Free Ghast Me Gently (Wicked Good Witches Book 4) by Starla Silver

full. And heavy.
    “No, sorry… I mean… yeah , for sure, but… my feeling just came back.”
    “Oh. Right. Um… where to?” She sounded dazed. And bit her lip to hold back tears threatening to surface. That, was so not going to happen.
    “This way.” He pointed down a dirt road that veered off the main road, not too far ahead.
    “That leads to Suicide Light,” she told him.
    “That’s where I need to go.”
    “Okay.”
    They didn’t speak. Footsteps and breaths too loud for comfort.
    After a long silence, Riley broke it. “Your gift, Melinda. It might suck to have those dreams, but you make a real difference in people’s lives. That mother would be a childless widow tonight if you hadn’t had that dream and intervened. That’s an incredible gift. Something you should be proud of, not afraid of.” Something told him that her dreams were at least partly to blame for her spending so much time locked away.
    She stopped. Just staring at him. He seemed so good. Perhaps the Deane name meant nothing in the case of Riley. “Stop saying things that make me want to kiss you…”
    “I really am sorry, Melinda. If I’d known. If I’d even been smart enough to get your entire name…” he shrugged, tossing her a look of, is it really this hopeless? Have we no chance? At all…
    Familiar voices ahead yanked Melinda out of her hazy hopelessness. She looked toward the lighthouse and gasped. With wide dread filled eyes she yanked Riley off the road, hiding in a small grove of trees.
    “What?” He didn’t understand what was happening.
    “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh. My. God. ” Her lungs burned, unable to get enough air.
    “What?” he demanded forcefully.
    “Shut up!”
    He backed away throwing his hands in the air, in full surrender.
    She pointed for him to look at the people standing near the lighthouse. He nodded that he saw them.
    “My. Family.”
    “Oh,” sank out of him. Melinda swore she saw his heart drop to his feet and watched the color leave his skin.
    “Why on earth would your feeling bring you here?” she yelled at him with her loudest whisper.
    “No idea. I’m sorry. Really, I’m… I’m sorry.”
    “You say that a lot.”
    She saw William step away from the group, made up of Charlie, Michael, Emily, the sheriff- Mackenzie Briggs, a.k.a. Mack, and Eva Jordan.
    Melinda sucked in and held her breath as if somehow this act would stop what was inevitably about to happen. “Oh, no,” she whimpered. “We’re too close. He can smell me here.”
    “Smell you? What the hell are you talking about? Smell you? ”
    “Vampire,” she explained.
    “V-Vampire… you have a vampire?” Riley stammered. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and started dialing.
    “What are you doing?”
    “My brother, Lucas. He’s gonna kill me, but this is gonna get ugly! I just want him to know where I am before your vampire drains me.”
    “William wouldn’t do that,” she insisted, blowing off his concern. “He’s part of our family, and one of my closest friends. His temper is very controlled. William! ” she gasped. The vampire stared them down, an intense gaze passing between the two.
    “Melinda. I confess myself, confused… ”
    Guilt. Fear. It was all over her face. Leaking out of her pores. Her skin drenched in it.
    There was another smell mixed in. The same one that had covered Melinda’s body and nearly sent him spiraling out of control a few days prior. This was the pathetic excuse of a man she’d been seeing…
    William’s gaze narrowed in on Riley, his dark stare flaring towards deadly. A vicious snarl erupted from his lips while in an unseen move he pinned Riley to the trunk of a tree, his fangs precariously close to his exposed neck.
    “William!” screamed Melinda.
    The rest of the group approached, curious as to what William had darted away to see. They started running when they heard a familiar voice screaming.
    “William! Stop it! Please don’t hurt him!”
    Charlie came to