Tags:
Suspense,
Science-Fiction,
adventure,
Mystery,
Superhero,
Superheroes,
Ghost,
Romantic,
Immortals,
psychic powers,
phantom,
firestarter,
comics,
invisible,
mist,
paranormals
chair from the other side of the room and sat at her bedside.
âStay, William. The rest of you, leave us,â the Queen commanded.
âThis exertion is unwise,â Doctor Samnee said. âAnd the window should be closed.â
âLeave us,â Richard repeated.
Joanna, the doctor and FitzHugh filed out. FitzHugh gave a smile of encouragement as he slipped out the door.
Marshal took a seat on the other side of the bed, watching over the Queen.
âSo, what legend must I chase?â Richard asked.
She drank a glass of water Marshal handed to her. âTell me, Richard, what do you know of Rasputin, the Mad Monk?â
âThe one said to have brought down the Russian royal family? Very little.â
âYouâre about to find out more.â She handed the glass back to Marshal. âOh, and how do you feel about working with a woman who can become a ghost?â
âEven more intrigued.â
Chapter Two
The wheels of the plane touched down on the runway at LaGuardia. A day in the air after taking off from Athens, and now it was almost done, almost time to deliver the item. Deliver. Thatâs what her grandfather called it. Everyone else, including the legal authorities, called it smuggling.
Marian preferred smuggling . Call it what it was instead of pretending.
When Marian had first started working for the family firm, sheâd stupidly thought it was fun. The adventure of evading authorities, the rush when she used her phantom ability, and the praise of her grandfather and father made it all worthwhile.
But in the last few years, there had been too many close calls, too many hours of uncertainty that set her nerves on edge. Now, all she wanted was for the jobs to be over.
The best part was coming home, like now.
The plane taxied to the gate. Most of those around her pulled out their phones to contact those waiting at the other end of this flight. For her, that had to wait. Only after she successfully snuck the little ivory elephant carving past customs could she consider her work over.
All she had to do was duck into a bathroom before customs, go phantom, phase through the walls and hand off Tantorâit was too cute to not give a nicknameâto whomever her grandfather sent to wait on the other side of the customs gate.
She hoped it would be Dad. That would be perfect. Heâd pamper her with dinner, and pampering was desperately needed after this marathon trip. Sheâd spent weeks looking for Tantor for their client, traipsing around the hills and dirt-encrusted ruins of Greece.
Worth it, however. Little Tantor would bring in a cool million. Grandfather was probably salivating over the money already.
Once Tantor was delivered to the other side, sheâd phase back through the walls to the bathroom before anyone knew she was even gone and navigate customs perfectly legally, like any other passenger. Aside from the over-long and complicated forms and the risk of death by boredom, that was the easy part.
Marian waited over fifteen minutes for the plane to clear out enough to grab her carry-on from the overhead bin. Grandfather was a damn cheapskate. She smuggled for him, and he made her fly coach back to New York every time. She could have used the extra pillows.
Marian tapped her front pocket to reassure herself Tantor was still there. She hoped most people would assume she was checking for her phone.
She shuffled behind the other passengers disembarking and wiped moisture from her palm on her jacket sleeve. Sweat already drenched her back.
I hate this.
But she couldnât quit. It was the family business. Everyone, extended cousins and all, depended on her to keep the family firm flush with money. She was the only one in the current generation of Doyles to have the phantom ability that had supported the family for over two centuries.
Quit and sheâd let everyone down. Maybe sheâd even be exiled or shunned. It might be worth it. They took no
Darrell Gurney, Ivan Misner