by Elicia Hyder
“Neither sound like much fun,” Anya said.
Iliana waved her finger between me and herself. “We could go ghost hunting, and the rest of you could get the shopping done.”
“Onra appa makai tanam,” Reuel said with a smile.
I scowled. “No, not like a daddy-daughter date. She’s an adult now.” On the inside, though, I was smiling at the thought of a date with my daughter. I looked at Fury. “Do you mind?”
Her head pulled back. “Do I mind not going hunting for evil ghosts? Absolutely not.” As soon as the words had left her mouth, her ears realized she’d said them. Her eyes widened.
Nathan crossed his arms. “So we’ve finally found something the badass Fury is afraid of.”
She held up her middle finger. “I’ll still kick your ass, Nate.”
We all laughed.
On the back of our check, I wrote out a short list of the necessities I needed. “Anybody know how long we’ll be on this island?”
“I’m not really sure,” Nathan said. “We have to figure out a way to get passports and paperwork for you all before we can go anywhere.”
“Rogan is going to work on it while he’s in Manila.” Iliana’s face didn’t show much hope. “But it’s a lot harder these days to forge documents than it used to be.”
“Forged a lot of documents in your day, have you?” Kane teased.
“So I’ve heard,” she replied with an eyeroll.
I finished the list and handed it to Fury.
“So we’ll all reconvene back at the resort?” Nathan asked.
Iliana stood. “Sounds good to me.”
“How will you get back?” Anya asked.
Iliana and I exchanged a smile and answered at the same time.
“We’ll fly.”
Chapter Six
The shop of the man with the evil-ghost wife was closed that day, and we had to ask around to find out exactly where he lived. It took over an hour wandering around the village to learn the address and the man’s name: Ronald Navarro.
Then we had to walk, as flying angels in town would probably start some rumors. It was a nice hike, however, and even nicer to spend some uninterrupted time with my daughter. She used the GPS on her fancy phone to guide us to the man’s house.
“How much farther?” I asked.
She touched her ear. “Estimated time to destination,” she said to the digital listener in her ear. After a moment, she replied, “About five minutes.”
“It’s a little weird, isn’t it?” I asked. “Humans now communicating like angels.”
“I’ll give you three guesses as to why that is. You should only need one.”
I thought for a moment. “The Morning Star is in the cell-phone business?”
“You could say that. Apparently, he helped create the technology. Claymore has been using it for a few years. I heard they sold the patented design, and now here we are.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “He really does have his tentacles everywhere.”
“Wait till we get back to the States.”
“Does everyone live at Wolf Gap now?”
“Yeah. Dad wasn’t kidding when he said we have a lot of space. You haven’t seen the underground bunker yet, have you?”
“It was a big hole in the ground the last time I was in Asheville.”
“It’s really nice.”
“Most things your grandfather builds are.”
Staring up the road ahead, I realized how much I missed Azrael. Even though it had only been a handful of days since I’d seen him, the years I’d missed were becoming more and more real to me. He was on his way to the island, but how much of my father would remain?
I couldn’t think about that now. “So Jett lives at Wolf Gap too?”
She dropped her head back and groaned toward the sky. “Don’t get started on Jett again.”
“That’s not where I was going with the question.” That was only half-true. “I’m just worried about Fury.”
“It’s hard for her to be around him, isn’t it?”
“Very. When we left, I feel like she had just gotten excited about being a mother. And in two days, it was all taken away from her.”
Iliana looked at the ground. “It’s really sad. Jett doesn’t know how to handle it either. He’s spent enough time with humans to have a better grasp on empathy than most angels, but he’s still not human.”
“I’ve heard he worked at the Pentagon in his last life here.”
“Both he and Rogan did.”
“That was before the ban on angels speaking English was lifted. How did he manage it?”
“He was sent to the Pentagon by direct order from the Father himself. They both had special exceptions to the law.”
“I’ll bet that drove Cassiel nuts,” I said almost to myself.
“She’s quite a stickler for rules.”
“You have no idea.”
“When the Father came to Wolf Gap, the night Mom got some of her powers back, he stayed on for a few days, then went to Washington and asked Jett and Rogan to return to Eden. The Father wanted them to grow up with me, so they were both reborn in North Carolina.”
“Reborn to Fury and Shannon.” My head swiveled toward her. “How has that gone? Your mom and Shannon hated each other.”
Iliana chuckled. “It can still be pretty tense at times. Shannon has her good qualities, but she drives us all nuts. No one more so than Rogan. Can you imagine a guardian with an overprotective mother?”
The thought made me laugh really hard.
“She was always clingy, but since Rogan was kidnapped, she hardly lets him out of her sight.”
“So you see her a lot?”
“We see the sun a lot. We see Shannon infinitely more. It was the number one reason Rogan wanted to come to the island.”
I laughed again and shook my head.
“What?”
“You’ve got Nathan’s sense of humor.”
She nodded. “Nana says the same thing, but she doesn’t think it’s nearly so funny.”
“Nana?”
“Dad’s mom.”
“Kathy?”
“Yeah. Nana and Poppie are staying at Wolf Gap with Luca until we get back.”
My eyes widened. “Does she cook?”
“Oh yeah.”
I rubbed my palms together. “It’s been seventeen years since I’ve had a home-cooked meal.”
Iliana laughed. After a few more steps, she pointed toward an orange house up ahead. “I think that’s it.”
Evil shrouded the house like a cloud. Death ached in my bones. “Something is very wrong here.”
“Lots of death,” she said, surprising me.
It was weird, but the comment made me smile. Not since Azrael was the Archangel had anyone on Earth shared my gift. And sensing death everywhere can make for a lonely existence.
When we reached the door, I knocked. “There is a spirit here,” I said quietly. My eyes narrowed. “And lots of bodies.”
“There’s a human too. He’s home,” she said.
I knocked again.
After a moment, the door swung open. A Filipino man, easily a foot shorter than me, stood on the other side. Evil was confirmed on his spirit, and I suddenly felt better about the fact he was being haunted.
This man was a killer, responsible for three human deaths.
Iliana tensed beside me. “No wonder it’s so creepy around here.”
The smell of rotten eggs permeated the air.
“Yes?” the man asked.
“Hi. Are you Ronald Navarro?” Iliana asked. The man looked stunned. “We understand you have a problem with a spirit.”
My brow rose with surprise. The last time I’d been on Earth, we never talked about such things with humans.
“Who are you?” the man asked, leaning against the door.
“We’ve come to help you.” I realized that had been true on our walk to the house. Now, my intentions were very different.
He looked up at me, hesitated for a moment, then opened the door wider. “Come in. What is your name?”
“Warren. This is my daughter, Iliana. Who’s your wife?”
“Her name was Althea.”
We walked inside. “Her name is Althea. She’s still very much here.”
I looked around the modest living room. The furniture, now vintage I was sure, was held over from my era on Earth. Dishes were piled high in the sink, and every surface was cluttered with papers, books, and trash. The sulfur was so thick inside it nearly burned my eyes.
The lights flickered over our heads.
Death radiated from beneath the floorboards. There were bodies buried down there; I was certain of it.
“How did Althea die?” I asked, no longer buying the rumors in the village.
“Blackmouth Fever,” he said. “It took her late. About six months ago.”
I didn’t need to be an Angel of Knowledge to know the man was lying.
“But you believe her spirit is here?” Iliana asked.
Ronald’s face shifted to an expression I was all too familiar with. He might’ve been a murderer, but in that second, he worried we might think he was crazy. “Everyone talks about the strange things that happen now. The smell. Things moving without explanation. The lights.” He looked up as they flickered again. “I believe what they say. Spirits no longer leave.”
He was right. There was old death in the ground, but a spirit still resided in the house.
“Mind if we look around?” I asked.
“Why?”
“Because if your wife is here, we are the only ones who can help you.”
He hesitated, his eyes darting between me and my daughter. Of course he wouldn’t want a search of his house. He had buried people here.
“You want rid of her, don’t you?” Iliana asked.
“She tried to burn me alive.”
Iliana lifted her shoulders. “So let us help you.”
“Okay.” His fear for his own safety obviously outweighed his fear of getting caught.
As we walked around the small house, I counted five burial sites in the crawlspace beneath the house. Only three were accounted for on Ronald’s soul. If his wife was putting off as much sulfur as we smelled, she must have been responsible for the others. It wouldn’t be a friendly ghost we found in the house.
Iliana opened a door.
A spirit charged out and tackled her.
The spirit of a boy, not of a woman, rolled her into the legs of a coffee table. She blasted him off her as quickly as he had tackled her.
I grabbed the soul with my power and pinned him against the wall so hard a picture frame fell and shattered on the ground.
“Are you all right?” I asked my daughter.
Panting, she pushed herself up. “I’m fine.”
She looked through the door she had opened, then turned toward the boy. “Who are you?”
The boy had died—or had been murdered—in his early teens. He was shaking with fear against the wall as his eyes darted between me and his father.
And he didn’t smell at all.
“What is it? Have you found her?” Ronald asked behind us, his eyes searching for something he couldn’t see.
“We haven’t found a woman, but we have found a teenage boy,” Iliana said, straightening her rumpled clothes.
“Daniel?”
The soul’s face whipped toward the man.
“So your name is Daniel,” I said to him.
He looked at me but didn’t answer.
“Who is he?” Iliana asked.
“Daniel was my son. He died not long after his mother.”
Iliana and I exchanged a glance. In the village, we’d heard about the wife but nothing about a son.
“Let me guess,” I said. “The virus?”
“Yes.”
My eyes narrowed. “You’re lying to me.”
“I promise I’m not—”
“Let me tell you something about the human soul. When humans are tortured in life, that echoes in their death. Normally, the souls leave this planet and recover, but you were right. Now they’re stuck here. This kid is terrified, but not of me. He’s terrified of you.”
I released my grip on the boy and turned toward his father. “I’m going to ask you again. How did he die?”
As I walked slowly toward the man, he shuffled backward, knocking over an end table. “It wasn’t me! It was his mother.”
“You just said he died after his mother,” Iliana said behind me.
“I didn’t do it! I didn’t kill him!” The man backed into a disheveled bookcase and shielded his head with his arms.
“Wait,” Iliana said.
I turned to look, and the man bolted toward the front door. My hand shot toward it, and the lock turned. He fought with it frantically, but could not open it.
The soul of the boy was leading Iliana to the other room. The room he’d run from. Inside was an old rusted bed frame with no mattress and with handcuffs chained to the headboard. The window was covered with paper, with only a corner torn away.
“This is where he died,” Iliana said, looking at me.
The boy pointed to the floor, to a spot where I felt the pull of death the strongest in the house. I extended my hand, and the floorboards broke apart and splintered up through the carpet. Dirt from the ground below spun up like a tornado, revealing a large cardboard box, partially rotted away and eaten by bugs.
The corpse inside it was unrecognizable, but chains remained just below the jawbone of the skull.
My stomach turned. In all the wickedness I’d seen, I didn’t think I’d ever grow numb to the abuse of children.
“He’s so afraid.” Iliana walked toward the boy’s soul. “I don’t think they ever let him leave this house.”
I closed my eyes. “It would explain why no one in town mentioned him.”
“It would also explain why he doesn’t say much.” Iliana reached for the soul’s face. The boy cowered back from her touch. Then the tips of her fingertips began to glow.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“This kind of fear is nothing but injury to the soul.” She touched his cheek. “And injuries, I can heal.”
I watched in awe as the white light spread from the boy’s cheek in glittering tendrils all over his soul until it consumed him. When the white light dissipated, he stumbled forward.
His eyes were clear and peaceful when he looked up again. Joy filled his face. “Gratalis,” he said in Katavukai.
I blinked “What did you do?” I’d never heard a human outside those in our group speak Katavukai this side of the spirit line.
Iliana smiled as she shook her head. “I’m not sure.”
“Akai un cel vliye?” he asked, looking toward the window.
Iliana took both his hands. “Of course you can go outside. You can go anywhere you want.”
With an excited leap, the boy ran from the room. We followed him. His father was trying to pry open the front door. I jerked him backward and released the door’s lock for Daniel before I realized it wasn’t necessary.
Daniel ran right through the front window without breaking it.
“What did you do to him?” Iliana asked angrily as I turned Ronald around to face us.
Ronald was crying, and he had wet himself. “Please. The boy was sick.”
“The boy was tortured,” she corrected him.
Ronald dropped to his knees as I walked toward him and pulled my sword from its scabbard.
“What are you doing?” Iliana asked.
“Testing a theory.” I could have used my power to kill Ronald and inflict the final death, but I wanted to see what effect the sword would have on a human soul.
“Please,” Ronald cried, looking up at me. Tears and snot streaked his red face. He trembled all over. “What are you?”
I raised the sword. “The Angel of Death.”
“Well, that was dramatic,” Iliana said, standing be
side me over the bloody corpse.
“It worked though. His soul was obliterated.” I wiped the blade on a sofa cushion.
Iliana looked around the room. “We haven’t found the wife.”
“She isn’t far. The smell is still here, and I can sense her presence.” The body at my feet flaked away in pieces of black ash that disintegrated into the air.
When the corpse was gone, Iliana and I searched the rest of the house. Frustration set in after clearing the final room. I put my hands on my hips. “I know she’s here.”
“Where would you hide in a house if you didn’t want to be found?” Iliana asked.
My mind flashed back to a story Sloan had once told me. She and Nathan had found kidnapped Kayleigh Neeland stashed in the attic. I looked up. There was definitely someone up there. “Look for access to the attic.”
We searched the house again, this time for a pull-down staircase or a covered access hole. There wasn’t one. Only mildewed drywall sheets.
Iliana looked at me. “Would she need a door?”
I thought of Daniel running through the window, then of how I’d held him against the wall. “I’m not sure. You’ve spent more time with ghosts here on Earth than I have. We usually take them straight into the spirit world.”
“I’ve only spent time around Papa, and he didn’t leave his room much. When he did, he was walking with me through open doors.”
“Interesting. Well, I do know one way to get her out of the attic.” I walked back to the bedroom where I’d felt the soul’s presence the most and the smell had been the strongest. Standing in the doorway, I reached toward the ceiling. And pulled. The whole thing crashed down.
The startled ghost fell with it, landing on top of the heap of crumbled ceiling between me and the bed. The woman was screaming.
I jerked her up onto her feet. “Althea.”
She flinched at the sound of her name.
“You’re Daniel’s mother,” Iliana said, squeezing between my side and the doorframe to enter the room.
“Daniel is dead,” the ghost said, her voice raspy and quiet.
“Yeah. We know. Thanks to you and your husband.” Iliana crossed her arms. “He’s dead too, by the way.”
“Good,” Althea snapped.
I tapped my boot on the floor. “Who else is buried down here?”