I do.”

  His face floods with pride and compassion. He strokes my cheek. “Oh, sweet Raven, stop trying to save everyone. Let us do this. Are you ready?”

  I gulp. To be brought back to life? Honestly, I never thought I would live again. I may be able to stop my uncle, and I can be with the people I care about. One name comes to mind. Emmett. I wonder if he is even okay? I must find out.

  “Bring me back,” I say with a smile. “I’m ready.”

  Nine

  My eyelids flutter open, and I am surrounded by darkness. My limbs are stuff, and my skin is icy cold.

  “Hello?” My voice echoes around me. I can’t see anything. It’s far too quiet here.

  I stand up and feel the cold, hard ground beneath me. I take a step forward. My heart races, and I put one foot slowly in front of the other. It’s so dark here, I’m worried I will fall or trip on something.

  “Is anyone here?”

  A bright light appears at the end of what looks like a corridor.

  Oh my God. Am I about to move on?

  “I’m not ready,” I say. Something pops into my mind. I was doing something important before this, but I can’t remember what.

  The light grows brighter. Out of the shadows, a figure appears. He almost belongs, but not quite. His white shirt is untucked, and the top of his chest is on show. His skin is paler than the moon and his eyes darker than night. His face is clean shaven, and his expression is utterly serious. He is staring right at me.

  I freeze. My lips stay shut. Instead, my eyes do the talking. He notices my fear.

  “Don’t be afraid.” His voice is smoother than honey. “Don’t you recognise me?”

  I look him up and down. There is something familiar about him, but I don’t know what it is.

  “Who are you?”

  His lips stretch into a smile. “Come back to me, Raven.”

  A massive gust of wind gushes down the corridor, and I am blown back. I try to hold onto something, anything, but the walls are smooth.

  I hit something cold and wet, and my eyes fling open. The air is knocked out of my lungs. I cough, draw in a deep breath, and cough again.

  “Raven.” It’s Tom’s voice. He kneels down in front of me. Everything is so fuzzy, and I can barely remember what happened, but I do remember a tall, handsome man beckoning me with dark eyes. Those eyes. There is something familiar about him, but his face slips away from my memory quickly.