Page 82 of The Ghost and the Graveyard (Knight Games 1)
Old-fashioned and weighty, I rolled the antique key in my hand. The wide end looped around twice like butterfly wings before twisting and melding into the blade of the key. Was it forged by hand? Hundreds of years old? If this house was built for Isabella, it was ancient. A house of secrets.
I climbed the stairs one apprehensive step at a time, glancing back at Logan until I took the bend at the second-floor landing. At the attic door, I paused. What I was about to do would change me forever, no matter what I decided.
The key slid into the lock, and the mechanism began to glow. The door transformed, the chipped paint gleaming white, the wrought iron knob turning to pearl. I opened the door and stepped into pure light and warmth, an open space with soft edges and stained glass. Beyond the windows, I could see it was night outside, but the light came from within, from the floor and the walls. I took a step inside. The door closed behind me.
"I wondered when you would come, Grateful."
A dark-haired woman, about my age, stood near the closest window. Her heart-shaped face turned toward me. She was wearing a nursing uniform from the 1960s: white skirt, white blouse, complete with one of those white square hats that nobody wears anymore.
"Prudence?" The ghost was a far cry from the glowing torso I'd seen on my stairs and in the family room, but really, who else would be in here?
"Yes, it's me." She smiled all the way to her eyes, a peaceful, authentic smile. "I can't believe how much you've grown, my dear."
"But you look so young. Weren't you, like, seventy when you died?"
"Seventy-two, but who's counting? That's the beauty of death. You can take any form from your life. Today, I'm my twenty-six-year-old self. That was the year I first met you."
"I'm only twenty-two. You would have been fifty when I was born."
"I mean, the last you. Your name was Samantha Graves. I was twenty-six, and you looked to be about the same age, but of course you were much older."
"I don't understand. You mean, I looked younger than I was?"
"Quite. The witch is not immortal in the sense that she can be killed, as you were, but she does not age, so long as she takes her caretaker's blood."
"Yes, the blood thing. I wanted to talk to you about that. Can you explain what exactly becoming the witch entails? Does there have to be sex and blood, or is there another way?"
"Oh, dear. Have you seen the caretaker?" She giggled to herself, then frowned when I didn't join in. "In my day, women would have clawed each other's eyes out for a night with Rick. Have tastes changed so much?"
"Ah, no. He's gorgeous by anyone's standards. I'm just not sure I want to rush into a relationship."
She knitted her brow. "Rush? You do know you spent more than a lifetime together? That you were married more than once?"
"Yes, he told me. But that wasn't this body. I don't have those memories."
"Oh, I see. Are you a virgin, then? Unwilling or afraid to complete the act itself? Morally against premarital sex?"
"Um, no. I lost my virginity when I was eighteen to a guy in the singles group at my church."
"Then you are with someone? Are you still seeing the church boy, is that it?"
This was getting embarrassing. "No."
"Then what is it, dear? What is keeping you from accepting your responsibility back from me? Is one act of sex with a gorgeous immortal for the sake of maintaining the balance of good and evil so appalling to you?"
Okay, she was getting angry. That was the voice nurses used with uncooperative patients. "It's not just the sex. It's what the sex means. It's a lifetime commitment. I get freaked out when I think that I might be in the same career for the rest of my life. That's why I chose nursing because you can move around and do different things. But this feels permanent."
"And what exactly is wrong with committing to your life's purpose?"
"I..." I couldn't answer that question.
"If you don't take up this responsibility, Grateful, the repercussions will be horrific."
"What? What will happen?"
"Rick will weaken. It's what the vampires wanted when they killed you."
"I thought Reverend Monk killed me."
