Till Death Do Us Part: A Paranormal Why Choose Romance (Vows Duet Book 1)

Chapter 32

Chapter 32

Present Day

My skin feels like it’s bursting when Nova pulls away from me, like it is a need to keep her within my grasp at all times. The longer I go without her touch, the crazier I feel. To the point where I’m not sure where the line is anymore.

I’m not sure I would care if there was one, given the opportunity.

Especially after last night, when Koda fucked her brains out all over her room. I thought she’d been loud when we’d had sex after the club. But last night she’d screamed so much I had worried a few times the neighbors may call the police.

The irony is not lost on me that the possibility of the police being called for Nova getting railed is plausible, but not a single murder committed in this house has been noisy enough to alert anyone.

Still, her pleasure-filled pleading echoes in my ear and I shake my head to knock them loose. Maybe it was just that it wasn’t me inside her. Maybe that is why it sounded so much louder because, goddamn, it is driving me crazy that I haven’t been able to touch her since that night everything came to light.

Nova, walking away from me as she ushers her friend along, halts as those thoughts swirl in my head. Looking at me over her shoulder, she assesses me like she can feel the savage things I’m considering. Hell, I’m sure it is written all over my face that I want to take her right here, fuck her right there on the carpet, no matter who is watching—dead or alive.

Tilly tugs at her hands when she stops, tearing her attention from me, and the hurry into the hallway.

“If she can get pregnant from someone looking at her, I’m pretty sure you just succeeded,” Koda chuckles, slapping a hand down on my shoulder. “Come on, Jimmy boy. Let’s go see if our girl can get rid of the banshee in there.”

He stalks off and I trail after him, Theodore falling into step with me. We come around the corner, catching Andy ushering Nova and—unbeknownst to her—Tilly into Nova’s bedroom. All the while, Gabriel howls from Rhea’s room.

“Wait here, and be ready,” he instructs.

“All right,” Nova answers, her voice betraying a hint of nerves.

“All right what?” Tilly says in a high-pitched voice, the confusion obvious. I realize she doesn’t know what is happening—she can’t hear the wailing and couldn’t see Andy—about the same time Nova does, and she quickly fills Tilly in.

Just as Nova finishes explaining, Andy tumbles into the hall from Rhea’s room, grappling with Gabriel as he shrieks and moans and makes all the noises you hear in Halloween sound effect tracks. Koda launches toward them, seizing one of Gabriel’s arms. Together, they manage to haul him forward, toward Nova’s room.

Nova, who had been standing in the middle of the open space while Tilly perched on the bed, edges away from the open doorway as the noise and struggle gets louder. The speed of her breathing, her chest rising and falling faster and faster, would be evidence enough of her fear if I wasn’t already able to read it in her face.

Inviting myself, I sweep forward and around her. Her gaze doesn’t waver from the door, even as I place hands on either hip, steadying her, giving her my strength if she needs it.

“It’s okay, sweet girl,” I murmur, ignoring Tilly’s little gasp of surprise when I appear to her. She’ll get used to it, eventually.

“What if he hurts me?” Nova asks, her hands resting on mine, fingers clutching.

“We would never allow that,” I grunt into her ear.

She shoots me a look. “You can’t stop everything from hurting me.”

I can damn well try.

There is no more time for discussion. Gabriel goes sprawling across the threshold of Nova’s room with a scream, Koda and Andy surging in after him. Before they can grab him, Nova holds up a hand, stopping them. She walks forward, stepping out of reach. Only when she’s right next to the writhing, panicking ghost on the floor does her confidence falter.

Still, she cautiously kneels, one trembling hand held out. The second her fingertips make contact, Gabriel’s thrashing stills, other than one deep, body wracking shudder. Relief—his reaction to her touch is one of relief.

Tilly swears under her breath, able to see him now.

“Easy,” Nova murmurs. “Easy, Gabriel.”

“Where am I?” he asks hoarsely. He keeps his head tucked under his arm like it might shield him from the truth. “What happened?”

My sweet girl licks her lips, causing my cock to jerk at the absolutely most inappropriate time. “What do you remember?”

Theodore and I exchange a look, worry crossing his face that Gabriel is about to spill the beans about Rhea.

“I remember being with my friends. We were out at a bar. That’s it. That’s all I remember!”

I don’t have to look to know Theodore is relieved; I can feel it.

Not allowing his panic to take root again, Nova gently rubs at his back. “That’s fine,” she soothes. “That’s fine.”

She glances up, looking unsure about what to do next. Every ghost in this room gives her a slight shake of their head, including me, because we’re just as clueless as she is.

“Don’t tell him directly,” Tilly says suddenly. “At least they say not to do that in some of the stuff I’ve read and watched.”

“Then how…?” Nova trails off in frustration, her hand still rubbing soft circles on his back. She looks down at him and takes a long, deep breath. “Gabriel, are you stuck in this house?”

The question jars him from his madness, enough to make him move his arm completely and lift his head. “I…Can I leave?” he asks, furrowing his brow like he hadn’t considered the topic before. He probably hasn’t.

She shakes her head. “No. You can’t leave.”

We all know that isn’t exactly true, but it’s also beside the point.

“Why?” he questions, his expression now much more curious than tormented.

“Because you don’t belong out there anymore,” she answers, very softly. “You don’t belong in here anymore, either. Do you understand?”

“I don’t belong out there and I don’t belong in here?” he asks, and then his voice slips into a mumble too convoluted and quiet for me to make out the words.

Nova stays quiet, still rubbing his back, calmly waiting. Her patience pays off when, after a good minute of talking to himself, Gabriel sits straight up. It startles her, but she keeps her hand on him, her touch keeping him tame.

“Pain, pain, pain,” he gasps. “There was so much pain.”

I can tell she wants to ask about the pain, but she only gives his shoulder a gentle squeeze. “There is no more pain,” she murmurs.

Gabriel starts to sob, his eyes void of actual tears. And then, similar to what Chris did when she helped him, he falls on top of Nova, his hands frantically grasping at her as he descends into a different type of hysteria that she’s been locked in.

“I’m dead,” he weeps. “I’m dead, aren’t I? All that pain…and then I died.”

“Yes,” Nova whispers, tears teeming in her eyes. I watch as they breach the rims of her eyes and spill down her cheeks, the way Gabriel’s should if he were not a ghost. “Yes, you are. And I’m so sorry for that.”

He cries on her shoulder, her arms wrapped around him like a mother comforting a child. In fact, the way he responds to her is like a child needing his mother to make everything better. It’s a strange sight, given that neither of them have met until this moment. Almost as if Nova was made to console and guide the lingering dead in the world.

Tilly shifts on the bed and, when I glance at her, she’s crying too, makeup smudging underneath her eyes. Gabriel’s sobbing slows, turning to deep sighs. Nova’s fingers tap against his back as she gives him a two-handed little pat. Before anyone can say anything, Gabriel starts to glow; the same neon blue color Chris glowed as he moved on.

But Gabriel grips Nova harder, like he’s fighting it.

“But where am I going?” he asks in full panic mode. “What’s going to happen?”

“It will be fine,” she answers, glancing around at all of us, shrugging her shoulders a bit. Because hell if any of us know what is going to happen when we move on. “Just…uh…go toward the light?”

She winces as Koda snorts, and I clear my throat to cover my snicker.

Nova suddenly blinks, her back going rigid. “Go,” she orders shakily, pushing at him gently.

Something isn’t right. I step forward at the same time as Theodore and Koda, all of us on alert.

She pushes again, a little harder. “Gabriel, you need to move on. You know you’re dead now. It’s time to find out what comes next.”

He allows her to slough him off this time, his face solemn. “Thank you….” His voice trails off, realizing he doesn’t know her name.

“Nova,” she supplies with a soft smile, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. She pushes herself back, releasing all contact with him, climbing to her feet in a way that reminds me of a cornered animal.

“Nova,” he repeats, glowing brighter and brighter. “Thank you, Nova.”

I blink against the brightness, and then he’s gone.

Everyone is unmoving, staring at the spot he disappeared from. Nova trembles in place, wrapping her arms around herself and rubbing like she’s cold. Which she very well may be with all of us in this small room.

“What happened?” Tilly asks, making everyone whip their attention to her. Oh, right. She couldn’t see Gabriel once Nova released her hold on him.

Nova’s shoulders sag, a pent up breath sighing out of her. “He’s gone. He moved on.”

“That’s awesome!” Tilly studies her. “Right?”

She fidgets. “Yes.”

I move, hearing the emotion in her voice, and seize her hand before she can step away. “What happened? There at the end.”

Studying me, her eyes glaze with tears again. “There was a choice,” she chokes out. “I felt it. When he was holding onto me. There was a choice to go with him.”

Alarms blare in my head. “And did you want to?”

She shakes her head. “I was afraid he’d drag me with him, anyway,” she admits.

“Not a chance in hell that any of us would have allowed that,” I reassure her.

I include Andy in that, though he doesn’t seem to have an interest in her beyond friendship. Tilly nods at me as I gesture around, putting her in our camp too despite her lack of ability to see us without our Nova.

“Maybe we should take a break for a little while,” Andy suggests quietly, surveying her with the practiced eye of a medical professional. “We don’t want to push you too fast, especially if it’s going to upset you.”

“No.”

My eyes widen at the strong response, coming straight from Nova herself. I don’t think I’ve ever heard her speak so fiercely.

“No,” she repeats, just as firmly. “I want to help everyone I can, as fast as I can. I don’t want to leave them trapped here because I’m not comfortable. I can do this. Please, let me do this.” Her voice turns to a plea on the last words.

“I will be here for every single one,” Tilly announces, obviously picking up enough on the conversation to contribute. “That way, if Nova needs help on the…living side…I’m here.” I give her a grateful smile.

Andy nods hesitantly, but he doesn’t argue. “I’ve been poking around with the others about theirs. I don’t think it’ll take much for some of them. Archer just needs to come out to someone alive, I think.”

“Bring him,” Nova orders. When we hesitate, the muscles in her jaw pop. “I said, bring him.”

Koda chuckles, stepping up to us and pressing a kiss to her cheek. He keeps hold of her as he pulls back, the L of his hand braced at the base of her neck. Not quite gripping her throat, but lingering there with the threat.

“It’s hot as fuck when you get bossy, little Nova,” he murmurs, kissing the tip of her nose. He disappears, and Andy goes too, presumably to round up Archer.

When Nova’s eyes come back to me, there is a lingering distrust for me, and it kills me more than her sister ever did.

“I will make it up to you one day,” I murmur, too low for anyone else to hear.

She cocks her head, disengaging my grip, and then heads to where Tilly has stayed put, to sit next to her. When she’s situated, she raises her gaze to me once more, and her whispered words help soothe the way I would crawl out of my own skin if it meant I could have her against it once more.

“I know you will.”