by Elicia Hyder
It was a common question. One I’d been asked since the day I turned in my first application. And my robot answer was the easiest response that returned the least amount of subsequent questions.
“Maybe,” I said with a grin as I dropped a few pills into my mouth.
“Then what’s the honest reason?”
I turned and leaned against the counter, giving the inquiry serious thought. “It is an honest reason, at least now. Nobody would stick with this job through all the shit we have to see and deal with if not for the glimmers of the good it does.” The corner of my mouth rose. “But it’s not exactly the reason I joined.”
She leaned forward, ready for juicy secrets.
“I lost a bet.”
“You what?”
“I left the Army and moved back here to recuperate from some injuries I got in an accident. My plan had always been to reenlist once I was healed, but my heart wasn’t in it anymore. A friend was supposed to meet me at this bar one night to help me decide what to do, and he stood me up.”
It felt too personal to tell this near-stranger that the friend was actually my brother.
“Anyway, this dude saw me drinking alone and came over cracking jokes. We started talking and playing darts, and he said he was a cop.” I pointed toward the front door.
“Tyler?”
I nodded. “After a few beers, I spilled my dilemma. He asked if I’d ever considered police work. Then he challenged me to another round of darts and said if I lost, I had to apply to the police department.”
“And you lost?”
“I was pretty drunk.”
“You changed your whole life based on a drunken bet? That sounds like something I would do.”
The coffee pot hissed and gurgled behind me. “It still made sense when I sobered up the next day, so I looked further into it. Compared to the military, the pay was decent, and the job required zero experience. They also offered me preference because I was a vet.”
A smile crept across my face.
“And?” she asked.
“And here in the good ol’ US of A, cops get to shoot a lot of guns.”
Bess laughed. “I’ve never fired a gun in my life.”
“Seriously?”
“They scare the bejeezus out of me.”
“Then stay away from my safe.” And my headboard. And my mattress.
She laughed again.
A knock at the front door ended the conversation. “That’s probably Ransom.”
There was another knock before I could open it. This time, it was lighter, faster, and accompanied by a giggle. I jerked the door open and shouted, “Who’s banging on my door!”
My niece squealed and ducked behind Paps’s legs, nearly toppling him over. Laughing, I grabbed his wrist to steady him.
“You trying to give an old man a heart attack?” he asked, panting.
Milly peeked around his waist and squealed again. Ransom palmed her face and pulled her against his legs. “Amelia, hush.”
I bent and opened my arms. “Come here, you.”
She ran and jumped, throwing her tiny arms around my neck. I picked her up and instantly regretted it as the blood rushed back to my head. I squinted and groaned. Even without a head injury, she was almost too big to be held. “I wasn’t expecting to see you today. I figured you’d be with your mom.”
“Someone overheard we were coming to see Aunt Nyx and then mysteriously became too sick to go shopping with Mom and Nana,” Ransom said, following Paps inside.
I lifted an eyebrow. “You don’t seem sick now.”
Amelia shrugged her small shoulders. “It’s a miracle.”
I laughed and blew a raspberry against her cheek.
It was clear she’d spent the night with Ransom. Her long dark hair was in a lopsided ponytail. She wore blue pants and a stained orange sweatshirt, with rainbow-print rain boots despite the sunshine. Celise would have had a fit.
“Whoa!” Milly leaned so far to the side to look at my head, I stumbled sideways a step. “What happened to you?”
Paps grabbed my chin and turned my head to survey the damage. “Holy hell, Saphera. Looks like your head was caught in a bear trap.”
“Paps, language,” Ransom said, closing the door behind them.
“Kind of felt like a bear trap.” I kissed my grandfather’s cheek.
Paps was in his midseventies now, a retired Navy man and Vietnam veteran. Except for minor issues with his memory and a small irregularity with his heart, my grandfather was, as he’d recently told me in a text message, HEALTHY AS A STUD HORSE. He swam laps every day and played pickle ball at the community center.
Still, between arthritis and spine problems, Paps seemed to be getting shorter every time I saw him. Not so long ago, he’d towered over all of us. Now, standing beside him, my brother was slightly taller.
“Celise cleaned you up?” Paps asked, still grimacing at the side of my head.
“Yeah, she took good care of me.” I gave my brother a one-armed hug. “You really never deserved her.”
“Don’t we all know it?” Paps chuckled.
“Momma says the same thing,” Milly added with a wide smile.
We all laughed.
“Look at me,” I said to Milly. “Did you lose a tooth?”
She smiled, displaying the gap in her teeth. “Yesterday on the way to the park.” She stuck her finger in the hole. “The tooth fairy brought me ten dollars.”
“Wow. Even the tooth fairy has suffered from inflation.” I carried Milly to the kitchen and set her on the counter. “Who wants a popsicle?”
Her hand shot into the air.
Bess was standing on the other side of the bar, waiting to be acknowledged.
Paps stopped walking first. “Hello. Who are you?”
With her hands clasped in front of her, Bess took a few bouncy steps forward. “I’m Bess. Nyx’s new roommate.”
Paps laughed really hard. “Try again. Who are you really?”
“It’s true,” I said, pulling a cherry popsicle from my freezer. “She’s crashing here until she finds her own place.”
With a crumpled brow, Paps turned toward me. “How hard did you hit your head?”
I unwrapped the bar for Milly. “Bess saved my ass the other night. She needed a place to stay, so I’m helping her out.”
“Saved your ass?” he asked.
“She called the ambulance after the accident.”
“Oh.” My grandfather gave a slight bow. “Well, Bess, we are all in your debt.”
“Bess, this is my grandfather, Paps, my niece, Amelia, and my brother, Ransom.” When I looked back, Ransom was checking his reflection in the microwave glass. I cleared my throat as he raked his fingers through his dark hair.
When he realized we were all staring, he awkwardly stepped forward and extended his hand. “Hi, Bess. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too.” She was downright giddy.
My brother had never had a problem attracting the ladies. Keeping them, however, was a different matter altogether. His longest relationship had been with Celise, but she’d always been a bit of a unicorn.
“Bess was just heading out for lunch, right, Bess?” I looked at her with raised eyebrows.
“Oh, right!” She scurried past Paps and Ransom, stopping next to me and Milly at the counter. “It was really nice to meet you all. Especially you, Ms. Amelia.”
My niece pulled the popsicle from her already-stained mouth with a slurp. “It was nice to meet you too, Bess!”
“Hopefully, we’ll see you again,” Paps said.
She flashed a bright smile at my brother. “I hope so too!” With a wave, she disappeared down the hallway.
When she was out the front door, I pointed at Ransom. “Don’t you dare get any ideas.”
“What?” He feigned offense.
“You know what. She’s too young for you.”
“Is she over eighteen?” Paps asked with a chuckle as he walked to the
couch.
“Don’t encourage him,” I said.
Paps sat on the sofa, and my brother lifted Milly off the counter. “How about you go watch cartoons in Nyx’s room?” He cast me a knowing look.
With a heavy sigh, she dropped her head back. “But Dad—”
He lifted both thick eyebrows in a warning glare.
She groaned. “Fine.”
“Good girl.” He put her down, and she trudged to my bedroom, squeaking her rubber boots across the dark hardwood floor. Ransom followed her, pausing in the doorway before closing it. “You know how to work the TV?”
I couldn’t hear her response, if she even gave one. It was probably the “Duh, Dad” look I’d seen a thousand times. He closed the door. “You working tonight?” he asked me.
“No. It’s my weekend off. I hope to go back tomorrow night.”
“Is that wise?” Paps asked.
“It’s better than sitting around here.” In the kitchen, I opened the cabinet with the coffee mugs. “Anybody hungry? Thirsty?”
“Got any scotch?” Paps asked.
“Not a drop.”
“Then no.”
“Coffee?” I offered, grabbing my favorite mug from the cabinet. A gift from Paps, it said, I like coffee. And maybe 2 people. It was the most accurate mug I owned.
“No coffee. We need to talk,” Ransom said, plopping down in an armchair in my living room.
I poured my cup full, then glanced out the window over the sink. Bess was crossing the street toward Delaney’s. “So talk.”
“What did you find out at the prison?” Ransom asked.
I told him what I’d seen and heard from the warden.
“You really think it was a nightwalker?”
“No human could’ve done what I saw in those photos.”
“Why would he be so stupid?” Ransom asked.
“Good question.” I sipped the steaming black coffee before remembering Bess had bought creamer. I opened the fridge.
“Elias lied to us.”
I froze. “I’m surprised this is a newsflash for you. What did he lie about, specifically?” I pulled out the carton and got a spoon from the utensil drawer.
“The gift. It didn’t transfer. Or it doesn’t work. Or hell, maybe it never existed at all. I don’t really know anymore.”
With my back to them, I closed my eyes. “Why do you say that?”
“Because I’ve done exactly what he told me to do every time I’ve slept since he died, and nothing.”
My ears perked. “What did he tell you to do?” I poured a splash of Italian sweet cream into my coffee and stirred and stirred and stirred.
“He said if it didn’t happen automatically, to lie in bed until I start to drift off, then to imagine a rope hanging above me. He said I could use the rope to pull myself out. Well, I tried that over and over and over again, and nothing happened.”
I finally put the carton away and put the spoon into the sink. Slowly, with my heart jackhammering in my chest, I picked up the mug and turned toward my family.
Ransom’s feet were on my coffee table, and his head was laid back in frustration. “I quit my job.”
Paps’s face whipped toward him, and I almost dropped my mug. “You did what?” I asked.
“This was supposed to be my big break. I don’t want to work security at a hotel forever. I was going to use the gift to start a new life.”
“Damn it, son,” Paps said in frustration.
“Can you get it back?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I’m supposed to be working my last two weeks.” He looked at me. “But I don’t want it back. I want for something Elias told me to be true.” His head fell back again.
I knew the feeling.
Paps was staring at me, his mouth set in a hard line. He gave a hard, deliberate blink.
“What?” I mouthed.
“Will you tell him, or shall I?”
My heart stopped.
Ransom looked at him. “Tell me what?”
“You know?” I asked Paps.
“Why do you think I’m here? It’s Sunday. I’m missing pickle ball.”
“Know what?” Ransom’s feet dropped from the table with a heavy thud.
Paps and I stared at each other.
“Someone had better start talking fast,” Ransom said, his volume up a few decibels.
My feet felt like they weighed a thousand pounds as I crossed the living room toward my brother. I sat on the coffee table in front of him. “Ransom—” My voice cracked. I put my coffee down and rubbed my sweaty palms on the sides of my pants. “I don’t think Elias lied. I think he was just wrong.”
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
“Elias’s power did transfer . . .” I swallowed hard. “To me.”
Ransom’s eyes glazed over as he stared straight through me. Neither of us moved, or breathed, for what felt like eternity.
“Please say something,” I said, leaning forward and touching his knee.
He sat back, folding his hands in his lap as he shifted his stare to the ceiling. Still, nothing.
I turned to Paps for help.
“Ransom?” Paps asked.
Ransom finally met my eyes. “You?”
I nodded, bracing for the worst.
He stood and walked between the back of the loveseat and the patio door. He paced back and forth. “You?” he asked again.
“I didn’t know. He told me the same as he’d always told you. The gift would be yours when he died. It was supposed to be you, not me.”
“You don’t even want it! You’ve called me stupid my whole life for wanting it.”
I straightened. “I’ve never called you stupid.”
He threw a hand toward me. “Well, you certainly made me feel stupid.”
My insides twisted.
Suddenly, Ransom froze. Realization flickered on his face. “Wait a second. If the gift passes to the firstborn, was Elias even my father?”
About that, I really had no idea. I looked at Paps. “What do you know?”
“Elias told me this might happen,” Paps said.
“When?” I asked.
“He sent a letter not too long ago, just after your grandmother died.”
“Was he sick then?” I asked.
“Yes. They’d just found the necrofecitis—”
“Necrotizing fasciitis,” I corrected.
He lifted his hands. “That’s what I said. I think he knew he was in trouble then.” Paps’s face softened when he looked at Ransom. “Elias hoped it wasn’t true, but someone from the Boundary told him to prepare for Nyx to be his heir.”
“Does Mal know Ransom had a different father?” I asked.
Paps smirked. “Knowing your mother, probably, but she’d never admit it if she did.”
He might have been our mother’s father, but Paps would be the first to say he didn’t like her any more than we did. As he put it, Ransom and I had only been dealing with her shit since she got out of prison. He and Gran had been dealing with it for Mal’s whole life.
“She doesn’t know,” Ransom said.
“Have you talked to her?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Not recently, but I’m sure I’ll hear from her as soon as she finds out Elias is gone.”
“You won’t have to wait long. My department is questioning her soon,” I said as Ransom began wearing down my carpet again.
“Why?” Paps asked.
“Because hypnox is back on the streets.”
Ransom stopped pacing. “Shit. Really?”
The fact that hypnox so quickly drowned out Ransom’s existential crisis amplified my concern.
“The lab confirmed it was there the night Ryder Stone died,” I said.
They both looked as worried as I felt.
“And I think whoever killed Elias tried to kill me yesterday.”
“What happened?” Paps asked.
“A man attacked me. Put me to sleep somehow, and I woke up
inside the Boundary. There was a fight.”
“What man?” Ransom asked.
“I didn’t know him.”
“Are you all right?” Paps asked.
“I’m OK, for now, but I don’t know what will happen if I can’t keep myself from detaching.”
We both looked at Ransom. “Can you help your sister?” Paps asked him.
Ransom pulled both hands through his hair.
I got up and went to my brother. “You know better than anyone this wasn’t my choice. I don’t want this. I never wanted it, and if I could figure out a way to give it back to you, I would. But I can’t do this alone. I need your help.”
Ransom stared at me a second, pain etched deep in his dark eyes. “I can’t talk to you right now.” He pushed by me.
I caught his arm. “Ransom, please. I’m sorry!”
“For stealing my gift or because my whole life has been a lie?” he snapped.
“Both,” I said sadly.
“Whatever.” He yanked his arm free and stormed through the kitchen.
“Let him go,” Paps said.
Ransom slammed the front door behind him. Through the door, I heard him yell outside.
I collapsed on the sofa by my grandfather. He patted my knee when I rested my head on his shoulder. “Give him time, sweet pea. Ransom will come around. He always does.”
“I need him. I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“I’ll talk to him.”
I looked at Paps. “You’ve really known about this for months?”
With a sigh, he leaned his head against mine. “I didn’t move to Reno for the showgirls, Saphera.”
“You said you moved because you couldn’t imagine life in Sapphire Lake without Gran.”
“That’s true too, but I was worried about your brother. I knew if this happened . . .”
“He might fall off the wagon?”
“You say fall. I say swan dive.” He shrugged. “I just knew he shouldn’t be alone. It wouldn’t be good for him or Milly.”
I slumped. “What about for me?”
He squeezed my knee. “You, my sweet girl, have never had a problem taking care of yourself. You’ll get through this too.”
“I don’t want it, Paps.”
“Really? Not even a little bit?”
I shook my head.
“You know, your father once told me he could go anywhere in the world. That just that morning he’d been sitting on a beach in Tahiti. If I had that kind of power, you kids would never see my old ass awake again.”