Read Online SEDUCTIVE SUPERNATURALS: 12 Tales of Shapeshifters, Vampires & Sexy Spirits by Sheri Whitefeather, Maureen Child, Caridad Piñeiro, Erin Kellison, Erin Quinn, Lisa Kessler, Chris Marie Green, Mary Leo, Cassi Carver, Janet Wellington, Theresa Meyers, Elisabeth Staab - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Sheri Whitefeather, Maureen Child, Caridad Piñeiro, Erin Kellison, Erin Quinn, Lisa Kessler, Chris Marie Green, Mary Leo, Cassi Carver, Janet Wellington, Theresa Meyers, Elisabeth Staab
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again.
“You saw Dead Lights,” Reilly said calmly.
Gracie shot him a disapproving look. Now Analise had a name for her overcharged imagination to build upon.
“Dead Lights are a phenomenon of the dried springs, honey,” Gracie explained. “Probably something to do with the gases trapped under it and the heat.”
Gracie saw relief in her daughter’s eyes at an explanation that she could believe. “I don’t remember anything after that.”
“You never saw your grandma?” Eddie asked.
“No, we never made it here.”
Gracie knew what Eddie would ask next and she stood quickly, hoping to stop him. He’d already told her over the phone where Grandma Beck’s body had been found. Analise didn’t need to hear that. Not now. Not yet.
“I’m going to take Analise upstairs and show her where she’s sleeping. I think she’s had enough for one night.”
Eddie looked at Analise’s drawn features and nodded. “After you’re done, come down. I still need to talk to you.”
Analise set Romeo down with Tinkerbelle and Juliet, and all three dogs followed diligently behind her. Gracie could feel Reilly’s gaze tracking her as she led her daughter to the stairs but she didn’t look back. Looking back never did anyone any good.
At the door to her old bedroom, Gracie hesitated, suddenly afraid of crossing the next threshold. Being back in this town, in the home where she’d grown up . . . seeing it so transformed while trying to cope with the reality that she’d never see her grandma again…it all felt like too much. She’d been gone for half of her life and she felt it down to the bone.
“I have no idea what’s behind this door,” she told Analise with a tight laugh. “She might have burned my bed.”
Analise stared into her face, trying to see all that Gracie wanted to hide. “I don’t get how she could do that to you. Throw you out when you were pregnant. How could she let me grow up and never try to know me?”
The pain in her daughter’s voice tore through Gracie. She’d cried herself to sleep many nights with that question spinning in her head. “It was another time, honey. People were different back then.”
Analise snorted. “It was 1998, Mom. Not that long ago.”
“It’s like dog years in Diablo Springs.”
Analise gave a halfhearted smile. Tinkerbelle and Juliet waited patiently, following the conversation like a tennis match while Romeo pranced around them.
Gracie braced herself as she reached for the doorknob. She doubted her grandma would have turned it into a rented room as she’d done the others. Grandma Beck had strict, if often cryptic, rules about such things. No guests in family quarters was one of them. Most likely she’d stripped the room bare and left it as a stark reminder of all of Gracie’s failings.
With a fake smile for Analise, she opened the door.
Surprise didn’t describe what she felt when she saw inside. Shock was closer, but still not big enough. The room looked exactly as it had when she’d left. Not even dust had moved in to change it. Gracie gripped the door frame, staring at this metaphor for her relationship with Grandma Beck. She’d shut her out while keeping her memory in pristine suspension.
Analise brushed past her with a look of wonder, her fear forgotten for the moment as she stared back in time to her mother’s life as a teenager. Posters of The Backstreet Boys, Hanson, and Titanic decorated the walls and a bed with a bright purple comforter butted up to a nightstand in the corner. A picture window overlooked a huge mesquite in the front yard and polka-dot curtains that Grandma Beck had sewn herself framed the glass. Once the sun came up, they would be able to see the ruins from here. Now it was just a dark void in the distance.
A hot pink beanbag chair sat next to a CD player with bright lights and fat knobs for volume and the radio. Gracie had saved her babysitting money for months to buy it. A cracked plastic CD case had been tossed
“You saw Dead Lights,” Reilly said calmly.
Gracie shot him a disapproving look. Now Analise had a name for her overcharged imagination to build upon.
“Dead Lights are a phenomenon of the dried springs, honey,” Gracie explained. “Probably something to do with the gases trapped under it and the heat.”
Gracie saw relief in her daughter’s eyes at an explanation that she could believe. “I don’t remember anything after that.”
“You never saw your grandma?” Eddie asked.
“No, we never made it here.”
Gracie knew what Eddie would ask next and she stood quickly, hoping to stop him. He’d already told her over the phone where Grandma Beck’s body had been found. Analise didn’t need to hear that. Not now. Not yet.
“I’m going to take Analise upstairs and show her where she’s sleeping. I think she’s had enough for one night.”
Eddie looked at Analise’s drawn features and nodded. “After you’re done, come down. I still need to talk to you.”
Analise set Romeo down with Tinkerbelle and Juliet, and all three dogs followed diligently behind her. Gracie could feel Reilly’s gaze tracking her as she led her daughter to the stairs but she didn’t look back. Looking back never did anyone any good.
At the door to her old bedroom, Gracie hesitated, suddenly afraid of crossing the next threshold. Being back in this town, in the home where she’d grown up . . . seeing it so transformed while trying to cope with the reality that she’d never see her grandma again…it all felt like too much. She’d been gone for half of her life and she felt it down to the bone.
“I have no idea what’s behind this door,” she told Analise with a tight laugh. “She might have burned my bed.”
Analise stared into her face, trying to see all that Gracie wanted to hide. “I don’t get how she could do that to you. Throw you out when you were pregnant. How could she let me grow up and never try to know me?”
The pain in her daughter’s voice tore through Gracie. She’d cried herself to sleep many nights with that question spinning in her head. “It was another time, honey. People were different back then.”
Analise snorted. “It was 1998, Mom. Not that long ago.”
“It’s like dog years in Diablo Springs.”
Analise gave a halfhearted smile. Tinkerbelle and Juliet waited patiently, following the conversation like a tennis match while Romeo pranced around them.
Gracie braced herself as she reached for the doorknob. She doubted her grandma would have turned it into a rented room as she’d done the others. Grandma Beck had strict, if often cryptic, rules about such things. No guests in family quarters was one of them. Most likely she’d stripped the room bare and left it as a stark reminder of all of Gracie’s failings.
With a fake smile for Analise, she opened the door.
Surprise didn’t describe what she felt when she saw inside. Shock was closer, but still not big enough. The room looked exactly as it had when she’d left. Not even dust had moved in to change it. Gracie gripped the door frame, staring at this metaphor for her relationship with Grandma Beck. She’d shut her out while keeping her memory in pristine suspension.
Analise brushed past her with a look of wonder, her fear forgotten for the moment as she stared back in time to her mother’s life as a teenager. Posters of The Backstreet Boys, Hanson, and Titanic decorated the walls and a bed with a bright purple comforter butted up to a nightstand in the corner. A picture window overlooked a huge mesquite in the front yard and polka-dot curtains that Grandma Beck had sewn herself framed the glass. Once the sun came up, they would be able to see the ruins from here. Now it was just a dark void in the distance.
A hot pink beanbag chair sat next to a CD player with bright lights and fat knobs for volume and the radio. Gracie had saved her babysitting money for months to buy it. A cracked plastic CD case had been tossed
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