The Ghost of Christmas Present (11 page)

As he vanished, he heard her cry,
"Jared, don't!"

*******

Alane saw him in the distance, his
ghostly figure paled by the moonlight that filtered through him.
She knew she would find him here. Whenever he was deep in thought,
he stared at the lake. It made sense that he would go there when he
was troubled.

She had to make him listen; had to
convince him that somehow they could make this work. The closer she
got, the faster she walked. Her breath exploded in white clouds as
she hurried to catch up with him.

She got within a few feet before he
raised his head and spun around.

"Jared, I - "

Suddenly the snow bank fell away and
she felt herself slipping toward the water. Her hands flailed as
her body slammed into the bank and slid down, breaking the thin
crust of ice and sliding into the freezing water.

Within seconds her heavy clothing
absorbed the frigid waters and pulled her down, sucking her deeper
into the numbing lake.

Jared bellowed her name and scrambled
to the edge on his hands and knees, reaching for her hand that
grasped at the slippery bank. His hand passed through hers once,
twice, then solid fingers gripped her wrist and pulled.

"Jared, don't! I can - "

"Shut up and help me! Can you get a
footing?"

She struggled to find solid ground
beneath her, but her feet slid down the steep slope under the
water.

"No. My clothes are pulling me down!
Let go! Let me try to get my jacket off!"

"If I let you go, you'll
die!"

"If you don't let me go, we'll both
die!"

He held onto her, his fingers steel
bands around her wrist. He heaved and she rose a couple of inches,
then sank back deeper than ever. Her legs were going numb from the
cold and her teeth chattered so hard they hurt.

"Jared, let go!"

He pulled again, yanking her higher
this time. But his grip started to fade. His solid fingers took on
a vapory look.

"Oh, please! Let go before you
die!"

Another yank pulled her out of the
water, then the ironclad grip came back for a split second as he
heaved her up to safety.

His fingers faded from her arm, and she
rolled over to see him fall back against the snow, his body nothing
more than a faint shadow against the silvery white.

"Jared, no! Don't go!" She reached for
him. Tried to crawl to him, but her legs refused to
move.

He rolled his head to hers, gave her a
weak smile and stretched out his hand.

"I love you, Alane." As his words
faded, so did his body. She watched in agony as the shadow of him
turned to mist and swirled away on a gust of wind.

She buried her face in the snow and
screamed, her body shivering, her mind denying his
death.

In the distance, the muffled sound of a
church bell began its midnight toll.

She lay there, racked with violent
shivers, drowning in guilt and misery.

Why had she come looking for him? If
she had stayed in the cabin, he would have come back. Sooner or
later he would have come back to her. And even if he hadn’t, at
least he would still be on this world. It tore at her heart and
battered her soul to think that she was the one for whom he’d given
up his existence. Damn his wife! Damn his mother-in-law! And damn
herself for causing this.

The toll of the church bell rang for
the twelfth time. Christmas morning.

She looked up at the midnight sky, at
the millions of stars all blurred together through her
tears.

“Goodbye, Jared.” Her voice caught on a
sob. “I love you.”

Then, miraculously, a warmth surrounded
her as she felt a jacket being wrapped around her. Her gaze flew to
the man kneeling above her, his face a black silhouette against the
moon.

"Who..." she managed to croak through
chattering teeth and a throat thick with tears.

"Shut up and help me."

Jared!
He moved to wrap his sweater around her legs, a sweater still
warm from the heat of his body. Moonlight fell across his face,
revealing solid features, warm and already red from exposure to the
cold.

"Jared!" she cried, and staggered
upright into his arms. "You're alive!" Her frozen fingers touched
his face, encountered solid, warm cheeks, smiling lips.
"How?"

He worked to wrap her in his dry
things. "I don't know. I felt myself fade, and just as everything
went black, a magnificent angel appeared out of the darkness. He
said the curse had been broken. That Katherine knew I’d tried to
love her. It wasn’t her mother’s words that kept me from peace, but
my own guilt.” He finished wrapping her in his warm clothes, then a
look of awe spread across his face. “He reached out and touched me
here,” Jared held Alane’s hand to his heart, “then he whispered,
‘Never forget the greatest gift.’ Then all of a sudden I felt cold
and wet. And whole." He seared her with a smile.

She did what she'd ached to do since
the moment they'd met. She sifted shaking fingers through his soft,
luxurious hair, cupped the back of his head, and covered his mouth
with hers.

He picked her up and cradled her
against the warmth of his chest, his lips never leaving hers. By
the time the kiss ended, they were halfway back to the cabin, the
ice in her blood melting but the drum of her heart still crashing
in her chest.

He grinned down at her, a solid,
beautiful, Christmas miracle grin.

"I love you, Jared," she whispered with
elation.

"I love you, too," he whispered back.
Then he raised his face to the sky and yelled, "I love her,
too!"

"You were right," she said, smiling as
she nuzzled her face against his neck. The warmth of him radiated
into her very soul. "I do need to touch and to be
touched."

He looked down at her, then pulled her
closer to him and murmured in her ear.

"You've got a husband to marry today,
and then I'm going to touch you in ways you've never even dreamed
of."

"Mmmm," she sighed against his
neck.

"And
I've
had two hundred years to
dream."

###

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jenny Lykins lives in west
Tennessee with her husband, along with a cranky old cat who thinks
she’s the Goddess of the Universe, and two Samoyeds named Czar and
Lexxie, aka Trouble and Chaos. She is the award-winning author of
five time travels. Titles of her printed published works are
Lost Yesterday, Echoes of Tomorrow, Waiting for
Yesterday, Distant Dreams,
and
River of Dreams.
Her
never-before seen sixth time travel,
Spirit
of the Ruins,
is now available as an
ebook.

Be watching for these books on
Smashwords as she slowly defeats her cyber-idiocy in putting them
in the proper format.

CONNECT WITH ME
ONLINE:

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/jenny.lykins.7?ref=tn_tnmn

DISCOVER OTHER TITLES BY
JENNY LYKINS AT SMASHWORDS.COM:

Spirit of the Ruins
– (hyperlink)

Lost Yesterday
–
(hyperlink)

More titles coming
soon!