by A. J. Locke
My body bucked off the bed but Renton held me down and quickly put the runes back in place. Micah was there to help. I didn’t mean to thrash but that was my body’s first reaction to whatever the hell was going on with these runes. The pain was explosive, and I screamed as I felt scalding hot power pour into my body. Suddenly there was light everywhere, and I realized it was coming from me. The runes Renton had drawn on me were glowing, and now they too burned. It was all just one big wave of burning pain everywhere throughout my body.
I wasn’t entirely sure I wasn’t melting from the inside out. I didn’t know if anything was working because right now it felt as though my body was being torn apart. I couldn’t focus on Renton, Micah, and Ilyse. Their faces were blurs, and I had no idea if they were speaking since my ears were filled with a loud rumbling as my body shook. All I was aware of was that all three of them were trying to hold me down. My body was drenched in sweat and all I wanted was for this to stop. I wasn’t starting to feel stronger like I thought I would. My already low energy rapidly depleted, and soon I didn’t even have the strength to trash. The pain didn’t stop but my body did. I let the darkness take me.
* * *
I opened my eyes, blinking a few times in the dim light and tried to orient myself. Micah and Ilyse were sitting at my bedside with mirrored looks of anxiety on their faces that broke when they saw me looking at them.
“Hey,” I said. My voice sounded like it hadn’t been used in years. Ilyse handed me a glass of water. I didn’t realize how ridiculously thirsty I was until I started drinking, and I quickly drained the glass, along with the second one Ilyse handed me. I cleared my throat.
“Hey,” I said again, looking from Micah to Ilyse. “What’s going on? What happened? Why are you both hovering over me like this?”
“How do you feel?” Ilyse asked, sharp eyes on me as though she was assessing me. I looked down at my body, flexing my hands and feet.
“I feel…fine,” I said. “Great, actually. I feel strong.” Micah and Ilyse exchanged a look, and I saw further relief on their faces. Then I remembered that I was supposed to be dying of the Rot and hadn’t felt anywhere near this good in a long time. I sat up straight and stared at them.
“It worked? What Renton did…worked?” It sure hadn’t felt like it was working. My heart was beating fast, and I tried to stop myself from getting too excited in case whatever they said next turned out to be a huge blow of disappointment.
“It worked,” Micah said, smiling at me. Ilyse was also smiling.
“Really?” I said, almost breathlessly. “I can hardly believe it.” I looked around the room. “Where’s Renton?”
“He had to go to work,” Micah said. “He was dodging Tielle a lot to work on this project so he had to show his face in case she was getting suspicious of his whereabouts.”
“I have to call him and tell him thank you until his ears fall of,” I said. “Part of me didn’t want to believe he could really help me. It was so sudden when you all revealed that you’d been working on a treatment.”
Micah kissed my forehead. “I wanted to tell you from the start.”
“I know,” I said. “And I understand why you didn’t. I just can’t believe I’m actually OK. I mean it’s a Band-Aid cure seeing as I will need to continue being treated, but I’ll take it. Even if it feels like death when it’s happening.”
“Renton said it shouldn’t hurt as much anymore,” Micah said. “Only the initial treatment should be as intense as it was.”
“Well that’s a relief.” I said. “Was I out for three days again?”
“Only one this time,” Ilyse said.
“Wow. I’m not even sure what month we’re in anymore.”
“It’s early September,” Ilyse said.
“Seems like just yesterday I was meeting Ethan and trying to find his stolen body. Speaking of Ethan, where is he?” Just then I heard a loud crash followed by Ethan swearing.
“He’s in the kitchen, cooking,” Micah said. “Said he wanted to have a big meal ready for you when you woke up.”
“Sounds like he’s dropping the expensive pots and pans he made me buy him in the process,” I said. But I smiled. It felt like a million years since I’d seen Ethan. I missed my nerdy ghosty.
“He’s been a nervous wreck these last few days,” Ilyse said. “Just pacing outside your room, peeking in at you, and asking a million questions about if you were going to be OK.”
“I guess my turmoil has been getting channeled to him,” I said. “Hopefully it didn’t affect him too much.”
“He’ll be OK once he sees you on your feet,” Micah said.
“I’m going to go make sure there will actually be food to come out to, and order something if there isn’t,” Ilyse said. She gave me a kiss on the cheek, squeezed my hand, and left. I turned to Micah.
“Looks like I’m gonna live, Stone.”
“You can’t begin to know how glad I am…” Micah started, his voice sounding a little choked up. He bent his head and released a heavy sigh. He held my hand tightly. “All this time I knew your body was breaking down and you were getting weaker. I was so scared of losing you, Selene. I wanted to do whatever I could to help you.”
“And you did. You, Ilyse, and Renton did it. I can’t say thank you enough.”
“You never have to thank me. I didn’t do it for thanks, I did it for purely selfish reasons. I can’t live without you so I was going to do whatever I had to in order to make sure you stayed with me.”
“Well, you succeeded.”
“I love you, Selene.”
“I love you too, Stone.”
Micah kissed me, and this time the warmth that filled my body was far from painful. I was tingly in all the good ways.
“This was all I wanted,” I said when we pulled away. “To have you look at me with just love, not worry.”
“I’ll always worry about your reckless ass,” Micah said with a smile. “But after dealing with the Rot I feel confident I can handle any other predicaments you find yourself in.”
“Oh, you just assume I’m gonna find predicaments, huh?”
“I think we both know the answer to that.”
I laughed, then my face sobered as I remembered the Rot was only one of my many problems.
“Well, I’m still in quite a few predicaments,” I said. “Isabelle’s beastie is sleeping with the fishes, Marcus is gone, Andrew may beastie out at any moment, and I am no closer to finding out who stashed Marcus and Isabelle’s bodies in my backyard. Not to mention the fact that if Tielle catches any whiff of this I will be locked up and my reanimation power stripped before I know it.”
“That’s quite a list,” Micah said, blowing out a breath. “But we will get through it. Renton is helping to keep Tielle at bay.”
“At least I took care of Marcus’ unfinished business so he won’t turn into an anchored beastie.” That was a small silver lining. “And speaking of Tielle, what from her lately? Has she questioned what happened with Isabelle’s beastie?”
“No. I’ve been keeping an ear out and the story is that the beastie was taken down. No one saw it jump into the Hudson. Tielle is aware of the car accident and approved you being on leave but she is sure to keep a close eye on you still. You can’t say a word about the treatment to her. Renton would prefer it not reach her.”
“I’m sure I still look sick enough to fool her. But she’s not my biggest concern. There’s still Andrew. I was supposed to have dinner with him. I’m really not doing a good job of trying to stop him from turning into a ghost monster.”
“He’s been calling and coming by, acting very concerned and upset that we wouldn’t let him near you,” Micah said.
“Sounds about right. I need to make contact with him soon.”
“I’m afraid that any moment he’s going to turn.”
“Not that I’m complaining, but it’s starting to get unusual that he hasn’t become a beastie. It’s been a couple months already. I mean Larry
holds the record but that’s because he had so much unfinished—”
“What?”
“What if I’m not Andrew’s only unfinished business? What if Tielle and her people just stopped there and didn’t bother to find out if there was anything else he needed to get taken care of?”
“Andrew is a necromancer, he’d know how to find out for himself what his unfinished business is, and he could have been working on it all along.”
“That could be it,” I said. “And it would only become a problem if he crossed everything off his list, and I was the only thing left.”
“We need to find out for sure. We can’t just assume this theory is right.”
I chewed my lip for a second as I thought. “I have to go see him, so maybe I can take a rune with me and find out.”
“Do you think he would willingly allow you to do the rune work on him?”
“Good question. If he does have other unfinished business then why has he kept it under wraps?”
“Think he’s got a list of petty crimes to clean up like Larry did?” Micah’s tone was more humorous than serious.
“Not Andrew McNabb,” I said. “Unless he was living the ultimate double life. Maybe I can be sneaky about it. All I need is to get some of his energy into the rune, and if I can word things the right way without him getting suspicious, I can see how the rune reacts based on his answers.”
“Getting close to him to get the energy shouldn’t be a problem,” Micah said. “He’d be more than happy to have you all over him.”
“I’ll try to do it without barfing.”
“As much as I want to keep you with me, you should go see him today.”
“You’re right. I’ll call him after I eat something.” Despite the cursing and pan dropping something smelled good out there and my stomach had been repeatedly letting me know how vastly empty it was.
“How about we go out there and see what Ethan has concocted,” I said. I sat up but dizziness washed over me, and I flopped back onto the pillows. “Whoa. Was not expecting that.”
“It will take a few days for your body to fully adjust to what Renton did,” Micah said. “You’re going to feel a lot better but you won’t be a hundred percent…”
“Ever,” I finished. “Because the Rot is still there, it’s just…distracted. Well, I’ll take whatever improvement this treatment provides. Now, help me out of bed and get me closer to food.” With Micah’s help I headed out of the bedroom. When Ethan saw me, he ran over and gave me a big hug.
“Thank God, you’re OK,” he said. Luna had beaten him to me, and I had picked her up so she was growling her displeasure at being trapped in between us.
“I’m OK,” I said when we pulled back. I put Luna down so she could prance around. “Looks like I was missed.”
“Maybe a little,” Ethan said, smiling.
“He made a feast, you won’t be disappointed, but unfortunately I can’t stay to eat with you,” Ilyse said. “I’m on duty at the Leech House today.”
“Thank you so much Ilyse, for everything.” I gave her a hug.
“I know there’s still a lot going on, but I’m glad we were able to help with the most important one; saving your life. I will call you later.”
I nodded, and Ilyse said good-bye to Ethan, Micah and Luna, who thought she was about to go for a trip outside until the door was closed in her face.
“Hungry?” Ethan asked.
“Hungry enough to eat you, though I don’t think a ghost would be very filling, even a tangible one.” Micah and I sat down and Ethan brought over plates of roasted chicken, potato salad, baked macaroni and cheese, vegetables, and homemade raspberry lemonade.
“Wow,” I said. “You really went for the gold.”
“I figured a meal to celebrate not dying had to be a good one,” he said, hovering nearby as I took a bite. “How is it?”
“Delicious,” I said. “But I could be eating a burnt flip flop right now and I’d be savoring it.”
His face fell.
“It is seriously tasty though.”
His smile recovered.
“Thank you.”
He nodded and headed back to the kitchen to start cleaning up.
While we ate, Ethan’s phone, which was lying on the table, kept vibrating. After about the fifth time I couldn’t help but glance at the screen to see who was so insistent on contacting him. His mother.
“She’s been calling and texting a lot these days,” Micah said, glancing at the screen as well. “Ethan’s answered maybe once, and it was all of a ten second conversation.”
I sighed and picked up the phone, waving it at Ethan as he came over.
“Still dodging your parents?” I asked. He sat down and shrugged. “This is getting ridiculous, Ethan, and it’s been long enough. You’re going to see them.”
“I don’t want to yet.”
“I wasn’t asking.” The phone rang again and before Ethan could take the phone I answered it.
“Selene!”
“Hi, Mrs. Lance? Yes, how are you? I’m feeling OK, thanks for asking.”
Ethan tried to take the phone from me but Micah held him back. I spoke to his mom for a few minutes then hung up and tossed Ethan his phone. He no longer looked as happy to see me alive and well.
“You’re going to stop being childish and go see your family,” I said. “As you just heard, I told your mom to expect you before tomorrow.”
“I can’t believe you did that!” he fumed. “And I can’t believe you’re just sending me away.”
“I’m hardly sending you to the frontlines of a battlefield, quit being ridiculous. Your family loves you and misses you, and I will be putting you on a train and sending you to Long Island.”
“I think I’d better drive him,” Micah said. “To make sure he gets there.”
“Good idea.” I turned to Ethan. “So we’re all set. Why don’t you go pack a bag?”
He stomped off, and I turned to Micah. “Why did it just feel like we were parents scolding our cranky teenager?”
“Well, truthfully, if you and I had a kid I would expect it to be quite the cranky teen.”
I laughed. “Yeah, no way we’d ever raise someone who is completely well adjusted.”
“Agreed.”
Micah and I finished eating, and he did the dishes while I hunted around my bag for my cell phone. I had a lot of missed calls, texts, and voicemails from my friends, who I’d basically abandoned these past few months, but most were from Andrew. I plugged the phone in to charge then dialed him, and was on the phone for longer than I care to be while Andrew poured honey into my ear, and I rolled my eyes a lot. It ended with me agreeing to come over for brunch in a couple hours.
“All right, that’s been done,” I said. “I’ll be going over to Andrew’s for brunch. He’s very excited about cooking for me.”
“I’ll bet he is,” Micah said dryly.
“Does this bother you?”
“It’s OK,” Micah said, kissing my temple. “I know you’re doing it for a very good reason. I just don’t like the idea of you being around him after all you’ve been through with him.”
“Guess our next bit of research needs to be about how to get rid of anchored ghosts.”
“Ilyse has been looking into it,” Micah said. “She hasn’t come across anything promising though.”
“Well, for the time being I’ll have to do my part and hope no more ghosts get anchored to me.” I sat down on the sofa. Ethan came back out and threw himself into the armchair.
“Packed enough undies for a few days?” I teased. He just gave me a look. “Look, I know you have all sorts of hang-ups about being a ghost and being bound, and are still trying to deal with everything that happened with Michael and Larry, but I’m afraid if we waited long enough for you so sort through all that you’ll be seeing your parents when they are also ghosts. This will be good for all of you.”
“I know,” Ethan said. “For once, you’re right about something.
” I threw a pillow at his head, and he leaned back to avoid it but ended up falling through the chair, landing on his butt behind it.
“Whoa,” he said as he got up. “That hasn’t happened in a while.”
“It sure hasn’t,” I said, staring with slightly widened eyes. Ethan used to be able to control his tangibility, but lately he’d been totally solid and said he couldn’t become intangible even when he tried. Guess he hadn’t completely lost control. He got up and carefully sat back down.
“All right.” I planted my hands on my hips and turned to Ethan. “I’m going to take Luna for a walk then get ready to have brunch with my yearning, anchored, ghost. Don’t be jealous of my super fabulous life.”
“Least you aren’t a ghost going off to see your living family,” Ethan said.
“I’d take that over this, trust me. You’ll be in heaven compared to the hell I’ll be in.”
“You don’t know what hell is like until you’ve been in a small room with my gassy great uncle,” Ethan said.
“OK, you win this one. For sure.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
I reached Andrew’s condo around twelve, and gave myself a pep talk all the way up the elevator. I had to stay focused on the fact that I couldn’t let Andrew become an anchored beastie. Even though I knew I’d be able to bind and control him the way I did with Isabelle’s beastie, if he turned, it would not help me maintain my freedom. Even if I got him under control and made him hide out in the Hudson, everyone would know that Andrew’s ghost had suddenly disappeared and all arrows would point to me. I was on thin ice as it was with Tielle. It wouldn’t be easy to play nice to Andrew, but I’d try my damned best. I was good at lying after all.
Andrew greeted me with a pleasant expression. Or should I say pleased. He gave me a tight hug and swept me inside. I looked at him as he overly complimented my outfit of jeans, boots, and striped sweater. This was the first time I’d ever seen Andrew dressed in anything other than a suit. He wore jeans and a fitted T-shirt, and his hair didn’t seem like it had any product; it was just loosely brushed back from his face. A couple months ago I would have thought he was extremely sexy and pounced on him right at the door.