Better Off Dead Read online

  I held up my hand and narrowed my eyes. "Do not finish that sentence or I swear I'll put the sandwich down the garbage disposal."

  As usual, she turned to Alex. He was always putty in his hands even though I'd told him a hundred times she was playing him. Don't get me wrong—I adored Chaos and she was a brilliant familiar. She was loyal, resourceful, and cunning when it came right down to it, and woe be to anybody who tried to hurt me. She was a fox, after all. But that also meant she'd eat anything and tended to be a bit self-centered. All in all, though, I wouldn't trade her for anything in the world and I couldn't imagine my life without her.

  My sister Mila, my cousin Destiny, and I had rescued Chaos and her sisters, Tempest and Calamity, when we were kids. Tempest lived with Destiny at the Enchanted Coast Beach Resort, and Calamity and Mila had moved to an all-magic city called Abaddon's Gate. Though they were similar in personality, they were suited perfectly to each of us.

  "Fine," she said, rolling her eyes. "I'm sorry. What's got your knickers in a twist?"

  Kat came thumping down the steps in a pair of ratty shorts and a crop top, her head wrapped in a towel. Picture an Italian goddess and you have a decent idea of what she looked like, even in old pajamas.

  "Hey, girl," she said, pulling a "juice" box out of the fridge. She popped a straw in it and took a long sip of the faux type-O. "Alex. What's up with you guys?"

  "Same old, same old," I said, sinking into a chair at the kitchen table. "Somebody threw Daisy Westfield over the banister out at Kitty's, and I saw my high school bestie. Normally, that wouldn't be weird, except she died five years ago."

  She raised a perfectly shaped brow at me as she took another pull on her straw. "That's not same old, same old even for you. The first is self-explanatory. I'm gonna need a little more for the second, though."

  I lifted a shoulder, unsure what to say. "I don't have much more to give you. Rhea Butler was my best friend growing up. Then she was killed in a car crash when she was twenty-one. Alex and I were driving a little bit ago, down on 58, and she whizzed by us in an old Caddy convertible."

  Kat furrowed her brow. "And you're sure it was her?"

  "Without a doubt. I'd know her anywhere." It occurred to me that Kat hung out at Sean's sometimes when he was having a party. She'd bartended a few for him and she'd also attended as a guest. She liked to catch up with people she'd known before she'd lived here. Before I could ask, Alex took the words right out of my mouth.

  "She was headed in Sean's direction. Have you seen anybody new out there lately?"

  "I see new people out there all the time," she replied. "The place is a bit of a revolving door, what with all the events he hosts. Plus, he invites a wide array of people to join him there just on holiday."

  By people, she meant other vampires. Rarely did Sean have non-vamp guests because he said he just didn't want to have to worry about casualties. Of course, there were exceptions; Charlotte, a powerful witch who'd been giving Alex and me lessons, visited there all the time. But she was more than capable of taking care of herself. Humans weren't even allowed on the property.

  I hopped up and trotted to the living room, then grabbed my photo album from under the coffee table. I flipped through the pages until I found a picture. I was in the middle, flanked by Rhea and Zach, who was giving me bunny ears.

  "Here," I said, pointing to her. "This is her. It was taken a month before she died, so I assume she probably still looks the same, assuming she was turned the night of the wreck." Just the thought set my teeth on edge, because they should have told me. I would have been grateful he saved her.

  Kat examined the picture, chewing on her lip. "Actually, I have seen her. Just recently, though. She's a little different, though, of course."

  "Let me guess," Alex said, smiling, "She's paler and has fangs?"

  "Haha, smart ass," she said, scrunching her nose. "But yes. And her nose isn't crooked. But that makes sense; the change tends to fix any flaws."

  Rhea had broken her nose when she fell off the teeter-totter in the third grade, and her nose had always been a little crooked after that.

  I sighed. "So why would Sean hide her?"

  Kat reached out and squeezed my hand. "It's hard to tell, sweetie. But Sean wouldn't intentionally hurt you. He can be self-centered and obnoxious, but he's not prone to being unnecessarily cruel. At least not to people who don't deserve it."

  It was a good thing she added that last bit; Sean could be wicked when he wanted to be. But she was right. Zach was a perfect example; he'd been trying to kill me when Sean had arrived at his house, but rather than take Zach down, he came up with a solution that allowed him to live. It wasn't perfect, at least to me, because I didn't like the idea of manipulating anybody's noodle, but even I had to admit it had been the best-case scenario all around.

  "My advice? Ask Sean about it. The worst thing that can happen is he'll give you one of his non-answers."

  The ancient vampire was good at that. He was a bit of an odd duck, probably because he'd been around for so many hundreds of years. I couldn't even imagine what it would have been like to have lived through the ages like that. I understood why he surrounded himself with others who'd been through at least part of it with him. In his eyes, I was little more than a child even though he always treated me with the utmost respect.

  "So now, tell me about this murder before I gotta head out to work," Kat said, sucking down the last of her breakfast.

  "There's not much to tell," Alex replied. "The girl's a maid out there. She fell over the banister, which would have been at least waist-high for her, from the second floor. Some of the guests heard her scream, but nobody admits to seeing anything."

  "And none of them had any connection to her?"

  I shook my head. "Nope. One of the women is pretty rude. She apparently got all high and mighty with her about extra towels, but I can’t imagine killing somebody over it."

  Kat huffed a breath out her nose. "You'd be surprised what some people will do for seemingly inconsequential things. And somebody killed her."

  "Since she's a maid, I assume she's a local. Does she have any enemies around town?"

  I chewed my lip, thinking of Rhea, but shook my head. That was a leap I wasn't ready to make without any proof.

  "No, but—" My phone rang. When I glanced at my phone, it was a Georgia number I didn't recognize. "Sheriff Sloane."

  "Sheriff? This is Noelle Flynn. Hunter and I were thinking, and it may not mean anything, but there was another car in the lot this morning that doesn't seem to belong to anybody staying here."

  "What kind of car? Did you see who was driving it or get a tag?"

  "Um, yeah. It was a blonde, early twenties, driving a red convertible Cadillac."

  My stomach sank. It looked like I wasn't gonna have to leap; there was my proof.

  CHAPTER TEN

  "SO WHERE FIRST?" ALEX asked once we were back in his truck. "Sean's or the B&B?"

  I thought for a minute. "The B&B. I want to see if anybody else saw it, and I want to talk to Kitty. She knew Rhea."

  We were quiet most of the way to the Kitty's, and I spent the time thinking about Rhea. She'd always been happy, but she had a quick temper, too, and would occasionally hold a grudge. That was reserved for the worst situations though—ones that arose from intentionally egregious actions. For the most part, she was forgiving and friendly, and always the life of the party.

  "Look," Alex said, "you grew up with this woman. Do you think she would just murder someone?"

  I pulled in a deep breath and let it out. "That's all I've been able to think about. The woman I knew wouldn't have been, no. But who is she now? Five years is a long time. What happened to her? Where's she been? How is she not dead? The Rhea I knew would have never let me mourn her if she was alive. So, my answer is ... I don't know. I won't know until I can talk to her. If I can talk to her."

  Frustration roiled through me, making it hard to sit still. I was sorely tempted to call Sean righ
t then and there, but I wanted to be looking him in the eye when I asked him.

  We pulled up in front of the B&B, and Noelle was sitting by herself on the porch. Weirdly enough, she was talking to herself, and not just talking—she appeared to be arguing. When she saw us, she snapped her mouth shut, shot a dirty look toward the end of the empty porch, then turned and gave us a pinched smile.

  "You saw that, right?" I asked Alex as he shut off the truck.

  "I did," he said. "What do you think it was about? She seemed perfectly sane when we talked to her."

  "Oh, she's sane," I replied, "But—"

  My ears popped, and it felt like somebody slid a block of ice through my shoulder.

  "'Course she's sane," a no-nonsense female voice scoffed from over my shoulder. I spun around in my seat to find an older, transparent woman with red hair shot through with gray hovering in the back seat. I shoved backward away from her, my heart pounding as I fought the instinctive urge to wolf out.

  Alex, on the other hand, was handling having a real live—err, well, real—ghost in the cab of his truck much better than I was. I rubbed my arm, trying to bring the warmth back into it.

  She glanced at me a bit sheepishly, and the resemblance she bore to Noelle struck me.

  "Sorry 'bout that," she said, glancing out the windshield.

  I twisted my head around to follow her gaze. Noelle was walking toward us, rubbing her temples.

  "Yeah, she's not gonna be too happy with me," the woman said, "But she'll get over it. I don't like to let somebody else do my talkin' for me. We better get out before she pops her cork."

  The entire situation was still a little surreal to me; I knew ghosts were a thing, but knowing it and experiencing it were two totally different things. I couldn't stop looking at her. She was completely visible, but transparent at the same time. I could see the truck seat behind her, but it was sort of like looking at it through stained glass. The shapes were right, but the colors were skewed by the colors of her shimmering clothing.

  I opened my truck door as Noelle approached. The look on her face was half-irritated and half-cautious.

  "Cori, Alex," she said, "Meet my aunt, Adelaide Flynn." She glared at the ghost. "She's supposed to be at home, keeping an eye on my little sister and the farm."

  Well, at least now I wasn't doubting her sanity, and I had an explanation for the movement I'd kept catching out of the corner of my eye when I'd interviewed them the day before.

  Addy glared at her back, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that these two were cut from the same cloth. I also sensed a kinship with them, because I could dig in my heels with the best of them and wasn't one to back down either. Growing up with five brothers had made me scrappy.

  "I only popped in to check on you," she said. "We just about had our clocks cleaned less than a month ago, and the only reason we beat 'em was because we were together. Excuse me for worrying because you up and left before my old heart had time to settle back out of my throat."

  "You're old heart doesn’t beat anymore, so it's not like it can kill you." Her face softened. "But I get it. Still, Cori's is still beating, and from the look on her face, you almost gave her a heart attack. If you were damned and determined to talk to her yourself, you could have at least let me ease her into it."

  The ghost shimmered a little, but a touch of remorse crossed her face. She turned to me. "She's probably right. I'm sorry I just busted in like that, but I'm the one who saw the Caddy. Noelle was changing clothes. So I figured it would be better to talk to you direct. In my defense though, you're a witch and a werewolf. I figured ghosts were old hat to you."

  My heart rate had slowed to something close to normal and the warmth was returning to my arm. It occurred to me how lucky Noelle was to still have her aunt in some form. Most people weren't so lucky.

  "It's okay," I replied. "Vampires, witches, shifters ... those people are part of my everyday life, but you're my first official ghost. It's a pleasure to meet you." I instinctively reached out to take her hand, then remembered just in time that she was transparent.

  Alex was taking it a bit more in stride than I was. He was actually grinning.

  "I'm Alex Dixon. I have so many questions I'd love to ask, but first, I understand you have some information for us."

  She nodded, her form shimmering just a little. "I saw a blonde girl here yesterday morning, right after we heard the scream. She wasn't burnin' any daylight hightailin' it out of here."

  I'd brought the picture of Rhea, Zach, and I with me with the intention of showing it to Sean on the off chance he didn't know I'd had a relationship with her prior to the accident. For all I knew, a passing vampire had rescued her. Sean went on jags where he didn't visit Castle's Bluff for years, sometime decades, at a time, and I couldn't remember whether he'd been around then.

  Even when he wasn't in residence, as he called it, he still offered his manor up to close friends for vacation. And considering how many immortal friends he'd made over the course of a thousand years or so, the place was rarely empty. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility that a well-meaning guest had saved Rhea in his absence and without his knowledge.

  I held the picture out to Addy. "Was this the woman you saw?"

  She pursed her lips and studied the picture. "It's hard to say for sure, because she was wearing a scarf and giant sunglasses and her skin was a lot whiter, but I'm eighty-five percent sure that's her. She sure didn't have that innocent, carefree expression, though. The girl I saw had a jaded look to her, like she'd seen the bad side and lived to tell about it."

  Depending on what she'd been through, that wouldn't be such a surprise. I'd heard some horror stories from vampires who'd had a rough transition. Shoot, Kat was one of those stories. Sean had found her in an alley, freshly turned and hungry. He'd saved her from herself, but there had been a few casualties before he had.

  Other stories I'd heard involved "parents" who believed the best way to keep a newly turned "child" in hand was to keep them locked up for the first few years. With the invention of such things as street cams and DNA, it was hard to keep a lid on the supernatural sometimes, and it wouldn't take long for an out-of-control vampire to blow the lid off the whole shebang.

  I understood the reasoning, but believed there had to be a better way.

  "Rhea was always a firecracker," I said, "but she was never jaded. Hell, she wasn't old enough to be jaded. Her folks were good people who also happened to make decent money, so she hadn't lacked for love or comfort. She hadn't been born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but she hadn't gone without, either."

  "This woman was definitely not the girl-next-door type," Addy said. "No rose-colored glasses perched on her nose, for sure."

  Alex sighed beside me, and I turned to him with a questioning gaze.

  "It's awesome that we have a lead to follow, but how do we explain it? I mean, if we manage to find concrete proof that Rhea killed her, or if Rhea confesses, that's one thing. But if we have to build a circumstantial case, how do we explain that our eye-witness is dead?"

  I cringed a little at his bluntness. Noelle didn't seem to have any problem pointing it out, but they were close; there were things you could say to friends and family that would be wildly inappropriate to say to a stranger.

  Addy arched a silvery eyebrow at him. "I don't give two hoots about the whole politically correct thing myself, but there's such a thing as bein' considerate of others, young man. Living-impaired is one term folks bandy about." She fluffed her hair. "Personally, I prefer post-living."

  Noelle waved a hand. "Besides, I don't think your biggest problem is going to be explaining the living status of your out-of-town witness." She gave me a pointed look. "You know, considering your suspect supposedly died years ago, too."

  I sighed, wondering why things couldn't just be simple.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  "SHE'S RIGHT, YOU KNOW," Alex said. "How are you even going to approach Kitty? It's not like you can just up and a
sk her if she's seen Rhea. She'll think you've lost your mind."

  We were sitting on the porch with Noelle, Hunter, and their friends.

  The blonde woman—Coralee—nodded, and her whole hairdo wobbled as if it were one fixed piece, right down to the side bangs. "She'll think you've gone round the bend for sure if she ain't in the hoodoo loop, sugar. You can't just spring somethin' like that on her."

  I shook my head. "She's not out of the loop," I said, not wanting to give her more information than that. Kitty was a bear shifter just like Sully, but it wasn't my place to bandy about her personal information. If she wanted people to know, she'd tell them. "I do worry about mentioning it to her, though. She loved Rhea, and no matter which way it shakes out, she'll be hurt. She'll either have to deal with false hope, or with the same hurt I am—wondering why Rhea didn't get in touch to let us know she wasn't dead."

  "I don't know much about all this magic stuff," Buddy said. "I just learned about most of it last Valentine's Day, so I'm pretty new, but the problem here isn't really magical. It's personal. It seems to me maybe you're puttin' the cart before the horse a little. First, you need to find out if it really is your friend. Then, if it is, you should hear her out before you go gettin' your feathers all ruffled at her. If it was her you saw, it could be she has a good list of reasons why she kept you in the dark."

  Coralee smiled and leaned into him. "Listen to the man. He's kept me grounded for the past decade and a half."

  Buddy grinned and looped his arm over her shoulders, then gave her a squeeze. "Shoot. It's common sense is all it is. Don't do no good goin' off half-cocked." He gave me a measured gaze. "If it were me, I'd go to your friend's house. See if she's there. If she is, talk to her. If she's not, talk to this Sean feller. Get the whole story before you decide how to feel."

  The screen door squeaked open, interrupting my response, and Kitty stepped out. Glancing back and forth between us, she furrowed her brow. "Now here's an unlikely group. How'd you all manage to fall in together already?"