Selene broke the awkward tension. “After I left the room with you earlier, she told me not to get attached to you, and that you were hers.”
“I don’t think she’s capable of killing someone.” Lucy could be a pain in the ass and spoiled, but the energy around her wasn’t vicious. Mischievous maybe, but I’d never picked up on anything dangerous.
“She has motive that’s for sure. She’s in love with you.” Selene shrugged, then walked farther into the house, observing the expensive furnishings, and celebrating ghosts floating around.
“She’s been with every single one of the men in my family while they were alive since she died, even my dad. I didn’t want to follow that particular family tradition.” I had a desire to touch Selene’s hand, to hold it gently in mine. The ghosts in the house continued to talk and interact, but they would occasionally look toward our approaching forms. Without thinking more about it, I clasped her hand in mine, staking claim that she was mine and protected in this place. My trust within my home had diminished once Madam Tully showed me that the ghosts around me had powers but hadn’t said anything. One could easily have slit my throat while I slept and the uneasy feeling in my head acknowledged that if the curse didn’t exist, a ghost would have tried it by now.
“You said you like to read, right?” I needed to get back to the moment of me and Selene.
“Yeah, I do.” She glanced down at her hand inside mine and squeezed my fingers gently, a little reminder that she was here and not afraid.
“Then you are going to love the library.”
Chapter Eighteen
Selene
Jude had been acting strange ever since we kissed at his show. One second he looked like he would rip my clothes off with his teeth and the next moment he’d be lost in deep thought. An internal battle raged inside him, and I didn’t know which side I wanted to win. I’d learned a long time ago that life was short, and we could truly die at any time so living for the now became a motto for me. However, the many of us would be blessed with the gift of aging and a normal life expectancy. Jude didn’t have that luxury. He knew he would die . . . and soon. He’d stayed away from people and had accepted his fate. Except now I knew he wanted to engage more with me, flirt, let himself be a man with me, but I also saw the fear of attachment . . . the vulnerability of letting someone get close when he was doomed to leave them.
I wanted to explore “us” naturally. Maybe it would turn out to be a hot night of fun or maybe more. We only had twenty-seven days. I fully understood why there stood a war in his head, and as we walked to the library, I reached deep into myself to root out the answer of what I wanted from him, too.
“Here we are.” Without warning, he lifted our joined hands and twirled me around and into the room. When my eyes adjusted to the room, I gasped.
“So many books! I could cry.” It was a beautiful sight indeed, there were parlor-type sofas situated across the wood floors over elegant purple rugs and hand-carved wooden bookshelves two stories high with ladders that would roll across the walls to help reach each level. Paintings and sculptures of a different time brought a regal museum vibe to the place. A fire blazed in the giant fireplace, with a single high back chair, the only seat in the room not dusty.
“I take it that’s your reading spot?” I envisioned him sitting cross-legged, with one arm resting on the large side and the other flipping the page of an interesting adventure story, his tan skin glistening from the flickers of the flames, and his hair messy from having taken a shower.
“The other seats are hard.” We walked farther into the room and he gestured for me to look around. There were so many choices and so many books that hadn’t been opened in ages, except for one particular genre.
“Horror. I would have surely thought that being surrounded by ghosts all the time would have made the genre seem less scary to you.” I let my fingers rub against the spines of the books as I walked by, wishing I could give them the attention they deserved, but I didn’t have the time nor the ability right now.
“The ghost stories make me laugh, but the others I find intriguing since it is difficult to frighten me given my life’s situations. I keep searching for something that will make my heart race and get that hard feeling in the pit of my stomach. Even performing doesn’t give me that sensation.”
“Interesting. Maybe if you want to get your heart racing you should pick up a romance. Stirs the blood to the heart and nether regions quite easily.” I didn’t face him after I spoke so nonchalantly. Instead I kept walking around, looking at the paintings and the books with interest. Despite wanting to stay in here forever, I craved seeing the rest of the house more.
“I’ve seen the library. Now show me some other interesting sights.”
Jude leaned against the back of a sofa with his legs crossed casually. He reminded me of a dark-haired, tan version of James Dean.
“I’ve got an interesting sight for ya.” He smirked and I rolled my eye. I did set myself up for that one.
“Let’s go, smart-ass, I do plan on sleeping at some point tonight and you’ve got a big-ass house.” I walked toward the door and Jude followed silently behind me. Once we exited the library, I peered in both directions and decided to head straight instead of the way we had come in or to the unknown left, where sounds of pots banging filled the air. There were more lighting sconces on the wall, and curtains hung without windows in the hallway. A candelabra with three candles flickered, and though the sight appeared eerie and scary, I had the power to also see the shimmering blue ghost holding onto it. It was a young boy who watched me with a wide grin. He obviously didn’t know I could see him, so for the sake of child’s joy, I feigned fear.
“Jude, how is that candelabra moving?” I leaped against Jude’s body and pointed toward the boy who giggled, making the candles shake with the movement.
“I did warn you this house was haunted.” Jude played along, his arms wrapping around me, protecting me from the harmless ghost before us. What started out as fun changed as soon as my body registered the hard, muscular form flushed against my back. It had been too long, and his touch made me tingle and shiver with the caress of death lingering inside him.
“You promise to protect me, right?” I whispered, my head falling back against his shoulder as my arms gripped the material of his pants beside my thighs. The boy laughed harder, enjoying his little prank as he stood ten feet away and moved the candles around slowly.
“With these very hands.” His thick voice tickled against my ear, making my body squirm in his arms. His lips pressed against my hair and the boy stopped giggling.
“Eww, he kissed her.” The child’s face scrunched up and he ran in the opposite direction, unlike me, who wanted Jude to keep doing the offensive act on my body.
“Beautiful performance. You should have been an actress instead of a journalist.” His lips moved down my neck and nipped where my shirt and skin met. His touch drove me crazy, and all of my thoughts deserted me.
“I like figuring out the secrets of people who don’t want them uncovered. I like puzzles and being an actress is fake. I don’t want to waste my time being someone else when I can be me, as sad and lonely as I am.”
My body froze, as did Jude’s. I didn’t mean to say all that. If the man’s lips hadn’t been consuming me, I would have said something else. Instead, I admitted to this sexy man that I was sad and lonely. Fuck, was I a mess.
“Can we just forget I said all that?” I untangled myself from his arms, and walked down the hall, hoping there weren’t any mirrors to show the blush of my cheeks, revealing my embarrassment.
“This way.” Jude coughed and pointed toward the right that led to a set of stairs going down. He didn’t say anything else, and I hoped, for now, he let it go.
Jude led the way, not looking at me as we descended the stairs into a darker hallway. There were no shimmers of ghosts hanging around, but I felt an off sensation creep up my spine. Not one of fear, but connection. A great power reste
d down here. My hand reached out to touch the walls, curious if I would feel it move with an inhale or exhale. Whatever pulsed with vitality, it flowed life like a human but felt deadly. It hummed in my mind, a song of comfort, and a painless death.
Jude stopped before a door and grabbed onto a candle, then a match to light the wick.
“This house was built on a natural power source . . . wild magic. Not like the power that came from the gods of ancient Greece but made up of all the energy from the Earth. The gates that hold back the dead rests here. That’s the power you feel. It probably calls to you, singing to you to about death. It wants to be opened. The souls on the other side want that, but only I can unlock it. So it’s wasting its time on you!” He yelled the last part to the door down the hall. I didn’t want to dwell on thinking about the other side of the door holding a giant gate to hell where dead people banged constantly to be released.
“I have someone I want you to meet. Selene, this is Madam Tully.”
Chapter Nineteen
Selene
“The light shines in her soul tonight. Prince, please wait outside this site.” The woman with straight hair and a plump body wrapped in a flowing purple dress floated over to Jude to grab the candle, then nudged him out. My gaze darted to his, waiting to see if this was supposed to happen but he nodded and then walked back out the door. She closed the only way out and turned around to look at me.
“You know I can see you?” She didn’t seemed surprised at all that Jude brought me here or that I could see her.
“Of course I know that, child. And now that he’s gone, we girls can chat without all that testosterone mucking up my place. You’ve got that man so tied up in knots he doesn’t even know what to do with himself. Oh, child, you are beautiful.” The woman rushed over to me. Her cold touch caressed my cheek, then her fingers lifted some of my hair like she hadn’t touched hair in a long time.
“You don’t talk in rhymes all the time?” I felt awkward and wanted to get a space between us.
“No, child, I only do that to annoy Jude. He’s always so uptight. Forgotten how to have a good time.” She ushered me to a recently cleaned section on a sofa, then plopped down next to me. I felt out of my comfort zone, which said a lot because I dealt with ghosts all the time.
“You look just as uptight as Jude. Relax, dear. I’m not gonna hurt ya. I just wanted to talk for a bit.”
I took a few deep breaths as the woman stared at me with a mischievous grin. I liked mysteries and secrets, so in a way talking to Madam Tully intrigued me. I thought about what questions I could ask like who she was, when she died, and how and what role she played in the curse, but she began answering before I uttered the words.
“I am Jude’s great-great-grandmother. My husband was the fool who didn’t use his gifts for their purpose and brought the curse down on us. I died of old age. Luckily the curse didn’t drag me down with him. I stay because that poor boy needs me, and I am the only one who knows how to break the curse.”
She reached up and twirled her hair with a frown. I wondered if she could feel the strands like she could mine or if the sensation was nothing between her ghostly fingers.
“How can the curse be broken?” If she knew, I’m sure she would have told Jude, but it was worth asking.
“He told you the rhyme to change it, correct?” She looked at my hair with longing, and my fingers went up to push it behind my ear instinctively.
“Yeah. Something about the gates sealed with thirty years blood paid and a deathly promise, and death something binds shall the curse fade. I’m still trying to figure it out. He said it was a promise to the dead that will break the curse.”
Madam Tully reached over gently and put her hand over mine to stop the fidgeting I hadn’t realized I’d been doing.
“He is stubborn and rooted in the idea he will die on his birthday. He never challenged his fate, never had a reason to, until now.” Madam Tully released my hand and she pointed toward a deck of cards on a table. Three cards suddenly lifted from the deck and floated over. I’d seen Asher do magic, so it wasn’t a shock, but it did make me curious that she had the power to do it even as a ghost.
“Wild magic works differently than your type. Even dead, I’m still full of energy and can still wield it when I want.” She winked at me as the cards landed in her hand. The first one she held out for me to see in the dimmed light. I wished we had a lamp so I could see everything more clearly. Of course, no sooner had I thought it, lighters appeared around the room and candles lit instantly.
“The hanged man. Sort of ironic, but this card represents martyrdom and letting go . . . surrendering.” I watched her set the card on the cushion between us, then lift the other to my sight.
“Death. Again, ironic. This card represents change. Everything must die in order to be renewed.” She set that card next to the other and lifted the final card. I tried making mental notes of everything Madam Tully was telling me. It had to be important or I feel she wouldn’t waste her breath to give me these warnings.
“Temperance. One of my favorite cards. It represents balance, a card of higher knowledge, and soul mates. There is eternal truth in this card.” She set it down, then pushed the three of them in my direction.
“I’m assuming these cards are how to break the curse besides the riddle Jude has been given?” My finger drifted across the cards’ artwork, taking in the extravagance of each detail. Like the house, even the tarot cards had style.
Madam Tully nodded and gestured for me to take them. Her hands made mine scoop them into my palm. They were delicate as expected, but for something so light a heavy weight came from accepting these cards. Three pieces to a puzzle of Jude’s fate and the cursed dead.
“It’s a lot to handle, child. I understand. But what I know about you, and trust me, I know a lot, is that you are strong, and despite having a hard time in the past, you believe in the power of love. You believe in not wasting this precious life that each of us are gifted.” Her hand reached up to push my hair back one more time, and her fingers caressed my cheek. She lifted my chin so I would look her in the eyes.
“You fight the weight of your mind every day, and while you may let it get you down for a day or two, you always get back up and fight another day. You are the knight in this story, Selene.” She smiled in a motherly fashion with pride, a smile I hadn’t seen in a while. My mother loved me, and thought highly of me, but she didn’t understand the struggles of depression. She didn’t understand how hard it could be to feel the pure hopelessness pull you too far beyond anyone’s reach. Nor did she know how difficult it was for me to drag myself out of it as often as I did. The woman before me saw that struggle. She saw what lingered beneath my skin, and it wasn’t my power as a reaper. She saw the pain, the sadness that waited for the opportune moment to strike and leave me useless.
Tears I didn’t know needed to be released leaked from my eyes. It was nice to be seen . . . to be truly seen, heard, and appreciated.
“Jude is very lucky to have you in his life, and as much as I hate to say it, I’m glad the curse stuck you here. I haven’t met any of Jude’s other family yet, but it’s obvious to me who he truly admires the most if he brought me here first.” I spoke through my happy tears, completely unabashed as they flowed gentle down my cheeks.
“I knew I would like you. Now as much as I want you to myself, we’ll have to do it another time. You and Jude need to finish the tour and get out of here.” She smiled brightly and I suspected she was pulling a “Phillip” on me and orchestrating some one-on-one time that would most likely end in fucking.
Chapter Twenty
Selene
Jude showed me the rest of the glorious house with kitchens and a ballroom that used to house beautiful parties every night in its prime. Now anything not used regularly by Jude had a thick layer of dust and cobwebs. I joked it was a miracle he didn’t suffer from a respiratory problem because of the allergens coating the house. He laughed and shook his head.
As we walked, the souls around us stared for a short time before they resumed their celebrations. None of the few we talked to jumped out as a killer to me either, but I needed to see them in their regular lives and not in the high from the show.
The mansion seemed to be lost in time. So much history rested within the walls, so much heartache, and so much sadness. We’d looked out to the vast cemetery from the back section of the wraparound porch and I still couldn’t fathom the number of ghosts there. This place was a hub for souls who could not go on. The majority didn’t wallow in their predicament. Instead, they enjoyed the time they had left on Earth.
The moon shone over the many tombstones and mausoleums in the mansion’s backyard. It was getting late, and I needed to get some sleep before working on my last draft for the paper tomorrow. I turned to Jude, and he guessed my thoughts before I even said them.
“Time to head home?”
“Yeah.” A yawn followed my words, as we began our walk around the porch to where his car was parked.
“Rudy?” Jude took a step ahead of me toward a shimmering ghost sitting on the railing. He looked young and similar to Jude in a way. There was a heaviness on him, which would also explain why he sat out here instead of joining the rest of the joyful souls inside.
“Hey, sup man.” Rudy stopped frowning, clearly putting up a front.
“You doing all right?” Jude asked.
“Yeah, I just thought with the power to touch and all tonight that she would have chosen me. But I’ll be all right. You two lovebirds get out of here and do the horizontal tango, if you know what I mean.” Rudy’s eyebrows waggled at Jude, then he winked at me.
“I’ll be back,” he said in a remarkably well-done Terminator voice and jumped off the railing only to disappear before hitting the ground.
“He’s a joker. Always trying to make people laugh, but I had a feeling he’s been in love with Lucy for a while. Tonight confirms it.” Jude’s hand reached out to the small of my back and lightly nudged me forward, moving us away from where Rudy had made his dramatic exit.
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