1 Grim Tidings (16 page)

I was so caught up in my mental retribution I didn’t notice another familiar face as I stalked through the dining room. It wasn’t until Aidan practically tackled me from my left, forcing me behind a small partition, that I returned to reality.

“What the hell?”

Aidan slapped his hand over my mouth, furrowing his brow and focusing his purple eyes on mine. It was like he was trying to send me a silent message. We had tried to read each other’s minds when we were kids. It never worked. I have no idea why he thought it would suddenly start working now.

“I can’t read your mind,” I hissed.

Aidan held his finger to his lips in an attempt to silence me. I rolled my eyes, but mimed drawing a zipper across my mouth. When Aidan was sure I was going to be quiet, he slowly withdrew his hand.

I widened my eyes to express my irritation.

Aidan silently pointed to a table in the far corner of the dining room. I rolled my eyes but looked. My heart instantly started hammering. Griffin was sitting at a small table, smiling as he talked to a woman with orange hair – no joke. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but whatever it was the woman was tickled to hear it. She cackled, grabbing Griffin’s arm as though he was the funniest man in the room. A further glance told me he was practically the only man in the room. Wow, I guess that myth about women outliving men isn’t really a myth.

“What is he doing here?”

“How should I know?” Aidan whispered. “He’s here, though. We got lucky at the hospital. If he sees us here, we’re going to have a lot of explaining to do.”

“He didn’t believe the hospital story,” I countered.

“He let it go, though. He won’t let this go.”

“What are we going to do?” I asked. “You still have a soul to get. I knew I should have just left when I took Evelyn’s soul. She cut a woman’s brake lines, by the way, and she’s still going to Heaven.”

Aidan smirked. “Catholic?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s always fun.”

“That doesn’t help us right now,” I reminded him.

Aidan breathed in heavily, considering. “Okay,” he said finally. “My charge is in Room 102. We’ll go hide down the hall until she goes. It shouldn’t be long now. We’ll just be really careful.”

“How are we going to get out of here without him seeing us? We could use the rings, I guess.”

Aidan shook his head. “Someone might see. We can’t explain disappearing into thin air. Those rings only work when there’s no chance of someone seeing us putting them on.”

“So, how are we going to do it?”

“We’re going to move really quietly and carefully.”

“Yeah, because we’re stealthy spies,” I griped.

“Do you have a better idea?” Aidan looked as though he wanted to shake me.

I blew out a sigh. “No.”

“Just follow my lead.”

Aidan moved toward the edge of the partition and then tiptoed out into the room. I had to fight the urge to laugh when he plastered himself against the far wall and sidled down it. When he managed to turn the corner without Griffin looking up, he sent me
a thumbs up and motioned for me to follow. Like I was going to do what he did. Instead, I just ambled out from behind the wall and made my way in Aidan’s direction, refusing to look across the room to see what Griffin was doing. Once I hit the corner, Aidan latched onto my wrist and yanked me. Hard.

“I told you to do what I did,” he said, his voice full of recrimination.

“I’m not a poof,” I replied.

Aidan smacked me upside the head. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

“How was I supposed to know that you’re Johnny McStraight when you’re at an old folks home?”

“They’re old; they don’t know any better.”

“And you like the attention,” I said.

“They love me here.”

“We need to talk about your self-esteem.”

“We need to talk about your trashy pants,” Aidan countered.

I frowned. He wasn’t wrong.

“So, where is
Room 102?”

“It’s near the entrance,” Aidan said.

“And where are we going to hide until she dies?”

Aidan mulled the question. “We could hide in the room.”

“What if she has a roommate?”

“Then I’ll charm her like I do everyone else.”

Aidan was already halfway down the hall before I decided to follow. He’s not half as charming as he seems to think he is.

Luckily for us, Aidan’s charge not only had
her own room, but the door was shut. We sneaked inside and found Addie McHale asleep, resting peacefully. Her white hair was spread around her pillow – like a halo – and she looked as though she could slip away at any moment.

“She looks a lot more accommodating than mine was,” I said.

“The brake line-cutter? That’s a little freaky. Did she tell you that stuff?”

“She kept calling me Frank,” I said, sinking into one of chairs at the edge of the room.

“It’s the shoes,” Aidan offered, going for levity.

“She kept saying she knew he cheated on her but she still wanted to see him,” I said. “Then she mentioned cutting the brakes. She said she confessed to her priest and he gave her some rosaries and Hail
Marys and she was good to go.”

Aidan snickered.
“Catholics.”

“We’re Catholic,” I reminded him.

“Barely.”

“Dad has crosses on the wall in his office,” I said.

“That’s just for show.”

“So, where do we go when we die?” The question was a lot more serious than I initially intended.

Aidan settled himself in the chair next to me and thought about the question. “Where do you want to go?”

“I like the idea of reincarnation,” I said finally. “I think it would be cool to be able to come back and do it all again.”

“Really?” Aidan raised his eyebrows. “You don’t want to spend eternity with me?”

“Not really.”

Aidan poked me in the ribs. “What’s so bad that you want to be reincarnated and try to do it over again?”

“Nothing,” I said. “It’s just … we see death all the time.
Every day. It’s nice to think of there being something else.”

“And you can’t physically see Heaven or Hell,” Aidan replied. “So, if you can’t see them, how do we really know they exist? That’s what you’re really thinking, isn’t it?”

“Of course not,” I scoffed. “We know those souls go somewhere.”

“True,” Aidan said. “We only have some guy’s word, though, or several guys, actually, that these souls are going to a better place.”

“Do you ever think about it?”

“Dying? I try not to.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I think that it’s important to live your life for what it is,” Aidan said. “I’m not really worried about the afterlife.
At least not yet.”

“When will you worry?”

“When my looks start to go,” Aidan said with a wink. “And that won’t be for at least fifty years -- if ever.”

I coughed to hide my laugh. “You’re nothing if not optimistic.”

Aidan’s face sobered. “Aisling, you can’t worry about death when we’re in the business of death. Besides, look what we’ve learned about everlasting life over the past few weeks. Do you really want that?”

“Reincarnation isn’t everlasting life,” I countered. “I don’t want to be a wraith. I just like the idea of a do-over.”

“What would you do over?”

I shrugged.

“Griffin?” Aidan had a knowing look on his face.

“I don’t like Griffin,” I growled.

“Yes, you do.”

“I do not.”

“You do, too.”

I decided to change the subject. “Do you like Jerry?”

Aidan looked uncomfortable and shifted in his chair. “Why do you ask that?”

That wasn’t a denial.
“Because you seem to.”

“I told you, what happened after the police ball was because of alcohol and
Pretty Woman
.”

“That’s not what
Cillian and Braden say,” I hedged.

Aidan’s eyes flashed. “What did they say?”

“They said that I should stop being against you and Jerry and embrace it,” I answered honestly. “They said that they thought you and Jerry would get together years ago, and I was the one holding the two of you back.”

“
Ais, you’re my sister. You’re my twin. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I said
, “even if you’re a total tool most of the time.”

“I don’t love you so much that I would put my own happiness aside,” Aidan said, ignoring my jab. “It was just an accident.”

Why didn’t I believe him? I opened my mouth to tell him that I would be fine if he dated Jerry, but I didn’t get the words out. The door to the room opened. Crap. How were the two of us going to explain our presence?

One look at our new visitor told me that wasn’t going to be a problem.

Aidan was on his feet, putting himself between the wraith and me, before I could even register what was going on.

“Oh, shit.”

“Double shit,” Aidan agreed.

“What do we do?”

“I have no idea.”

“So, why did Dad send you?”

“He didn’t,” Aidan said, his jaw grim. “Jerry called, he was worried. I traded Cillian for this charge.”

My heart swelled for my brother – and then plummeted. “You didn’t think I could do it myself either.”

Aidan’s eyes darkened with irritation as he glanced at me – and then immediately focused back on the wraith. “Is now the time to focus on that?”

“Fine,” I grumbled. “We’re not done talking about this, though.”

“Great.”

“Awesome.”

Aidan took a lateral step, cutting the wraith off from the woman in the bed but not lessening the distance between himself and our ghastly visitor. “There’s nothing for you here.”

The wraith ignored him, splaying its long fingers out and twitching at the sight of Addie. The wraith didn’t speak, but a low rumble emanated from its body.

“Oh, gross,” I muttered. “Was that its stomach growling?”

Aidan wasn’t listening to me, though. His face was drawn and his arms were tense. “You need to leave.”

“No leave,” the wraith hissed.

This was the first time I heard one speak. I wasn’t a fan of hearing it again. I glanced around the room, looking for a weapon. My eyes fell on the dresser at the edge of the room. I shuffled away, hoping the wraith would be distracted by whatever Aidan was about to do, and slipped to the edge of the dresser.

There wasn’t a lot there. A few books, a newspaper, a picture frame and a hairbrush were my only options. I shifted the newspaper and saw that there was something beneath it – an antique letter opener. Score.

I grabbed the letter opener, wrapping my hand around the end of it, and pulled it toward me. I didn’t know a lot about wraiths. Killing them was a mystery, at least for me, but I thought I remembered something about silver hurting them. The letter opener looked like real silver. It was certainly tarnished.

Aidan seemed unsure of himself something I wasn’t used to seeing. “You can’t have her.”

“Mine.”

“No,” Aidan said, shaking his head and wagging his finger as though talking to a naughty child. Like that was going to help.

The wraith reached a hand out to touch Aidan. I was just about to warn him when he moved to the side. He then lifted a leg and kicked the wraith in the ribs for emphasis. The wraith, caught off guard by Aidan’s quick movement, tumbled into the wall next to the bed.

“I said no,” Aidan said, puffing his chest out as though he had accomplished something.

The wraith regained its footing and turned from Addie. This time, the wraith wasn’t so slow. When it reached for Aidan its hands were so fast all I
saw was a blur.

The wraith’s fingers were around Aidan’s neck. Aidan gasped, reaching up to try
to release the grip, but he was having trouble breathing.

His face turned red as he fumbled with the fingers closing off his airway. He was struggling, trying to keep from passing out.

I strode toward them. “Stop!”

The wraith didn’t acknowledge my presence.

“I said stop!”

Still nothing.

Aidan’s eyes started to roll into the back of his head. I had no other options. I reared my arm back and plunged the letter opener into the left side of the wraith’s chest – where I assumed its heart (if there was one) still existed. There was initial resistance, but I had enough momentum to push past it.

The door to the room flew open, but I didn’t move my eyes from the wraith. We would have to deal with the fallout after Aidan’s neck was free. Maybe we could convince a psychotic nurse that she imagined all of this?