Ruby's Ghost (8 page)

“I was picking rings!” Her voice echoed off the mist. “You’re so scared of marriage that you’ve started seeing someone younger.” Her lips thinned in anger, real anger, not her usual pout and pretend.

He’d played that game too many times, done what she wanted to make it right between them. But every time it had driven the wedge deeper between them. In life he’d never feared her. This was different. She was expecting him to join her in death. An eternity of Ruby’s games and mood swings. He couldn’t do it. Once he’d realized how over they were, he was seeing her in a new light, and he wasn’t liking what he saw. “What are you talking about?”

“I saw you. I saw you with
Eloise
. You’re a lying, cheating killer!” The ground shook as she shouted, and the mist drew back, as if even it was scared of her fury.

“I only just met her.” How could he have cheated when he’d broken up with Ruby? How could he cheat when he was little more than a lost soul waiting to get back to his body?

“I saw you kiss her.” She stepped closer, her eyes narrowing.

“It wasn’t a kiss. I can’t even feel her.” But he wished he could.

“But you wanted to,” Ruby snarled.

Yeah he did. He wanted to kiss her in person. Seeing Eloise gave him a buzz he’d forgotten could exist between two people. Maybe it was wrong to be enjoying something so soon after the break-up, but it made him feel alive, and at the moment he needed that. He needed to remember what living was like. He looked at Ruby, but it was too late. She’d read his expression and seen his thoughts.

She slapped his face. The shock made him step back. The mist brushed across his back and made his skin tighten. His cheek was ice cold where she’d touched him. Shouldn’t it be stinging? She went to hit him again, but he caught her hand. His palm chilled as if he was holding snow and not a person. But Ruby wasn’t a person anymore. She was a ghost, and touching her was like being filled with ice. Death was cold and hungry for the living.

She wrenched her hand free then shoved him into the mist.

The cold gripped him and made his muscles tighten, pulling through his chest. His back arched, but he didn’t hit the ground. There was nowhere to fall. Above him a light burned through the mist, too bright to look at.

Why hadn’t he noticed it before? As he watched it grew brighter, it seemed to call to him, luring him closer. If only he could reach the light. Despite the cold burning in his veins and making him shake, he reached up.

From the mist Ruby called his name. “Tate Cooper, you’re mine. I will not let you go!”

He didn’t want to go into the mist. He couldn’t go back to Ruby, not now not ever.

Then he remembered Eloise. The light would get him away from the mist but also from life. He wasn’t ready to give up.

The white light dimmed. He was going to wake up. Wake up and live. Wake up and kiss Eloise properly. The light went out, and he was left alone in darkness. No mist, no nothing.

Chapter Five

Ruby stamped her foot. She’d almost had him. Her hand had touched him instead of passing through him, and instead of looking faded his color had looked better—more like hers. She was sure his body had been ready to let go and he’d been on the cusp of joining her. Now he was gone. Gone where? Was he out of surgery already? Or was he dead and he’d gone into the light without her? Her heart gave a squeeze. He wouldn’t leave her alone. Would he?

She went to the hospital to check. For a moment she stood by Tate’s bedside and watched him. His body lay still, but he wasn’t dead, the machines beeped. He was alive and fighting; however his soul was still missing. And she knew exactly where to find it. With Eloise.

Her heart clenched as if he’d stabbed her. How could he do this to her?

They belonged together. They were voted the favorite couple at the prom. She should be his reason to live, not Eloise. Her eyes burned as if she was going to cry, but no tears fell. Watching them kiss had torn her in two. She sniffed out of habit rather than necessity.

Once he was dead he would realize. She would make him realize there was no one else for him but her. With a thought, she materialized in the house where Tate had been hanging out with the other girl.

Ruby stood in the bedroom doorway, spying on the Eloise and trying to work out what Tate saw in her. She was sitting in front of her laptop, working on something. She wasn’t that pretty. Brown hair and brown eyes. No makeup and yoga pants. Dullness personified. The only thing this girl had that Tate wanted was a heartbeat.
Men.
She shook her head. She’d thought Tate was different.

If she couldn’t dissuade Tate, maybe she could scare Eloise off.

Ruby walked over and stood behind Eloise as she studied. A nerd as well as plain. Tate was always studying. Ruby’s scowl deepened and she pinched Eloise’s arm. But her hand passed straight through. She snarled and Eloise looked up. Her gaze flicked around the room almost hopefully before she frowned and turned back to her laptop.

It took a moment, but then Ruby realized Eloise had been expecting Tate. Ruby’s eyes narrowed. She’d put Eloise off ghosts for the rest of her life. This time Ruby put her hands over the girl’s shoulders and leaned in close.

Ruby whispered in her ear, “Leave. Tate. Alone. Let him die.”

The girl shivered and pulled the hood of her top up and stared at her screen. For a moment Eloise didn’t move, then she turned as if expecting to see someone behind her. Her eyebrows lowered and she glanced back at the screen. She tilted it as if trying to remove a reflection. It wasn’t a reflection though—it was a shadow. Ruby leaned forward. Her shadow.

Eloise could see her—well, a vague outline of her.

Ruby smiled. This could be fun.

Eloise shivered as the room temperature dropped. She’d expected Tate to be back, but she was alone… She looked at the screen of her laptop, sure the smudge on the screen was shaped like a person. Just like the shadow that had been on the kettle and the glass door. She used the sleeve of her top to give the screen a halfhearted rub, hoping it would disappear yet knowing it wouldn’t. An icy breeze brushed against her neck and the smudge remained. Adrenaline made her heart beat faster. Around her the house was silent.

Whatever was here wasn’t Tate haunting her. He’d gone kind of see-through and vanished. But even if she couldn’t see him, he’d never given off such an angry vibe.

She swallowed, not sure what to do. The temptation to run tightened her muscles, but she wasn’t going to be chased out of her room by a cold breeze and a vague smudge. Just because she’d seen one ghost didn’t mean she was going to start seeing lots. She was jumpy, that was all. Jumpy and really cold.

The cold touched her cheek, but it didn’t feel like a caress, more like a scratch of nails over skin. Gooseflesh popped up along her arms, tugging on the hairs. She needed to sit in the sun; she needed to be anywhere but here. The urge to flee was almost overwhelming.

But a small niggling thought grew larger. The icy slap that had made her drop her coffee, and now the anger enveloping her weren’t accidental or random. They were connected to Tate.

Please let me be wrong.

Eloise adjusted her screen so the smudge became sharper. “Who are you?”

Should she even be acknowledging this ghost?

The only answer was a flicker of the smudge as it moved—almost like a flick of a hand, tossing back hair. A woman. And she knew who. “Ruby.”

The smudge stilled, but the cold remained. With each heartbeat it got cooler. Eloise’s breath clouded in front of her lips. She had to get rid of her.

“Tate isn’t here,” Eloise said, trying to keep her voice level. Surely there was more to the afterlife than drifting around after exes? Unless Ruby was waiting for him to die.

Cold gripped the back of her neck and brushed against her ear in a hiss of ice. This time she heard the voice whisper in her mind,
“Stay away from Tate.”

Eloise was paralyzed for a moment and then the cold was gone. She placed her hand over her heart and sucked in a breath. There was no way she could have imagined that, and yet there was no proof that Ruby had ever been in her room. Well, unless she counted the erratic heartbeat and the heavy sense of foreboding.

Ruby was a jealous ghost.

She’d seen them kiss and watched them talking.

But nothing was happening, and even if something was—and she might like it to if Tate were really alive and well—Ruby had no right to be jealous. She and Tate had broken up. A frown creased her brow. He wouldn’t lie about that, would he?

Eloise shook her head. Ruby was dead. It didn’t matter. None of this mattered until Tate was back in his body, which was hopefully where he’d gone. As for staying away—well, that wasn’t going to happen. She wasn’t going to let a ghostly ex-girlfriend stop her from at least being friends with Tate.

But in her heart she knew she wanted more.

She glanced at her laptop, now sleeping, waiting for her to resume studying, and listened to the silence in the house swell around her. She didn’t want to be alone dwelling on the dead and possibly dying. She needed to be around people and doing something fun. Life was too short. She knew that, and knowing Tate had reminded her how precious every moment was.

The house was dark and quiet when Eloise got home, but the kitchen light was on which meant her parents were home. No doubt there would be a light on upstairs too, as if she were a child in need of a nightlight. Tonight she didn’t care. While it had been fun going to the movies and out for a bite to eat with friends, the idea of coming home to a dark and cold and haunted house had become more unappealing with every mile she’d driven closer to home.

She closed and locked the front door as quietly as she could, then started creeping through the lounge room. Even though she could see the light in the kitchen the shadows darkened and thickened in the corners and alongside the sofas and bookshelves. Her breath hitched. Surely Ruby wouldn’t lie in wait?

“I was getting worried about you.” A tall silhouette rose off the sofa.

Eloise jumped and let out a squeak. “You nearly scared me to death!” She placed her hand over her heart as if she could keep it from leaping out and running away.

“Sorry.” Tate grinned but didn’t look very apologetic. His face was half shadowed but she could still see the curve of his lips and the glint in his eye.

“Where did you go? You just vanished.”
And then your ex visited
, but Eloise wasn’t quite sure how to ask more without it becoming prickly.

“I’m not sure where I go exactly when I have surgery. But when I’m under, I’m not here. I’m not anywhere.” He swung the arm that had been dangling weirdly at his side. Now it looked fine. In the soft light, Tate almost seemed solid, as if he were real and living and within touching distance.

Her fingers curled at her side, but she couldn’t touch him. He wasn’t really here—well, his body wasn’t. Which part was more important, the body or the soul? The implications made her head hurt. She couldn’t fall for a ghost, even one who wasn’t really a ghost but a bodiless spirit.

If he were alive, he’d have never looked at her twice. Guys like him didn’t. Once he got his body back he’d break her heart and not look back. Was that how Ruby felt? Left behind and heartbroken? No wonder she was angry.

“Did you really break up with Ruby before the accident?”

Tate took a step back as if she’d pushed him. “Of course.” He looked at the floor as if seeking an answer. “We’d been over for months. I just hadn’t had the guts to face up to it and tell her. I was so used to going through the motions and trying to live up to an expectation I didn’t realize I couldn’t meet.”

“You’d stopped loving her, but she hadn’t stopped loving you,” Eloise said softly. Poor Ruby. In one night she’d lost everything. Eloise sat on the arm of the sofa. She was tired and this whole thing was a mess she’d gotten mixed up in by accident. She bit her lip, debating what to tell him about the visit she’d received.

He reached out to touch her hand, and for a moment she imagined she could feel his skin, cool against hers. “What is it?”

Their knees should’ve been banging together but instead his passed through hers. She tried to smile, but her eyes were burning with unshed tears. None of this was right. And even though she didn’t want to she knew she was falling for him and when she landed it was going to hurt. She liked him more than she should, and there was a very good chance he wouldn’t remember any of this. But it was too late for her to back away now. She’d said she’d help him; however, maybe he could help her as well.

“Today there was another presence in the house, one I couldn’t see.”

Tate tilted his head. “How do you know then?”

“I felt like I was being watched. I was cold and I saw a shadow on the screen of my laptop.”

“Do you usually see ghosts?”

Eloise shook her head. “No. That’s why this is extra weird. Maybe I can see you because you aren’t really dead, we shared a room…” Again, weird. “And I almost died once. But this other ghost was different.” She paused again, not sure if she should tell him it was Ruby, but then shrugged. She couldn’t lie to him while he was possibly dying. “She warned me away from you.”

Tate froze. “Was that all?”

“It was enough to freak me out—but I’m still talking to you, aren’t I?” She tried to smile but Tate was grim. His smile was gone.

“When I’m not here I’m in a place surrounded by mist. But the mist is alive and it wants me. I’ve seen Ruby there.” He lowered his gaze and studied her hands in her lap. When he looked up his eyes were dark and troubled. “Ruby wants me.”

Eloise sucked in a breath. “She wants you to die?”

He nodded slowly, and all sympathy she’d had for Ruby dried up like a puddle in the summer sun. Ruby was the ex who didn’t know when to let go and move on.

“What do we do?” Eloise whispered. Was Ruby here now, listening and watching, waiting for Tate to have surgery again?

“There’s nothing you can do.” He moved closer, his legs passing through hers as he tried to take her hands. Frustration flickered across his features. “You have no idea how much I want to hold your hand right now.”