Chapter 14
Kendyll
NO ONE WAS OUTSIDE—THANK God. That would make it harder to see this through. Xander led the woman to a corner of the terrace, which was blocked from view of those beyond the glowing windows.
I pulled up some music on my phone before asking the lady, “How about a waltz?”
“That would be lovely!”
“Oh boy,” Xander drew with a tight smile.
I tried to fight my own as he and the dead woman faced and held each other in the beginning pose of a waltz.
“The Blue Danube” began, and I stood to the side as Xander led—albeit, stiffly—the woman through an elegant waltz.
I hid my grin behind my fingers. The ghost practically shot heart arrows with her gaze toward Xander, chatting happily as they danced.
The demon was a good sport, conversing quietly with her.
As I watched the two, I wondered what the woman saw.
Over my lifetime of dealing with ghosts, I’d learned a lot.
A ghost oblivious to what they were didn’t necessarily see or experience things the same way the living did.
They experienced the world in a way that aligned with what they believed to be true.
When she looked at Xander and I, she probably saw us wearing the same fashion that she did or maybe even saw an actual private orchestra set up to explain the music that came from my phone.
My heart was heavy with both warmth and sympathy.
This woman had been stuck, lost to a desperate search for a man who’d never come, for what had surely been a long time.
I couldn’t begin to imagine how lonely she must’ve been, haunting this ballroom and hotel in an aching search for her lost love and their promised dance.
Xander and the ghost woman finished their dance.
The smile she wore was brighter than the moon and stars overhead as she held both of Xander’s hands.
In a final act of chivalry, he leaned down to kiss her cheek.
Her pale flesh turned warm with color while a glow lit at the center of her chest. That blinding light grew large until it swallowed her form.
When the light cleared, the woman had vanished.
I grinned. “She’s moved on.”
Xander dropped his hands. “I guess so. She—”
He paused as he faced me, eyes locked somewhere over my shoulder. I followed his line of sight and was stunned to see a handful of other ghosts standing to the side of the terrace. They were each in outfits from varying eras, yet they all smiled hopefully at Xander and I.
“Um,” I began hesitantly, “hello.”
“We would like to dance, please,” a tall Black gentleman said, waving at himself and the other spirits with him.
Xander appeared at my side and gave me a sideways glance. “How exciting. A ghost dance party.” He dropped his voice. “If people see us and lock us up, it’s your fault.”
I opened my mouth to hiss at him, but he swept away to offer his hand to the next waiting ghost. A new playlist of classical music now played from my phone, so Xander led the ghost through the waltz to the new piece. Meanwhile, the gentleman offered his hand to me, which I hesitantly accepted.
Normally, the feeling of a hand on mine would’ve sent a ripple of disgust and anxiety through me, but while I hated being touched by other people, ghosts had always been different.
Their touch was akin to a whisper against my flesh as opposed to a true grip or caress.
Their bodies were less firm and real, which made stomaching contact with them easier.
The touch of a ghost didn’t feel like skin but rather the memory of it.
The gentleman’s black facial hair was perfectly trimmed, and a mauve suit hugged his muscular, warm brown body.
He would’ve been one of the most dashing men here—dead or alive—if it wasn’t for the red, gaping hole in the center of his chest. Without meaning to, I looked at the torn open flesh for a second too long.
He squeezed my hand as much as his ghostly body would allow. “Do not worry. The blood has long since dried, so it will not dirty you.”
“Oh, I wasn’t worried.” Nibbling my lip, I scrutinized him with a tilt of my head. “So, you know you’re dead?”
He chuckled and twirled me once before pulling me back in. “I do. It was a great shock at first. But I enjoy being here now.”
“Are you ready to move on, too?”
“No,” he answered with a charming grin. “I simply wanted to dance with this beautiful lady before me. I can only dance with my fellow spirits so many times before it becomes monotonous. How nice that someone like you stumbled into this party this evening.”
I returned his friendly smile. I couldn’t blame him for wanting to change things up for the night.
As he said, some of the ghosts around us looked none-the-wiser to the reality of their existence—no fatal blows to see, no disheveled or ghastly appearancess—while others, like my partner, wore their final moments for all to see.
One woman had a red and purple indention around her neck, while another scantily dressed lady had deep slices cut into her arms. What a mixture of those who knew why they were here as opposed to those who were still stuck wondering and asking what was happening.
Hopefully, Xander and I could give peace to that latter group tonight.
My partner led me through a ballroom dance, though I was nowhere near as graceful or skilled as the transparent ghosts twirling in pairs around us. He tilted his head roguishly and asked, “The lady is unpracticed in the waltz?”
My cheeks warmed. “I’m sorry.”
“Two left feet,” Xander threw out as he twirled by with his own partner.
I glared in his direction and had the urge to smack that smirk off his handsome face. Because he was still just as handsome as he had been the day I left. Hell, he was probably even more handsome than he was back then, despite not aging.
I resettled my attention on my ghostly dance partner. He finished twirling me around before bending to kiss my knuckles. With a thanks extended toward me, he stepped aside to let another apparition take his place.
This was going to be a long night.
Xander and I went down the line, giving each soul their turn.
Some moved on from this afterlife once their dance was over while others happily returned to the bustle of the party inside.
Not all ghosts sought to be free of their perpetual residency in the spirit world.
Some even enjoyed being a ghost, able to haunt and live as a phantom with no true boundaries or fear of death.
As an older gentleman finished guiding me around the outdoor terrace, he burst into light. When the glow cleared, I looked around to find there were no more waiting spirits. I let out a tired breath and turned to find I wasn’t entirely alone.
A serene classical piece continued to play from my phone while Xander and I stared at one another.
The air grew heavier, and wordlessly, he offered me his hand.
I took it and let him pull me in close. He held the small of my back while I gripped his upper arm.
Our fingers intertwined, and slowly, we swayed to the music with the light of the party glowing through the distant windows and the glimmer of the stars above.
“I knew it. I much prefer dancing with you than a ghost,” Xander declared with a grin.
“What do ghosts feel like for you as a demon?”
“Depends on how much energy they have. If they have enough energy, they feel like this.” He squeezed my hand and waist. “Solid. Fleshy. Just colder than a normal person.” He spun me before pulling me back into his arms. “You?”
“They aren’t really solid or fleshy for me. But I can still touch the air around them when they have enough energy to create that illusion of a physical body.”
“Because you’re gifted,” he explained. “Other people wouldn’t be able to feel or touch them like that.”
“Go on. Praise me some more.”
He laughed, and an easy silence followed with classical music as the backdrop to our slow dance.
“Your hair is longer,” I noted eventually, drinking in all of his close features.
His face was the same as it had been—sharp jaw, skin that had never seen a pimple, eyes darker than the deepest abyss, plump pink lips, a matte black ring hooked through his nose.
Some things were different, though. His black hair was longer and fluffier, brushing the tops of his ears and across his forehead.
The muscles of his arms and chest seemed bigger, too, though maybe they had always been large, and I merely noticed it now with my older eye.
After all, younger me had been mesmerized by the demon’s handsome face and his demonic features, not how firm his body looked and felt or how his tapered waist caused a fire to roil in my stomach. As a woman, though …
“Yeah,” he replied, drawing me out of my salacious thoughts. “I’m trying to grow it out to do a half-long, half-shaved hairstyle for the band. Those other shits don’t like changing up their hair, so I figured I’d take one for the team and be the one constantly changing my style.”
“Now I’m intrigued to see all the different looks you pull out in the future.”
“Speaking of looks,” Xander mused with a slight tilt in his head, “I’m surprised. It’s been years, but you still only have the one tattoo. I would’ve expected more by now.”
I cocked my own head. “Oh, I have one more. You just can’t see it.”
His obsidian eyes narrowed a fraction, clouding with restrained desire as they raked over me. “Is that a taunt? Because I’ll absolutely take that dress off if you goad me.”
I swallowed hard as an unfamiliar heat lit up my insides.
The feeling was scarily overwhelming, so I changed the subject.
I couldn’t get lost in Xander like I wanted to in the past. I couldn’t dig up the desires I’d long since given up on.
Desperate to expel the fantasies of him from my head, I whispered the first thing that popped into my head.
“Why did you never look for me?”