Chapter 13 #2
“What a question,” she laughed ruefully. She looked around the room and sipped on her champagne. Finally, she shrugged and answered, “I’m fine. I stay busy with work.”
At the mention of her work, I recalled how she and I had ended up at this table. She worked for Bethelma.
“Ha,” I feigned a laugh. “It makes sense now. Are you the reason Haunted Days and Nightmares does so well?”
She nodded. “Yup. I’m Bethelma’s special secret to success.”
“I knew she didn’t seem all that gifted.”
She scoffed. “Gifted? Please. The only thing that old bat is gifted in is deception and acting. I go to the haunted locations before and during shooting her show. I build a rapport with and gather information on the ghosts there. If there even are any. She uses what I tell her to create her show and tricks people into thinking she’s a medium. ”
“How did she manage to snag you, a real Ghost Speaker?”
Kendyll smiled at me, but this time, the expression was coated in ice. “I found what I was good at.”
The response reminded me of those many years ago. I’d taken her in with the stipulation that she find what she was good at and leave. Something angry dwelled within her tone, but she smothered it by looking away before I could truly dissect what I saw and heard.
“You are good at it,” I confirmed with a nod. “So why aren’t you the host of the show? Why let Bethelma take the credit?”
“I don’t want my name and face out there for people to see.” Her gaze seemed to go right through me as she spoke, her voice growing small. In the next beat, she blinked and refocused on me with a flippant, “Not to mention, that wasn’t the contract I signed.”
“You have a knack for getting stuck in places you don’t belong. Asylums—”
“They aren’t called asylums anymore,” she corrected me.
“Legal contracts,” I continued, ignoring her. “What’s next? A demonic contract?”
She blew out an annoyed breath and tipped her head back to look at the ceiling. “It was an accident. I was eighteen. I thought she was being nice and offering me a normal job, not claiming the next ten years of my life where I’d have to do what she says and keep quiet about it.”
I opened my mouth to tell her that’s what she got for leaving without saying anything, but I bit back the knee-jerk response. We’d just met again after all these years. I didn’t think this sassy, grown-up version of Kendyll would appreciate the asshole remark.
“I can practically see some sort of retort pouring out of you,” she noted with a smirk.
I scratched my jaw and laughed softly. “I did good keeping it to myself, though.” Wiping away the guilty expression, I redirected the conversation back to how she wound up here. “How’d Bethelma even find you?”
“I saw an advertisement for a live show she was doing at a theatre, communicating with spirits and getting people in touch with their dead loved ones. I snuck in, because I thought she was someone like me. I wanted her guidance on what I should do with my ability. When I saw her and realized she was a huge fake, I confronted her privately after the show. I proved she was a fraud by actually talking to her dead mother who happened to be lingering there. She saw me as a cash cow, and her tune changed to overly friendly and supportive, which was how I ended up signing for a ‘job.’”
“Yikes.”
Alex, Bethelma’s other assistant, appeared beside us then. “Sorry to interrupt.” He placed a hand on Kendyll’s upper arm, “Kendyll, I—”
Her brows slammed down while she bared her teeth in a furious glare. She jerked away from him, and he quickly recoiled before holding up both hands in surrender.
“Sorry,” he apologized with a remorseful frown and wide eyes. “I forgot.”
“Forget again, and I’ll forget to use the brakes the next time you step in front of my car.”
His face paled, and he nodded hard. “O-Okay. S-Sorry. Um, I was just coming to say Bethelma is drunk. I’m taking her up to her room and turning in for the night myself.”
“Fine,” Kendyll snarled, turning her back on him. “Night.”
His shoulders slumped, and his hands fell to his sides. He offered me an embarrassed yet polite smile. “Good night to you both.”
I whistled with a wicked smile as he left, loving how fiery Kendyll was.
All the poor guy did was barely touch her arm, yet she’d been ready to commit murder.
I knew she had some bite to her back in the day, but it seemed she was all venom and fangs now.
That fact made me want to save a front row seat to her show.
Her attention scanned the room once more, and it cooled as it did a slow sweep. Only then did I realize what she kept looking at.
This event was being held at an older hotel in LA, and among the live and well occupants were a dozen or so ghosts.
Some floated around aimlessly like they didn’t even see the people here, lost in whatever world they’d made up in their dead head.
Others chatted to fellow spirits as though just as much a part of the party as their human counterparts.
One ghost, the one Kendyll watched, seemed a bit more frantic.
She wore an outdated yet elaborate ballgown with feathers and pearls adorning her updo.
She flitted about the room, trying to ask different men to dance with her.
They obviously couldn’t hear or see her, but for her, it came across as being ignored.
She even drifted over to Zagan, Dante, and Coldin at one point, but sadly for her, Zagan and Dante couldn’t see ghosts since they were Incubi.
That class of demon had no use for souls or spirits, so they weren’t given the ability to see them.
Only demons who worked in the field of souls—Mischief demons, Letum demons, or highly ranked demons—needed to see the spectral wanderers.
While Coldin could see ghosts as a Letum demon, he’d never give one the time of day.
The detached drummer ignored her just as he ignored everyone else who dared talk to him.
Nudging Kendyll, I leaned down and whispered, “Should I ask her to dance? How absurd do you think I’d look?”
Kendyll laughed, but unlike the previous ones, this one was real. The light sound was full of warmth and mirth, and it sent an equally airy flutter through my chest.
She met my gaze and answered, “They’d either blame the sight of you dancing with air on too much champagne or have you admitted for being insane.”
We looked at the apparition across the room again. The woman looked our way at the same time.
“Shit,” Kendyll gasped, quickly turning her body into mine. We stood flush against each other, and she gazed imploringly up at me. “Do you think she saw us looking?”
I leaned my arm on the table and casually glanced sideways. The spectral woman clutched her skirts and raced this way, running right through partygoers and tables.
“Oh, yeah,” I answered, meeting Kendyll’s stare. “Definitely saw us looking. She’s a ghost on a mission.”
The woman in question stopped right beside us, her pale face bouncing between us. “Please. Everyone is paying me no mind. I know not why!”
I cleared my throat and tried to avoid her eye contact while Kendyll looked at the desperate ghost from beneath her dark hair.
The spirit clearly didn’t realize she was dead—and had long been, given her outdated dress and speech.
I didn’t tell her this, though, since trying to convince a ghost of their unfortunate state could get ugly.
It was better to play along until they realized it themselves or ignore them.
“I have been waiting,” the forlorn ghost continued, “for William Scottsdale. He has promised me a dance. By chance, have you seen him?”
Kendyll listened to the somber pleas of the dead lady, and a sympathetic frown creased her mouth.
This ghost hadn’t come to terms with her state or moved on because she was waiting on her promised dance.
Kendyll must’ve realized this, too, because the minute her gaze flicked my direction, I saw the wheels turning in those green, scrutinizing eyes. I knew exactly what she was planning.
Narrowing my eyes in warning, I hissed, “Don’t you dare.”
She ignored me and moved so that the ghost now stood between us rather than beside us. She smiled softly at the spirit, but to anyone around us, it would look like she was just smiling at and talking to me because of our new position.
“William couldn’t make tonight’s party, but he sent this gentleman in his stead.”
Kendyll gestured at me, and while I glared down at her, the ghost turned to beam up at me.
“Truly?” the apparition asked.
“Truly,” Kendyll answered for me before I could even open my mouth to object. “Why don’t we go outside so that you can dance? There’s not enough room in here.”
The ghost clapped her hands happily and gazed longingly at me. “Indeed!”
She grasped my arm, which I tucked against my side, giving her the impression of a gentleman ready to guide her away while not obvious to anyone we passed on the way outside.
I wasn’t sure how I got roped into this, but it was fine.
I’d wanted to find something fun to do at the party, and this was certainly …
different. Not to mention, helping a spirit move on gave me a little buzz, a small high, of energy.
With a smile, I led my apparent new date outside.