It scared her. She'd already seen what life looked like when one didn't. Her grandmother had ended up alone. Her mother, too. Her father … she recalled his occasionally withdrawn moods. Had her family all walked away from love and lived to regret it? Could she break the cycle?
On the other hand, she'd tried so hard as a child to make her mom love her again following her father's passing and she'd failed. After that, she'd stopped trying at all, refusing to let herself be hurt again.
Was she playing out the same patterns as her ancestors? Sure, she'd listened to Kellan's terrible past, even empathized with him, but had she fought for him? Really? For all of them to stay and love her?
No. She'd pushed them away to protect her heart, but it was already breaking. And if she didn't change something now, she feared she'd soon mourn the fact that she had not done absolutely everything she could to keep them.
The light in the room flickered on again. Belle glanced up at the big fixture dangling from the ceiling. It flared and died, a popping sound splitting the air.
She stood. Damn it. Mike had sworn everything was up to current code. He'd smiled and taken her check, and now Belle kind of wanted to punch him in the face. Guess she'd be calling him again in the morning.
With a sigh, she leaned back against the chair, wishing her other problems would be half so easy to fix.
Suddenly, every hair on her body stood up. The air seemed to turn electric. Goose bumps covered her body.
A shadow snagged her attention, and Belle zipped her gaze to the far wall in time to watch a dark mass move across the area. She gulped in a silent breath, her eyes widening as the figure moved toward the window. The whole room seemed to turn cold.
There was no way to deny what her eyes were seeing. That shadow moving across her wall didn't move like a person. It seemed to float off the ground. It didn't have defined legs.
It wasn't of this world.
A cold menace snaked across her skin. All the air in the room was suddenly sucked away. Her lungs ached. Time slowed to a stop as she watched the black mass pause, turn. Was it coming her way?
She felt a cold touch on her shoulder, almost like an icy finger passing through her flesh. She heard a scream. Then the whole world went black.
* * * *
Kellan's heart threatened to stop when he heard the blood-curdling scream fill the whole space as though the house itself was screaming.
He dropped the file he'd been studying and ran because Belle was in trouble.
"Belle!" Tate yelled for her as he jumped to his feet.
"The parlor." Eric picked up his cell phone as they all sprinted toward that section of the house. "She always reads in there at this time of night."
Kellan got to her first. She looked so frail and delicate, her body slumped over in the big chair. He got to his knees, feeling for a pulse. Praying for a pulse. God, what had happened?
"Kellan?" Her lashes fluttered, her eyes opening slowly.
"I'm here, love."
With a cry, she threw herself against him, wrapping her arms around his body as if he was a life preserver in the middle of a raging sea.
"I'm calling 911," Eric barked.
"Do you see something? Someone? I'll do a search." Tate stood tense as he stared down at her.
"Don't," she said quickly, sniffling slightly as she shook her head. "Don't call anyone. They'll just think I'm crazy."
"Love, we need to get this on record. Who was in here?" It had been so quiet the last few days, Kell had almost believed that whoever had tried to scare her previously had moved on. He'd hoped that whoever wanted her out had realized that scare tactics wouldn't work. No. They'd just been waiting, plotting, and escalating. He was going to kill whoever had rattled her with his bare hands.
Belle pulled back, trying to stand on shaky feet. "No one. I mean no one alive."
Had she been drinking? "What?"
She scanned the room fearfully, as though trying to find something no longer there. "It was here. A big shadow … I-it was shaped like a man mostly, but I felt its evil. God, Kellan. The room got so cold. I felt him touch me and it nearly made me sick."
His heart was still thundering in his chest, but he frowned. Was she implying that she'd seen a ghost? He wondered what exactly her grandmother had been writing about in that journal of hers because it was making Belle's imagination run wild.
"I'm sure you just fell asleep and had another bad dream."
Her eyes narrowed into a stubborn glare. "I did not fall asleep." She frowned, swallowing. "I didn't want to believe it myself, but I think this house is haunted and by more than one entity."