Kelley St. John - Ghosts And Roses (Harlequin Blaze)

Introduction

Growing up in the Louisiana bayou lends itself to a natural familiarity with the staples of a Cajun heritagevampires, voodoo and ghosts. The Vicknair family is quite familiar with the ghostly side of this equation. From the moment the family entered Louisiana, each member merged with the other side. Not the other side of the state line, or even the other side of St. Charles Parish. Oh, no, they straddle the boundary between the living and the dead. Their only means of living a seminormal life is to aid those who have difficulty crossing over, to help them fix whats wrong and make it right, so lost ghosts can find their way home.

The six Vicknair cousinsNanette, Tristan, Gage, Monique, Dax and

Jeneecurrently serving medium duty understand the need to continue the family tradition and protect their secret. When a lavender-tinted envelope arrives on the infamous tea service in the Vicknair plantations sitting room, they realize its time to get down to business. Time to help a spirit. And woe to the cousin who ignores an assignment. While matriarch Adeline Vicknair may be dead, her feisty temper lives on, and when she assigns a spirit to one of her grandchildren, she wants it handledor else.

Typically, assignments are dealt with in the same mannerone of the Vicknairs receives a letter, learns what the ghost needs in order to cross over, then helps the spirit achieve that goal. Every now and then, however, theres a kink thrown into the mix. During her last assignment, feisty Monique happened to fall in love with her spirit, and the rest of the cousins, particularly stickler Nanette, are still trying to grasp the reality that Moniques ghost didnt cross over; matter of fact, hes corporeal again and on this side with Monique.

Now Gage Vicknair is about to learn that being a medium can be dangerous, particularly when his assigned specter has been murderedand the killer is only getting started.

Prologue

In the past four weeks, Lillian Bedeau had known someone was following her. She could sense it so clearly, that prickly sensation down the center of her spine, hair standing up at the back of her neck, goose bumps marching an eager path down her arms. Someone was there. When she went shopping for groceries, when she got the mail, when she dressed for bed at night. Someone was watching.

Thanks to a talented therapist, her nightmares had stopped five years ago.

Visions of steel-gray eyes didnt wake her at night, didnt cause her to break out in a cold sweat. Didnt make her scream. But in the past month, the dreams had returned, the eyes more intense, the screams more chilling.

Shed known he was back; even though she hadnt seen him, shed known. He was back and had found her, made her pay for sending him awaywith a vicious thrust of a knife to her chest. Now every inhalation ripped at her lungs, and she could feel the lifeblood leaving her body with every pained step, but she wouldnt stop breathing, not yet. If she gave up now, shed have no way to tell the others that hed returned.

Shed tried her best to warn them, her four sisters from way back then. Only Chantelle was her sister by blood, but the four of them, Lillian, Chantelle, Makayla and Shelby, had bonded as tightly as sisters nonetheless. Raised in a small group home where they were the only girls, theyd been the only children he abused, a fact theyd learned at his trial. He never laid a finger on the boys.

For five long years, the girls were too afraid to tell anyone what he did to them at night, too scared of his promised retribution. But in the midst of their living nightmare, theyd found strength in each other, and in the roses.

The Seven Sisters orphanage was named for the Seven Sisters roses that bloomed on the grounds each year. It had been Makaylas idea for them to look to the roses for strength. The blooms were tiny individually, but they grew in clusters, so that together, they were strong enough to withstand the wrath of Louisianas roughest storms. That had been the girls goalto be strong enough to withstand his wrath and make him pay.

To symbolize their bond, each of the girls had gotten a rose tattoo above her right ankle. Theyd wanted a lasting symbol of finding their strength. Again, itd been Makayla who had suggested the tattoos, and itd been Makayla who had ultimately overcome her fear and sought help from their teacher, Ms. Rosa. Ms.

Rosa had called the police that night, and then, with her by their sides, Lillian, Chantelle, Makayla and Shelby had endured the horrendous trial that had finally put him where he belonged: behind bars.

Lillian bit her lip to keep moving in spite of the pain shooting through every limb like shards of glass trying to push through her veins. He certainly wasnt behind bars now, and she couldnt fathom how he had got free. Wasnt the State supposed to inform them, warn them, if he were ever released? Or escaped?

She knew death was near now; the memories of the past, of everything shed gone through with those four special sisterschildren then, women nowfiltered through her thoughts. Who else would he find? What if she didnt hang on long enough to warn them? If he had followed her throughout the day, then without meaning to, shed led him straight to Makayla, and Makayla wouldnt have a clue she was in dangerSomehow she had forgotten everything, blocked it out.

Poor Makayla. Shed had the worst of it back then. Being the oldest and the strongest of the girls, shed been the one he took most, the one whose spirit hed most enjoyed trying to break. Lillian had tried to warn Makayla that she believed he was back, but for the past two weeks, Makayla hadnt returned Lillians messages. When Lillian had called the small department store where Makayla worked and learned shed quit without notice two weeks ago, shed known something was wrong. Makayla wouldnt have quit her job on impulse; that wasnt the kind of person she was. And she didnt have any family, other than Lillian, Shelby and Chantelle, and shed called none of them to let them know she was leaving town.

Following her instinct, Lillian had called the hospitals in New Orleans to see if her friend had been admitted, and one helpful nurse had suggested she try the homeless shelters. With a few phone calls, Lillian had learned that a woman who claimed to have no memory had arrived at the

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shelter two weeks earlier. She could only remember a nameKayla. Lillian knew this woman was Makayla.

Lillian should have realized that he could have been following her when shed visited the shelter earlier, not aware that it closed during the day. She should have told that nice girl who worked there, Jenee, her suspicion about Kaylas identity, that she could be Makayla Sparks and that shed been molested, brutally and terribly, from the time she was nine until she turned fourteen. She should have told her about the horrible trial theyd all endured when Makayla was sixteen and Lillian a year younger. If Lillian had told the woman, perhaps Jenee could have helped. And perhaps Lillian wouldnt be where she was right now, struggling for her next breath, probably her last breath, without having warned her friend that, somehow, he had returned. Just as hed said he would.

The knife that had pierced Lillians chest had hit her like a one-two punch.

One, shock. Two, defeat. But then shed decided that he wouldnt win. She had to warn Makayla.

Her breathing became even more difficult, coming in rapid, sharp gasps, and her vision blurred as she stumbled down the dark alley that she prayed led to

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. Lillian groped at rough bricks and clots of mortar sticking out from the buildings edge like short, gnarled teeth. If she didnt hold on tight, shed fall again, and next time, she might not get up.