“If you’re not out at the end of the day, we’ll come see you again. I’ll call first and we can bring you some dinner – trust me, you don’t want hospital food.”
“Thank you,” I said, taking Kate’s hand and giving it a squeeze of appreciation. I wasn’t allowed to move much, so instead of a hug, I reached over and put my hand on the side of Norah’s face. She smiled at me, but there was some sadness in her eyes still.
“Don’t worry, Norah,” I said. “It takes more than a bad guy to get rid of me!”
She laughed a little and gave my hand a kiss before walking out after her mother. I loved those girls so much.
“I can’t believe how close you all are after just a few months,” Brandon said as he pulled his chair closer. “For you to have done what you did to David for Norah, and to see the way you all look at each other… I’d guess you were sisters.”
“We are,” I replied with a smile. “We just only met recently.”
Brandon smiled too and was about to say something else when his phone rang. He took the call, and from his end of the conversation I could tell that there had been a break in another case he’d been working. He started to explain why he couldn’t come in, but I waved him off.
“Are you sure?” he asked, looking concerned as he covered the phone with his hand.
“I’m fine here. I can call you if anything changes.”
He nodded, giving me one last look to make sure I was serious before he told his captain he could come in after all. He gave me a quick kiss goodbye and told me three times to call him if I needed anything at all. Something inside of me stirred the moment he left the room and I felt a panic that I couldn’t explain.
I’d worked out my demons and felt good about the conclusion, but there was something else I hadn’t thought about that would need to be reconciled. How could I be in love with a police officer and still fulfill my mission which he likely wouldn’t understand? I planned to tame my hunger, but I knew I could not ignore it. There would be more rigor around my selection process, but I would still be the mistress of death for all those who needed the kind of justice that Brandon was not allowed to distribute. Could I really continue a serious relationship with him and keep that all a secret?
The anxiety at that thought lingered, but I knew there was nothing I could do except try. I’d never had a family before, nor had there been any expectation that I might find love, but here in this new world, I’d managed to find both. Now I just needed to make sure I kept the people that I loved in my life and didn’t allow myself or my contained hunger to consume those relationships.
Reflecting on all that I had been through ever since that night so very long ago when I met the witch, I felt like I was finally closing the book on a chapter of my life that I’d not even realized had gone wrong. When it first happened, I wasn’t in a place where I could see it, but she’d been right all along. An evil had entered my life, and had she not intervened, I would have continued on the dark path that I was on. Even when I, and the evil that occupied me, was unbound in this new modern time, I hadn’t understood.
When I recognized the truth of what I’d become the night before, I had killed it along with Mark. Our altercation had been tortuous, but it was the perfect representation for the struggle that I’d endured within myself leading up to it. Killing him hadn’t felt the same as the others. There was a satisfaction in it, certainly, but there was so much more. I felt like a weight which had been crushing my soul little by little had been stripped away from me. The self-doubt was gone. I had faced my failings head on, and I was walking away with certainty and peace. It had cost me, but I would not let it cost me what mattered most.
I was not done with my mission, but I would no longer let myself be consumed by it. Death would still come, but for too long I had served my own hate alongside it. I had not been faithful to the mission of justice as I had originally intended. Believing that I knew better, I had strayed from the mantle I had adopted – the Mistress of Death. It was a name the witch had referred to, but it was actually first bestowed upon me by the villagers when men began disappearing and they had sensed an evil in their midst. They hadn’t understood it then, but I understood it now. I would return to that title in the way I had originally seen it. Death’s Mistress had returned and was ready to take on this new world without the evil veil which had led me astray.
To be continued….
Evil Unbound- Death's Mistress Returns Page 22
