The Ravaging in Between (The Reanimation Files Book 3)

by A. J. Locke

  “A month…” I repeated. “So it’s…what month are we even in? What day is it?”

  “October thirteenth,” he replied. “Tuesday.”

  “Oh my God.” Micah’s shock and bolt out of the room made sense now. He’d grown used to sitting at the bedside of a woman in a coma. Waking up to find me also awake must have been astounding. I could hardly believe what I was hearing.

  “Wait, wait, wait, this isn’t adding up.” I was frowning deeply. “How…I mean, if Renton is dead…how am I…” My head felt like it was stuffed with cotton. This was so confusing.

  “We are not sure how you survived,” Dr. Stevens said. “We have consulted with dead witch and necromancer doctors and specialists, and no one can provide an explanation. What it boils down to is that he is dead, but you’re alive, and have now awakened from your coma. That is miraculous.”

  “To say the least.” That was a lot of shocking information to absorb. “And my reanimation power? Is it…”

  But I realized I didn’t need anyone to answer that for me. I could feel that it was gone, a hundred percent. I knew that some of the weakness and disorientation I felt was due to being without my reanimation power, and that even when I recovered from being in a coma, some of that feeling would always remain. My reanimation power had brought me nothing but immense trouble lately, but it had been a part of me, and now I would forever feel bereft because it was gone.

  “You remain a necromancer,” Dr. Stevens said. “But your reanimation power died with Renton.”

  “This makes no sense. None whatsoever.”

  “It’s overwhelming, I understand. I will give you some time to wrap your head around it.”

  “I’d love to do so from the comfort of my own bed. When can I go home?”

  “Not for a while. We need to keep you for observation to ensure that you are not going to relapse, and you will need physical therapy since you have not used your limbs in some time.”

  Looking at my body, I realized that I had lost a bit of weight. Being fed intravenously wasn’t exactly a balanced diet. I sighed and leaned back against my pillows.

  “Great,” I muttered. “Can I at least get some water? And then an entire cow to stuff down my throat?”

  “Here.” It wasn’t the doctor or a nurse, but Micah who was suddenly at my bedside holding a glass of water. I took it and gulped it down, and then he poured me more from the pitcher he held.

  “Thank you,” I said. He nodded, his eyes never leaving my face.

  “You seem stable for the time being so we will give you two some time alone. I will get a rush analysis on the blood we drew, then we can talk some more.”

  I barely saw Dr. Stevens and the nurses leave; I only had eyes for Micah. He sat down on the edge of the bed and tentatively reached for my hand. I moved it forward to encourage him, and he wrapped his fingers around mine. I felt a fine trembling going through his body.

  “You’re so warm,” he whispered, staring at our hands. “You were cold before. You were so cold…”

  “Micah…”

  He looked at me and the pain in his eyes was hard to look at.

  “Hold me. Please.”

  Micah didn’t move. He gripped my hand tighter, almost painfully so, then his expression cracked and he pulled me into his arms. His embrace was crushing, but I didn’t care. I buried my face in his neck and inhaled the scent of him. I missed him as though a century had passed since I had last seen him. I needed his words, his touch, his embrace, more than I needed anything right now. I felt like there was so much to say, but I had no idea where to start.

  Sobs wracked Micah’s body as he clutched me, one hand tangled in my hair. Tears poured from my eyes and I wished my body wasn’t so weak so that I could hold him as tightly as I wanted to. After a good long time, we finally broke apart and I reached up to wipe the tears from his face. I cupped his check with my hand and he leaned into my touch and sighed. His hand reached up to cover mine. Another sigh escaped him.

  “I went over this moment a million times,” he said softly. “What it would be like when you woke up, what I would do, what I would say. And now that the moment is here…”

  “You’re at a loss,” I finished. “Same here.”

  “Your letter,” he said. “I guess that’s a good place to start.”

  “You found it? I thought it would take some time.”

  “I found it the next day. It was in your underwear drawer.”

  “Should I question why you were in my underwear drawer so soon, or should I just be flattered?”

  “I needed your insurance card. You once told me you kept your important documents in that drawer, remember?”

  “Silly me. Guess that wasn’t as good a hiding place as I thought.”

  “You were alive, here, in a coma, but reading that letter made me feel your death all over again.” He shook his head. “It made me feel what I’d felt for those two minutes when you were dead. It made me feel what a lifetime without you would be like. I couldn’t handle that, Selene. It broke my heart all over again.”

  “Micah…”

  “You died.”

  The weight of his gaze was almost too much to look at but I didn’t look away.

  “Two minutes may not seem like very long, but it might as well have been two centuries. I stood there watching the paramedics try to revive you and it felt like my heart had exploded. It was the worst moment of my existence. Even worse than my mother’s death, because at least I had time to prepare for her passing. She was sick and I knew how it would end. Your death was something I never saw coming. Then they brought you back, but you remained unconscious, and for the past month I’ve had to listen to everyone puzzle over the fact that you didn’t die when Renton did. I’ve had to sit here and hold your hand and not know if you would ever open those beautiful eyes and look at me again. And now you’re awake, and still all I can think about are those minutes when you were truly dead, and that letter you wrote thinking it would be all I would have left of you.”

  “But Micah, tell me you understand why I did it. I did not make that decision lightly, and it terrified me, but it was the only option.”

  “Was it?”

  “Yes. It was. If I took my reanimation power back from Renton, I would still have had the Rot. And we’ve been over this; I was not going to let you continue the treatment Renton came up with because it came at the cost of other people’s lives. You have to understand that.”

  Micah blew out a frustrated breath and let go of my hand so he could run his fingers through his hair. He stared off at the room’s wall. “I do understand. But it doesn’t make it easier to live with the fact that you killed yourself. I feel twisted up over everything that has happened. I don’t know what to think or feel about any of it half the time. I find myself getting so angry with you and with myself over the choices we made, and the wedge it drove between us.”

  “I feel the same way. Because I still have not forgiven you for allowing Renton’s treatment. I’m not even sure how to get to a place of forgiveness. But by whatever glitch it was, I’m still here, so we have to figure this out.”

  “Yeah.” Micah lowered his head and his shoulders drooped. He looked defeated. I couldn’t imagine how hard this past month must have been for him. There was so much for him to shoulder. So much that had happened because of his uncle.

  “Tell me what happened,” I said, in a not-so-subtle attempt to steer the subject away from our relationship woes. That wouldn’t get fixed here in my hospital room with me being conscious for the first time in a month. It would take time. I just hoped it would get fixed one way or another.

  “Chaos,” Micah said. “Renton died, Ilyse died, so many people died…”

  “Ilyse. It’s hard for me to grasp that she really isn’t here anymore.”

  “I know,” Micah said softly. “I feel the same way.”

  I fought back my tears. Ilyse’s death would be something I’d be dealing with for a long time, but I didn’t
want to fall apart right now. I swallowed the lump in my throat.

  “Has her ghost already crossed over? Did the fading ceremony happen?”

  “Not yet,” Micah replied. “It’s supposed to take place in early November. You will be able to say good-bye.”

  I nodded, still fighting to hold back my tears. “Ilyse was a powerful dead witch; I’m not surprised her sanctification took this long.”

  Death among dead witches was different from death among humans or necromancers. After a dead witch passed away, their ghost always rose, but it was never because of unfinished business. No one really knew why the unfinished business thing passed over dead witches, but speculation was that since their magic lay exclusively with death, they were more inclined to readily accept passage into the Afterlife rather than have any reason to linger in the living world.

  However, before their ghost could do that, their body needed to be drained of magic and passed on to their ghost since they believed that they could still work magic in the Afterlife. When a necromancer or reanimator died, so did their power, but that was not true for dead witches; their magic remained inside their bodies. It was dangerous for magic to remain inside the corpse though, because someone could come along and use it for their own purposes. Of course, that was never to do good. The transferring ritual could be a slow process, since the length of time it took was dependent on how strong the dead witch was. For some it took days, other weeks. The longest I’d heard was about two and a half months.

  “Does she know about me? I know no one outside the dead witch community is allowed to see her ghost until the fading ceremony…”

  “She knows everything,” Micah said. “Tielle told her.”

  “Tielle?” My eyes widened. “She’s alive? I thought Isabelle’s beastie killed her.”

  I felt a surge of relief over the fact that she had survived, even if she and I weren’t exactly besties. I recalled the last thing she said to me before she dove in front of the ghost monster to distract it. That moment alone could reset our entire relationship. Still, I would never forget that she tried to kill me.

  “She was as close to death as she could have possibly been,” Micah said. “If the paramedics had gotten to her a minute later, she would have bled out. Luckily, they were able to save her. She recovered in this hospital as well, and when she was healed enough to walk she would come and visit you.”

  “Wow. I’m glad to hear she’s alive. Is she back in D.C.?”

  “No. After everything that’s been happening here, going back to Larry and Trevor, the Paranormal Sector wanted to establish a stronger presence to try and keep things under control. They asked Tielle to stay and head the new branch. It’s called the Paranormal Control Center. They’re headquartered in downtown Manhattan.”

  “Up and back to work in a month, that’s an amazing recovery. I guess there’s not much faith that New York City will stay out of trouble with ghosts and madmen.”

  “There’s hope for it, but expectancy for otherwise.”

  “I can understand that. I’ll have to pay Tielle a visit sometime.”

  “She’d like that.”

  “What of Isabelle’s beastie?”

  “When Renton died with your reanimation power, his control over the beastie was broken and rune bullets took care of the rest.”

  “That poor girl. For her ghost to have ended up that way is horrible.”

  “She’s at peace now.”

  “Yeah…I hope so.”

  I don’t know why, but I got an odd feeling at the thought of Isabelle’s ghost monster finding peace in the Afterlife. As though there was something wrong with that hope. Strange.

  “So…” There was another thing I wanted to ask, but I was hesitant.

  “What?”

  “What of your mother, and Renton’s wife and daughter?”

  Micah’s expression looked pained all over again.

  “They were eventually found. Renton had moved them to a safe house in New Jersey. They were…piles of dust. But the clothes underneath those piles helped to identify who had worn them.”

  “Oh, Micah…”

  He shook his head. “I hated Renton all over again when I heard of the discovery. I had made my peace with the death of my family members. It was a scabbed-over wound, still there, but something I could live with. Renton bringing them back wrong and twisted, only for them to suffer and die again in a horrifying way… They did not deserve that. They should have long been at peace on the other side. Now even their ghosts are just…gone.”

  “So you don’t hate me for what I did to him?”

  “He had to die. For all his sins, he had to die. There was no helping him, he was too far gone. I just didn’t think that you would kill him while he held your reanimation power…”

  “Yeah…so did his ghost rise?” I didn’t want to dwell on the whole me-killing-myself thing. We’d have plenty of time to try and hash that out.

  “No, actually. We thought that it would, and were prepared for it, but his ghost never rose.”

  “Really? Of all people, Renton definitely would have had unfinished business. I can’t believe that he…” I frowned as I trailed off, a strange feeling coming over me again.

  “Selene?”

  “Uh, it’s nothing. I just find it hard to believe that his ghost didn’t rise.”

  “Well it didn’t, and we were all fine with that.”

  “OK, so what else happened?” I couldn’t shake the weird feeling but hoped it’d pass. Must be a coma side effect.

  “There was so much damage control to be done. So much death and destruction to account for, so much to explain to the public about the nightmare that had occurred and why. It was terrible. It’s been over a month, but it’s still going on. They’ve questioned me within an inch of my life and made me speak publicly about the whole debacle. It will take some time for this to die down.”

  “What about the stripped reanimators who…who died.” I would never be comfortable with that knowledge. “And the runes with reanimation power that you and Renton stole?”

  “Tielle covered it up,” Micah said. “I don’t know how, but she said she took care of it and there’ve been no questions asked about the missing runes or the dead reanimators.”

  “She must wield some tremendous power,” I said. I felt horrible that those people’s deaths had been swept under the rug though. They did not deserve that.

  “You at least are being portrayed as a hero.”

  “What?” My eyes widened.

  “You attempted to sacrifice your life to save everyone else. That puts you on hero status.”

  “From shunned to hero? Guess I’ll go with it.”

  “You’re all over the media. News outlets have been covering your coma status like it’s the Olympics. They’re having a field day with theories and speculations as to how you’re still alive and why you fell into a coma. Now that you’ve woken up, they will be chomping at the bit to interview you.”

  “That sounds absolutely horrible.”

  Micah gave a wry smile. “You won’t be able to avoid all of it, I’m warning you now.”

  “Maybe I’ll just slip back into a coma…”

  Micah looked stricken.

  “Kidding, sorry. Bad joke to make right now. I just am not much for being a media whore.”

  “Well, you will have to embrace it just a little. In a few days, there’s going to be a memorial for all of the victims who died during Renton’s rampage. A monument with the victim’s names is being erected in Brooklyn Bridge Park. They are definitely going to want you there. As for all the news outlets wanting an interview, I can help you navigate that and pick one reputable media outlet for you to talk to.”

  “Gonna be my manager? Don’t charge me too much; I haven’t worked in some time. Speaking of work, what of Affairs?”

  “Andrew’s brother, Jacob has taken over,” Micah said. “And needless to say, you and I are out of a job.”

  “You mean he wasn�
��t holding spots for the woman who played a big role in his brother’s demise and her boyfriend? I’m shocked.”

  “From what I hear, a lot of people have left and Jacob is trying to hire new people and get the company back on track, but it’s a sinking ship.”

  A pang of sadness went through me. A lot of bullshit had happened at Affairs recently, but it had been my job for the past few years and I had liked it there. It felt hollow to know I could no longer go back.

  “Guess we will both be on the job search. How’s Ethan? I can’t believe I only now remembered to ask about him.”

  Micah’s face looked uncertain and he wouldn’t meet my gaze. I got a bad feeling.

  “Please don’t tell me they circled him away.”

  “No, not exactly,” Micah said vaguely.

  “What happened to him? I specifically asked you to take care of him, and since you found my letter early on, it gave you ample time to do so.”

  Micah sighed. “Ethan has disappeared. There was a lot of confusion after the events on the bridge. He was eventually let out of the holding cell he was in, but after that, no one could say what happened to him. He disappeared and no one has seen or heard from him since.”

  “The hell? Did you look for him?”

  “No, because whenever I wasn’t being badgered by the government or the media, I’ve been here at your side.”

  There was a bite to his tone and I deflated a little. “I’m sorry. It’s not your fault that he’s gone, but now I’m worried. Where the hell could he be?”

  “Maybe when he hears that you’ve woken up he will come back.”

  “I hope so.” I truly hoped Ethan was OK, wherever he was. And if he didn’t show up once it was public knowledge that I was awake, then I was going to go look for him.

  “How’s Luna?”

  “She’s fine. I took her to my place. She has not been as energetic as she used to be. I can tell she misses you. They would not let me bring her here though.”

  I nodded. I was glad Micah had taken care of Luna, but it was a struggle not to be pissed that he hadn’t been able to take care of Ethan as well. I did not want to imagine where Ethan could have ended up by now. My nerdy ghost friend did not have much in the way of survival instincts unless it revolved around a character in one of his video games.