Haunting Love

By KA Moll

Anna Crestwood was raised in the strict beliefs of a religious sect nestled in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. She’s a lesbian with a ton of baggage—fearful, guilty, and alone. Very few things would compel her to leave the familiar. The job offer of a lifetime is one of them. Against her better judgment, she packs up, and moves to Illinois. Unfortunately, she’s not there long before she’s convinced that the devil is hunting her down.

Gabe Garst is a police officer. She’s also a powerful medium. Her work with juvenile delinquents and ghosts is all that keeps her going. Inside she’s dead, certain that her capacity to love is buried six feet under. Talking with and seeing the dead has always come easily, and yet for some reason, she’s not able to communicate with her late wife. She’s grieving, depressed, and alone. Suicide seems like the best option. It’s just a matter of time.

Anna and Gabe’s paths cross. Their attraction is immediate, but they hold back until all hope seems lost. As good battles evil, two tortured souls must engage in a struggle to overcome demons of their own.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Triplicity Publishing, LLC
• Release date: Oct 1, 2015

KA Moll

KA Moll was born and raised in snowy central Illinois. The change of seasons touch her soul. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Illinois. In addition, she holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling from Eastern Illinois University. She is a young retiree from state child protective services, where she supervised investigations of child abuse and neglect. KA and her wife have been together for just under thirty years and counting. Their marriage is the wind beneath her wings. She enjoys golf, bridge, and of course–reading and writing lesbian fiction.

Book preview

Prologue

Time: Just before…

Place: A pinnacle in the sixth level of consciousness

Antiquia dangled her feet and peered downward into Timeless Falls. The falls were a wondrous creation; a multi-colored, ever-flowing stream that ran through the center of the main boulevard on every level. That is, with the exception of the lowest. Their cascade was absolutely breathtaking, and so practical. It was a spirit elevator of sorts, a one-of-a-kind example of the handiwork of the Creator. Antiquia stretched her leg and wiggled her toes under the enchanting stream of heavenly water. She was awaiting the sparkle that would signal her expected arrival.

Morrigan reached up and through the falls.

Antiquia reached down.

Their fingers touched in respect and love.

Greetings, Spirit Leader, Morrigan said with a smile that faded all too quickly. I’m afraid I bring heartbreaking news from the lowest of the levels. Morrigan was not only Antiquia’s second-in-command; she was her closest friend and confidant. The two had worked side-by-side for an eternity. Together, they had watched new worlds form.

Antiquia’s smile disappeared as well. I know, Enforcer. I’ve been watching through the falls. She gazed down the endless row of sparkling white columns that paralleled the corridor. I’ve not moved from this place, a place that under normal circumstances would stroke my soul.

Morrigan peered downward. I tried to intervene, but I wasn’t quick enough, she said, looking into Antiquia’s kind eyes. I’m sorry. I should’ve been more attuned to the earthbound.

Antiquia gently squeezed Morrigan’s shoulders. There was nothing that you could have done. My goodness, you had virtually no warning. At times, humans could be so impulsive.

Morrigan sighed. But why? Why would Anna hire others to help her move the stone, a stone so carefully placed, a stone that blocked the fiery-breath of Hell? What could possibly have been her motivation to do something that had the potential to change the course of eternity?

She simply didn’t know, Antiquia responded softly. She simply didn’t know.

Morrigan closed her eyes and peered upward. Mortals. She shook her head. Foolish mortals. They think they know, but they don’t.

Chapter One

Anna peeled out of her flannel pajamas before padding across her bedroom to pause in front of the full-length mirror. She glared at her reflection. Thirty-five-pounds, all gained during the past decade, one piece of chocolate, one potato chip, one bite of cheesecake at a time. She curled her lip in disgust and backed away. When had she stopped caring? When had she made the decision to let herself go? She knew. It was a little before six-o’clock, Christmas Eve, almost eleven years ago.

Her parents had been late to pick her up that evening, an unusual, if not unheard of occurrence. Jacob and Kathryn Crestwood had been on the road from Tennessee since early that morning. Anna remembered having a sense of foreboding, a feeling that something terrible was about to go wrong. Then the phone rang. She answered and in that moment, a suffocating guilt consumed her life. A drunk driver had crossed the median just a few miles from her home. He hit her parents head-on. If only she had gone home for the holidays. If only she had cared about her parents as much as she did herself. If only… More than a decade had passed and still their loss left a gaping hole.

Anna sauntered naked down the hall, stepped into the shower, and adjusted the water temperature to just beyond warm. It chilled as she tried to grasp the slippery bar in her palm. She adjusted it again. It warmed, but cooled while she stood covered in suds.

Give me a break, Anna growled out loud. She made a mental note to call the landlord as she twisted the knob.

The water warmed again as she squeezed out a dab of color-safe shampoo. It had been one thing after another since the day she had moved in. Now it was the water heater, what next? Anna lathered her long black hair and applied a glob of conditioner. She knew that she shouldn’t have moved again. She wouldn’t have, had it not been for having to stable Dixie. She hated leaving her in someone else’s care. The beautiful country setting and the barn were the only things this place had going for it.

Anna rinsed in the uncomfortably cool water. It warmed—got too hot—too cold—warm—and then too hot again. What in the world had possessed her to move into this old house? It was literally falling apart. She turned down the temperature and positioned her left shoulder under the spray. The stiffness had been worse these past couple days, probably due to the storm front predicted to hit later that morning.

It had been almost a year now, come Thanksgiving. Had Dixie not come to a dead halt when the saddle slid under, Anna would have been killed. She was sure of it. A shoulder fracture was nothing by comparison, so she didn’t complain. She closed her eyes, willed her joint to loosen, and ticked through her schedule for the day. Not bad, not too bad at all. Her eight-o’clock staff meeting would be quick, the working lunch with the Dean of Admissions should be painless, and her Diagnosis of Mental Illness class tonight, fun. Teaching was the best part of her day. Anna startled when the bar of soap—the one that had been laying quietly in its dish for at least five minutes—jumped from its perch and bounced not once, but twice against the ceramic tile. Her eyes followed its trajectory to the floor. She turned off the water and reached down to retrieve it.

What in the world, Anna asked out loud.

The bar moved. It slid back a good twelve inches and bumped her toe. With a yelp Anna launched straight into the air, landing outside the shower. The stairs creaked. A door slammed. She gulped out loud. Someone was in her house. Anna ticked through her options as she listened to the rapid beats of her heart. There weren’t many. She was naked. Her cell phone, clothes, everything—all two doors down.

Anna scanned the bathroom before climbing up to remove the shower rod. The paisley-print vinyl crinkled as she wrapped it around her shoulders. It was the best she could come up with on such short notice. In a crisis, a person needs to use the resources they have at their disposal. Anna fisted the rod and pressed her ear against the door. There was movement in the hall. She listened with hardly a breath until there wasn’t. Then, she waited a little longer before opening the door. All looked quiet. Anna hated to do it, but she shed her wrap and crept down the hall. The shower curtain would have made too much noise. Naked or not, she had to go. It wasn’t until she came out of her bedroom, all dressed for work, that she noticed that her hallway pictures—all of them—were hanging upside down.

***

It had been a good morning—until the shower. Anna had almost forgotten how good, good felt. It didn’t matter that she found no evidence of an intruder, other than the pictures, of course. She slept well, had gotten up refreshed, and felt ready to tackle the world. She felt so much better than her usual sluggish and sleep deprived self. She hoped that things were finally looking up. Guess not. Anna was tired of feeling edgy and being in a sour mood all the time.

Starting over had been difficult, more than she had ever anticipated. Change had always been hard. She envied those who could handle it with minimal disruption in their lives, those who seemed to have non-existent anxiety. Unlike the lucky ones, she had been a basket case from the moment she sent in her resume and copies of her credentials. Who knows why, because never in a million years had she really expected to get the job. Then all of a sudden, she got the call. It stunned her silent.

The man from Human Resources must have thought her reaction odd, because he kept asking if she was okay. She had been. The shock had just left her with much to ponder. To accept meant joining the faculty of the University of Illinois as their new Dean and Professor in the School of Social Work. She was only forty-one. The offer had not only been unexpected, it had been an honor. Who in their right mind would turn down that kind of job? Anna’s mouth engaged and she accepted before she rounded up enough good sense to decline. She sold her house in Maryville, Tennessee, packed up all her belongings for the first time since college, and moved to Urbana, Illinois. In doing so, she turned her world upside down. It was no wonder that she hadn’t slept well since she arrived.

***

Anna’s insides jittered all the way to work. Her fingers trembled as she fumbled eight quarters into the parking meter. Everyone would know something was wrong if she didn’t settle down. She closed her eyes and took a slow, deep, hopefully calming breath.

Hey there, the perfect-bodied blonde called out. She’d just plugged her own meter on the opposite side.

Anna looked up. Morning. Her greeting escaped as a snarl.

What’s wrong with you, Jaina asked. She pinched her brow. You look troubled.

You know me way too well, Anna said as she wrestled her briefcase from the backseat of her Camry.

They made their way toward the building.

Jaina paused before opening the door, Anything I can do to help?

No, Anna barked. The same tone had slipped out again, I’m sorry

Jaina’s gaze locked on, Have I done something to upset you?

Anna managed a thin but sincere smile. Yes…but nothing new. Her eyes widened as she shook her head. Had you not sent me that job posting...

The words sounded as if she was upset with Jaina, but she really wasn’t. Not at all. They had been friends since college and had done their internships side by side. She wasn’t angry with Jaina. She was angry with herself, angry for leaving the familiar, angry for leaving what had always been good enough. Plus, she was still recovering from having the wits scared out of her that morning.

I’m serious, Jaina said. How can I help?

Anna met her gaze and willed tears not to fall. I don’t know. It’s been a rough morning. I’m just missing my old house…my old job…mountains…home. I was head of the department at Maryville College for God’s sake. That should’ve been good enough. Why couldn’t I just have been happy with what I had?

Jaina slipped her arm around her friend’s shoulder. She smiled a tender smile, Dinner. Tomorrow night. Our place.

Anna raised an eyebrow, Shouldn’t you check with Zane before bringing home strays?

You’re not a stray, Jaina met Anna’s gaze, You know that. My wife loves company, she loves to cook, and she absolutely loves your southern accent. She’ll be fine with me inviting you, but if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll call and check just to be sure.

Good, Anna said as she slipped her key into the lock of her office door. I think that would be better.

Okay then, Jaina said as she walked on down the hall. I’ll see you in a few minutes.

Good deal, Anna said. See you soon. She was short on time and had work to do.

Anna walked across her office, slid her purse into her lower desk drawer, and dropped into her chair. What a morning, she muttered to herself. She took a breath and tried to focus on the final preparations for her meeting. She hated running late, but she hated feeling anxious even more. Her presentation was on PowerPoint and she opened her laptop to briefly review her notes. She gasped as the device booted up. Someone or something was typing in the middle of her screen.

Anna…

Did you think you were alone?

Well, you’re not.

Anna slammed the laptop shut. She grabbed her stack of handouts and stormed toward the conference room. She managed to pull herself together as her faculty began to assemble. The rest of her workday was relatively uneventful.

***

Anna cranked up the volume of her car radio and nibbled from a bag of chips on her way home from class that night. Country music and snack food could always be counted on to keep her awake. It was good that she lived so close to campus because Thursdays were killer-long days. She was yawning as she pulled into her garage. She got out, fed Dixie, and lumbered up the sidewalk.

As she flipped on the overhead kitchen light, Anna realized that by the end of the day she had almost been able to put her strange morning completely out of mind—all except for the thing with the laptop. Now that had really unnerved her. What she thought had occurred while she was in the shower had probably just been her imagination. Or maybe, if something had happened, there was a reasonable explanation, like a minor earthquake or something. That could cause stairs to creak. It could cause a door to slam. It could flip pictures over. It could even cause a bar of soap to leap to the floor of the shower. She nodded to herself. That has to be it, she mumbled, an earthquake. Then she remembered that an earthquake would only explain part of the weirdness of her morning.

Anna groaned out loud when the overhead light began to flicker on, off, and on again. She flipped the switch a couple times, but that didn’t correct the problem. A bulb must have burned out. She headed for the garage to get the ladder. When she came back inside, the lights flickered off, on, and back off. Great, now I’ll have to change the bulb by flashlight, she grumbled as she climbed up to unscrew the globe. Four bulbs. All of them burned out at the exact same moment? Come on! One by one, she replaced them all. They switched on and she carried the ladder back to the garage. When she returned, the lights flickered off, on, and back off.

That landlord is going to hear from me first thing in the morning, Anna muttered as she made her way through the dark. She tried the switch and the hallway light turned on. Then, it flickered and went off. What in the world? It had to be a short or something. She mentally kicked herself for procrastinating her call to the landlord, pointed the beam toward the stairs, and began to climb. About halfway up, she moved through a pocket of cold and felt as if someone was watching. Dear God, she whispered to herself, someone’s here. She whipped her flashlight around. It was no one that she could see. Satan, get behind me, she shouted.

***

Anna had been to Jaina’s house more times than she could count since her move to Illinois, so much so that the beautifully maintained Victorian parsonage felt like a second home. Jaina’s invitations had just kept coming and she had accepted time after time. Jaina must have sensed that without the invitations, Anna would either be sitting home alone, or working when she should be off. They hadn’t talked about it, but Jaina had to have noticed how much she had regressed since college. For the most part, those were the days that she had felt the most comfortable in her own skin.

Anna slid her fingers along the smooth dark edge of the antique clock that sat quietly ticking on the mantle. It had to be from the mid-nineteenth century. She caught a whiff of what smelled like licorice and thought it must be the dessert. The fire crackled in the parlor fireplace. She released a deep breath as tension left her body.

Here you go, Jaina said as she handed Anna a glass of Chardonnay.

Anna took a sip, Ya’ll are so good to me.

Jaina raised an eyebrow, It’s not like we don’t enjoy your company.

I know, Anna said as her eyes darted to Jaina and then back to herself. "But this has to be awkward for Zane. She shook her head and raised an eyebrow, Not that it lasted very long, but still…"

Zane’s fine, Jaina said. Everyone has a past. She met Anna’s gaze. Zane knows about mine and loves me anyway. She glanced back at the sound of her handsome wife’s footsteps as she stepped into the room.

I love your clock, Anna said, as she looked into Zane’s eyes.

Zane nodded. Thanks. It was my great-grandfather’s, she said softly, a gift from his parents on the day that he was ordained. Her smile twinkled in her deep blue eyes. It centers me; reminds me of where I come from; reminds me of the things that are most important. She smiled and her eyes twinkled again. I’m glad he lived long enough for me to get to know him. He was a man of God, family… She laughed. And licorice.

The licorice smell had vanished.

Zane slipped her arms around Jaina from behind.

Jaina tipped her head back between her wife’s slight breasts. Zane comes from a long line of ministers on her mother’s side.

All men until me, Zane added.

Jaina raised an eyebrow. And all much more extreme in their views.

Zane nodded. They were men of their time as well as their denomination. She raked her fingers through her short brown hair, Fortunately in many denominations, things have changed. Zane kissed the top of her wife’s head. Great conversation girls, but dinner’s almost ready. She looked to Jaina. Want to go round up our kids?

I’ll go, Anna said with a grin. I may not have one of my own, but I know how to get them washed up for dinner. The truth was, Anna enjoyed time with six-year old BK and her eight-year old brother, Jonah, more than she’d ever dreamed. They were delightful and as close as she ever expected to come to having kids.

***

Anna yawned as she got out of the car. She was home late—again. A few more times in a row and her body might get used to staying up past ten. She headed out to the barn before going in, knowing that Dixie wouldn’t be happy that her dinner was late. Anna forked two flakes of hay into her stall, scooped two scoops of sweet feed into her trough, and topped off her water.

Dixie nickered a thank you and dug in. She was a good horse.

It’s just you and me girl, Anna said as she rubbed between the tall bay’s ears. She glanced down at the giant manure stain on the inside of the mare’s left white sock. "How in the world did you manage to get it way

Reviews for Haunting Love

[Marija Šojat · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was never a fan of ghost stories, quite contrary I don't like scary stories! So I was a little hesitant to read this one. Yes it is a ghost story, but with a twist. And it is so much more. It is a story about friendship, acceptance, love, faith, family and so much more. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants more then just a scary story!