by Amie Gibbons
Thomas’s eyes filled with tears and he sniffed.
“Wonder if anyone will come to my funeral,” he said softly, still trying to pet the kitten.
“Of course they will,” I said, looking over at AB as she crawled to us and lay next to Thomas.
For a second, I thought she could see him.
But her arm went right through him as she pulled the kitten to her chest.
She’d just been going for the furball who’d claimed her.
The cat stopped cleaning herself long enough to lick AB’s cut wrist, trying to close the wound, or tasting her blood. Maybe both.
Cats were weird like that.
AB slumped to her back and for a horrible, frozen moment, I thought she’d died, but a closer look at her moving chest said she’d just passed out.
Thomas sat up next to her, passing his hand over her hair like he was stroking it.
Smokey limped up to us and curled up next to AB’s head, licking her hair where Thomas was stroking.
Giving touch to the ghost’s intentions.
Tears filled my eyes, and a strangled giggle escaped me.
Smokey stopped licking long enough to look at me.
“Do I need to lick you better too?” he asked.
I gasped.
I figured they’d be like Pyro, unable to speak in our world.
Wait, Pyro!
I looked around.
He was lying dead on the forest floor.
“What?” Carvi asked, eyes still on the world around us.
Oh, right, Fae still here.
And probably seriously pissed off at us.
“Pyro wasn’t dead when he came through the portal into daylight during the battle,” I said. “How is that possible?”
Carvi’s mouth fell open and he scratched his head. “I have no fucking clue, lea.”
“Okay, mystery for another day,” I said, lying down again.
How were we gonna get home?
And track down however many Fae made it through?
My mind drifted off and I turned to my side.
I had my powers back, so I was pretty sure this was normal exhaustion.
But it still sucked.
Thomas was crying, his tears falling through AB’s face and Smokey’s head.
“Thomas, you have friends. You have people who love you,” I said, since I knew that’s what AB would’ve said to him if she could. “Friends, probably some of your students. And if no one wants to go to your funeral,” I said, “you know AB will make ‘em.”
That made the ghost laugh.
“Yeah, she’s crazy like that,” he said, laughing harder as more tears spilled outta his eyes.
EPILOGUE
Thomas’s funeral wasn’t until over a week after the eclipse.
It’d taken AB and her and Thomas’s friend Paul that long to plan things.
Paul had been Thomas’s emergency contact. AB had been a little surprised, since Paul never talked to her about Thomas after his attempts to reconcile them had failed, but he’d become Thomas’s best friend in Nashville. He was pissed no one had brought him into the battle, even though he was no more magical than AB.
And really pissed he hadn’t been there to save Thomas.
It took telling him the whole story to convince him there was nothing he could have done, since even if he’d been at the conference or called in to help us set up, he wouldn’t have gone back to the hotel with Thomas and Emily.
Carvi lost five of his people.
The palace cats lost ten of theirs.
The injured humans had been taken to the nearest big hospital in Utah and all were going to be okay.
The injured cats said they’d heal themselves.
Carvi had had to call up a jet to come get us from a small airport in Wyoming, after he’d teleported us a few at a time to the closest place a plane could possibly land.
The cats asked for a ride to New Orleans, so Carvi had dropped them all off there.
Except Snowball.
Who’d been named Tommy by AB.
Cuz girls got guy names all the time, and it was cute, according to her.
She couldn’t let Thomas go without something to immortalize him.
We thanked Smokey, whose name with his most recent owners was Ashbutt (yes, seriously), and gave him our numbers and vows to help him whenever he needed it, in gratitude for the great casualties the palace cats had suffered.
He’d taken the numbers graciously and bowed as his people ran off the plane.
“Can they get back to their homes from here?” I’d asked.
“Of course,” he’d said. “We’re cats. I got to get back. I have to watch over two authors.” He rolled his eyes up. “Nothing is more scatterbrained and in need of guidance than a human in the middle of their art, and I have two of them.”
We’d gotten back to the little airport in Murfreesboro long after the eclipse had passed, and the Nashville airport and traffic would’ve been insane with all the tourists.
So we’d cooled our heels at Carvi’s hotel in Murfreesboro for two days.
Hiding from the real world while we recovered.
I’d finally gotten a hold of Quil later that day.
His phone had taken a swim in the Hudson during his investigation.
And he’d gone with it.
He’d had to hide under bridges and in deep enough water not to fry during the day.
Apparently the King of New York had some serious problems with gangsters who were vamp hunting, and he’d almost gotten my Quil killed.
I had not been happy when Quil was finally back to his hotel and able to tell me all that.
But it was nothing compared to Quil’s anger when I’d told him what I’d been up to.
When he’d gotten back last weekend, we’d spent half the night fighting, and the other half having makeup sex.
He wasn’t at the funeral only because of the daylight, but he was helping Len set up the wake in Len’s club, where we’d all toast Thomas, the other fallen warriors from the battle, and our win over the Fae.
The ones we’d gotten, anyway.
Cuz we knew from the supernaturals keeping watch in the west that a whole heap of Fae had gotten through and scattered before anyone could get to them.
And we still couldn’t find any of them.
Even after my abilities were juiced up to full power again.
So we still had that fun awaiting us.
And when Pyro had woken up for the night, he said he had no clue how he’d been alive during the day either. Hadn’t even thought about it since we were in the middle of a fight and he’d had the carpet version of adrenaline going.
It was a mystery, but not one I could really explore.
Too many other things going on.
Turned out Shawn hadn’t been in the fight cuz he really had no fighting skills and minimal magic, so Carvi had insisted he stay at the hotel in Nashville and hold down the fort.
Made me think more of Shawn that he’d put up a fight to go in, even though it’d been to go back into the hellhole he’d barely escaped from twice.
Shawn hung around Nashville for a few days before classes started, and him and AB planned to stay in touch.
But after the drive to avenge Thomas had worn off, AB had shut down, sinking into grief and shock.
Only shaking herself outta it long enough to plan Thomas’s funeral.
And even then, it was a good thing she’d had Paul to help and me to hug her when she needed it.
It’d been a rough ten days.
Paul, Sina, Thomas’s cousin who’d flown in from Germany, and one of his friends from law school named Ray all spoke at the funeral. It was a Catholic ceremony, which surprised me.
“I didn’t know you were Catholic,” I said as Thomas stepped up next to me as the few of us left watched the casket sink into the ground.
AB and Paul were by the side of it, Carvi nearby, watching for whatever he thought would attack on a bright, bea
utiful day like this in the middle of a cemetery.
“Nominally,” Thomas said, wiggling his hand in front of him.
“Good turnout,” I said, bumping him with my hip and going through his leg a bit. “Told ya so.”
He smiled, looking down.
“I always did want to see my own funeral,” he said. “I was watching in the back. Didn’t know people had so many nice things to say about me.”
“Oh, stop playing sorry for yourself,” I said. “You know if AB could hear you, that’s what she’d say.”
“No, she’d say I was full of shit,” he said. “That’s what she said the last time I told her I didn’t think anyone would come to my funeral.”
“How did that even come up in conversation?” I asked.
“No idea. I just remember her saying that. She was right.”
He sounded so sad.
“Did you know all of them?”
He bobbed his head. “Affirmative. Except for the spouses and significant others tagging along. There was my cousin. We grew up together, she’s like a sister. And her husband. Some friends from med school who’d stayed in touch. Other friends. A few exes I’m still friends with. A lot of my students, and some of the other professors from Emery. I hadn’t started teaching at Vandy yet. Was supposed to literally two days after I died. And the friends I met through AB. My group here.”
He smiled sadly.
“But not my ex-wife,” he said. “Go figure.”
“Do you know why you’re hanging around?” I asked as Carvi walked over to the hole in the ground and pulled AB into a hug.
“I think so,” he said, watching them.
“Care to share?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I can feel the tug, feel me about to move on. I’m fighting it.”
“Why?”
“So I can help AB break through her denial,” he said after a moment.
I didn’t point out he couldn’t help with anything since she couldn’t see or hear him.
“She doesn’t deal with things,” Thomas continued. “And she hasn’t been dealing with this. I keep waiting for her to. But it gets pushed down more and more. I don’t want that for her. I want her to grieve and move on. I want her to be happy. I want her… to be free from me, finally.”
I sniffed.
Wow, that was seriously noble for a guy who’d been horrible to her at times.
“I don’t think there’s anything you can do about that,” I said when I found my voice again. “But Carvi and I are on it. We got this, Thomas. We got her. So does Paul and y’all’s friends Steven and Jenny. We’ll all be there when she breaks.”
“If she does,” he said.
Then his expression changed and his eyes flew wide.
I turned to look, and AB was sobbing in Carvi’s arms, beating her little fists against his chest.
“I think she just did,” I said, running up to them, Thomas zooming close behind.
“… and change me!” AB was sobbing when I reached them.
“What?” I asked as Paul held up his hands and backed a few steps away.
AB thrashed in Carvi’s arms harder.
“Change me!” she screamed. “Turn me! I’m useless. I’ve been trying to figure out how to bring him back for a week, and I can’t. I can’t even try because I have no power. I can’t be this helpless.”
My mouth fell open.
She’d been trying to bring him back?
Oh, dear.
“Carvi,” AB continued, “please, turn me. Make me a vampire. I don’t want to grow old or die or anything. And I want power. Please. I can’t be this useless. This helpless. Please!”
Her voice broke on the last word and she collapsed against him.
Carvi scooped her up and sat on the grass, no thought given to his nice black suit.
I looked over, and Thomas’s hand was over his mouth as tears coated his eyes.
Carvi looked straight at him and Thomas shook his head.
“Don’t let her,” Thomas said. “She’ll regret it. She-”
Carvi held up a hand and the ghost shut up.
“Annabeth,” Carvi said gently, “you don’t know what you’re asking.”
“Yes, I do. I’m a fucking adult,” she said through tears. “I know what I’m doing.”
Thomas covered his mouth and nose with his hands. “It’s eight years ago all over again. She’s reacting out of grief.”
Carvi nodded and held up his hand again before wrapping his arms around AB, holding her to his chest.
“AB,” Carvi said, “you’re grieving. There are times in each of our lives that define us. Ones that change the course of our lives. Decisions, reactions... mistakes. And most of them, we don’t get to plan ahead for.”
He paused before saying, “This one, you do.”
“I am deciding,” she said. “Turn me. Make me a vampire. I don’t want to be this person. I want to be powerful. I want to be someone else.”
Carvi shook his head. “We both know you have never forgiven yourself for the last big decision you made out of grief.”
She went stiff in his arms.
“No,” Carvi said, “I will not let you make this decision the same way. I will not let you lose something else you can’t get back while you’re too broken to make the decision. No one who cares for you would.”
Thomas huffed, and Carvi and I both glared at him.
“I didn’t know!” Thomas said, throwing up his hands.
“You don't make big decisions when you're grieving,” Carvi said in a gentle voice to AB. “Put it away. Feel your pain. We can pull this out again later. I’m not saying no. Just, not now.”
She sniffed and uncurled, climbing to her feet.
“You really are a vampire?” Paul asked.
He wasn’t an imposing man, about as tall as Carvi and much slimmer in the shoulders, but there was something about him that spoke of power of personality that could steamroll most normal people.
Carvi nodded, standing and taking AB’s shoulders in his big hands.
“Annabeth,” he said, “rule number one after a loss? No big decisions. You drink your coffee, take a crap, go to work, eat healthy, and hit the gym. And that’s it while you grieve. Got it?”
“Carvi!” I said. “You do realize you could have left out the bathroom part, right?”
“Of course you can’t leave that out,” Carvi said. “You’ll die if you don’t take craps.”
That made all of us laugh.
Carvi and I left AB with Paul and walked far enough away with Thomas to be able to talk to him.
“You okay to move on now?” I asked him.
He nodded. “I think so. Tell Paul and AB I said bye, and… I don’t know. Think of something funny, tell them I said it.”
He shrugged.
“We will,” Carvi said.
“Take care of her?” Thomas asked.
“Always,” Carvi said. “And if I don’t, she has Ariana and that annoying piece of fluff that followed us back here.”
Thomas grinned. “I like little Tommy. She’s sweet. It’ll be good for AB to have someone to love who can love her back.”
“Love her back? Have you met cats?” I scoffed.
Thomas laughed his big booming laugh.
And then he was gone.
“Did he move on?” I asked, looking around.
“Yes,” Carvi said.
“I thought it’d be flashier or something,” I said as we walked back to AB and Paul.
“Hey,” I said, rubbing her arm. “Come to the club with me? Help finish the set up for the wake?”
She sniffed and nodded. “Any events that require massive planning, you know I’m there.”
I touched my forehead to hers. “And we are here for you. Always.”
“It’s what your people are for,” Carvi said, taking her shoulders and leading her away.
Paul and I shared a look, and he glanced down at the casket, now at the bottom of the hole.
“Thomas said to tell you good bye,” I said.
Paul looked at me.
“His spirit hung around for the funeral,” I said. “We went over to say bye to him and he moved on.”
“To where?” Paul asked after a moment.
I shrugged.
Paul nodded. “Ashes to ashes,” he whispered, picking up a handful of dirt and throwing it into the hole before walking after AB and Carvi.
“Rest in peace,” I whispered to all the souls we’d lost.
Cuz there were still miles to go for the living.
We somehow had to get Grant back, track down the Fae who’d broken through, and that was on top of me still having to find out who’d shot my daddy and running a business.
I couldn’t even begin to deal with Carvi and our changed relationship.
“No rest for the wicked,” I said, following Paul’s lead and tossing a handful of dirt into the casket before turning away.
Jogging to catch up to my friends.
A few of the people who were my people.
For always.
Thanks for reading!
If you would like to know when my next story is out, you can sign up for my mailing list at http://eepurl.com/bzelVv, follow me on Twitter @AmiecusCuriae, check out my blog https://authoramiegibbons.com/, or like my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAmieGibbons/.
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This story is the sixth in the SDF series. The first is available here: https://www.amazon.com/Psychic-Undercover-Undead-Paranormal-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B01N4OCJE5/. The two prequel short stories and my other works are available on Amazon from my page at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01651YIZU.
The Evie Jones Shorts Series
EVIE JONES AND THE CRAZY EXES
EVIE JONES AND THE GOOD LUCK FUNDRAISER
EVIE JONES AND THE MAGIC MELTDOWN
EVIE JONES AND THE SPIRIT STALKER
EVIE JONES AND THE SHADOW OF CHAOS
EVIE JONES AND THE ROCKY ROULETTE
The Laws of Magic Series
PATENTABILITY PENDING (A MILLIE LEHMAN SHORT STORY)
THE TREETOPS EXPERIMENTATION (A MILLIE LEHMAN SHORT STORY)