Until Forever by Johanna Lindsey Read Free Book Online

quickly.”
    “Go away,” she said in a very, very small voice.
    His eyes narrowed a little more. In one bite, he ripped all the meat from the bone he was holding, then tossed the bone behind him, where it hit the wall and fell to the floor. He didn’t disappear. He stood there and chewed the meat, then licked his fingers.
    “If I did not enjoy one of Odin’s feasts so well, I would stay, for you are vexing me sorely with these summonings. But I give you fair warning, lady. You can send me back and I will go—but only because I choose to go. If I chose to stay, there is naught that you can say or do to be rid of me.” And then he grinned suddenly, again showing her thosebeguiling dimples that sent a giddy rush of feeling straight to her belly—a sensation at odds with her present fear. “Summon me again, lady, and I may prove it to you.”
    He was gone, just as he’d come, instantly, no slow fading away, wisps of smoke, or eerie sounds one might associate with ghosts—unless one could associate thunder and lightning with ghosts, because those both came again with his departure. But he was definitely gone—and Roseleen was left staring at the poultry bone he’d left behind, still lying on the floor where it had fallen.
    A ghost who could leave things behind? A ghost who could eat—with a large appetite? But she didn’t believe in ghosts any more than she believed in curses.
    She started to laugh, but it ended in a groan. She was still dreaming, obviously. She let the sword drop back onto the velvet lining, slammed the box shut, and curled up on her bed—to hurry the process of waking up.

7
    R oseleen went downstairs in somewhat of a daze, holding the poultry bone, which had still been in her bedroom when she woke from her nap, between two fingers as if it were a dead rat she had to dispose of. She was heading for the kitchen to do just that, and that’s where she found David, starting to prepare their dinner. His back was to her, and an array of vegetables was spread out on the counter beside him.
    Seeing him, she said the first thing that came to her mind. “Pinch me, David. I think I’m still dreaming.”
    He turned, took one look at her, and said, “For God’s sake, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
    She almost laughed, had an hysterical urge to do so, but managed to restrain it. That he happened to choose that phrase to describe her pallor was just too ironic for her present state of mind. But fortunately, his eyesdropped to what she was holding so far out in front of her, and he added, “Did Elizabeth’s cat misplace that?” jolting her back to what was sane and rational.
    Of course, another logical explanation. Elizabeth Humes had a cat that got into the house occasionally, and cats loved bones just as much as dogs did, poultry bones in particular. She wasn’t going to quibble about the fact that she hadn’t seen that bone until she’d seen it in his hand. Obviously, she must have noticed it before she took the nap she just woke from, but was too tired to register what it was, otherwise, it wouldn’t have been included in her dream.
    Now she walked over to the kitchen trashcan and dropped the bone into it. She was smiling when she asked David, “Need some help?”
    He grunted at the way she had of ignoring subjects she didn’t want to discuss. She treated them as if they hadn’t been mentioned.
    “I’m glad to see some color back in your cheeks, but what I need is to hear why you were so pale a second ago. You’re not getting sick, are you, Rosie?”
    “No—at least, I don’t think so.” And then she shrugged, deciding it wouldn’t hurt to admit, “I just had another dream, this one almost identical to the one I had last night, with that Viking ghost, Thorn Blooddrinker, materializing in the corner of my bedroom again,the sound of thunder accompanying his appearance.”
    “Why do you call him a ghost now?”
    “He’s a thousand years old,” she replied, “and yet he’s