Me and You and a Ghost Named Boo

by Selene Charles

  “Relax, Merc. We came to them, remember?”

  His jaw clenched tightly, and I couldn’t help but run my fingers along his bristled whiskers.

  “Trust me. Please.”

  At my please, he closed his eyes and took a deep, fortifying breath that caused his massive chest to flex, but he finally and slowly gave me a stern nod.

  I looked over at the fae, knowing now that’s exactly what Helen really was.

  “Why are we here?” I asked slowly.

  “These lands belong to the creature of the lake.” Talix spread his arms. “And only she allows entrée. These are safe lands beyond the eyes of even the queen of fae herself.”

  My eyes were for Helen alone, though. She was glowing, a magnificent creature of starlight and magick. When I looked at her feet, I noticed a puddle forming around her.

  I shook my head. “The Lady of the Lake? As in Camelot? But—”

  Talix shook his head, tightly holding Helen’s hand. “She has been known by many names though she prefers to simply be called Helen.”

  Names had power, and whoever Helen really was, she had no desire to gift us hers. Fine, I could respect that.

  “So why are we here? I just had a few questions.”

  Talix nodded. “Aye. But the wrong questions, Veiler.”

  “What?”

  Suddenly my sensitive nose detected smoke. Glancing up, I was astonished to find a dilapidated wooden shack in front of us, where none had been just a second before.

  Rocking on a chair on that termite-infested porch was none other than Harlen Morte, Silver Creek’s junker who lived on the outskirts of town, looked uncannily like Morgan Freeman, and insisted he was very, very human.

  My ass.

  Harlen grinned back at me, his lavender eyes practically glowing in the twilight surrounding us.

  Talix and Helen moved to one side and continued walking until they disappeared into the trees without a trace. I shivered and clung more tightly to Mercer’s fingers.

  Looking back at the old man, I tried to make sense of how it was that a man well past his prime could have commanded two obviously powerful fae to work for him.

  “Still gonna claim to be human?” I drawled.

  Snorting, Harlen gave his head a slight shake before shoving off with the toe of one boot to get his rocker moving slowly back and forth.

  “Ain’t never been nothin’ but what I am, girl.” His voice held that same smooth cadence as Morgan’s, and I wondered if he’d chosen that form on purpose.

  Morgan’s voice had always held a hypnotic quality, even when I’d been a human, which made me wonder if the real Morgan wasn’t part fae and just didn’t know it.

  “So you brought us here?”

  “Mmhmm.” He nodded, eyeing Mercer for several seconds. He was sizing Mercer up, making me wonder why. Finally, the old man snorted and turned to look back at me. “Talix is right, you know, this never was about killin’ no vampire. This destiny, girl.”

  Remembering all over again that I was still standing in front of him in only a bra and panties, I bit my bottom lip. This was so not the way I’d expected this night to go.

  “Okay, what destiny?” I asked.

  He shrugged, rocking slowly back and forth and staring at me as though trying to figure something out but always coming up empty. “Ripples, vampire. One word, and it all changes. Can’t say nothin’ without changin’ everything.”

  “So why am I here if you can’t tell me anything?”

  “No, I didn’t say I couldn’t tell you nothin’.” He held up his hand and chuckled that rolling kind of mesmerizing laugh that brought a smile to my own lips against my will.

  Despite myself, I liked the crazy old man, who was far more than meets the eyes.

  “You just remember who you are, Scarlett. The person you really are. That’s all that matters. Not them cold ones. You gotta fight, girl. You gotta make ’em respect you. And you will if you just remember one thing.”

  I thought I might be going crazy, but I trusted him.

  I shouldn’t.

  I didn’t know him from Adam. For all I knew, the man was an agent of chaos meant to destroy me, but I couldn’t really explain the feeling I got whenever I was with him, as if he was real in a world that was nothing but shadow and illusion.

  Deep down, something inside me recognized something inside him. God, that totally made me sound all sorts of nuts. I knew that, but I couldn’t change the facts. They just were what they were.

  “What’s that?” I finally asked.

  “You gotta trust those who maybe you shouldn’t.” When he said that, he looked directly at Mercer.

  The glance was brief, but it was obvious, too.

  I followed his gaze. Mercer’s face was placid, but a look in his eyes caught me off guard. It was a look of tolerant disquietude.

  Harlen chuckled. “Yeah, I get that a lot, shifter.” Then he got quiet and looked at me imploringly. “Lookee here, this life it ain’t what ya think. None of this is. This ball, this is the spark that ignites the flame. Keep your wits about you, and trust what you already know. Don’t do something stupid, or we all pay.”

  “What’s coming for me?” I asked breathlessly.

  “Destiny.” A bright glow radiated through his eyes, burning like hottest flame.

  I frowned as he started to whistle. When next I blinked, the glow was gone, and all I saw before me was a weathered old man well past his prime, who was so much more than I could fathom. No matter how many times I tried to feel for that rush of life force that would proclaim him something other than human, I couldn’t.

  Harlen was as human as my parents had been.

  “Ask me the right question, vampire,” he said, casual as could be.

  “What?”

  His smile was secretive. “Nice night out, ain’t it? Calming.” He nodded.

  I glanced at Mercer, but he seemed as lost as I. He shrugged as if to say, I’ve got nothing.

  Crossing my arms, I glanced toward the west, noting the light shade of lavender dancing upon the forest floor and the glowing green butts of fireflies in flight. The scene was beautiful, calming. Hadn’t Boo said almost the same thing to me just a few days ago? What was it with men being so damned mysterious all the time?

  I blinked, wondering whether Harlen had deliberately phrased things that way to get me to think about my ghost. Narrowing my eyes, I looked back at the old-timer, whose own gaze had never swerved from my face.

  “You know something, don’t you?” I asked.

  I felt Mercer move into me infinitesimally, but I didn’t sense a threat for me from the old junker. I wet my lips. Instinct had been guiding me a lot as of late, and something told me to keep following that track.

  “Mebbe I do, and mebbe I don’t. Why don’t you ask me what needs asking?”

  Going there that night had never been about finding out more about the Clan. I finally saw that. It had always been about my problem with Boo.

  “Why him? What makes Boo so vital?”

  I felt Mercer look at me curiously.

  Brilliant white teeth flashed at me as Harlen’s smile widened to wreath his entire face. “Cuz it’s the only place to hide when things get rough. But then, I’m sure you knew that.”

  Frowning because that hadn’t felt like an answer at all, I wondered if I should even bother, if I should keep up the farce. Up until a few minutes ago, coming here had only been about learning what needed learning before I hit a vampire ball, but I didn’t think Harlen gave a shit about a ball.

  He smirked as though he knew and approved of what I’d just thought, which was so damn insane I found myself starting to doubt my own sanity.

  “Find the blind witch.” Harlen nodded. “It’s how you’ll untether that ghost o’ yours.”

  My brows dipped. “Blind witch?”

  “Mmhmm.”

  I wanted to ask so many more questions, but Harlen was stuffing an old corncob pipe full of tobacco, looking disinter
ested in further conversation.

  I tried anyway. “Where do I find this witch?”

  “Can’t do it all for you, girly.” He wouldn’t look at me as he lit his pipe before slipping it into his mouth and inhaling, the tobacco glowing an inviting shade of warmest red.

  I cocked my head. “Who are you? Really?”

  “Just a friend—he nodded—“one who has known you a long, long time.”

  My lips tugged downward. I didn’t know him from Adam, yet... he had always seemed familiar to me, too.

  The door behind him opened, and out slipped a tall, raven-haired beauty with pale ivory skin and lavender wings that she kept tucked close to her back.

  Her eyes twinkled merrily before she asked, “Harlen, you in the mood for some tea?”

  “Reckon I might be,” he said.

  Lavender eyes looked at me, and with a wink and a grin, she and Harlen were suddenly gone. They didn’t fade gradually or melt into their surroundings. The woods, the shack, even the winds—all of it was just gone.

  I gasped, opening my eyes, staring up at white walls and the angry face of Diane D’Oro.

  Her long dark hair was pinned up in a timeless chignon, and she was wearing a nude-colored gown that wrapped around her svelte body like a second skin. Sporting only the lightest tint of gloss, she was a legendary beauty even amongst her own kind. Rumor had it that once upon a time, Diane had even been worshipped as a goddess, a rumor she’d always denied.

  “Scarlett.” She said my name as if it tasted of venom on her tongue.

  That’s when I knew I’d overstayed my visit. That’s when I also became aware of my compromising situation.

  Somehow, and I wasn’t even sure how, Talix was between my thighs with his cheek pressed upon the apex of me, and I was reclining on Mercer’s naked chest with his hands clutched tightly onto ropes of my hair.

  My bra and panties... totally gone, and I was wet enough between my thighs to know whatever had gone down hadn’t been PG-13.

  Helen was back in her jar, wearing a broad, ruby-red smirk.

  “You must leave now, vampire,” Diane said. “And for your sake and the sake of my people, do not return again. I have not forgotten what you allowed to happen to my daughter. Our temporary truce is at an end. If you remain any longer, I should see it as a threat and deal with it as such.” Then she stood, walked elegantly out the door.

  I blinked several times. “What the eff just happened to me?” I clutched at my temple.

  “Fuck if I know,” Mercer growled. He jumped to his feet, grabbed me by the hand, and helped me up, practically kicking Talix out from under me as he very quickly helped me dress.

  Talix smirked with only one corner of his mouth, dropping a lazy hand over Helen’s cage and practically vibrating with laughter. He’d gotten his revenge on me, that bastard.

  The least he could have done was let us keep our memories. I knew I’d offered myself to him willingly, but beyond that, I remembered little else except for the fae lands and Harlan’s mysterious words.

  “This was fun,” Helen said at our backs as we made to leave. “Let’s make sure and do it again, little vampire.”

  Her tinkling laughter trailed in our wake, burning through my ears and making me doubt my sanity all over again.

  Chapter 14

  Scarlett

  “When were you going to let me in on your plan, Scar?” Mercer asked quietly in the truck on the way home after fifteen minutes of absolute, deafening silence.

  Glancing at him from the corner of my eyes, I turned down the back roads that would take us home. That was a longer drive, but I needed time to think about what I’d learned earlier... or hadn’t learned.

  “Fact is there wasn’t really a plan until recently.”

  His brows dipped. “Seemed like Harlen thought there was one. I’m not saying you’re wrong, understand me.”

  “Then what are you saying?” I asked a bit testily. I wasn’t mad at Mercer, but I was irritated—annoyed, more like.

  In two more nights, I’d be expected to walk down the halls of a vampire enclave that would be less than friendly to me, and that was putting it mildly. The fact that I had no choice in the matter only made things a million times worse. The fact that I still didn’t quite understand what Boo meant in the whole situation didn’t sit right with me, and added to all that giant mess was the fact that in a few days, I would potentially lose Mercer to shifter politics forever.

  That was so not the thing to be thinking about right then. I knew that.

  I was trying to let all those extraneous thoughts slide, trying to keep my head in the game, but I felt myself unraveling from both ends because of all the ideas dogpiling in my mind.

  Twisting in his seat, Mercer gave me his full attention. I gotta say there’s nothing quite like being caught in the sights of an Alpha shifter. Veilers are big and tough and powerful, all of them, even the tiniest among us, but the shifters have a raw primalness that is unparalleled. Something about pack animals sometimes feels as though they never got that far from the primordial ooze that baked them.

  “I don’t know, Scar. To be honest, I feel like I don’t know much. You’ve been distant tonight, and I’m trying to work out why.”

  “No, I’m not,” I shot back, inwardly grimacing at my childish rejoinder because if that hadn’t sounded mature... jeez.

  He snorted angrily then crossed his big arms over his big chest, and I knew he was pissed right back, but I didn’t have time to worry about that right then. It didn’t matter that my heart felt like a pile of glass splinters slicing and dicing me up. That just didn’t fucking matter. I very well might not make it out of the vampire ball in one piece, which was the only thing I should’ve been focused on.

  Sighing deeply, I forced myself into a calmness I didn’t feel. Fake it till you make it is what I told myself, anyway.

  I nodded. “Look, all right, I’m feeling like hell right now. I’m nervous, okay? I don’t want to go to this ball, I don’t want to drag you with me, and I don’t understand why Boo matters, but for some reason he does.”

  Every so often, when I cared to, I could almost see the image of the wolf reflected in his gaze. I don’t know what I was expecting from him—tons of questions, maybe some naysaying—but he was totally focused and silent. I’d lived with Mercer long enough to know that when he got quiet that way was when he listened most.

  Feeling a weird need to defend myself, I shifted gears to further delay our arrival.

  “This is probably a shit idea. I get that, but maybe Boo can—”

  “You’ve got my right hand.” His voice rumbled, but not with anger—just a statement of fact.

  “I know. And I’m no pushover, either. But I think we both know that I need more. You and I are obvious to the clan. No doubt, they’ve already nullified our offensive if they’re smart. It’s what I would do.”

  He nodded, scratching at his whiskered jaw, and I could sense his irritation lessening. His inner wolf was no doubt confused by my hot-and-cold emotions, but I was trying like hell to keep my thoughts focused. If Mercer found out about the Alphas’ ruling, I wasn’t sure what that would do to him. All I knew was he’d still go with me to the ball, but he’d be distracted, and distractions got people dead in our world. I needed him to live. I needed him to survive even if I couldn’t.

  So yes, I was protecting my heart, but I was also protecting him in the only way I knew how, by keeping him ignorant of what was to come. That hurt like hell because I didn’t like keeping secrets, not from him.

  “Is that really all this is?” he asked softly.

  “Of course, Merc.” My words came out soft, halting. I hated to lie, but I was all in.

  Reaching over, he grabbed my hand, not long, but with strength. Bearing down just slightly, he rubbed his thumb over my knuckles, and my heart trembled. Juiced up on all his blood, I felt my pulse quicken beneath his tender touch, and I struggled to hold myself together and not throw myself into his arm
s.

  I wish James had never told me what he had, but then again, maybe it was good to sever my feelings. I’d always been in way too deep where my adopted brother was concerned, but deep down, I’d also always known that no matter how much I might want it to be otherwise, vampires and shifters never worked for a reason. Even Jamie and his beloved Isobel had failed.

  I wet my lips, feeling a perverse need to prove myself to Merc, to show I was just as smart and capable as any bitch in his pack. He never made me feel less than, but I counted it a point of pride that he saw me as an equal.

  Even if I could never have him as mine, the fact was that I would always need his approval. That sucked, but there it was. Mercer meant too much to me to pretend otherwise.

  “You’re right, obviously.”

  My stomach trembled and warmed at his words, and I blew out a heavy breath I’d not realized I’d been holding.

  “It’s what any sensible predator would do. So Boo is the ace up your sleeve?”

  I shrugged. “Basically, yes.”

  He nodded. “How so? What can a ghost do against a clan of cold ones?”

  I literally had no answer because I didn’t know it myself. “I... don’t know.” I cringed before rushing on. “But I’m following instinct here, Merc, something that tells me I’m not wrong. I don’t... I—”

  Reaching over, he gripped my hand and squeezed firmly. “You’re not wrong, Scarlett.”

  I loved the feel of his strength, his hands. I wanted to keep my fingers in his forever, but James’s words haunted me, and I found myself wriggling free of his grip. I tried not to be obvious about it, but Mercer was no one’s dummy. He frowned but said nothing about it.

  Clearing his throat, he wiped his palms down his legs and glanced out the window. “In many cultures, there are mythologies surrounding the spirit world. Vampires in many ways are arguably most sensitive to the spirit world since you neatly walk both worlds—living but dead.”

  I bit my lip. His words were clinical and detached, and my heart ached. I didn’t want to be a bitch to him, didn’t want to do that stupid dance with him. I wished James had never told me anything.