I heard her sniff and knew she wasn’t happy, but at least she was biting her tongue. “Move in with Lili,” she said huffily.
My sister hated Lili, my long-time girlfriend of seven years. We met in collage. It hadn’t been fireworks or even the sex that had brought us together. Honestly, I’m not sure what it had been for us or why we’d stayed together so long.
Recognition maybe. She’d been as driven and career focused as me. She was pretty, with long blond hair. And she was serious. She’d impressed me with her plans for the future and her stock portfolio she’d been building since middle school.
Basically she’d been the exact opposite of my twin, and neither one of them had made much of an effort to become friends with the other. A fact I’d never been all that comfortable with, if I were honest—considering Blue was my last living relative, her opinion of me did actually matter—but since neither one of them wanted to try, I hadn’t pushed things.
“She dumped me,” I sighed, feeling a regretful twinge about it. Though I wasn’t entirely certain it had anything to do with the fact that Lili and I were no more. It was more like I’d grown used to our weekends together and today had sucked the big one with only me for company. Not that I was fit to be around anyone right now.
“Let me guess, right after you got fired, right? Classic,” she hissed. And I wasn’t gonna lie; it did my heart good to have my sister take my side.
“Yeah, I guess. But don’t be too harsh on her, B. I’ve always known who Lili was.”
If I tried real hard I could almost hear my twin rolling her eyes. “Whatever,” she grumped. “You’re just lucky I love you, otherwise I’d have some choice words to say. But now that the she-devil is out of our lives—”
“Blue,” I sighed.
“Fine. Fine.”
She sniffed a dainty little sniff, which caused a reluctant and half-formed grin to ghost past my lips. Sadly it was the first pseudo-smile I’d had in almost a week. God, my life sucked so much right now.
“So you understand now?” I asked her, sure that she’d finally give up on her asinine notion of me coming out to some godforsaken nowhere place to pretend I was even remotely on any sort of vacation right now.
“Um, no. Seriously, you think this conversation is over? C’mon, Dany, you know me better than that.”
“Blue!” I plopped back onto my pillows, and forced myself to take a deep calming breath before saying, “Just because you fly by the seat of your pants and think money is beneath you, not everyone can afford to be so laissez faire about things. I’ve got bills—”
“Shut your big fat face for a second and listen to me, brother,” she sassed.
And maybe because she was a whole five minutes older than me, whenever she’d taken that voice with me I’d always had this uncanny reaction to do exactly as she’d said. Biting down on my back teeth, I growled low.
“You play dirty pool, sister.”
“Yes, and you love me for it.” She air kissed me. “Now listen. This place is awesome. So huge. Three floors. Lots of charm, and I know how much you love your old buildings and charm. Amiright? Of course I am. And I’m still not totally moved in yet, I could sure use your big muscles to help out with the rest.”
I narrowed my eyes. Annoyed and also irritated because darn her, she was totally right. I had always been a sucker for older architecture.
My plan had been to eventually buy a farmhouse with Lili somewhere just outside of the suburbs so that we could drink lemonade on our wraparound porch while we watched our great-grandchildren play inside the white picket fence. Thing was Lili hated the country.
Was completely allergic to it in fact. Refused to ever leave the city. Ever. It’d been a blow to me when I’d realized just how different our ideals had been, but I’d gradually adjusted to her idea of renting a penthouse in the sky and never having children at all because we’d be too busy jet-setting around the world once we hit retirement age.
I ground my jaw, feeling that tiny flicker of resentment that always burned a little when I thought about that kind of cold, sterile life she’d envisioned for us. It was one thing to put kids on hold for a while, as we focused on building up our portfolios and getting our life in order so that the transition into family life would be easy. She’d just about had a seizure though when I’d told her my dream. That was the moment I realized there’d be no kids in my future if Lili and I choose to remain together. And it really wasn’t so much the thought of not having kids that bummed me out, but it was Lili’s absolute refusal to even consider it. Like my feelings about anything major had never really mattered to her if their was a compromise to be made.
It wasn’t like I’d had to compromise everything though. Lili and I had had a lot in common too. We’d both been career oriented. Not getting to see each other more than once a week hadn’t been a deal breaker for either one of us. And then, even if we had been on a date, if work called, neither of us got upset if the other had to go.
Which maybe should have told me we’d needed to break up a long, long time ago. My pride was wounded, but not much else.
Thing was, I’d been having misgivings about Lili and me in the long term for a while, and it wasn’t until last week that I’d finally understood that. She’d shoved a box of my toiletries I’d kept at her apartment for the rare nights when I’d gotten to spend it with her at me and had turned away without batting an eyelash about it. There’d not even been a single tear. She’d just left. And I’d stood in my hallway staring down at my stuff with a blank expression on my face as I searched my heart for any ounce of pain about it. In the end I’d turned toward my door, opened it, and hadn’t bothered to even look back.
“—so what do you think?”
I startled, realizing that I’d completely forgotten about Blue on the phone. “Come again?”
She sighed, long and loud. “Dany, I’m really worried about you. Please come. Look, I promise if you hate this place you can go, but there is no rent here. Like at all. The house is so huge and...and I could really use the company.”
I frowned, hearing words she wasn’t exactly saying. I sat up. “What’s the matter, B? What aren’t you saying?”
“Huh? Well, truth is I’m a little lonely.”
Blue sounded anxious. And that wasn’t my sister. At all.
Forgetting my own mounting problems at the moment, I cocked my head. “Hey, what’s up? Something you’re not saying?”
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. My heart rate picked up just a tick. Blue and I might not be identical but we were still twins, and every once in a while even I could tell when something was really bothering my sister.
“I just...I just really miss you, Dany. It’s been too long, and believe it or not, running all around God’s green earth can feel a little lonesome sometimes. I just...I got to looking through our old photo albums tonight and I miss mama and daddy. Miss you too. Bad.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. I could resist Blue’s anger. I could even say no to her wheedling. But what I’d never been any good at was ignoring when my sister was in pain. Because it happened so rarely.
My life was in shambles right now.
I had no job. Bills piling up. No girlfriend. And only one family member in the entire world who desperately needed the dregs of me right now. Who was I to say no?
I sighed. “Can you wait like two weeks so that I can pack up this dump? My lease was coming due anyway. I’m sure Ms. Tompkins could work out a deal with me.”
“You’re the best!” She squealed and laughed so hard that I was like ninety-nine percent sure I’d just been played for a chump.
I’d never been any good against feminine wiles.
I twisted my lips.
“See you in two weeks and don’t you dare be a day late, Dante Martin, or I’ll sic my dog on you.”
I frowned, knowing that I’d fallen for the oldest trick in the book. And since when had she gotten a dog? That was news to me.
“Nite!?
?? she trilled.
“Hey, that’s not righ—” All I heard was the click of the phone line cutting out.
I stared at my cell with a dazed and very confused look. How had that just happened? Here I’d planned to spend every minute of every day submitting resumes for jobs, and instead I’d just promised to not only go see my sister but break my lease to boot.
“You’re such an idiot, Dante,” I growled. Then I powered down my laptop and did the only thing there was left to do.
Started packing up.
“Goodbye Nashville, and hello seventh circle of Hell.”
Chapter 3
Annabelle Lee
“THAT’S IT!” BLUE SCREECHED when the hallway lights popped in a brilliant shower of fiery sparks, bathing the narrow hall in pitch black. She twirled on her heel, and a ribbon of gauzy lavender chiffon floated around her ankles as she peered with bright blue eyes into the darkness at me.
I knew she couldn’t see me. I was firmly hiding out in the dead lands. Which was basically the same as the land of the living, except there was far less substance to everything here. Nothing had physicality in the dead lands, not the walls, the furniture, not even the people. I may have accidentally phased through Blue last night, causing her to shiver and stare with wide frightened eyes at the spot I’d just vacated.
I would say this for her though; she was definitely not like the typical humans who sometimes lost themselves in my home.
I was being as nice as I could possibly be, given the circumstances. That being that someone had intruded into my personal space and was filling my home with all her crazy crystals and new-age hooey. Not to mention the curls of sage smoke she kept smudging around the rooms. After our accidental phase last night, she’d returned from town this morning carrying bags stuffed to the brim with rocks, dream catchers, and her noxious sage bundles. Clearly, she’d visited Sunshine LilyBlossom’s shop, The Faerie Circle.
I could have told Blue that she needn’t have bothered as none of that silliness could actually work on a benign spirit such as myself, but then that would have actually required me to apparate, which I still wasn’t sure she was ready for me to do.
It was one thing to suspect your house might have a ghost but quite another to be confronted with the reality of it. And I wasn’t ready for her to pack up and leave me just yet. Shockingly, I did enjoy aspects of this whole roommate thing.
And Jules wasn’t all that bothered by her. He generally didn’t mind sharing his space with women. He’d always had a soft spot for the fairer sex. He’d appeared to her on three separate occasions, which was definitely a record for him. I was pretty sure she’d not clued in yet that Jules was actually a spirit; he looked surprisingly alive, especially at night when he could hide his semi-transparency in shadows.
Muttering angrily beneath her breath, Blue reached into the linen closet and yanked out a bundle. I knew immediately what she held and groaned.
“Not again,” I mumbled just as she lit up the tip of the sage bundle and began to burn it.
I pinched my nostrils and slid through the floorboards toward the sitting area below us to escape it. Jules, who’d been hovering within the shadows, started sneezing and howling just seconds later, causing Blue to stomp her foot and rage that no ghost or dog would run her out of her home.
That stuff stank to high heaven and was giving Jules a terrible headache, and yet he continued to remain close. Maybe it was the novelty of seeing a human within our domain again, or maybe out of boredom. It was always so hard to reason the why of things when it came to my guardian. One thing I knew for certain though, he hated the stink of our house.
Snapping my fingers, I channeled just a small burst of energy toward the emerald green Tiffany lamps sitting on the polished mahogany desk that was pushed against the back wall. This was the only room Blue hadn’t mucked around with, for which I was infinitely grateful. I might have considered haunting her if she’d dared.
I could no longer remember who it was that had decorated this part of the house. My memory wasn’t always the most reliable. Being dead meant only the strongest and brightest memories stayed within me anymore, my thoughts were full of blanks and holes like a slice of Swiss cheese. Trying to piece together the past was a puzzle I no longer bothered poking at. The cost was too demanding and taxing on me for very little pay off.
What I did know was that I’d always loved the feeling of peace I felt whenever I entered here. It was comforting, like slipping on a pair of well-worn leather gloves that molded just so. The décor was close to the style I’d lived through as a young actress on the Vaudeville stage. There were knitted doilies, cheerily painted Ming vases on the reading tables, shelves stacked with classic books from the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, plush Turkish throw rugs, and lovely indigo wingback chairs.
“Come...come out, ghost,” Blue mumbled. I startled, turning toward the closed door with a frown on my face. She was coming downstairs.
Why had she not run toward her room in terror already? Whenever Jules took to one of his sneezing fits even I’d get spooked sometimes. The sounds that came out of his barrel chest when he was annoyed could be compared to cackling demons shooting the breeze.
The door opened and Blue poked her elfin face in. Her eyes were still wide and the whites large, nearly overpowering the color. Pink had stained high on her neck and cheeks, causing her normally pale face to look as though someone had taken a pot of paint to it. Her wild red curls fanned all around her face like Medusa’s serpents. And unwinding around her was the unmistakable smog of burning sage.
I wrinkled my nose. There was really no other place to go now except outside, and I had no desire to be out there. Ever.
“I know you’re in here, because I turned off all the lights down here. I double checked. Twice,” she said with barely a tremor to her words.
I rolled my eyes, even as my lips twitched with amusement. Tiny she might be, but the little mortal wasn’t backing down.
“Come...show yourself.” She audibly swallowed before whispering, “Please.”
She’d lasted three days in this house. Eerie had asked me to try. I sighed and squeezed my eyes shut. I wasn’t accustomed to showing myself to humans anymore. They always thought they wanted to see me, until they actually did, and then they’d either faint or flee. And if they did faint, the moment they awakened they fled.
And here I thought I’d been on my absolute best behavior so far. I’d not spooked her once. Yes, maybe the lights did keep spontaneously bursting around me, but I could hardly help that. My house looked like the seventies had come and thrown up in it. I didn’t want to be cruel but Blue had the absolute worst taste in fashion and decor. I mean, I know I said it didn’t usually bother me, beings that I was dead and all, but her stuff was a real eye-sore and a wild mishmash of themes and colors.
There were black velvet paintings all over the walls, and combined with the sage was the daily stench of marijuana use. She had strange glass-shaped bottles with holes set all around the place, which I’d first thought as ugly decorative pieces until I saw her smoke from them.
Her consumption of her drug had increased just a bit from when she’d first gotten here. I was pretty sure the cause was me, but I’d not worked up the nerve to ask.
She was already so jittery from my being here, and she’d not even seen me yet.
I wasn’t sure what more I could do. Other than force her to leave, but given her strange taste in décor and her proclivity toward getting high, she was rather sweet for all that.
I did like her taste in music. Vinyl records were the best, and I’d always appreciated the scratchy quality of them. Every night she played something new to delight my ears with. The Eagles. The Highway Men. Pat Benetar. Michael Jackson. A personal favorite of mine was Bonnie Raitt. I’d really hate to lose the music. I’d always loved music, and where Blue’s taste in décor was trash, her musical leanings were right up my alley.
It was worth it to try, jus
t for the music alone. With a final shake of my head, I slipped away from the land of the dead and materialized my form. I knew the moment I became visible because she gasped and then yelped.
When I glanced at her, I saw she’d stuck her finger in her mouth and was sucking on it. Several bits of glowing ember had fallen to the floor.
“Sonofamonkeysuncle,” she hissed, looking slightly pained as she stomped the embers out before finally looking back at me. Her thin fiery red brows knit together and I kept waiting for it.
The adrenaline fueled fear to cause her to flee or fall. But all she did was stare at me for several long tense seconds.
It was me that finally broke the silence. “Well, mortal, what now?”
Her nostrils flared when I called her mortal. And then...she leaned heavily against the doorjamb and grinned, looking completely altered and relaxed. A far cry from the terrified little bird she’d been just moments ago.
“I thought you were a demon dog the way you were howling at me the past few days, not a young girl. Jeez, how old are you?”
It took my holey mind a moment to process what she’d just said. “Huh?” I still wasn’t quite there yet apparently.
She laughed. “Well, you’re not scary at all. God, I must have gotten my hands on some really bad herb. Where’s the dog?”
Blue, who until now, had looked to be near a constant state of having the mother of all nervous breakdowns was now whistling... Whistling, for the gods’ sake, to Jules, who I could sense whining with the anticipation of coming fully out of hiding just as I’d done, for the first time in a very long time.
“I’m not sure you want to be doing that,” I said softly.
A grin ghosted past her full lips, I knew that look. The one in which the mortal was still shocked that ghosts actually did exist and that they could even talk. I thinned my lips.
“And why’s that?” she asked with a huge smile.
“Because Jules isn’t as domesticated as I am.”
She snorted. “Aw, dogs love me.” She flicked her wrist and then she whistled again.