“Lindsey Walters.”
I closed my eyes, feeling the warmth and light of where Lindsey was needed. I didn’t know exactly if heaven or hell were truly real. I just knew that when I held onto a soul, I felt myself being drawn to places of eerie quietness or peace.
It was like an out of body experience. I was able to travel in both realms of the living and the dead . . . seer of both. Normal humans never saw what I was doing. I was aware of people around me but couldn’t talk. I was in two places at once when I assisted souls onward.
Lindsey slowly disappeared into the warm light, and I knew she found peace. Instantly I was back in my own head and took a few steps backward to move away from the scene as paramedics arrived. Chaos erupted, and cops swarmed the place.
My focus darted around and suddenly became vulnerable by a pair of piercing blue eyes. The ringleader stared like he saw me as I was, reaper, and he was not afraid.
A shimmering blue hand from the female trapeze ghost rested on his shoulder and she murmured something in his ear, then nodded toward the edge of the stage. I couldn’t tear my gaze away from him; the connection I felt toward death was with him, like a tether pulling us closer, weaving our destinies together into a morbid tapestry.
I always battled with fate . . . that my life was planned and I had no choice. Sometimes I felt this was true, and sometimes I believed I was the captain of my own ship . . . that I created my own destiny.
But in those eyes, those blue knowing eyes, I felt a stir in the cosmos, with an unrelenting feeling of fate solidifying my course.
“Miss, I need you to back up, please.” A police officer cut me off from the ringleader on the stage, and I felt like I could breathe again.
“Of course, so sorry.” It was my time to go. Emily was waiting for me where we had been sitting, and I walked over to join her.
“You OK?” I asked, noticing she was pale and shaken up.
“Yeah, I just feel bad, and kinda makes you think of your own mortality, ya know? Could be one of us.”
That was something I did understand . . . how death didn’t discriminate. Rich, poor, young, or old . . . death came no matter what and could happen at any time. I wrapped my arms around her, then we began walking toward the exit. As if I couldn’t help myself, I turned to look at the stage one last time to see him staring at me still. The intensity of his stare should have scared me, but I wasn’t afraid.
I turned away, and we walked into the lobby to give our statements as a witness to the scream.
Chapter Three
Jude
“What the fuck happened?” I slammed the newspaper down on my dining table and slumped into the chair beside it. I was fucked. My whole show was fucked.
“The police are working on it. There isn’t anything else you can do.” Lucille’s hand touched my shoulder and I shrugged it off. I knew what she wanted from me, but it wasn’t happening. I was never comfortable with her history of having an affair with my grandfather and then my dad.
“I could go ask her what happened.” It was an option.
“I think you should just focus on living out the next month the way you wanted to, which was doing your show.”
She’s right, and I fucking hate it. All part of the curse that shattered my family. The gates to the realm of the dead must stay closed, and the way to keep them sealed is with the blood of a Mallory man. Fortunately, all we seemed to have in our family were boys, so lucky curse.
All children in my family were born on Halloween, had to pay the debt on their thirtieth birthday. I was going to have to die on my birthday in thirty days. While my dad, grandfather, and great-grandfather chose to get married and have kids, I decided I didn’t want to have that life only to leave it. I avoided contact with people who I could see myself getting close to. Sure, I got lonely, and during desperate times I would find company with a cold-as-ice woman who had no heart.
It sucked, but it was either that or fall in love and have to choose between saving the world from the dead rising or my family. Easiest choice was to live out my life and then die, ending this curse with me.
“Yeah, you’re right.” I closed my eyes and rested my head against the tall back of the chair. It was selfish, and I hated it. This whole mess wasn’t fair, but it couldn’t be changed.
“If you need anything . . .” She let the rest of her sentence drift off just before I felt her cold lips press against my cheek. Her heels clicked along the old wood floors, and I deflated internally hearing her disappear into the hall outside.
“She really needs to get a life. You’re not going to sleep with her.”My body tensed up for a second before relaxing and opening my eyes to see my friend.
“She’s just trying to make it down the family tree before you all go on.” I shrugged, and Rudy grinned while sitting on the chandelier in a ghost-like form. There wasn’t anything left in this world to surprise me after living in a house filled with ghosts all my life. Most of them left me alone; we’d gotten used to each other years ago.
“Any news about the girl from the show?” With the expertise of an acrobat, Rudy leapt off the chandelier and landed on the table. It didn’t move or shudder under the weight because ghosts weren’t in real form. My power only made them mostly human for a time being. All part of the deal we made. They give me a hell of a show, and I take them with me into the afterlife.
“No, the police have identified her, and I recognize her as one of the fans that had come backstage with VIP access, but nothing else.” I sat up and clasped onto the newspaper, hoping to catch something in the words that I didn’t already know.
“And the other girl?”
