“Have you been wearing those shoes all along?” Sierra asked.
Ruby looked at her footwear. “Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“Forget about my shoes. Tell me about Johnny. I’ve been patient.”
“He said to tell you he still loves you.”
Ruby burst into tears. At least that’s what Sierra thought happened. She’d never actually seen a ghost cry before. It wasn’t a pretty sight.
Not that Sierra should be judgmental about it. She was an ugly crier herself.
“He said he’s waiting for you,” Sierra added, hoping that might make Ruby feel better.
It did. “He is?” She just about beamed. “He’s waiting for me?”
“That’s what he said. He can’t leave the cemetery to tell you himself.”
Ruby jumped down from the counter and floated closer. “How did he look?”
Hmmm. How had he looked? He looked like a ghost. A pale and translucent ghost. “He had dark hair.”
“And his eyes? He has the dreamiest eyes.”
“Right.”
“You didn’t see his eyes?” Ruby demanded.
Sierra paused. She had no idea what color his eyes were.
“Did you really see him or are you just making this all up to shut me up?”
“Why would I do that?”
“To make me shut up. People are always trying to shut me up.”
“Not Johnny though, right?”
“No.” Ruby’s voice softened. “Not Johnny. He’d listen to me and make me feel like I was the smartest girl in the world. No one had ever made me feel that way before.”
Sierra could relate to that. No one had ever made her feel the way Ronan did. But most of that was because of the vampire bond connecting them.
Or was it? She’d been attracted to him before she even knew he was a vampire. Seeing him naked had certainly gotten her attention. He wasn’t the first man she’d ever seen naked. Okay, he was the first vampire she’d ever seen naked. The first she’d ever seen clothed, for that matter.
Who was she kidding? She was falling for Ronan. Right. Falling? Wrong. She’d already fallen. Done and done. He was the one for her. She could be conflicted about it all she wanted, but it didn’t change that basic fact.
That’s why she was doing all this for him. Screw the vampire bond. She could only blame that for so long. But she’d keep blaming it for now because it made her feel less terrified that way.
“Why didn’t you want us exploring the passageway?” Sierra asked. “Was it because of the spiral staircase?”
Ruby’s pale face reflected her anxiety. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Someone died on that staircase,” Sierra said. “Do you know who?”
Ruby shook her head vehemently.
“Had you ever been in the passageway before?”
“Maybe.”
“Before or after you died?”
“Why does it matter?”
“I’m assuming Hal knew about the passageway?”
“Hal knows everything,” Ruby muttered. “That’s why he’s so hard to get rid of.”
“And don’t you forget it, girlie,” Hal said from the doorway to the dining room. He paused to take a puff of his cigar. “Where’s your vampire watchdog?”
“Ronan is nearby so don’t try anything,” Sierra warned Hal.
“I’m right here,” Ronan said. “What’s going on?”
“Hal is here.”
“I can tell. I can smell his cigar,” Ronan said.
“Tell your sissy vampire dog to stay out of my tunnels,” Hal said.
“He doesn’t like us going into his tunnels and he wants us to stay out of them,” Sierra said.
“You’ll never get your hands on my treasure,” Hal said. “I’ll see you dead first!”
At his words, the lightbulbs in the kitchen ceiling fixture over their heads exploded.
Once again, Ronan shielded Sierra with his body even as he moved her with freaky fast speed. Slivers of glass rained down on the place where they’d stood a split second earlier. The sound of Hal’s laughter filled the air before he was gone.
Chapter Nineteen
“Something happened,” Ruby said.
“No shit,” Sierra said. “Hal just went all Angry Birds on us.” Seeing the confused look on both Ruby’s and Ronan’s faces, she muttered, “Never mind.”
“We can’t go in the basement anymore,” Ruby said. “Hal and I. We can’t go in the basement.”
“Why not?”
“We don’t know.”
Sierra sure hoped it didn’t have anything to do with the evil she’d sensed at the séance earlier. That’s all she needed. Some mysterious terrible thing rising from the basement. What next? Zombies? Mummies? She sure as hell hoped not.