Ghost Moon (11 page)

“Not exactly. It’s in the general direction of the portal, but not on a direct line from your house. I told you there was a landslide, and I had to detour. That’s when I ran into him.”

She saw Logan shudder. “I roam all over the woods around here. But there’s a place I never like to go. Maybe it’s around his grave. It could be that I sensed him, and I didn’t want to run into him.”

Rinna had reached out and grabbed his hand. “He could have hurt you.”

Quinn answered quickly. “When I first met him, he seemed . . . dim,” she whispered. “I don’t mean stupid. I mean . . . not all there. In a ghostly sense.”

The others nodded.

“But he’s getting . . .” She stopped and shrugged. “I don’t know what to call it. Stronger? More aware of himself.”

“You said he drove one of Baron’s soldiers off a cliff. Did he push him?” Rinna asked.

“I didn’t see it. But I don’t think so. I think he just scared the man into diving off into space.”

She looked down at her hands and back at Logan. “I’m sorry. I think I stirred him up. He said I was the first person he had talked to in all this time. He said he was lonely.”

“Then how did he talk to you?” Rinna asked.

“You remember the lessons we had in school? Did they ever bring a ghost to visit your class?”

“Yes, but I was never good at seeing them. Maybe I sensed something, but it was . . . vague.” She paused for a minute, then added, “But other students could do it.”

“I think it’s hard for most people—even adepts. But, for some reason, I was good at it.” She stopped and swallowed. “Unfortunately, he was able to reach out to me.”

“And he’s formed a connection with you,” Zarah said. “So if you asked him to stay away from Logan, he would.”

Quinn wanted that to be true, but she had to be honest about her fears. “I can’t count on that.” She swiped a hand through her hair. “I’m going back there tomorrow. I can talk to him.”

“Don’t go back!” Rinna said.

“I have to. I have to bury the soldier we killed. I can’t just leave him there.”

Across the room, Zarah moved in her chair. “I stabbed him, too. I should go with you.”

“No. The rest of you should stay away from the ghost— until I find out what he intends.” Quinn turned her eyes towardLogan. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you as soon as I met him. At first I thought it would just stir up trouble. And it seemed he was too weak to do anything . . . bad.”

Logan sat up straighter on the sofa. “I’m not afraid of him, so he’s not going to drive me off a cliff.”

“Stay away from him,” his wife begged.

He moved closer to her and draped his arm around her shoulder. “A ghost can’t hurt me.”

Quinn looked down at her hands, then up again. “He hurt the soldier. I hope he can’t do anything to you. I feel responsible.What if he follows me here?”

“Isn’t he tied to his grave or something? How far is his range?” Logan asked.

“I don’t know,” Quinn answered. She didn’t realize she was twisting her hands together until Zarah said, “You can’t help it that you can sense a phantom—and that he responded to you.”

Quinn nodded. There was more she could say, but she wanted to end the conversation.

They hadn’t really resolved anything. But she knew she didn’t have the energy for it tonight.

Apparently, Rinna wanted to change the subject, too, becauseshe looked over at Zarah. “You’re worn out. And you must find this world very strange. I know I did.”

“Yes,” Zarah murmured.

Quinn stood. “I should go to bed, too.”

“Yes, you had a long trip,” Rinna murmured. “And then the fight with the soldiers.”

“We’re taking up so much of your household,” Quinn answered.

“We have the space,” Logan said.

“And I’m so glad to have company from home,” Rinna added.

The house was built into a hill, with the master bedroom and adjoining office on the main level and the guest bedrooms on the floor below. Rinna went down with them to show Zarah some basic things like how to avoid electric shocks, how to flush the toilet, and how to adjust the water in the shower.

Quinn went to her own room and closed the door. She had left some clothing here, so she took off the shirt and pants she’d worn and pulled on a clean T-shirt. But when she lay down on the bed, she couldn’t sleep.

She kept imagining Logan tangling with Caleb. She didn’t want anything to happen to Logan. Or Caleb either. He had risked the talisman to save her life. That meant a lot.

No man had risked so much for her. Ever. Caleb might have stayed on earth for the wrong reasons. But that was a long time ago. He was still here, and he had saved her life and Zarah’s. Even before that, she had felt a bond with him.

Now that she had time to think, she couldn’t stop worryingabout him. Could the Marshall men hurt him—the way the soldier had tried to do?

She knew they had some psychics in this world, a few people with talents like the adepts in her own universe. Were they able to call Caleb’s ghost to them, then banish him?

A shiver traveled over her skin. Much as she wanted to deny it, she knew she was becoming emotionally involved with a man who was dead. And the idea was unnerving.

Lying rigid on her bed, she watched the numbers change on the clock on the bedside table. Maybe she slept for a few hours, but she woke again before the sun was up. Too restlessto sleep, she got up and dressed again, then ate a little of the food that Rinna had gotten out the night before.

She wrote a note, saying that she was going back to bury the body, and she would return as soon as she had finished.

Logan was a landscape architect, and she knew he kept many of his gardening tools in a shed outside.

Quietly, she exited the house, then found a shovel and hoisted it over her shoulder, before starting off toward the spot where they’d left the soldier.

It was still before dawn, and she heard rustling in the underbrushall around her as the forest creatures went about their early morning business.

Little animals were watching her. Maybe some larger ones, too. She might have turned back, but she knew she had to see this task through. She had a good sense of direction, and she moved quickly through the woods.

The air was cool, but gray light had penetrated the canopy of leaves by the time she approached the little clearing where the soldier had caught up with her and Zarah.

They had to kill him or be killed themselves, and as she stepped into the clearing, the scene flashed back to her. She remembered her terror. And the soldier’s confidence. He’d been sure that two women couldn’t beat two men.

Then Caleb had arrived and changed the odds.

She walked carefully over the ground, keeping her gaze down, looking at where the leaves were scuffed. When she reached the place where she thought the man had fallen, she was hardly able to believe what she was seeing.

The body was missing.

CHAPTER TEN

“
I took care
of him.”

The voice came from behind Quinn. And she knew who it was.

Turning, she saw a dark-haired man with intense eyes and a strong jaw. Well, she mostly saw him. He still wasn’t entirelysolid, but he was definitely more visible than before.

He looked very masculine and very aggressive, and she wondered if his werewolf traits were rising to the surface now that he had changed from wolf to man and back again last night.

She took an involuntary step back.

“I won’t hurt you.” He took a step forward, keeping the distance even between them.

“What did you do? Carry him away?”

He made a frustrated sound. “No. I can barely touch the world.”

“You can touch me.”

“It’s strongest with you.”

She felt his words as a gift—and a responsibility.

Looking away, she gestured toward the empty place on the forest floor. “Then what happened—to the man?”

“A bear dragged him away from here.”

“A bear! I didn’t know they had bears here.”

“Not many. You do not have to fear him. I led him here. And he is gone now, after a good meal.”

Quinn shuddered, struggling to get the image out of her mind.

“And then coyotes fought over the rest. So if anyone finds the . . . remains, they will think that the bear killed him.”

“Yes.”

She had come here prepared for an unpleasant task, and now she was relieved of the duty.

Caleb didn’t speak, and the silence between them stretched.

Really, she wanted to talk to him about Logan, but she wasn’t sure how to introduce the subject. She could make things worse by saying the wrong thing.

Caleb finally broke the silence, his voice husky. “I’m glad you came back.”

“For business.”

“But the business is finished.”

“I should . . . go.”

“Is your friend all right? The journey must have been hard on her.”

“Yes, thank you.” She moved away from the clearing.

“Don’t leave yet.”

His voice tingled along her nerve endings. She took anotherquick step back and found that her shoulders were pressed to the trunk of a tree.

Caleb stepped forward again, and this time there was nowhere for her to go. She was trapped between the tree and the man standing in front of her.

Yes, a man, because he seemed more like a living, breathinghuman than he ever had before.

“What do you want?” she whispered.

His voice was warm and intimate. “We mean something to each other.”

“Yes,” she breathed. “You risked your . . . existence to save me.”

“I had to.”

“Why did you do it?”

“You know why. You change the colors of the world for me. You make the sounds and the textures richer. Only you can give that to me.”

She had felt something similar, but she couldn’t say it out loud.

“Doesn’t changing to wolf form make you feel . . . alive?”

“Yes, but what we have is different.”

“I shouldn’t stay here.”

“You don’t want to be with me?”

She’d be lying if she said no.

Before she could form an answer, he bent to brush his lips against hers. She might have gotten away in the moment beforehis mouth came down firmly on hers. When it did, she was lost.

She wanted to fight her response to him, but that seemed to be impossible.

She sighed out his name as his mouth settled on hers, and it was the most natural thing in the world for her arms to slide around his shoulders and clasp him tightly.

It felt as if she had finally come home to her long lost lover. But it couldn’t be. She had met him only days earlier. And he wasn’t even a man.

Still, she was swamped by so many sensations that coherentthought fled. His shoulders felt so solid. His mouth was warm and wet over hers. And once again she could detect his scent—he smelled like the woods.

Incredibly, his body felt hot, a heat that transferred itself to her.

His lips on hers were exquisitely erotic. She knew that she wanted everything from him that a man could give a woman. And she wanted to give it back to him as well.

Could she?

“Caleb.” His name tumbled out of her, and he sighed in response.

“Quinn.”

His fingers tangled in her hair, tipping her head first one way and then the other. He was good at kissing. She had already found that out. He slid his lips over hers, then took her bottom lip between his teeth, nibbling at her in a way that sent the blood surging hotly through her veins.

She knew he loved her response, knew he was intent on giving more than he took.

He drew back, holding her gaze for a long, potent moment.She had time to think that looking into his eyes was so strange.

Then he dipped his head again, his arms tightening around her as he took the sensuality to another level. His tongue swirled inside her mouth, stroking the sensitive inner tissue of her lips, then probing more deeply, claiming possessionas though she were his mate.

Before she could let that thought disturb her, he eased her far enough away so that his hand could cup her breast, his fingers playing over her beaded nipple, sending hot currents through her body.

His other hand cupped her bottom, pulling her center against his erection.

“Oh!”

The position was so elemental. Male to female. And when he swayed her hips against his, she cried out again.

She should tell him to stop.

No. Why should she? This wasn’t real. Maybe it was only a dream that the Great Mother had given her as a gift. Her most heartfelt wish. A man of her own, but only for a little moment in time.

He was more real and solid than he had ever been before. Although she knew he could have touched her through her clothing if he wanted, she felt his hand open the snap at the top of her jeans and slip inside to flatten against her abdomen.It was a very sexy gesture. With his hand wedged against her body, he moved his fingers, playing them over her heated flesh, making her cry out. Making her want to feel his hand travel lower.

Finally, when she thought she might go mad if he didn’t do more, he opened the zipper all the way. Slipping two hands into the sides of the jeans, he dragged them down, along with her panties.

The pants tangled around her legs, and she kicked them away, feeling the cool morning air on her heated flesh. With one hand holding her in place, he reached under the back of her T-shirt and pulled it up, stripping it off as easily as he had dispatched the jeans. She hadn’t worn a bra. She’d told herself it would be uncomfortable when she used the shovel. Now she wondered if she had been thinking about somethinglike this.

He held her a little away, his hot gaze traveling over her body.

“You are amazingly beautiful,” he said in a husky voice.

She didn’t question him. Or question herself. She was caught up in the spell he was weaving around her.