How to Kill a Ghost Read Free

one thing—or rather person —I feared above all else was Death. This was a being Ian had told me about who came for those who died. In fact, sometimes I fought to stay one step ahead of him. At any time Death could come looking for me and take me away from all those I held dear. The thought frightened me beyond reason, and whenever that darkness surfaced, I scooted out of the area. This was different. First, Death, as I believed him to be, was not necessarily evil. Second, I had never felt Death, or any evil, in Ian’s house.
    I stepped back, but Ian advanced to me. He didn’t touch me, but towering over me as he did unsettled me. He still hadn’t spoken more than the whispered word, and I was sure he’d been surprised to see me there. That made no sense.
    “Did you find someone to give you blood tonight?” His eyes rounded, and he grinned again. I reminded myself he was a vampire, and if he didn’t consume blood, he could lose control. That meant nothing to me because I was outside of my physical body, but what of Jake and Monica? “Ian?”
    His hands shot out and captured me by the arms to draw me closer. The electricity that separated us tickled my skin and must have prickled against his palms. He studied my body, making me blush. I know this wasn’t the first time he had felt the electricity, that invisible barrier that seemed to separate us. No matter how much either of us cared about the other, this would keep us apart. Well, that and the fact that I had no body and had to concentrate to stay visible.
    “Y-You’re making me nervous, Ian,” I mumbled. “You’re not talking. Is something bothering you? Did something happen?”
    I started getting visions of him hurting one of the citizens of our small town. Ian had assured me he would never and had never killed any humans in Summit’s Edge. At the time I believed him because I had heard nothing to the contrary, and Clark hadn’t gotten any missing persons reports locally. I didn’t want to learn tonight everything changed.
    One second I stood in his arms, and the next he drew me to him. My hands came up without thinking to his chest, and he kissed me. I had no time to react or to enjoy his kiss as I had done several times before. Ian held me and then he didn’t. I raised a hand to a bookcase to steady myself, and Ian stood with his back to me. He seemed like a stranger in that instant. Doubts clouded my mind as well as confusion. I opened my mouth to question him once again, but he cut me off.
    “I have to take care of something. I’ll be back.”
    Then he was gone.
    Rather than walk home the way I had come, I winked out and blinked into my own house. Ian’s actions and attitude confused me, and I couldn’t think of a single valid reason why he would ever treat me the way he did. He was never overly warm, but to kiss me and brush me off?
    I drifted down the hall to the living room. Monica had fallen asleep on the couch with the TV playing as usual. In his room, Jake slept if not soundly at least better than he had earlier in the day. I floated above him invisible, watching his small chest rise and fall. The conversation with Ian came back to mind, his appearance, his attitude. Was he changing himself because he was dissatisfied with his life? I didn’t have a problem with it. But skinny jeans, Ian? I cringed.
    Something niggled at the back of my mind, something other than the way he looked. I mentally ran over what I had said and his response. I considered Ian the strong, silent type, but his fluent speech when he did open up, the choice of words, the inflections always took me back to an age far gone. I absolutely loved that about him. However, unless I was going crazy or I was mistaken, the last words he had said to me were—“I’ll be back.”
    Ian McClain, born over one hundred years ago in a simpler era outside Boston, Massachusetts was still a product of his time. He might have changed his hairstyle and chosen different clothes, but I