Crap. Not only am I dealing with a rogue spirit, but she’s got the maturity level of a three-year-old.
Bree gives me the side-eye. “Don’t worry, Skyla. We’ll take care of everything. It will be a surprise party. I promise, you are going to have a blast.”
Is it wrong for me to root for it to be as vulgar as possible? I’d love to see Rory get so worked up in her self-righteousness she’s ejected right out of my skin—literally. Which reminds me, I’ll have to ask Marshall on how to go about jumping backintomy skin when the time is right.
Mom hustles over with Mia and Melissa in tow.
“Great news!” Her entire face lights up. “Tad just sent me an email. He’ll be home any minute.”
Tad, my outrageously ridiculous stepfather, was arrested just a little before Gage decided that my stint on this planet as a living, breathing being should come to an end.
All of last year Tad was suspiciously winning the lottery, different payouts, none too impressively life-changing, but that didn’t stop him from buying every gaudy thing he could get his hands on, like that cheesy gold throne in the corner and the TV that eats up the wall and makes it look as if those weapon-toting zombies in Drake and Ethan’s video games are about to come running right into the room. He also had a diamond glued to his tooth and bought a lock of Elvis Presley’s hair off eBay. It was shocking at how fast he spent far more money than his winnings provided.
“Did the FTC drop the charges?” I couldn’t help but ask—although judging by the curious looks from everyone around me, I probably shouldn’t have.
Mom shakes her head. “I don’t know what’s happening. Tad says he’ll explain it all once he gets here. I’d better go freshen up. You don’t think prison has changed him, do you?”
Mia huffs, “Right. I’m sure he’ll come back rough around the edges from all that hard time served. How will he ever assimilate back into society?”
Melissa glowers at her. “That’s my dad you’re talking about.” Her lips twitch. “He never did fit into society.”
The two of them break out into cackles. It’s nice seeing Mia and Melissa finally getting along. Even if they are bonding while disparaging Tad.
A thought comes to me.
“Melissa? Please tell me you’re signing up for classes at Host next semester. Now that the money Tad won has flown away like a bat in the night, don’t you want to secure your own future?” Tad’s newfound fortune was the primary reason she was looking to abandon her post at Host University. I went to Host for all of five hot minutes before Gage knocked me up with triplets.
She scoffs my way. “No, I haven’t. I’m happy working at the apothecary. Dominique is teaching me her weird witchy ways. Soon, I’ll be the one cooking up the potions and lotions with the best of them. She’s not going to live forever, you know, and her kids aren’t interested in taking over the family business. I’m as good as a daughter to her.”
I’d hate to break it to Melissa, but Dominique has already sort of lived forever. She’s an old soul in a new-to-her body, and that body-snatching game doesn’t seem to know any bounds.
I take a breath at the thought. Dominique is the one that actually sliced Gage’s head off—the last remnant of the Gage I knew—and sent him packing to the heavenlies. I didn’t know it for almost a year after the fact. Demetri convinced her to do the decapitating deed, and as a payment she received enough cash and prizes from the head Fem to last two lifetimes.
Dominique and all of her so-called children are really transplants from an era gone by. They cheated death by light driving to the present from their rightful place in the seventeenth century and took possession of the real Winters family as they one by one bit the big one. I’m thinking a homicide or two is to blame for the early evictions of those souls, seeing that most of her kids are in their early twenties like me.
“Melissa”—a shiny new thought begins to percolate within me—“do you think Dominique could concoct something to take a person to the brink of death? You know, with no lasting effects once the person is revived?”
Wow, Skyla,Chloe muses.Purchasing something lethal from Dominique Winters, yet again? That worked out so well for you the first time. Maybe this time social services will take the entire tribe of Landon/Oliver children away. You really are going for the gullible gold. And seeing that Gage’s murderous intentions have now been revealed, I bet he’ll help you load up a bunch of arsenic laced PB&J sandwiches to give the little ones. Who knew you’d make such a killer team?
I grunt,Be quiet, Chloe.
“Sure.” Melissa shrugs. “Swing by anytime you want and pick your poison.”
Mia makes a face my way. “Why do you care, Chloe?” She glances to Rory. “It’s a weird world when Skyla starts acting like Chloe, and Chloe starts acting like my sister.”
Rory snaps her head in my direction, her mouth falling open and I can see her wicked wheels a churnin’.
Chloe groans.Say something fast, Skyla, something that sounds like me. Leave it to your family to out you. But I don’t blame, Mia. I blame you. Stop being so nice, so concerned. And for God’s sake, when Logan strides into the room with that screaming brat of yours, do not shove him up against my tit.
Duly noted,I say. But I’m not so sure I mean it. Logan and I decided I should hold Jaxson in the dark so he couldn’t see my face. And that I shouldn’t use my voice either. So far it’s taken the edge off, but that doesn’t help with Nathan and Barron. In fact, I have an idea I’m going to run past Logan when he comes downstairs.
A ruckus erupts at the front door. The sound of howling and odd little whoops sets both Sprinkles, an adorable scrawny pup, and D-O-G, the mammoth pit bull Mia shares with Rev, barking up a riot. D-O-G actually goes by Bullet as well, and judging by the way he’s bolting to the door, he’s living up to his name.
Mom gasps, and no sooner does she turn around than both Tad and Demetri enter the room.
Mom screams as if we were just treated to Tad Landon’s ghost.
Tad looks like a pudgier, paler version of the man that went into the pokey just a couple of weeks ago, so that whole ghost thing isn’t entirely off the table. His dark hair forms into the Landon-issued widow’s peak, and his eyes are wide open with delight as he struggles to remain standing while my mother freely accosts him.
