by Wendy Knight
"This isn't TV, Alec! My girlfriend's roommate is a sea monster fighter with an army of ghosts and I'm almost dead!" Bryson screamed. The air around him shook—like I could literally see it shattering away from him in waves. "Navi is the only one who can help me."
Funny. I'd had that same thought yesterday.
My mind wanted to grasp at something else he said in that sentence, but the flashing lights distracted me.
The ambulance roared past my truck and right up the beach, skidding to a stop in the sand not far from where I knelt. The next hour was a blur of red and blue lights and a thousand questions I couldn't answer and racing ambulances. And then wires and doctors and questions they couldn't answer—like why he wouldn't wake up and what had caused the weird injuries that looked like he'd been attacked by giant claws and then I was standing in a hospital room at six a.m., watching my roommate struggling to breathe while his ghost stood next to me, sobbing quietly.
"Please, Alec. Navi is the only one who can help me."
I ran a hand through my hair, noting absently that I needed a haircut. "Okay. I'll go talk to her. Just—just don't die, okay?"
"I'm coming with you."
"If you come with me, how will you not die?" I asked, exasperated. A nurse walked in to hear that last little bit and looked at me sympathetically with big brown eyes through black-rimmed glasses. Her black hair waved away from her face, and her badge said Jasmyn Stamper.
"He'll be okay, honey. We'll figure this out. Probably head trauma is all." She patted me on the arm as she passed by to check his vitals, her hands moving easily through a routine she'd obviously done at least thousand times.
Bryson stopped sobbing to watch her. "She's good. Tell them I don't want any other nurses. Just her."
I sank down in a chair and watched, wondering how, exactly, to do that. "Have you notified his next of kin?" she asked, glancing at me over her shoulder.
"Uh. No. I'll—I'll call his mom. I didn't think—" Holy crap what would I tell his mom?
"No! No, you will not call my mom. She'll have a heart attack." Bryson crossed his arms over his chest and stared me down, which was somewhat not effective when it had the substance of milk. I ignored him until she patted his hand (the physical hand, not the ghost hand) and left, telling me very sweetly to get some rest.
"Bryson," I said, my head in my hands, speaking through my fingers. "I don't even know how to process this."
"Well at least you have someone telling you what's going on. I watched it all while I tried not to die. It was crazy, Alec. She was there alone, and then she wasn't there, and then this thing came out of the water and right at me, and then she was there, but it was too late, and she had these swords and there were all these ghosts… and then I tried to go to her house, but the ghosts won't let me through."
"So you're telling me that Navi fights demons. My tiny, sweet little Navi."
She's not yours anymore.
It was true. She wasn't. If she fought demons and had this whole secret life, maybe she never had been.
"Dude," Bryson said as he hovered right in front of me, face desperate and only half-there, "I need you to go to Navi's house. She'll know what to do." He spoke very slowly, like I might not be completely comprehending his words when he spoke at a normal speed.
He was right.
I called my boss on my way out to my truck because clearly I wasn't going to work today, and then I thought about calling Navi to give her a heads up. But I knew she wouldn't answer if she saw my name on screen and my brain was beyond able to function, so I just drove over to her apartment in a confused haze of disbelief and prayed she'd let me through the door.
I thought—stupidly—that seeing Bryson's ghost standing over his unconscious, barely-breathing body would be the weirdest thing I'd see in probably this whole life time. But as I pulled into her apartment building, I finally realized what Bryson meant when he said her ghosts were keeping him out.
Because her entire apartment building was surrounded by ghosts wielding very large, very dangerous weapons. Swords and axes and knives. I froze in my truck, staring in horror. This was pretty much every nightmare I'd had as a kid come to life.
"What am I supposed to do now?" I asked Bryson, who sat silent in my passenger seat.
"They won't hurt you. You're not a demon. Or a ghost in limbo. Just walk through them."
I glared at him, horrified. "You're kidding, right?"
He shook his head.
"I can't just walk through them—can you see their weapons?" This morning was pretty damn freaky and I'd had about as much as I could handle.
Reese strode briskly out the door, digging through her purse, looking for her keys in the twilight. The sun would be up soon, and I wanted to jump out of the truck and beg it to hurry. But Reese didn't even see them. She walked right through them, and they parted like a river around a rock to let her through. "Those are Navi's ghosts?" My voice sounded strangled. And scared. I sounded scared, even to my own ears. Not gonna lie.
"Yeah. They fight the monsters with her."
Holy Hell.
I took the longest breath ever and shoved my door open. "If they attack me, I'm coming after you."
Then I turned my back on my ghost roommate and walked toward the sea of nightmares.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Navi
I was just getting out of the shower when I heard the pounding. Thinking Reese had forgotten her keys or something, I wrapped my towel around me and padded into the living room, dripping on the carpet. Reese might kill me, but she was already late for work. She'd have to kill me later.
But Konstanz beat me to the door. She gave me an odd look as she passed, and I realized my entire shoulder was a bloody, bruised mess. The moon had sunk too far in the sky to heal me, and I could already feel my ghosts outside fading.
Except for Elizabeth. She was almost always there, but outside so she didn't accidentally open my roommates' eyes. Because that would be the epitome of awful.
The fights last night had been brutal, which might have explained why I'd had to hang out at the river for a while to chill. We'd lost a lot of our new recruits, and some of my older members. Several asuwangs had gotten past us and made it to the other side of the rock, but we'd caught all of them but two before they made it to the city streets. Still, it was going to take me a while to recover from that one.
Thank goodness I didn't have school.
Konstanz had spent a good amount of time lately fixing my random wounds. I couldn't go to a doctor, because I couldn't explain them, and even though Konstanz had hinted once or twice, when I told her I couldn't tell her what happened, she'd quit asking.
The girl was a saint.
And possibly the only thing that was a balm to the open wound Alec had left on my heart.
"Alec." Her voice was absolute ice. "What are you doing here?"
I froze, standing there beyond the doorway in my towel. I was absolutely exhausted. Maybe I'd misheard her? Maybe I'd imagined the whole thing? But suddenly Elizabeth appeared just beyond the door.
Clearly, it wasn't Reese coming to retrieve lost keys.
"I need to see Navi." His voice sounded desperate and, if I wasn't hearing things, terrified.
Konstanz, unaware that she was surrounded by unearthly beings, crossed her arms over her chest and dug in her heels. "I told you no, Alec."
"Konstanz, this isn't the time, and it's not personal. I need to talk to her now, and if you don't get out of my way, I'll move you. You have no idea what kind of freaky crap I've seen tonight."
That was my second clue that something was very, very wrong.
Forgetting that I was standing in a towel, only knowing that he was so close I could touch him and that I could hear fear in his voice, I left my soaked spot and came around the door. "What's wrong?"
His eyes widened. Oh, right. Then I remembered the towel. "Navi, I need to talk to you. Like, now."
"She doesn't want to talk to you, Alec."
Konstanz narrowed her eyes until they were slits of anger.
Well, that wasn't exactly true, but I wasn't going to argue. It wasn't about what I wanted. It was about keeping him at arm's length for the rest of forever. I couldn't get over him if he kept up this permanent residence in my head.
"I don't care, Konstanz. This isn't about Navi. Or you." He looked up at me again, his eyes scanning my face with an intense desperation that made my skin flush and my heart pound.
"It's okay, Konstanz." I smiled reassuringly. She glared at him once more for good measure and then backed out of the way, letting him in. He edged around Elizabeth and shut the door behind him.
Wait.
He edged around Elizabeth.
"You can see her," I whispered in shock.
"Yeah. It's been quite a night. I need your help." I wanted to memorize every feature, every tight muscle against his t-shirt. I wanted to throw myself into his arms and sob because I'd missed him so much.
But that would only hurt worse. I had to hate him. I had to not let him hurt me. Because I couldn't survive this again.
"What happened to your shoulder?"
I twisted my head to see it. Yeah, it looked pretty awful. "Work. What do you want?"
Elizabeth gave me a pointed look. "Perhaps you should dress yourself, Navi. I feel this may not be a conversation to be had in a towel."
"They talk to you." His face was absolutely white. He shook like a small dog in a hurricane. My big, tough Alec was scared out of his mind. Which meant only one thing—he could see. Someone had opened his eyes and he could see my ghosts. And if he could see my ghosts, the demons would hunt him.
I swore. Several times. "Stay here. I'll be right back. Do. Not. Move."
I raced into the bedroom and threw on one of Bryson's sweatshirts he always left at my house. He had a bigger clothing budget than I did, and his clothes were softer than mine. Soft on my wounded shoulder would be fabulous. "Wait, at least let me wrap it. You'll get Bryson's clothes all bloody and you know how he hates that." Konstanz already had her kit in her hands, biting her lip as she watched me try to settle the fabric over the wound.
"I haven't, technically, gotten his clothes bloody before. Just dirty." The look she gave me said she was less than impressed. "Okay, just… let me get dressed. I can't—Alec is out there—they might—" I swore again under my breath. There was too much she didn't know. Too much I couldn't say or I'd open her eyes and she'd be in just as much trouble as Alec. And the sun, the blasted sun, had still not risen.
I pulled on shorts, pulled off the sweatshirt, and put on a sports bra, then hurried back out to the living room, Konstanz on my heels with her first aid kit. "One sec. Sit." I pointed to the seat across from me where I could keep an eye on him. Everything I'd gone through, everything I'd done for the last ten years, was all for nothing. He was a target now. It was my worst nightmare come true.
He sat, his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. "Can you tell them to let him in?" he mumbled through his fingers.
"What? What do you mean?"
"Bryson. Your friends won't let him in."
Konstanz's fingers stilled in her poking and prodding of my wound. "Have you lost your mind by any chance? Of course we'll let Bryson in. He's always here."
"Not you." He looked pointedly at me and then at Elizabeth.
"Alec." My throat was attempting to close in horror. "What do you mean they won't let Bryson in?"
He threw up his hands and now looked at Konstanz. This had to be the most frustrating conversation I'd ever had. "Bryson was in an accident down by Devil's Gate. He's in a coma with unexplainable injuries."
"What?" Konstanz asked, horror making her voice harsh.
But she wasn't as horrified as me. Because I suddenly realized exactly what Alec was saying. Somehow, the asuwangs had gotten Bryson—but not his soul. Not if he was here.
I looked at Elizabeth. She was watching me silently, her eyes wide and worried. Without a word, she turned and disappeared through the door.
Konstanz finished wrapping and I slid Bryson's sweatshirt over my head. "I'll call in sick to work. I'll be at the hospital," she said quietly. Now she was shaking as hard as Alec. This was a disaster. The first guy Konstanz had seriously dated in ages, and this happens.
But that didn't matter. Right now, I had to protect Alec and keep Konstanz's eyes closed to the demons in the world.
Please, for the love of all that is holy, go, Konstanz. " If—if Bryson is—isn't okay, call me."
She nodded and practically sprinted out the door, still in her pajamas. The second she was gone, I turned on Alec. "Tell me what happened."
Elizabeth appeared through the wall. Bryson followed close behind. And he was a ghost. My hands shook and my stomach roiled dangerously as splotches appeared before my eyes. "Bryson! What happened?" Whirling on Alec, I cried, "I thought you said he was in a coma!"
"Is she going to be okay?" Bryson's eyes followed Konstanz's disappearing form.
I could only blink at him like he'd lost his mind. Adrenalin had kicked in, forcing my sluggish brain to function, but it didn't seem to be catching up with the conversation. "You are a ghost, Bryson. And you're worried about Konstanz?"
"I love her, Navi. You know that."
Alec's head jerked his elbows slid off his knees, nearly plummeting him to the floor. "What?"
"Konstanz and I sorta… sorta fell for each other while I was trying to woo Navi. But Navi doesn't mind," he finished in a rush.
"Not at all." And then I shook my head because really, this is what we were choosing to talk about right now?
"What happened, Bryson?"
"I followed you."
"You what? Why would you do that?" I screeched. Like a harpy eagle. Not my most beautiful moment.
"You lied to me! After everything we've been through!"
"Navi, your shoulder is bleeding," Alec murmured.
"Bryson, this is insane. Will you please just calm down and focus on the problem at hand?"
"Navi, you need to ice your shoulder." Alec nodded toward my wound, which I could feel swelling as the moon set and the sun rose and my magic faded.
Bryson ignored him. "You told us you're a probation officer."
"I am." I twisted my fingers. "Bryson, you're dead. My job is not what we need to be focused on. Tell me what happened." I think, I think this was the third time I'd asked him, and I still hadn't gotten any answers. Have you ever tried to mourn a loss when the person you're mourning is standing in front of you, accusing you of lying? It's difficult. Little bit.
"We were just trying to protect you. And you lied to us the entire time." Bryson shook his ghostly head and paced.
"Can I grieve, at least? Or do I not get to do that, either?" I snapped, because he was dead and in my living room and I wanted to cry and not have this conversation right now.
"He's not dead." Alec got up and went into the kitchen to dig through my freezer.
"You're not dead? Then how are you here?" I asked Bryson, relief sweeping through my blood like ice thrown on panicked fire.
"Why don't you tell me why you lied, first?" He crossed his arms and tried to look tough. Throwing up the hand that wasn't attached to my wounded shoulder, I turned my back on him to focus on Alec, who seemed terrified and more than a little shaken up, but he was rational, at least. He handed me an ice pack and pushed me down onto the couch. That brief contact sent heat flaring through my recently cooled blood, so fast and so fierce that my knees gave out and I sank obediently into the soft suede.
"Alec." My voice shook and I cleared my throat, trying to steady it. "Do you know what happened?"
Alec sat across from me again, close enough that our knees almost touched, staring at the floor. "They thought you were into some sort of trouble. They didn't believe the work story you were feeding them—"
"I thought you were with some bad guys—"
"Bad guys? Are you serious? I know what Alec thinks I am, but you—?" I gl
ared at Bryson, forgetting for just a second that he was dead. Or not, as the case may be.
"Well you're gone all the time and you were moody and you had absolutely no interest in —"
"Navi, I don't think that, and can we please focus here? Bryson is in a coma." Alec sounded exhausted, and there was zero emotion in his voice as he stared at the carpet. Bryson, too, refused to look at me. "He followed you last night to the beach. Now that we're past the part where you look as idiotic as I did, would you like to tell the story, Bryson?"
My heart pounded. Alec thought what he'd done was idiotic. Bryson was dead but not dead. I couldn't process any of this information.
"I followed you to the beach. To Devil's Gate. And then you just—just disappeared, and I was trying to find you… and then this sea monster came out of the water and attacked me." I could hear genuine fear in his voice as his eyes widened and his entire countenance shook. I got up and crossed the room to him, standing so close that part of his hand swirled and disappeared in mine.
"Hey. It's okay. It's over and we'll fix this. But I have to know what happened."
He nodded, swallowing hard, although technically he didn't need to swallow at all.
"Then suddenly you were there again and you followed it. The monster. You followed it and it ran and you ran after it and then there were more of them, and there were ghosts everywhere and they wanted to kill me—"
"We did no such thing," Elizabeth interrupted. I'd almost forgotten she was there, but now she stood next to Bryson. "We thought he was in limbo. We forced him to leave." Elizabeth shook her head. "We didn't recognize him in this form."
I'd heard that ghosts looked different to each other than they did to us, so that made sense, although it didn't make things any easier on Bryson.
"I could see you talking to the ghosts, telling them what to do. I knew you'd be able to help me so I followed you home. But they wouldn't let me in."
Of course not. Because ghosts in limbo were dangerous. They possessed things and threw things and attacked things. "They were protecting me," I said softly.
