How to Kill a Ghost (7 page)

I understood even as a twinge of annoyance came over me. I couldn’t imagine what Isabelle must have gone through feeling alone growing up, knowing she had to hide a part of herself from the world lest she be judged. In our small town, it would likely happen. There were some who had been ostracized for less. With everyone knowing so much about everyone else’s business, Isabelle’s secret would have been all over town within hours of the first person learning it.

I picked up the diary and brushed a hand over the cover. The silken surface teased my fingertips. Isabelle hadn’t protested me looking at this one, so I assumed she didn’t believe spells would be written there. Still I hesitated because it was likely Nessa’s private thoughts were written within, and even if she was dead, me reading it would be an invasion of her privacy. Suspicions rose in me regarding Nessa’s reasons for being in Summit’s Edge. My experiences of the last few weeks had taught me to take every opportunity presented and not let the conventions bind me.

I opened the diary to the first entry and promptly dropped the book on the floor. The thump brought Isabelle’s head up from studying her own volume. “Libby? What’s wrong?”

“I know the connection,” I said.

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Vanessa was named after her great-grandmother, the original Nessa.”

“Original?”

I considered whether to tell her Ian’s history and decided to go through with it. At least most of it. “So, you see, our Nessa was related to the original Nessa who came between the brothers.”

Isabelle nodded. “And Tevin still holds a grudge. He shouldn’t. It isn’t as if she was his girlfriend after all. To hold on to his anger all this time…”

“Not just now,” I said, thinking about it and growing cold. “Tevin’s reaction seemed a little extreme. To be honest, I believe he—”

“May have already been an unbalanced individual.”

I nodded.

“Then their maker made it worse by giving him unimaginable power.”

“Maybe it was all a game to him,” I speculated. “They live forever, and I can only imagine how dull life would grow over time. Maybe they begin to manipulate circumstances for their own entertainment.”

“We don’t know the reasons, and like you said, if Tevin told the truth and the man is dead now. Good riddance.”

“That’s true.” I went back to scanning the diary, trying to understand Nessa better. She hadn’t been very consistent with her use of the book. I learned she had been close to her family and because of it visited with her great-grandmother, who lived in a small cottage with a caretaker up north. Nessa had sat at the woman’s knee listening to stories of vampires. I raised my voice to Isabelle. “Listen to this. ‘Nana seems more listless now. She keeps staring into the shadows, shifting in her chair like she’s nervous. She mutters things like ‘not yet, not yet.’ I don’t know who she’s talking to. Maybe there are long passed loved ones who have come to escort her home. I feel sorry for her.’”

I stopped reading and looked up at Isabelle. She had gone pale, and I knew Isabelle knew what I did. Death was near, and Nessa’s great-grandmother might have sensed him coming. Maybe she even saw him. I speculated on what he looked like. Was he creepy or a handsome gentleman? Did he look like a dark angel, or even a light one? Thinking about it made me nervous like he stood in the room with us, so I pushed the thoughts away.

“Is there anything else, like a clue to whether Nessa knew Tevin?”

I flipped through the pages, scanning the tight script. “Yes, here’s something else. ‘He appeared in my room one night. I was so scared I couldn’t move. At first I thought he was a common thief, but then he flashed his fangs. He wanted me to be afraid, and he succeeded. If he thought I was
helpless
and afraid, he was wrong. I had learned from Nana he existed, and a part of me didn’t believe it. I had worked hard on my skills, lived with a witch as her apprentice for years, learning all I could. My amulet would keep me safe, but in that instant, I took it off…’”

Isabelle let out a small squeak of alarm. “Why would she do that? He couldn’t glamour her if she had it on. It was her only protection if she couldn’t utter a spell.”

“Maybe she could say a spell.”

Isabelle frowned at me as if disappointed in my ignorance. “Do you know how fast she would have to be? Those creatures aren’t human. Their speed is unmatched. The only way to overcome them is to be prepared.”

“She said she practiced for years.”

“Libby.”

I went back to reading. “‘I removed the amulet so he wouldn’t know. I’m not a witch by nature. He wouldn’t sense it in my blood. I learned with trial and fire. I protected myself so he couldn’t glamour me, but I let him think he did. I will work with him, and then when I know his plan I’ll kill him.’”

We sat in silence thinking over what Nessa had shared. I guessed that she had figured out by what Tevin said to her that he had a plan of revenge on someone. He had looked her up specifically to get back at Ian.

I read on. “‘I wanted to kill him for thinking he could use me, but when I thought of Nana, I wanted more than that. She’d told the same story over and over, her mind in the past. I thought how many more of these creatures exist with us humans ignorant. I want to expose them. So I’ll work with him for now, and before he dies, everyone will know the truth.’”

Tears flowed down Isabelle’s face. “She failed. Poor woman, with so much planning, a life devoted to avenge her great-grandmother. All of it lost.”

I felt choked up too, but in my ghostly form I couldn’t cry. The pressure of loss stuck in my throat, and emotions running high made my hands fade. The book plopped onto the carpet.

We had a record here and spell books. I had Ian on my side. I wanted to believe Nessa hadn’t failed but passed on her knowledge. She would help someone, maybe even me.

“Isabelle?”

She bent over a spell book with wide eyes and murmured her response.

“What will Clark make of Nessa’s death?”

That got her attention. She looked up. “Drained of all her blood.” Isabelle paled. “It’s not a good idea for them to find out about vampires.”

“To protect Clark?”

“To protect us all. Libby, what do you think the vampires would do if a regular human learns of their existence? Sit back and accept it?”

“They might try mass hypnosis,” I suggested without believing it.

“Turn the order.”

I frowned. “Turn the order?”

“Ordinary humans run this world. Think of it run by vampires.”

A shiver of intense dread ran down my back, and she nodded.

“Exactly. If they are exposed, then they will move. Right now they’re careful. They feed in secret and cover their tracks. If they don’t need to…”

“I get it. Nessa might have wanted them uncovered as a way to protect us, but it wasn’t necessarily the right path.”

Isabelle rubbed her eyes and shifted her shoulders. “I’m going to do something against my personal values.”

I smirked. “Meaning you haven’t before?” She must have forgotten we had broken into the house, and she had interfered with police investigations twice with two different dead bodies. Who knew what else the wily woman had done in the past. I didn’t hold any of it against her of course. I had done my share as well.

She waved her hand, her eyes glazed as she thought. “I have never changed the course of Clark’s investigations. He’s good at his job, and I don’t even know if it will work.”

“What will?”

“We need to make this appear to be a ritual killing. A few planted baubles, and Clark will believe it to be the work of a twisted individual—a
human
individual. Then that will be that.”

“But he’ll think it was Ian.”

She eyed me. “He will clear himself.”

“Isabelle.”

“Libby, what’s more important to me is that we find your body.” She held up a book. “We can’t focus on clearing Ian and get you straightened out. You will have to trust him to clear his own name, unless you don’t think he can?”

She had a valid point, which made me grind my teeth. “All right. I understand.”

“Good.” She gathered her find and stood up. Once she had tucked the books away in a satchel she carried, she brought out a small packet and unfolded the cloth around it. Underneath, a book lay inside a large baggie. I must have appeared confused because she explained. “This is a useless trinket I bought at a book sale years ago. Not very good. The information is nonsense, but it will lead Clark in the direction we want.”

“What about fingerprints?” I glanced around the room to the mess we had made searching the books and then back at her. She wiggled her fingers. “Gloves, and unless I miss my guess, you don’t make fingerprints.”

I had forgotten. She was right. Not long ago, I discovered I couldn’t make fingerprints in my spirit form. I could simulate a normal appearance, but on a microscopic scale, I didn’t really come into contact with the physical realm. My energy manipulated movement, shape, weight, and balance, which was why I ran low so often if I wasn’t around a living being to recharge and why if I stayed invisible, I conserved for longer periods.

I bent to retrieve the diary and handed it to Isabelle to place in her bag. I would get it from her later as I wanted to pass it to Ian. He might find closure to learn more about the original Nessa’s life. At least I hoped he would, and it wouldn’t open new wounds. She had managed to find love and have at least one child, which is the best that anyone could hope for another.

We straightened up the room, and then I let Isabelle leave before I locked up the house and then phased through the wall. When we returned to the car, Isabelle stilled with her hand on the ignition. I remained out on the street at her window because I had no need to travel so slowly.

“Libby, I’ll make you an amulet to wear around your neck. It’ll protect you from vampires, but it won’t distinguish between Ian and Tevin. If you remove it like Nessa did…”

“I understand.”

“Good.” She started the car. “I’ll contact you as soon as I’ve made it. I’ll also let you know about my progress in learning more about your body through Nessa’s books. Please be patient, and stay safe.”

“Of course,” I promised and willed myself to my own home as soon she drove off down the street.

A couple days later, a messenger rang my doorbell. I tensed, but then noticed the bright sunlight coming through the window. I had managed to avoid going out at night and had pushed Monica to get her work schedule rearranged at least for a little while. At first she refused to give in to my fears for her safety, but then I shared a little bit about Tevin and his revenge.

“Are you telling me he’s going to try to hurt you to get back at some woman from the past that they both liked and Ian stole?” Monica had demanded to know.

I hated leaving out details that were most crucial, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell her that Tevin was a vampire because it would mean telling her Ian was one as well. “Yes.”

“Well what does that have to do with Vanessa?” she’d asked.

“She was a distant relative. Tevin seemed to think it would hurt Ian more if he used Nessa’s grand-uh-relative. He’s deranged, Monica. One can’t figure out all the motives of that type of person. There’s too much darkness in his heart to understand.”

“I’ll give you that point,” she had said. “He drained her blood. Who even does that?
How
did he do it?”

In the end, I got Monica to agree not to go out at night, and I managed to get her to stop worrying about my relationship with a man she assumed was a murderer. Not that all her concern had disappeared.

“So if crazy runs in his family…” she’d begun.

“Monica!”

“Just saying.”

I sent her off to work while Jake played in his room. When the bell rang, I couldn’t imagine who it was, but the carrier handed me the package, and I signed for it. In Summit’s Edge, the local carrier service still used clipboards and paper to sign, so I was in no danger of breaking an electronic signing machine.

I tore open the package when I was alone and discovered Isabelle had returned the diary along with a beautiful amulet. I didn’t sense anything special about it, but I had no exceptional abilities of my own. Well, maybe I did know when evil surfaced, but that might be a product of self-preservation.

The note gave me instructions on wearing the necklace at all times. Isabelle also said she’d come across something interesting and would be in touch. I smoothed my fingers across the diary’s material and sighed. Then I folded the amulet back in the tissue paper it had arrived in and placed both in the top drawer of my dresser. Tonight, I would talk to Ian and give him the diary. I hoped he was okay. He hadn’t been back to his home, but I believed all I needed to do was to call to him, and he would come. Besides, I had the feeling he wasn’t too far from me.

That afternoon, Mason arrived. Medium height, dark hair and piercing eyes, once upon a time he had swept me off my feet. I had been impressed by what I had termed his enigmatic personality but later realized wasn’t hard to figure out. Mason believed himself superior to one and all, and he had never ceased to criticize everything I did. To be forced to turn Jake over to him killed me inside, but what choice did I have?

“Hello, Libby,” he intoned when he stepped into my hall. “You’re looking…well.”

I clenched my hands at my sides.
Well
he’d said. I knew I looked exactly the way I’d appeared the day I left my body. I’d still been enthusiastic about staying in shape, a habit Mason had cultivated by telling me when I was getting “too fat.” At first jogging had been punishment and then it became escape. I missed it.

Feeling petty and immature at the moment, I refused to compliment him as etiquette dictated. He did look good, but I no longer cared. “Hello, Mason. Come in.”

He sat in the living room while I went to get Jake. I knew as I strode away his gaze already wandered the room, assessing the state of everything. When I reached Jake’s door, I hurried in and shut it behind me. “Jake, your dad’s here. Remember what I said, right?”