Wraiths of Winter (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 3) (53 page)

My chair flew over sideways and Zach’s did the same.
Lucas thrust Jonas backward into her path then disappeared
out of sight as he fell down the stairs behind him.

“Allison?” Jonas uttered with disbelief. It was the last
word he would ever speak. With a dumbfounded look on his
face, he flew backward in the wake of her next blast and
toppled head first through the window.

Allison floated serenely to the spot where he fell, the
light of rage no longer causing her to glow. Her image began
to break apart, slowly at first, as though her entire body were
being broken down into little flecks of confetti.
Each tiny
fragment vanished before it could touch the floor boards and
soon there was nothing left of her.
Jonas was dead—there
wasn’t a single doubt in my mind. His death was the only
thing that could have that had that kind of effect on her.

Mixed in with my intense sense of relief was a feeling
of pride. I did something no one else had ever done in the
entire history of ghost hunting—I defeated a wraith! Rita was
going to be
so
proud of me.

40. Intermission

Once Allison and Jonas were both gone, I explained
how I turned her wrath against him and sent them both into
the hereafter. While Lucas undid our restraints, the three of
us decided on a plausible explanation to give to the police and
with barely a moment to spare.

No sooner were we free than the room was filled with
a flurry of activity. Crimson, Rachel, Clay, and what had to be
the entire Charlotte’s Grove police force barged into the tiny
room
armed
with one common thing—questions.
I was
drained from my ordeal so I gave everyone the basic story
then asked if I could go home. By the time I was done giving
Captain Donaldson my official statement, Dad and Shelly were
there to pick me up. All I wanted to do was get out of that
horrendous wedding dress and into my nice warm bed.
I
wanted to hear everyone’s account of the incident and to
share my
own
but
that
was
going
to have to wait until
morning.
Unlike a quick trip to the hospital for x-rays which
Dad insisted I had to have done tonight.

Upon my request my parents let me stay home from
school on Friday. With my phone and car now both back in
my possession, my first order of business was to proudly
share my story with Rita. I couldn’t wait to tell her what I
accomplished.

“Ruby Matthews, have you gone completely insane?
Didn’t I warn you to stay away from that damn theater?” Rita
scolded as I walked in the door to Something Wick-ed.

So much for Rita being proud of me. While her off the
cuff greeting wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, I hoped that
once she got the initial anger out she would be excited. I was
right.

The
shop
was
busy
with
post-Valentine’s Day
shoppers greedily grabbing half price cupid candles so once
they were gone, Rita hung a “back in five minutes” sign in the
door to give us some time to talk. I assumed that she would
want to discuss it in her office but when I went to open the
door to it, she quickly tried to stop me. She was just a hair too
late and when the door was barely opened a crack, I looked
down to find something peering back up at me.

Eyes. Big, green eyes. Big, green, cat eyes. Before I
could get the door shut, a tiger striped feline with short
chubby legs darted through the opening and out into the
shop.
I only caught a quick glance at it but I realized that I
knew that cat.

“What’s King Tut doing here?” I asked, suddenly
realizing that Rita had been keeping secrets of her own. “And
where were you when I tried to call you last night?” I may
have made some stupid
mistakes
while dealing
with
my
situation but I wasn’t going to be the only one on trial here
today.

“I decided to get a cat,” she answered slowly. “And I
had plans last night so I closed the shop down a little early.
Now about that wraith—“

“Oh no, you don’t. You’re hiding something from
me—or at least trying to. What have
you
been up to?”

“Okay so I’m busted. I’ll tell you everything if you help
me wrangle that little guy back into my office. See if you can
find where he went to and I’ll grab the cat treats I bought on
my way to work this morning.”

He wasn’t that hard to find. I found him perched in
the front window, carefully licking his royal splendor for all
the world to see. Rita gathered him up, gave him a treat, then
escorted him back to her office. When she didn’t immediately
offer her explanation, I folded my arms across my chest and
tapped my foot in an exaggerated display of impatience.

“Okay smarty pants,” she replied, “I didn’t answer the
phone last night because I was on a date. King Tut, who you
are
clearly
already
acquainted
with,
was
part
of
my
Valentine’s Day present. I didn’t come home last night so I
didn’t have a chance to get him settled upstairs yet.
Satisfied?”

“Not completely. This date of yours—I’m acquainted
with him as well, aren’t I?”

 

Rita’s face turned red and she tried not to smile.
“Maybe.”

“You’re dating Andy, aren’t you? No, you don’t even
have to answer that question—it’s written all across your
face!”

Rita began to stutter out a denial so I broke into song.
“Andy and Rita sittin’ in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

“Okay fine—you got me. I wasn’t going to say
anything just yet but now that the cat’s out of the bag, so to
speak, Andy and I have been dating since New Year’s Eve.”

“OMG! I noticed you seemed different lately but I
never would have guessed what you were hiding until I saw
Tut. He was like the shelter mascot—Andy wouldn’t let just
anyone have his baby!
Aw, that’s so awesome. I’m really
happy
for you
guys.
I
would ask how things
are going
between you but since you already said that you didn’t come
home last night—“

“Yes, Andy and I are doing just fine—you’re the one
I’m worried about. When I drove home this morning, I saw
police cars at the Bantam. Captain Donaldson’s wife Gloria
was my first customer this morning so I poked around for
some information. I didn’t know exactly what happened but I
knew that you were involved.”

I quickly filled her in on all the boring details—all of
the kidnapping and serial killer stuff—so I could spend more
time describing how I banished Allison.

“Ruby! As long as you understand that you were
completely insane to face her alone, I want you to know that
the entire paranormal community is going to want to hear
your story! I can’t wait to call Gerald.”

Now there was the pride I was waiting for! With our
five minutes being up about five minutes ago, customers were
restlessly milling about on the sidewalk eyeing their watches.
There were plenty of other things I wanted to do so I called a
goodbye to King Tut through the office door and waved to
Rita as the bargain shopping throng entered the shop.

It was just as easy for me to convince Dad and Shelly
that things were finally back to normal.
Once they fully
understood that I really did only sneak Lucas into the house
for protection purposes, I got all of my privileges back. While
I had to endure a lengthy lecture on why I should stop
insisting on handling huge issues like that one without their
guidance, it was
well worth it once I had my
beautiful,
wonderful phone back in my hand. Oh, how I’d missed it! As
soon as I got home from Something Wick-ed, I took it upstairs
with me so that I could text….

No one, I texted no one.
What did I want to say to
Zach?
To Lucas?
I thought maybe once I talked to Rita and
got the initial excitement of defeating a wraith out of my
system that I would be ready to talk to both of them.
I was
wrong.
So there I sat on my bed hours later still trying to
construct a message to either of them. The problem was that
now that I had no other problems to deal with, all of the
confusing feelings I had for both of them were all I had to
focus on. It was frightening, simply frightening.

I tried to weigh the consequences in my mind one
more time.
My
relationship with Zach was
intense and
chaotic. Highs were super high, lows were devastatingly low.
I still wasn’t sure that danger and drama weren’t the only
things drawing us together. On the other hand, if I’d never
met Zach, Lucas and I would be dating by now for sure.
Things with Lucas were far less confusing and when I was
with him, I felt more normal—more like the old me before all
of this ghost crap happened to me. What was I going to do?

Nothing, I was going to do nothing. At least for now
anyway. I needed to let everything settle for a while and not
obsess over it. I’d always believed that Fate sent you in the
direction you were meant to go. All I needed to do was take a
break from trying to make a decision and let that decision
make itself. In short, I was taking the coward’s way out and
deep down inside, I knew that. After everything I’d been
through, my bravery reserve was totally tapped. Until I felt
strong enough to make a decision, I resolved to make no
decision.

There was
definitely
one thing
I needed
to
do
though—I needed to hear everyone else’s accounts of what
happened last night.
I sent out a mass text to Rachel, Zach,
and Lucas suggesting that we all get together later to discuss
the details.
Within
sixty
seconds, they all replied in
agreement. Rachel volunteered to organize the get together
and get back to me with a time and place because Drake and
Crimson would definitely want to join us.
So many people
held a piece to this puzzle but there was one other guest I
would have to invite myself.

“Clay? Can you come here?” I said aloud as I settled
myself behind the wheel of my Neon.

Almost instantly, he appeared in the passenger seat
beside me. “We’re gonna have to stop meeting like this. This
is exactly how rumors get started, you know.”

I giggled at the sheer absurdity of his statement until I
realized that someone like me was a prime target for juicy
gossip like that. I could just hear it now. “So I heard that Zach
and Lucas
both
dumped her because she was sleeping with
some dead guy!” Giggling ceased.

“Ha ha, very funny Clay,” I deadpanned. “But if you’re
not busy and you’re done being a shitass, I wanted to see if
you would come with me to Boone’s house. We’re all getting
together to try to piece together everything that happened
last night and you’re a big piece of that puzzle.”

“Me? Busy? You’ve got to be joking, right? I have the
rest of eternity to prowl around down at the lake.”

 

“Sorry, but I keep forgetting that you’re dead.”

Clay smiled and fiddled with the buttons on his shirt
self-consciously. “Thanks, Ruby. I like to hear you say that—
it takes away some of the loneliness.”

I swear that boy goes from shitass to sensitive faster
than any living boy I know. Hmm…maybe dating dead boys
wasn’t such a bad option after all? If things didn’t work out
with
either Zach or
Lucas
and
I gave up on real dating
altogether, I would definitely keep Clay in mind. There would
be advantages to the whole cross realm dating thing. I’d love
to see Dad try to catch me with Clay in my room at night!

“Anyway,” I said to change to a less awkward subject,
“Everyone is going to know that you’re there, if that’s okay
with you.
I want you to feel more like a participant in the
conversation than a bystander.”

“That’s fine with me—as long as you’re okay with
everyone knowing your dirty little secret.”

“I am,” I said as I pulled out of the drive. But was I
really?
Circumstances kept leading me to reveal the most
intimate part of myself to near strangers. Don’t get me wrong,
I trusted them all but more and more it felt like my secret
wouldn’t stay a secret for long. Then what was I going to do?
Slowly, it seemed like I was losing the battle to be normal.

That night, I revealed my secret to two more people—
Boone and Drake. Boone was relieved to finally know what
Rachel had been keeping from him since summer. Drake was
grateful to know that Allison was finally at peace and laughed
hysterically at the fact that for a good portion of the last few
months, I firmly believed that he was a raging psycho.
But
while they all seemed to want to thank me for what I’d done
for them, it was me who should have been thanking them all.

So here’s the part of the story that I didn’t know.
Jonas ended the rehearsal only moments after I set out in
search of Crimson.
Rachel left the theater and went to
Boone’s house with the intention of stopping by Rosewood on
her way home. She assumed that since Jackson was in jail and
Rita had said that the theater was safe, that I wasn’t in any
sort of real danger.
When she found out I lied to her about
that part, she pulled out her best “mom” voice and sternly let
me have it before finishing her account.

While snuggling on the couch with Boone, she lost all
track of time.
She knew something was weird when she
suddenly started losing body heat in various parts of her
body.
Once Boone convinced her that she most definitely
wasn’t suffering from a stroke, she realized that the
sensations were exactly the same as the day Clay touched her
in the cemetery. After a few times of asking him to touch her
in specific spots in response to questions, Rachel and Boone
drove back to the theater.