Wraiths of Winter (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 3) (15 page)

I was about to explain it to her when I noticed Lucas
bounding up the aisle toward us. “I’ll tell you about it on the
way home, okay?” I said, wiping at my eyes with the sleeve of
my sweater. Lucas couldn’t see me crying. What would I say
was wrong?

“Hey, Jonas is about to announce who got parts—you
don’t want to miss this.” He tossed the hair out of his eyes
and gave me a soulful look. “I really wish you’d auditioned for
the role of Kira, Ru. You and she have a lot in common.”

I didn’t know what to say so I just smiled politely.
What did he mean by that? Was he insinuating that I was torn
between him and Zach? Because if so, he was dead wrong. He
was only seeing what he wanted to see.
But then again, I had
to take Lee’s final words to me into account. What if Lucas
was
the one I was supposed to be with? What if meeting and
falling in love with Zach was just a mistake? No—I swept that
thought right out of my mind.
There was no
way
a love like
ours could be a mistake. There had to be a reason, though, for
why I met Lucas when I did. Meeting him stopped me from
having sex with Zach—did it happen that way because
that
would have been a mistake? Grrr! I had to find a way to shut
off my brain and just let my heart do the talking.

I followed Lucas and Rachel to the front of the theater
and sat down between them. Jonas stood in the middle of the
stage and cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention.

“You all did such a good job that it made
my
job
exceedingly tough. To all of those who didn’t get a part, I
encourage you to try again next time.
And to anyone who
didn’t audition,” he said obviously eyeing me, “I hope you
think about doing so for my next play in March.”

One by one, he ran down through the list of characters
until he got to the final two—Kira and Erik.
Anyone who
didn’t already have a part leaned forward in obvious
anticipation—Lucas and Rachel included.

“Kira will be played by Rachel Mason and the part of
Erik goes to,” he paused dramatically before announcing the
next name, “Lucas Seeley.”

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!!” Rachel gave me
an accidental head butt in her attempt to celebrate with a hug.

“Ow!” I exclaimed, rubbing my forehead at the point of
impact. “I think I’ll just be happy for you from a distance next
time.”

“Sorry, but you know how much I want to be an
actress!” she replied with a laugh, massaging her own
forehead as she talked.
The girl sitting on her other side
offered her congratulations so Rachel gave her a celebratory
hug as well—minus the head butt this time.

I was excited for her but felt nothing but dread for
myself.
While she would be living her dream, I would be
delving into yet another nightmare.
Could my life get any
more complicated? Stupid freakin’ question.

Yes, yes, it could.
Lucas slid his
arm
around my
shoulders and gave me a soft hug. “Too bad,” he whispered in
my ear. “You would have been the perfect Kira to my Erik.”

I wiggled out of his embrace before Rachel saw us. “I
told you—acting’s not my thing,” I said sternly. “And nothing
you say could ever change that.”

Lucas smiled cleverly. “You’re so sure of what you’ll
never do, aren’t you? Nothing is ever absolute, you know.”

Every word that came out of his mouth seemed to
have a double meaning. Or did it?
Maybe I was just reading
into everything he said assuming that it meant more than it
did.
I let out an exasperated sigh.
Great—I couldn’t even
trust my own judgment anymore. Why couldn’t boys be more
like girls? I never had this kind of confusion with Rachel—she
said what she meant without any kind of hidden meaning.
Dating girls would be so much easier. Maybe Chloe was on to
something.

Jonas
distributed
the
rehearsal
schedule
and
dismissed us for the night. Rachel was disappointed to find
that the first rehearsal wasn’t until the first week of January.
Me? Relieved that I got a two week reprieve before having to
set foot in that hellhole again.

Walking through the door and onto the sidewalk was
equivalent to entering another world.
A dazzlingly white,
definitively cold world.
But it was a breath of fresh air—
literally. I would probably have to burn my clothes to banish
the foul stench of the Bantam. If I weren’t wearing my
favorite jeans and awesome new hoodie, I think I would have.

The snow must have started falling just after we went
inside because
there were already several inches
of it
covering the windshield of Rachel’s car. She opened her door
carefully, started the car, and snatched a pair of ice scrapers
from the back.

“Here—help me out,” she said, tossing one of them in
my direction.

I reached out to catch it but a hand shot out from
behind me and got to it first. “You can just get in the car and
stay warm—I’ll take care of the snow.”

Lucas. Rachel seemed surprised by his offer but didn’t
refuse it. We climbed into the car and waited for the heat to
kick in.
I was dying to tell her what I saw earlier and she
looked like she had things to say to me, too, but none of it
could be said while Lucas
was
within
earshot.
And he
certainly
seemed to be taking
his
time.
The
car was
completely warm by the time he tapped on Rachel’s window
to return the scraper.

Rachel put her window down and took it from his
hand. “Thanks,” she said awkwardly.

Lucas smiled. “
You
,” he said pointing at Rachel, “are
welcome.” Then he pointed to me. “And I will pick
you
up at
noon.”

I didn’t realize that I hadn’t told Rachel about my
plans with Lucas until I saw the look on her face. When I told
her about my fight with Zach, I told her it was about Lucas but
not about him asking me to go to Pittsburgh with him. How
could I forget such a huge detail?
She was going to have a
very strong opinion about the situation.
I buckled my seat
belt because I knew it was going to be an interesting ride
home—and not because of the snow.

11. Skating on Thin Ice
“He’s picking you up at noon? Does Zach know about
this?”

Those were the first words out of Rachel’s mouth once
we were finally able to talk. Funny. I would have thought my
encounter with Allison would be more important than my
plans with Lucas.
Apparently boy troubles trumped ghost
drama in Rachel’s estimation.

“I’m going to Pittsburgh with Lucas tomorrow. We’re
going to see if we can get his adoption records opened. And
yes, of course Zach knows about it. That’s the main reason we
fought last Saturday night.”

“So that’s why he’s so worried about you—I totally get
it now. And I agree with him, by the way.”

This wasn’t how our ride home was supposed to go. I
was supposed to tell her about the hideous entity I faced and
she was supposed to react appropriately. “Oh my god, Ruby!
She
had no tongue!
We have to find her killer ASAP—
Crimson’s life could depend on it!” Or something at least close
to that.

Instead, I was defending my decision to help Lucas
search for his biological family—again. “Forget about Lucas—
I’ll be just fine! Don’t you want to hear about my encounter
with Allison?”

Rachel sighed heavily. “Of course I do. I’m just
concerned for your safety.” She paused before adding, “And
for my brother’s happiness.”

I didn’t want to be responsible for Zach being
unhappy. Just thinking about it made
me
sad. Simply put, I
didn’t want to talk about it. So I overlooked her last comment
and unleashed the details about Allison instead. Apparently, I
was going to have to be the one to set her priorities straight.

When I was
finished, Rachel reacted the way
I
expected her to, reciting back to me practically word for word
what I guessed she would say. With one addition.

“So how are you going to get any answers from her?”

“That, my friend, is a good question. She definitely
didn’t seem like she wanted to talk. And even if she did, how
can
she with no tongue?”

“I don’t know, Ruby—but please don’t ever tell Drake
about that. I don’t think he could handle it. You saw how
emotional he got over everything else. What kind of monster
would rip someone’s tongue out?”

Another good question.
And while we were on the
subject, what kind of idiot would try to track down a killer
using
the ghost of
his previous
victim?
The
whole
plan
seemed more insane every time I thought about it.

“I don’t know. It’s just too horrible for me to think
about right now,” I said as she pulled up in front of the
mansion. “We have a couple weeks until the first rehearsal.
I’m going to focus on helping Lucas in the meantime. If we
can find some answers tomorrow, it will really help ease the
tension between me and Zach.”

“Well, I certainly hope so. You guys are so perfect
together—I don’t want to see anything come between you. Or
any
one
.” Rachel placed a hand on my shoulder as I started to
get out of the car. “I know you don’t want to hear this but I’m
going to say it anyway. Please be careful tomorrow. I know
Lucas seems like a good guy but there’s something about him
that I just don’t trust.”

“I will,” I replied, resisting the urge to roll my eyes at
her advice and making a break for the house before she could
say anything else.
Arguing was pointless.
I knew exactly
what she didn’t like about him, anyway. She didn’t like him
because she saw him as a threat to Zach.
Zach was her
brother and, regardless of how close Rachel and I were, she
would always take his side when it came to things like this.

Worst hair day ever.
I looked in the mirror and
wanted to scream. I made the mistake of forgetting to throw
my sweater on over my tank before straightening my hair.
When I delicately tugged it over my head, I thought it would
be okay.
Wrong.
So very, very
wrong.
To put it
into
perspective, sticking my finger in an electrical outlet wouldn’t
have had a more dramatic effect.
There was enough static
electricity in my hair to power a small third world nation.

Running
the flat iron
back through
my
hair only
seemed to be making things worse so I unplugged it and
flopped down on the toilet in frustration.
It was almost
noon—I couldn’t leave the house looking like
this
!
There
wasn’t enough time to wash it and start all over so I grabbed
some spray gel and tried to fix it.
After five minutes of
spraying and scrunching, spritzing and twisting, I felt like an
artist. And I’m not talking abstract either, for once.

When I was finished, my hair looked…hot. It wasn’t
straight but it wasn’t wretchedly curly either.
Somehow I
created soft, beachy waves that looked amazing. I looked like
I was going to the prom not to the Allegheny County Hall of
Records. It looked so good I pulled out my phone and took a
picture of it. You know, just in case I could never replicate it
again. I wanted to remember and preserve every detail of its
awesomeness.

When I heard Lucas pull in, I slid into my boots and
ran down the stairs so he wouldn’t have a chance to knock.
Dad and Shelly didn’t know I was going to Pittsburgh with
him. All they knew was that I was going to help him try to
find his parents.
They never asked how or where so I never
volunteered the information. There wasn’t a doubt in my
mind that they would react the same way as Zach and Rachel.
The last thing I needed now was for Lucas to innocently tell
them the truth. Knowing them, they would tell me I couldn’t
go and I would be humiliated right in front of him.
No, what
they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them.
Or me either,
regardless of what everyone else thought.

I flung open the front door and ran for it only to
collide with Lucas who had just set foot on the top porch step.

 

“Whoa!” he said catching me just before I slid down
the steps. “There you go falling for me again.”

Was
my
heart nearly
pounding
through my
chest
because of my almost-tumble down the stairs or because
Lucas’s hands were still locked firmly around my waist? The
fall, definitely the fall.
Because anything else was out of the
freakin’ question.

“I’m okay—you can let go of me now,” I said haughtily.
The sooner he let go of me the better. For multiple reasons.

“Don’t get your panties in a twist, Ru!” he said
releasing his grip like he’d been resting his hands on a hot
stove and just realized it. “I was only trying to help you!”

Dammit! He was right, of course, and my reaction was
inappropriate.
Every time I overreacted to things like this I
gave him more cause to think there was
another reason
behind it. Which there wasn’t. What a way to start the day.

“Sorry,” I mumbled as I got into his car. “Can we
pretend that never happened and just start over? If I’m going
to be stuck in this car with you for hours, I don’t want things
to be all weird and stuff.”

“Stuck in this car with me? You sure know how to
make a guy feel good about himself, don’t you?” he said,
revving his engine before pulling out.

The curtains in Shelly’s office cracked open slightly
and I knew we had an audience. Didn’t he know that parents
weren’t cool with boys who revved their engines? Of course
he knew—he simply didn’t care. Not that I could blame him
for wanting to play with all the horsepower under his hood—
his car was seriously smokin’! I’d never given much thought
to it before
but once I was
inside
it,
I was
definitely
impressed.