Page 82 of Cold Sacrifice

I wanted a hot shower and a hot meal, and then I wanted to fall into bed with my hot alpha and forget the necromancer ever existed.

But I’d known she wasn’t just going to go away. I wasn’t feeling the end of that particular chapter.

“She’s coming back as a ghost,” I said flatly. “She’s not crossing over.”

“She can’t cross over,” he said. “And she’s not just coming back. She’s coming back for you. You’re the one who fucked up the only thing her mad little brain wanted. You took that from her, and she’s going to focus on Kait Silver now and forget all about the vampires.”

“How do you know that?” I asked him.

“She’s one of mine now,” he said. “I was there when your vampire master killed her. I know.”

“You were standing here when we came out of the house,” I said, skeptical. “How did you see Bastien kill her?”

“She was dead before you left the house, Kait. The vampire master doesn’t mess around.”

There was no reason at all not to believe him.

Jared quietly dressed in the clothes Aaron had stocked, and he and Sam listened to the one-sided conversation, not interrupting.

I took the bottle of water Jared handed me and downed it in two gulps while I thought about Richard’s words. When I finished it, I fished a pair of too-big jeans out of the satchel of clothes and pulled them on over the boxers.

“Okay,” I said, finally. “Why can’t she cross over, and exactly how are you going to help me get rid of her?”

“I can help protect you,” he said, “and I can fight her. I can command her, and I can frighten her. But in the end, she will not obey me, and you will have to do the one thing that will get her out of your hair forever.”

I nodded. “Help her cross over.”

“Force her to cross over,” he said. “She won’t want to go, not when she can wreak such lovely havoc here. She can cause so much trouble and as a spirit, she will be free of the massive pain she carried. No telling what she might do.”

“Can she mess with the vampires?”

“Oh, my dear. She can mess with everyone. Just not in the same way as before. I believe she will have fun for the first time in her existence.”

“How can I make her cross over, Richard? What’s her tether?”

“I haven’t a clue,” he said. “Not a single clue.”

I caught Jared and Sam up on the conversation. “So she’s still with us,” I finished. “I have to find her tether.”

“She’s a ghost,” Sam said. “How scary can she be?”

I had no doubt we’d find out soon enough. Just because you couldn’t see a person didn’t mean they couldn’t kick your ass if they were powerful enough. And Jolene was powerful.

The effects of the magic were wearing off of Remy, and he would heal from the magical hit he’d taken. I stood at his bedside watching him for a few minutes, and when he didn’t awaken, I placed Dolly gently on his sheet-covered chest. Then I leaned over and kissed his warm forehead.

I slipped away and let him sleep. Remy would be fine, but when he woke up, he was going to be pissed at the world.

“Are you enjoying your freedom?” I asked Richard, as he accompanied me to Jared’s house. He was so full of energy it almost felt like he had a physical body. He was never still, constantly darting his stare around, taking in the world, happy to be out of my office and out of the spirit world.

“I am ecstatic,” he declared. “Thank you for this gift, Kait.”

When he started to go with me into the house, I waved him off. “Go explore,” I told him. “I’m going to spend some time with the alpha.”

“All right. I’ll go to Silverwood and check in on the little blonde witch.” He smiled, then sighed. “I can do that now.”

He disappeared, and I went into Jared’s house, calling Max’s cell phone as I went.

“I’m already halfway home, Kait,” he said, when he answered. “I’ll give Joe the good news and let him out of the basement, and then he and I will meet you at the office? I left Gracie there to mind the clients until I return with Joe.”