The Departed - J A Templeton Page 4

Madison, Cait and Kade’s twelve-year-old cousin who lived with them, sat cross-legged on the rug. Seeing me, she grinned and jumped to her feet. “I’m so happy you’re back together with Kade.”

  I adored Maddy. She had attitude, and it didn’t hurt that she could also see the dead, especially Hanway, a ghost who had been living at the castle for centuries. The two had a tight bond.

  I gave her a hug. “Thanks, Maddy. I’m happy we’re back together, too.”

  Cait shut the bedroom door behind her.

  Maddy sat down on the bed beside me, her gaze skipping to Cait, who had pulled the desk chair close to the bed and took a seat. She leaned in toward Maddy. “We need you to ask Hanway what Laria wants from Riley…or from any of us, for that matter.”

  I was glad she didn’t mention anything about Laria’s threat to kill all of us.

  Maddy frowned. “I can’t just summon him and he appears like a genie.”

  She could have fooled me. I remember when Randall had shown himself in the dining room, and how Maddy had called for Hanway and he’d been there within seconds. When Ian was here, there had been times I had called to him and he had appeared; and yet other times, like when I’d been locked inside the mausoleum, when he hadn’t shown at all.

  Maybe one day I would figure out all the complexities of spirits.

  “Let me see if I can get him to answer,” Maddy said, closing her eyes.

  Cait and I shared a look. This twelve-year-old girl blew me away.

  I felt a cold chill in the air, but I didn’t see Hanway. Apparently Maddy did, though. She glanced toward the far corner of the room. I could tell she was communicating with him, the way her focus stayed there.

  I struggled to focus…to see if I could at least hear him.

  Maddy watched the corner of the room intently. “He keeps showing me woods.”

  I swallowed hard.

  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I want to go across the river, toward the woods.”

  Cait frowned. “What does that mean?”

  I was reminded of the dream I’d had last night. Before I spoke up and said anything, I wanted to see what else Hanway had to say.

  Maddy put her fingers to her temples. “Rumor says she was buried across the river, up on the hillside in the dense brush. They buried her there, forgot about her, and made sure she would never be found.”

  My breath caught in my throat.

  “Does he know where exactly she’s buried?” Cait asked.

  Maddy shook her head. “Hanway can’t leave the castle, so he wasn’t able to follow the family and the servants who buried her. He watched from the castle tower, though, and saw them enter the woods beyond the river. Torch light could be seen high up on the hill.”

  Cait frowned. “Wait, why can’t Hanway leave the castle?”

  Maddy looked toward Hanway. “He said that some spirits become trapped in a location and there’s nothing they can do…but hope one day to be sent to the white light.”

  Like Ian had been sent to the white light. I had to wonder if maybe Maddy was holding onto Hanway versus helping him to the light. I also wondered if the day came to let him go, if she would.

  Maddy glanced at me and I had the feeling she was reading my thoughts.

  “How did this whole seeing spirits start for you, Madison?” I asked.

  “I had a dream about my great-grandma when I was like three. She came to me the night she died and said she had a stroke. I didn’t even know what a stroke was. I told my mom that she had died. When the phone rang an hour later and she learned my grandma had died, she screamed and then watched me close from then on. I started to see a lot of shadows and images out of the corner of my eye, and I always felt like I was being watched.”

  Maddy cleared her throat. “When I was eight we moved to an apartment in downtown Glasgow. There this little girl would come out of the closet at night and talk to me. She said she lived in the building years before when a fire destroyed it. She didn’t make it out.”

  “That’s bloody horrible,” Cait said, glancing over her shoulder, like she expected the girl to show up at any second.

  “She became my friend,” Maddy said absently. “I ran home from school every single day to play with her. Then one day my mum said we were moving. I was so sad. I couldn’t imagine not seeing Emma any longer. I never saw her again.”

  What Maddy didn’t say, but I could feel, was that Emma had been her best friend, and she’d lost that best friend and it had left its mark on her.

  “Shortly after, my mum dropped me off here and I met Hanway.” She hugged her knees to her chest. “It might seem weird to everyone else because he’s a man.”

  “No one thinks it’s weird, Maddy,” Cait said reassuringly. “Some things happen for a reason.” She leaned forward and ruffled Maddy’s hair. “He’s your friend and you’re lucky to have him.”

  Maddy smiled at Cait. “I am lucky.”

  “Maybe Hanway is why you came to Braemar to begin with,” Cait added.

  Maddy shrugged. “I doubt my mom’s drug addiction has anything to do with a spirit needing me, but thanks for trying to make me feel better.”

  Cait and I locked eyes and we cracked up. Leave it to Maddy to take a sincere moment and call ‘bullshit.’

  She frowned at both of us. I felt for Maddy, for being abandoned by both parents, for living in fear of the moment her mother might come knocking on the castle door to take her away to a life of instability and moving from one place to the next. Leaving Hanway and the MacKinnons would be devastating for her, and I hoped more than anything that day never came.

  “So do you think Hanway could point toward the burial spot?” I asked, wanting and needing to validate what I had seen in my dream.

  Maddy glanced toward Hanway. “He said yes, but we have to go up to the battlements to see.”

  I followed them out of the room and up the tower steps, my mind racing. What would happen if I did find Laria’s grave? Would she get over her anger and frustration toward me and the MacKinnons or would things just continue to escalate?

  We headed up another staircase, and then out onto the battlements. “Show me,” Maddy said, going up on her tiptoes and looking out over the stone wall.

  “He says that it looks a lot different now than it did back then. That tree is in the way,” she said motioning to a group of trees. “See the stump off to the right of the tallest oak there?”

  I nodded.

  “There’s a very crude pathway that leads deep into the woods and toward the top of the hill.”

  My pulse skittered.

  “Hanway said the pathway forks off in several different directions when you get about midway up the hillside. Stay to the right, and it will lead you to the very top of the hill.”

  Cait frowned. “She’s buried at the top of the hill?”

  Maddy chewed her lower lip and frowned. “Just on the other side of the hill. No one wanted the grave to be found…ever.”

  “I dreamt about the grave last night,” I blurted, and both Cait and Maddy looked at me. “Where Hanway is saying it is, is what I had seen in my dream. In my dream I stood at the top of the hill and looked down at the castle.”

  Cait turned to me and smiled. “Then that means we’re on the right track.” She patted Maddy on the back. “Good job, Maddy. Tell Hanway thanks.”

  Maddy beamed. “You just told him yourself.”

  “Nice.” Cait looked at me, and lifted a brow. “So, when are we going in?”

  “Cait, you don’t have to go…”

  “I want to go, Ri.” Cait looked determined. “This is affecting my family too, and I want an end to it.”

  “You want an end to what?”

  We all turned. Kade stood at the doorway watching us.

  “An end to Laria’s haunting,” Cait said in response to his question.

  He stepped out onto the battlements, came up behind me, and slid his arms around my waist. “I agree. It’s time for this to stop.�
�

  I leaned back against his strong chest.

  Cait took Maddy by the hand and headed for the door. “Come on, squirt. Let’s give these two some space.”

  “You’re not in this alone, you know that, right?” Kade pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “I mean, I was serious when I told you I wanted to help you. I don’t want to be left out of this. If it affects you, it affects me.”

  “I’m grateful for your help,” I said, staring off at the hillside.

  “So…what were you guys doing up here?”

  I glanced at him. “Laria is buried up on that hill.”

  He frowned.

  “Apparently that’s just one more reason for her to be angry.”

  “Does she forget that she killed Ian and that’s why his family wanted revenge?”

  I’m sure she didn’t forget what she had done to Ian, or what Ian’s family had done to her, for one second.

  “But what can you do about her being buried where she’s at? I mean, does she expect you to find her body and have it moved?”

  “I don’t know what she wants, but the grave obviously has something to do with all of it.” I turned in his arms. “I don’t want to talk about her any more.” Honestly, I was so sick of Laria controlling my life. The moments of peace I had were so rare, and I just wanted to be with Kade without looking over my shoulder.

  He smiled at me. “How about a motorcycle ride before dinner?”

  ***

  The motorcycle was of the dirt bike variety. I slid the helmet on that Kade had handed me, and he brushed my hands out of the way to buckle it. The sides of his mouth lifted in a soft smile, and my heart gave a lurch. I liked feeling cared for.

  “Are you scared?”

  “Not at all,” I replied. My family owned dirt bikes that we used at our property in the Columbia River Gorge. Shane and I had spent hours a day on those minibikes, blazing trails through the hundred acres of national forest that backed up to the cedar vacation home where we had spent nearly every weekend during the spring and summer when we were younger.

  Sliding a leg over the motorcycle seat, I settled in behind Kade and wrapped my arms around his narrow waist. I liked the intimacy, and as he kicked the engine over and hit first gear we were off.

  He started off slowly across the lawn, shifted into second gear, and waved to Maddy and Cait who watched us from the courtyard. The minute we were up over the hill, he hit third and then fourth gear, and we were flying across the green grass, parallel to the river.

  Exhilaration rushed through me. I had forgotten this incredible feeling—of the wind against my face, the freedom of being a part of nature, part of the landscape.

  A small stone bridge crossed the river ahead of us.

  I became nervous that we were headed that way. I didn’t trust Laria, and being on that side of the river, and getting closer to the hillside where she’d been buried just made me more uncomfortable.

  Thankfully we didn’t head up into the hills. In fact, there was a small little track that was just far enough off the road to be invisible from traffic passing by. After a dozen laps, he pulled off the track and stopped. He glanced back at me. “You want to go solo?”

  It had been years since I’d ridden a bike, so I was a little rusty, but I was also excited. “Sure.” I only hoped I didn’t make an ass out of myself.

  I killed the engine immediately, and when Kade stepped forward to help me out, I put the bike in neutral, flipped out the kick starter with my hand, and putting all my body weight into it, turned the engine over on the first crank.

  Kade’s lips split into a wide smile.

  The first few laps I was a bit wobbly, and I’ll admit, I was nervous, especially when I nearly lost control after going a little too fast over one jump.

  On the third lap around, I noticed what looked like the girl who had been sacrificed from my dream, standing by a tree.

  I rode past Kade, who was leaning back on his elbows, legs crossed at the ankle, and grinning from ear to ear.

  I had surprised him, I knew that, and, in a way, I was surprising myself. It felt incredible.

  The girl was there; this time she stepped out from the tree and gestured toward something behind me. I looked over my shoulder, and the entire bike went the same direction. I overcorrected and almost hit the side of another jump. I rounded the corner and started heading back toward Kade, and immediately saw what the girl was referring to.

  My stomach dropped to my toes.

  Laria, Randall, and the coven were coming up behind Kade.

  I pulled back on the throttle and held on, skipping off the track and onto the grass. Big mistake. It was bumpier than the track.

  Kade stood up and brushed at his butt, and a scream froze in my throat when Randall came up right behind him.

  The witches made like a wall behind Randall. I gunned it even more, knowing I was pushing it.

  Kade’s eyes were wide when I pulled up beside him and killed the engine. “Wow, you constantly surprise me.”

  I heard the pride in his voice, and yet I couldn’t savor the small victory, not when we were surrounded by the enemy.

  “We will kill him and all that you hold dear,” Laria said, coming up from beside Kade, sliding a hand over his shoulder, down his bicep, to rest on his hand.

  Kade brushed at his arm, like an insect had landed on him.

  My heart missed a beat. He actually felt her…

  “I don’t understand what you want from me,” I said, speaking in my mind. “I don’t get it. Why not just let it go. Ian is gone. Kade is here, but we’re alive. You’re not.”

  Laria hovered above the ground a good six inches, and then even higher. I know she tried to intimidate me, and quite frankly, she was doing a pretty damn good job, especially surrounded by Randall and the coven.

  For the first time, I got a look at the faces of some of the others. They ranged from my age to like sixty. I was stunned that they were all against me. How could so many people I had never met before hate me so much? What had I ever done to them, aside from help Ian cross over?

  “Do you trust me?” I asked Kade.

  He frowned. “Of course. Why…”

  “We need to go right now.”

  His eyes widened. “They’re here?”

  I nodded.

  “What do they want?”

  “Me.”

  He grabbed my hand, thrust his helmet on, and seconds later we were on the bike and flying across the field.

  I held onto him tightly, and I could feel the pounding of his heart against my chest. I have no idea how they were able to do it, but they were moving with us, many just a blur.

  Screams tore through the quiet, drowning out the sound of the motorcycle.

  Fingernails dug into the skin on my back. When the castle came into view, I breathed a sigh of relief.

  I buried my face into Kade’s back, praying for help.

  Laria’s threat that she would kill Kade and all I held dear rang in my ears. What next? If something happened to him, my family, or my friends, I’d never forgive myself.

  My arms tightened around Kade.

  We caught air over the last hill before the castle lawn. Cait and Maddy had been sitting in the courtyard, and came running out.

  I thought for a second Kade might have lost the brakes until he came to a stop a few feet from the courtyard wall. I slid off the bike and removed my helmet. He was off, putting the kick-stand up and removing his helmet.

  “What happened to your shirt?” Maddy asked.

  I glanced over my shoulder. My blouse was torn from the very bottom to just above my bra line.

  Kade’s jaw clenched. “What the hell? When did that happen?”

  “A few minutes ago.”

  Cait lifted the shirt. “Riley, you have scratch marks all the way down your spine.”

  Kade threw his helmet on the grass and looked at my back. “This is too much.” He looked in the direction we had just come. “You bloody coward
s, why go after a girl who can’t fight you? You touch her again, and I’ll make sure you spend the rest of your days in hell.”

  I really wish he hadn’t said that. Threatening this group of spirits could blow up in all of our faces.

  Chapter 6

  Kade had dropped me off at the inn and made me promise to call if there were any other attacks. I didn’t dare tell him everything that had happened to me so far, especially since he’d been so quiet ever since seeing the scratches on my back. I already knew how tough it was for everyone to understand just how bad things had gotten.

  Cait had let me borrow a shirt, and I’d tossed my blouse on the fire in the dining room, watching it go up in smoke. It figures Laria would mess up one of my favorite shirts. I changed into my pajamas and went straight to bed.

  Dad popped his head in, told me goodnight, and mentioned that he was heading to Edinburgh in the morning.

  He was running to his girlfriend again. Being with us for days on end had probably been family overload for him. For all I knew, he probably had a drawer at Cheryl’s house where he kept his things. “That’s fine,” I murmured, wishing I could be a bit more like Shane—to where my dad taking up with another woman didn’t bother me so much. I knew he would have to move on sooner or later, and I wanted him to have companionship, but I just wished he could have waited a while.

  But as I was learning—shit happens, and sometimes all you could do was hang on for the ride.

  Kind of like the ride Laria was taking me on. A terrifying ride that was testing my patience and my sanity.

  I browsed every book I had on psychic gifts that Anne Marie and Miss Akin had given me, but nowhere did any of them mention what to do—aside from protection rituals that I’d already used—to get rid of a spirit. One positive thing about Dad leaving for the week was it would give me some time to at least use the internet and search for information without him looking over my shoulder. I’d also ask Megan to search for books on hauntings and ghosts at the library where she worked.

  The last time I looked at the alarm clock it said three thirty three. When I woke up a few hours later, I felt like I’d slept for thirty minutes.