Netherworld: Drop Dead Sexy(14)
But I was surprised, a little. Sure, I’d been disowned and had no expectations of rejoining my family in life. But they wouldn’t even bury me? That kind of cut.
Fortunately I was too wrung out to cry. At this point, I accepted even small blessings. I had no intentions of blubbering like a weakling, and certainly not over something done by my parents. They had no right to my tears, not now, not ever.
Dan and Tristan sat on either side of me. Each took a hand, and I warmed to feel the gentle strength flowing from them. I had lucked out to meet such gentlemen, the kind that were protective without belittling me.
Tristan’s cultured voice flowed, a balm to my pain. “I’ll see to it you get a decent burial.”
“Thank you, but it’s not necessary.”
“I think it is.” He kissed my hand and rose. “Dan, I will leave her in your capable hands for now. I have a few things to take care of before sunset.”
“I’ll give her the grand tour.” Dan quirked a smile, and stuff inside me went all squirmy. He was so handsome, especially when he smiled.
Tristan frowned. “Watch where you take her. The east side of Old Town is getting violent again.”
Okay, Mr. County Commissioner sounded a little too paternal. What next, be home by eleven? “What does it matter? We’re dead, right? So nothing can hurt us,” I pointed out.
Dan slowly shook his head at me. “Oh, we can be hurt. You felt pleasure with sex, didn’t you?”
Tristan gave me a very serious look, serious enough that I got off my high horse about his patronizing attitude. “Not only can ghosts be hurt, but we can be ‘killed’ again, so to speak. Permanently erased from existence. Which can be a blessing if someone decided to torture you for eternity, which is also possible.”
His words sparked a thrill of terror. “Wow, nasty. What about vampires? If you get staked, you’ll be ghosts full time, right?”
Tristan’s lips thinned into a straight line. “Staking doesn’t kill vampires, it just pins them down so they can be killed. But the answer to your question is that the souls of dead vampires disappear entirely, including our daytime ghosts.”
Dan added, “That’s why their day resting places are kept so well hidden.”
Tristan spoke to him. “I’ll have a channel present at tonight’s meeting, so bring her.”
“Okay.”
Tristan’s body went smeary, and then he disappeared entirely. I gaped. Is that how I had looked when Dan took me from the woods? Freaky.
Dan stood, pulling me up easily with him. “Ready for the grand tour of old Fulton Falls?”
I took a deep breath. Tristan had said Dan would keep me safe. “Sure.”
Hand in hand, we walked out.
Chapter Three
Outside the library I gaped at my environment. It’s difficult to explain how a pool of inky black surrounded me, yet I saw my surroundings without trouble. Imagine being in town at night, streetlights turning everything to shades of gray. It’s kind of like that, but without the actual illumination.
I turned slowly, taking in the city below the city. Streets of packed dirt ran between the blackened ruins of buildings. Crumbling and cracked tabby walls, the building material of choice way back when, showed where stores and offices had once stood. Smears of soot darkened the once whitish gray structures, cobbled with oyster shells.
From overhead where soil hung like the sky, roots curved down to dangle in the air, a kind of crazy jungle gym where one might swing if the impulse hit. Here and there I spied steel and concrete supports, buttressing slabs of concrete overhead. I couldn’t imagine how it didn’t fall down on our heads. Score one for man’s engineering prowess.
It was an utter ruin down here with the exception of the library. In the darkened wasteland of old Fulton Falls, the grand building shone like a jewel. My jaw dropped to see how it stood tall overhead, somehow appearing whole despite the roof of concrete and soil that should have cut it off halfway down. The tabby steps with the surrounding rails, complete with two lion statues on either side, marched grandly up to the polished wood double doors set in the brick wall. Even the windows were intact, and inside I saw people in old-fashioned suits and period dresses wander past.
“This is crazy,” I breathed. “I’ve lived in Fulton Falls all my life and never knew this was down here.”
Dan looked at the building like a man in love. “Most people don’t.”
“Why does the library look that way? Like it’s still whole?”
“As I told you, sometimes a place or object can retain a kind of personality and manifest its own ghostly presence. The library and a few other buildings around here are like that.”