Earthbound Bones

by ReGina Welling

  Apparently, her acid tongue had accompanied her into the afterlife, and being an angel wasn’t proof against it. Discussing her own situation with Lydia wouldn’t get Adriel any closer to finding out who had killed the woman. “Never mind that, did you see who hit you?”

  A series of emotions chased across Lydia’s face until her forehead settled into frown lines, and with a twist of her lips, she said, “I’m afraid I’m not going to be much help. The last thing I remember before waking up dead was leaving my house to go for a walk.”

  “You must have some idea who had the most motive to hurt you.”

  “Half the town would be on that list.”

  This was not news to Adriel, who had yet to run into anyone—other than Lydia’s own husband—who genuinely liked the woman.

  “What happens next?” Lydia braced herself for the answer, “Shouldn’t there have been a light, or a tunnel, or something?”

  “You didn’t see either of those things before? Do you see them now?” Once, she would have been able to see Lydia’s chosen path to the other side; but now, Adriel had to rely on her own perceptions. Lydia looked left, then right. A shiver ran through the earthbound angel when she saw the reflection of the rainbow bridge in the ghost’s eyes. It was like getting a tiny glimpse of home.

  “I see something. It’s calling me. Am I supposed to just go?”

  “Do you trust me to find justice for you?”

  Lydia eyed Adriel speculatively. What she saw must have been enough to satisfy her. “Yes, I believe you won’t rest until you’ve uncovered the truth.”

  “Then go.” How unfair was it that Lydia could go home, while all Adriel could do was stand here and watch her walk away, fading as she went. At the last second, Lydia turned back.

  “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about the way I treated people. There’s no excuse for the way I acted. Try not to think badly of me. I really did mean well in my own misguided way.” When the last tiny shred of her essence left this plane, it was with a flash of light that widened for a fraction of a second, then flared out.

  Zack picked that moment to knock on the frame of Adriel’s open door and poke his head inside. When he got a look at the organized chaos in which she lived, his eyes widened and he gave a low whistle. “That’s a lot of stuff.” It was a vast understatement.

  “Really? I hadn’t noticed.” Adriel’s arch tone triggered a quirked smile. She waved a hand to indicate he should join her. “Can I get you anything?” By now, Adriel had watched several episodes of Big Bang Theory—enough to know social convention required her to offer Zack a beverage.

  “No, thanks. I’m just here to follow up on your statement. I know it’s probably dumb to ask, but is there anything else you remember about finding Lydia? Anything to add to what you’ve told me already?”

  Adriel met his gaze steadily, “No, nothing, but you should know Lydia came by here for a visit. Just now.” Given Zack’s connections to the other side, he picked up on the implications immediately.

  “What is this—Grand Central Spook Station?”

  “Just a quick stopover on her way across the bridge to tell me she didn’t get a look at her attacker.”

  “What about last night. Did you hear or see anything?”

  A slow shake of her head was his answer.

  Zack heaved a sigh. “Looks like I’m going to be out this way a lot over the next few weeks.”

  “Will you bring Kat?”

  “She wants to come. They all do. I told them I thought you needed more time. If you’re ready to see them, all I have to do is say the word and they’ll invade.”

  Was she? Running away hadn’t been her finest hour, and she was sure they would ask questions she couldn’t answer about where she’d been all those months.

  Adriel’s relationship with the group of women and men who had figured highly during her best—and worst—hour had passed beyond the boundaries of charge and guardian to something more intimate. Not quite friendship, because her job required her to remain impartial, and yet, circumstances had forced something more open, more reciprocal. Each and every one of them had gone to extraordinary lengths to banish an Earthwalker from a man who had hurt each one of them with his actions, and then to save one of their own. If nothing else, she at least owed them a conversation. Surely nothing they could say would make her feel worse about what happened than she already did.

  “Yes, please tell them to come.”

  ***

  Three days of hard slog cleared the stack of boxes from the porch and reduced the volume in the living room by well over half. Adriel finally felt like she was making progress when the blare of a car horn sounded outside. True to his prediction, Kat sat in the driver’s seat of a shiny little compact car. Adriel couldn’t have said what make; she preferred older cars to newer ones. To her eye those all looked too much alike. Julie, Gustavia, and Amethyst were crammed in like clowns in a circus car. Gustavia’s brightly colored clothing did nothing to dispel the illusion.

  Chattering lightheartedly, the four women walked toward the cabin, eyes assessing, yet not judging. Adriel felt a weight lift just knowing they were there. Gustavia, wearing one of her more subdued outfits—a three tiered skirt in pink, green and yellow under a neon green tank, and only two strings of beads—bounced onto the porch to rap on the door.

  A flock of butterflies circled Adriel’s stomach. Some advance notice would have been nice. Not that she could have tidied up the place in its current condition.

  “Galmadriel, are you in there?”

  Almost wiping out trying to hurdle a box, Adriel pulled open the door. Hello died on her lips when Gustavia pulled her into a fierce hug before she had the chance to speak. Adriel leaned in, enjoying the sensation, and held on tight. Once Gustavia let her go, the others each took a turn. It had been a mistake to downplay the history they all shared. A bigger one to overlook the value of loving friendships.

  These strong, brave women had put themselves firmly in the path of evil in order to protect a man who, frankly, didn’t deserve their compassion. Julie’s weak-hearted ex-fiancé, Logan Ellis had caused all manner of trouble. First as a con man who tried to bilk Julie out of her property, and then, by becoming the perfect vessel for an ancestor who just happened to be an Earthwalker—a spirit who deliberately refused to cross over for nefarious reasons. It was a choice of dark over light; evil over good. Only the most powerful managed to take over a human vessel the way Billy had with Logan. Moreover, no banished Earthwalker ever left their host alive. Using the unique talents of these four women and their menfolk, Adriel had pulled off the impossible.

  “I…” Words failed her. They might not realize how badly wrong things had gone. Now she would have to expose her every mistake.

  “Zack told us everything. There’s no need to explain it all again.” Kat spoke for the group. “Can you ever forgive us for letting you down?”

  Adriel searched Kat’s face for any sign of the crippling fear her psychic abilities had once produced. Compassionate blue eyes twinkled from under a dark fringe of bangs with no trace of accusation or recrimination. Part of the burden lifted from Adriel’s shoulders.

  “But it’s you who should forgive me. I made a horrible mistake and nearly cost you your life. What happened to me is nothing more than what I deserved.”

  “Well that’s the biggest load of hooey I’ve ever heard.” Amethyst’s statement was one of fact, at least as she saw it. Turning to look at her, Adriel found the petite, lavender-haired woman treating her to the same deeply assessing look.

  “Your aura has totally changed,” she said, her voice deeper than expected from someone who barely topped five feet in height. “It’s fascinating.” She tilted her head, let her eyes go soft and unfocused, then reached out to pluck at strands of color and light only she could see. “Sorry,” she muttered, “I should have asked first. It’s just…I’m seeing something…and there it is.” A flick of the wrist preceded a smoothing motion. “There’s a
block, but it’s one I can’t move. I cleared the way for when you feel ready.”

  “You seem to have settled in with your new level of aura vision.” Amethyst’s power tingled along Adriel’s skin even though the other woman had not laid so much as finger anywhere on her body. For the first time since waking up human, Adriel felt balanced.

  “Remind me to tell you about it sometime.” Dry and low, Amethyst’s voice rasped. “Today, though, we want to hear about you.”

  “Here, let me move some things around so we can all sit down. I’ll tell you what I know, which isn’t really all that much, and then I want to hear about what’s been happening to all of you.”

  “I’ll help.” Gustavia picked up a plastic bin and shook it to try and guess the contents before moving it out of the way.

  Kat gave her an indulgent smile before focusing her attention on Adriel, who rushed to speak.

  “Kat, I’m…” Kat held up a hand before Adriel could finish.

  “Don’t you dare say you’re sorry. You helped Zack save me, it’s everything.” A tear welled at the corner of her eye.

  “How can you say that? I’m the one who put you in danger to begin with.” Twinges of guilt crept back to tweak Adriel’s shoulder muscles into tense ropes. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Amethyst’s fingers twitch with the desire to pluck away the pain.

  Kat’s eyes fired. “No. You. Did. Not.” She emphasized each word. “I went into it—we all,” she gestured to include her friends, “went into it knowing there was danger. You never forced me to do anything I didn’t choose to do.”

  “Besides, you’re looking at it all wrong. We battled the forces of evil. Kat and Amethyst leveled up with their abilities. Jules saved her house, and I got to meet an honest-to-God angel. We kicked Earthwalker butt. We were kind of hoping we could do it again sometime.” Gustavia, as usual, cut right to the heart of the matter with precision.

  Adriel’s mouth dropped open, but nothing came out. She’d been rendered speechless.

  “You can’t…but I…I thought you’d hate me for what happened.”

  Amethyst’s deep voice enhanced the dry dust of her tone, “You underestimated us. Again.”

  Adriel couldn’t think of anything to say.

  Julie, quiet until now, changed the subject. Adriel looked like she needed a few moments to recover her composure. Besides, sheer curiosity forced her to ask, “Cute cabin. What’s with the storage unit decor?”

  It was a whole other story to tell, and by the time Adriel was finished, Gustavia had a manic gleam in her eye. “You have to let us help. I bet if the five of us worked together, we could clear a bunch of this in a day.”

  Half of Adriel wanted to say no, it would be too big an imposition—the other half wanted to leap with joy over the prospect of navigating more freely through the small space.

  In the end, nothing she said would have mattered anyway; Gustavia would not be contained, they had decided to help, and that was all there was to it.

  “It’s like Christmas,” Gustavia popped the top on an appropriately red plastic bin with a green lid.

  Adriel shot her a raised eyebrow and a wry comment, “Twisted Christmas. One man’s trash is—well—this mess actually. Knock yourself out.”

  Amethyst gave Adriel a look somewhere on the spectrum between amused and surprised, “You’ve loosened up since we saw you last.”

  “I’m embracing my inner mortal.” The grin wouldn’t stay off Adriel’s face.

  “You know you could have just stayed at Hayward House. For as long as you needed.” Julie wasn’t smiling. “There was no reason you should end up here.” She waved a hand to indicate the piles of boxes.

  Meeting her eyes tested Adriel’s will. “When I woke up and saw the aftermath, I felt so…” words failed her so she flipped a hand in circles, “And then I realized I was human, and I needed time to adjust to my new status. There’s work I’m meant to do here. Or so I’ve been told.” Estelle, Adriel’s guardian angel, had been Julie’s grandmother in life. Mentioning her name right now felt wrong for some reason, so Adriel didn’t.

  “Ooh, look.” Gustavia pulled out a purple metal box decorated with five floating faces on the side. “It’s an Osmond Brother’s lunch box. From the 1970s.”

  “Osmond brothers? Weren’t they…”

  “A singing family. This is a collector’s item. I bet it’s worth at least fifty dollars.”

  “That thing? With the disembodied heads? Someone would pay money for that?”

  “Yeah, if it has the thermos. Does it have the thermos?” Amethyst arched her back to get a better look.

  Gustavia flipped two metal clasps near the handle and the box lid popped open to reveal a tube-like container. She held it aloft, “Yes it does.”

  “What else is in there?” Amethyst had bin fever now as well. She made Kat budge over so she could sit next to Gustavia, who now wore a dusty old cloche hat. Spoils from the bin.

  “Kat, toss me your keys, I’ll go down to the village and grab some pizza or something. We might as well make a party out of it,” Julie said. “There’s a pizza place, right?” Adriel nodded.

  “You did hear me say I’d found boxes of dirty socks, right?” she said to no one, because that’s who listened.

  Laughter and the smell of pizza soon filled the small space. Kat took the prize for weirdest find of the day—a shoe box full of used coffee filters pressed flat and labeled with images supposedly found in the patterns made by the grounds. No one, not even Gustavia, could make out either Jesus or Elvis in their respective filters.

  They filled four totes with items for Hamlin to take to the shelter, topped off the small dumpster for the third or fourth time—Adriel had lost track—and cleared all but half a dozen of the remaining boxes in less time than it would have taken Adriel to move a single stack by herself.

  Gustavia went home with the cloche hat and, because it was purple, Amethyst took the floating head lunch box. More important than what they took home, though, was what they left behind: phone numbers on the refrigerator and an Adriel with a much lighter heart.

  ***

  “That went well, don’t you think?” Gustavia chirped as Kat reversed out of the drive. “I was afraid she might be all depressed over not being an angel anymore.”

  “About that,” Amethyst said, “I assume she knows, but she’s no human. Or not entirely anyway. Her aura is a mess. I mean, I sorted out what I could, but it’s still the strangest blend I’ve ever seen. There are angel winding around the human, and the block I told you about is just crazy big. I’m not even sure the angel side of her is strong enough to move it alone. What did you think, Kat?”

  “Oh, I agree with you. I sensed both angel and human. But what really had me worried was seeing she’s touched something dark lately as well. Zack was right to send us. There’s trouble coming, and she’s going to need help.”

  The grin slid off Gustavia’s face to be replaced with a look of determination. “Whether she wants it or not, right?”

  “Did you notice she never mentioned Grams or Julius?” As much concern as she had for Adriel, Julie wanted to know the fate of her family members, too. “I’d feel better if she could tell me they made it out okay. I know we agreed before we came if it looked like she needed more time, we would keep things light, but let’s make sure she doesn’t retreat back into whatever shell she stayed in for three months.”

  Gustavia pulled the cloche from her head to twist it in her hands. “The way she talked, it was as though she’d gone straight from Hayward House to Longbrook. No mention of those three months at all. We needed another mystery to solve, it’s been way too quiet lately.”

  Chapter 9

  True to her word, Pam showed up two days a week to help with cleaning and trash removal. After Adriel’s productive day with the gang from Oakville, Pam’s arrival on a rainy Friday morning was the first where there was little left to do.

  “I’ve got some errands to do in Bridgeport
today. You want to come along? You can meet Uncle Craig—see the face behind the mess.” A wistful hope flitted across Pam’s features and the words so lonely popped into Adriel’s head. Curiosity about the man who spent what must have been a considerable part of his life boxing up random items was secondary to spending time with Pam, who seemed to need a friend.

  Gray drizzle fell from a gray sky, leaving Adriel feeling slightly blue. Why not spend a day somewhere besides these four walls?

  “Sure.”

  Had she remembered Pam’s complete abandon behind the wheel of her Jeep, Adriel might have given a smidge more thought to the decision. Good thing there was a handle just above the passenger side door. Adriel clung to it like a leech while Pam, talking a blue streak the entire time, sent the vehicle careening around corners and rocketing along straightaways way too fast for the wet road conditions. It felt like she probably shaved three minutes off the time it would have taken a normal driver to get there—and maybe a few years off Adriel’s life as well.

  They pulled to an abrupt, Jeep-rocking halt mere fractions of an inch from the curb in front of a rambling, single-floored brick building. Amaretti Senior Housing boasted a nearly full residency section and updated facilities to provide long or short-term care. Cheerful flowers provided lovely, if slightly soggy color along the path to the door, and Adriel noted a sizable fenced-in area planted liberally with vegetables.

  As the two women made ready to enter the building, a man who appeared spry for his age bolted through the doors shouting for someone named Brenda. An energetic orderly with an umbrella shot past to collar and then gently coax the elderly man back inside. On his way past, he gave an apologetic glance. “Mr. Mason gets a little anxious sometimes.”

  Pam waved to the woman behind the reception desk on the way through, and led Adriel down a carpeted corridor to the left, where she knocked on the third from the last right-hand door. The sound of someone mumbling could be heard through the wooden panel before Pam turned the knob and Adriel followed her into the room.