11. Graveyards and Games
Graveyards and Games
C alvin Ledger.
The name of Ghost’s relative is Calvin Ledger. He died twenty-three years ago in a car accident. Back before they perfected the self-driving programming. His parents were in the vehicle with him when it slammed into the side rail. Resulting in the death of everyone inside. Calvin was twenty-one.
I put my tablet down on my bed after re-reading the antiquated police report file.
I was lucky to even find it in the online database or else I would have needed to bring Vicky a coffee a day for at least a week before she would consider going through records to find Calvin’s death report.
Not that I learned much from it. Calvin’s dead.
It’s not like I can ask him questions. Or the rest of his family, it seemed.
Just a dead end.
My thoughts wander toward the subject of Ghost. He hasn’t tried to contact me since our text exchange in the car.
I’ve restrained myself from being the first to reach out by drowning myself in work and I pick my tablet back up with plans to continue doing just that, rather than fall into temptation now that the weekend has come.
Sighing, I glance at the first report and my head pounds. I put the tablet down again.
Reaching over to my side table, I grab my phone instead.
It’s not even eight o’clock on a Friday night and I am tucked into bed.
I consider texting James to see where the party is for the night but decide against it.
While I wouldn’t mind a trip to the club, or the bar inside one, I don’t want to deal with rejecting hopeful, mateless men all night.
Sex would probably make my overworked headache dissipate, but I have a feeling if I were to go home with anyone, Ghost would make an appearance.
That is an altogether different temptation.
I don’t want to have sex with anyone other than Ghost. I can see what Killian meant about the freedom of the mateless.
I am tethered now, whether or not I like it.
Even thinking about being with someone else fails to ignite a spark in my body.
It only kicks into gear when I think about Ghost. Those thoughts make my blood hum.
My current jittering feeling stems from complete and utter boredom, and I itch to grab my kit.
Fuck it.
If I have sex with someone, will you kill him?
I relish the tingling sensation that fills me while the letters soak into my skin.
Only if you write his name
A moment later, another line appears just below Ghost’s first response.
Does kitty need a scratch?
My cheeks heat and my heart pounds against its cage, giving me the rush I crave. That’s exactly what my kitty needs.
I can scratch myself
I write despite meaning the exact opposite. My body may crave him, but my mind is still pissed that my soulmate only owns red flags.
I can watch
No punctuation, and more importantly, no question mark. It isn’t a request.
Since Ghost entered my life, I’ve had this eerie sensation that someone is always keeping an eye on me. I can feel his gaze, a constant presence that sends chills down my spine. He follows me; I know it.
I peel the cuff from my wrist and wrap the tether around it before shoving it back into the drawer, glancing at the handwritten note from him resting on the bottom. He can come into my house whenever he wants.
Rex whines, causing me to open my eyes to the sun streaming through the edges of my curtains.
“Use the doggy door,” I shout back, before turning to my other side.
Rex barks once, a mixture of urgency and whining, followed by a more assertive bark. I groan, opening my eyes to grab my phone and check the time. I stayed up far too late, hoping that Ghost would make a surprise visit, and slept in for once. No wonder Rex is concerned.
“Fine. I’ll get your breakfast.”
Rex sits impatiently outside my bedroom door. His ears flatten and his nose tips into the air to sniff before he whimpers lightly.
“You won’t starve. You big baby.” I fill his bowl, but don’t wait for his bite of approval before turning to head for the coffeepot. “You’re going to have to entertain yourself for a while tonight.”
The spots of darker fur on Rex’s head move in a way that makes it look like he is asking a question.
“I’m going to go visit your mom. If you must know.”
Rex tilts his head, giving a slight whimper before glancing toward the door. Maybe he expects it to open and for Cathy to walk through it to take him home. He sits for a moment in disappointment before lazily returning to his bowl.
I take my hot cup of coffee with me into my room and crawl back into bed, ready to get back to my lazy weekend morning. While I waited to see if Ghost would arrive last night, I was left to plot my next course in figuring out his identity.
I might not be able to have a conversation with Calvin, but that doesn’t mean the dead can’t give clues.
Saturday nights in Arkadia are busy. Everyone, from the mateless district through the mated complex, goes out to celebrate the weekend.
Mated couples with children go bowling or to the movies where young mated couples sit in the back rows and snicker.
The young and mateless are at the clubs, dancing and looking for something to numb the pain.
The older mateless are at home, drowning in sorrow.
Lucky for me, everyone is where they should be, and the cemetery is vacant when I approach Cathy’s headstone with a small bundle of white roses. I lean down to brush away the fallen leaves from the nearby tree before laying a rose on the young grass.
“I fucking miss you,” I manage before taking a seat on the ground next to the flower.
My ass feels the cold seeping in from the damp ground, giving me something to focus on.
Words fail me and I sit in silence, listening to the bustling city in the early evening, breathing deeply to shove the unwelcome emotions back inside.
“Got a new partner at work,” I say, pretending she can hear me.
“His name is Killian. You would like him.” A smile stretches across my face as I imagine Cathy ambushing Killian at the coffeepot in the mornings.
“I don’t think he would know how to handle someone like you.
” I let out a crack of laughter before sighing.
Glancing down to the ground, I spot the rose and pick it up.
My fingers work up the stem, popping the thorns off. “I found my soulmate. Well. Sort of.”
Looking at her headstone, I wish I could see her face, her reaction. Silence fills the air, but my mind envisions her with an overly excited grin while she attempts to hold back something I’m sure would irritate the shit out of me.
“It’s complicated,” I amend before the mental apparition can do just that before tossing the thornless rose back to the ground. “This is stupid,” I grumble to myself before pushing off the ground to get back to my feet.
I take the other roses with me while I search the mateless section for Calvin Ledger.
I find him a few rows over and up, using death years as a general guide.
Few mateless graves are visited, and Calvin’s has moss creeping up from the bottom.
I place a rose on the ground, a stark swatch of white nestled amongst the greenery.
“You don’t know me, but apparently I should have married into your family.” This feels even more awkward than talking to Cathy. “You probably don’t know what I’m talking about.”
I rub my hand across my forehead before reaching around to grab my phone from my purse. It only takes a moment to pull up the cemetery website and navigate to the directory. I type Ledger into the search bar.
I hope to find more members in the family tree.
Three results pop up: Anthony, Eden, and Calvin Ledger. All with the same date of death, because they were all in the same car. No other members of the Ledger family rest in this cemetery.
Fuck.
I make my way through the headstones, following the sun as it dips below the horizon.
Darkness creeps through the world, seeming to advance with every step I take.
Looking to the side to check the death year of the closest headstone, I freeze, staring directly at the grave of Todd Angler.
The headstone next to him reads Margarete Angler . She died three months before Todd.
I stand for a silent moment, waiting to see if the ghost of Todd will appear to accuse me of killing him.
The moment passes and I figure Todd isn’t angry.
After all, he’s with his soulmate now. Just like he wanted.
I leave Todd’s headstone and continue until I find Mr. and Mrs. Ledger buried side by side.
I place a rose on top of each of their headstones, knowing this will at least send a message to Ghost.
It might be enough to get him to have a conversation with me.
One rose remains, and an idea sparks for the last location to deliver my message.
I head for the car while pulling up Calvin’s death report.
His home address is listed and since mated housing is passed to the next of kin, there is a chance Ghost owns it now.