Broken Heart Tails (5 page)

After he’d found the gem in Stan and Linda’s backyard, touching it brought everything back.

He made the wish to live again. He’d felt the heat and the power of the magic—and then … well, he’d woken up in a snowdrift, then in Ralph’s Honda, and then in the bed at Queen Patsy’s house.

“I have to find my daughters, Jenny.”

“No problem,” said Jenny. “We’ll search the Internet.” She pulled out a small laptop.

Larry understood that technology had made many leaps since his demise. He’d seen enough computers on his ramblings to know what they were—even if he wasn’t sure how they worked. Curious, he watched Jenny flip open the machine and start tapping on the keys.

“Their names are Beatrice Alice and Catherine Laverna, right?”

“Yes,” said Larry. “How’d you know?”

“My friend Tamara and I looked up their school records.” Tap, tap, tap. “You filed missing persons’ reports and then you disappeared.”

“Did they … were they … “ He swallowed the knot his in throat. “Found?”

“You mean dead?” She looked at him, sympathy in her gaze. She turned the laptop around and showed him the screen. “Adoption records for Beatrice Alice and Catherine Laverna, both with the last name of Stotten. They grew up in Tulsa, and still live there. They got married, had kids, and grandkids.”

“Adopted?” Bea had been six, and Cathy eight. Now his own children were older than he was. He’d been returned to the age he’d died, which made him thirty-two.

“I’m sorry, Larry. There’s nothing about them being found in town. Or how they ended up getting adopted.”

Had Lila’s brother kidnapped them, and then somehow grown a conscious, allowing them to return to Tulsa to be adopted? His stomach squeezed. Had Ean adopted them?

“Who raised my girls?”

“Leticia and Ernest Mortimer,” said Jenny. Larry frowned. He’d never heard of them.

“Is it really important to know how they got there?” asked Jenny. “You wanted to know what happened to ’em, and now you do. Bea’s an accountant and Cathy’s a doctor.”

Larry looked away, his eyes hot with tears. His daughters were alive, and apparently doing well. And what could he do? Show up and say, “Hey, I’m your dead father?”

“I’d like to see them,” he said. He just needed to make sure they were okay. “Can you find out about Ean Whittaker?”

Jenny nodded. While she worked, he ate one of the energy bars. It wasn’t too bad, but the chocolate bar was much better. He’d forgotten how great food could taste.

“Dead.”

Larry blinked. “What?”

Once again, she turned the computer around and handed it to Larry. On the screen was an article from the
Tulsa Tribune
. It was dated the same day he’d died. Three men and two little girls had been in a car accident. Apparently the car had stalled on a train track and been broadsided. Only the girls had escaped unscathed. “My daughters lived,” said Larry as he returned the laptop. “And Ean and his goons died.”

Maybe Lila had made a wish, after all. It would be just like her to plan ahead like that, and very much like her to give up her own life for their girls.

Technically, he had closure. Or at least he would when he saw his daughters with his own eyes. Still. He felt oddly at ends. The driving force behind his reanimation, and his own wish to live again, seemed to be moot.

“What now?” asked Jenny.

“I don’t know.” He unwrapped another chocolate bar. “I’ll go to Tulsa and see the girls, and then … well, I guess I could live in Broken Heart.”

“Your house is kinda falling down,” said Jenny. She chewed on her bottom lip. “They’re gonna want to test you and stuff.”

“Who?”

“Doctor Stan.” Larry shrugged. “That’s okay. I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

“I won’t let them hurt you.”

He reached over and chucked her under the chin. “You’re a good kid, Jenny.”

He could see that she was pleased by his compliment. “I guess we don’t have to hide out then,” said Jenny. “I’ll take you home. Mom and Dad will help you.”

“Okay,” said Larry. He was still the guardian of the gem’s power even though he couldn’t wield it. He’d used his wish. But maybe it could be used to help Broken Heart and the people who lived here.

“C’mon,” said Jenny. She shut the laptop and shoved it into a backpack. Then she grabbed one of the lanterns. She scurried to the hole and made her way down the trunk.

Larry followed, a little more sure-footed this time. Jenny waited for him, and then turned to make her way through the woods toward her house on Sanderson Street.

Larry paused and looked up into the night sky. In his pocket, the wishing stone pulsed warmly, just like a heartbeat.

Just like a second chance.

Gravely Yours
 

Tamara LeRoy zipped her coat up to her chin and stuck her hands into her pockets. She’d forgotten her gloves and her fingers were already like Popsicles. It was freaking cold. It was October, after all, which meant Oklahoma winter would soon arrive. The Old Sass Cafe had killer hot chocolate, and she really wanted to go sit in the warm restaurant with her boyfriend and have a mug of delicious mocha.

With marshmallows.

“We shouldn’t be out here,” said Tamara.

Durriken winked at her then looked casually around the cemetery.
Okay then, oh mysterious boyfriend.
She studied the night sky. The crescent moon offered very little light. Durriken had that great werewolf vision. Her? Not so much. She was a plain ol’ human, unlike most of the residents of Broken Heart.

Tamara might’ve left her gloves at the house, but at least she’d remembered to bring the flashlight. She flicked it on and shone it around the gravestones. She didn’t like the smell of this place. It was ripe earth mixed with that odd mold smell. A couple years ago, one of her mom’s friends had raised a zombie army from the cemetery. Things had never really gone back to normal after that. She knew better than anyone that the dead didn’t always stay dead.

“Are you scared?” Durriken had a slight accent, which she usually found sexy. Not that she would tell her mother that. She turned seventeen last month and Eva O’Halloran was wallowing in that whole “my baby is growing up” emotional goo. Tamara loved her mom, so she put up with the extra hugs and the semi-clingy behavior. Luckily, her stepfather Lorcan managed to intervene when Code Red Smothering threatened.

“I’m not scared, Durry. Bored.”

“Liar.” He swooped her into his arms and kissed her. She tingled all the way to her toes. He moved back slightly. Their breath in the chill air created little puffs. “You know you want to see it.”

“A zombie?” Her heart, which had been beating with excitement from Durry’s kiss, dove down to her toes.

“What?” Durriken looked genuinely surprised.

“Sometimes the bodies here go zombie again. They claw up from their coffins and the dirt and meander around until someone puts them back.” Tamara looked around, spooked. “It’s something about the residual magic.”

Durriken let go of her and backed up a few steps, his expression serious as he scanned the grounds. “I wanted to see the ghost, Tamara. I didn’t know about the zombies.”

Durriken often traveled with his family, who were Roma—werewolves. Roma could only shift during the full moon, unlike the full-bloods, who could shift whenever they wanted. The Roma were also vampire hunters and often went after rogue vamps who didn’t have the same kind of felicitous feelings about humans that the Consortium vampires had. The Consortium had rolled into town a few years back and sorta taken over. It was like a paranormal think tank working on ways to one day bridge the gap between humankind and parakind. Tamara thought it was a noble goal and all, but she figured it would be a long time in coming.

Anyway.

Durriken didn’t always know what was going on in town. When he had to leave, she texted him all the time, but since zombies geeked her out, she hadn’t brought them up during their convos. Besides, they had way better things to talk about than the shuffling, stank-ass dead.

Then Durry’s words filtered through her thoughts. He said ghost. Sheesh. Cold must be freezing her brain. “What ghost?”

“The lady in white. During the crescent moon, she crosses the graveyard looking for her lost love.”

“Nuh-uh.” Tamara closed the gap between them and grabbed his hand. “I’ve never heard of this ghost, and I live here.”

“Phoebe told me about her,” said Durriken. Phoebe ran the Old Sass Cafe; she’d lived here her whole life, and subsequent unlife. She was nice, kinda fun, and had the cutest kid, a little boy named Danny. “The lady in white has been haunting the town forever. Phoebe said when she was in high school, her and her friends would come down here and watch for her.”

Tamara wondered if her mother knew about this ghost. Mom was the unofficial historian of the town; she collected tons of stories for the archives.

“Who is she supposed to be?” asked Tamara.

Durry shrugged. “Phoebe didn’t know her name. Said she was a bride who died on her wedding night. She was in love with another man, but married someone else. And her husband strangled her.”

“There are a lot of holes in that story,” said Tamara. But she was already thinking about what research could be done to figure out this little mystery. “She knows all the details, but not her name? And ‘lady in white’? Really? Like there aren’t a hundred of those around. This screams urban legend.”

“Sometimes urban legends are true.”

Tamara couldn’t argue with that. Her mother was a vampire, and her boyfriend was a werewolf. She couldn’t dismiss the possibility that some ghostly bride wandered around Broken Heart’s graveyard every so often.

Durry drew her into his embrace. “You’re cold.”

“Freezing.”

“Wanna go to the cafe?”

“You’re giving up on the lady in white?”

He shrugged. “I wanted to get you alone so I could kiss you.”

“Yeah? How’s that working out?”

Durry kissed her again, splitting the seam of her lips with his tongue. He was a really good kisser. She got the tingles again, and it felt as though the world had shifted. When they finally came up for air, her legs felt like wet noodles. He stared at her, and she stared at him, and though they’d talked about, you know, going all the way, she wasn’t ready. Her mom had been a teenager when she’d gotten pregnant with Tamara. She gave up everything, including school, to get a job and support her kid.

Besides, the werewolves sorta had a thing about actually mating with humans. She knew Durry’s parents liked her, but they really wanted their son to be with another Roma.

“Let’s go,” she said.

Durry kissed her one more time, very softly, then took her hand and led her to his car. Within minutes, they were on their way to the Old Sass Cafe for hot chocolate and hand-holding.

For now, it was enough.

*  *  *  *  *

In the graveyard, underneath the crescent moon, the ghost of a woman clad in bridal white moved through the tombstones.

Silent tears tracked her pale cheeks … as she mourned the loss of her true love.

Note from the Author:
Do you know who the lady in white is? If you’ve read Book 8 in the Broken Heart series,
Cross Your Heart
… I bet you can guess!

You Don’t Know Jack O’ Lantern
 

Simone Hayes held Glory’s hand as they approached the Three Sisters Bed & Breakfast. Glory was dressed like a black cat and held an empty plastic bucket.

Braddock Hayes came up the walk behind them, settling his hands on the shoulders of his wife and daughter. “Ready, ladies?”

Glory stopped on the porch, her eyes wide as she stared at all the spooky decorations: the grinning jack o’ lanterns, the hay-stuffed carcass of a scarecrow, and neon spiders stuck to yards of webbing.

“No.” She turned and sat down on the first step. “I’ll stay here. You can bring me candy.”

“Honey, the haunted house is fun,” said Simone. “Sure, you’ll get a little scared, but it’s all fake.”

“Vampires are real. Werewolves are real. Zombies are real. Ghosts are real. Dragons are real.” Glory held up one finger for every statement, then she showed her mom and dad her hand. “
Five
real things. So what’s fake in the haunted house?”

“I’m pretty sure they don’t have dragons,” said Brady. “They’re too big to fit.”

Glory fixed her suspicious gaze on her father. “I’ll stay here.”

“Welcome!” said Lenette Stinson as she stepped out onto the porch. “Did you come to enjoy our scary fun?”