The owner had never gotten round to wearing it, because he lay dead.
Gray took a shuddery breath when he approached the bed where a skeleton lay in a set of pale pajamas, in the middle of a dark stain.
“Gray? Shadow?” Knight’s voice came from the corridor, approaching fast.
“Over here!” Shadow yelled, but Gray couldn’t turn his eyes away from the bed.
The dead man had no hands.
Chapter 27
Gray had seen many dead bodies, but there was something particularly disturbing about the untouched remains in front of him. Maybe it was the signs of fluids on the bed or the fact that they were likely the first to enter this room following the man’s death, but he felt compelled to stay silent when Knight came in hugging Elliot tightly against him.
Elliot was still pale as a sheet, but the moment he spotted the bed, his eye went wide as a saucer, and he backed out toward the door.
“Who are you?” Knight asked, closing Elliot in his arms and refusing to let him go.
Gray looked around, but in the end understood their friends had to be speaking to a genuine ghost. Unlike the illusions, Gray couldn’t see anyone by the bed.
“Who is it?” he asked softly, following his friends’ eyes.
Knight swallowed hard, his lips open, brows drawn together in an expression of worry. “He’s… I think that’s the dead guy from the bed.”
Elliot, who curled up under his arm, watched the skeleton, but he no longer seemed terrified. “Yes, we can see you. And hear you for that matter.”
With a yelp, he turned right back into Knight, and Shadow threw his arms up. “What’s going on? I can sense the ruby here, but I can’t see it. Is he hiding it? What does he want?”
Knight groaned. “He says he will only talk if all of us can hear.” With a soft sigh, he kissed Elliot’s nape. “Can you do that, babes? I promise I’ll rip his soul in two if he dares to do anything you don’t want.”
Elliot usually acted smug at the clubhouse, basking in the protection of his VP boyfriend, but there was nothing brave about him now. Pale, holding Knight’s hand, he reminded Gray of a skinny cat being put out into the rain.
“But take care of me, please. I don’t know how powerful this ghost is.”
Knight’s face went soft, and the moment suddenly seemed so intimate Gray averted his eyes away, unwilling to intrude. In the end though, Knight led Elliot to the bed and held his hand as he sat in front of the corpse.
Elliot’s chest rose and fell rapidly under the old-fashioned shirt he wore, but when he shut his eye, his head dropped forward and his whole demeanor changed.
“What’s happening?” Shadow whispered to Gray, but Knight answered first.
“Elliot will channel the ghost so that we can have a conversation. The guy’s a sick fuck for showing us all that stuff, but he changed his attitude when he realized we can see his true self. I don’t think he’s had a chance to talk to anyone since he died, so no wonder he’s feral.”
Elliot’s shoulders stirred, and when he let go of Knight’s hand, he wasn’t himself anymore. The man possessing Elliot’s flesh shrugged and took in the room, as if he were seeing it for the first time.
“It looks different,” he said in a voice that still sounded like Elliot’s but was much lower.
Gray sighed. “You died thirty years ago.”
The ghost nodded, keeping his face level as he looked at Knight’s hands and shuddered. “You’ve met him too, haven’t you? Baal?”
Gray sucked in some air and rubbed his face. He remembered Laurent talking about something that rang a bell now. A nurse from the asylum having his hands cut off in the fifties. And then, he thought of what Magpie had said about Baal’s previous attempt to complete the ritual. It had to be this guy. A person to break the cycle.
“Who are you?”
Elliot took his time staring at each person in the room. “My name is Roger Collins, and you are trespassing.”
Shadow stepped forward. “And you’re dead, so you don’t exactly need a ruby.”
Roger backed away, and Knight scowled when he crouched over the skeleton, as if he wanted to protect his earthly remains from them. “No. The ruby is the one thing keeping me here. Maybe I can still meet her somehow.”
Elliot shuddered, arching over the corpse as if he were about to have a fit. But when he looked back at them, the feisty look on his face was a sign that the real owner of the body was back. “Oh hell no, Knight! I am not fucking some granny for him!”
Knight snorted and glanced at Gray with a wild laugh. “Funny story. Maureen keeps ogling me, and she once tried to possess Elliot while we were fucking. Can you imagine tha—” he stopped speaking when Elliot shook violently again, suddenly stepping off the bed. His shoulders were square and his arms wide, as if he wanted to radiate strength he did not have.