by Apryl Baker
My hand shakes slightly when I reach for the light. I hate the cold. Always have, ever since I got lost when I was little. But if I have to face that fear to get this thing…person…out of my room, then I will.
Two more steps turns into five and then ten. Before I can blink, I’m standing in front of it. It’s almost as scary as the snow because if I touch this and something happens, then all of this is real. It won’t be a dream or a nightmare. It’ll be real.
And I don’t know if I’m ready to admit that just yet.
But Mom and Cecily will be back soon.
I have to do this, even if it means everything will change.
Taking a deep breath, I reach out and let my fingertips brush it.
In an instant, everything really does change.
It pulses beneath my touch, a living, breathing force.
That’s as much a part of me as the flesh on my bones and the blood that runs through my veins. This is mine. I can feel it—taste it, almost—and it’s awe inspiring. There’s nothing scary about this light. Even though it’s ice cold, it’s as warm as the rays of the sun that day on the beach, my favorite day. It’s sleepy and hazy, and it loves me. That’s how I can best describe the sensation and the feelings that take over every atom of my physical being.
“That’s it,” Selena whispers. “Don’t try to fight it. Just let it find you and settle into your soul.”
Why would I fight this? It’s joy, a feeling I rarely get outside of seeing my baby sister laugh. I spent my entire life feeling a little left out because I wasn’t the life of the party Cecily is, but hearing her laugh gives me more joy than I can ever explain. That’s what this feels like—my sister’s laugh.
And just like that, I’m not afraid of the cold or the snow anymore. I’m not afraid of being lost in this particular place.
Without further hesitation, I latch on to the light and draw it around me, letting it blanket me, sink into me, and settle into my soul as Selena instructed. It snaps into place, a missing puzzle piece I wasn’t aware of before, but now that I know, I’ll always look for it.
“Very good, Ella.” Selena sounds pleased, so I have to figure I did this right.
“Now what?”
“Now, open your eyes and speak to the ghost. Just like you and I are speaking, you can talk to him in your mind, and he’ll still hear you. He needs to understand he’s dead and that he has to move on to the other side.”
“What is the other side?”
“The next place souls go. That’s the simplest answer I can give you and the only one you really need to understand.”
“So just speak to him?”
“Yes.”
I turn my attention back to the ghost at the foot of my bed. He’s staring at me like I’m the second coming or something. Why isn’t he looking at Selena like that since she’s the actual reaper?
I guess it doesn’t matter.
“Hello…Larry.”
He cocks his head. “You can see me?”
“Yes, I see you and I hear you.”
“No one else can see me, and I have to talk to my wife. She needs to stay home. The roads aren’t safe. I can’t pick up a phone and no one will talk to me!”
The poor guy. “Larry, I’ll make sure your wife knows not to come out on the roads. Okay?”
“You’ll tell her it’s not safe? She’s pregnant. I don’t want her getting stuck out there or maybe even having an accident.”
“Of course I will, but you don’t belong here anymore.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You died, Larry.”
“That’s a lie!”
“Why do you think you can’t pick up a phone or get anyone to hear you?”
“I…you hear me.”
“That’s because I can hear ghosts. I’m a reaper.” It sounds so alien to me that I hope he doesn’t pick up on my hesitation.
“I’m really dead?”
And that’s when Selena appears. “Yes, Larry, you’re really dead. You came into Ella’s room because you could sense she’d be able to hear you. Your wife and son are fine. It’s time for us to leave now. Your mother’s waiting for you.”
“Mama? She died when I was a little boy.”
“I know, and she’s been waiting on you.” Selene reaches out her hand, and Larry takes it. Selene gives him the most beautiful smile. “Let’s go find your mama, Larry.”
Selene gives me a brilliant smile and the two of them fade away, like the sun fading away to the cover of night.
I glance at Eli, my eyes wide.
Did that really just happen?
CHAPTER EIGHT
Eli
I don’t trust reapers. Not as far as I can throw them. Especially since they sent one who looks closer to Ella’s age. I don’t know too much about Mattie’s teacher, but I do know he’s the same one that came for my brother when it was his time to go. Mattie hid Dan from the reaper until Dan was able to get better, but he never trusted Kane. Which means I didn’t either.
And I don’t trust Selena.
Instead of saying all that right now when someone might be listening, I start to safeguard the room against more ghosts getting into here.
Salt is the weapon of choice at the moment. I’ve already warned the nurses and the doctors what I’d planned to do. Truthfully, I should have done it the moment they brought her to the room, but I needed to know just how soon her abilities were going to start drawing ghosts to her. It would have been better if we’d had some time to prepare her, but I guess the ghosts didn’t agree.
They’re selfish like that.
I almost feel bad for thinking it, but the only ghosts I’ve ever dealt with are the kind that will tear you to shreds and laugh while they do it. A lot of people, even supernatural creatures, don’t think ghosts are dangerous because they’re just spirit energy, but that’s the most dangerous kind of animal there is. They feed from energy, sucking it up until they can manifest physical attributes, like picking something up and hurling it at you or even using their own energy to cut you into teeny tiny pieces.
Ghosts are brutal.
“What are you doing?”
I glance up to see Cecily and her mom coming back into the room. They stepped right through the salt line.
Dammit.
“You see anything, Ella?”
She looks around and shakes her head.
“Let me know if one comes in the room.” I wait for the ladies to come in and lean down, pouring salt back across the threshold. I need to find a better way to put this down long term. Ella’s not going home any time soon, and I need to make sure she’s safe when I’m not here. Keeping the ghosts out of the picture is the best way.
“Why are you pouring salt on the floor?” Cecily stares at me like I’m cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, as my sister used to say.
“Salt keeps ghosts away. As long as the salt line isn’t disturbed, they’ll stay out of the room.”
“Salt?” Cecily laughs, but when no one else does, she looks around at all of us. “I mean, hasn’t this gone on long enough? There are no such things as ghosts.”
“There is.” Ella’s voice is so soft we almost miss it.
Cecily gapes at her sister. “El…”
Ella shakes her head. “No. I saw one earlier. It…” She starts coughing, and her mom immediately tries to soothe her.
“The doctors told you to give your voice a few days, honey. Don’t keep trying to talk when it’s only causing you pain.”
“Your mother’s not wrong.” I keep my back turned to keep them from seeing the irritation on my face. Cecily is starting to seriously piss me off. Ella is having enough of an issue coming to terms with seeing ghosts. She doesn’t need others making her feel crazier than she’s already feeling.
And the thought of anyone upsetting her pisses me off.
Which has nothing to do with me being her Guardian Angel. It’s more about Ella. She’s such a genuinely nice person. Having listened to her paren
ts tell me about her and then feeling her concern for her family walking back into a possibly dangerous situation, I don’t know, I guess I respect that. Makes me want to protect her even more. Even from the people who truly love her.
“Did I hear…” Major Banks stops mid-step when he sees the salt line. He actually walks over it so that it’s not disturbed.
“I’ve got the windows and the doors salted, including the bathroom door. You need to make sure the salt line stays intact until I get back. I need to go out for a while.”
“You’re coming back, though?” Major Banks asks.
“He’s been here for a week, Henry. I’m sure he needs to go home. His grandfather…”
“Understands,” I finish for her. “I need to go clean up, get some clothes, and make a few calls, then I’ll be back. Your house I can secure, but a hospital is a little big for that.”
“It’s also a hotspot.”
“That’s like saying Chick-Fil-A isn’t its own form of crack.”
“Dad, this is crazy.”
“Crazy or not, it’s your sister’s new reality and one we have to support just like she supports your crazy schemes you think I don’t know about.”
Cecily’s face flames, and it makes me curious as to exactly what those schemes are.
“I’ll need to swing by your house and make it impenetrable to ghosts so she’ll have a safe place to go when she gets out.”
Major Banks nods. I know he’s not thrilled with having a kid who’s a supernatural creature, but he loves his daughter, and he’ll protect her. That much I’m sure of.
“I’m going to head out now. Not sure what time I’ll be back, though.” I go over to Ella, whose blue eyes are wide. She’s not too sure about this whole Guardian Angel thing, and I know I irritate her, but she’s afraid. I can feel it. “If you’re in trouble, I’ll know.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.” I ruffle her hair like she’s a little kid. “The ghosts shouldn’t get in here as long as the salt lines stay. I’ll be back soon.”
I nod to the rest of them and then get out, bone tired. Sleeping in a chair for a week is not recommended. It bites. I call in an order to the Coffee Shoppe before getting in my Jeep. I’m exhausted, but I have to buck up, as my dad would say. Ella is a brand-new reaper who needs as much help as she can get, especially since I don’t trust the people who are supposed to be helping her.
I order a pizza and swing by Grimm’s to pick it up on the way to my pseudo-grandfather’s house. He’s a Nephilim, and I guess the Angels thought I’d be better off in his care than out on my own. He’s not like me, though. His Angelic blood comes from an Angel breeding with a human. Mine comes from blood my ancestors ingested so we could see all the evil things in the world. Big difference. I think I’d have been fine on my own, but I guess for appearances this is better to outsiders.
The pizza’s ready when I arrive, and it doesn’t take me long to get home. Marco McGreggor is sitting in the kitchen cleaning his guns. He’s a big gun enthusiast. To be fair, he doesn’t really need them. He can smite his foes. Not a lot of Nephilim have that ability, but Marco seems to have inherited more of his Angelic gifts than almost any other Nephilim alive.
“Hey.” I drop the pizza on the counter and head for the fridge, grabbing a can of Coke and a beer for Marco. I never liked the taste of beer. He keeps telling me it’s a taste I’ll grow into, but I doubt it. I know what I like and what I don’t. Even my brother Caleb can’t stand the stuff.
“How’s the girl?” Marco looks just like what a grandfather should look like, about sixty-five with a short beard that’s faded to white, and his military short hair gives him an almost harsh appearance. When he smiles, though…it lights up a room. He’s not harsh either. He’s kind and will give someone the shirt off his back.
“She woke up.”
“I knew that, or you wouldn’t be here stuffing your face with pizza. I asked how she was.”
“Confused, scared, you name it, she probably felt it when she woke up. She had her first run-in with a ghost earlier.”
“Damn. I hoped maybe they’d give her a little time.”
“A reaper came to help her.”
“Don’t trust them.”
“I don’t. I know what they’ve done to Mattie.”
“That’s your other charge, isn’t it? The one you went into an almost permanent state of coma for a week to protect?”
I nod. “She doesn’t need me much anymore. She’s capable of taking care of herself, and her boyfriend is just as deadly as I am. He can keep her safe.”
“Not always.”
No, not always. Dan’s link to her is a disadvantage sometimes, but for the most part, he can do everything I can.
“Did the girl freak out?”
“Not as much as I thought she would. I think she bucked up and accepted it to try to keep her family safe. The reaper was going on and on about how dangerous the ghosts could be.”
“They can be.”
“This one wasn’t, though, or I’d have seen it.”
Marco shrugs and grabs a slice of pizza before I can inhale it all. “I’ve been hearing rumblings about an entity that’s out of whack. It sounds like your other charge.”
“I had to make her become something that she hated to survive. It’s taking her longer to come back from it than I’d anticipated. I thought for sure once she came home and was around her family, it would be easy for her to revert back.”
“The darkness that lives in that girl is dangerous, Eli. When you made her embrace it, it’s not something a few hugs and an ‘I love you’ can remedy. If she goes off the rails and the powers that be feel the need to do something, then that’s on you.”
“No one’s touching her.” The vehemence in my voice is unmistakable. I love Mattie Hathaway with every fiber of my being, and anyone who tries to hurt her will have to go through me.
“No one’s talking about hurting her yet. There’s concern. That’s all I’m saying, and I thought you might want to know about it.”
“Thanks.”
Marco nods. “School called. They want to know when to expect you back.”
“Until she gets out of the hospital, I can’t go back.”
“Too hard to protect her there, even with the humans in the know.”
“Her sister and mom decimated the salt barrier at the door earlier. Her dad’s there now, though. He understands how important it is to keep it intact.”
Marco snorts. “Why they sold so much land to the government, I’ll never know.”
“It was fifty years ago, wasn’t it? Before this place became a supernatural hotbed?”
“No, it was right after the Civil War. Fifty years ago, we’d have laughed in their faces. Now we have to live with having the Army try to get at us.”
“Now that Ella’s a reaper, the major might not be so inclined…” I cut myself off when he starts shaking his head. “What?”
“If the major doesn’t do as he’s told, they’ll just reassign him somewhere else, and we’ll get a new person in here who will do the job. It’s the way things work, son.”
“Muriel suggested he try to work with the supernaturals in town instead of kidnapping them for nefarious experiments.”
Another snort rips from Marco. “Even if they agree, it don’t mean a thing. They’ll work with us while a secret faction just goes about doing the mission they were assigned. Nothing’s as easy as doing what’s right, boy. Best you remember that.”
He doesn’t need to tell me that. I’ve lived it. Nothing right is ever easy, and it costs you more than you could possibly imagine in the end.
“I’m gonna grab a shower, some clean clothes, and head back over to the hospital. I’ll call and talk to Mr. Hershey tomorrow.” The principal of the school should know I can’t leave Ella alone right now. She’s too vulnerable.
“Have a good one, kid. I’m going to finish this and head to bed.”
I wish I could take a nap, b
ut I can feel how anxious Ella is. It’s eating away at me. I need to hurry and get back.
Dead on my feet or not, she needs me.
CHAPTER NINE
Ella
Eli’s been gone for about an hour now. It shouldn’t bother me. Heck, I don’t even know him that well, but it feels like I do. When he’s here, the panic recedes, and I can breathe.
Mom and Dad keep trying to reassure me everything will be fine. Cecily wants to act like nothing’s wrong outside of a horrible hit and run accident. Thing is, nothing is ever going to be okay again, and acting like it will is just making this whole mess worse.
What I really want is for all of them to go home and let me have some time to think. I doubt that’s going to happen, though. My injuries were apparently severe enough they didn’t know if I’d wake up before yesterday when the swelling in my brain finally started to go down. The doctor is still shocked. He said most people don’t wake up from that kind of trauma.
And I think it has nothing to do with this whole reaper thing. I mean, why would I need a Guardian Angel if I couldn’t die? Somehow, I don’t think I should have woken up, but that doesn’t make sense either.
I mean, I’m not the popular one or the life of the party. I’m the nerdy girl who likes her books and has to deal with crap food because I’m diabetic. Add in diabetes to all the injuries my body was fighting, and it should have tipped the scales to me dying.
There’s something, something I can’t quite remember, but I know it’s important. I think maybe it’s why I’m alive right now, but I don’t know. Not remembering things sucks balls, as Daddy would say.
Cecily comes back from the bathroom and plops down in the chair. Dad had to take a call, and Mom went in search of coffee, leaving us alone for the first time since Eli left.
“So, how you feeling?” she asks, concerned. “You look ready to puke your guts out.”
“It was the broth,” I wheeze. “Nasty.”
Her nose crinkles in disgust. The smell was worse than the taste. “I’ll sneak you in some real food after class tomorrow.”
As good as that sounds, I’m not sure I’d be able to eat it. I’ve been nauseated since I woke up.