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Flashing a wilting smile, Sky crossed to stand near them. “Watch this.”
He’d barely spoken when the first big, fluffy white bunny hopped out from behind the trunk. Another immediately joined it. Three became a dozen, then two dozen in a matter of seconds. Rabbits of all sizes and colors crowded around the trunk and hopped across the floor right where Sky had been spreading his mixture.
“Bunnies!” Gideon shouted. He tried to jerk out of Ryder’s arms, but Ryder immediately tightened them. Sky had strengthened the barrier for their protection. He was not letting Gideon out of his grasp.
Gideon blushed and smiled at him. “Oh, right. Ghost bunnies.”
Sky chuckled. “Something like that.” His smile didn’t waver as he caught the collar of Fox’s shirt, holding the witch as he tried to get closer to the bunnies. “They’re not for you.”
“But they’re so cute. I want to cuddle them and play with them,” Fox whined.
“That’s the point, but they’re not for you.” Sky turned his attention to the living room. “Elizabeth. Come out and see the bunnies who want to play with you.”
The trunk lid creaked open. A soft, delighted gasp drifted out, and the lid popped completely open. Giggles filled the room, and the bunnies jumped about more as if someone had stepped into their midst. Ryder was just wishing he could see the ghost when one bunny rose in the air as if someone had picked it up.
From there, a misty white ghost came into view. Ryder’s throat tightened to see the little girl, who couldn’t have been more than four or five. She had long hair with an enormous bow tied to the back of her head. The style of her knee-length dress placed her in the early nineteenth century. They watched wordlessly as she cuddled the bunny in her arms, nuzzling its long, floppy ears.
Slowly, the bunnies hopped away from the trunk and toward the wall that now glowed faintly. Elizabeth trailed along behind them, giggling and talking to the rabbits. It was only when she was a few steps from the wall that she paused and glanced at her trunk. Her wide smile slipped, and worry puckered her brow.
“It’s okay. Go play with the bunnies. If your brother comes searching for you, we’ll tell him where to find you,” Sky coaxed.
Elizabeth’s grin returned in a flash, and she nodded once, her bow bobbing. Two more steps and she was completely gone. The last of the straggling bunnies disappeared as well.
“And now your ghost has moved on,” Sky announced with a wave of his arms. He added with a wink, “You can step out of the protective barrier.”
“She’s safe?” Gideon inquired.
Sky nodded. “She’s moved on to where she needs to be. The underworld can handle it all now.”
The necromancer walked across the room and kneeled next to his bag. He tidied up a few things before pulling out two bundles of sage and a spray bottle. Gideon took the spray bottle and started cleaning up the grease pencil marks, while Sky and Fox lit the sage and carried the lightly smoking bundles through the apartment, cleaning it of whatever the ghost had left behind. Ryder wasn’t sure what they were doing exactly, but if it meant Gideon was more comfortable in his place, he supported it.
Ryder put the pillows where they belonged and returned the carpet and trunk to their proper places.
But when the condo was exactly as it should be—with no ghosts—he found Gideon standing in the living room, frowning at the trunk.
“What’s wrong?” Ryder asked as he wrapped his arms around Gideon from behind.
“We went through all of that and now…I’m not sure I want to keep the trunk. I still love it and it’s beautiful, but…” His voice faded and he looked at Sky, who’d picked up his bag. “Elizabeth died in that trunk, didn’t she?”
Sky smoothed a hand over his hair and offered a half smile. “We don’t know for sure. Yes, it’s a possibility, but there’s a chance that she died a short time after that hide-and-seek game from injury or illness, and the game with her brother was her last good memory. If you can, I’d focus on the idea that you’ve come into possession of something you know made someone happy.”
“That’s true,” Gideon murmured.
Fox placed his hand on Gideon’s shoulder and squeezed. “If you’re not comfortable with it here, Winter and I can store it for you.”
“Thanks. Let me try living with it for a while. The way Sky put it, I feel like Elizabeth entrusted it to me. If I still have trouble, I’ll call you.”
The ghost settled, Ryder saw Fox and Sky out, leaving them in Winter’s hands. The sneaky vampire was waiting outside the building to find out the result of the ghost hunting. Ryder was happy to let them go. His primary concern was Gideon.
He ran up the stairs and walked in to find Gideon sitting on the edge of the sofa, his shoulders straight and tense. His smile returned the second he saw Ryder.
“You know, it’s weird having the condo to myself. My ears keep straining to hear giggling and knocking,” Gideon said, laughing tightly.
“If you want…you could come to my place. We still have a few more episodes to watch of that show, and all your stuff is there.”
Gideon was off the sofa in a flash and in his arms. “You sure you don’t mind?”
Ryder happily answered that silly question with a long, draining kiss. No, he didn’t mind having Gideon in his space, in his bed, in his heart. And he would keep kissing him and holding him and supporting him in a hundred little ways until he understood that Ryder always wanted him right there in his life.
