Wraith: Shadow Bound Part 16

"Okay. Start," I told him.

He took a deep breath and exhaled. "You know the story, I set the house on fire and almost burned it to the ground. I could've killed everyone. The judge sent me to Brookhaven, which sucked. They doped me up and it took a while to adjust to the meds. All I wanted was to sleep, but we had required school, work detail and therapy."

He leaned back in his seat. "A couple of weeks in, I finally felt normal again. Normal normal. No ghosts or weird stuff. Just me and a nice buzz to get through the day. The routine seemed okay, and for the first time in years I felt safe. No boogie men trying to get me at night, you know?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I know."

"Then she showed up. Charlotte. I've never met a more troubled person than that girl.""

"Sounds about right," I mutter.

"She was pretty," he said, looking apologetic. "Smart, but also cold and calculating. She had that whole place wrapped around her finger in a couple of days."

"Did you guys hook up while you were in there?" I braced myself for his response.

"No," he said, but then admitted, "She was hot, and we flirted, and I liked her. A lot. There were times I thought she liked me back, but she flirted with everyone. I realized over time I didn't have anything she wanted. I had no leverage."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Charlotte survived life as a master manipulator. She flirted and more with the staff and counselors to get what she wanted. If that didn't work, she used blackmail."

"She flirted with the adults that worked there? Did she have s.e.x with them or something? Isn't that illegal?" Nausea welled in the back of my throat. "What did she want?"

"Food? Candy? Privileges like phone time or extra free time. She'd corner our counselor after group and try to get out of curfew. Crying and stuff. So, no," he said, "it wasn't always s.e.xual. I'm not sure how far she pushed it with the staff, but by getting them into these compromising positions she then had the leverage she needed to get the extras."

We stared at one another for a second. "Okay, so she comes, manipulates the staff, flirts with you and what else? What's the big secret?" I ask.

"The big secret was exactly that, a secret. In group, we're required to talk about why we're there. Most of us lied. You know I did. I just talked about anger and drugs. Honestly, I liked pretending I was a regular f.u.c.k up and not crazy. Being on the meds made it easier to pretend I had never seen any of those ghosts. She was the only person there I told the truth about the ghosts."

"She knew about your gift."

He nods. "She knew about yours, too, before she died."

"You told her about me?" I felt torn between being betrayed and flattered that he told Charlotte about me.

"She's the only person I ever told."

"Until you met me."

"Yeah, and Evan. He was a force to be reckoned with. No medication could dampen his love for you."

My heart ached thinking about him. "Stop it. What we had wasn't like that and you know it."

"I do know. He loved you completely, Jane. I think that is why I could see him."

"Is that why you can't see her? Because she doesn't love you enough."

"I'm not sure if that's why," he laughed. "But no, she doesn't love me. I don't even think she likes me. I'm starting to think the ghosts being able to touch you is more about you than about the ghosts, including Evan."

I hadn't told Connor about being shadow bound yet, and now wasn't the time. "If she doesn't even love you, then why? Why are you doing this to the two of us?" I leaned forward and rested my hands on his knees. "Forget us, why do this to yourself?"

"Because that's what she does. She gets under my skin. She manipulates and dominates and screws me up inside."

"So, you do want her?" I asked, pulling away.

"No!" He shifted in his seat. "She's just so lost and damaged and she trusts me. I'm trying to do what is best for all of us. By keeping you safe and trying to figure out what she wants."

"But you can't even see her not on the drugs. How are you going to help her? And for the record, I don't think she wants help anyway. She may need it, but she doesn't want it."

His blue eyes flashed. "I can't abandon her."

"I'm not asking you to, but let's talk this over and work together. We're stronger together."

He sighed. "She confessed in therapy that she learned her blackmailing habits at home. She knew something about someone in her family and used it to get whatever she wanted."

I shake my head. "But why run away then? Why not stay home and reap the benefits?"

"I think clothes and shopping and cappuccinos at Starbucks only go so far when you're really messed up. I guess, and I'm putting on my too-much-time-in-therapy-hat, the running away and skipping school was to get her parents' attention."

"Obviously. She told me they were never around and no one cared," I said. "What's the secret? Who did she blackmail?"

He made a face, but said nothing. The wind blew across the porch, jangling a wind chime in the dark.

"You promised."

Connor rubbed his hands over his face and scratched at his chin. "Her uncle."

"Her uncle? The realtor?" I thought about the pictures Ava and I looked up on the computer. "Is that why you vandalized his office? Did she tell you to do that?"

"Yeah, this thing, it's..."

A strong, determined voice spoke over Connor. "Tell him to stop." Surprised, I looked over Connor's shoulder and saw Charlotte. Her face was contorted in anger.

Refusing to lose this chance to find out the truth, I said, "It's what?"

"She didn't tell me this in group. She waited until we were alone. I thought she liked and trusted me. She told me about her uncle and how she knew what he had done, because he tried to do it to her, and... What's with the weather?"

A rush of wind blew around us, knocking over a pot and sending the wind chimes into a frenzy.

"Stop him. Now." Charlotte stepped around Connor and stood between us.

I swallowed, silently refusing. "What did he do?"

Charlotte leaned over and whispered in his ear. He stiffened in his seat and his eyebrows furrowed.

"She's here, isn't she?"

"Answer him! Tell him I'm here," her hand shot out and grabbed me by the upper arm. I froze, trying to keep my composure. If he didn't tell me now, he never would. "Tell him if he doesn't shut up, I'm going to break your arm."

"Jane? Is she here? Where?"

"Don't let her do this. Tell me. Don't let her control you," I said. Her fingers tightened and I winced.

"Where is she?" Connor batted the air, never making contact. "Let her go, Charlotte. I'm done. I won't say anything else."

"No," I said, now struggling against her, I wrenched her hand off my arm and rubbed the tender skin. "Tell me. In front of her. These threats against me are just another form of her manipulative behavior."

"She'll hurt you."

Charlotte smiled and leaned into him again, dragging my body with her, and whispered to Connor. When she finished, she said to me, "He's right. You can't beat me. Ghost beats human. Sorry."

"She'll hurt me anyway. What do you think the end result will be? She has you and I just walk away? Someone isn't going to survive this." I moved closer in an attempt to keep her away from him. "Who are you really protecting, Connor Jacobs, the living or the dead?"

He hesitated long enough for me to see the worry in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Char," he said to the air. "It's not going to be you."

Charlotte tried to mask the hurt with a smirk, a chilling smile that cut to the bone. "Wrong choice," she said, and with another gust of cool air, she disappeared.

I woke with a start, tangled in Connor's arms and legs. His head buried between my side and the couch cushion. I nudged him gently. "Hey, wake up."

He groaned and pushed his face deeper in the sofa.

"I'm serious," I said. I picked up my phone and looked at the time. "It's 6:30. I'm pretty sure you missed curfew."

Without moving his head, he lifted the leg with the ankle monitor. "They'll find me."

Connor and I moved inside Ava's house once Charlotte vanished. Going on the theory she wouldn't harm me while other people were around, we tucked in for the night, playing games with Ava and Christian.

Unfortunately, this stopped Connor from revealing more about her secret.

"Not funny," I said, moving so he fell face first into the pillow. "I'd rather them not revoke your probation."

"Big word. Revoke."

"My parents were lawyers. I paid attention."

I turned to find him with messy hair and sleepy eyes, staring up at me with the slightest of smiles.

"What's that about?" I asked about the grin.

He eased a hand on my leg. "I'm just happy to be here with you."

"I'm happy to be here with you, but we have unfinished business."

He tilted his head to the side. "You're happy to have me here?"

"Yeah. I am." I felt the blush on my cheeks. "I missed you."

"I never left."

"You were here, but not here," I told him. "It's hard to explain."

"I know what you mean. I don't know how she does it, but Charlotte got all in my head."

"I saw her do it last night. She whispers. Right up in your ear. Telling you things to do and think. She does it in your sleep, too," I said. Connor shifted and stretched on his back. I sat on the other end of the couch, our legs intertwined.

"She came to see me right before she died. Just that one time since we were in the hospital. We texted some here and there, and she friended me on Facebook and stuff, but, I don't know... we just lived two different lives." He reached for my hand. "Plus, I had you."

"What did she want when she came to see you?"

"I didn't know at first. It's like I said last night, she had some kind of weird influence on me. I craved her approval. Even though when she left, I didn't care. Her visit seemed normal though. She wasn't really interested in me. She spent the entire time talking about herself and her parents and how they sucked and how much she partied."

"Did she flirt with you?"

He raised an eyebrow. "She always flirted."

I fought the familiar Charlotte-induced wave of jealousy. "Did she seem depressed?"

"No more than usual. In hindsight, I thought it may be one of those suicidal goodbye things, where you make amends and get things in order."

"It sounds more like recon," I suggest.

"I think it was. She asked about the ghosts and if I saw them anymore. I told her about you, to a degree. She was very interested. I knew it was wrong to tell her about everything but..." he faltered.

"I know. She's a weakness for you." I hated admitting it and I hated the fact he told her things he didn't tell me."After that, what happened?"

"At first I just wanted to see if she needed help. I could feel the nudge of her spirit through the medication so I stopped taking it. Slowly, she became more active. Sometimes I saw her, other times I just heard her or felt her nearby."

"She was haunting you?"

"Yeah, like the night I tagged her uncle's office. One minute I was alone in my room, the next I was being handcuffed. She lived in my head and being off the meds made me a little neurotic. Sometimes it was hard for me to comprehend reality." He fixed his eyes on me, intense and dangerous. Dangerous to me because I wanted so badly to believe him.

I shifted a little on the couch, sitting up straighter. "I heard a rumor Charlotte didn't kill herself."

Connor widened his eyes. "What?"

"Yeah, her family thinks she didn't do it. I'm not sure why though."

"Who in her family? Her mom?"

"No, her uncle and aunt. They go to Julia's church. Apparently that's the big gossip with the church ladies right now." Connor frowned and I continued. "What's the big secret with her uncle? He seemed really concerned about all of this. Julia said they were devastated. I mean, why did you vandalize his office?"

Connor slipped his legs out of mine and stood up. Ava had a small living room, but still enough s.p.a.ce for him to pace around. "The uncle... I went, well I thought I went to make a point, to create this grand monument to Charlotte, but I don't know. That even if she was dead, she still knew what he had done. I thought I was honoring her... but now that the meds have kicked back in, it's pretty obvious why she told me to go there. I knew her image would hurt him, but what do they think happened if she didn't kill herself?"

"Murder or an accident? I don't really know."

Connor took a deep breath and sat back on the couch. "Charlotte's uncle is a complete jerk. A bad guy jerk. The kind that messes with little girls."