by D. N. Leo
“Michelle!”
He darted toward her, and reached his hands out. She withdrew. “I’m not real, Riley. You can’t touch me. I’m just here for a short moment to tell you that I miss you and I’m thankful that you take care of Noah.”
“I’m not exactly doing a good job at it.”
“You’re a good father. Noah is very special. Listen to Orla. Listen to your son. Be open minded, Riley.”
“I miss you so much, Michelle. Please don’t leave me again.”
“I miss you too. But I don’t have a choice. I have to leave now.”
Riley grabbed at his wife’s image, but she dissolved into thin air. His world spun out of orbit. The ground below him caved in. The walls whirled, distorted, and blurred out of their frames. His eyes rolled back. He collapsed.
Chapter 13
From the ceiling, Riley saw his body lying on the floor unconscious. Am I dead? he thought. Did I just have a heart attack? He couldn’t control his body, but his mind was crystal clear. Then he realized he was outside his body. At the moment, he was his conscious mind. “What just happened?” He landed on the floor, walking around and looking at his own lifeless body.
He looked decent, he thought, long lean body, very fit, and perfectly healthy at thirty-two years of age. If he died now, who would take care of Noah? He saw Noah walk up the patio and push at the door, finding it locked. He was confused. He pushed at the door again. The he peeked through the window and saw Riley’s body on the floor.
Noah became panicked. He pushed at the door again and instantly knew that it wouldn’t work. He called for the cat. Then the cat, sitting in the corner watching everything, used its teeth to pull the bunch of keys out of Riley’s pocket and toss them through the cat door Riley had just made for him last night.
Noah stormed into the house. He inhaled deeply. That was a sign of him trying to stay calm. Calm and collected, he checked for Riley’s pulse. Damn it. Riley cursed to himself as he couldn’t even check his own pulse. But he was proud of his son. Noah was doing everything right at the moment. Noah wasn’t crying, so Riley wagered he wasn’t dead.
He shook Riley’s shoulders. “Dad!” He shook again. “Dad, you’re scaring me.” Noah’s breaths caught. He was going to cry. He was going to lose it. Riley had to help his son. Noah grabbed the phone. His hands shook. Tears rolled down his face, but he wiped them off.
Riley concentrated and tried to reach out to his son. Noah. Riley used his mind to speak. Noah, he called again. Noah stopped dialing the phone. Riley couldn’t believe what was happening. He continued, Noah, is my pulse okay? Noah panned around the room, then nodded. Noah could hear him. Riley felt delirious. He continued, That means I’m going to be okay. I’m just a little out of myself at the moment. If you can hear me clearly, nod.
Noah nodded.
All right. Don’t panic. Just call uncle Lorcan.
Noah called Lorcan.
Ten minutes later, Lorcan and Orla stormed into the house.
“Jesus Christ, call the ambulance!” Lorcan exclaimed.
“No,” Noah said. “Dad said he’ll come around soon.”
“What? When did he say that? He might have had a stroke, Noah. How long has he been out?”
“I went to the store, so it might be around ten minutes. Since I called you, it’s been another ten,” Noah said calmly.
“I’m calling an ambulance.”
“Dad wouldn’t be happy about that,” Noah said.
Damn right. Riley thought. Just shake me, you idiot. I didn’t have a stroke. Why are you letting a ten-year-old tell you what to do, Lorcan? Riley thought. But Lorcan couldn’t hear him the same way Noah could.
Orla pulled Noah into her arms. “Your dad will be all right. How do you know he wouldn’t want to be in the hospital?”
Noah bit his lips. He said nothing. Then a tear rolled down his face. And another one. Then he cried. Orla embraced him. “Don’t cry darling. He’ll be okay. You’ll be okay. You can hear him, right?” she soothed. Noah nodded.
Bitch. You sent that woman here, Riley thought. He wanted to trash something, whack at something, but apparently he couldn’t do that with his mind.
“Let me try this.” She put Noah aside and kneeled next to Riley. Holding his head in her hands, she rubbed at his temples with her thumbs. She closed her eyes and mumbled something to herself.
Suddenly Riley felt weakened. Then he found himself dissolved and sucked into a black hole.
His eyes flung open, and he gasped. Orla released his head. Riley sat up, dazed. Noah darted over, wrapped this tiny body around his father’s, and let out all the tears he had withheld. He ruffled his son’s hair and said, “Come on, Noah, you’re a good boy. Don’t cry. I’m okay. You did very well.”
“Lorcan crouched. “What’s going on?”
Riley leaned against the sofa. “I don’t know. I was in the kitchen. A woman came, claiming to be the psychic Orla sent . . .”
“Me? I didn’t send anyone!”
Riley stood up. “Well, that’s what she said. Next thing I know, she put a whammy on me. Then bam, I’m on the floor.”
“She put a whammy on you! I can’t believe that word came out of your mouth, Riley!” Lorcan laughed.
“Why not?” Orla asked.
“Psychic? Magic? Are we going to talk about aliens next?” Lorcan exclaimed.
Riley shrugged. “That’s what happened. That’s what she said. And as you can see, I’m in one piece. I didn’t just black out for no reason.”
“It might have been a stroke, Riley. You’re such an idiot not to let Noah call an ambulance. If Orla and I hadn’t been doing some business around the area, it would’ve taken us at least half an hour to get here from London. By that time, you would have been dead!”
“What business are you doing in Mortlake?”
Lorcan shrugged. “Private business. We have to go back there, but we’ll take Noah to school on the way. Call in to work, take a day off.”
Lorcan grabbed at Noah’s shoulders. “Come on buddy, go get your gear.”
Noah scurried to his room.
“I’m taking Noah to school. That woman might come back for him. She said Orla sent her for Noah,” Riley said.
“The psychic I referred you to is a he, not a she.”
“You referred him to a psychic?” Lorcan asked in disbelief.
“What’s wrong with that?” Orla responded.
“So who was the woman?” Riley asked.
“What did she look like?” Ora asked.
As Riley described the old woman, the color drained from Orla’s face. A tear rolled down her cheek.
“Orla?” Lorcan called out.
Orla covered her mouth. She ran to the bathroom and vomited. If she wasn’t mistaken, Riley had just described her late aunt, the one who had set up the white curse before she died. Orla had been a kid, but she remembered the experience vividly. Her aunty had loved her very much and had promised to take care of Orla wherever she might be. When she was ten, Orla felt lucky to have her aunt’s love and care within a family full of dark secrets, but she didn’t feel too lucky right now.
Lorcan waited outside the bathroom door. Orla pushed the door open and flung her bag over her shoulder.
“Where are you going?” Lorcan asked.
“Back to Madeline at church,” she mumbled.
She sidestepped Lorcan to walk away.
Lorcan snatched the car keys from Orla’s hand.
“Seriously, Lorcan, I told you to go away.”
“We talked about this—one more day, and I’ll let you do whatever you want. You promised me.”
“I’ll call a cab.” She mumbled and kept walking.
“Hey.” Lorcan grabbed Orla’s arms. She shrugged him off. They scuffled for ten seconds before he pinned her to the wall. “If you can’t tell me what happened between you and the woman called Mya at the apartment, if you really have to lie to me about that, I’m fine. If you have to withhold the
information about the woman who came to see Riley and what you did to fix him just now, I’m struggling here, but I can live with that too. But I won’t leave you, and I won’t let you go out there by yourself. If you can say to my face that you don’t love me and you don’t want me in your life, then I’ll leave you alone.”
She closed her eyes and said nothing.
“Passive-aggressive isn’t your style, Orla.”
She opened her eyes and looked straight at him. “I . . .”
Lorcan muffled what she was going to say with a bone-melting kiss. Then he released her and raised his arms up, surrendering. “Okay, I bluffed. Please don’t say anything. I don’t have the confidence that you won’t say it. I don’t want you to make me leave.” Then he let his arms flop down by his sides. He simply stared at her.
Her throat hurt. Before the tears bubbled out, she said, “There’s a curse . . .”
“A what?”
The device in Lorcan’s pocket buzzed. “Someone called Madeline,” he said, then he listened to the recording. “Stephen got shot in New York,” he relayed. “Madeline’s plan was fucked up. Zen knew she sent Stephen, and now he’s after her. Let’s go.” Lorcan grimaced. There wasn’t time for Orla to say anything else. She merely followed him.
Chapter 14
Lorcan turned the Bluetooth tracking device off and slid it into his bag. “We can see her from here and hear what she says from the speaker.” Orla nodded. Orla and Lorcan had planted themselves in the front yard of a house a respectable distance from Mrs. Hanson’s. Gauging from the overflowing mailbox and overgrown garden, they speculated the house was uninhabited. But to be sure, Orla knocked on the door. There was no response.
A hoarse female voice croaked out from their speaker, “I’ve convinced Woody to forgive your intrusion this morning, but he’s still upset!”
They heard a dog barking.
“Mrs. Hanson, I’m sorry I was rude this morning, but I . . .” Madeline said.
Lorcan winced at the old woman’s voice. It was unpleasant and oddly spooky—it gave him goose bumps.
“All your kind are the same,” the hoarse voice continued.
“My kind? Mrs. Hanson . . .” Madeline raised her voice in defense.
“You want to find John Dee’s grave, right?” Mrs. Hanson said.
Wait. No. That wasn’t Mrs. Hanson’s voice that Lorcan heard. The voice was right next to him. He turned and saw Orla’s empty eyes. The voice coming out of her mouth wasn’t her own.
“Orla!” Lorcan grabbed Orla’s shoulders and gently shook her. “Orla.” She didn’t respond. He didn’t pay attention to what was coming out of the speaker. He was focused solely on Orla. He shook her harder. She looked right through him and didn’t respond to his call. “Orla, come on baby, come back to me.”
The voice came out of Orla again, “What you want to find in the grave is not my problem. I knew you were coming. Like all the others. Greed doesn’t do anyone any good.”
“But I didn’t . . .” Madeline’s voice protested via the speaker.
Lorcan shook Orla hard. She skipped a sentence and went silent. She paused and stared at him blankly.
“Oh baby, come on, fight this.” He pulled her into his arms as she swayed.
“Where can I find the grave?” Madeline’s voice said.
The old voice continued via Orla’s mouth. “Fossey Way. It’s guarded by Roman soldiers. And I have to warn you, young lady, these soldiers cannot tell the difference between greed and grief. They judge you by your actions. So be careful.”
“I’m not Madeline, and you’re not Mrs. Hanson.” Lorcan shook Orla again and again.
“I’ll kill you, little bird. Like I killed the others. Go to Fossey Way. There are lots of bones for you to find. Today is a good day to die,” the old voice rasped from Orla’s mouth.
“Please, Orla, please. Come back to me.” Orla suddenly snapped back. She swayed and collapsed into his arms. Lorcan scooped her up to carry her to the car. Shortly after, she shifted and opened her eyes. “Oh, thank God.” He put her down on the ground.
“What happened?” Orla asked, still slightly dazed.
“We were listening to the conversation between Madeline and Mrs. Hanson. The next thing I know, I heard Mrs. Hanson voice’s coming out of your mouth. Do you remember anything?”
Orla shook her head.
“Why are you lying to me?” Lorcan snarled.
“I’m not.”
“You have that ‘I’m lying’ look on your face.”
Damn her pathetic failure of a poker face. “Okay, okay. I remember. I don’t know how. But I remember the words coming out of my mouth. Someone was speaking through me, and I couldn’t control it.”
“Since when have you been able to do this?”
“Never. This is the first time.”
Lorcan stood up and ruffled his hair, trying to control his temper. But this time, he failed. “I can’t tolerate your lies anymore, Orla.”
Orla saw the fury in his eyes. “If you can’t tolerate me, then go away.”
Lorcan waved his arms in frustration. “You want me to leave, this is your plan, isn’t it?”
“If you won’t leave, I will.” She pushed up to her feet and walked toward the car.
Chapter 15
At the school, Riley jumped out of the car he parked illegally in the loading dock and charged toward the principal’s office. He almost ran into Mrs. Abbey, Noah’s teacher, on her way out.
“Mrs. Abbey, where’s Noah?”
“In there with the principal. He’s all right now. He didn’t want to go to the hospital. He just asked for you,” Mrs. Abbey said, her lips pressed into a thin line. Riley knew she thought he didn’t take care of Noah well, but he didn’t have time to explain. He couldn’t care less what people think about him and ignored them as long as they weren’t accusing him of negligence and sending in a social worker.
“Dad.” Noah stormed out. He darted over and clung to Riley. He held his son, lifting the boy up.
“I’m sorry, Noah. I can’t help you with the pain. Would you like me to take you home?”
In tears, Noah said, “It’s not painful anymore. But I don’t want to go home. Could you please call Uncle Lorcan?”
“What? Why?”
“I need to talk to him. Right away.”
Riley frowned. “What did you see, Noah? You had a vision, didn’t you?”
“Blood. I saw Uncle Lorcan and a lot of blood.”
Riley nodded. “All right. Let’s get out of here, and we’ll call him on the way.”
The principal walked out from his office and was about to say something. “I’m sorry, we have to go now. I’ll arrange a meeting with you when I have a chance. I promise.”
Riley put Noah down. They darted down the corridor before the principal could say anything. Fifteen minutes later, Riley left a voicemail for Lorcan. He crouched down next to Noah. “He might be using his phone to do some of his spy work. If that’s the case, he won’t even check his messages. Noah, what did you see exactly?”
“We have to find him. I know where he is. He’s heading toward Fossey Way.”
“Noah, do you even know where Fossey Way is?”
Noah shook his head. “I heard his voice in my head. He’s going to Fossey Way.” A tear rolled down Noah’s face. Riley wiped it off.
“All right, son, we’re heading toward Fossey Way.”
Back in Mortlake, Orla sat in the car, staring at the dashboard. She could drive away and let Lorcan call a cab to get back to London. But just then, Lorcan banged on the car’s window.
“Orla, we need to warn Madeline not to go to Fossey way.”
“We can call her.”
“Sure. But I need you to stay with me for a bit.”
Lorcan pulled out his phone, “Oh no, you’ve got to be kidding me.” The screen of his phone was blank.
“This is a sign. We have to go back to London, right now. You’re getting out of this jo
b!”
“Sign of what? Crappy technology? We can’t let her go to her death, Orla. You heard what that woman said.”
“I heard her. I’ll warn Madeline myself. You’re not going with me.”
“The hell I’m not! Until you can give me a proper explanation, I won’t let you do this job alone.”
“Don’t even hope, Lorcan. She doesn’t have the guts to tell you,” Mya’s voice came from behind them, sending Lorcan and Orla jumping out of their skins.
“You again?” Lorcan exclaimed.
“Go away,” Orla growled.
“Why? Afraid I’m going to tell your lover what a liar you are?”
Orla jumped out of the car and leapt at Mya, teeth bared and prepared to fight. Mya was as quick as a cat. She sidestepped out of Orla’s path. Orla dropped to the ground, rolling, and stood up. The two women circled each other, each eyeing the other.
“Hey, ladies!” Lorcan shouted, but neither woman paid him any attention. He darted toward Orla, grabbing her from behind.
“Let me go, Lorcan!” Orla shrieked.
“I have to hold off one of you. Would you prefer I held onto her?”
“I told you if you keep doing this, you’re going to get him killed, Orla,” Mya said.
“I don’t believe you!” Orla screamed.
“Then use your own senses. You have talent. Use it and figure out how you’re killing him.”
“Don’t talk like I’m not here. We have a woman driving to her death right now, and you two are ranting about nonsense. If there’s some inexplicable reason that we can’t save Madeline or go after her, can we at least call the police?” Lorcan exclaimed.
“No.” Orla and Mya chorused.
Orla and Mya started at each other. Lorcan swung his gaze back and forth between the two.