Of Blood and Monsters

by D. G. Swank

  I could have reacted with anger—Abel would likely have ripped him apart limb from limb for threatening me, but I understood his reasoning and took no offense. “I barely know Ellie, but I hope to get to know her. I understand what it’s like to feel alone in the world. I have my grandparents, but we aren’t close. Hudson was my best friend, the one who’d kept me grounded since we were twelve, and now he’s gone. Because of me.” I held his gaze and said emphatically, “I have no intention to harm Ellie—or you or David. My job is to help people—ghosts—continue on their journey. The one time I sent someone to hell…” I took a deep breath. “It hurt my soul. It’s not in my nature to hurt people, Collin, especially people I care about.”

  “Can you say the same for Abel?”

  I wanted to be truthful, but I needed to tread lightly. “I confess, Abel’s sole focus is me, but we’re working on that. He’s finding his humanity.”

  “Forgive me if I don’t feel comfortable betting Ellie’s life on that testimonial.”

  “Look, Collin,” I said. “I understand your concern. When we have our group meeting, if you and the others choose to leave, I understand. I’m not going to try to talk you out of it.”

  He hesitated. Maybe he’d expected me to try to convince him. “What about Okeus? Don’t you need us for that delusional plan?”

  “Yeah, but I refuse to coerce you to stay and help. I’m not delusional enough to think it will be easy.”

  “Do you have any plan at all?”

  I wasn’t about to confess I didn’t have a shred of one. Instead, I gave him a sardonic grin. “I guess you’ll find out in a few minutes when we meet with everyone else.” This chat had likely cost us another hour. “I’m going downstairs now, Collin. Whether you leave limping is entirely up to you.”

  He let out a sharp laugh. “If I had any doubts that you were really Ellie’s cousin, you’ve just convinced me. That look in your eye reminds me of her.” His smile dropped. “But I still need to know about this mark, so if you want to go downstairs, it’s time to start explaining.”

  I moved closer—inches away—and looked up at him with a defiant grin. “David seems to know what Kewasa means. Maybe he can explain it all to you.” Then I used one of the moves Rupert, one of Abel’s trainers, had taught me. I shoved the heel of my hand into his nose—although I didn’t use enough force to do permanent damage—then grabbed two middle fingers on his right hand and pulled backward.

  Collin cried out in pain and surprise, blood flowing out of his nose as he arched back and attempted to free his fingers. “What the fuck!”

  I gave him a deadly gaze. “I warned you.”

  “You said I’d be limping,” he said, lifting his free hand to his nose. He wasn’t fighting me, but I wasn’t about to let go of his fingers until I was ready to make my exit.

  “Where’s the drawing Tommy made?”

  “On the table.” He pulled his hand from his nose and studied the blood on his fingers. “I think you broke my nose.”

  “I didn’t use enough force to break your nose.” I hoped. “And the drawing’s not there.”

  “It was there when I walked over to the windows.”

  “It’s not there now,” I said in frustration. “What did he draw?”

  He studied me for a second. “Do you think he was drawing a premonition?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I’d be better equipped to tell you if I knew what you’d seen.”

  He shot me a smirk. “Tommy doesn’t want you to know. I’d hate to break a promise.”

  “That smart-ass comment might be more effective if you weren’t gushing blood out of your nose,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  Abel’s distant voice carried up the stairs. “Piper!”

  The smile slid off Collin’s face. “Can Abel walk into your world?”

  “As far as I know, I’m the only one who can cross the threshold, but this is all still pretty new. When I crossed into the ghost’s realm, I could hear Abel’s voice. He helped me find my way back.”

  “Well, the demigod sounds pissed,” Collin said, a combative look settling over his face. “Let’s go.”

  I started to nudge past him. “Be sure to touch some part of me as we walk down the stairs.”

  “Like your ass?”

  I glanced over my shoulder, my brows shooting high. “I dare you to try it. Your bloody nose will feel like a hangnail.”

  He chuckled. “Do me a favor—don’t teach Ellie those moves.”

  “No promises.”

  He grabbed my elbow and we descended the stairs. One second the door at the bottom looked closed, then the image blurred and shifted, revealing an open door with Abel standing on the bottom step. When I saw the fury in his eyes, I considered going back to Tommy’s universe to play hide-and-go-seek with the demon outside.

  Chapter Eleven

  Piper

  “I would ask where the hell you’ve been,” he said in a deadly calm voice, “but it’s more than obvious, and I can see you took the curse keeper with you.” He saw Collin’s bloody face then, and his eyes began to glow. Literally. “He dared to touch you?”

  I held up my hands. “Slow down. It’s fine. I’m fine.”

  “I’m not fine.” Holding his hand to his nose, Collin stepped off the bottom step, pushing past Abel.

  Ellie walked out of my parents’ bedroom, her eyes wide with shock, and David stepped out behind her. “What happened?”

  Collin shot her a look, then said, “It was a misunderstanding. I’m going to clean up.”

  He started for the bathroom, but Abel blocked his path. “Did you touch her?”

  “For God’s sake, Abel,” I groaned. “I’m a grown fucking woman perfectly capable of handling myself. Your trainers have done their job. Let it go.”

  Abel refused to budge, instead glowering at Collin, who gave as good as he got.

  “You are not to touch her,” Abel growled, his hands fisted at his sides.

  I stepped between them, putting my hands on Abel’s chest and shoving hard, but he barely budged. “Let it go, Abel. It’s not what you think, and we have much bigger issues than this.”

  “Such as the fact you disappeared for nearly two hours and neglected to tell me you were leaving? Or that you took the curse keeper with you when you knew I wanted to accompany you? Or that we missed our appointment with the seer and she called and said she refuses to meet with us now?”

  My mouth dropped open. “I can’t believe she really meant that. I’ll talk to her. But yes, this might be bigger than all of that.” I paused. “The demons know I can create worlds.”

  His nostrils flared, fear flickering in his eyes. “How do you know this?”

  “Because there’s one outside the window of the attic I created. Tommy said it’s been looking for me.”

  He grabbed my wrist and dragged me to the door. “Show me.”

  I jerked my arm from his grasp. “Let go of me, Abel, or I’ll give you a bloody nose like the one I gave Collin.”

  He growled. “So he did manhandle you.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake…” I sucked in a deep breath and counted to three before I said, “I’m not taking you up there. We need to see Deidre.”

  “Hold up,” Ellie said with an upraised hand. “Slow down and start from the beginning. Where were you two?”

  “In Piper’s attic,” Collin said from inside the bathroom, his voice muffled. “Except it wasn’t like it is now. It was a playroom, and there’s a ghost boy up there.”

  “Why are you hiding a ghost up there?” Ellie asked.

  “She said demons were after the kid,” Collin said from the bathroom doorway, holding a wet washcloth to his face. “They used ghosts to draw her out.”

  Her nose wrinkled with confusion. “But you send ghosts to the afterlife, Piper. Why not just send him too?”

  “He’s not ready to move on. I’m still trying to figure out how to help him.”

  “Is that why you won’t let me up
there?” Abel asked. “You’re afraid I’ll upset him?”

  I shot him a glare. “You’re not exactly known for your sensitivity.”

  He scowled. “Get to the demon part.”

  “Tommy’s world is my attic, but reimagined. When I opened the curtains to one of the windows, there was a demon outside. Tommy says it wants me, but there’s some kind of barrier keeping it out.” I motioned to Collin. “Collin marked the walls around the dormers to add extra protection.”

  “To keep a ghost safe?” David asked in a neutral tone.

  “Yeah,” I said with a hint of attitude. “To keep a scared little boy, who happens to be a ghost, safe.”

  “You’re thinking the boy is an apparition,” Collin said, lowering his washrag, “but he’s like a real kid. I touched him.”

  “When you were touching Piper?” Abel asked, narrowing his eyes at me. “He did touch you.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Focus, Kieran. He saw Tommy without touching me.”

  His eyes widened. “Your powers have grown again.” He pondered that for a moment, then added, “But more importantly, the demons can find the worlds you create.”

  “Maybe the kid told them,” Collin said. “He knows things a mysterious ‘he’ told him.”

  “He?” Abel asked in alarm. “Do you have any idea who it is?”

  “No,” I said, “but something tells me it’s the same ‘he’ who’s been talking to Hudson. I suspect Ahone. Tommy says the bad monster wants me.”

  “But he also claims she belongs to another monster,” Collin said.

  “That monster could be you, Abel.” I turned to him, not surprised to see the outrage on his face. “No offense, but your father is a monster.”

  “No,” Collin said, tossing the washrag into the bathroom sink and walking into the hall. “I’m pretty damn sure Abel was in Tommy’s drawing, and he referred to him as a man, not a monster.”

  “What drawing?” Ellie asked.

  Collin lifted his chin. “Do I smell coffee? I need coffee.”

  He headed down to the kitchen before anyone could stop him.

  “Collin!” Ellie called out.

  A dark look crossed Abel’s face. “What drawing?”

  “I never saw it,” I said with a sigh. “Tommy was eager to show it off to Collin because the voice told him he couldn’t show it to me. Collin asked Tommy about it, but he refused to tell me what he saw.”

  “Which prompted you to give him a bloody nose?” Ellie asked, looking pleased.

  “Not exactly, but it was related.” I studied her in a new light after Collin’s confession. Did she have any idea of the level of devotion he had for her? It wasn’t my place to tell her. “I’m fairly certain you were in drawing. And David. Collin quizzed him about a red-haired woman and the guy with curly black hair who she liked.”

  David self-consciously ran a hand through his wavy dark hair.

  “Why is it such a secret?” Ellie asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said, “but Tommy drew my daggers too. He said he couldn’t get the details of the carvings right.”

  “I’m not coming back up there,” Collin called up from downstairs. “So if you want me to be part of this conversation, you’ll need to come down.”

  Abel’s face reddened—he didn’t like taking orders from anyone—and I had to admit Collin’s cockiness was grating. Still, he wasn’t the only one who needed a caffeine fix.

  Without saying a word I headed downstairs, leaving the others to follow or not. Part of me was grateful for the reprieve. After my encounter with Collin, I was pretty sure I was going to have to come up with a compelling argument to get them to help me kill Okeus, and I didn’t have a clue how to do that.

  Collin was sitting on the sofa, nursing his coffee with a satisfied grin, but I gave him a smug look as my gaze landed on the blood spots on his shirt.

  I headed into the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee. As I took my first sip, the stupid donut box caught my attention.

  Hudson.

  Tears sprang to my eyes again. “I’m sorry I failed you, Huddy.”

  “You have to stop talking like that,” he said, suddenly appearing a few feet away.

  I turned to face him, not surprised he’d shown up, yet feeling incredibly sad at the sight of him. “I miss you.”

  He flashed me a smile. “I’m right here, Pippy. Not the same as before, but I’m here.”

  I set my coffee cup on the counter and hugged him. It was Hudson, but he was different somehow. Of course he was—he was dead—yet Tommy felt more real somehow. More alive. What did it mean? A demon had infused some of its power into Tommy. Was that the difference?

  “Hudson.” I released him and leaned my hip against the counter. Shooting a glance up to the ceiling, I said, “Have you met Tommy yet?”

  He frowned. “Who?”

  “The ghost boy hiding in the world I created in the attic. He knows things he shouldn’t, just like you do, and a mysterious voice talks to him too. I doubt there are two of them.”

  He didn’t look as surprised as I would have thought he’d be. Maybe death, the greatest mystery of all, takes the edge off other surprises. He just nodded. “I should try to talk to him. Maybe he wants a friend.”

  “I think he’d like that,” I said. “Time moves much slower up there, but I have a feeling I’ll be gone for long stretches. I hate to think of him being all alone.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” he said.

  “Thanks, Huddy.”

  He reached over and picked up the bakery box and held it out to me. “I’ve seen you looking at this. You have to take it outside and throw it away.” When I frowned, he said, “Pippy, we can’t change the past. We can only move forward. This stupid box upsets you, and you have much bigger things to worry about.”

  “Like what?” I asked, still refusing to take the box. For some reason it felt so final to throw it away. Like I was accepting his death.

  “Piper,” he said, his tone serious. “Throw it away.”

  I shot him a look of frustration, but I wouldn’t refuse him. He had every right to make demands of me. I lifted an eyebrow. “Can I eat the donut first?”

  He rolled his eyes. “If you want to eat a stale donut, then by all means.”

  I opened the lid and hesitated when I saw a maple bar covered in bacon bits. Hudson’s favorite. “It’s yours.”

  “What was mine is now yours. Everything. But life is too short for stale donuts, so throw it away. You have work to do.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “What do you know about the work I’m supposed to do?”

  “Just take it outside, Piper.”

  He was being weirdly persistent, and although he’d always been a clean freak in life, I doubted this was about trash.

  Shooting him a suspicious gaze, I took the box out the back door toward the detached garage where I stored the trash bin. I’d dumped it into the bin when my left hand began to tingle, alerting me to a presence in the trees behind the garage. I cursed myself for leaving the house without my weapons, but the presence felt neutral. Familiar.

  Tsagasi walked out from behind a tree.

  “Did you have Hudson send me out here?”

  “The ghost?” he asked, sounding bored. “No. I have been waiting for you, but I have had no contact with the ghost in your house. Either of them.”

  That worried me, even if I didn’t care to admit it to Tsagasi. “Are you pissed that I saved Abel?”

  “No. The son of Okeus has proven himself loyal to you. He was necessary, but he’s fulfilled his role. You need to stop your quest.”

  “You’re saying I shouldn’t try to prevent the mark from appearing on my hand?” I asked, my tone hard and unyielding. “You want me to kill him?”

  “Nothing lives forever,” he stated matter-of-factly. “Your friend is proof enough of that. Now that Abel has fulfilled his role, it’s time for him to move on to the next plane.”

  Fear gripped my heart, but then I as
ked myself how this supernatural being knew so much. “Who made you the authority on the future?”

  “I do not know the future, only the present and the past. His role here is complete.” He paused. “Ask the seer if you like. Ask her what she sees in her bones. Abel has fulfilled his role. Yours is only just beginning.”

  I started to freak out. Tsagasi knew so much he had no way of knowing—did that mean he was right? But the little man was clearly biased against Abel, and he himself had admitted he had no knowledge of the future.

  I shook my head. “No. I won’t accept that.”

  “He’s known this was coming for centuries, Kewasa. He accepted his fate until he met you.”

  “Am I supposed to apologize for that?” I asked with a sneer.

  “No,” he said, his eyes full of sympathy. “There is no need for apology. Only acceptance.”

  I shook my head and took a step backward. “Fuck that, Tsagasi. Maybe you’ve convinced Ellie and Collin to follow along with whatever you say, but I don’t have to accept it. I’ll fight it until my dying breath.”

  “I knew she was too stubborn and foolhardy,” said a voice say from the woods beyond the garage.

  This new presence was neutral too, which was why it hadn’t pinged on my radar, but I chastised myself again for not being more alert.

  “Who the fuck are you?” I called out. A rude approach, sure, but he’d shown up without knocking and acted rude to boot. “And why should I care what you think?”

  Another little man appeared out of thin air at Tsagasi’s side. He looked up at me with a glare. “You don’t have to give a fuck about us or what we think, but my brother thinks you’re crucial for our salvation.”

  “The only person I’m interested in saving is Abel,” I said. “And if you can’t help with—”

  “The demons are coming,” Tsagasi said, his voice lowering. “They are advancing tonight. You need to stop wasting time on the son of Okeus and prepare for a battle.”

  “Tonight?” I’d hoped we’d have more time. “I’m not sure Ellie and Collin will join us. Will you?”