Spiritus, a Paranormal Romance (Spiritus Series, Book #1) (23 page)

“Fine. I’ll talk to you then.” I said and hung up before he could say anything else.

Alastor backed away from me, moving toward the stairs. I followed him like a sleepwalker up the staircase to my room. It was our own little world where I could close the door on everything else.

I leaned back against the locked door, panting, “I didn’t expect you to be able to come back so soon.”

“I’ll always come back for you.” He said. He stood next to the window, the moonlight making him seem more solid than he really was.

My eyes focused on his lips again, then to the open collar of his shirt, and then lower—I blushed as my desires took hold of my mind.

“What is it that you are thinking?” Alastor asked in his most appealing voice, as if he needed to try to charm me to get me to spill my secrets.

“Don’t you know?” I asked. “You’re supposed to be able to read my mind and know what I’m thinking.”

“It is clouded tonight by too many thoughts.”

I stepped away from the door and walked over to my bed, sitting on the edge and watching him. I was so close to him then, near enough that if I inhaled deep enough I could smell a faint trace of his own personal scent, a mix of honeysuckle, grass, and leather.

“My Dad was asking me about Jonah this morning.” I said.

“It’s understandable.” Alastor said with a shrug of his shoulders, obviously not wanting to discuss Jonah.

“He wanted to know how serious Jonah and I were,” I explained the best I could. “If we were moving toward a physical relationship.”

His entire being stiffened and then dissolved in a blast of cold air. I knew he was hovering near me, but he refrained from touching me.

“Alastor,” I whispered, closing my eyes and trying to draw him in with my will alone. “Alastor, can we ever be together as a man and a woman?”

I felt him shift closer, embracing me from every direction.

“No, my love.” He whispered inside my head. “I can never know you like that again.”

A tear escaped my eye and traveled down my cheek until invisible fingers wiped it away. The unseen hand caressed my face with an icy touch, moving down my neck, and resting on my shoulder.

I could feel him gathering around me. I closed my eyes and gave myself over to it.

“I love you, Becca.”

I looked up into the darkness, but saw nothing. I could feel him stroking my back, my hair, and brushing my lips with a feathery light kiss.

“Alastor, this is so unfair.”

“No one ever said life was fair.” He whispered, kissing my eyelids, and my ears, and then my neck.

“What about death? Is it fair?”

“No.”

He lifted me then, pulling me up into his immense embrace. I floated there, suspended as Alastor swirled around me. There was nothing to cling to as he rained his phantom kisses on my face and neck.

I cried against his nothingness as he held me. I felt trapped, caught in the wrong time and cheated by fate.

Chapter 15

I didn’t want to go to school the next day. When the alarm went off, I rolled over and covered my head with the pillow. It was too tempting to stay in bed and wait for Alastor to return.

At the moment, my room was silent and I was alone. Alastor disappeared just before dawn; the strain of being seen and heard finally exhausted him. I didn’t like being alone and resented the void his absence left.

Even without Alastor there, I wasn’t ready to go back to reality. Somehow Alastor and I found a way to blur the line between life and death, and I wasn’t ready yet to leave the margin.

When at last I could put it off no longer, I threw the covers back and forced myself to get out of the bed. All around me was the delicious smell of his skin, clinging to my body even after my shower.

There was no time to eat breakfast. I could only give Dad a quick wave and dash out the door.

Even with my late start, I made it to the edge of the school property long before the first bell. Just as I was walking up the sidewalk, I spotted Alastor near a clump of cedar trees at the edge of the woods surrounding the school.

There was that unexpected jolt when I saw him waiting for me. I forgot everything else and went to him.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, hearing the excited note in my own voice.

Alastor shimmered slightly as if he was struggling to maintain his form.

“You were missing me.” He said simply as if that explained everything.

“I didn’t think you’d be able to come back so soon,” I said. “I thought you’d be too weak.”

“Why would you think that?”

I smiled, remembering the sensation of floating in the air with him swirling around me, holding me suspended.

“Because of last night.” I whispered.

His blue eyes glowed as they met mine, “You underestimate me.”

I felt that miserable ache in my chest. I wanted to touch him, to feel his lips on mine, but knew it was impossible.

I dared to take a step closer to him, “It’s impossible not to underestimate you, you never cease to amaze me.”

Alastor stepped back, deeper in the shadows as a group of students walked by.

“I missed you as well.” He whispered. “I’m selfish enough to want you all to myself. For the next few hours, I have to share you with these people and I don’t like it. I like it much better when it’s just us.”

I blushed, remembering the feeling of waking up in his arms.

“Me too.” I confessed, stepping closer to him again.

The sound of the bell echoed in the morning air. I hated the sound of it. It was calling me back to reality.

Alastor’s face darkened, but he still managed to smile down at me. “Go on. I’ll be waiting for you.”

Instead of disappearing, he moved deeper into the shadows and just as I was about to lose sight of him in the trees, he faded away.

“I’m never far away, my love.” He whispered in the secret voice only I could hear.

I sighed, acutely aware of the nothingness left after his departure. I could call him back, but that would only weaken him. I’d rather he come back later strong, maybe even almost solid, when I was alone and could be near him.

I turned to go back to school and there, on the sidewalk, was Ashley Richardson. From the look on her face, there was no doubt, she saw the entire thing.

There was no time to react, Billie and Ally spotted me. They were at my side before I reached the sidewalk.

“Where were you yesterday?” Ally demanded.

Billie jumped right in, “Tell us you were with Jonah.”

Helpless, I watched over their shoulders as Ashley disappeared inside the school.

“No,” I sighed. “I didn’t see Jonah yesterday.”

Billie’s eyebrows drew together in a sharp V, “Really? I thought for sure he’d come see you.”

“Why would you think that?” I asked, matching their pace toward the school.

Ally turned so she was facing me, gracefully walking backwards. “You two were just so perfect at the dance.”

“Seriously?” I asked, just realizing that other people may have seen the peculiar exchange at the dance between me and Alastor as Jonah.

“Yeah,” Billie chimed. “It was like you two couldn’t get enough of each other on the dance floor.”

“It was pretty hot.” Ally agreed. “I kept waiting for the teacher to say something, but it’s like even they were impressed.”

“That’s just crazy.” I said and left them to go to my first class.

Apparently, Billie and Ally weren’t crazy. Throughout class, people were smiling over at me. I heard whispers about how it was all “so romantic” and how lucky I was for catching Jonah’s eye.

The thing that they were in awe of wasn’t really the chemistry between me and Jonah, but the beauty of the stolen moment Alastor and I shared. Could others sense the sweet agony that closeness caused us?

“I don’t know what it was,” Ally said, picking up the conversation on the way to lunch. “But you two were more romantic than anything I’ve seen in any movie.”

I rolled my eyes, smiling secretly. I took a seat at our usual table in the cafeteria. Normally the three of us were pretty inconspicuous in the crowded cafeteria, but today it seemed everyone was looking our way. I put my head down, resting my forehead on the edge of the table.

“This is getting ridiculous.” I complained.

“It just got worse.” Billie whispered, leaning down. “Here comes Jonah.”

My stomach lurched and began to roll. I didn’t want to see Jonah, I’d be too embarrassed. I could feel the beads of sweat breaking out on my forehead and my hands started to shake.

I smelled his cologne before I saw his shoes walk up to the table. I was too ashamed to raise my head and look at him.

“Becca, are you alright?” He asked.

“Yes.” I whispered, wondering what he thought about all this extra attention.

His left foot began to tap, making me wonder if he was nervous or angry since I could only see his shoes.

“Can I talk to you out in the hall?” He demanded.

Something in the tone of his voice caught my attention. He
was
angry. I was stunned. He couldn’t blame me for the way everyone was reacting.

I raised my head and faced him defiantly. I stood up quickly, causing my chair to skid across the floor.

“Sure.” I said and followed him out into the hall.

We walked only a few feet from the cafeteria door. A few students were in the hall and watched us in curiosity.

Jonah leaned back against the lockers, looking like some sort of blond high school god.

“
Becca, we need to talk.”

Those words never lead to anything good.

“About what?” I said, crossing my arms, trying not to think about how it felt to kiss him when Alastor took over his body.

He glanced at the observers that were trying to look like they weren’t hanging on our every word.

“What’s up?” He demanded. “Do you like me or not?”

I didn’t expect that.

“What?” I asked confused.

My bewilderment only seemed to provoke him more.

“Don’t play games with me Becca,” Jonah snapped.

I spread my hands wide, “Jonah, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I don’t like being strung along.” He explained, glancing again at our small audience. “Are you into me or that other guy?”

I began to shake all over and my mouth went dry.

“What other guy?” I asked, even though I knew the answer.

“That guy you were talking to this morning.” Jonah hissed. If he was trying to control his temper, he wasn’t doing a very good job of it. “I don’t like being used.”

“How am I using you?”

Jonah glared at me, “You’re using me to make him jealous.”

I didn’t know what to say. I never meant to hurt him; somehow he just got caught in the middle.

“Trust me,” I managed to choke out. “It’s not what you think.”

Jonah slammed his hand into the lockers.

“I don’t care what it is.” He barked and stormed off down the hall.

The small audience gasped, whispering and turning to see what I was going to do.

I was just about to run after him when someone stepped up behind me in a cloud of suffocating perfume. Whirling around, I faced Ashley.