Ghosted (Absent Fate Book 1)

by Jenica Saren

  Eventually, I couldn't contain my mixture of curiosity and concern. Where are we going? I finally asked him.

  "We're going to go see an alchemist that may be able to give us something to make you somewhat more... Corporeal," he explained patiently.

  Okay, visible and corporeal are two totally different things, Gavyn. I chided. One means you can see me, the other means you could possibly burn me, and I don't want to take that chance when I'm currently stuck with a bunch of witch hunters I don't even know from atom.

  Gavyn sighed dramatically. "Would it help if I promised you that we won't try to harm you in any way?" he asked.

  No. But I'll take it.

  "At least you're honest, I'll give you that," he chuckled.

  Honesty should be everyone's best policy. Lies hurt people and hurting people is against our creed. I told him. In fact, it would have been nice to have been informed that you lot were witch hunters from the beginning.

  "We didn't even know you were there, Kismet, how could we have told you?" Gavyn asked incredulously.

  Look, it took me most of the day just waiting for someone to say someone else's name!

  That seemed to give him pause. "But we talked all day," he muttered in confusion.

  Yeah, but you guys almost never say each other's names. If I had to hear any of you say, "you" again, I was going to lose my ever-loving shit.

  We continued on in silence for a good while longer while Gavyn tilted his head as he contemplated my words. "Why didn't you just dive into our heads? I know for certain you can do it with and without permission."

  I'm so glad you asked: I try not to do it because I know it would make me uncomfortable if I knew someone was rooting around in my thoughts. I've only ever done it four times and all three of the intentional times have been since I've met the bunch of you. So, in short, I try not to be a big bag of dicks to other people and not lurking around in people's thoughts is part of that whole shebang.

  My explanation was long-winded and mostly unnecessary, but oh well.

  "That makes sense," he agreed. "Also, we're here."

  At some point, I'd apparently stopped paying attention to where we were going, and we were standing outside of a very old-looking brick building. It had a glass, frosted door with writing that said, "apothecary" in Olde English font. It was cute, but sort of intimidating.

  You know that alchemists are witches, too, right?

  "This one is neutral and doesn't have loyalties to any particular side," he explained. "She's very dedicated to her art and her work, and she does her very best to blend in with human society."

  A witch that didn't associate with other witches? That was highly abnormal for our people. It wasn't unheard of, of course, but there were many reasons that witches stuck together. The first was the most obvious: we were more powerful together, and more power meant more safety. It was basic common sense. The second was pride. We all tended to hold ourselves to a certain standard, a high standard. So it was strange to be meeting a witch who seemed to care about none of those things.

  Okay, let's go.

  Gavyn didn't need to be told twice. Without hesitating, he stepped through the door which gave off a pleasant jingle from the large bell that sat atop the entryway.

  The inside of the shop matched the outside very well, giving off an old-timey vibe without appearing dated. Rows and rows of shelving sat along the walls with vials, jars, and bottles of various liquids and powders. Tables were set up throughout the shop that were topped with a variety of charms and pendants, some even contained natural, unpolished stones sitting in small bowls.

  As was typical for an alchemist, there were no prices on anything. They tended to make it up as they went along, often opting to trade for a service, money, an item, or, more unfortunately, a favour. No one wanted to owe an alchemist.

  "Gavy!" A voice was practically squealing from somewhere at the back of the shop. There was no person to be seen, but I'd definitely heard it. Sadly for me, "Gavy" didn't look around.

  When he did finally turn his sights, it was following a tiny, fast, nearly invisible blur that rushed him and tackled him around the knees.

  "Hello Juniper," Gavyn greeted happily. "How have you been?"

  The blur backed away from him and the woman's - no, girl's appearance startled me halfway into the actual afterlife. Standing less than four feet tall was a young girl with an angelic face, glittering blue eyes, and long, blonde ringlets that fell almost all the way to her feet. She looked no older than six or seven, but there she was.

  Juniper placed her hands on either side of her tiny face and swayed side to side. "Do you notice anything? Anything different? Huh? Do you?" she asked, practically glowing.

  Gavyn tapped his chin thoughtfully as he narrowed his eyes at her. "Hmmm..." He sounded like he was pretending not to notice something, but I'd never met the girl before, so I had no idea. "Did you get younger? You look younger."

  The girl blushed bright pink and waved her hand at him. "Oh, stop it, you!" she teased. "I got a new dress!"

  "Oh!" Gavyn replied, feigning surprise. "So you did. It looks lovely on you, Juniper." His words were filled with a certain amount of adoration, the softness in his tone plainly obvious. It was clear that he reserved a special amount of adoration for this young girl, and it was beautiful.

  Juniper was turning pink all over, to the point I was starting to worry. She rose up on her tiptoes, which still wasn't quite high enough, so Gavyn knelt down. Grabbing his face, she turned it side to side, examining him carefully as her colour started returning to its normal pale shade. "Gavy, you brought a girlfriend!" she squeaked excitedly.

  I could feel his grin. "Not my girlfriend. You know you're the only girl for me," he said, giving her a quick peck on the cheek. Her colour flushed again. "That's what I'm here about, though. We have a bit of a situation."

  "Then there's no time to waste, is there, Gavy?" Juniper moved away and hopped up onto a barstool in front of a counter, using it to leverage her up onto the bar itself. "Come on then, let's see what we can do."

  Gavy? She's a little girl, man.

  He only snorted in response, probably thinking it best not to outwardly respond to me around others. Good call.

  We made our way to the counter and he sat down in the barstool that Juniper had vacated. As we sat, she stared for a good long while, appearing to look right at me. "So, what do we need to take care of today? Do you need some help ejecting her?" she asked curiously.

  Gavyn shook his head. "I can let her out with no issues. We want to see if we can make her a bit more... Physical. At least until we can return her to her body," he explained. "She's a witch."

  Juniper clasped her hands over her mouth in shock. "Oh! You poor thing!" she cried, sounding dismayed. "Yes, yes, let's get you out of there to rejoin the living. Well, so to speak."

  "I appreciate this, Juniper. You're amazing."

  "Stop making me blush, you quiet tease," she giggled as she waved her hand around, summoning some of the various things from around the room to the counter beside her. "Now, do you need anything to help with the banshee situation, or do you have that handled?"

  Wow, she really is good.

  Gavyn shook his head. "I think we can handle it, for the most part," he told her gently. "Of course, if you have time to help us out with something to track it, that would be great."

  Whitney's tracking my body, you dummy.

  Somewhere around me, inside of him, there was a thumping sensation. It felt like the equivalent of being kicked in the shin under the table. People could do that? He was kicking me under the table? Okay then...

  "Of course, of course!" Juniper replied enthusiastically. Maybe she just really liked to help? "Easy peasy! I'll have it done in no time at all."

  Gavyn nodded, acknowledging her words, then we just sat in silence for about half an hour, watching the little witch work tirelessly and with an unwavering focus on the task before her. The minutes ticked by and it seemed he wa
s just as fascinated by watching her work as I was. While I was trying to avoid asking about her price for helping him, I couldn't deny that the young girl possessed an immeasurable talent for her craft.

  Juniper stopped working for a moment, moving her hands away from the results as though it might bite her, then she turned and grinned at us. Well, Gavyn, but I was there, too. "Done!" she announced proudly.

  "That's all there was to it?" Gavyn asked, his voice rich with awe.

  "Of course not, silly Gavy! We still have to get her out and I have to do a quick spell."

  He nodded to her and an instant later, I felt his barriers coming down. At the opportunity, I jumped out, this time taking care of the direction I was launching myself in. As cute as Juniper was, I had a feeling that I really didn't want to be inside her head. Ever.

  Seconds later, I was floating behind him and neither of them were paying me any mind. Obviously, since they couldn't see me.

  "Okay, now I need the little ghost witch to come to stand in front of me," Juniper called out, louder than was really necessary. I was half dead, not half deaf.

  After rolling my eyes and being glad that I could, I did as she'd instructed and stood in front of her. Half a beat later, she was tossing some sort of black, powdery concoction in my general direction. I had to move to get in the line of fire since she wasn't particularly good at aiming, it seemed. Once the stuff hit me, I couldn't help it: I sneezed.

  I sneezed!

  Stunned, I turned to look at Gavyn, a ridiculous grin on my face as he stared at me with wide eyes and his mouth hanging open.

  "I'm a real girl!" I cheered, pumping my fist in the air.

  "A really pretty girl," Gavyn muttered under his breath, just barely loud enough for me to hear.

  Juniper snickered. "Not entirely, and it won't last too long," she warned. "But this amulet will help a little bit with making you more... Touchable."

  "I'm not touchable now?" I asked in confusion.

  In response, she reached out and swiped a hand through my boobs. I felt that the location she chose was more deliberate than it appeared. I had just gotten tit slapped by a rogue witch as a ghost. That would be a fun story to tell the grandkids.

  "Noted," I said dryly. "So, the amulet." I glanced around the counter and didn't see anything resembling an amulet.

  "Oh! How silly of me!" The little witch said, slapping a hand to her forehead. She turned to a little cast iron cauldron before her and took some charcoal from a cloth bag to her left, then some sulphur from a pouch to her right. In one fluid movement, she tossed both in, chanted a quick and easy ignition spell, and a large puff of blue smoke puffed out of the little cauldron.

  "There!" she said triumphantly. She reached her little hand into the smoke, pulling out the strangest crystal I'd ever seen. She passed it to me, and to my surprise, it didn't fall through my hand.

  I slowly turned it over and over in my hands, examining the strange metal-looking stone. It was like she had dipped a quartz crystal in sterling silver, then scrubbed away at it with oil until it gained a multi-hued shine. It was stunning. "Thank you," I whispered, unable to speak any louder. Not just because I was in awe, but also because it was suddenly very difficult to speak. Probably part of the curse of having actual vocal cords again.

  Clapping her hands together in glee, Juniper turned to Gavyn. "Your tracking herbs are in this pouch here," she told him sweetly, presenting a purple velvet pouch from somewhere behind her. "Just drop some hair, a fingernail, some blood, what have you, into here and give it a real good shake, okay?"

  "You're incredible, Juniper, as always." He gave her a warm hug before standing from his barstool and making his way to the front of the shop.

  "Um, Gavyn?" I muttered, having not moved. "Are you forgetting something?"

  He turned to stare quizzically at me, then he put his finger in the air like an idea had struck him. "Oh, of course!" Without another word, he strode over to me, his long legs far surpassing any stride of mine, then picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder like I weighed nothing. Then, he just strode out the door, bidding Juniper a warm farewell as he went.

  "I meant paying her, you big, dumb hunter!" I cried indignantly.

  He chuckled, the action vibrating my body and producing some very unexpected results that had my cheeks heating. "We have an arrangement. She got some kind of ghost essence from you and that was the exchange," he explained, still laughing.

  "What?" I squeaked. "I never agreed to that! And when was this even discussed?"

  "Are you glad to be whole?" he asked seriously. "Or even partially whole?"

  "That would be like halved or something, but yeah, I am," I admitted. "It's good to talk and be heard."

  He picked up his pace, continuing walking the way we'd come. "Then I'd say it was a fair price." He rounded a sharp corner that made my body lean up closer to his. "And Juniper and I have a long-standing agreement that I bring her something from every hunt, and she helps us out with just about anything we need."

  That actually seemed like a really good trade. "You seem to like her a lot," I observed casually. "And why is she so..."

  "Young?"

  "Yeah. That."

  "Juniper had an unfortunate accident with the Fountain of Youth. She's actually well over two hundred years old, but still cute as a button," he explained. "We have a sort of brother and sister relationship, but I assure you that there are no other feelings involved. In case you were worried, that is." He added the last part on as though it was some sort of afterthought to antagonise me.

  "I'm not worried. Your relationships are none of my business. Don't care. Do you, boo boo."

  "Is that a ghost joke?" Gavyn laughed, sending more little vibrations through me.

  Trying to prop my head up so that I wasn't half upside down, I turned to look at his face. "It might have been," I teased.

  "Maybe it'll be your new nickname, then." Oh no, no, no.

  "Nope. Has to be used ironically or it's just weird," I replied easily. Speaking of weird... I'd never been carried by a man before, so it was a little weird to me that I wasn't experiencing more of a reaction to the close contact. One second thought...

  Gavyn laughed again. More vibrations. "Okay, you're going to have to stop doing that or put me down. Decide your fate," I warned him wagging a finger beside his face.

  This time, his laugh was harder, fuller, and it felt like something inside me was dying to burst. Not like my appendix or anything, but something on a soul-deep level.

  I smacked his back lightly and tried to make a growling sound that came out as more of a rather embarrassing moan. That, of course, only made him laugh harder.

  Oh goddess, kill me now.

  The Day When They Stole My Clothes

  At some point during the walk back, I must have dozed off. I know this because when my eyes reopened, I was in a very large, very fluffy, very comfortable bed. It was like a cloud came to earth and offered up its body as a sacrifice in an effort to provide human comfort. In short, it was incredible.

  The last thing I remembered was complaining that Gavyn should put me down and let me walk on my brand new physical-ish legs, then I was waking up in the bed sent straight down from the angels in heaven.

  Staring up at the ceiling, I contemplated moving. Then again, it was my first time sleeping in two weeks and I was really enjoying feeling that dragging sensation that wanted me to just stay in bed forever. Or maybe that was the bed doing it. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if that were the case.

  "Kismet?" Zeph's voice called outside the closed bedroom door. He knocked a few times for good measure and I snickered.

  "The princess is awake!" I called. I sounded a little drunk or high or something, but I didn't care. I was well rested and not disappearing or deteriorating, and that was as good as it got in my new opinion.

  Slowly, the witch hunter opened the bedroom door to find me lying back in the bed with my arms folded under my head. His eyes sparkled mischievo
usly and I had to hide the audible gulping sound I made. "So, uh, you're doing okay then?" he asked nervously. "Not like, dead again, right?"

  "I was, and then I woke up in a bed made of pure heaven," I joked.

  "The bed revived you, then, did it?" he asked with a hearty laugh that made my insides warm.

  Goddess, it was good to feel again. "Or killed me, however you want to look at it." I paused thoughtfully. "Actually, nope. That would be the ride home on the human taxi service."

  Zeph laughed again, but he still didn't move out of the doorway. It made me a little nervous. "It's weird to hear your voice and see your face. The way you talked through Jad and Gav, well it doesn't match up, you know?"

  "Sorry, I'm afraid I don't know," I answered with a shake of my head. I sat up in bed to get a better look at him instead of straining my neck.

  That was when I realised I was mostly naked, save an oversized t-shirt. What had I been wearing when I became real again? I was pretty sure I had still been wearing the t-shirt, hoodie, and jeans that I had sort of died in. Hadn't I? With the cold weather, I was sure I would have known if I wasn't wearing anything more than a big shirt that didn't even cover my ass.

  Talk about humiliating.

  Clearing my throat, I glared down at the sheets, feeling indignant and violated. "Where are my clothes?" I asked Zeph.

  "Oh, um," he started, stumbling with his words. "That's kinda why I'm here."

  "This better be damn good," I muttered. My cheeks were flaming with how upset I was, not to mention the level of humiliation I was experiencing. The fact of the matter was that someone had taken my clothes off and I hadn't said yes, so I was understandably pissed off about the entire situation.

  Without looking up, I knew he was shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. "It started raining really hard when you and Gavyn were coming home and you were soaked to the bone," he explained nervously. "We tried to wake you, but you were passed out and nothing we did was working, so we just kind of put you in a hot shower and had to get your clothes off of you."