Free From Fear to Eternity: An Immortality Bites Mystery by Michelle Rowen Page B

leaving now felt wrong. Maybe the ghost head had been here for ages, but the fact that he’d directly asked for my help and I couldn’t do anything to help him bothered me deeply.
    I did know that the average, run-of-the-mill ghost was not a threat to the living. They were more like watching something on a TV screen. They could be seen (by those with that ability), they could be heard, but they couldn’t harm the living. They couldn’t kill. They were just super-creepy. Especially when they weren’t all in one piece.
    “Sorry, ghost guy,” I said under my breath as I allowed Thierry to guide me out of the kitchen and back toward the foyer, where there was a mass exodus going on of guests leaving through the front doors.
    Atticus stepped in front of me and offered me a patient smile.
    “Sarah, we need to talk about the amulet.”
    Thierry nudged me aside. “You need to do no such thing.”
    “I believe I was talking to your wife, not to you.” His eyes flashed. “Had I known for sure that you would challenge me for that piece—”
    “What would you have done?” Thierry asked. “Please tell me. I’m fascinated.”
    Atticus stepped closer to Thierry, all pretense of friendliness gone. “Don’t push me, de Bennicoeur.”
    “I haven’t even touched you. Yet.”
    “I wanted the amulet.”
    “I know. That message has come through loud and clear. Unfortunately, you were not the winner of the auction.”
    “Nor were you.”
    “No. But the results are the same.”
    Atticus spoke to me over Thierry’s shoulder. “I will pay you twice the winning bid. I need that amulet.”
    Thirty-four million dollars? “Why do you want it so badly?” I asked.
    “I have my reasons.”
    “Reasons to possess a powerful djinn with the ability to grant your wishes,” Thierry said coldly. “Interesting that you’d
need
something like that.”
    “Don’t even go there, de Bennicoeur. You were the one who wanted it first. What reasons did you have to exploit its powers?”
    “None worth sharing in present company.”
    “It’s fascinating to witness how many you’ve fooled. But, as they say, a tiger doesn’t change its stripes.”
    “Are you speaking about me or yourself?”
    “We were friends once.”
    “Friends don’t push friends into agreements under threat.”
    “I thought we’d dealt with this.”
    “Perhaps to your satisfaction, but not to mine.”
    I hooked my arm through Thierry’s and pulled him back a couple of steps. “Okay, let’s break this up. No reason why things have to get nasty.”
    “Your wife has much more sense than you do,” Atticus observed. “For all her youth, she surprises me with her ability to see potential difficulties.”
    Thierry’s arm was like steel beneath my grip. “She will not sell you the amulet.”
    “Be careful with this one, Sarah,” Atticus cautioned. “Get away from him while you still can.”
    “This is ridiculous,” I said, nervously tucking a lock of hair behind my ear. “We should get going.”
    Atticus’s gaze moved to my throat. “Just as I suspected. Thierry, have you again given in to your thirst tonight?”
    Crap.
I’d just flashed him the bite marks.
    Thierry’s silence spoke very dangerous volumes before he uttered a word. “We’re done here, Atticus.”
    “You think it’s that easy? You disappointed me. I thought we were starting out as friends anew, after all this time apart. I guess I was wrong.”
    “You’ve been wrong about many things over the years.”
    “Not that you cared. You disappeared a hundred years ago and left Silas, Michael, and me with all the bulk of the responsibility. The others never forgave you for abandoning the Ring.”
    “Silas and Michael are dead now, aren’t they? They won’t be forgiving anyone anymore.”
    Anna and Frederic stood nearby, speaking to eachother, but it was clear to me that they were also listening in on this argument. Tasha lingered by the entrance to the hallway leading back toward the