Haunted Redemption

by Rebecca Royce

  January’s chair flipped over, sending her backwards onto the grass while almost instantaneously Betty’s dress flipped up, exposing her underwear. I gasped. “Victoria, no. Karma and all that. You can’t use your powers for such things.”

  “Wasn’t me.” She shrugged as Malcolm and Chase walked up next to us.

  I couldn’t help it. Seeing Malcolm made me light up inside. He hated kids and he couldn’t be part of my life the way he wanted to be, and yet part of my soul would always want to squeal whenever he came by.

  “What are you doing here?” I put my hands in my pockets to stop from touching him. “Not that I’m not happy to see you two. How did you know we were doing soccer today?”

  Malcolm pointed at Grayson. “Big guy invited me, and I asked Chase to come.”

  “He did?” I couldn’t have been more surprised if the sun had spun in a circle and turned green. “He doesn’t have a phone.”

  Chase laughed and walked over to where Henry and Levi stood. “So who’s the star here?”

  “He used your phone. Check your texts. I can go if you’d rather not have your kids around me.”

  I gave up the need not to touch him and stroked his arm. “I love you being here.”

  “Yeah, well. Your kids are bigger. No sticky fingers, no puke everywhere. I like sports.”

  I wasn’t sure what I would have said. The game was starting the second half. Dex was grinning in the sunshine. If the shadows danced under the trees, I wasn’t going to pay them attention. This was my normal, for now. Standing on the sidelines, the people who loved us took up so much space we’d crowded some of the others all the way to the other side of the field.

  “Kick it, Dex.” He squealed and fell down before laughing his head off. He was not going to be a professional soccer player. Ever.

  Sneak Peek of

  Phoenix Everlasting

  Book 2 in the Cascade Series

  Chapter One

  The auditorium was filled with parents waiting anxiously for their most precious possessions—their children—to take the stage. Standing room only in the back. I could hardly see the stage and I was in the third row in the front. Someone’s selfie stick was in my way. The woman, who I could only see from the back, had black hair with grey streaks running through her locks. She also wore too much perfume. When she flicked the stick for the third time and almost took out my ex-husband, Levi, with it, I had to restrain myself from ripping the damn thing from her hand.

  Levi rolled his eyes and studied his phone. He’d been working a lot over the last three months. The father of my three children was up for a major promotion at work and when he hyper focused, he really hyper focused. He’d promised our daughter Molly he wouldn’t miss her first grade show and he’d kept his word. I hoped he would actually put down the phone when it came time for the little ones to come do their production of Wizard of Oz.

  Dex swung his feet in front of him and chewed on his bottom lip. He’d stopped going to school when we’d decided to home school him the year before. His visions still came in too frequent a manner to consider, at this point, sending him back to school with other children. My father taught him across our dining room table. Dex was the most regularly content out of his brother and sister. The wistful look in his eyes was the first time I’d seen anything other than happiness from him in months.

  I nudged his shoulder. “How does it feel to be back here?”

  “Like it was someone else other than me who went here.” He smiled up at me and kissed my shoulder.

  I didn’t know what to say to his answer. Nine years old seemed way too young to be so profound already. Then again, he’d seen things in his visions most adults wouldn’t ever witness, ever.

  Levi lifted his head from his phone and blinked rapidly. Still dressed from work, his Vineyard Vine’s red and white tie was flung over his shoulder and loosened where the knot should be. His bone colored dress shirt had been rolled to his elbows and the black pants he’d paired it with showed off his tight waist and muscular physique. I was sure he’d had a jacket to go with the ensemble at some point. My best guess would be he’d left it in the car.

  “Sorry. I had to finish.” He ruffled Dexter’s hair and reached around me to tap Grayson on the shoulder. Our eleven-year-old boy made a grunting sound and went to back to reading Tom Sawyer. They had a book report on it due later in the week and, so far, Gray seemed to be taking his middle school responsibilities more seriously than he had his elementary school work. Then again, the year before he’d been possessed by a demon for most of the school term. How did I really know what kind of student he would have been if not for that?

  “Hey, Daddy.” Grayson looked up and down quickly. Like his father, he could focus so intently on something, he shut out the rest of the world.

  Levi stretched out his legs. “You look really pretty.” He sized me up, a long perusal that made me warm inside.

  “I’m going to Victoria’s fancy welcome to the world baby party right after this. Since it’s your night with the kids.”

  I’d had a hard time figuring out what to wear. I didn’t have time to watch Molly’s performance and change my clothes so I’d opted to wear to the show what I needed to wear to Victoria’s party right after. I’d opted to put on a short black shit, dark pantyhose—even though I knew they weren’t in fashion, I thought they looked sleek with the skirt—a pink silk V-neck shirt and a tall pair of black heels. Victoria would probably be decked to the nines. I didn’t have to be quite as stylish, I didn’t make my living dressing the rich and elite.

  “The baby is, what, six weeks old?” Levi shifted in his seat. The show would be starting soon. “How does she have the energy to be throwing fancy parties at her house?”

  I laughed. I had a lifetime of memories of Victoria to draw on. “You might be surprised what she’s capable of. Baby Jack has only enhanced her fabulousness, not decreased it at all.”

  Nursing a baby, getting up all night, running a business, and fighting the darkness were just a day’s work for my best friend. Of course, it helped she had a doting husband who split a good number of her responsibilities with her.

  “When Gray was six weeks old, we were both zombies and we’d reverted to eating frozen dinners because neither one of us was safe near the stove.”

  My oldest son groaned loudly. “I love these little times when you two start reminiscing.”

  We both ignored him. “Who’s taking you to the party?”

  Levi’s question didn’t confuse me at all. I knew what he really asked. Was I going with Malcolm, my broker, and the love of last lifetime? He still loved me, still wanted me to be with him. I’d chosen to leave him to make him stronger and forgotten him to save my heart from the pain, all arranged by the Others who had placed us in our strange positions to begin with. My very non-talented ex-husband wasn’t at all concerned with our dying and coming back to life, as much as he wanted to know if I was sleeping with Malcolm. The answer was no. Not that I intended to tell Levi any of that because not a single iota of information about Malcolm and me was Levi’s business. Who I slept with ceased to be of his concern when he divorced me.

  I’d forgiven Levi, which didn’t mean I had to cut him slack where and when I deemed inappropriate.

  Malcolm hadn’t spoken to me in a little over a month. My heart twisted and I pushed aside the pain. I had no claim on his heart. He had to move on from loving me since I would never be what he needed again. I had children, which meant I’d never be Malcolm’s Kendall again. He hated kids and even though he tolerated mine pretty well, he’d made his feelings on the subject abundantly clear again and again.

  We couldn’t be Malcolm and Kendall, not as we once had been.

  Fortunately, I was saved from having to answer Levi. The lights in the room dimmed and our first graders entered the stage. Lined up on benches, the whole first grade marched onto the stage in single file. I remembered this well from the last first grade show I’d seen, when Dex attended. T
hat year they’d done the Music Man. Each kid would have a line of dialogue except a few chosen children who played the main roles. They all auditioned for their parts. Dex had been given a very brief speech that went something like him saying ‘no’ mid-way through the show.

  Molly was playing Dorothy. At this point, I knew every line of dialogue and musical note said or sung in the Wizard of Oz.

  Levi lit up when Molly started to speak. Had he been so busy with work he’d tuned out enough he didn’t know Molly had the lead role or had she not told him?

  I side eyed my ex for a second. I took for granted his relationship with his kids, which was a mistake. When we’d all lived together I could make up the slack when he slipped. Work sometimes took all of Levi’s attention.

  “Somewhere, over the rainbow.” The show had been shortened to account for the fact that first graders couldn’t hold their attention indefinitely. Molly sang loudly. For as shy as she was off the stage, under the lights she came out of herself. Did she have the greatest voice ever? No. She could carry a tune and what she lacked in perfect pitch she made up for in being really cute and dramatic about the whole thing.

  The temperature in the room dropped a few degrees and goosebumps broke out on my arms. Levi and Dex remained clueless, still enjoying the show while my oldest son gripped my arm so tight I almost cried out.

  “Mom.” He whispered.

  I kissed his head. “I know, baby.”

  Grayson could see ghosts. He’d never told me he could until after his possession. Then he’d confessed his ability to see them, talk to them, and interact with the dead extensively. He didn’t want to be different preferred to pretend the whole thing didn’t exist. Most of the time I let him. The longer he said no to the universe’s gift to him, the more likely the powers that be would let him have his way. At some point we got to choose.

  He had the right to say no.

  The ghost entered the auditorium slowly; floating along the edge of the stage like it had nowhere particular to be. I knew better. The old woman, still wearing her nightgown—pure white—and slippers had been drawn to my daughter.

  Her soul stayed wide open. She was too young to close it yet with her inherent talent, the dead energy, which remained on earth and had to be cleared came to her like a magnet. Malcolm had the same problem when he was young. I’d been more closed off. I guess even as a child I used to tell ghosts to fuck off.

  I raised my hand prepared to send the ghost to wherever it went when I made it go away. My powers buzzed. Before I could—mid song—Molly raised her wrist and with a flick of her hand, cleared the ghost from the room. She didn’t miss a beat, continuing with her performance as though the whole thing hadn’t happened.

  Grayson laughed, covering his mouth. I was so glad I wasn’t alone to see her handle the ghost the way she did. I grinned, wanting to applaud her ability as much as the end of the song. The audience cheered and she looked at me. With a slight grin, she winked.

  Yes…this had become our new normal.

  Later, as we walked to the cars, Molly spun in a circle, her dark hair flying out around her. She was the perfect picture of happiness. “Did you see when I got rid of it, Mom?”

  “I did. Grayson and I both saw.” She grinned, showing her missing teeth. “It went poof.”

  Levi stopped moving. “What happened?”

  “Your daughter cleared a ghost in the middle of her opening song. Multi-talented.”

  Levi’s whole demeanor changed. His back stiffened and he glared at me as though I’d caused the ghost. “Great.”

  “Hey.” I turned to see Chase Miller, my friend and fellow reborn person, waved at me. “Ready to go?”

  Levi pointed at the car. “Him?”

  “Yep.” I waved at Chase. He looked dapper in his suit. His good looks didn’t affect me the way Levi’s or Malcolm’s did.

  Levi grabbed my arm. “Hey, be careful with those people. They’re…they’re willing to take more risks than I want you to.”

  I touched the side of his face. “You’re not in control of my risk taking, sweetheart. And one of those risks they took saved our son.” I’d saged his house the day before. They’d all be safe until they returned to the safety of living under my roof during my custodial days. “My mom says you can call her in the very remote chance you need her help. They went on a date. Barbecue.”

  My parents, both practitioners but not people who had ever died and come back, moved in with me a year after Levi left. He wanted to come home and see about being a family again. I wasn’t sure I could let him. Since I remembered I had a task to preform—killing the shadow creatures before they came through the portal from the dark place—and took over the planet—I couldn’t be his wife the way he wanted me to do be.

  I flipped my white blonde hair, changed when I’d taken in so much energy to save Malcolm from a demon possession, over my shoulder and kissed each of my kids. “Be good for Daddy.”

  “Kendall,” Levi said my name softly. “Be careful. We love you.”

  I knew he did and that was why every time I was around him, something inside of me died. I had two men I loved and I couldn’t have either of them. Neither of them fit in my world.

  Chase picked me up in a black SUV I’d not seen him drive before. We’d spent some time together going through my past. He was a private detective and like me he’d not had his past life memories until recently. When mine came back, so had his.

  Only I was pretty sure there was still something I missed. If anyone could help me find it, Chase was the man.

  “New car?” I buckled my seatbelt.

  “One of the ones I use when I’m following someone and I don’t want to be noticed at night.” He turned onto the road in front of the school. “Remind me why I’m going to this with you?”

  Chase preferred to listen to country music in the car. Someone was crooning about death and love. I liked the sound even though I knew if I listened to the words I’d be crying before I knew it. “Because Victoria told me to bring a date. You were already invited.” I wasn’t bringing Levi to a practitioner party. Why ask for months of angst and pain from the experience?

  “And you think Malcolm, if he shows, will be more ready to put up with me showing up with you instead of someone else. While you’re wearing that outfit and showing leg.”

  My cheeks heated up. “You’re friends. He knows there’s never been anything between the two of us.”

  “Only because that was never an option.” He held up his hand. “Don’t worry. I’m not hitting on you. I’m never going to be second choice to Malcolm or because you’re hurting from your husband leaving. We’re friends. Don’t fool yourself. If you’d been brought to the Others and not already committed at nine years old to my pal, I would have made a move when we turned about sixteen. The first time.”

  The problem with him knowing me so well was he did, in fact, see me just as I was—big, giant flaws and all.

  “If I hadn’t committed my heart before my death to nine year old Malcolm, I would have taken you up on that. Since we’re both agreed its not happening—ever—what is going on with your love life?” He laughed. “That would imply I have a love life.”

  “Why don’t you?” Chase was hot and, as I’d discovered when I visited his house, rich. He couldn’t be lacking in female attention.

  “How do I bring someone into this life? Come on, join me, I have a destiny which might kill me and will, at the very least, take up a lot of my non-working time. Oh and by the way, in case you think I’m kidding, my sister died fighting the battle. So, let’s plan a future. No thanks. If we live through whatever the hell is coming than I’ll think about bringing a woman into my mess. Otherwise, I had my will changed. Your three kids and Victoria’s boy will inherit should I die without an heir.”

  I turned around in my seat. “Ah.” I wasn’t even sure what to say. “You’re leaving my kids your money? You don’t have to do that.”

  “I know. Don’t get me wrong. I d
on’t intend to die. If it happens, I’d like to leave the wealth I’ve accumulated to the people the folks I care about are leaving behind. Oh, and I want you to pull the plug on me. You specifically. I trust you to get the job done if I’m a vegetable.” He waved his hand in the air. “This is depressing. Let’s focus more on the fact that Victoria seems to have hung hundreds of sparkly lights from her house like its Halloween.”

  I looked to see. Sure enough, Victoria’s home was decorated in hundreds of red sparkling lights. I grinned. I was one of the few people who knew magic made them glow. My best friend really liked to put on a show.

  Walking in next to Chase, crowds parted to get out of our way. Since I knew this phenomenon never happened to me, I attributed it to Chase. He was super tall, standing over six foot five feet tall. I scanned around, searching for Victoria. I didn’t see her, or the baby, so maybe she was feeding him in private. Her husband appeared at my side, pulling me into a hug.

  Henry, in addition to being one of us, was an artist. They’re extensive backyard was filled with his sculpture. He worked in many mediums and had his work featured all over the world. He always had a smile for everyone.

  “Kendall.” He let go of me to shake Chase’s hand. “Chase. You two know you are more than welcome here. We are so happy you could make it. Thursday nights are not easy for everyone. I can’t believe how many people took the time to come celebrate Jack with us. Did you see what my girl did to the house? Isn’t it awesome?”

  “It is.” His glow was infectious. “You look really good for having a newborn in the house.”

  “How did I get this lucky? I thought I’d be dead before I was thirty. Here we all are, almost all of us together, and I have a son. I mean, I guess if you want to be technical, I died at age ten. But you know what I mean.” He beamed. “Oh, there she is.”

  Victoria glowed. She walked through the room, carrying her baby, looking like a fashion model instead of a new mom. She wore a long, flowing pink dress with a plunging neckline which showed off how gloriously huge her breasts had become. Nursing did have its benefits. The baby slept peacefully on her shoulder. She laughed at something someone I didn’t know said and kissed his head.