“No, that’s true.”
“Well then, I hope you and your house are very happy together.” Sierra rushed to the front door.
“Noooo!” Ruby plastered herself against the door. “You can’t leave!”
Chapter Ten
“Step away from the door,” Sierra told Ruby.
“No!” Ruby shouted. “You can’t desert me in my hour of need.”
“Yes I can. Watch me.”
She would have stepped forward but a sudden force sent her flying backward to land on her butt on the floor. Sierra was stunned. That energy had come from Ruby, not Hal.
“I’m not letting you leave,” Ruby said.
“You are not locking me in this house with a vampire, Ruby,” Sierra told her.
“You can leave as soon as you help me go into the light.”
“Are you talking to the ghost? Ask her about my sister,” Ronan said.
“Thanks for asking how I am,” Sierra said with mocking bitterness. She ignored the hand that Ronan belatedly put out to help her up. “Too little, too late.”
Sierra scrambled to her feet before facing Ruby. “After everything I’ve done for you, this is how you repay me?”
“What have you done for me?” Ruby countered.
“I talked to you. I listened to you. I said I’d help you.”
“And then you walk away before you help me.”
“He’s a vampire.”
“He said he wasn’t going to hurt you,” Ruby pointed out.
“He drinks blood for a living.”
“Tell him I know something about his sister.”
Sierra shook her head. “No, I am not doing that.”
“Fine. Then I’ll tell him.”
Ruby moved to the mirror, and breathed onto it, creating a mist she wrote in. Addie.
Sierra could hear Ronan’s indrawn breath before he said, “That’s my sister’s nickname.”
“Like that was hard to figure out,” Sierra scoffed. “Ruby heard you talking about your sister Adele and she made a lucky guess. Fake clairvoyants do that all the time.”
“Tell me about Ruby,” Ronan ordered her.
“She’s the ghost who just pushed me onto my butt. She was a prostitute in Al Capone’s establishment until she was murdered here in this house.”
“That’s why I need your help,” Ronan said.
“Clearly Ruby can communicate with you without my assistance. She can mirror-write. Good thing you can look in mirrors now, huh? You two have a good time. I’m outta here.”
“No,” Ronan said. “I just saved your life and this is how you repay me?”
“He thinks you are ungrateful too,” Ruby said. “Tell him I agree with him.”
“Tell him yourself,” Sierra shot back. “Write it in the mirror, why don’t you.” She turned her attention to Ronan. “As for you, how do I know that you didn’t yank that bookcase down yourself as a ploy to con me into thinking you saved my life?”
“Because I yanked the bookcase onto you,” Hal stated from the top of the staircase. “I told you to get out. You didn’t listen. Just like Ruby didn’t listen. I told her she couldn’t leave. Instead of backing away, she just stood there looking at me as if I ain’t worth shittin’ on. She still looks at me that way.”
“Because you murdered her, Hal,” Sierra said.
“Who are you talking to now?” Ronan demanded.
“Hal. The upstairs ghost who smokes a cigar and was a member of Al Capone’s gang.”
“Shit. You need a scorecard to keep track. How many ghosts are there in this house?” Ronan said impatiently.
“I’ve only seen two,” Sierra said.
“You haven’t seen my sister, have you?” Ronan reached into his back pocket and pulled an old photograph out. The young woman had a Gibson girl hairstyle piled on top of her head. She wore a white gown that covered her from her neck to her feet per the fashion of the early 1900s. She had Ronan’s smile.
“No, I haven’t seen her.”
“I don’t know if that’s good or bad,” he muttered.
“Can we get back to me?” Ruby said with an impatient tap of her foot. “Get rid of Hal. Have the vampire do it.”
“Ruby wants you to get rid of Hal,” Sierra told Ronan.
“How the hell am I supposed to do that?”
“I have no idea. You’re a vampire. Think of something.”
“He’s got no powers over me,” Hal bragged, before pointing to the grandfather clock, which flew toward Sierra. “Time’s running out.”
Ronan instantly stepped in front of her, preventing it from hitting her. It hit him instead and shattered.