Ghost Silk (Ghost Perfume, Book 2) | ✔

1 - Tell me what to do - Part 1

Rose - Material Realm

What did they mean?

If they weren't human then what were they?

"Then Rose lives with us," Gabriel said.

The warmth in his voice.

My heart could have exploded with the feelings it couldn't contain.

A rustling noise, and a sharp "Don't wake her if she sleeps" from Michael.

Did I get a silver ring like theirs now? Would they tell me more about their job?

I would leave my childhood behind. Leave Tommy ...

"Guilty, Michael?" Lukas drawled. "When does the self-flagellation start?"

"You never did take responsibility for anything." Michael's voice could send chills down anyone's back. "Why should what we did today be any different?"

"We did what we had to do," Lukas said.

"We were too brutal," Gabriel said.

"I'd do it again if I had to," Alexander snapped, a bite of defensiveness corroding his tone.

No response. Utter silence in the living room I didn't dare peer into.

The memories from before my sleep had consolidated into a hazy, alienated sequence of dream-like images that no longer made perfect sense: Adelaide's takeover, Gabriel's kiss, and the time I spent bound, withstanding their attempt to force her out with discomfort, uncertainty, imprisonment and pain. I didn't like to think of the details. Exhaustion. Our deadly performance. The flash of the raised knife. The rush of blood. Threading Adelaide, before letting her go.

I wanted to shy away from this nightmarish dream. There was too much in it that I couldn't face directly.

Gabriel's kisses burning a trail from my lips to my breast. Adelaide mocking Jane: he loves Rose too much to hold out.

Michael, his expression terrible as he stood over my bound and ghost-trapped form, promising a relentless campaign of pain: this is how much I love you.

A few hours before the ghost took me over, I had one chaste wish. To put my head on Alexander's chest. I'd wondered whether he'd even let me.

There was a slight noise.

"Hey," I called before they caught me eavesdropping. I raised a hand to rub one of my eyes as I came forward.

That thrill from their joint attention shivered through me when four heads turned in my direction. Lukas, who stood by the wall, stepped closer and opened his arms.

I didn't question it. I wrapped mine around his hard waist, happy to think that we'd passed the days when he wouldn't hug me in his brothers' presence.

He squeezed me tight.

With his heartbeat under my ear I felt safe.

Like I belonged.

And he belonged with me too - he was mine too - material and real: his heat, his smell, the slight sound of his breath as his ribs rose and fell under my arms, the shirt on his back crumpled in my fingers. I'd never let him go.

Eyes on me, like a touch. But no one said a thing. What were they thinking?

I turned my head, peeking over Lukas's arm. Michael had his jaw on his fist. He frowned at me.