Dead and Beyond (12 page)

My eyes widened when the word registered in my brain. I groaned. Please, not again. I was a medium bestowed with the ability to see and talk with dead people, but, like Aidan liked to put it, I was a chicken scared of my own shadow. My poor brain quickly retrieved all the information on ghosts I had gathered in my eighteen years of life.

They were creepy and scared the hell out of any normal person, and some did it for no apparent reason, think a typical poltergeist haunting.

More often than not, they were confused and needed assistance in order to leave the physical plane.

And some couldn’t rest unless they concluded their business, which was left unfinished upon their unexpected departure from our world.

I could only hope my ghost fell into category number two, because anything else would have me packing my bags in no time. When all that blood started pouring down the walls and dripping inside Brendan’s mouth, I thought I was just hallucinating from hunger. I mean, you don’t usually see walls or people drenched in blood unless it’s in the movies, but this wasn’t Hollywood, so it couldn’t be remotely true. The scratches, however, sounded like a sure-thing spirit haunting sign if I had ever heard of one. I was having an Exorcist moment, and that freaked me out big time. Spiritual love bond or not, I wouldn’t be living under the same roof with a creepy ghost. Aidan had two options, either call in an exorcist to banish this thing forever, or we’d move, and preferably a long distance away from here.

An icy breeze blew across my cheeks. In spite of the cold, sweat poured down my back, soaking my clothes. Swallowing hard, I staggered back away from the eerie scratches and the window and turned to make a quick dash out the door when it slammed shut in my face. I was pretty sure it wasn’t the wind, especially when the knob started to turn.

“Who’s there?” I shouted. No one answered. The door started to shake in its hinges. A few droplets of blood roll down the wood ever so slowly, as though to mock me. Okay, I wasn’t going to stick around for Act Two of ‘Bloody Walls’. I had to get the heck out of here by any means possible.

I had two options: either jump out the window or dash through the haunted, blood-spattered door, which was only a few feet away but might not open. The ground below the window might just take a bit longer to reach, but it sure was the more inviting option. Only, I wasn’t keen on finding out whether my vampire body could take the fall without a sprained ankle. Okay, I was being a drama queen because Aidan’s workplace was situated on the second floor and I had yet to hear of anyone dying from this height, but inflicting any sort of pain on myself deliberately wasn’t my thing.

Damn Aidan for not briefing me in if my new body could jump out a window without hurting myself. Or whether being immortal also included the perks of not feeling any pain.

The squeal of sharp nails dragging along wood made me jump. Glancing across the room, I could see more scratch marks appearing before my eyes, as though something were pulling itself toward me, grinding its claws into the boards as it inched closer. I dug my nails into the soft flesh of my arms and weighed the pros and cons of jumping vs. door.

Ah, toss it. There was no way I was going to hover around and have a confrontation with this undead thing. I dashed for the door and turned the knob, but it wouldn’t open. I pulled and kicked at it with every bit of my immortal strength I possessed, and still, it wouldn’t budge an inch. Crap! The only option left was...

Opening the window, I climbed on the windowsill and pinching my nose—no idea why I did that—I jumped into the depth of the backyard, landing ungracefully on my butt with a loud thud. It didn’t hurt, which I attributed to my genes and their tendency to store fat in all the wrong places. Thanks, Mom, for that.

I got up and brushed my clothes, peering up at the open window. The stiff, wine-colored brocade curtains barely moved in the strong breeze preceding the usual Scottish rainfall, but somehow I could sense something up there. A faceless entity, if you will. I was a necromancer, for crying out loud. Why couldn’t I see it? Maybe my ability was latent. Or maybe it was just the negative residue of a long-lost ghost that had already passed into the light or gone straight to Hell.

Who was I kidding? I obviously had a full-blown poltergeist haunting on my hands. Call it intuition, but I had the strange feeling I’d be jumping out of more windows in the near future.

From the corner of my eye, I thought I caught movement behind the curtain. Holding my breath, I stared up at the empty space and listened for any sound.

Seconds ticked by. And then the curtain moved again. My heart skipped a beat. I wanted to run but my legs were frozen to the spot; my eyes were compelled to watch.

Wisps of inky mist swirled in front of the window a moment before invisible hands closed it...ever so slowly, and then slammed it shut, making me jump. I pinched myself. Hard. Yeah, I was definitely awake. The window fogged over and a sketch appeared. I squinted to recognize the words: GET OUT!

Basically, the ghost was kicking me out. I felt faint, even though my heart was beating a million miles an hour. My hands were ice cold, and my legs threatened to give way under me. Forcing my gaze away from the window, I retrieved my phone from my pocket and, with shaking hands, speed-dialed Aidan’s number. The line rang twice before going to voicemail, so I left an urgent message to get back to the house and that it was a matter of life and death. I barely got to flick my phone shut when the air sizzled and he appeared, looking gloomy yet very yummy in his jeans and unbuttoned black leather coat.

“Aidan?” I asked, inching away from him, because I couldn’t be sure it was he indeed. In my panic, I thought the ghost might be playing a trick on me so I’d fall into a trap.

“What’s wrong?” His brows were furrowed, fear mirrored in his expression. And then I noticed what looked like a burning whip in his hand. I had seen that thing before.

“Is that—” My throat constricted at the memory of a stranger chasing me in the woods, holding the exact same thing in his hand. I remembered the whip cutting through the air like a knife, hitting a tree only a few inches away from me, and leaving a burning trail in its wake. It could’ve killed me, yet for weeks Aidan claimed it was nothing and refused to show me what it really looked like.

“Why are you outside? Anything happen?” Aidan hurried to hide the whip inside his coat and grabbed me in a tight embrace.

I peered into his blue gaze filled with worry, wondering whether I should make a scene because of the whip and the fact that he obviously still had no intention to open up about his bounty hunter past, or make a scene because of the ghost. I figured the apparition was the greater urgency. I’d get to the whip later.

“There’s a ghost inside. I had to jump out the window. Look at my favorite jeans. They’re ruined.” I paused for effect as I showed him the big brown mud stain on my backside. Focusing on the jeans helped me avoid a full-blown panic attack. Aidan peered from my butt to the closed windows and raised a brow but didn’t comment. I pointed up. “You don’t believe me. Just look at the writing.”

“What writing?”

I glanced up. The letters had vanished together with any sign of my poltergeist. “The house’s haunted, Aidan.” I sounded whiny but I couldn’t help myself.

“I’m not going back in there. That’s a category number one ghost. And I was really hoping it was going to be a category two.” From his puzzled expression I figured he didn’t understand a word. “We have a poltergeist on our hands.”

“Amber—” He hesitated. I held my hand up to stop him.

“Trust me, I know what I’m talking about. This wasn’t a happy little spirit passing through. What I just experienced was dark and evil. And I have proof.

Upstairs.” He drew a long breath as I continued, “Claw marks embedded into your precious floor. And not just any claw marks, but huge ones. When you see Upstairs.” He drew a long breath as I continued, “Claw marks embedded into your precious floor. And not just any claw marks, but huge ones. When you see them, you’re going to swear Wolverine from X-men was here. They’re at least fifteen inches long.”

He crossed his arms over his chest, regarding me. The worry lines were still there. “Let’s go take a look, shall we? Tell me what happened on the way up.”

I didn’t want to but I had to show him the house was haunted, so I let him grab my hand, dragging me after him, as I recounted every tiny detail. We reached the second floor. Aidan entered first, I followed a step behind.

“It’s freezing in here,” he said. “Did you turn on the air conditioner full blast?”

“It was the ghost.” I sucked in a deep breath as I peered around me, from the door to the window. There was no blood in sight. The claw marks had disappeared completely.

I ran over to the window and knelt down, then swiped my fingers across the smooth wood, whispering, “It was right here. I swear it was.”

“You’re safe now,” Aidan said. He scooped me up in his arms. I buried my head against his chest, wondering what the heck was going on? Was I losing my mind?

“Out of curiosity, you said you jumped out a window. Why didn’t you use the door?”

“I couldn’t. The ghost wouldn’t let me,” I said. “I’m telling you, it’s evil.” His expression told me he wasn’t convinced. “You believe me, don’t you?”

Aidan tensed, hesitating. “Amber, this world’s new to you. Obviously, you’re having trouble adapting to your necromancer abilities. Give it a few more weeks, and you’ll see everything will click into place. This gift wasn’t meant to be a curse but a blessing. Many immortals would kill for it.”

“Lucky me. Can’t you have Layla remove it...you know, since you guys are such close buddies now?”

He shook his head. “We’ve been through this over and over again. I wish I could find someone to get rid of it, but only Layla can take it back, and she won’t do it.” I could see I was losing his attention by the way his eyes darted across the room, like his mind was already thinking of a million other things he could be doing instead of listening to my drivel.

“Then you need to do something about this poltergeist, otherwise I’m not staying here.”

“You’re always imaging the worst case scenario,” he said. “I’m sure it’s just a lost, harmless ghost bored out of his mind. Maybe it’s trying to get your attention.” I opened my mouth to speak when he cut me off. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you’re safe, but I don’t think you have anything to worry about. If an evil ghost resided here, Cass would’ve told us the last time she visited. Besides, the house is secured by magic so it’s impossible for anything powerful to enter.

Maybe it was just an animal spirit.” The concern in his eyes disappeared and an amused glint took its place. “I think you jumped out the window for nothing.”

For a second relief washed over me. That the spirit could be an animal didn’t cross my mind, but it made sense…for all of three seconds or as long as it took me to realize animals can’t spell.

“How do you explain the window closing right after I jumped?”

“You know the backdoor’s always open. The sudden draft might’ve slammed the window shut. So, laws of physics?” he suggested.

I nodded, even though I knew better. It was a poltergeist.

“You’re so lucky I beat you in that paranormal race, Aidan. Otherwise, ghosts would be bugging the crap out of you.”

“They’re just passing by and need a little guidance.” He shrugged. “No big deal.”

I smiled sweetly, unable to stop feeling resentful that my boyfriend wouldn’t believe me. “You’ve helped me so much. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“I’ve been a shitty boyfriend in that I haven’t spent much time with you lately, but I swear I’ll make it up to you. Just give me a few more days to get this Lore court business sorted out, and then we can go somewhere nice, just the two of us. What do you think?” His strong arms pulled me close until his breath caressed my cheek.

“I’d love that,” I whispered.

“Great.” He placed a sloppy kiss on my lips and pulled back. The same absentminded expression from before appeared again. “See you tonight, then?”

I nodded, but he was already gone, leaving only the slightest hint of his cologne behind. I stared at the empty space for a while, wondering how he could be so blind and not notice that something weird was going on. The word ‘blind’ didn’t even do him justice. More like completely and utterly clueless to anything that didn’t have a big fat flashing neon light with the inscription ‘weird things happening’.

Heaving a big sigh, I walked into the hallway and stopped to listen for any sounds from that poltergeist entity. But I knew it’d leave me alone…for the time being.

After my encounter with the spirit and Aidan’s departure, I didn’t return to resume my work in his office. For one, I figured the ghost might still hover around. And then there was also the residue of the haunting that might trigger my abilities as a necromancer. I didn’t fear for Aidan or Kieran’s safety. They had never reported anything weird or freaky going on. Besides, I knew this thing had its sights on me. Even though I didn’t want to be in the VIP section of this ghost’s freak show, it seemed to save its performances only for me and I had no idea why.

In spite of Aidan’s adamant reassurances that the house couldn’t possibly be haunted, I knew better so I spent the whole afternoon trying to figure out what to do about my uninvited and invisible guest. Obviously, the only way to ascertain its intentions was to actually ask the entity upfront, but that wasn’t even an option, what with me possibly fainting and all. I figured I could be more creative than that.

Being a huge fan of lists, I grabbed a piece of paper and pen, and made notes as I recalled what happened in order to figure out what could possibly have triggered the poltergeist activity. I had been analyzing Angel’s disappearance. Maybe the ghost feared beings of light and turned all psycho when it mistook my friend’s name for an actual angel. The explanation sounded a bit farfetched, but I didn’t disregard it.

What else did I have? The woods. The forest outside the mansion was mysterious and held onto countless secrets. A few days after my arrival in Scotland, my friend, Clare, told me the townspeople in Inverness were scared of the woods because people had disappeared in the past. Was it foul play, like murder? Had their lonely spirits wandered into the house, seeking my help? Possible but not likely since, as far as I knew, and I agree I didn’t know much, entities were usually bound to a place such as a house or the woods, but they couldn’t travel to and fro.