Rudy was one of the only people I would consider a friend . . . my best friend. Had I been alive before he died, we probably would have caused trouble all over the place. We would have looked alike, too—same Mediterranean-tan skin, blue eyes, and dark-brown hair. Now he was a light blue unless I used my power over the dead to change it.
Since he was my best friend, he was the only person I told about the woman in the audience whose soul sang to mine. She saw the dead girl, and it looked like she knew my crew were not human performers. I’d yet to know someone who had a gift like mine. Whoever she was, she intrigued me, and that was not a good thing.
“No.”
“Too bad, she was hot. In a sort of combat boots, grunge kind of way. Bet she’d be way more fun in the sack than Lucy.”
I rolled my eyes. Lucy was a serious pain in my ass. Even with a month left to live, I wasn’t going to give in to use my powers just for sex like everyone else in my family was prone to doing. It was the only chance she could feel real again, so she used it to her advantage. I couldn’t blame her, though. If I was dead, couldn’t feel warmth, or taste anything, I’d do whatever it took to gain some sensation in my immortal life.
“Neither will be happening. I’ve only got a month left. Not going to spend it with a woman.” Rudy knew how I felt. I wanted to put on the show of a lifetime then disappear.
“Yeah, yeah. I get it. Still, you only live once, right? It’s what the kids these days say. YOLO.” Using a bit of my power gifted from Hades, I pushed the poor fool off the table in a brotherly manner.
“We’re going to have to have a fair fight before we go, you and me.” He stood off the ground and started throwing punches that felt like a light breeze against my cheek.
“I’ll let you get a good one in soon. I promise. YOLO, right?” I wanted this cursed life to end already. I was ready for the peace the other side would bring. No more curses or responsibility of keeping the dead in their place or ghosts trying to sleep with me. One month to go.
There wasn’t anything I could do about the dead girl from the show or the mystery woman right now so I stood and pulled on the invisible tethers tying me to the souls under my control. There were times I was grateful that this antebellum-style mansion, as creepy as it was, I called home. Plenty of space to practice circus acts in the ballroom.
“Let’s go rehearse for the show.”
Chapter Four
Selene
“Call me as soon as you get home! I want to hear every single detail!”
For a moment I thought Emily was going to crawl out of my phone so she could be here in person, but that was not a power she possessed.
“I promised I would. I’m almost there.”
At least, I hoped I would. The address I’d found for one Jude Mallory had to have been a mistake because I was in the middle of nowhere.
“Eek, I can’t wait. OK, I’ll let you go. Take care.” Her voice turned to a whisper and I guessed her boss was nearby at work. Glad I didn’t have that problem. I tossed my phone in the passenger seat of my sedan without taking my focus off the winding road outside of Seahill.
“In one hundred feet, your destination will be on the right,” the GPS announced but I still didn’t see it. Nothing but trees and fog, which only added an eerie vibe to this whole mission. No one besides the police had been able to talk to the ringleader ofMysticalabout the death that happened at his show. We’d ran a story about the incident in the paper, but the big bosses wanted to know more about the mysterious man and his circus of ghosts. Of course, they didn’t know it was a ghost circus like I did, but that had me volunteering to be the one to get a story. Hopefully I would be able to help solve the murder of Lindsey while I was at it.
It had been two days since she died, and none of the detectives on the case could figure out what happened besides she was stabbed, then bled to death. I had seen the shimmer of another soul near Lindsey’s as I approached. Someone else had been there then disappeared just before I could see them. There was only one other person who could see them.
“Your destination is on the right.”
“Shit.” I slammed on my brakes and looked to the right for the driveway. I hadn’t been paying attention and almost missed it. Once my heart was calm and my breathing back to its normal rhythm, I scanned the two-car-wide driveway that seemed to grow out of the woods. I would have driven right by it if I didn’t have the GPS telling me I was here.
For a man who had many successes in his career of magic, I was surprised by the gates sealing the entrance to what appeared to be a long driveway covered in vines. It looked like no one had lived here in ages . . . centuries maybe.
“This can’t be right.” I looked at the address and then at the gate again.
Pulling my car off to the side of the road, I got out and threw the small journalist backpack I had over my shoulders. The weather was gloomy, and it started sprinkling rain as I walked toward the gate. The vibe combination of the weather and the deserted driveway was fit for a man who had a circus full of ghosts.
Technically hopping over the brick wall was trespassing, but if no one was here to report it, then it didn’t matter. From my first observation, I assumed there would be a deserted house instead of a rich ringleader at the end of the driveway.
It took three minutes of walking over countless dead leaves beneath my feet until the trees cleared and I saw it. An algae-covered pond rested before a giant mansion with four large columns at its front. It looked like something you would see in Louisiana and not the Pacific Northwest of the country. It had a wraparound porch, multiple fireplace stacks, a small rounded tower in the middle, and a large atrium. Not something you see every day here. I felt like my feet were stuck on the cobblestone driveway in awe of this magnificent piece of architecture. Someone put a lot of effort and care into designing this mansion. I dug out my camera and snapped a shot for myself. Even if this house turned out to be nothing for the story I needed, I wanted to look at this place again. It would forever haunt my dreams with the dark spruce pines and dead leaves from the forest blowing against the immense structure.
There appeared to be no lights on inside the house as far as I could tell, and no one had come out to tell me to scram yet, either. As I walked closer, the tingle in my blood began to grow. Death was near . . . somewhere. I scanned the landscape, searching for shimmering blue souls, but I found none . . . yet.
I walked up wooden steps to the house, observing the intricate details carved into the double doors. This house was a work of art, and I couldn’t stop staring at it.
After three knocks on the door, I waited patiently to see if someone was here. Hopefully it would be Mr. Mallory and he wouldn’t be pissed that I hopped his wall to get here, but sometimes in journalism you had to do somethings that weren’t always on the good side. Impatiently, I knocked two more times and yelled “hello” with no reply. I peeked in through the windows near the door just in case someone was a slow walker.
