Coldhearted (9781311888433) (33 page)

Mason had been keeping his eyes on her, never
looking away once. “I was worried about you,” he said in a hard,
emotionless tone that betrayed his statement. “I thought you were
really sick. When you weren’t answering your phone this morning, I
went over to your house. Your car was gone. Your uncle came out and
said you were at the hospital. I-I...” He paused, now visibly
shaken, and then continued, “I feared the worst. I thought you’d
gotten pneumonia. I was so scared.” He clenched his jaw, resolved
not to show any more emotion. “Then I found out the truth: you’d
gone to the sanatorium. There’d been an accident.” He turned toward
Quinn, lying in bed, silent. “Your uncle said a good friend of
yours was injured.”

“
He was—I mean, he is,” she
corrected. “Tristan tried to kill him.”

Mason wasn’t looking at her, instead staring
hatefully at Quinn. “How many more girlfriends of mine are you
going to steal?”

“
Whoa,” Quinn and Edie
refuted in unison.

Mason chuckled, but there was no humor in it.
He finally looked at Edie. “You’re even using the same expressions.
What’s next? Finishing each other’s sentences?”

Quinn threw off the blanket and sat up,
perching himself on the edge of the bed. Jules came by his side,
ready in case he fell. He waved her off, then stood, and slowly
walked toward Mason; well as far as his attached tubes would let
him. Mason didn’t move, feet planted on the floor, but his fists
were clenched, ready to fight.

“
Dude, you got it all
wrong,” Quinn said. “I didn’t steal Edie. Yeah, I stole Rochelle
from you, and well, I’m sorry.” He pointed a threatening finger at
Mason. “But don’t you dare come in here and accuse Edie of
betraying you.”

“
SHE DID!” Mason barked,
wide-eyed. The raw, emotional turmoil that he’d been restraining
was now let loose. “SHE LIED!” He angrily raked his fingers through
his hair, and then relaxed, looking at her, heartbroken. “The
things I said to you on the phone. The things I almost said. You
don’t care about me. You never have,” he finished in an anguished
whisper.

She rushed toward him, but Mason held up his
hands in a halt motion, telling her that she’d better stop now. She
did. They were standing three feet apart, but it felt like three
miles.

Edie was crying. “Mason, please! I’m sorry! I
hated lying to you, but…”

“
But what?” he spat, not
able to keep his anger in check.

“
I-I thought I could end it
all. I thought going to the sanatorium last night and talking to
the other ghosts would help me to get rid of Tristan, once and for
all. I did it for us! For us! So we could be together, happy and in
peace, knowing that some unseen, malicious force wasn’t spying on
us, playing tricks, making our lives miserable. But it’s not only
just us. Tristan’s haunting and hurting anyone who he wants. I had
to find a way to stop him! Please, Mason. Please forgive me. I’ve
learned my lesson. Please!”

Mason had been looking down, and Edie thought
that he’d been considering her plea, but now when he looked up at
her, she realized that he’d made up his mind and it wasn’t in her
favor. His eyes were cold and hard, once again.

He finally opened his mouth to speak. “That’s
what Rochelle did.”

He glanced at Quinn, and then he leveled a
sharp stare at Edie, with hurt, hazel eyes. His dimples that she
loved so much had yet to make an appearance. And Edie feared that
they never would.

Mason continued, “She wanted to get back
together. I gave in but it wasn’t the same, and when I’d finally
ended it, she begged me for another chance.”

“
This isn’t the same,” Edie
said, desperate for him to understand. “I didn’t cheat on
you.”

“
But you lied to me.” His
voice was soft, heartbroken. “How can I ever trust you again?” He
turned and left, nothing more to say.

Edie wasn’t giving up on him. Quinn and
Jules’s pleaded for her to stay, but she took off and chased Mason
throughout the hospital. He was moving fast and soon she’d lost
him.

She stopped and spun around in a circle,
trying to figure out where he’d gone, but as she scanned her
environment, she realized that she was in an unfamiliar part of the
hospital; the old part of the hospital. It was still functioning
with nurses and patients, but the walls, carpeting, and equipment
weren’t as clean and shiny as the new section. She’d chased Mason
on the other side of the building and hadn’t even known it. She
wouldn’t give up. She’d chase him across the country, the world,
the universe, and time, to beg for his forgiveness. She couldn’t
lose Mason. She just couldn’t.

I won’t
.

She set her feet and started walking down the
hall toward the stairwell when she noticed that someone was
standing in her way. Well, she was already full-steam ahead and
didn’t have working breaks, so she didn’t stop and passed right
through her obstacle.

She came to a halt, shocked and cold, and
then slowly turned around to face the transparent ghost, who was
wearing an old-fashioned, three-piece suit. He was tan with dark,
brown hair, cut short and styled neat, and dark, blue eyes, staring
into her lighter shade of blues.

“
You can see me?” he asked,
excited.

Slowly, she nodded, having lost her voice.
When she recovered, she finally asked, “Who are you?”

He gave her a sweet smile. “I’m Adrian,
Adrian Lockhart.”

Chapter 22

“
Lockhart?” Edie repeated in
disbelief.

He nodded and approached. Edie took a step
back. She wasn’t afraid. He seemed by all appearances, friendly.
She was cold, which wasn’t something new, but it was more than her
shivering bones that’d made her retreat. It was the knowledge that
she was meeting another ghost with the same last name as Tristan.
Were they related? Or was it a mere coincidence?

She didn’t think so. His lapis lazuli eyes,
so unique, were the exact color as Tristan’s.

“
Don’t be afraid,” Adrian
said, smiling. He took a cautious step forward.

Edie stayed still, not wanting to seem
uncivil. She’d been raised a good little southern girl, manners and
all.

“
I’m so glad you can see
me,” he continued, and then his face fell, saddened. “You’re not
dying, are you?”

“
Well, not that I know of…I
mean, I seem healthy, but my granny died of a tumor in her brain
that she didn’t know she had so...” She shook her head. “No, I’m
fine.” She took a step toward him, despite the chill that he was
giving off. “Can you do that? Can you sense when people are about
to die?”

“
No,” Adrian said, shaking
his head. “I just thought, considering you could see me, that
perhaps you were about to pass...” He waved a dismissive and
transparent hand in the air. “Ignore me.”

Edie gave him a smile. “Sorry, but I can’t do
that. You’re the second ghost I’ve encountered.” She paused,
nervous, and then asked, “Um, Adrian…do you know Tristan
Lockhart?”

Adrian actually gasped, and then retreated,
as if she were going to hurt him. “Tristan?” he repeated, barely a
whisper. “Is he here with you?”

“
You can’t see
him?”

Adrian shook his head. “What little I know of
the spirit world, ghosts can’t see each other. Well, I can’t see
other ghosts. How-how...?” He could barely form a coherent
sentence.

Feeling exposed in the hallway, she gestured
for them to enter a vacant room and shut the door. Despite the two
chairs in the room, they remained standing, their nerves on
edge.

Edie told him about Lockhart Manor and
everything else that’d happened since then. She even told him about
Russell being possessed. She needed intelligence on why Tristan
could possess him and no one else. Adrian had no answer for her on
this inquiry. She could tell that he was distraught at the news of
how much sorrow and pain Tristan had caused. Adrian hung his head
and closed his eyes.

“
How are you two related?”
she asked, giving him only a few seconds to process
everything.

Adrian lifted his head and opened his eyes,
but he didn’t look at her, staring instead at a vase of dead
flowers on the windowsill. “He’s my brother.” Edie wasn’t shocked.
In fact, she thought that she’d known all along. He paused, and
then said, “I may be dead, but I feel faint. I need to sit.”

Edie watched as he walked over to the bed and
sat, making a small depression into the mattress. His suit was so
clean and pressed.

“
Is that what you were
buried in?” she asked, changing the subject to something a little
less macabre than his brother’s evil deeds.

Adrian gave her a small smile. “No. Actually,
I don’t know what I was buried in. I died wearing a hospital gown.
When I realized I was a ghost, wandering the halls, trying to talk
to people who couldn’t hear me, I made the best of it and decided
if I were going to be trapped here, I’d look my best.” His lips
made a small twitch. “Not too long after I’d died, a relative of
mine was brought in suffering from a heart attack. He died in his
Sunday clothes.” Adrian tugged on his vest. “After I’d mourned his
death, I wished I could wear his garments, to be clothed in such
finery, even in death, and…viola! I was wearing his suit.”

Edie grimaced. “You didn’t literally take his
clothes? He wasn’t naked was he?”

Adrian shook his head and gave her a little
smile. “No, he still retained his Sunday best. Although I’m sure
later when they prepared his body for burial, the suit was
removed,” he added as an afterthought.

Edie went and sat next to him. She liked
Adrian. He didn’t scare her like his twisted brother.

She appraised his young face. “How old are
you? I mean, how old were you when you died?”

“
Twenty,” he replied.
“Tristan…Tristan was three years younger than me.”

“
If you don’t mind me
asking: how’d you die?”

Adrian didn’t hesitate. “Tristan killed
me.”

She almost fell off the bed. “What? Why?”

“
Well, I guess it was all
about a girl.” His lips twitched into a small smile that gradually
became wider, reminiscing. “Her name was Arianna Worthington and I
loved her so much. Still do, in fact. I was planning on asking her
to marry me.” His smile faded.

“
Tristan…well, Tristan was
jealous. He claimed to be in love with Arianna too. I didn’t think
so. I’d always thought he didn’t like the fact that I had something
he couldn’t. Perhaps it was the younger child syndrome or
something. Anyway, Arianna loved me, not him. Tristan, in his
warped mind, thought that if I were no longer in the picture,
Arianna would be his; that she’d just jump from one brother to the
next, as if Tristan and I were alike in character.”

He shook his head. “Tristan and I were
nothing alike. My mom and dad always doted on me and always yelled
at him. He hated it. He hated me. So…he killed me, using poison.
Unfortunately for him, I didn’t die right away. The poison didn’t
kill me quick enough. I was brought to the hospital and when there
was hope I might pull through, Tristan pushed a pillow against my
face and suffocated me to death, finishing the job.”

He stared into her eyes. “I can’t see other
ghosts, but I can hear whispers sometimes; whispers of the deceased
who I’d known when I was alive. Not too long after I’d died, I
heard Tristan dying too, in Lockhart Manor. He was poisoned by the
same poison that he’d used to facilitate my death. It was Arianna.
She poisoned Tristan, vengeance, for him killing me, and then…I
heard her take her last breath. She’d killed herself, drinking the
last few drops that were left of Tristan’s toxic brew, I assume.
She didn’t die in Lockhart Manor. I don’t know where she is, but I
sense that she’s near the property.”

“
The woods,” Edie almost
shouted. At Adrian’s confused expression, she explained her
outburst. “When I walked up to Lockhart Manor, I heard a girl. She
said: ‘Don’t.’ She didn’t want me to enter.” Edie held her head in
her hands. “She was trying to warn me and like an idiot, I ignored
her.” She lifted her head and gestured vaguely. “And now look at
what I’ve done. Tristan’s free and I don’t know how to stop him
from hurting others. I don’t know how to cut him away from my life
for good.”

In a gesture of comfort, Adrian laid a cold
hand on hers; it passed right through and she jerked her hand back.
“Sorry,” she apologized. “It’s not you. Well, it is you. You’re ice
cold.”

“
Sorry,” he apologized back.
“I’m sorry,” he repeated, “but I don’t know your name.”

She smiled. “Edwina St. John. Everyone calls
me ‘Edie.’”

Adrian nodded. “It’s nice to meet you, Edie,
and I’m sorry for what you’ve been going through.” His face
hardened and his dark, blue eyes looked almost black. “It seems
that death couldn’t even make my brother seek redemption. He was a
bastard while he was alive, and he’s ten times worse now dead.” His
face softened, along with his pure eyes. “Oh, sorry, I cursed. I
curse when I get mad.”

She waved a dismissive hand. “I’ve heard
worse and quite frankly, you’re entitled to spout obscenities.” She
paused, and then continued, “I know you can’t see him, and he can’t
see you, but…can he hear me, us? I mean, he hasn’t gone wild and
started throwing stuff around the room, so it makes me think that
he’s not only blind, but deaf, as well.”

Adrian considered that and nodded. “Most
likely,” he agreed. “He threw tantrums when he was alive. I
remember when he was born I loved him more than anything. He was my
baby brother. He hated me out of the womb, harboring misguided
beliefs that my presence would take away all the attention that he
sought. He didn’t know it was the other way around and that the
oldest is often ignored while the youngest is coddled. Of course in
the Lockhart family things were different. My father and I shared
the same interests. Therefore we were the closest and spent more
time together. I loved my mother too, but Tristan was such a
handful, she was forced to devote all her time to him. Most sons
love their mothers more than they love themselves. Not Tristan. He
hated our mother. He hated most women, in fact. He always sought
solitude, but when my father came home, he cried and cried when he
wasn’t shown attention, and pitched a fit when my father seemed to
give more attention to me than him.”