Wanted: Ghost-Busting Bride

  She reluctantly put the duct tape down. He’d never allow her to hogtie him inside the aluminum-covered fortress. He’d insist she stay with him in the safe haven she’d built in the corner of the library. Besides, Lady Anne had instructed her to stick by Spencer’s side at all times.

  “Once we summon Desdemona, there’s no going back.”

  He snapped the laptop shut. “There’s one more thing we need to do before we call her.” He wrapped Kailyn in his arms and kissed her until her legs turned to rubber. Just when she didn’t care if Desdemona existed or not, he broke the kiss. “Now we’re as ready as we’re ever going to be.”

  She picked up the pail of graveyard dirt and placed it on the seat of their rolling chair. He might be ready, but she wasn’t. What if none of her measures worked? What if Lady Anne had been totally wrong in choosing her? What if her tools wouldn’t defeat the evil ghost? What if there was no possibility of a prosperous future for Ryne?

  Gritting her teeth, she clenched her hands into fists. All she could do was throw everything she had at Desdemona and pray for the best. “On three we move,” she whispered. “One. Two. Three.”

  Their mobile shield—the rolling chair with silver platters mounted on its back—wobbled as they crept forward. Maybe they’d kill Desdemona with laughter. They were insane to attempt the attack with these ridiculous weapons.

  She gripped the bow and silver arrows in one hand and guided the chair with the other. Spencer walked next to her, a bottle of slime in each hand. Neither spoke as they scanned the garden for any sign of red.

  It took an eternity to reach the stone bench, and still no sign of Desdemona. Kailyn’s heart thumped louder in her chest with each step. By the time they were in position, she wasn’t sure she could even shoot an arrow much less hit an open window.

  When they halted, Spencer dropped a kiss on her cheek as she set the arrow. “Don’t worry. Together we’ll thrash Desdemona.”

  His touch steadied her nerves. Defeat was not an option. Hefting the bow into position, she sighted the west tower’s top chamber. “As soon as the arrow goes through the window, run. We need to be in the fortress before the ghost comes after us.”

  “Take your time.” His breath tickled her cheek. “I think the window on your right is the best target.”

  The knot in her stomach tightened. She couldn’t fail. Not with Spencer’s life on the line. She had to exterminate Desdemona.

  “Now.” She released the taut bowstring, and the arrow sailed through the air straight into the window.

  “Excellent shot, luv.”

  “Thanks.”

  Lowering the bow, she caught the slime bottle Spencer tossed at her and grabbed her side of the chair. Running backward together, they tugged the unwieldy shield behind them. When a wheel broke and the chair caught on the doorsill, Kailyn grabbed the pail of dirt, pushed Spencer toward the fort and dove in after him.

  Hastily, they closed the opening with a mound of silver dishes, statues, and vases. Only a two-inch slit remained. It didn’t permit much of a view, but she could fire her makeshift weapons through the hole. More importantly, it didn’t expose either of them to Desdemona’s wrath, and Spencer was protected behind the silver wall.

  One minute passed. Then two.

  Her plan hadn’t worked. What to try next?

  Before she could turn to ask Spencer for suggestions, thunder rumbled and the foil on the walls crackled.

  “This is it,” she muttered.

  Spencer nodded.

  She clenched the vacuum cleaner nozzle. When a sparking red thundercloud swirled through the open doors, she held her breath.

  The red haze touched the silver barrier, setting off Kailyn’s every protective instinct. No way would that monster hurt Spencer. Jabbing the nozzle through the opening, she pointed it directly into the whirling energy.

  A scream of rage pierced the air as the suction pulled the ghost into the canister. Next to her, Spencer tipped the trash can onto its side. They’d cage the captured ghost, machine and all. Kicking the vacuum with her foot, she rolled it toward the silver prison.

  Only a few inches further and Spencer would be safe. They’d neutralize Desdemona between slime and graveyard dirt. Then they would pack her up and bury her forever.

  But as Kailyn bent to push the machine into the can, the hose whipped violently out of her hand, slapping Spencer in the face. Stunned, he stumbled, tearing part of their aluminum wall and landing on his back outside the safety perimeter.

  “Nooo.” This couldn’t be happening.

  Kailyn scrambled around the wildly dancing vacuum, snatched two platters from their protective barricade and dropped to her knees beside Spencer’s inert body.

  He blinked, shook his head and rolled to a sitting position.

  Her breath whooshed back into her lungs as she bent over to cover his head and chest with a platter. “Are you all right?”

  “A bit stunned. Be okay in a minute.”

  His shaky voice didn’t reassure her. Their best technique— slurp the vengeful ghost up before she could cause damage—had failed.

  The moment Kailyn opened her mouth to order Spencer back into the fortress, the vacuum’s plastic canister exploded with an earsplitting roar. Shards of metal and plastic spewed at them. Gritting her teeth against the sharp stabs of pain on her arms and the sting of fire on her legs, she sprawled atop Spencer.

  Zaps of red lightning sizzled down on the platters and the silver barrier next to her. Smoke and the putrid smell of burning plastic filled the air. Unable to see the red haze, she pulled a slime packet from her back pocket and launched it in the direction of the now-pulverized vacuum cleaner.

  The lightning strikes kept coming, each leaving a larger black smudge on the puny shields protecting a groggy Spencer. The shiny surfaces darkened, offering no defense. A whirlwind whipped up Allison’s sensors and flung them at the foil canopy. The missiles bounced off the wall and pummeled her back as she protected Spencer with rapidly blackening trays.

  Desdemona struck again. This time the red tornado swarmed over their stash of pitiful weapons and scattered them in all directions.

  Kailyn nudged Spencer in the ribs with her elbow. “Can you reach the bucket of graveyard dirt without lowering your platter?”

  He grunted, hooked the pail with his foot and—despite a bolt of red lightning striking his leg—pulled it within reach. Muttering curses, he flung a handful of the dirt at the red haze swirling in front of the broken barricade.

  Miraculously, the red glow retreated to the French doors.

  “This might be working,” Kailyn said cautiously.

  And Spencer was alive. The welt on his face and the burn on his leg weren’t life threatening.

  As quiet descended, she hunted for the first aid kit in the carnage surrounding them. Unfortunately, the trash can lined with graveyard dirt had rolled too near Desdemona for rescuing. The sword also rested over by the French doors underneath the shimmering red glow. The white first aid box wasn’t visible anywhere. Only the smaller tools that had dropped temptingly close to the front of their fort were within reach.

  “Thou canst not conquer me,” the ghost thundered. “Thou hast failed to accept my choice for thy bride. Now thou must pay the price.”

  Not if Kailyn could help it. “Throw more dirt at Desdemona if she moves. I’m going to get our goo bottles and any tool I can reach before she destroys them.”

  “Hurry. I’ll repair the walls.”

  Kailyn slithered in front of the barricade on her stomach, tossed one goo bottle to Spencer and hooked the other on her belt. She managed to snag the laser tape measure before a jolt of pain hit her arm.

  The red ball of energy whooshed down from the doorway and started toward her.

  Not knowing if it would help, Kailyn rolled over, pointed the laser beam at the ball and waved it in a slashing motion.

  The slicing laser cut right through the red haze. She kept swinging the beam across every sectio
n of the pulsating glow until a howl of agony echoed through the room.

  Suddenly, the red light vanished.

  Popping to her feet, Kailyn rushed to Spencer. “Do you think the laser killed her?”

  He pulled her into a bear hug. “It can’t be that easy. I suggest we rebuild our fort and gather our weapons for her next assault.”

  “You restack the barrier, I’ll get the tools.” She kissed the welt on his cheek and dashed to scoop up as many weapons as her arms could hold. She left the trash can by the French doors. It would take too much time to retrieve. Besides she didn’t want to be an unprotected target for the ghost’s fury.

  With most of their booty safely dumped in the corner, she squatted beside Spencer behind their newly-erected wall. Graveyard dirt and the laser tape measure had slowed the ghost, so Kailyn hastily filled two leather hunting pouches with the dirt from the bucket sitting in the remains of their foil fort.

  A clap of thunder boomed overhead.

  Spencer spun to face the French doors. “Get ready. Here she comes again.”

  Kailyn’s throat grew so dry her tongue felt like sandpaper. She hadn’t destroyed Desdemona. Spencer was still in danger. She slipped one pouch’s strap over his head as he grabbed a goo bottle. Without consulting him, she stepped into the gaping hole in the barricade and snatched the laser tape measure before Spencer could stop her.

  “Kailyn, get back!”

  Goo bottle in one hand and laser in the other, she ignored Spencer and stood her ground. There was no way she’d let the ghost get behind her to threaten him.

  She felt the spectral energy swirling around her as a compact red ball of light zoomed straight at her hand. The burst of energy jolting through her fingers tossed her backward. As the laser flew from her hand, she crashed into the foil-covered bookcase at the back of their fortress. Shaking her head to clear her vision, she scrambled forward and grabbed the laser. Its heat singed her fingers.

  Desdemona had melted her one ghost slice-and-dice weapon.

  “Spencer, watch out!” Fear clawed at her as the red energy circled him.

  He slimed the swirling glow, but it simply shrunk to a tiny dot and splattered the goo back at him.

  Unwilling to believe the trusty goo had failed, she aimed her bottle at the dot and squirted. Again the blasted ghost contracted into a tiny red speck, spun and flung the hair gel into her face.

  “Thy poor attempts at defense are fruitless. I shall prevail.” The red glow retreated to the trash can by the French doors.

  If laser light knocked out Desdemona’s power for a while, maybe her flashlight or the camera flash would do the same. Before Kailyn could pick up her new weapons, though, a blinding pain exploded through her skull. She fell sideways. Everything went dark.

  “Kailyn!” Spencer lunged toward the flying trash can, but he was too far away.

  It whacked Kailyn’s forehead with a sickening thud. Her head snapped back and blood streamed down her face. He extended his hand toward her, terrified as she slumped lifeless to the floor.

  This was his fault. He’d been so arrogant and stupid. He’d never told her how much he loved her, how much he valued her opinion about how to fight the ghost. He should have insisted they wait for Lady Anne. Now it was too late.

  If Kailyn died, Ryne wasn’t worth defending. He dropped to his knees and pressed his fingers against the side of her throat.

  And nearly shouted when he felt a pulse.

  Instead, he whispered, “Thank God, you’re alive.”

  Working quickly, he tore a swatch of cloth from his shirt to stanch the bleeding. But before his hand could apply pressure on the gouge across her forehead, a red funneling whirlwind sucked her up.

  Her limp body spun at a dizzying rate inside Desdemona’s angry energy.

  “Let her go!” He charged after the whirling dervish, grasping at his love’s limp form.

  With a bellow of triumph, Desdemona flung Kailyn against the wall outside the library. His defeated champion’s slack body slid down the wainscoting into a battered heap.

  “Now thou must face thy fate alone,” Desdemona taunted.

  “I’ll tear you to shreds,” He vowed. She’d destroyed his love, and now she’d pay. Grabbing both goo bottles, he squirted the red swirling form that sought to engulf him.

  The swirling slowed, and he charged into the center of the malevolent energy. Kailyn had worked too hard to let Desdemona win.

  Several small red dots spun around his head, but he ignored them and kept shooting slime. The vengeful force lifted him off the floor and spun him out the library doors into the garden.

  The pressure on his chest mounted as the cyclone spun faster. He couldn’t breathe. Trapped in Desdemona’s fury, Spencer closed his eyes and continued to splatter the ghost with goo. She jerked him in every direction, making it impossible for the slime to stick to her sadistic core.

  When the bottles ran dry he let them fall. Then, in a herculean effort, slid a hand into the pouch of graveyard dirt—Kailyn’s last weapon to save him. Energized by the thought of her courageous daring, he transferred a fistful into his left hand, grabbed another and tossed the dirt over his head.

  “I love Kailyn!”

  The red haze withdrew. He was free.

  . . . Free to fall four stories to the cobblestone walkway below.

  Wildly grabbing for the top of the parapet inches to his right, he smashed shoulder-first onto the top of the foot-thick wall, clutched the rough stone with one arm, and caught his breath. Praying Desdemona was too distracted to strike, he clawed his way over the battlement and rolled onto the slate rooftop.

  He shook his head and focused on his surroundings. Desdemona had dumped him on the east turret. The tower’s door was a mere fifteen feet away. Crouching below the wall, he inched his way toward the doorway—to Kailyn.

  A thunderclap boomed overhead.

  “It is fitting thou meet thy end where I hurled Lady Anne to her death.”

  Chapter 27

  Kailyn’s head pounded as she tried to focus her eyes. How had she ended up in the hall outside the library? Painfully she rolled into an upright position. Between the hammering in her head and her screaming muscles, she recalled Desdemona’s attack.

  Where was Spencer? She had to keep the ghost from hurting him. Holding onto the wall for support, she stood on shaky legs.

  The library was quiet—too quiet. Wobbling forward, she entered the disaster zone.

  Her heart lurched at the total destruction of the room. The aluminum fort shredded. The silver platters charred. Goo splattered on the bookcases. Sensors smashed and melted. Nothing but debris. Dropping to her knees, she pawed frantically through their broken defenses. No Spencer.

  Her hands shook as she spied one of his shoes lying by the sword. Desdemona had him.

  She’d failed. She hadn’t stayed at his side to protect him.

  Thunder rumbled overhead, and Kailyn’s breath froze in her chest. If the ghost was bellowing, that might mean Spencer was still alive. Swallowing panic, she scooped up every weapon still usable.

  When she lifted the sword, her flashlight crashed to the floor. Couldn’t anything go right?

  She glanced around for the trash can and saw it lying on its side in the corner of the ruined fort. Dumping her stash on the floor next to it, she swept her arsenal into the container, slid the sword in, righted her portable armor carrier and balanced her computer on top of the mess. Then she stumbled into the garden, dragging her can of supplies behind her.

  Knuckles white from her death grip on the miserable tools, she scanned first the grounds then the west tower. No red glow, but also no battered body on the cobblestone or draped out of Desdemona’s chamber window. Where had the evil ghost taken him?

  Another thunderclap boomed overhead.

  “It is fitting thou meet thy end where I hurled Lady Anne to her death.”

  Kailyn spun toward the sound, heart stopping at the sight of Spencer’s back pressed aga
inst a low section of the parapet. Desdemona would fling Spencer from the east turret.

  Kailyn staggered forward as fast as she could. Somehow, some way she’d make it up the tower steps without Desdemona stopping her. She would save Spencer.

  Every muscle in her body complained as she yanked the heavy oak door open and pulled the trash can inside. Rolling it onto the steps, she strained to hear the heated exchange. Even though she couldn’t make out Spencer’s muffled words, the sound of his voice gave her strength to wrestle her hoard of ghostbusting weapons up the stairs.

  “Thou art as greedy as thy ancestor, Godfrey. He wed Lady Anne for her dowry. The Earls of Ryne value wealth more than their brides.”

  Fury burned in Kailyn. The ghost had it all wrong. Gritting her teeth, she tugged harder on the can. If Desdemona thought she could destroy the link between Spencer and her, the fiend would be disappointed.

  “My love for Spencer will trump Desdemona,” she repeated over and over until she reached the rooftop.

  When she paused for breath, she thought she heard Spencer say, “Killing me will not free you from your anger. What can I give you that will satisfy your need for revenge?”

  If Kailyn didn’t know better, she’d believe Spencer was behind a closed office door negotiating a business deal with the demonic ghost. If he could hold their blasted tormentor off a few seconds more, they might have a chance. Frantically sorting through her stash, she grasped the camera.

  Bursting through the door, she took aim at the shimmering red glow blocking her path to Spencer fifteen feet away.

  “Desdemona,” she yelled and set off the flash.

  The red swirl slowed as Kailyn repeatedly pressed the flash button while hauling her trash can onto the roof with her free hand.

  It took only a minute for Desdemona to recover and the red energy was once again whirling toward Kailyn. Tossing the camera aside, she punched call buttons and hurled cell phone after cell phone into the red haze. Angry lightning zapped each phone, but the bolts grew dimmer and dimmer. The last phone didn’t even rock from Desdemona’s blast.