Hosts to Ghosts Box Set

by Lynne Connolly

  “There are, of course, problems.” Sarah’s raised her head and looked at them. “You will still be vampire, Jordan. You can’t go back. You’ll live well past her death if you choose to follow your natural lifespan and you won’t age, unless you choose to appear as old. You’ll still need fresh, mortal blood to survive. These are hard decisions, and you shouldn’t take them hastily.”

  “Brand me.” Karey stepped forward. “I can live without him, but I don’t want to.”

  “Wait.” Jordan wanted something more. “You said if I choose to follow my natural lifespan. What did you mean?”

  Sarah’s lips flickered in the vestige of a smile. “I might have known you’d notice that. You’re waking up, my friend. The shock lasted a while, but you’ve come to terms with what you are and you want to learn.” Jordan gave her a terse nod, but didn’t interrupt. “You can choose to appear old. It’s hard to reverse. But there’s also suicide. Nobody can stop you if that’s what you want to do. You can sacrifice your Gift, let someone deserving take you in the way you were taken.”

  Oh shit, oh fuck, so he could. Nobody could stop him. “Yes.” He could live with Karey, age with her, or appear to. He still didn’t dare meet Karey’s gaze. Would she want this?

  “What will it do this branding?” she said.

  “Every Talent carries a mark in his or her head. An identifier, like a brand. Most are either born with it, or it happens when they’re converted. Jordan has the Cornell brand. If you wish it, I can give you the same one. It means excruciating pain for a moment, just as if I had taken a hot iron to your soul, but it doesn’t last long. You’ll be helpless for a little while afterwards while you recover.”

  “And you would do this for me?” Jordan couldn’t help asking. He couldn’t bear to think of her in pain, but it sounded like the only way to make her safe from other Talents. If they saw the mark, the sigil, then they’d recognize her as part of the community.

  “Yes.” She firmed her jaw, tilted up her chin and took the step that brought her to Sarah.

  Karey reached out her hand and Sarah took it in both of hers. Jordan would enter her mind to help her bear the pain.

  Karey turned back to glance at him, then a spark lit her eyes and she turned back to Sarah once more.

  Jordan had another concern. “Can we hide the brand for now? If Didiane sees it and realizes what’s happened, she’ll seek to kill Karey.”

  Sarah shrugged. “I see your point. Yes, you can show her how to do it. You know how, yes?”

  Jordan nodded. “Thank you.”

  “I’ll do it tonight.” When her powers came in. Yes, they would do this. He read Karey’s determination, knew he’d never change her mind, that the strength of their love would take them through this.

  Joy filled Jordan’s soul. If Karey accepted this, he would take it without question. Most of the heartache would be his and he knew there would be something worse than living past her death. Living without her. That he could choose not to do it, filled him with relief.

  “I don’t like it.” Karey frowned, and Jordan kissed the frown away. She’d read his mind. “I choose to die when you die, to live with you as a mortal.” He lifted his gaze to Sarah. “Can I do that?”

  “Yes, you can. You may live by day, and minimize your gifts. You’ll still need the blood, but you can block the telepathy if you wish, and you can refuse to use your powers. Nobody will make you.”

  Jordan caught his breath. A great weight lifted off his mind, weight he hadn’t been aware of until it went. From the expression on Karey’s face, she knew it too. Her eyes shone, her kissable mouth curved in a smile of pure delight. She wanted him, even as he was now, even after his treatment of her.

  “I don’t deserve you,” he murmured, and lowered his head to kiss her. Caught in their own spell, the future beckoned to them invitingly. He pledged his total devotion in that kiss, took his time tasting her, cupping the back of her head to feel her close to him.

  Sarah cleared her throat. “While I’m delighted to bring you some reassurance, we have other matters to discuss.”

  Reluctantly Jordan drew away, but gazed at Karey, drinking her in, before releasing her. He kept his arm around her waist, unwilling to release her completely.

  Sarah stood completely still, caught in a beam of bright sunlight coming through the undraped window, like an angel of death come to warn them. “You should leave.”

  “Why?” Karey barely breathed the question, but it disturbed the stillness of the room.

  “The spirits here can hurt you. They will, given the chance. You need an expert here, one who can cleanse without being damaged, one who comes without contamination. You can’t do that now, Karey. You let Susannah in, and Thomas found a way, too. I’m not doubting your ability, but your ability to complete this is compromised now.”

  Jordan’s hand tightened on her waist. He wouldn’t lose her this soon after finding her again. “What do they seek?”

  “To return, to live their lives again. They’re in collusion over this. Susannah wants take Karey’s body and live again. Thomas believes that if Susannah returns, he can command you, Jordan.”

  “Can’t you stop them?”

  Sarah shook her head. “I can only trace their activities. I can’t contact them directly, or they’re not talking to me. I know experts. A virgin Sorcerer.” Even the name made Jordan shudder. Sorcerers had the greatest psi powers of any Talent. Rarer still, the virgin Sorcerer. Nothing could stand against one of those.

  Sarah lifted her gaze and spoke directly to Jordan. “You do know there’s a caplata operating here?”

  Jordan frowned. “I knew there were some strange influences, but I never concerned myself with vodun when I lived here. I avoided it. A caplata is a bad priest, right?”

  “Something like that.” Sarah crossed to the window in a silent swirl of skirts and stared out at the bayou beyond. “A caplata is a priest who has chosen the left hand path. He’ll acquire more instant gratification, but at the expense of the soul. The newer souls choose it, the old souls rarely do.” She tilted her head, turning her attention back into the room, gazing at Karey. “You would not do so.” She stated it as a fact.

  “Bernard Foret,” Jordan said emotionlessly. “I thought at first it was jealousy, but I sensed more than that. The man’s dedicated himself to evil, the dark side, the easy side.”

  “He has. We know of him.”

  Jordan felt a sense of dread deep in the pit of his stomach. “He could be our downfall.”

  “He could,” Sarah agreed. “He wants Karey for his own. That could be his weakness.”

  Karey saw immediately. “You mean we should attack him through me?”

  Sarah glided across the room and took Karey’s hands. She stared at the palms. “You’re a strong woman, Karey, and under normal circumstances you could overcome this. But two strong spirits have targeted you, and you’re in danger from them, too. You can’t withstand both, even with our help.” She looked up into Karey’s face. Jordan held still and listened. “Foret’s attack could unbalance you both, you and Jordan. You need to get away from here. This place is not yours to cleanse.”

  Karey bit her lip, a small human gesture bringing Jordan back to earth. Still, he said nothing.

  Sarah nodded. “Does Auguste know about the ghosts?”

  Karey bit her lip. “Yes. That’s why he left at such a crucial time. He needed to put space between himself and the hotel. Susannah and Thomas Sharman seem determined to return. They attacked him, too. Sarah, why have they chosen me? Jordan is their relative, not me.” For the first time since she had entered this room Karey looked vulnerable, and her gaze went to Jordan, warming his heart. She turned to him. Not to anyone else, but to him, her partner, her love.

  He responded immediately, curving his arm around her shoulders and drawing her closer. He had some thoughts here. “I don’t know, but from our research it appears that spirits have certain wavelengths, like radio waves. You’re on thei
r wavelength.”

  For the first time since they had entered this room, she touched him, reaching out her hand to his forearm. “Don’t return here until the ghosts have gone. There’s great danger here for you, especially for your wife.”

  His wife. He hadn’t signed the papers; he was still legally married to Karey. At the reminder, a glow spread through him. If he could get her away from this, he wouldn’t let her go again.

  “How do you know all this?” whispered Karey. “I’ve studied for years, and I haven’t gotten this close.”

  Sarah flashed a smile, warm but soon gone. “I studied, too, and I’ve listened to people of power. That’s all. I’m mambo, and I’ve learned from the masters. Different approaches help when combating these ancient evils. The Western approach isn’t always as productive. Science has a place, too. In another case, the instruments may prove more beneficial, but these spirits are clever and malevolent. They’ll leave traces only when they wish to.”

  He wanted her safe, more important than anything else, and if that meant leaving, they’d leave. Today. He watched Karey while he spoke. “We have to take this advice, love. Let Sarah contact her Sorcerer and let’s leave this to others.”

  Karey sighed and Jordan felt her sorrow as though it were his own. In a way, it was. In their days at Hosts to Ghosts, neither had admitted defeat on any case they’d taken on. “I hate to give up, but you’re right. We have to pass on this case.”

  “You’ve never been in such danger before.” Concern curled around his gut. Something was stirring in the house.

  Sarah felt it too, for her chin went sharply up, as though she sniffed the air. “Get out now. Before nightfall. Something is building here, and it won’t be denied for much longer.” She turned, her skirts whipping around her legs. “I don’t like this. I won’t stay here, not for another moment. There is peril here, I feel it, I can smell it!”

  Before they could say anything else she’d gone. They heard her racing up the corridor. More than anything else, Sarah’s hasty departure told Jordan how real the menace was. Tension gathered in the room, something outside himself, but nothing to the danger Karey was suddenly subjected to.

  Clutching her hands to her stomach, Karey reeled, and if Jordan hadn’t caught her in time, she’d have fallen to the floor. He lifted her into his arms, feeling the rigid muscles against his hands, the tension seizing her every muscle.

  Standing in the bedroom shared by their tormentors in their lifetimes wasn’t a particularly good idea. Disdaining the human way, Jordan flashed into his room, Karey cradled to his chest. The barriers to her room affected him, too, and he’d have to walk there with her, or try to build them here.

  The bedrooms were in a different wing of the house, and here, the tension didn’t feel half so great. It curled around them insidiously. Karey opened her eyes, terror in their depths. “What did you just do?”

  “Something I’ve been meaning to tell you about. I needed to get you out of there fast, mon amour. Don’t worry about it now, I can protect this room for an hour or two.”

  He laid her gently on the bed, smoothing her shirt back down from where it had ridden up her body. “We’ll take Sarah’s suggestion and move to a hotel in New Orleans for now. That’s far enough away for them not to pursue us. Spirits are usually locked to a place.”

  “And after that?”

  His heart soared. They would have their ‘after that,’ something he’d dared not even consider until an hour ago. He had a way through, and it led back to her, the woman he now knew without any doubt was the love of his life.

  He sat on the bed and took her hands into his, chafing them gently as if they were cold. “I want us back together, but it’s not just about me, is it? There’s the human aspect too. I’ve done you great wrong. I did sleep with Didiane, although she never compelled me to do it, never made it a condition of her teaching.”

  He wanted nothing but the truth between them. “When I was first converted, it left me weak. That’s how it happens, it takes time for your body to adjust. Best to let it take its course, a bit like convalescence. That’s when a newly made vampire learns about his new existence. He usually has a mentor, and mine, as far as I knew, was Didiane. She told me Cornell had tortured her, held her captive with his powerful compulsion. When he’d been taken by the bloodlust, and drained me, she was glad, for she’d been freer than she’d been for a century or more. You know how she can play a part, act the innocent?”

  Karey nodded. “She did it when she first arrived here. She said she’d come to help me with the investigation.”

  He took a deep breath, more to prevent himself cursing again at his stupidity. It did no good. “I don’t have any doubt she reinforced that with psychic persuasion. She presented herself to me as a victim. One night—“ he broke off.

  He couldn’t tell her that. He tried to step back, to explain to her as best he could what a bastard he’d been to her. “I knew you were worried, but I didn’t do anything about it at first. When I felt better I thought things over and knew it was impossible for us to be together again. I felt sorry for myself. Then Didiane came to me, and she’s beautiful, Karey, and we—”

  He felt her hand press his arm, gently, comfortingly. “It’s all right. You don’t have to explain.”

  He covered her hand with his own. “I came here because I knew you were in danger. Whatever Didiane says, she considers me her property. She wants the necklace, sure, but she also wants you. Dead, if possible. She’s just waiting for her moment. Now I’ve shown how much I still love you she’ll want you dead more than ever. While Didiane is alive, you’ll always be in danger. I have to stop her.”

  She laughed shakily. “And I thought vampires had no sense of honor! Jordan it’s not your fault.”

  “Yes it is!” he said fiercely. He gathered her up, holding her close to his chest, her heart beating against his. “Karey, I never stopped loving you. I thought I would. People do, sometimes. Didiane was part of that, my trying to break away from you, to make you hate me. It would make things easier for you if you hated me. God knows you should, after what I’ve done. Now, the obligation is there, but it’s love, Karey. Love.”

  Unable to resist her any longer, he pressed his mouth to hers in a savage kiss, trying to tell her in actions what he couldn’t say in words. She melted deliciously under his attack, submitted to his ravaging mouth before making her own demands felt. Rolling him under her, she rubbed her body against his and drove him wild.

  He covered her breast with his hand over her clothes, massaging her. Strange how a touch on her breast could make her knees turn to rubber. She laughed shakily with sheer happiness and lifted her head, gazing straight into his eyes. “I love you too, Jordan. That matters more than anything else.”

  “So you’ll come away with me?” While he spoke he was busily with her shirt, pulling it free and beginning to work on her bra. It didn’t stand a chance, and she let him slide the straps down her arms, lifting her hands one by one to rid herself of the garment. He could put a strong enough barrier over this room for as long as this took. He needed her now, with a savagery new to him, a visceral desire that transcended everything else.

  Karey watched as he brought his hands to her breasts and slid down so he could take a nipple in his mouth, like ripe fruit offered for his delight. She needed this as much as he did, felt his desperation as her own.

  She threw her head back, feeling her hair tickle her bare skin, enhancing the sensation of Jordan’s mouth, arousing and adoring her, almost bringing her to a climax there and then. She locked her elbows, afraid she would fall if she let them relax, and felt him unzipping her jeans and working them down her legs. He licked and sucked her breasts, a low hum of delectation rising from his throat. He pulled away from her long enough pull her panties away. With a muffled exclamation he put his arms around her bottom and dragged her up to the heat of his mouth. She opened her legs, gave him free access to any part of her he cared to take, because he’d giv
e her nothing but pleasure.

  Karey cried out at the first touch of his tongue. It licked deeply down the center seam, delving quickly into her and then back to take her clit into his mouth. It swelled for him and Karey remembered she’d read somewhere that it came erect if treated properly, like a miniature penis. He was sure treating it properly.

  He sucked and she jerked in response, her arms finally giving way. She fell forward on to the bed, still up on her knees so Jordan could continue to work on her. She’d never climaxed so quickly, the power of it driving her into convulsions, the tremors of her release rocking through her body like aftershocks.

  Jordan didn’t stop. Although she thought she might be too sensitive, he was merciless. He held her steady, drove his tongue deep inside her pussy to taste her. With that appreciation humming in his throat, he caress her, this time releasing her buttock and curling his arm around her upper thigh. The combination of mouth and fingers brought her to another swift, violent release, and only then did he relent.

  He lifted up and got to his feet, making short work of his clothes, his adoring gaze never leaving her face. “Mon amour, don’t say anything until I’ve made love to you. I don’t want to know, not yet. Let’s enjoy the moment first.” He dragged his t-shirt over his head, and kicked off his jeans.

  She dropped her gaze to his hard, tanned, chest. “I’m glad you can go in the sun. You were paler before.”

  He smiled. “I’m glad you like it. Baby, I’ve never seen anything more erotic in my life than the sight of you now, legs open, ready for me. No, don’t close your legs. I plan to be there sooner than you can touch your ankles together.”

  Teasingly she began to close her legs and he was as good as his word. He was back on the bed, lying between her legs, his erection touching the outer lips of her sex. When she laughed he slipped just inside her. “I should make you laugh more often,” he murmured, his lips a breath away from hers. “That feels so fucking good.”