Vampire Memories #5 - Ghosts of Memories by Barb Hendee Read Free Book Online Page A

from your will? Why would you leave everything to Richard?”
    Ivory’s green eyes were wide open, and she stared straight ahead. “I did not,” she answered. Her voice was like music, and once again, Seamus could not wait to see what happened next.
    This time, Nathan gasped. “Mother, what do you mean?”
    “She can hear only me,” Christian said. He paused. “Althea, what do you mean?”
    Suddenly Richard looked less annoyed and more…uncomfortable.
    “The will read last week was not the one I wrote,” Ivory said, still staring into open space. “Richard replaced it with a new one.”
    At this, Richard was on his feet, but his breaking the “circle” seemed to have no effect. “This is absurd,” he said, though his face had gone pale.
    “Richard is right,” Laura said, speaking directly to Christian. “Mr. Bransen authenticated the will that was read, and he’d been mother’s lawyer for twenty years.”
    “What of Mr. Bransen?” Christian asked the empty space.
    Ivory answered. “He was working with Richard, and he signed off on the false will for a payment of two million dollars. You can have his accounts checked for the deposit last week.”
    “Stop this nonsense!” Richard roared.
    But by now, Nathan was on his feet as well, and he was taller than he’d appeared sitting down. “If that’s true, then where is the real will?”
    “Althea,” Christian said. “Where is the real will?”
    “The same place it’s always been,” Ivory answered, still lost in her trance, “in my safety deposit box in the Seattle National Bank, box number four-six-seven. Richard has not yet been able to gain access to the box and destroy the papers there. Nathan, you must alert the authorities and have it opened yourself.”
    Richard’s mouth fell open in shock the instant Ivory spoke the numbers for the box.
    Laura simply seemed confused, shaking her head at her eldest brother. “Richard…?”
    Nathan looked as if he were close to taking a swing, but Richard suddenly grabbed his head, as if dizzy, and leaned against his chair.
    The buzz of voices continued below as Seamus pulled his face back up until he was floating in the guest room again. Was Christian for real? Had he truly been speaking to a ghost through his partner?
    Regardless of the ridiculous trappings of the scene below, it appeared that Christian had just saved two people from penury by speaking to their dead mother—and he’d exposed a criminal at the same time. Or was Ivory the real medium, and Christian was simply asking the questions?
    Seamus did not know, and in truth, he wasn’t sure it mattered.
    What did matter was that he’d located two vampires, and he needed to get back and tell Wade.
    It was a bit late to be coming home from a grocery run, but Wade didn’t like leaving the church during the day, so he tended to go shopping at night.
    Eleisha, Rose, Philip, and Maxim all fell dormant during daylight hours, and nothing would wake them. It just seemed…wrong to leave them like that. He had no idea what might happen if somebody got past the locks on the doors and went nosing about inside while he was gone. Even Philip would be helpless. Without telling anyone, Wade had stopped sleeping in his bedroom. Now he napped during the day on a couch in the sanctuary, and he slept lightly.
    Maybe this leaned too far into paranoia, but he couldn’t help it.
    So he tended to run his errands at night, while the others were up and awake. Until recently, Philip had insisted on going with him, to stand guard, but after Wade had blown one hole in Julian’s chest and a second in his stomach on their last mission to England, Philip hadn’t been quite such a mother hen anymore.
    And Wade carried his gun everywhere.
    Tonight he was coming home with a full grocery bag in one arm and a bag of Science Diet dog food in the other. He had no idea what Mr. Boo might prefer, but he had a feeling the dog wouldn’t be too picky.
    Strolling down the quiet street