31. Like a Ghost
LIKE A GHOST
Alex
Irene hadn’t stopped shaking from the moment we’d found the thug. The ride home had been uncomfortable for everyone. My footman and coachman had carried the unconscious thug in the carriage, and I’d insisted on hailing a cab with Irene. She’d been too shocked to sit next to the bastard.
Now she quivered in my sitting room as we waited for the man to come around, and I hated that I wasn’t able to wrap my arms around her to protect her from the world.
I handed her a cup of tea.
“Where is he?” Her voice cracked.
“Secured in a cell underground. He’s still unconscious, as the blood loss was substantial, but he might recover.” I sat in front of her. The glow of her skin was fading, a sign her power was leaving her. “We haven’t solved your problem.”
She gripped the cup for dear life. “Can we discuss that tomorrow?”
“Yes, but we can’t postpone it any further.”
She put down the cup and cried. Silent tears trickled down her cheeks, shimmering like pearls.
I reached out to take her hand, but I had to stop when my skin grew clammy. My hand hovered awkwardly over hers before I gave up and withdrew it.
“He brought back everything.” She wiped her cheeks. “I remember something Sean told me.”
“What?” I stared at her hand a few inches from mine.
All I had to do was stretch out my fingers. The distance was minimal. The courage required to cover it was endless.
“He said he fed on fear and pain.”
That got my full attention. “Riley said the same thing.” I pondered the information. “It could be a coincidence or not. We have to wait for Darius to finish examining your house.”
“Thank you for helping me.” She stared into the tea as if wanting to divine the future.
“I regret not having stayed close to you after my transformation. I didn’t trust myself, and my control wasn’t reliable. Had I stayed, you would be home safe.”
“I missed you. I couldn’t believe you were dead.” A bitter chuckle left her. “Now we’re both dead. Well, you’re undead, and I’m almost alive.”
“With time, the pain, the confusion, and the fear will be forgotten.”
“If I don’t kill a man, will fading be painful?” Her fingertips almost touched mine.
The sensation going through me wasn’t entirely unpleasant. “Yes, it will. As a last resort, I could turn you into a vampire. It might not work though since you aren’t human anymore.”
“Biting people to survive is hardly better. I would exchange being a spirit for being a…” She held a breath.
“A monster? That’s what I am, and you’re right.” It stung, but it was true.
“I really didn’t mean—” She placed her hand over mine, and the burst of pain was so sudden and unexpected that I jumped, knocking the armchair backwards.
I gnashed my teeth, waiting for the pain to die down.
She looked horrified. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Don’t apologise. You asked me whether I was disgusted with you.
No, I’m disgusted with myself.” I clenched a hand on my stomach as nausea threatened to make me throw up.
“My transformation was particularly excruciating. I was beaten and then I transformed in a crowded hospital room where sick people were piled on top of me. Since then, my skin has become very sensitive. Touching or being touched triggers pain and fear, even though I’m aware a simple touch can’t be painful.
” I touched my temple. “But the pain is here. I asked Darius for a potion or a spell to overcome my fear, but he said he could heal the body, not the mind. I forced myself to endure the agony of his touch, but I’ve always been too sick to succeed. ”
“How can I help?”
I stepped back from her, doing the opposite of what my heart begged me to do. “There’s nothing I want more than to hold you, be normal, and enjoy holding your hand. But I don’t see how I can improve.”
“I don’t believe it.” She edged closer. “Alex.”
“Don’t worry about me.” I held up a hand to keep her away.
“Of course I’m worried.”
The intrusive and unwanted need to scrub my skin raised my anxiety. “I… I need to leave.” I left the sitting room and locked myself in my bedroom, losing yet another battle.
In my bed, I watched the sun rising, almost wishing it would turn me into dust.
There was nothing I wanted more than to touch Irene, hold her in my arms, and be normal without fear, pain, or feeling sick. I should accept her offer of help. Or I should let her go to live her life in the light where she belonged.
Sunlight streaked across the floor towards me inexorably as if it wanted to prove that darkness didn’t own me.
Darius barged into my bedroom, making me bolt upright. “Alex, you need to come.”
I shoved off the covers and donned my shirt and trousers. “Is it Irene?”
“No.” He frowned as if he didn’t recognise me. “It’s the man you brought in yesterday. He’s gone.”
“Gone? From a cell with four-foot-wide walls and iron bars? How?”
“Search me.”
We rushed down the stairs towards the lower floors, and the air became cool. Darius’s breath turned to mist. I came to a grinding halt in front of the empty cell. The man’s clothes and boots were lumped on the floor. The chains and shackles hung from the wall, holding air.
Aside from a narrow opening secured by a grid of steel bars and close to the high ceiling, the only access was the reinforced, armoured steel door guarded by werewolves.
“Who has the key?” I paced in the cell, searching for any detail that helped.
“I do.” Graves stepped inside, an air of challenge on his face.
“Did you open the door for any reason last night?”
A growl rumbled out of him. “Why would I have done such a thing?”
“Stop growling. I’m not accusing you of anything. Did you have any contact with the prisoner?”
He didn’t soften. “No. I carried him in here when he was unconscious, shackled and chained him, and locked the door.”
“And was the lock intact when you came down this morning?”
“It wasn’t forced. The door was locked, and the shackles were as they are now.”
Darius paced as well. “Did you detect any supernatural powers?”
“None.” Graves shrugged. “He was completely human.”
“I agree.” I studied the opening. “I drank his blood.”
The bars were solid and in place, and the window was too tight and narrow for him to go through.
“Darius, is there a spell that allows someone to leave a cell undetected?”
He scratched his chin. “Many, but he wasn’t a mage. Although a mage might have come to his rescue.”
“Not possible.” Graves sounded affronted. “My wolves and I patrol the grounds at night. And you set protective spells around the estate. Unless your spells are weak—”
“They are not! But an exceptionally powerful mage… Oh, wait. I’m an exceptionally powerful mage.” Darius grinned.
I rolled my eyes. “A human without any magical powers vanished like a ghost.”
If he’d been a supernatural creature, his blood would have given him away. It’d tasted normal if not for the tobacco.
Darius pointed at the window. “That’s the only way out.”
“It’s narrow. The man was broad.”
“When you exclude the impossible,” Darius said, “whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”