Megan was on the front porch when we pulled into the drive. She braved the pelting rain to rush to the car and give us both a heartfelt hug; both as a welcome home and for sympathy over our loss. When she tried to help with our luggage, Max not only refused her help, but he insisted that she and I both go into the house and he’d follow with the luggage. Sensing that he needed some time alone, I didn’t argue.
“You should have come through the house to greet us,” I said as I pulled on the hem of Megan’s rain-soaked shirt. “You should have known Max would pull right into the garage. Now, you’re soaking wet.”
She stopped before stepping into the breezeway that connected the garage to the house and rung the hem of her shirt out as best as she could.
“I wasn’t thinking,” she said with a shrug. “To tell you the truth, the rain felt marvelous. I’d go back out if I thought Max would let me.”
“Max doesn’t own you,” I said with a
confused snort.
“He can be forceful at times,” she said.
I stopped and looked at her with pure curiosity. “What happened to Megan while I was gone? Who are you? What did you do with her?”
“I’m just not up to any confrontations these days,” she said with her head hung low.
“Oh, for goodness sakes,” I said as I grabbed her by the hand and marched back to the car. My tone was firm and left no room for arguments when I addressed Max. “Megan and I are going to play in the rain for a bit. We’ll be in shortly.”
He gave us an absent-minded look as he pulled the luggage from the trunk. “Have fun, kids.”
I gave a curt nod and, with a childish smirk, I yanked my friend out into the torrential downpour. I had to pull my shirt up over my mouth and nose more than once to be able to breathe properly as we laughed and twirled while our bodies became practically waterlogged. After the tense confines of the plane and car ride home, our behavior was liberating.
Max was in our room by the time I’d finished frolicking in the rain with my best friend. We’d agreed to take a quick hot shower and meet up in the kitchen for some hot chocolate. Megan had some ideas about what caused the fire that took Max’s house and she was eager to share them with him. To my surprise, Max was already in bed and showed no interest in joining us in the kitchen. He suggested that I go down without him, claiming that he was exhausted from the trip and just wanted to go to sleep. Since a night hadn’t passed since I couldn’t remember when that Max had gone to sleep before making love to me, I stripped off my clothes and started to climb onto the bed.
“What are you doing?” he asked with surprise.
I bent maneuvered so that my breast grazed his face as I climbed over his bulk to get onto the bed. “I’m getting into bed so that you can have your sex to go to sleep by, baby.”
He shocked by saying, “Not tonight, my love. I just want to sleep. You take your shower and go back down with Megan. I’m sure that you two missed each other. Tell Megan I’ll catch up with her tomorrow, okay?”
I was speechless with surprise and worry over his declining my offer of my body as I climbed back over my notoriously horny husband and stood by the bed. I watched the steady rhythm of his chest as it raised and lowered for a few seconds before heading into the bathroom for a quick shower. I could hear his soft snores when I finished and went to my dresser to pull out a pair of sweat shorts and a tee shirt.
I kissed him lightly on the forehead before heading downstairs for my cup of hot chocolate.
Megan was already at the stove heating up the milk when I entered the kitchen. I pulled two mugs from the cupboard and set them on the counter beside her.
“Is Max okay?” she asked.
“I’m sure that he will be,” I sighed. “He went to bed right away. He was snoring when I came down.”
“Stress and shock will do that to a person,” she mused.
“It’s a horrible thing. I have no idea what was in there that was lost to him, but I can only imagine.”
“I don’t think that you can,” she said.
“I don’t understand,” I said with knitted brow.
“It’s probably best for him to tell you,” she hedged.
“Oh, no. You can’t do that. Don’t you dare tease me with partial information,” I grumbled as she poured the heated chocolate milk into our mugs and slid one to me. “Tell me, now.”
“I could be wrong. I mean, it’s been years since we’ve talked about it. But, the last I knew, my sister’s ashes were in that house. He not only lost his worldly possessions to the fire. He lost the ashes of his first true love.”
“I don’t know how to feel or what to say,” I stammered as I sat down at the kitchen table and stared at the mug in front of me. “He was just a young boy when she killed herself. How did he come by her ashes?”
“He didn’t have all of the ashes. Just some. He asked my parents and, knowing his pain, they gave him some. The last I knew, he kept them in a jar in his bedroom,” she said.
“That’s not creepy,” I shuddered.
“We’re talking about my sister,” she said with a warning tone.
“It doesn’t matter whose ashes they were. I think it’s creepy is all that I’m saying. Nothing against your sister,” I said, apologetically.
She looked at me long and hard and then smiled. “You’re right. It is creepy. For all I know, he got rid of them.”
“Did your parents keep theirs?” I asked.
“We had a ceremony in the woods and spread them. It’s our way,” she explained.
“That’s not creepy. That’s beautiful. It’s a shame Max didn’t do something like that.”
“He may have,” she said. “It’s been quite a few years,” she offered.
“What else would make him behave in such a way as he has over this fire?” I asked with sincerity. “You know him better than I do in many ways. What loss could crush him like this, other than Melissa’s ashes?”
She folded her arms on the table and lowered her head. “I can’t think of any. If he was that materialistic, I never realized it.”
“Were you ever in his home?” I asked.
She nodded. “Many times.”
“And?” I asked with eagerness and raised brow.
She got a faraway look in her eyes. “It was a normal house. Not too shabby, but not the Taj Mahal either. I’d call it an average Wolf Junction home that leaned toward masculine with its décor.”
“So, it’s the loss of the ashes, then,” I said with a soft, sad voice.
“Don’t let it upset you, my friend. He loves you.”
“Not enough to let her go, though,” I moped. “What upsets me the most is that you’ve told me all of this in confidence so I can’t even approach him about it. The man has a mountain of secrets that he’s keeping from me. How can we have a successful marriage with that standing between us?”
Silence permeated the room. I could see that the wheels of thought were working inside of her head, so I stayed quiet and waited for her to speak.
“I’ll tell you what,” she finally said. “Give him a week to grieve and, then, if he still hasn’t talked to you about all of this, you’re free to bring it up.”
A wave of relief swept over me as I thanked her. We changed the subject to lighter topics. I showed her pictures on my cell phone of our wedding, some of the sights in Las Vegas, and, then, Puerto Rico.
“He looks genuinely happy,” she said as she cradled my phone in her hand. “He looks like a man in love.”
“We were having the time of our lives right up until Larry called to tell him,” I moaned. “I suggested that we come home after five days in Las Vegas. It was him who wanted to stick to the plan of a two-month honeymoon. I can’t help wondering if the house would still be standing if we’d come home like I wanted to do.”
“Should have, would have, could have,” she mumbled. “Why on earth would you want to come back here when you had seven weeks of honeymoon left?”
I looked at her with surprise. “You know, I couldn’t say. It was just something that popped into my head on day number five. I had no special reason.”
“Unless it was the spirits calling you,” she offered.
“Calling me?” I asked with confusion.
“They know no boundaries.”
I visibly shuddered. “I’d forgotten about that afternoon. I hope that thing is gone from here.”
“I did a few more clearings while you were gone,” she said with earnest. “I’m going to admit that I was shocked and I am still shocked by the number of spirits and ghosts in this place. Believe it or not, I still have some to chase out.”
“I don’t get it. You said spirits and ghosts. Isn’t a spirit a ghost?”
She shook her head. “A spirit is free flowing and intelligent. It knows no boundaries and can come and go at will. A ghost is basically trapped energy. Ghost hunters often refer to them as residual energy. Ghosts often don’t realize that they died. If they do, they aren’t able to understand where to go and what to do, so they cling to the familiar.”
“Can I ask you something without you getting upset with me?” I stammered, hesitantly.
She cocked her head with curiosity and nodded.
“Do you think that Melissa’s ghost or spirit was hanging around the ashes that Max kept?”
Megan’s face went white. Her eyes not only widened, but they filled with tears. “It’s something that I never even gave thought to, but it’s highly possible. Unless Max had a releasing ceremony, then she could easily be hanging around. She committed suicide, after all.” She slapped her forehead so hard that I jumped with sympathy pain. “What’s wrong with me? Why didn’t I think of that and perform a ceremony to release her from those ashes like we did ours? That’s probably why it took so long for Max to fall in love again or even look at a woman. She’s probably had some kind of hold on him.”
“You were young when that happened. And traumatized,” I said in a soothing tone. “Don’t beat yourself up.” I reached over and placed my hand over hers. “We don’t know that she didn’t move on. Let’s wait to find out. If she didn’t, can’t one be done now?”
The following week was relatively uneventful as Max and I settled back into life at the former funeral home that I’d rented. To my relief, both Angela and Evan were away on a mission, so it was only Megan, Max, and me in the house.To my disappointment, Max was so devastated and preoccupied with his loss that I felt disconnected from him. It didn’t help that he hadn’t made love to me once since our return. For a man who’d wanted sex with me on a daily bases more times than I could count since we’d gotten together, this was a shock.When he wasn’t working, Max spent a good deal of time in private conversation with Megan, but I didn’t ask the topic. Knowing the history between them, I guessed that he was processing the loss of her sister, Melissa, on a permanent basis. Having her ashes in his possession for all of those years had to make him feel like he still had a part of her with him; becaus
The sound of blood mixed with adrenaline that rushed through my body almost drowned out the heartfelt greeting that he gave me as he dropped his luggage onto the floor near the door and rushed in to hug me.His lips brushed the flesh of my ear as he told me, in a soft tone, how good I looked. “Marriage must agree with you.”I felt a sense of relief and joy in seeing him that I hadn’t expected. I cared for Evan; deeply. I had to admit that to myself and come to terms with it. Had Max not been in the picture, I was certain that there would be something between us that was more than the friendship that we’d developed or the cat and mouse game that we’d played since Peter left and I’d started dating Max.Perhaps it was because of what I’d been through with Max just an hour earlier, or perhaps it was my discussion with Megan about the incubus, but I found myself wrapping my arms around Evan’s nec
Max dropped me off at the house with the promise to be home in time to take me out for dinner. I practically skipped into the house and rushed up to my bedroom to freshen up after my impromptu lover’s tryst.As I walked past the porcelain jar containing Mellissa’s ashes when I came out of the bathroom to select a fresh pair of panties, I couldn’t help feeling resentful. “Why won’t you go away?”“Where would you like me to go, baby?” echoed a man’s voice that came from nowhere.Not only was I freaked out because the voice was a disembodied voice, but it was a familiar one. I recognized it as the voice that had chuckled so wickedly after doing those things to my body while I slept that afternoon, not so long ago.Too freaked out to take the time to put my panties on and grateful that I’d changed into a sundress so that I was covered, I clutched my panties in my trembling fist and
I ran to my bedroom to clean up and fetch fresh panties for the second time that day. When I entered the room, I was shocked to find Angela stretched out on the sofa in the sitting area.“What is it about you that men can’t resist?” she asked without looking at me.“Why are you in my room? That’s a bit invasive, isn’t it?” I asked as I went into the bathroom and locked the door behind me.“Cleaning up after your little love tryst?” she bellowed.I scowled. That kiss he’d given me had made a mess of my panties. I needed fresh ones, but if I grabbed a pair in front of her, it would be like a confession of guilt.My mind whirled over what to do.I decided to start a bath. As the water filled in the tub, I stuck my head out of the door and said, “Max is taking me out to dinner. If you don’t mind, I need to get ready.”&l
Instead of taking me to the local motel as I’d expected, Evan drove several hours away and checked us into a four star hotel. He insisted that he wanted to keep me safe in a place that Max would never think to look. He immediately called Megan to tell her our location, but, to our surprise, she asked that we keep it to ourselves for fear that the spirits would hear as well. In fact, she refused to stay on longer than necessary for fear that they could trace our whereabouts from the energy connection of the telephone call.I sighed with frustration over the feeling of helplessness that consumed me where Max and that incubus were concerned.Megan had packed an easy week’s worth of clothing for me. As I began to empty my suitcase, I noticed a few very nice dresses in the mix.“Good,” Evan said as he took the dresses to hang in the closet. “You have something to wear to dinner tonight.”“I don&
It took ten days for Megan to contact us and tell us that, with the assistance of a priest, she’d managed to rid the house of the incubus. She expressed her exhaustion over performing such a task while battling the forces that were constantly being sent her way from the evil spirit witch. She was eager to have me return so that she could work with me in hopes that I could help her talk reason to the wicked witch and get her to leave on her own accord since all of the banishing methods that Megan knew had failed. Why she felt that I would be able to do something that she wasn’t able to do surprised me. Then, perhaps I placed too high of expectations on my friend who was, after all, only human. As she might be doing on me. Even so, I was willing to give it a try.When I asked about Max, there was a long silence before she spoke. He was behaving more like his old self, but he was hurt and angry that I’d gone off w
We’d spent a good deal of time talking and working through emotions that had built up since the fire. When we were finally at peace with what had happened and what was between us, we promised each other that we’d work hard to make our marriage work. No matter what happened in the past, there was a strong love between us that we were sure could be salvaged and reignited. We sealed our agreement with blissful, passionate love making. It was as it used to be… as if we’d never returned from our honeymoon.Waking up from a deep sleep, I felt a need to cuddle, so I rolled over and searched the darkness for my husband. I was surprised to discover that I had the entire bed to myself. I opened my eyes and struggled for them to focus on the digital clock. The red numbers were so bright in the darkness that they hurt my eyes as I waited for the blurriness to clear up. It was four o’clock in the morning.
If I hadn’t been in a position to have to make the funeral arrangements for Max, I think that I would have begged to stay at Megan’s home and never leave it. I found the energy light, airy, and cozy all at the same time. It lacked the heaviness that is caused by death and invading entities; be they earth bound or inter-dimensional. By the second day of being there, I felt whole and healed.It was like living in a fairy tale land. Sadly, when I left her house to brave the real world again, all of my grief, guilt, and anguish came flooding back at me.Megan accompanied me on my trip to deal with the funeral director. As anticipated, pasty faced, creepy Zacharias was his usual arrogant and obnoxious self. I was able to get away with being rude and aloof because of my grief.Max never attended church, so I didn’t bother to be hypocritical and have the service in one. Instead, we held it at the gravesi
Megan was waiting for me at the airport when the private plane landed. She’d brought Evan’s van to transport him in. I found that to be a touching thought. He’d like that rather than to be loaded into a hearse.Since he wasn’t human, we couldn’t offer him the traditional burial service, but I didn’t think he’d want that anyway. We took his body to Megan’s land and buried him beneath the ancient oak tree that he was prone to sit under when we were staying with her and he wanted to think. He said it gave him a peaceful feeling. As for attendees. It was me, Megan, and my aunt Lily.I’d asked his proprietor friend to take care of notifying whatever vampire committee needed to be notified of his death and he’d agreed. I had to trust that was enough. I didn’t know how to contact his army people and, quite frankly, after what Roman had done, I had no desire to rea
Evan had purchased a dozen boxes of condoms in anticipation of our wedding night and we put them to good use. In fact, we didn’t leave our room for several days. There was something very sacred and special about consummating a marriage commitment that we just couldn’t get enough of. We were in agreement that, somehow, the sex felt different. Better.By the time Megan called to tell us that the coast was clear and we could come home, we’d been behind closed doors for three days; opening them only to receive the meals that Evan had convinced his friend to supply us with, rather than make us join the others in the dining room.Although we would have liked to continue with a nice long honeymoon, I was eager to get started on my research for vampirism. Fortunately, Evan understood.We purchased tickets for a flight back home the following morning. It was a very early flight, so Evan went to the front desk an
I’d spent the two and one half hour flight with my head rested on Evan’s shoulder and my eyes closed. Part of the reason was because I was exhausted from the trauma of the day, but it was also because I had a foreboding feeling that I wasn’t ready to talk about. He was very astute when it came to my moods and I was afraid that he would pick up on it.He gently shook me alert so that I could enjoy the city lights as they boasted the excitement that awaited us once the plane landed. Since I’d never flown into a city of such magnitude in the dark before, I thought the lights a sight to behold. I kissed him on the cheek and thanked him for waking me while the flight attendant announced that we were about to land and everyone should be secured in their seats.The energy of the city consumed me as soon as we stepped out onto the sidewalk and hailed a cab. I found it a completely different feel to that of Las Vegas.
I’d expected Megan to be angry at discovering that the incubus had attacked me again, but I hadn’t anticipated the intensity of that anger. After she calmed down enough to consider how it got through the barrier, she realized that she’d put the barrier up against physical intruders, not demons or spirits. The fact that we hadn’t seen a spirit since we left my old house made us forget all about them.“Now that I think about it, we haven’t even seen your aunt Lily since we moved in here,” she said to me as she accepted the glass of brandy that Evan offered her. “That surprises me.”“I’ve been so busy settling in and setting up that I hadn’t noticed, but you’re right,” I said as I sipped on the iced raspberry herbal tea that my fiancé had fetched for me. I looked at the engagement ring on my finger and wondered how she’d react to my hastiness in accepti
We spent the next two weeks focusing on setting up the lab and making sure that the entire house was put in order. Like me, Megan had an aversion to clutter. We didn’t mind if a room was either empty or sparsely furnished as long as it was clean and not riddled with dust. So, while we shopped, lugged from the store as well as the old house, and organized, the cleaning crew was kept busy going from room to room.By the time we were finished and satisfied with the way things were looking, I felt exhausted on both a physical and emotional level.As odd as it seemed, setting up the new lab made me think of Peter. Perhaps it was because I was preparing to do research on the very thing that took him from me. I wondered if he’d made any progress with his research in Africa. It would have proven handy to be able to know his findings and share in his progress. Instead, I was starting from scratch.Megan ma
Megan and I took our time exploring the house. Even though we were searching for a suitable place to set up the lab, it didn’t detract from the fun of exploring.One of the first things that we discovered was a dumb waiter that led to a large room on the second floor. Megan called it the ballroom and, since the house was old enough, it may very well have been used for that. Shortly after, we found a butler’s elevator. Since the house had three stories and a basement, we were certain that the elevator would get a lot of use. Before moving on, we checked it for hidden doors like the one in my house had. We were happy to discover none.I checked out the basement. It consisted of a large room and then smaller rooms that ran down a narrow hall. Most of the rooms had concrete floors. One was a furnace room and the others were used for the utilities and for storage. At the far end of the basement ne
The master suite consisted of three rooms and a bathroom. I found the mahogany, French provincial furnishings a little ostentatious for my tastes, but I could live with them.The king sized bed sported a mattress that looked and felt so new that I questioned if it had ever been slept on. The cleaning crew had steamed it on both sides. The bedding for it, including a cotton covered memory foam mattress pad were laid in a neat pile at the end of the bed.I quickly set to making it.By the time I’d put my bed together, I could feel the muscles in my body begging for a reprieve. I discovered a deep, jacuzzi tub in the bathroom that was just begging to be filled with steaming hot, lavender scented water.While I waited for the tub to fill, I breathed in the scented steam that rose from it as I pinned my hair on top of my head. In the corner of the spacious, marble tiled room was a free standing oval mirror
To say that the estate house was impressive would be an understatement. I was so shocked by the magnitude of size and wealth that this house portrayed that I was completely speechless. The cleaning crew that I’d hired just hours earlier were impressively efficient. They’d managed to clean up a few rooms for Megan and I to start off using.It was clear that they had an easy month to go before they’d be done getting the place back into a livable condition. It wasn’t run down. Not in the least. It was just so thick with dust after years of sitting dormant that it looked like a light layer of snow inside the rooms that were yet to be addressed by the cleaning crew.“I thought that my house was too big and imposing. I could put three of them in here. Maybe four,” I said with wonder. “Who needs a house this big? Better yet. Why build a house this big?”&ld
Evan spent the night helping us pack up what we wanted to take to the estate house. It was shortly after midnight when we decided to call it quits. To my surprise, he went to his apartment to sleep. He said that it was because he still had things to do to prepare for his going before the vampire army board, but I guessed it was also because he wanted to put some space between us.I was assured that he loved me by the number of times that he’d said it. The fact that I was carrying Max’s child didn’t diminish that. It was more that he was serious about lessening the vampire bond between us. I could understand his desire to want to be sure of the source of my feelings for him. I even appreciated it. I also felt terrible that he had such little confidence to think that I’d only want him because of the vampire lure. I was eager to prove to him that my feelings were real. If that meant s