“Peace.” I breathed against his lips, feeling the type of peace I’d only felt on the edges of the glowing afterlife. “Peace. You taste like internal peace.” I pressed his lips once more to mine, then parted our connection. His forehead rested against mine as we calmed our erratic beating hearts and basked in the tranquility of the moment.
“Do you wanna come back with me to the mansion for a tour? We can talk to some of the ghosts as we pass by.” His body straightened as his fingers caressed my cheek, then my wet lips, feeling the evidence of what we had shared.
I smirked. “This isn’t you trying to get me to come home with you so I’d bone you, right?”
“A gentleman would never do such a thing,” he scoffed playfully, which made a tiny giggle burst from me. I doubted Jude Mallory was a gentleman. Instead, he looked devilishly mysterious, a trait I hadn’t experienced before in the opposite sex but now found attractive. Now that I’d cooled down from the anger I had before, a carefree sensation and eagerness to live in the moment took over me. I wouldn’t sleep with Jude tonight, but I wouldn’t mind spending more time with him.
“We’ll see about that.” I nodded toward the door and Jude’s face lit up with his smile. The expression made his very handsome face of a man appear boyish. I liked that look on him. Everything he’d told me about his life told me it hadn’t been easy. Parents’ suicide, then raising him as ghosts, plus knowing he has to die in a few weeks, probably by his own hands. Heavy, heavy burdens rested on his shoulders and I doubted he had many opportunities to shake them off.
“Do you want to ride together or drive there yourself?” he asked, as we started walking toward the exit. The cleaning crew were getting started on their jobs so I’m glad we were leaving.
“I rode with Phillip, who left me . . .” I stopped the rest of the words from coming out of my mouth when a thought clicked in my head. Without warning, my shoulders trembled and a bark of laughter came barreling past my lips. Jude stopped to stare at me with wide eyes, having no clue what brought on my sudden fit of amusement.
“That sneaky son of a bitch. He asked me to ride with him on purpose.” I had thought it was weird that Phillip invited me to ride with him, though I didn’t think much of it. He was friendly and passing by my little cottage, so why not? Of course, he only did it because he knew this thing between Jude and I would happen and that I’d be invited to go back to Jude’s mansion with him. He left abruptly, and I had been so caught up in my emotions, I totally forgot that he’d been my ride until now.
“I’m kinda lost here.” Jude smiled, then a small chuckle bubbled up from his chest when I had a laugh attack in front of him.
“Oh, you must not know. Phillip, the blond guy you met? He sees all the possible futures and likes to help things happen the way he thinks would lead to the optimum future for all. He invited me to ride with him to the show because he knew this would happen and I’d have no ride if he left. Apparently, I’m supposed to go with you.”
It sounded wild and almost like I needed a tin foil hat to say it aloud, but I knew how Phillip worked. I’d chatted with the guy, heard the stories from the ladies of the Hero Society. He told his sister to take a walk in the woods when a storm blew in and she had to hide in a stranger’s chicken coop. Of course, the chicken coop turned out to belong to Draco.
“I’m liking the man more and more.” Jude winked and grasped onto my hand, leading me toward the doors to where his vehicle waited to take us to his haunted mansion.
Chapter Seventeen
Jude
Selene sat comfortably in my sports car as I drove us farther and farther away from the skyscrapers and city lights. We didn’t really speak as time passed by. She watched the buildings turn to trees like the sight was the only thing that mattered in the world to her.
It was nice to be around a woman who didn’t balk at the idea of being so far from the metropolitan area. Not that I’d brought any women to my home because having a ghost do weird shit while you tried to fuck would kill the mood. But whenever I’d mention to them that I didn’t have a flat in one of the tall towers, and I had my mansion in the woods, a sneer would appear on their naturally sour expression.
The longer we rode, the more I thought about how fucking depressing my life had been, and because I knew I would die, I forgot to truly live. By the time we drew near the entrance to my driveaway, my mood had darkened.
“Who are they?” Selene pointed toward four shimmering figures standing outside the gates to my home.
“Idiots.” I rolled my eyes at the four ghosts dressed in Victorian-era clothes with suitcases packed and their thumbs sticking up to hitch a ride. They knew that they couldn’t leave the property. They had already walked as far as the curse would let them go. Even my crew had to come back after I was done with them, like they were all tied by a cord to the house. They could try to escape but would eventually be yanked back to their personal purgatory.
“Are they hitchhiking?” They moved out of the way as I turned into the road and pressed the button for the gates to open for us.
“Yes, we’re heading to New Mexico!” Roger, one of the ghosts, popped into my car. His grotesque corpse-like face made Selene let out a surprised scream.
“Never gonna happen, buddy,” I told him as we drove to the side of the property where I’d had a carport built to keep the sun off my car.
“How do you do, my lady?” Roger’s ghostly hand appeared out of thin air and tipped the frayed hat that sat on his head.
“Nice to meet you?” She chewed on her bottom lip nervously, and I felt my cock stir from the sight of her flesh between her pearly teeth.
“Oh, it’s nice to meet you. Won’t you take us when you leave? We won’t bother you or ask to go to the bathroom. Really we are the perfect traveling companions.” Theodore, another of the ghosts, appeared in my car as I put it in park.
“You know you gentlemen can’t leave, so get out of my car. You’re making it smell like desperate ghost in here.”
“You were such a nice boy as a kid. Age has not been kind to you.” Theodore stuck out his tongue like a child, then he and his friend disappeared. I could have made them leave, but as a rule I tried not to control the dead too much. My work with the performers was enough to let my power out. If I didn’t release some of that energy, I’d go crazy, and I didn’t have room for that on my agenda before my upcoming death.
“This is going to be interesting, isn’t it?” Selene asked as a smile grew on her face, and I nodded. I hadn’t brought anyone here before, so I’m sure she would get loads of attention and curious stares.
“It’s not gonna bother you, is it?” A gnawing worry grew in my thoughts that this experience would be too much for her. She said she reacted differently around death, and this house held a lot of death. The house was too big and decorated to show how rich my ancestors had been. It wasn’t a home filled with family portraits or knickknacks. It had bustles of poets and stoic-faced paintings of rich people of the past. Purples, greens, and golds weaved into every room to show a high-class status for the people who would dine and party every night.
I hadn’t realized I’d gotten stuck in my thoughts until a warm hand caressed my trimmed beard. Selene looked at me with understanding. Her blue eyes were a trap for my soul, a place I could lose myself in. I’d known it since the first time I saw her in that crowd. Death permeated from the slain girl, and Selene stood there like a light in the dark, without fear and judgment. A simple understanding that no one could feel but us. Two souls ruled by death.
