Penmort Castle (Ghosts and Reincarnation #1)(152)

At Kieran’s response, Abby glanced at Cash and saw his eyes roll to the heavens.

“And who’s that?” Lorna asked, peering over the edge again.

“Kieran, my best friend’s husband,” Abby replied. “My best friend is the redhead. Her name is Jenny.”

“Her gown is lovely,” Lorna commented, narrowing her eyes to look closer.

“I’ll tell her you said that,” Abby promised on a smile.

Lorna looked at Abby. “Your gown is lovely too.”

Abby put her hands out at her sides, tilted her chin down, her eyes skimming her dress then she glanced back at Lorna. “It’s my great-grandmother’s.”

“It’s extraordinary,” Lorna remarked.

“If I can interrupt your little chat,” Cash bit out and Abby and Lorna looked at him as he continued, “perhaps, Gran, you can tell us what the f**k is going on?”

That’s when they heard another ghostly voice say, “Conner, don’t speak to your grandmother that way.”

They all turned to see Cash’s father not hovering but standing on the roof like he had real feet even though he was see-through.

“Holy crap,” Abby breathed again, eyes staring at Anthony Beaumaris, “you just told Cash what to do.”

Anthony looked at Abby and replied, “He’s my son.”

Abby kept staring, her night so bizarre, her mouth somewhere along the line became disconnected from her brain so she blathered on, “I know but still, he’s a big guy and he’s scary. I’d never tell him what to do.”

Anthony gave her a look that stated, quite clearly, even in its supernatural weirdness, that he thought maybe she was a little touched.

Then his gaze moved to his son. “Bodes well for your future, son.”

“As pleased as I am to see you both,” Cash clipped, sounding anything but pleased, shrugging off his dinner jacket and settling its voluminous warmth on Abby’s shoulders before he continued, “on the top of a tower in the freezing, f**king cold at midnight when Abby doesn’t have a coat and her life hangs in the balance, I’d prefer it if someone would tell me what in the f**k is going on,” Cash clipped.

Abby leaned toward Lorna and muttered, “He has a short fuse.”

Lorna’s disembodied voice muttered back, “They all do, dear.”

Abby decided to explain Cash’s behaviour. “He says the f-word a lot when he’s angry.” Lorna looked at her. “And other times besides,” Abby finished, feeling the need to be truthful (it was Cash’s grandma).

At that, Cash lost what little patience he had left and snapped, “We’re going.”

“You’re not going,” Anthony returned.

“We’re going,” Cash shot back.

“You can’t go,” Lorna put in.

“Why the hell not?” Cash retorted.

“You have to save Abby and you’re the only one who can do it.”

They all turned at the new voice drifting through the air.

Ben’s voice.

Abby saw he stood in the opposite corner, also see-through, his phantom feet on the roof’s floor. Zee was sitting by Ben’s feet, his tail sweeping casually from side-to-side as if he stood beside his dead master a thousand times.

“Ben,” Abby whispered, her heart leaping into her throat making her voice sound suffocated.

“Not now, Abby,” Ben returned tersely, his eyes on the door in the floor and at that moment, it flew open.

Abby jumped, Cash positioned himself in front of her and took two steps back, guiding Abby to the middle of the tower, his hands behind him, fingers curled into Abby’s sides.

Angus emerged from the door, grunting and straining, pulling the golden rope.

He came fully into view and kept tugging. Vivianna came after him, still fighting frantically against the rope at her waist. Cassandra was last through, her wand pointed at Vivianna, a pale, slim thread of gossamer gold coming from the wand and hitting Vivianna in the back, its purpose, Abby suspected, aiding in binding the ghost.

“Jesus,” Cash murmured.

“We got her, laddie,” Angus proclaimed stoutly.

“Jesus,” Cash repeated.

Abby wasn’t paying attention.

She was watching Ben, Anthony and Lorna position themselves in a circle around Angus, Cassandra and Vivianna. Zee had started prowling the edges of the roof, his yellow cat eyes turned to the restrained ghost.

“Not gon’ get away now, are you beastie?” Angus taunted.

Abby examined Vivianna who had stopped fighting against the rope and her head was whipping this way and that taking in her fellow phantoms, Cash and Zee.

It dawned on Abby that the spectre actually looked scared.

“If you’d paid attention this morning, son, not only would Abby not have wrecked your car but I would have guided you to Vivianna’s Book of Shadows,” Anthony noted mysteriously, his words causing Cash’s body to grow still, his eyes never leaving Vivianna.

“It’s hidden behind a secret panel in one of the bookshelves of the library,” Lorna put in. She, too, didn’t take her eyes from Vivianna and stayed close to the bound ghost.

“Vivianna’s invincible… almost,” Anthony noted. “Only her Book of Shadows holds the secret to her demise.”