Wraiths of Winter (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 3) (11 page)

“I would rather it did,” Zach said miserably.

 

“Why? You can change a tire can’t you?” He was good
at everything else, why not car repairs too?

 

“Of course I can. But that isn’t going to help us one
bit.”

 

What was I missing here? “Why not?”

 

“Because I don’t have a spare, Ruby.”

Huh? Didn’t all cars come with a spare tire in the
trunk? Mine did. “What do you mean? There’s one in
my
Neon. It should be in the trunk—go check.” Duh.

“That’s because your dad bought one for you when he
got you that car. They don’t
magically
appear in the trunk—
you have to pay extra to get one.”

Well now he was just treating me like I was stupid. Or
like I was a spoiled little rich girl. Either way I didn’t like it. I
was going down that slide so fast now that my hands were
burning from the friction as I continued to foolishly hang onto
the side.

“So now what?” I asked angrily.

“Now I call Dad and ask him to bring me the spare out
of Mom’s car—and listen to his lecture about why I should
have gotten my own a long time ago. I can’t afford to buy
anything until next week so I have to keep my fingers crossed
that she doesn’t get a flat in the meantime.” Zach pulled out
his phone and let out another parade of obscenities.

“What’s wrong now?” Seriously, could this night get
any worse?

“No service.” He got out of the car and walked around
holding his phone in the air like he thought it would change
the outcome. “Nothing,” he said as he climbed back in.

“Now what are we going to do?” I saw the irony in the
fact that Zach taunted Lucas when he had car trouble by
asking why he didn’t just use his phone to call his dad. But I
held my tongue.

“The only thing I
can
do—walk back to the rink and
see if someone will give me a ride home.” Zach pulled his
winter jacket out of the backseat and put it on. “I’ll be back as
fast as I can.”

Wait just one minute! “I am
not
staying out here
alone—this road is creepy! Who knows what’s lurking out
there in the shadows!” I threw my jacket on and opened my
door. I didn’t survive two near fatal paranormal attacks just
to get killed by some toothless hick who wanted to peel my
face off and use it as a mask. No way, no how.

I planted my feet on what I thought was stable ground
but the second I stood up, I slipped on a hidden patch of ice
and landed face first in a snow bank.

“Ruby, are you okay?” Zach locked his arms around
my waist and lifted me up.

I was covered in snow—my face, my sweater, my
pants. Everything. Well, if I wasn’t at the bottom of the
Ladder now, I didn’t want to see what the bottom looked like.
Zach worked on brushing the snow off of my pants while I
took care of my face and sweater.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather wait in the car?
Now that you’re all wet, you’re gonna freeze out here.”

Like I hadn’t already figured
that
one out on my own.
Thank you, Captain Obvious. It wasn’t exactly windy out but
what breeze there was had already begun to bite at me. And
then came the ultimate insult—a chunk of snow fell down
through the neckline of my sweater and slid directly into my
bra.

“I’m positive,” I insisted. Without hesitation, I pulled
down the front of my sweater until my bra was showing and
dug around until I found the quickly melting intruder. It was
a move I never would have dreamed of making in front of
anyone else.

Zach, who had been the very definition of serious
since the tire went flat, suddenly lost his composure and burst
into laughter. “Wow, Ruby!
You make me want to get a flat
tire every day!”

I don’t know if the Midol finally kicked in or what but
my bad mood was melting as fast as the snow in my cleavage.
“Since you enjoyed it so much, why don’t you have a
souvenir?” I flung the chunk of snow at him, aiming for his
chest but nailing him right in the crotch instead.

“Is that your way of saying I need to cool off?” he
teased.

“No—this is!” I shouted, grabbing a handful of snow
from the ground and stuffing it down the front of his jeans.
Weird. I felt like I just took a step back
up
the Ladder for a
change.

Zach sucked in his breath and yanked his pants open.
“Holy shit, that’s cold!” he said as he stuck his hand inside to
get it out. He got a weird look on his face and then shook his
leg until the snow plopped out of the bottom of his jeans.

So I didn’t see anything good but I did get an eyeful of
his underwear.
Boxer briefs, nice.
Briefs are just creepy,
something only pedophiles and foreigners wear. I couldn’t
stop staring though—I’d almost had sex with him but never
even got to see him in his underwear.

“Looks like I’m not the only one who needs to cool
off,” Zach said, clearly noticing that my eyes were fixated on
his crotch. Before I knew it, he had his own handful of snow
and was depositing it down the front of my pants.

Instant shock to the system. I liked to think of that
part of
my
anatomy
as
Area 51—full of mystery, highly
guarded, and sought after by many men. And just like that
desert compound, only the most trustworthy of men could
gain access. Zach definitely earned his clearance pass a long
time ago.
What was meant to cool me off had the opposite
effect.
Once the outer layer was melted, my temperature
went up instead of down.

I ripped my jeans open and tried to shake it out.
It
worked for Zach,
right?
It should work for
me too.
Unfortunately for me, I was wearing skinny jeans and shaking
wasn’t going to get me anywhere. I pulled my pants down
until the snowball dropped out.

It was only when I saw the look on his face that I
realized I just pulled my pants down in front of him. Unlike
the day that he saw me half naked in the shelter restroom, I
knew exactly what underwear I was wearing. They were the
sexy red ones that matched my bra—the ones I wore the night
I tried to seduce him.
He never saw anything but the bra,
though. Until now.

Quickly, I yanked my jeans up and secured the zipper.
Once Lucas entered the picture, my relationship with Zach
cooled considerably.
We still
loved
each
other—we still
kissed—but the flame that once raged like a wildfire had
dampened to barely an ember. But here in the middle of a
dark, creepy road on a cloudless, freezing cold night that
spark turned into an inferno.

My entire body shook as Zach pulled me close and we
started to kiss.
the passion he

Was I shaking from the freezing cold or from
ignited in
me?
A
little of both,
I think.
Whatever the cause, it only seemed to make the moment
more intense.
No matter how hard he tried, Lucas could
never make me feel this way.
Could he?
And why was I
thinking about him while I was kissing Zach?

I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t think about one boy while I
was kissing another. Slowly, I peeled my lips away from his
without telling him the real reason why. “We really need to
go find a ride—it’s getting late.”

Zach sighed and grabbed my hand. “I know. It’s just
been awhile since we kissed like that.”

 

“It has,” I said as we started walking back to the rink.

 

“We haven’t kissed like that since….” Zach seemed
unable to finish his sentence, unable to speak his name.

Things were going well between us so I decided to
break the news
to him,
to tell him
that I was
going
to
Pittsburgh with Lucas next weekend to look for his adoption
records.

“What? Not alone you’re not—not the whole way to
Pittsburgh! You’re
my
girlfriend, not his—I won’t let you!”

I knew he wouldn’t be happy but I never expected him
to forbid me to go. “You’re my boyfriend, Zach, not my father!
It’s not up to you—you can’t tell me what I can and can’t do.
I’m going and you can’t stop me!” The Ladder of Ultimate
Happiness was now hacked to pieces and lying in a splintered
pile at my feet.

Zach looked as mad as he did the day he beat up Ryan.
“What is it about this guy that makes you willing to throw
away everything we have? Is he a better kisser than me?”

That was it—I’d had enough. With a loud smack, the
palm of my hand made contact with his cheek. “How
dare
you
insinuate that I’ve kissed Lucas! You encouraged me to look
for Lee’s parents so I can put that all behind me—this has
nothing to do with Lucas and everything to do with
your
insane jealousy!”

“How am supposed to feel, Ruby? How am I supposed
to react when my girlfriend tells me she wants to run off to
Pittsburgh with some guy she just met? And you’re wrong, by
the way. This has everything to do with Lucas and nothing to
do with Lee—not anymore anyway.”

The spotlights shining over the ice became visible
through the
trees.
I refused to fight with him in
public
especially with perfect Misty in the crowd. “We need to finish
this discussion later.” I stopped at the entrance to the rink.
“Go find us a ride—I’m waiting here.”

“Fine,” Zach grumbled and walked away.

I tried to clear my head by watching the skaters. One
skater in particular. Misty left the ice as Zach approached and
sat down on an empty bench.
I watched her pull out her
phone and tap out a text. She sat there smiling as she read the
reply, glancing every so often at Zach.
Figures. If Zach had
just tried his
phone again
as
we walked,
he would have
probably
gotten
ahold of his
dad before we ended up
fighting—again.
Instead, I had to stand here cold, wet and
miserable while she sat there perfect and gloating as always.
Why did my time with Zach always have to end on such a
crappy note lately?

It was probably obvious that he and I were fighting so
she just
had
to inform the rest of her coven of the details. Just
when I thought things couldn’t get any worse. Was she ever
going to give up and leave us alone?

A few minutes later, Zach returned with Chloe in tow.
“Come on, Ruby, Chloe’s giving us a ride.”

I hadn’t seen Chloe much recently and I wanted
nothing more than to have some serious girl talk with her.
But I couldn’t very well talk about Zach with him sitting
grumpily in the backseat so I kept my mouth shut and he did,
too.
Chloe made a few attempts at conversation but gave up
when neither of us could manage more than a few grunts in
response.

As we approached Rosewood, I decided I’d had
enough. “You can drop me off here, Chloe.”

She gave me a stunned look and then nodded her
head. Zach remained quiet until I opened the door without
telling him goodbye.

“Ruby! Wait!” Zach shouted, flinging open his own
door and following me to the house.

I hesitated at the front door, my hand on the knob and
my back to him. “What?” After what he said to me earlier, I
wanted to stay mad at him. The only way I could do that was
to not look at him.

“I’m sorry for what I said to you earlier—I’m just so
scared that I’m losing you.”

When he placed his hand gently on my shoulder, I
melted. I turned around and looked into his eyes. What I saw
there was fear. “I’m sorry, too—I shouldn’t have slapped you.
I hate it when we fight.”

“Me too, sweetie,” he said as he put his arms around
my waist. “We’re okay though, right? If your feelings for me
changed, you’d tell me, wouldn’t you? I mean, if you chose
him, I wouldn’t want to find out the hard way.”

“Of course not, Zach! I still love you—you just need to
let me do what I need to do. If you want a future with me, you
have to let me bury my past. And you have to let me do it
my
way.”

Zach reached for my left hand and pointed to the
promise ring he gave me. “Just remember what this ring
means, remember everything it stands for. And if at any point
you decide that it’s not what you want anymore, do me the
courtesy of telling me to my face. If I ever just saw you kissing
him without breaking it to me first,” Zach said sadly, “well, it
would just destroy me.”

Wrapping my arms around his neck, I clung to him
like it was the last time I’d ever see him. “I love you, Zach!
That will never happen—I promise you that!”

Zach held me a little tighter than usual and whispered
in my ear. “I’ll love you forever—no matter what.”

No matter what. For some odd reason, I felt like he
knew something I didn’t. What that something was, I had no
idea but I knew I didn’t want to find out.

9. Chasing Allison

Work seemed never ending because I was looking
forward to spending time with Rachel. Yeah, our main reason
for getting
together was
to
see if we could track down
Allison’s ghost but I wanted to talk to her about the
Zach/Lucas situation, too. Her relationship with Boone was
rock solid—if
anyone knew
how
to
keep
friends
and
boyfriends in a harmonious balance, it was her. I closed up
Something Wick-ed in record time and took off toward the
cemetery to meet her.

Heaven’s Gate Cemetery looked even more forlorn
covered in snow than it did when I was there only a few
weeks earlier.
There was
something
about the
broken
headstones etched against the backdrop of white that evoked
a sense of immeasurable sadness. It was a place that seemed
forgotten by even time itself.