Chapter 4
Chapter four
Jasper
Iknew there was something about Palmer from the moment I first saw her. I spotted her stomping her way over to Haunt, and I couldn't take my eyes off her.
As a ghost, it was very easy for things to get stagnant.
There were only so many times I could jump off building tops and plummet to the ground.
At some point over the years, I started wishing that my spectral body would actually explode on contact with the concrete instead of falling through into the fucking sewers underground.
But then Palmer arrived. She brought with her a kind of energy I had imagined I hadn't experienced since before my death.
She ignited something inside me—a spark of life, a flicker of hope that I could actually feel something again.
It was almost as if she had the power to reignite my spirit, to make me feel alive again.
Palmer's touch brought warmth and color back into my world, which had been cold and gray for so long. With each touch from her hands, I felt stronger and more connected to her than anyone, at least from what I could remember from my previous life, which, admittedly, wasn't much.
After our first connection, bits and pieces of the past flickered to life in my mind.
I'd followed The Exiled from the beginning, but I never really understood why.
I knew I was somehow connected to them and felt this indescribable obsession with watching over them.
What else was I going to do with all of my time? Plus, they were very entertaining.
What I didn’t understand was how they never discussed their lives prior to being exiled.
It was infuriating at times. Every single time one of them would almost slip, one of the others was there to shut down the conversation immediately.
Whatever happened in their past must've been incredibly painful and traumatic if they couldn't even bring themselves to talk about it with each other.
So naturally, when I was with her in that stairwell at Haunt and Rhodes showed up, I ghosted myself up a few flights of stairs and listened to their conversation.
I finally, finally, knew who I was before.
I was Felix and Talon's brother! I had a family, and I’d been with them this entire time.
It was a good thing spirits didn't need to breathe because that revelation would've stolen the very air from my lungs.
Rhodes' reaction to the mention of my name was the confusing part. The anger, the absolute rage... it didn't make any sense. After watching the man for so long, I knew he could be a dick, but he rarely let his emotions out for others to see, preferring instead to hide them.
Regardless, I thought his reaction toward Palmer, after she revealed I was with her, was bullshit. If I could've punched him in the face, I would have. That's why I followed her when she fled from the club.
I tightened my grip on Palmer's body as we neared Haunt.
Gods, she felt too damn good up against me.
Her nails dug into my shoulders in response, and I had to stifle a moan.
Even her fingertips against my skin were such a jolt to my system, adding a hint of pain with it?
Fuck. I landed us right in the living room of the penthouse, and found her staring up at me with big blue eyes, her chest heaving with excitement.
"We fucking did it, Jasper!" she exclaimed, grinning. That was something she didn't do nearly enough. Her whole face lit up when she smiled like this.
"I knew you could do it," I replied, realizing that both of her hands were in mine as we stared at each other. Slowly, she averted her gaze and scanned the room. The glorious grin on her face fell away in an instant and was replaced with a scowl.
She dropped my hands like they were burning her. "Why the fuck would you bring me here?! I cannot be here." She turned from me and beelined for the door. "Rhodes will try to kill me. They all will!"
I reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her back around to me. "Nobody can see us right now." I wriggled the fingers on my free hand. "See? We're still ghosts."
"But for how long? And what happens when I turn solid and Rhodes walks in? I know you didn't stick around to listen to his threats, but—"
"Actually—" I interjected, "I did."
Her mouth dropped. "And you just, what? Eavesdropped and let him speak to me like that? Why didn't you help me? You could've backed me up!"
Oh, she was furious. Her face was red, and her eyes narrowed on me like she was moments from planning my second death.
"Will you let me explain? I just helped you escape from that fucking lunatic, did I not? What reason do you have not to trust me?"
"Hmm," she hummed sarcastically and tapped her finger on her chin. "Let's see? You're family to them, and if there's anything I've learned about my limited time with The Exiled, that's all they care about. Each other. Fuck everyone else." She glared at me. "How am I doing so far?"
I crossed my arms. "For such an intelligent woman, sometimes you can be really fucking dense."
Her eyebrows hit her hairline. "Excuse me?"
"First of all, the entire time I've spent in this form, I've had no idea who I was.
My past is nothing but a black hole, and my family?
Yeah, they don't even speak my fucking name.
Trust me, I've been trying to figure out who I was for longer than you've walked this damn realm!
" I let out an unnecessary but instinctual deep breath, attempting to regain some composure, but I was hurt and pissed.
"What do you mean you don't know who you were? All ghosts know their past."
"Well, apparently not all. I learned the truth when Rhodes screamed it at you, and I thought he was out of line, so I followed you."
She paced back and forth as she processed my words. Shaking her head, she said, "It doesn't matter. None of it matters. I still need to get as far away from them as possible. I know what they did."
“What do you mean? What did they do?”
She gave me a pointed look and held it, as though she was looking for something. The moment stretched on, and I couldn’t stand it anymore.
“They’re dicks. We both know that. Hell, everyone fucking knows that. But they also care about you. I’ve never seen them like this with a woman, and I’ve been around for a long time.”
Palmer scoffed. “Of course you’d defend them!”
I threw my hands up in frustration. “WHAT DID THEY DO?!”
“They killed my parents!” she shrieked and then picked up a vase and hurled it against the wall.
I reeled back, as though the vase had hit me instead. “What? No, that can’t be right.” Mentally, I began searching and sifting through the memories I did have of my time with The Exiled, the conversations I’d overheard, the things I’d witnessed. “Who told you that?”
“Doesn’t matter who,” she snapped, her shoulders rising and falling with her breathing.
From the intensity of her emotions, this was new information for her. “Scorpio would say anything to turn you against them… you can’t believe him.”
“Scorpio didn’t tell me; it was an old friend, someone I trust completely.”
The man she’d met in the rain before Scorpio kidnapped her. That man… I cleared my throat. "Um, well, I have something I need to confess."
My words halted her pacing, and she slowly turned her face to me. She said nothing, just cut me down with those blue eyes.
"The first time we touched, and I got my solid body back... some of my memories came back." I furrowed my brow. "At least, I think they're memories."
"So, you did know who you were before Rhodes told me?"
I shook my head. "No. That's what's weird about it.
None of the memories were about any of the guys.
It was mostly snippets of me working in a room.
Rays of sunlight were coming through a stained-glass window high above the desk I was working at.
There was a dragon on the window, and all of these little glass bottles with corks lined the shelves. "
"Okay," she said slowly. "What does that have to do with anything?"
Palmer’s features blurred, and I was staring at those clear bottles as swirls of mist danced about inside of them, and I don’t know how I knew it, but whatever that mist was… it was angry. Unease and fear hit me out of nowhere, and I physically stumbled back.
I heard his voice. "Jasper?"
His face appeared just like it had before. An inch from mine. An evil, evil demon.
"Hey, hey! Jasper!"
I jumped when Palmer grabbed my arm.
"Look at me. Hey, you're okay," she said softly, like she was speaking to a scared child. "Look at me." Her hands were on my cheeks, tilting my face down to hers. "Just breathe. You're not there. You're here."
I blinked, feeling myself coming back to reality. "I didn't know who he was. I didn't know his name." I was rambling, and I knew it didn't make sense.
"Who, Jasper?"
"The man from my past. The demon. I just knew he wasn't good. And then, after you ran and I chased you, there he was. You were talking to him!"
She stared up at me. "Wait, the only person I talked to after I left, aside from Scorpio, was Asrael... but he was wearing another's face. You shouldn't have been able to..."
"I saw his true face. Maybe because I’m a ghost and a demon, I'm immune to their deceptions? I don't know. But Palmer, I'm telling you, that man is evil." I ran my fingers through my hair and let out a frustrated growl. "I just wish I could remember more. I need to know the whole story."
"Asrael was in your memories? That... doesn't make any sense. Were you listening to our conversation?"
"No, but not for lack of trying. I tried to follow, but I couldn’t come any closer. Something was literally blocking me, and that’s never happened before. Something very weird is going on.”
We both stood in silence for a few moments, trying to piece together what this meant. Could we trust Asrael? Everything in my being screamed NO. Were my memories even real? What was the truth?