Fragility Unearthed

by Rebecca Royce

  So he was still on that subject. I followed him to his truck and climbed in. “I’m sorry I was going to shoot Levi without discussing it with you first. I didn’t know you expected or required me to check in with you. I didn’t know we were in that place.”

  “You and I have always been friends, well, as long as you knew who I was. Even more, however, you are the woman Malcolm loves. He saved my life. It’s hard to explain how bad it was until he walked into that restaurant one day. He’s my best friend. I’m not going to let anything happen to you until he can get back and watch your crazy ass himself.”

  Block pulled the car onto the street and headed toward the hospital.

  “Where is he?”

  “What?” He sounded confused, not annoyed, by my question. “If I knew where he was, I’d obviously tell you.”

  “Where the hell is he?” Okay, I shouted, and Block didn’t deserve it. “What kind of place can Malcolm Fallon not get himself out of after all this time? I’m pregnant with his baby—which we both know he is not going to want anything to do with since kids scare him out of his mind. Everything has gone to hell, and he is not here. Fine, you want to watch me for him, go ahead. But you better ask yourself how long you’re prepared to do that since I’m not convinced he’s ever coming back.” I wiped my eyes. “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

  He placed his hand on mine. “When you can’t believe, I will do it for you. He’s coming back. I don’t know what kind of place or creature could take him from us for so long. They have Chase too. The two of them together are practically lethal. You are hanging in there. You’re running his life. And, yeah, you’re pregnant. I agree. I don’t think he’d be doing a happy dance. I think he’d at least recognize he was as responsible for the baby as you were and get over his terror enough to help. Certainly, he’d be great once the baby got here.”

  “He doesn’t need you to talk for him.” I sniffed, pulling myself together. “He needs to get his ass back from wherever he is and come home.”

  The hospital was quiet at four in the morning. I made my way to Levi’s room as quickly as I could, despite my overwhelming need to stop and throw up again. I tried breathing through my nose and eventually got myself under control.

  He sat up in the bed, still hooked up to machines, his color much better than I’d expected it to be.

  “Levi.” I walked to his side and took his hand

  He jumped, his eyes widening. Both of his hands shot out and grabbed the sides of my shoulders. “Boom.”

  “What?” I smoothed the hair out of his eyes.

  “Boom, Kendall.”

  “Levi, I don’t understand.” He visibly swallowed and then shook his head. I knew the look on his face; I’d seen it many times on Grayson’s face. I’d just never experienced it from Levi before. Complete and utter terror. I wanted to fix it, to make it all better, only I wasn’t sure what was wrong.

  “Boom.”

  I pressed his head to my shoulder. “Okay.”

  What was going to go boom and when? Or was he just speaking nonsense? He’d been inside his body, sharing space with Top Hat for so long. Was he going to be okay? I needed answers.

  Ross came into the room, followed by another man in a long white coat. They both tried to address Levi, but he wouldn’t say anything except “boom” and sometimes my name. They didn’t have clue what was happening. Dr. Mitchell, the doctor with Ross, promised to have the neurologist look at him and to try to get some results fast. Words like stroke and hemorrhage were thrown around. I stared at Ross. We both knew the truth: while those medical terms might be applicable, it was the shadows that had happened to Levi, and nothing else was to blame.

  “Chimney. F-f-fire.” Levi grabbed me again. His eyes were so pleading I wished I could tell him I understood what he meant. So far I didn’t like the combination I heard very much. Chimney. Fire. Boom.

  Was something about to blow up?

  He touched my belly and met my eyes. So far, I wasn’t showing. I hadn’t told anyone who would have let Top Hat know I was pregnant. How did Levi? “Light.”

  Could he see it now, too?

  My ex held me close, and I let him. I didn’t know who took comfort from whom right then. Maybe it was both of us. I put my head on his shoulder. “You’ll never know how I would have taken the pain for you if I could have.”

  “Sshh.”

  Okay. We held each other like that for a long time.

  Later, I sat with Victoria in her living room, Molly on my lap. The kids had been told daddy had been hurt but was going to be okay. The only one who didn’t believe me was Grayson. He accepted the “daddy was going to be okay” part but not the rest of it. I wasn’t going to fight him too hard. He wasn’t wrong.

  Molly drew a card and then set it down, beating Victoria for the third time in Go Fish. I smelled her shampoo and let myself drift in her little-girlness for a moment.

  “Kendall.” Mary’s voice boomed into the room again, and this time all three of us looked up to see her banging and shouting something. I still couldn’t make any of it out. Why could she say my name and nothing else?

  I set Molly down, and she pointed upwards. “Do you know her?”

  “I did. Or maybe I do.” I had no idea what was going on, but once again it was Victoria and I together while Mary appeared. “I’ve had enough of this. Victoria, do something.”

  Her eyes got wide, and she snorted. “Me? You’re the ghost girl.”

  “I can clear ghosts,” Molly added, grinning as she watched us banter. What kind of normal did she have that her mother and the woman who had become an aunt to her spoke the way we did? Well, there was nothing for me to do about it now.

  Victoria tweaked Molly’s nose. “She sure can. She cleared a bunch of places for us on our trip.”

  “What a talent you are, sweetie.” I kissed her. “But seriously. You, Victoria, you are the key here, I think. You make giant bubbles that wrap entire places as impenetrable to the shadows. You can do all kinds of things no one else can. Do something about Mary.”

  She put her hands on her hips. “Maybe we have to do it together.”

  “What can I do? Unless it’s clearing or fighting, I’ve got nothing.”

  My best friend leaned forward. “You know how to use the phoenix.”

  It always came back to that damn bird. “I’m going to get it. With Malcolm gone, it shouldn’t be hanging out in his backyard. It should be here in yours, under your spell that keeps the shadows out, anyway.” I pointed up at Mary. “Stay there. I’ll be back.”

  Of course, if I managed to use the phoenix the way I would have to do in order to speak to Mary, it would mean I brought her back to life. We could all have that happen once. Malcolm had used mine on me when I was shot. Mary had been dead for years, but the spell should work all the same.

  Chase had asked me to leave her alone, to let her rest. She didn’t seem to be resting; she seemed to be really stressed out. Besides, Chase wasn’t here. If he wanted me to stay away from his sister’s spirit, he should get back here and tell me to leave her alone.

  Henry’s energy force field and Victoria’s magic were heady together. The second I stepped out of their barrier, I got seriously dizzy and had to hold onto the wall to keep myself up. Between my pregnancy hormones and the magic all around, I’d be lucky if I wasn’t constantly throwing up and falling on my face.

  Chapter Eight

  Annika talked to me through the speakerphone of my car. I loved Bluetooth. I never had to be alone if I didn’t want to be. Lately, I’d liked the other woman’s company more and more. She was young, but she didn’t seem that way. Early trauma of losing her brother to cancer had made her seek out a medical career where she helped children. She never shied away from a conflict, and although she sighed if Chase came up, I didn’t feel hostility from her on the subject.

  Unlike me, she didn’t seem to be unreasonably mad that her boyfriend had vanished.

  I wasn’t alone in liking her c
ompany. Victoria called her a “great new addition to our group.” Less than a year ago, I’d not had anyone around, and now I had so much company I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with all of it.

  Everyone had an opinion all of the time. What we should be eating. What we shouldn’t be eating. An idea to try to find Malcolm and Chase. Why that idea wouldn’t work. I’d never known how much I hated group think.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to leave work and come help?” Annika caught my attention. “I hate you doing this by yourself.”

  “Despite all evidence to the contrary lately, I’m actually very capable. I’ll dig up the phoenix and come home.”

  “Okay, if you say so. Shit. I’m gonna go. Turns out I couldn’t have come if I’d wanted to. They’re bringing in emergencies. Big fire. Gotta go.”

  She hung up, and I winced. She worked in a pediatric emergency room. If she had fire traumas coming in, they were children. I looked up at the sky. I didn’t know if anyone outside of Michael ever listened to my thoughts, but in case they did, I sent good vibes to those kids and the medical personnel helping them.

  I got out of the car. Malcolm’s house looked the same as it had the last time I’d been here, dark and unoccupied. I pulled out my cell phone. I was a day early for my weekly text to Troy, but since I’d thought of it, I might as well get it done.

  Anything come up in Fredericksburg? All well?

  It took him a minute to answer. All the same here. Leave me alone.

  That turn of phrase, or something like it, had been his response to the texts I’d sent since my visit. I didn’t bother him too much, not more than once a week. His feelings hadn’t altered, and I didn’t try to convince him. If I could have told the world to fuck off, I would have done so.

  I turned off the phone and stuck it in my pants. I don’t know why I kept bothering. Troy wasn’t going to change his mind, and clearly the worries of Austin weren’t showing up in Fredericksburg. I should just leave him alone. The others had come. Two dead, one not getting involved. We’d done pretty well, statistically.

  After getting the shovel out of the trunk, I made my way from the street to the house.

  I touched the brick on the outside of the house and made my way to the backyard. If I couldn’t touch Malcolm, I could at least stroke the side of his house. It was crazy. I was at least aware of my lunacy. I should ask Block if he was going into Malcolm’s house periodically. I didn’t have a key. I couldn’t get in. But someone should try to if Block hadn’t. Otherwise the bills were going to be out of hand and the fridge probably stank of rotten food.

  The thought disgusted me, and I pulled out my phone again, this time texting Malcolm, even though he didn’t get my messages. He also had the Locate Me application turned off on his phone. Block had tried that right away. But I kept texting him. Another sign of my upcoming transition into total lunacy.

  Your house probably stinks. Maybe you should knock it down instead of trying to clean it. Also, I bet you have collection agencies trying to reach you all the time. I love you, and I’m so pissed at you I want to ring your neck. You must have felt this way a million times during the years I didn’t remember. If this is payback, knock this off. I’m pregnant. I can’t take this kind of stress.

  He didn’t respond. I hadn’t expected him to. Still, I felt better for having reached out. He was like my personal confessor at this point. Whatever I thought or felt, I sent to Malcolm.

  If he ever came back from wherever that dark place was, he could read, in order, all the ways I was pissed at him.

  By the day, time, and hour.

  I dug into his dirt until I hit the box with the phoenix. This bird statue was amazing. It had saved my life. Now it was going to help me get some answers.

  I took the box and wrapped it underneath my shirt. Looking left and right, I saw no unusual shadows. The problem was that the nothing-to-worry-about shadows could report back to the ones we had to be concerned with. I rubbed my eyes. A migraine was coming, and being pregnant, I couldn’t take a shot of scotch and go to sleep until it was over. Victoria would probably tell me that had never been the best course of action to deal with the headaches as it was.

  Oh well. I’d have to wait out the pain and eat chocolate instead. If anyone tried to tell me pregnant woman should lay off the chocolate, I was going to break his or her nose.

  ***

  I pointed at the ceiling. “Where did she go?”

  Grayson played video games next to Molly in Victoria’s living room with Logan looking over their shoulders to watch. Victoria yawned while she knit something I guessed Jack would be wearing sometime in the future. “Mary vanished. I think that we both have to be here. Strange magic. I’m going to look into it tomorrow.”

  I nodded. “Great. And I hate to ask this but …”

  She raised her eyes. “Malcolm and Chase still show the same on the scrying mirror. I’m sorry. Nothing new.”

  I should be used to the feeling by now. The doorbell rang, and I made eye contact with my friend. It was ten o’clock at night, and everyone I knew in the world—or whom I at least spoke to save Trop, Malcolm, Chase, and Annika—were in the house with me. Malcolm and Chase weren’t likely to ring the bell.

  Victoria rose. Technically, this was her house. I sat down next to Grayson and waited to hear who was there. With so many people staying here—I shared a bedroom with my kids—we used every room in the house. The door could be for anyone.

  She cleared her throat. “Kendall, can I see you for a minute?”

  “Uh-oh.” Grayson laughed. “You must be in trouble.”

  I kissed the side of his face. “Don’t be obnoxious.”

  Victoria walked in front of me, stopping right before we got to the hallway that led to the front door. “It’s the police. Do you want to run?”

  “What?” Her question seemed so disjointed. “The police? What do they want? No, I don’t want to run. Why would I want to run?”

  I’d dug up Malcolm’s backyard and then Victoria’s when I’d gotten home to rebury the phoenix. Neither of those occurrences warranted a visit from the police. I didn’t think. “Can you think of a reason I should run?”

  “No.” She took my hands. “Given who we are, my first indication is always to want to run.”

  “Well, stop that.” I hugged her. “We’re guilty of nothing but dying. We didn’t ask for any of this crap.” Had I not paid parking tickets? How had they found me here? “Could you take the kids upstairs?”

  She nodded. “Hmm. And I’ll send Henry down.”

  I hoped I didn’t need some kind of protection from Henry, but I smiled and patted her arm. They loved me, and I loved them, too. They’d kept my kids for weeks when I needed the children safe. There was never an amount of gratitude I’d be able to show them for how they were always there for me. Victoria told me that family could be a choice. Sometimes you got to pick who you loved as family and didn’t have to hold onto blood alone. She didn’t have anything to do with her parents. I was lucky I got to have both.

  The police stood on the stoop where Victoria had left them. Unless they were sensitive, they’d never feel the barrier Harry and Victoria had made around the house. My eyes dropped, and I checked out their souls. Bright white light. Neither of them were shadows.

  The officer on the left—no, I’d read her badge wrong, the detective on the left—was wearing a pair of dark slacks and a white collared shirt. Around her neck was a five pointed star and a moon attached to the same chain. She had on comfortable shoes. Her face appeared long with high cheekbones, sharp pixie eyes, and a cleft in her chin. Her long brown hair was straight and stopped on her shoulders. Next to her, with his cell phone pressed to his ear, was another detective. He was taller than his partner, broad shouldered with short brown hair, blue eyes, and a mouth which, at the moment, stayed in a smirk. He had on a blue blazer to go with his white shirt and dark pants. I waited a beat. He didn’t get off the phone when I approached. That was okay; I
was certain from the second I got to them that she was in charge.

  Maybe it was the eyes. I didn’t know. Sometimes it’s simply clear who the power person is in a situation. I didn’t even know her name, and yet I was certain she’d be in charge wherever she went.

  “Kendall Yates?” She pulled out her badge to show me and looked at her partner. He was saying “yes” over and over on the phone. He didn’t do the same, and she rolled her eyes. It must have been a long day.

  She pointed toward the inside of the house. “Can we talk for a few minutes? I’m Detective Claudia Sun. We’re working a missing person’s case that recently came across my desk. It’s a cold one. We’ve flown out here to speak to you and your family.”

  My heart slipped into my stomach, but I kept my face benign. I hoped. “Sure. Come on in. A missing person’s case?”

  I took them into Victoria’s dining room, nodding at Henry, who hung back in the hallway that led from the front door to the back of the house. He didn’t say anything, yet I knew he was there for me. Claudia sat across from me at the dining room table.

  She steepled her fingers, a power position. I’d had to take a class in college on interviewing. It was part of a career development program. Back then I’d had dreams of teaching. I’d not done that. Marrying Levi had taken all my attention, but once upon a time I’d tried to not find myself in the position I was in now of working in the paranormal world. I’d never even taken my certification exams.

  I forced myself to the here and now. The past should stay where it was. Only, apparently, it wasn’t.

  “Recently, in a small town north of here called Cosby, a construction project began. They’re putting in some new condos.” I raised my eyebrows but didn’t comment. I’d been to Cosby. They had plenty of housing. They really needed more? I wasn’t going to comment. Somehow I suspected, given that I’d stayed in a motel in Cosby under my name, used my credit card, and walked in the woods there, that Detective Sun—Claudia—knew that already. She hadn’t driven to Austin not already filled with information about me. “They dug up some bones. The local police department there doesn’t have the resources to deal with cold cases, and that’s what those bones were. Two sets. From a missing persons’ case filed twenty-seven years ago. A little girl and a little boy. Her name was Kendall Madison. The mother left things with the department at that time. The bones and the brush were sent to me in Dallas. The DNA matched. The bones were Kendall Madison’s. I’ve come from Dallas to speak with you.”