The Ghost and The Graveyard (The Monk's Hill Witch) (25 page)

“The truth is that you, my dear Hecate, are much more powerful than Rick could ever be. You didn’t need him to access your magic. He didn’t make you what you are. You made
him
. He used caretaker magic to trick you into joining with him again. You didn’t need him at all.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” I said. Why would Rick be guarding the cemetery if I didn’t need him?

“Don’t you think it odd, Hecate, that you were powerful enough to reincarnate yourself but needed to join with Rick to gain that power back?”

It
was
odd, now that he mentioned it. But I bled all emotion from my face, refusing to give him the satisfaction of a reaction. “And what benefit is it to you to inform me of this?” I spat at Julius.

“I am interested in a long, free existence. It is in my best interest to win your good graces. What better way to earn your trust than to unveil this deception to you?”

Wow. He was good. My hackles were up. He definitely had that used-car-salesman vibe, but then some part of me wondered if there wasn’t a shred of truth among the lies.

“Message received,” I said. I started toward the door again, stepping over Marcus’ remains.

“Of course, dear witch. But before you go, I’d like to introduce you to the newest member of our coven.” Julius swept his hand toward the left and a door opened. I halted abruptly.

“
Gary
!” I gasped as my ex-boyfriend walked forward. He’d changed. His blue eyes bulged, and his skin was so pale I could see the map of his veins on his forehead. With a stiff gait he limped to Julius’ side.

“Grateful,” Gary said, his nocturnal eyes finding my face. “I’d like to apologize. As you can see, I’ve gone through some changes.”

I managed to close my gaping jaw long enough to say, “You stole my money!”

Julius grinned. “Gary will be paying back his debt to you. I’ll make sure of that.”

Rick stepped forward, grabbed my arm, and pushed me toward the door. He wasn’t gentle about it.

“Next time, then,” Julius called, laughing. “I’ll remember the pleasantries if you will.”

“Rick, stop pushing me. What is the matter with you? Ow!”

“You are injured. Julius is trying to distract you, to delay you, because if we stay much longer, healing will become...complicated.”

He was right. Once we were outside, the pain hit full force.

“Help me,” I cried to him.

He walked around to my left side. “This will hurt,
mi cielo
. I can’t heal you until your bones are in the correct alignment. I will have to put your shoulder back in first.”

I gritted my teeth. I’d seen this done in the ER and, if patient screams were any gauge, it was excruciating. “Go,” I said.

He made it quick, lifting and slamming my arm into my shoulder in one smooth move. Still, I screamed in pain until his wrist plugged my mouth and blood gushed over my tongue. The more I drank, the better I felt. Warmth spread through my body, healing my jaw, my bones, and my bruises. With the pain gone, I stopped drinking and started thinking. I pushed his arm away.

“Is it true?” I asked Rick, the taste of his blood still in my mouth.

“Of course not,” he said. “Julius’ greatest desire is to come between us, to weaken us.”

“But how does he know how I got my power back?”

“He knows because of the timing between when Padnon saw you and your obvious rise to power. He knows how it is done.”

“That makes sense,” I said, feeling tired. I chided myself for doubting Rick, even for a minute. Hadn’t he risked his life for me enough times to earn my trust?

I crawled into the passenger’s seat of the Tesla. Rick pulled out of TiltWorld and headed for home. I dozed the entire ride, only waking when the car stopped in my driveway. Once alert, the uncertainty still had me in its clutches and a train of thought I couldn’t refuse took control.

“Rick?” I asked before I climbed out of the car, “Why did you let me go into that barn? You must have known I wasn’t ready. I’d never fought a vampire before and I’m not immortal like you. We were vastly outnumbered. Why didn’t you warn me?”

“I needed you. And obviously, you are stronger than you know.”

“But you couldn’t have known I would kill Marcus.” It dawned on me the moment the words were out of my mouth. “You were using me as bait. You knew Marcus would smell my human blood and come running.”

“It was necessary,” he said, refusing to meet my eyes.

“Does my life mean so little to you?”

“
Mi cielo
, you were never in danger. I was with you the entire time.”

I raised my hand to my face, to the place where the pain had radiated through my jaw before his blood had healed me. “My shoulder and jaw disagree.”

He frowned. “Perhaps I should’ve been more cautious. Forgive me.”

“Yeah,” I drawled.

I waited, but that was all the apology he offered. “Did you know my ex-boyfriend was a vampire?”

He looked away, toward his cottage. “No.”

My gut told me there was more to the story but I didn’t know what questions to ask to uncover the truth.

“Do you need more of my blood?” he asked, and there was the promise of sex in his voice.

“Not tonight. I’m going home.” I climbed out of the car and started toward my house.

Rick knew better than to come after me.

Try, Try, Again

T
he door to my home was a welcome relief, a promise of sanctuary from this life that was quickly getting away from me. Although I felt the familiar weight of Logan’s presence in the foyer, I did not greet him or call him out. I jogged up the stairs to my room and slammed the door behind me. I stripped out of my clothes, removing Nightshade and propping her in the corner of the bathroom. Then I stepped into the shower and turned on the water as hot as I could stand it. The spray ran off my body red and black, remnants of my first kills swirling the drain. I braced myself against the cool tile and sobbed.

Afterward, I slipped on my coziest flannel pajamas and flopped into bed. What day was it? Thursday. Days and nights had tangled together until nothing made sense anymore. Rick had used me as bait. Even though somewhere deep inside I thought he might have done the right thing, the logical thing, in my heart I felt betrayed. What did I expect? I had to learn somehow.

I drifted to sleep thinking about Gary.
Fuck
. Gary was a vampire. When had that happened? Was that why he disappeared? In my dreams, I asked him these questions but I could never make out his answers.

I woke late and hurried downstairs were hot pancakes waited for me on the counter.

“Thanks, Logan,” I said.

“You had a rough night.”

“And today I have to work. Phone nurse.”

His presence vanished from the room without saying goodbye.

“I’ll see you tonight,” I called toward the attic. Shit, he was still mad.

The buzz of my cell phone vibrating on the counter popped me out of my seat. I’d forgotten it last night. I hit the call button.

“Hello?”

“It’s Dad. I got your message. I’m showing a house on Sunday. Would you be up for dinner tonight?”

“Sure,” I said, thinking of Logan. “Maybe we could make it an early one. I’ve got to catch up on some sleep.”

“Valentine’s?” he asked.

“Actually, I’m working from home today. Could you come here?”

“See you at six?”

“Sure,” I said. “Bring food if you want to eat.”

Dad laughed and said goodbye.

I logged into my computer and started taking calls, giggling to myself about the last time I’d done this, the night Prudence had called and my life had spiraled. But today there were no supernatural inquiries. Today, the routine of my work lulled me into a false sense of normalcy. Unfortunately, it was a feeling that wouldn’t last long.

* * * * *

Dad arrived promptly at six with his arms full of Valentine’s food. Roasted chicken and pasta salad, with asparagus spears. I set the table in the dinning room and doled out the food while Dad droned on about the uptick in the real estate market. I wasn’t really listening until he said, “So how do you feel about that?”

“Sorry, I spaced for a minute. What were you saying?”

“How do you feel about moving to an apartment in the city? I have some folks who might be interested in this place.”

“No!” I said too quickly.

He grimaced. “I thought you hated this place! The dead people. The distance from work.”

“Actually, it’s kind of grown on me. I was thinking, maybe, I could buy it.”

He shook his head. “Where is this coming from?”

“I’m not sure. I’m just really attached to the place. It feels like home to me.”

The fork in my dad’s hand dropped to his plate. “Well, I wasn’t expecting this. I’ll be honest, Grateful. I’ve got a buyer on the line. I promised he could see the house next week. If you think you can get your financial situation together enough to put in an offer before then, we can talk. But otherwise, I gotta let it go.”

I stood up. “But why? Don’t you owe it to Prudence to keep it, after what she did for you?”

He rubbed his forehead. “Ah, I see. You’re attached to this house because you connect it to your history. But Prudence isn’t here anymore and neither is your mother.” He placed his hands on mine. “It’s time for both of us to move on.”

I scrambled for what to say. “I want the house, Dad,” I said, pulling my hands away. “I’ll get the money. I will.”

He nodded his head. “Okay.”

We finished dinner in silence and said our goodbyes. After he left, I paced the foyer, feeling helpless. How would I ever get the money to buy this house? Could I trust Rick? Would I ever find a way to send Logan on? My body was exhausted, my mind a jumble of discontent. I paced and I thought about things. What I needed was a taste of success. I needed to scratch something off my list, to get my hands around one of these nebulous puzzle pieces. I had an idea.

At midnight, I climbed the stairs to the attic, Nightshade in hand. I called for Logan. Reluctantly he materialized, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Don’t block me, Logan. I feel strong tonight. I think this could happen.”

“You mean you hope this will happen, so you won’t have to deal with me anymore.”

“We don’t have time for this.” I flipped through my spell book and found some notes on amplification of power. I opened the canister of salt from the night before and drew a large pentagram in the middle of the attic. Pentagrams are powerful symbols. I used to think they were evil but according to the
Book of Light
, they simply strengthened the power of the person using them. Since I wasn’t evil, my pentagram wasn’t evil.

I coaxed Logan into the center. He wasn’t happy about it but he followed my instructions. I picked up my bowl and blade. With a deep breath, I centered myself and threw my power into him. I was so strong I bounced inside his head like light in a mirrored room. I saw everything, from images of what he ate for breakfast in the morning when he was alive to how many times a day he went to the bathroom. I saw what color underwear he had on the day he died, and the point when the car hit his motorcycle and the darkness swallowed him. I saw everything, every moment. But every time I experienced a memory that included his name, it was obstructed. I could see every test he took in high school, but a black bar marred the top of the paper. When he earned his driver’s license, the name was unreadable. I learned he was a chef, which explained his unbelievable cooking ability, but in my vision, his nametag was blank.

More than the missing name bothered me. The feeling that he was an unfinished soul was undeniable. I searched his life thoroughly, but unlike Prudence, the answer was nowhere to be found. I worked at it until I was so fatigued my power spilled out of him. I’d failed him, again.

I leaned forward, catching myself on my knees, and allowed Nightshade to clatter to the floor. “I’m sorry, Logan. I don’t know why, but I can’t sort you. I can’t find your name in any of your memories. It’s like you’re not supposed to move on.”

He cocked his head to the side, his body so solid in the midnight power of the attic that he might have been human. “Maybe I was sent here for you the same way you were sent for Rick. Maybe it’s not supposed to be the same this lifetime.”

Inside my circle of power, I was suddenly powerless. Under Logan’s scrutiny, I came apart because I realized why I was so attracted to him. Logan wasn’t the better man. He wasn’t stronger than Rick or more virtuous or even better looking. But I had seen inside Logan’s soul and his flaws were my flaws. Logan’s greatest weakness had been a string of failed relationships. My greatest weakness was a string of failed relationships. We were both damaged goods.

All this time, I’d resisted Logan because I thought he wasn’t meant to be here, that he wasn’t mine to have. Did it change anything if I couldn’t send him home? If Logan was supposed to be here, maybe it was okay for me to have feelings for him. What’s more, if I couldn’t send him on, I was obligated to include him in my life. We lived under the same roof. Well, unless my dad sold this place.
Ugh
. I couldn’t let that happen.