We landed and made our way to the motel where we’d been staying. I wanted to be in the same general area where I’d come back to life. The Grove had changed a lot over the years. These days, it was a very friendly LGBT neighborhood with rainbow flags flying everywhere, even inside my hotel room. When we’d arrived, Levi had asked if we were going to be staying in one room or two. Since I’d insisted on two, he was in the room next door.
I lay on the bed and wondered what to do about the ghost dancing around my room. He was really fabulous. Wrapped in a gay pride flag, he grinned at me several times. I loved his pink hair and the way his pants flattered his backside. Generally, I didn’t spend this much time admiring the attire of the dead. Something about this ghost made me smile. As much as my powers wanted me to rid the room of him, I’d always been of the opinion if the ghost didn’t cause issue, maybe it could be left alone.
Malcolm dragged the ghost of our killer around behind him as a constant reminder of … something. I rubbed my eyes.
“I think you must know I’m the kind of person who can send you away. You can sense me. If you don’t want to go wherever I send you, you should move on.”
He stopped and stared at me, floating above the bed. “I don’t want to be here when they come. Send me on.” He waved his hand in the air. “I asked the witch in the store many times. She wouldn’t help me, said she didn’t do that kind of thing and I should find one of you. Here you are. So on with it.”
I sat. “The witch in the store?”
He put his hand on his hip. “The place burned. So will you do what you do or what?”
“Good luck.” I waved my hand sending my energy to him, and he was gone. The ghosts didn’t want to be here when the shadows came. I understood the sentiment. If more of them acted like my hotel buddy, life would be easier. Attacking me for the same result wasn’t nearly as easy.
I rose from the bed and got into my luggage. I always brought sage with me everywhere I went. I didn’t need it so much as I preferred having to have some with me. I wasn’t always in the mood to clear a room. An ounce of prevention …
Grabbing my room key, I shoved it in my pocket, making sure the key was the one I didn’t have my cell phone in. I’d learned the hard way once how easily the key cards demagnetized. I knocked on Levi’s door, and he swung it open, a grin crossing his face.
Levi Yates continued to be the most handsome man I’d ever seen in real life. He glowed when the sun hit him. I sighed before I could stop myself. Once upon a time, in a lifetime which felt like a million years ago but was only about a year and a half ago, he’d belonged entirely to me.
Three ghosts flew around the room, spinning and throwing around negative energy. I put my hands on my hips. This bunch hadn’t sought me out, which meant they preferred to feed off my ex-husband. That, I couldn’t tolerate.
I passed by Levi and made my way into the room. It was identical to mine, only everything was entirely reversed.
“Give me a second. You have three ghosts. I had one. Don’t be freaked. It’s common in hotels.” My powers were still turned on from the one in my room, and I waved Levi’s pests from where he would sleep.
Levi sat on the bed. “Ghosts don’t scare me. Maybe they should, only I can’t see them. I’ve seen the shadow guy, and he was horrific when he tried to kill me. I couldn’t see the demon that took Gray. I saw what he did, though. So ghosts? I’m good.”
While he spoke, I set up my sage kit. I burned some and dropped it into the bowl I’d brought along, letting the smoke reach the four corners of the room. “If Henry were here, we’d not need this stuff. He can block spaces, keep the bad guys out for periods of time. Unless they’re really uber-strong,” I rambled, which had to be better than saying nothing while we both stood there and watched the smoke fill the room. “Henry couldn’t keep a demon out of his house the other night. It was scary, but I yanked it, and—boom-dead.”
“You’re so good at doing things which would turn most people into catatonic messes of fear.”
I shrugged. The sageing looked pretty much done, and I set down the bowl, blowing out what remained of the fire. “We all do what we do. You make arrays. I make demons go away. Want to go see where I came back to life?”
He nodded once. “I do.”
Later, we stood in the parking lot of a place that used to be a cheap motel and was now some kind of music club. I remembered my return quite well. Or at least after I was fully there. The growing of my skin and putting me in a body I didn’t remember at all. I hoped I never regained those remembrances. They were probably painful and creepy.
“My parents’ van was there.” I pointed to the spot. “I stood here, naked. It was raining. No one was around. I saw the van. I knew my parents were here. I wanted them so badly. I could remember … things. Shadows, sort of. Nothing had entirely faded yet, which was weird. It was supposed to have gone. That’s what Michael had told me.” Yet, there was something …
Levi cleared his throat. “I didn’t realize you were naked. They couldn’t grow you clothes to match the new body?”
“I guess not. We always come into the world naked.” It seemed ridiculous, but there it was. “I banged on the van. I shouldn’t have been older. I wasn’t nine anymore. They’d told me I would be nine, that no time would pass. Three years. That was a long time for them to wonder what happened to their baby. Changed them. My mother was never the same after. The strong, sure-of-herself woman became a lot more la-la land. Dad took over controlling things, and I simply forgot.”
Levi shook his head. He rubbed his eyes. “Hard for me to believe how I’ve come to accept this as truth. Somewhere there are beings who brought you back to life, grew you a body. Somewhere they exist. There are shadow people. There are ghosts. Demons. Fuck, I’m not even sure I believe in divine presence, so how is there so much of this crap? I’m sorry. You don’t need my doubt right now. It’s not directed at you. Believe me.”
“I do.” I couldn’t even blame him. Who would believe in any of this if they didn’t have to? “Belief is not easy. We used to ask ourselves, in the other place, what we believed in. Came up with a list.” I believe in the moon, I believe in the sun … “As you said, some things simply are.”
He stepped in the direction of where my parents’ ugly van would have been. “Listen, I’m not complaining, but why did they choose you? Out of all the people who die every day, why you? Malcolm? Victoria? The others?”
“Because we were talents. They needed us to fight the shadows. They needed children whom they could train. We were brave. We took our deaths well. Weird thing to say, I know. We died well. Then they asked us if we wanted a chance.”
I stood in a room, nine years old, shivering in a body which felt wrong because it wasn’t mine, and stared at tall strangers. I didn’t know them. They weren’t warm; they weren’t kind to me. I was dead. They never said sorry. I cried. They didn’t react. I fell to my knees. They didn’t move an inch. Did I want a second chance? They asked me this again and again. Did I want to fight monsters? No, I wanted my mom and dad. I wanted Malcolm. I wanted not to be dead.
I hated these memories.
I said yes. I’m still not sure why.
Those creatures who could grow flesh had given me a second chance. Minutes later, they’d also given me Malcolm. We’d clung to each to each other that night in nine-year-old innocence while we both cried for the horror that had become our existence.
I didn’t want to tell Levi any of this, as though saying those words would be wrong. My lips didn’t want to form the sounds. That time that wasn’t time … it was no one’s business but those who’d lived them.
“I saw the van. I banged on it. Over and over. They weren’t there, of course. They were in the hotel room.” There was something else. “I had something in my hand.” I looked down like it might still be there. “I had to … do something.” I opened and closed my fingers.
Hide it. Michael’s voice giving me instructions. Hide it so
no one will ever find it.
“I couldn’t see my parents until I hid something. The van was unlocked. They never had anything to steal. I grabbed my mom’s clothes out of it, and I ran. Across the street.” I pointed to the store front. “There was a psychic. She was the real deal. I was so tuned in, still fresh and not blocked, I could feel her power across the street. I ran.”
Levi sucked in his breath. “The psychic storefront that burned down?”
I let my gaze travel where he indicated. “Shit.”
After all these years it still existed, and then it burned recently enough that they hadn’t cleared it yet?
Levi grabbed my hand. “Come on. Let’s go get some answers.”
We rushed across the street together and into the parking lot. A small grocery store, an indie bookshop, and a Chinese restaurant surrounded the burned out psychic building.
“I’m going to go into the restaurant and see if they know what happened next door.”
I stopped him from running off by not letting go of his hand when he made to move. “The shadows got her. I gave the woman the object I had and convinced her to hide it, to hold onto it for me. The shadows found it, and they burned the place.”
Levi unlinked our hands. “They can do that?”
“Seems like.”
“All right, I’ll go find out what happened to the owner.”
I let Levi go. I was fairly certain I knew what had happened to the owner. She’d been killed. Her ghost waited for me outside the burned out mess. Her hands on her hips, she was a very impatient dead witch.
I took a deep breath and walked over.
Come on, kid, I don’t do business with children. If your mom or dad wants something, they know where I am.
I could still see her as she’d been that day—young, beautiful, disdainful of the young girl in her mom’s clothes.
“Please. My name is Kendall Madison.” It felt weird to say my name; I hadn’t in such a long time. We all knew each other; no one had to be introduced. I held out the small Phoenix in my hand. “You need to take this, to hide it someplace very dark. They’ll look for it from me. Not from you. Please.”
The woman rolled her eyes. “What do you want me to do with that thing? That’s none of my business. Come on, kid, I don’t do business with children. If your mom or dad wants something, they know where I am.”
“No.” She knew my folks; I wasn’t surprised, and she needed to help me. “Nothing right now is an accident. You need to help me, please. This needs to go in a dark place. Pitch black. You need to hide it until I come back. Please.”
She wanted to say no; I could see it. Short, squat, with dark hair to go with her dark eyes, everything about the energy she gave off told me to leave her alone. Only I couldn’t do that. Already, my mind was forgetting. Soon, I would be as I seemed—an adolescent girl who had no idea what had happened to her. I wouldn’t know the shadows were coming for me. I’d remember someday, and then I’d come for the phoenix Michael had given me to hide. This woman was my last chance, or I’d have to keep it with me, and Michael had been very specific that my holding onto it was the very last choice.
I don’t know what happened except she started blinking rapidly. “You have a lot of power, don’t you, honey?”
“Right this second but not forever.”
She took the phoenix from my hand. “This is a powerful object. I’ve never felt it’s like. Someone wants this, don’t they? Someone bad?”
“The very worst.”
“My name is Julie. I’ll keep your phoenix, Kendall. I don’t want to. There’s something in your gaze, something that tells me you’re not someone I want to say no to. Now get out of here. Before I change my mind.”
Nothing had happened to me before or since that ever went the same. Strangers didn’t do that for strangers. They didn’t hide objects of power. Julie had.
“I waited and waited for you.”
I took a deep breath. “I’m so sorry.”
“I’m glad you’re here now. I didn’t want to wait eternally like this.”
I approached her slowly. She was a ghost now, only she’d been a witch in real life. Power had a way of hanging around even when it should go away. “I wish I could have gotten here when you were still alive. It’s a very long story … I forgot you existed.”
“There’s an irony to that, somehow.” She looked burned and always would until I sent her on. “I never forgot you. Not for one day. It’s like you lived constantly on my shoulder.”
My heart broke. I’d done this to her. Why had I asked her to take the phoenix? Why hadn’t I simply ignored Michael and kept it for myself? “I’m so sorry. Was this the shadows?”
“They rose. I’d never seen anything like it before. I didn’t know they could. It was very quick. I don’t remember burning.”
I shuddered. “That’s something, I guess. They took the phoenix.”
“Kendall.” Levi ran to my side after exiting the restaurant. “She died.”
I took his hand. “Julie, this is my ex-husband, Levi. He’s helping me.”
“What?” Levi looked at what must have been empty air to him. Realization dawned on his face, and the widening of his eyes told me he understood. “Ah, hello.”
Julie laughed. “He can’t see me.”
“No,” I agreed with her. “But he’s a believer. A shadow tried to kill him.”
She regarded him for a second. “He’d have to be to be your man. Although you called him your ex. So who knows? He’s handsome, sweetheart, and bright in his gaze. I’d say get him back.”
“It’s … complicated.”
He looked between me and the general space where Julie floated. “Is she asking about us?”
I ignored him. “I’ll send you on.”
“I don’t need you to. I’m only waiting for you. I’m entirely capable of sending myself on. All humans are. We just forget we know how.” She floated toward me. “They didn’t get the phoenix. They got the fake. Years after you left, I decided to have one made. Maybe that was stupid. Probably why they eventually found me to begin with. Anyway, I didn’t keep the phoenix at the store. They got the really good replica.”
“Oh, Julie.” I wanted to squeal yet kept my voice even. “You’ve saved us. I don’t know what the phoenix does. I know they can’t have it. Where is it?”
“You’re going to need a shovel.”
***
“Did you send her on?” Levi dug in the darkness in the backyard of Julie’s brother. He was deaf and drunk, which made for an easier time hiding in the backyard to take what Julie had once hidden there.
I’d offered to do the digging, but Levi had been insulted by the idea. I wasn’t going to dig when he was there to do it. I squatted to watch him, although the dark and the fact we couldn’t put on a light made it challenging work.
“She didn’t need me to. She did it herself.” What had she meant by that? I’d never really thought of it. What happened to those who didn’t hang around? Did they send themselves on? I rubbed my eyes. I couldn’t do big questions tonight. Or any more than I already did.
He stopped digging. “I hit something.”
“Good.” Levi leaned over the hole he’d dug and pulled out a mid-sized box. A wind moved over the backyard, and I shivered. Were we going to get bad weather?
I grabbed the shovel and started covering the hole. There was no point in leaving too much evidence behind of our visit here. I shivered again. I forced myself to calm. Nerves weren’t going to get me anywhere.
Levi held the box in one hand and pulled out his cell phone in the other. As I finished with the dirt, he spoke. “There’s a flight out first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Sounds good.” My gaze fell on the box in my ex-husband’s hold. “Give that to me.” He’d already done enough to be at risk. I’d do all the heavy lifting from now on.
Chapter Five
I couldn’t sleep. I’d placed the still-wrapped-in-a-towel box next to me on t
he bed. I’d over tip the maid for the dirt on the covers. I didn’t feel anything particularly powerful when I held the box. Still, Julie had died for what was in it, and the shadows wanted the idol. But why?
I’d brought it with me from wherever I’d been with the Others. I’d hidden it, as instructed. They’d never told me what the thing did. I rolled over until I stared at it in the darkness. I’d told her to keep it in complete blackness, as Michael had told me. That meant he and the rest of his kind knew the shadows were going to want it. But why? What did the shadows want? They wanted to come here, to take over. To do so, they were going to need bodies. Did the phoenix have something to do with that?
A light tapping on my door caught my attention, and at the same time, my phone beeped.
It’s me. Levi texted at the same time as he knocked.
I got out of bed and let him in. Without a word, he gently closed the door behind him and climbed into the bed with me. I pulled the box until it was between us, the unopened object holding both of our attentions.
“You didn’t open it.”
“I don’t dare.” I didn’t even want to touch it very much. “When I’m with the others, we’re stronger together. I’ll open it then. This thing was important enough to the beings who remade me that they wanted it hidden. I can’t take that lightly.”
He took off his shoes, kicking them off the bed before he covered himself in the bedding. “If I ever meet them, I’ll thank them.”
“Oh, Levi. I don’t want them anywhere near you. They’re not kind or benevolent. They did this for their own objectives and chose me for a litany of reasons, none of which was my own happiness. When it came to it, they expected nothing short of complete self-sacrifice from all of us. I hope they stay away from you for always.”
He touched the towel wrapped around the box and then dropped his hand. “I couldn’t sleep thinking of you alone in here with it.”
“Thanks for caring.”
He yawned. “Do you remember when we used to do this with Grayson? The first night home from the hospital? We stared at him as though he were some kind of alien let loose in our lives?”
Phoenix Everlasting: A Paranormal Romance Series (The Cascade Book 2) Page 5
