“You won’t leave the house?” I asked Janis.
“Nope. Don’t want to go anywhere special. Promise.”
“Okay. How do we do this?”
She took my hand. The eagle feather was in her other hand and her guitar was strapped around my neck. “Sing with me. Close your eyes and we’ll sing in pitch together.”
She started singing “One Love.” Bob started singing too. After a few minutes, my body felt like it was floating in a warm jacuzzi near one of the jets. Warm and drowsy.
Then it was over, and I was through the other side. Through the portal.
Chapter Forty-One
BOB AND I STOOD on the edge of a cliff with a large door to our backs. The cliff was deep red and appeared to be suspended in mid-air. The sky had a soft, pastel yellow tint to it. Stretched out before us was a bridge, the kind I imagined you might see in the middle of a jungle somewhere—made of rope and wood. The kind that might make some people afraid to cross it. But for whatever reason, I wasn’t scared.
There were doors lining both sides of the bridge and three large doors at the end, about a hundred or so yards away.
Bob took my hand. “We cross here.”
I followed behind him, taking one step at a time. The bridge swayed a bit as I grabbed onto the sides of it. What I’d thought was rope wasn’t rope at all but something soft and smooth, like silk, and very, very strong.
“What are all of the doors for?”
“Various tiers,” he said, his dreadlocks swaying with the bridge. “This man we are going to see the judgment of will be told what door to go through when it’s over. If he be lucky, he be going through the white door.” He pointed ahead to a large, white door. “Not lucky, the black one. And if he need to straighten himself out, he go back through the grey. And if there be some confusion he might go through any one of the doors. It all depends how the judgment go.”
The air in this space was still and silent. It felt serene . . . peaceful. Then I heard a bell. It rang clear and pure and seemed to come from all around us.
Bob glanced over his shoulder at me. “We need to be hurrying. The review beginning now.”
We picked up our pace and walked straight to the middle door at the end of the bridge. It was painted a deep red, similar to the color of the cliff behind us. Bob opened it and we stepped through.
The place we entered reminded me of something from the Roman Empire. It was a large room with pillars and coliseum-type seating, and it was filled with spirits. I leaned over to Bob and whispered, “Does everyone come to these things?”
He replied in a hushed tone, “Nah. Be too many. Not everyone be needin’ a trial tho. Those that do, then we be getting’ a number so we know what trials to go to.”
The afterlife was starting to sound a lot like jury duty to me. “And your number came up? And Janis’?”
He nodded. We sat. Down in the middle of the seating area, on a raised dais, were two enormous chairs. In one sat a young, handsome man in white, and in the other—you guessed it—a young, beautiful woman in black.
I leaned over to Bob again. “The Bodha?” I nodded toward the two spirits.
He shook his head. “Nah. Them be the messengers. No one sees the Bodha until they want to be seen, and the same with the Asat.”
“The leaders of the Black Tier?”
Bob nodded as an older spirit in front of us turned around, bringing a finger to her mouth. She stared at me for several seconds and then turned back. For a moment, I wondered if she was surprised to see Janis Joplin seated behind her. But considering the number of famous people who were likely wandering around here, I doubted that was the case.
I took a good look around and noticed everyone in our section was dressed in various shades of grey.
A gavel rang out in the crowd, and suddenly I saw Jackson come in through the door Bob and I had entered. On either side of him stood what, I assumed, were two more representatives—one from each side. Jackson looked pretty confused. They sat him down in a chair and the trial began.
The man in white, representing the Bodha, spoke first. “We are here to review Mr. Jackson Owens’ life. Mr. Owens, are you aware what has happened?”
Jackson shook his head slowly. “Is this a dream? Where am I?”
The young man in white gave Jackson a sympathetic look. “You are dead, Mr. Owens. And this is your life review, where a jury of your peers takes into account your life. Afterwards, we will vote, and the vote will determine where your spirit winds up. Do you understand?”
Jackson’s eyes widened. “Is this Purgatory?” he asked.
The man laughed softly. “Oh no, dear boy. There is no Purgatory to speak of.” The Bodha rep looked over at the Asat rep. “Are we ready to begin?”
The young woman in black nodded.
Everything around us went completely dark. Then, as if I were sitting in an IMAX theater, Jackson came into full view all around us, his life flashing by in segments. We saw him hit his dog when he was ten. We also witnessed him being beaten by a man I assumed was his father. We saw him walk an old lady across the street when he was a teenager but then he also stole from her purse when she wasn’t looking. We saw him steal food from the local market. We saw him go to college, but it wasn’t USC like he had said but a local state school. He watched reruns of Nick’s show and other TV shows, he yelled at his mother, he lived alone . . . The review went on and on. Most disturbing to me was that not only could I see his life, I could also feel everything he felt.
And then I caught my breath. There he was with Nick—alone, just the two of them. Nick had the clothes I found his body in. And they were arguing. Punches were thrown. Nick went down behind the bar, and I was certain Jackson had murdered Nick. But then Nick got up, wiped the blood from his lip, and Jackson left. There was no sound to any of this. Just the visuals and the feelings.
Suddenly, I was on the screen. A wave of anger and lust swept over me. That was what he felt toward me. Jackson followed me. He took photos of me. And he had plans to hurt me. The night he had come to my house, he wanted to do very bad things to me. Then we saw Jackson falling into the pool and hitting his head on the side—and behind him was a shadow. The shadow became clearer on the screen. I caught my breath—it was that man! The one from my kinky sex dream!—and then he was gone. What the heck was going on?!
The minute the review stopped, the room erupted into agitated conversation. The Bodha rep yelled out, “Quiet down, everyone!”
Jackson looked pale. Granted, he was dead, but it was clear he hadn’t been expecting any of this at all.
The young man in white stood and looked at the woman in black. “Mr. Owens was murdered by an Asura in your tier?!”
An enigmatic smile crept across the woman’s face. “I cannot say if I recognize who that was or not.”
“It is against the rules!” The Bodha rep said.
“Oh, come now, it is not as if you want Mr. Owens’ vibration!”
“No, not as it is. But if he’d been allowed to live, he would have had the chance to change.” The Bodha rep stood, his mouth in a grim line. “This will be taken up to the next level.”
The young woman shrugged.
The Bodha rep turned toward Jackson. “Do you deny any of this to be true of your life, Mr. Owen?”
Jackson shook his head.
“Do you have anything to say? Any regrets about the things that happened in your life?”
A strange smile crossed his face. “No,” he said.
The Bodha rep looked over to the Asat rep.
“I think this is an easy vote, and seeing how Mr. Owens was an Asat Order target, take him. But this is not over! You cannot steal vibrations before they are ready to go.”
“We will gladly take him,” she purred.
I took a closer look at the Asat rep on the stand. She seemed familiar. And then it dawned on me . . . she was the woman I’d seen with Pierre that night at Nick’s, when Simone and Dwight had come to listen to me pla
y. And she was looking straight at me. Uh-oh.
Bob took my hand and pulled me to my feet. “Come on.”
I followed him quickly to the door. But the woman in black was there before us.
“Janis.” she smiled. “Your vibration seems . . . different.”
“How would you be knowin that? She doan beat at the same vibe as you,” Bob said, standing protectively in front of me.
“That’s a matter of perspective,” the woman replied.
The Bodha rep suddenly appeared in front of us. “What is the problem?” he asked, looking from me to Bob to the woman and back to me again.
Bob held his hands out, palms up. “No problem, brah. We be getting’ back to the Grey Tier now. Review be over.”
The woman stepped forward. “A moment of your time, please.” She sidled up to the young man in white. “Look at her. She’s no spirit. She’s human! The vibration is completely wrong.”
They both turned to look back at Bob and me (but mostly me). And then the man in white reached out to touch my arm. “Janis, you need to go back to the Grey Tier now.” He eyed me pointedly and then turned back to the woman. “And you need to take your newest member and leave. This review is over. But please,” he said a grimace spread across his face as if there were a bad taste in his mouth, “Tell the Asat we know one of your kind murdered a human. I will take this up with the Bodha, and there will be consequences. Of that I am certain.”
The Asat rep stared in hostile silence at the young man. “You cannot speak to me this way!”
The young man replied, “You don’t want to start this here. This is not how it all begins or ends. Go back to your tier and do not anger the Bodha any more than you and your order already have, Anastasia.”
Anastasia? I took another long look at the woman . . . could she possibly be the jaguar who tried to attack me?
In a huff, she turned and walked back to where she’d left Jackson standing.
The representative for the Bodha turned to me then. “I don’t know what is going on here. I don’t know who brought you here . . . however, I can wager a guess.” He glanced at Bob who just smiled. “But you are not allowed here. And if you ever come here again before you are allowed, the consequences will be grave.”
He turned and walked away. Bob, still holding my hand, pulled me towards the open door and we crossed the bridge, back to the portal, without speaking. Within just a few minutes, we were back in my home.
And what I saw waiting for me in my living room made me want to go back through the portal door and never come back.
Chapter Forty-Two
JANIS-AS-EVIE WAS on my couch, crawling all over Joshua, who looked a bit uncomfortable but also happy. I cleared my throat. Of course Joshua couldn’t hear me, but Janis could.
Bob laughed. “Oh boy. Well, doan say I didn’t warn you.”
“You think?” I stepped forward and cleared my throat again. “Janis!”
She turned around, a look of disappointment darting across her face. “Well, shit,” she said.
“What?” Joshua asked.
“Get off of him, now, and switch back.” I crossed my arms in front of my chest as authoritatively as possible in an effort to keep myself from strangling her. Not that it would have done a lot good, since she was dead already. “I am so angry with you!” Never thought I would be saying that to Janis Joplin, but I guess there’s a first time for everything.
She glanced sheepishly at me and mouthed, “I’m sorry.” Then glanced back over at Joshua. “I’m thirsty, you?” she asked.
He nodded, seeming rather dazed. “Yeah. Uh. Do you have any beer?”
“You got it.” She winked at him and stood up, her hips swaying in a way they have never ever swayed when I was “in residence.” She sashayed into the kitchen and I turned to follow, but not before I saw Joshua’s eyes focus in on my retreating rear. Oh hell.
Once we were in the safety of the kitchen I hissed, “What are you doing?” Never mind there was no point whispering because Joshua couldn’t hear me.
Janis leaned back into the counter, looking a lot more relaxed than I felt the situation warranted. “I was only having fun, and your boyfriend didn’t seem to mind one bit.”
“He’s not my boyfriend!” I said.
She laughed, low and throaty. “He might be now.”
This was so not happening. “What did you do with him?”
“Lighten up,” she said, turning to the fridge to grab three beers. “Your generation is so fucking uptight. Mellow out.” She reached around me for the bottle opener, popped the tops, and took a long, deep drink out of one of the bottles. “Ahhh. How I’ve missed beer.” She nodded towards the other two bottles. “These are for you and lover boy out there. You look like you could use a drink.”
Bob strolled into the kitchen, humming. “C’mon, J. We need to be leavin our girl alone. She had enough of our kind tonight.”
Janis sighed and then drew my feather out of her (my) back pocket. I unstrapped her guitar from my back and handed it over. “Been fun,” she said. She started singing “Piece of My Heart,” and I joined in quietly. Janis shot me a frustrated look. “No girl, you gotta sing.”
I belted out the song, and suddenly that warm feeling came over me. Then I was back in my body, and Janis and Bob had disappeared. I grabbed the two open beers and turned to leave the kitchen, almost bumping into Joshua who stood just a few inches behind me. He looked very confused and not a little surprised.
“Whoa, Evie, was that you? You sounded almost exactly like Janis Joplin for a minute. My mom used to play her stuff all the time when I was a kid. I had no idea you had that kind of range! I mean, you’ve got a great voice as it is but that was pretty remarkable.”
“Yeah.” I handed one of the beers to him and took a long drink out of the other. We needed to drink these, fast, and I had to get him out of my place ASAP. I needed to think and process. What was he doing here anyway? It was after midnight!
“Look, uh, I am really sorry for being so . . . grabby.” Awkward.
He blushed, smiling. “I’m not. I mean it’s not like anything happened between us. What are you sorry for?”
“I, well . . .” I took another sip of my liquid courage. “I’m not usually so assertive and I don’t know what got into me.”
He took a drink. “Honestly, I didn’t mind the climbing, and you’ve been pretty stressed out lately. I think you’re entitled to let loose once in a while.”
“Yes.” I nodded. “And it probably didn’t help that I took an Ambien before you arrived.” Lying might be a sin, but it seemed like I was a natural at it. “I’ve been feeling loopy for the past hour or two. Anyway . . . You know what that famous golfer claimed Ambien did to him! Can’t think of his name now, but made him a sex addict.” Oh such the wrong thing to say! I took another sip of my beer. “I promise you as my boss and my friend that will never happen again.”
Joshua reached out and took the beer out of my hand. “First of all, beer and Ambien do not mix. I’d say you’ve had enough, sweetheart.” He set the bottle down on the counter and turned back to me. “Secondly, nothing happened. Remember? You dropped an earring behind the couch and when you went to look for it, you kind of stumbled and wound up in my lap. I wasn’t thinking you were going all Tiger on me.” He winked.
Seriously? Janis needed to update her moves. I mean, how obvious was that? Either Joshua was super naïve, or he was letting me off easy.
“Right.” I feigned a deep yawn. “You know, I am kind of tired from that sleeping pill. Shall we call it a night?”
Joshua ran his hands through his hair. “Oh yeah, sure. Like I told you when I dropped in, I was only checking on you. You seemed pretty distracted tonight, so I called when I was closing and you didn’t answer. I know it was late, but I was just worried.”
I nodded, smiling up at him. “That’s so nice of you, Joshua! I really appreciate it. I guess I have been a little distracted. And I’m sorry I didn’t answe
r my phone. I didn’t hear it.”
“No worries at all. It was late. I’m sorry if I bothered you.” He gave me a quick hug. “See you at work!”
I walked him to the front door and waved goodbye as he slowly walked down the driveway to his car parked on the other side of the gate. I locked the doors behind me and called out for Cass who had gone into hiding along with Mac. She eventually crawled out of wherever she’d hidden herself and gave me a long, appraising look.
“Crazy night,” I said.
Her eyes widened and then she wagged her tail. I figured she was glad to have me back to normal again.
I gave her a quick kiss on the top of her head. “You are so smart, and I am so not.”
We traipsed back to my room where I fell onto my bed next to a dozing Mac. I wanted badly to close my eyes and go to sleep, but I couldn’t. All I could think about was Jackson’s review and the image of that man who pushed him into the pool, the same man I’d seen in that awful dream. Clearly he was part of the Asat, a spirit from the Black Tier. Had my so-called dream been real? If he could kill Jackson on my property, what was stopping him from coming into my house?
I reached over to scratch Cass’s fur. I reminded myself Lucas said there was a protective barrier around the house, but for some reason, it wasn’t making me feel all that safe.
I tried hard to think of nice things—the ocean, butterflies, hummingbirds (which I really like), cheesecake—and I finally drifted off to sleep. But those sweet visions didn’t stick around for long. They were soon replaced by images of spirits dressed in grey, and jaguars . . . and Joshua. But Lucas remained absent that night from my bedroom and my dreams.
Chapter Forty-Three
MY BRAIN WAS ON OVERDRIVE the next day. To sum it up . . .
. . . I was having sex with a spirit, after being raised in a pretty hardcore Christian home . . .
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