by Alexie Aaron
“That’s basically it.”
“I don’t know what to say, Bertram.”
“For a start, you can stop calling me Bertram. My name is Burt. I don’t know what this event you told Mia about was, but you’ve got to fix it. Thank you. You were kind enough to not throw me off the building when I asked you a rude question.”
“Burt, you don’t have to be afraid of me. I am a reasonable, honorable man.”
“That’s the problem, isn’t it? You’d rather not be these things.”
“Yes. Now if you will excuse me, I need to meditate on all you’ve told me.”
Burt left him sitting on the wall. He walked through the penthouse, remembering to pick up his shoes on the way out. He locked the door and shut it behind him.
~
Mike opened the door to Burt, puzzled by the urgency of his visit.
“How did your day go yesterday?” Burt asked, walking past Mike into the kitchen. He opened up the refrigerator and took out a beer.
“Help yourself,” Mike said after the fact. “Oh, you must have seen that BBB contest. I hear it’s streaming everywhere. We are going to so take advantage of this. People will watch us just to ogle our girl. The advertising numbers are going to skyrocket.”
Burt stood there and shook his head. “It’s going to all fall apart.”
“How can you say that? What’s wrong?”
“You don’t know, do you? Mia didn’t go home last night.”
“She and Brian spent the night at Ralph’s. Angelo and Orion were invited to dinner. I thought I’d better hang around until they left. When I left, Mia was quiet, but I assumed she was tired.”
“Why would Angelo be there at Ralph’s?”
“Ralph is using his penthouse for the wedding…”
“Oh man, Ralph’s trying to save his venue. He sniffed out the tension between Mia and Angelo,” Burt reasoned.
“Angelo apologized gallantly, and Mia accepted the apology, but I don’t think she meant it. She’s pissed.”
“Can you tell me why she’s upset?”
“Angelo told her something she would have liked to have been kept in the dark about. I can’t tell you, Burt. I promised Mia not to.”
“I understand. This must be big because I just came from Angelo, and he’s upset about his role in spilling the beans.”
“I would be ashamed if I were him,” Mike said. “Why were you at Angelo’s?”
Burt told him all about his morning, including throwing Ted through the window.
“Beth Bouvier strikes again. That vindictive bitch is not going to stop until she has destroyed any chance of Mia and Ted being together. If she can’t have him…”
“No one can. How did we miss this? She seemed like such an affable young woman. Do you think she’s infected like I was?” Burt asked.
“No, I’ve met girls like her before. They pretend to be your friend until you get in the way of something they want. Beth’s not infected; she’s a psychopath.”
“Ted’s got a lot to answer for in this situation. He could have set her right a number of times, but he chose to stick his head in the sand. In Beth’s eyes, Mia’s engineered all of her problems,” Burt explained. “I used to get emails with information that Mia was seeking to take over PEEPs, that Mia was fucking around with Tom Braverman, oh, and that Mia was mentally deficient.”
“What the fuck?”
“Even in my flitch-controlled brain, I could see the lies, but it did change how I regarded Mia. It wasn’t until I talked to Beth on the phone and saw the hurt in Mia’s eyes when she found out about it that I knew I needed help. Mia could have left me in that state, but she risked her life to save me. How could I ever think otherwise of her? Like Angelo, I feel ashamed.”
“Burt, before you flog yourself, Mia would be the first to point out that she brings on a lot of her own problems too. She acts out when the stress gets too much. She’s no angel.”
“But the angels want her on their team,” Burt argued.
“And that’s the straw that broke Mia. That’s why she came here. She was drunk - thanks to Father Alessandro - and was looking for an easy way out. I didn’t allow it to happen. I set her straight, and instead of spending what would have been a wonderful afternoon fucking our brains out, we went to the beach. It took every ounce of my hidden reserves to stay a gentleman to save her marriage, and this happened anyway.”
“Sometimes fate won’t be denied,” Burt said.
“What do we do?”
“We do nothing. I will go and sort it out with Mia. She’s at her parents’ apartment by the college.”
“Burt, before you go, what is your motivation?”
“To help my friends and to save PEEPs.”
“You don’t want Mia?”
“Oh, Mike, I don’t know. I’ve got this chance with Jane, and we really click. I don’t want to screw it up with Mia. Mia is too much for me. Why?”
“I’m in the same boat. But for the record, if fate tosses Mia into my bed again. I’m not going to complain.”
“And that’s why you’re going to let me fix this,” Burt said, tapping Mike on the chest. “Mia and Ted are the people that make PEEPs work. If I can’t get them back together, I’m going to see if they can at least work together. If not, then I fear we may have to get honest jobs.”
“I hear you, and I will obey,” Mike said, letting Burt out of his condo. He closed the door and leaned against it. “Ma better not find out I passed up on getting her the daughter-in-law of her dreams.”
Chapter Nineteen
“And when Bernard brought out the trophy, you should have seen her face,” Orion gossiped.
“Poor Mia, I’m sure she’d rather have kept all that quiet,” Audrey said. “If I were her, I would revel in the attention she gets. But that’s not her style.”
“Evidently not. I do wish that she would have accepted the Brotherhood’s offer. She would have had the support of all of us, and she wouldn’t be facing all this unwanted publicity. Angelo wouldn’t have gone off the rails. They almost took his feathers away.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“If he wasn’t such a strong warrior and favorite of the sages, he would have been asked to leave the Brotherhood.”
“Don’t let Mia know this,” Audrey counseled. “She would blame herself for his disgrace.”
“I wouldn’t dream of adding to her burdens. Now, let’s see if we can find those prison records. I sense we have a few surprises headed our way.”
“I’m so glad you came. No one seems to understand the pleasure you can get from research like you do,” Audrey said.
Orion looked at the redhead and smiled. “Sometimes though, too much information can be a cause of pain.”
Audrey picked up the large tome she was reading and nodded. “The weight of it alone could collapse the strongest of bridges.”
“Well said, well said.”
~
Cid had been silent, saying little while he assembled the portable crib. Mia was surprised that he offered to bring her the equipment in the first place. In the land of Cid, there was only one god, and it was Ted. Mia realized this and was touched that he would cross the line to help her out. When he had finished, he was covered in sweat. The apartment only had the small window air-conditioner, and it barely kept the temperature at eighty.
“I would open the windows, but I’m not sure what’s roaming out there. I don’t want Brian ooohing instead of napping.”
She offered him an iced coffee and he accepted. He took off his sweaty tee, and Mia handed him one of her father’s shirts. “I think he got this in Egypt. I miss him,” she sighed. “But summer is free intern time so the digs are humming with activity.”
“I was surprised to see Dave. I thought he was working with your dad and Amanda.”
“I didn’t know he wasn’t. I bet there’s a story there,” she said.
“Mia, why are you here? Why aren’t you coming home?” Cid asked f
inally.
“I want to give Ted some room. I’ve got to tell him something horrible, and I want to make sure he is receptive when I start talking.”
“You and Dupree didn’t…”
“Oh no, Mike wouldn’t take advantage. He gave me a stern talking to, and then we went to the beach to cool off.”
“I thought so. What were the odds that… Well, that’s water under the bridge.”
“Cid, why hasn’t Ted called me? I left him eight voice messages. I’d leave more, but his mailbox is full.”
“I really can’t tell you without…”
“Oh, it’s the Beth texts,” Mia said sagely.
“How long have you’ve known?”
“I found out a few months ago. Jake prints off the emails after he reads them. I grabbed Ted’s pile to take in the house. The email address of one was familiar.”
“Did you read any of them?”
“It was only one, and I didn’t get further than some geek-speak. I figured out that he was helping her with a coding problem. I forgot about it, and then the texts started happening at all hours, interrupting private times. I know what she’s doing; she’s trying to break us up.”
“Why didn’t you say something to him sooner?”
“Oh, Cid, I have faith in Ted. I figured that he’d come clean when he sorted it all out for himself.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“I take it you’ve read more emails than I have,” Mia said evenly. “How far has it gone?”
“I don’t really know. Jake is upset with Ted though. He won’t help him anymore.”
Mia’s face fell. “I thought all of this was because he was insecure about the attention I was getting recently. I don’t blame him, not really. I mean, I blundered in and got myself engaged to a demon. I met an angel. Did he tell you that?”
“Some big warrior dude.”
“Yes. I thought all that was because of the Gris Gris bag, but Father Alessandro said otherwise. He said I was called by the angels to fight on their team. I was drunk when I heard this news, and frankly, it scared the shit out of me. You have to see that em effer. He’s ten feet tall. I don’t want to have anything to do with whatever would be bold enough to raise a sword against one of them. I just want to be Ted’s wife. Fate isn’t going to let me, is it?” Mia said, starting to cry. “I’m not allowed to have a normal life, am I?”
“Maybe it was Roumain that encouraged Beth,” Cid suggested.
Mia’s face brightened. “When was the last email?” she asked hopefully.
“This morning.”
Her face fell again. “He promised not to interfere in my life. If Beth was being controlled by him, the emails and texts would have stopped after Sariel got involved. Not that Roumain’s not capable of evil, evil things, Cid.” Mia stopped talking and started shaking.
“Mia, tell me. Tell me what has you in this state. I’ll get Beth to back off. We can fix this.”
“I can’t. I have to tell Ted, but he won’t talk to me,” she said. “He may decide, after hearing what I have to tell him, that he doesn’t want me for his wife anymore. That Brian shouldn’t be with me. I could lose everything, Cid. It’s not fair.”
“Who knows about this?” Cid asked.
“Thanks to Angelo reading my mind, him, Roumain and Mike. Mike encouraged me to tell Ted. I just wanted to run away, but he insisted I stay.”
Cid reached out for Mia and brought her in close and looked directly in her eyes. “I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me. How can I be Superman when I can’t get to the bottom of this? Do you think Mike’s going to keep quiet?”
“Yes.”
“Angelo?”
“Yes.”
“Shit.”
“The only one that runs off at the mouth is Ted,” Mia said, her mouth curving into a smile. “God, I miss his eavesdropping, gossipy ways.”
There was a banging on the door. Mia got up, rushing to it, expecting to see Ted standing there. She yanked the door open, and it was Burt. She tried not to show her disappointment. “Burt, come in and join the party. Can I make you an iced coffee?”
Burt saw the hurt in her eyes and the trail of tears not yet wiped away. “I followed the breadcrumbs and thought you might need some help.”
Cid, breadcrumb number one, stood up to go.
“Stay,” Mia pleaded. “This isn’t what it looks like.”
Burt put his hand through his hair and looked over at Cid. “I’m on a peace mission not a booty call. Are you wearing Charles’s shirt?”
Mia walked into the kitchen and made Burt an iced coffee, hoping that the two would figure things out before she came back. She was exhausted.
~
Ted found himself back in bed. His head hurt worse than before. He put his hand to his forehead and was surprised by the heat of a raised contusion. “What?” He got up and walked into the bathroom. With each step he remembered what had happened. Who knew Burt was that strong? He looked at his bruised face and picked a few pebbled glass pieces out of his hair. How had he gotten to bed? Did Burt do this or had Cid come home?
He washed the dried blood off his face and pulled on a clean shirt. He downed a few painkillers before venturing down the stairs. In the kitchen, he found Stephen Murphy.
“Sit,” the axeman ordered. “There.” He pointed to a chair at the kitchen table where a large amount of papers were stacked.
Ted didn’t have to look at the paper; he knew what it was. “Are you going to kill me?”
“I should.”
“It’s not what it… No. It is exactly what it looks like,” Ted said, putting his head in his hands.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. It’s nice to be needed…”
“Mia needs you.”
“No she doesn’t, not really. She’s got the whole universe panting after her,” Ted spat. “You want to possess her. Don’t pretend you don’t.”
“She doesn’t want me. She wants you.”
“Why?”
Murphy jammed his axe into the outlet and took on a lot of energy before he put his hands on either side of Ted’s face.
Visions of every moment that Murphy had to endure of Mia flirting, laughing and kissing Ted flooded his senses. Him climbing out of the well holding Mia. Mia laughing as he flirted with her via the earcoms while she investigated. Him standing up to Burt when Burt wanted Mia to do something dangerous. Her worries when Ted was trapped inside the school with the others. Her fear of the Dark World when they entered it. Her relief when he was free of it. The antics of the hospital and, finally, the birth of Brian.
“And you do this!” Murphy said and raised his axe and chopped not only the stack of papers in two, but the table as well.
Ted stood up. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Call her. Tell her you need to talk. Start over,” Murphy advised. “She has something to tell you too. Something she’s kept hidden from even me.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“Do you love, Mia?”
“Yes, no, I don’t know?” Ted said, backing away.
Murphy was stunned.
“I adore her. I want her. But I’ll never be able to keep her,” Ted confessed. “Love, sure, I guess.”
“How can you love someone and marry them when you have doubts?”
“You did, and look where that got you,” Ted said.
“You are being cruel. You’re not yourself,” Murphy said through even teeth. “That witch has bewitched you with false words.”
“That witch believes in me, adores me and looks up to me,” Ted said.
“So does Mia.”
“She’s wanted me for years. I was dazzled by Mia. I mean, who isn’t? Beth is willing to forgive me and…”
Murphy swung his axe and took out all the cupboards behind him. “I’ll demolish this house before I’ll let you bring that witch into it. You’re not yourself. This isn’t my friend I’m speaking to,” Murphy reasoned.
Murphy disappeared, leaving Ted to pick up the wreckage he had caused.
Murphy moved quickly through the woods. He activated the vortex and stepped in, saying, “Take me to Chicago.”
The lay line pulsed. Murphy boldly put out his axe and siphoned off some of the energy that flowed through the line. By the time he reached the city, he was so infused with power, he glowed. He asked a few questions of the ghosts that wandered the city streets, and soon he found himself in front of a very ornate church. He climbed the steps and pushed in the doors.
Father Santos had just finished receiving Holy Communion from the cardinal and was kneeling in prayer when a rush of icy air reached him.
“Santos, we need to talk,” a voice demanded.
He got up, clutching his cross as he turned around.
“Stephen, is that you?” Father Santos asked.
“Ted is possessed.”
“You’re standing in a church, my church. I could simply wish you away,” Santos warned him.
“Ted needs your help.”
“Why have you come? Why not Mia?”
Murphy didn’t want to waste energy by talking. He instead put his hand on the mind reader’s forehead and sent into the exorcist’s mind all the facts that Murphy had come up with in order to feel that something wasn’t right with Ted.
“There is a missing part. Something Mia hasn’t told you.”
“Angelo knows,” he said. “He told Mia.”
“How do you know this?”
“I listened to her cry in her sleep.”
“Okay, let me talk to Angelo, and you go back and make sure Ted doesn’t do anything to hurt himself. Where are Mia and Brian?”
“I don’t know. Cid knows.”
“I’ve got his number. Do you need help to return, my friend?”
“No, I’ve got this.”
Father Santos took notice of the modern phrase that the ghost must have learned from his corporeal friends.
“I’ll get to the farm as soon as I can,” he promised. “Thank you, Stephen. I’m impressed by your courage.”
