The Old House (Haunted Series Book 16) (27 page)

~

Mike approached Mia as she walked out of the house.  “You don’t have to do this.”

“Yes I do.  But thanks for the out.”

Cid held on to Brian on the deck.  He remembered very well Mia transforming, the night she fought for Ted.  He didn’t need to see it up close, but still, he wasn’t going to miss it.  The others stood in a semi-circle in the yard.

Orion had his shirt off and walked up to his granddaughter and asked, “Ready?”

“As ready as I’m ever going to be.  I don’t know if I’m doing it right. You can correct me later away from these bozos, okay?”

“Don’t be nervous.  Here, let me go first.”  He rolled his neck and rubbed his thumb along the inside of his wrist.  Tattoos emerged.

Mia followed suit.  She turned her back, not wanting to see the expression on Burt’s and Mike’s faces.

Her back was full of black moving feathers.  Mike couldn’t help himself.  He walked up and ran his hand along her back.  “Cool.”

Mia turned around and said, “Step back. I don’t want to hurt you.”

He did.  Mia tapped her wrists together, and the wings folded out of her body.  They were so large that they raised her off the ground.

“Mia, they’re beautiful,” Orion said, producing his crow wings.  He reached out and took her hand, and they started running.

Burt watched in amazement as Mia took off flying.  Her massive wings but trembled, and she shot upwards.

“Well, that’s something you don’t see every day,” Glenda said.  “Okay, who wants to play poker?”

“I’m in,” Audrey said and left with her.

Burt and Mike walked over to Ted.

“I had no idea, Ted,” Burt said.  “Did Angelo do that to her?”

“No.  She’s always been a little flighty,” Ted said.

Mike started laughing and patted him on the back.  “That is so cool.  G Damn, you’ve got your own superhero mutant.  I’m jealous.”

“All of this happened because I was an idiot,” Ted began. “After the hotel investigation, I thought that I should leave Mia, because she had so much, and I felt bad for Beth who told me she had nothing but me.  So I left for Kansas before Mia came home one night.  I didn’t even write her a note.  I just took off my ring and left.”

‘”You fucking asshole,” Mike swore.  “How could you do that to her?”

“I’m not proud of it,” Ted explained.

“Let him talk,” Burt said through clenched teeth.

“Cid said that when she found out, she changed before him.  The tattoos emerged, the feathers moved, and then the most beautiful set of wings sprouted.  She never flew before.  Angelo had wanted to teach her, but she was too worried about my reaction, my feelings, so she decided to put it on the back burner.  But when it became apparent that she couldn’t catch up to me in the truck, she took off running and flew to get to me before I did something stupid.”

“Where did she catch up to you?” Burt asked.

“A few hours out.  I was driving down that little country lane we take to get around the construction on the highway when I saw something up ahead in the road.  I saw wings, and I thought that Angelo had come to talk to me.  I got out and walked forward, but it was Mia.  She read me the riot act, told me that I was confused, and that I had some idiotic idea that as a superhero I had to leave all that I loved in order to do good.  She was right.  That’s exactly what I was thinking.”

“I knew it wasn’t over,” Burt said.  “I should have tossed you through a few more windows.”

“How did she change your mind?” Mike asked.

“She used my and her memories and created a holographic view of our life together.  It reminded me why I loved her in the first place.  I saw how much she loved and needed me.  Beth never really needed anyone.  She wasn’t the victim I had thought she was.  After the Judas hex, you all were down on Beth.  She was the ultimate Judas.  I didn’t think it was fair.  I felt guilty and wanted to do the right thing.”

“Ted, I know that you never liked Beth that way,” Burt said.  “Her inane chatter alone made her a bad fit with the team. I can only imagine what being married to her would be like.”

“But every superhero I ever read about sacrificed his happiness to do the right thing,” Ted explained.  “I was going to fall on my sword and try to build a life with Beth. Except, standing there in the middle of the road was my wife telling me to come home.  She told me that she needed me.”

“So you came home,” Mike said.  “The best move of your life.”

“Yes, it was.  I understand now that I don’t have to worry about Murphy or Angelo or Sariel.  Mia loves me, maybe too much.”

“You don’t deserve her,” Mike said.  “You fucking don’t deserve her.”

“Come on, Mike, he came back.  It’s over,” Burt said, putting a restraining hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“No, it’s not.  You see, Theodore Martin, she could do a lot better than you,” Mike reminded him.

“Don’t you think I know that?  How the hell am I ever going to compete with archangels, Angelo and you?”

“Me?” Mike asked, surprised.

“You’ve been trying to take her from me from the start.”

“You over-caffeinated geek, if you only knew how much I’ve been on your side.  I pushed you into making your first moves.  I held her while she cried for you and didn’t take advantage.  I’ve built up her self-esteem when your Bethy tore her down.  It was me picking her up off the ground, holding her head over the toilet while her world was crashing down around her.”

“I didn’t realize,” Ted said.  “In my experience, guys like you always got the girls, were voted class president and most likely to succeed.”

“So, what does that have to do with your and my friendship?  Have I ever discounted your value to PEEPs?”

“No.”

“That wonderful woman flying around up there – damn, that’s freaky- she loves you.  Burt and I know she loves you.  It drives us nuts, but the facts are, you are the luckiest man alive.  You have this beautiful son, giant brain, and a future that is only going to get better.  You have the best friend in Cid that a guy could have.  You come from a family of fun-loving people.  You have it all, dude.  Stop imagining that someone is going to take it all away.  Just enjoy it.  God, I would.”

Burt was proud of Mike.  He had grown so much in the last few years.  Burt knew that Mia had something to do with it.  Mike probably had a few sleepless nights thinking of her.  But he had Mia’s trust, and he showed himself worthy of that trust tonight.

Ted held out his hand to Mike.  “I’m sorry for my insecurities.  I would like to thank you for thinking of me when Mia needed help.  You are a better friend to me than I’ve been to you, and I’m sorry.”

Mike grasped Ted’s hand and said, “I accept.  But can you put in your will that I get Mia when you blow yourself up?”

“I’ll think on it,” Ted said, laughing.

“Mia, you’re working too hard.” Orion coached, “Birdman flying is all about letting the air around support you.  There, that’s better.  Now, when you have to stop suddenly, pull your upper body back quickly and your wings out so they are flat, like this.”  Orion demonstrated.

“That is easier,” she said and laughed at the mistakes she’d made earlier.

“Each one of those feathers could hold a Burt off the ground if needed.”

“Like…”

“Dumbo.  Oh, Mia, you are so bad. Burt is a healthy male and…”

“A wonderful lover,” Mia completed.

“Young lady, you are a married woman.  You have to put memories like that away.”

“Did you stop thinking of your lovers?”

“No.”

“Orion, I can’t help but believe that Burt played a serious role in making me who I am now.  When he found me, I had no confidence.  I was hiding from the paranormal world.  I was letting the humans take advantage of me.  I thought that it was an honor to clean their fucking gutters.  And all the time, they were calling me Crazy Cooper, the girl that screams in the graveyards, behind my back.”  Mia looped back over her grandfather and flew upside down underneath him so he could see her face.

“He listened to me and loved me.  There were major problems and hurt feelings later, but it was him who showed me how valuable I was.”

“Why didn’t it work out?”

“Angelo, a flitch, a kiss, and misunderstandings on both sides.  I let it happen.  I moved on to my high school crush, and he hated me for it.”

“Mia, I can’t blame you for beating Angelo up when you see him, but he really thought he was doing the right thing.”

“Actually, he did.  No longer encumbered by the emotional baggage, I was able to see who I had been destined to be with all along.  Funny thing was, Ted knew it before I did.”

“He is a smart but flawed man,” Orion pointed out.

“Flawed?”

“He is a hero.”

“Go on…”

“Ted tends to sacrifice himself for the greater good.  He was raised on the higher ideals of Bradbury.  He is Spock.”

“He thinks of himself as Batman.”

“The most severely flawed of the superheroes,” Orion said.  “But he is who
we
need him to be, Mia.”

Mia grabbed Orion and pulled to a stop.  “We?” she questioned.  “Who’s we?”

“You, me, Angelo, Sariel, Murphy, the Council of Women.  Ted was the reason you came here, yes?”

“I wanted to heal my marriage,” Mia explained.

“Mark Leighton is here.”

“What does Mark have to do with me being here?”

“Mia, it was prophesized by the sages that a man would rise up, hunt down angels like they were vermin, and change the balance of power.  Humanity, without its guardians, would fall, and evil would reign.  His name is Mark Leighton.”

“He’s just a boy.”

“He can see angels.  Before you came, he was angry.  He was angry at God for what happened to his father. He was traveling down a dark road.  That house may have accidently saved him. It held on to the negative elemental, which was supposed to open up Mark’s heart to hate. You felt it when it touched you.”

“I’m not sure I believe the house was acting in Mark’s best interest,” Mia commented.  Mia let go of her grandfather and drifted awhile, thinking.  “How is he now?  I expect you read him.”

“He’s a happy, optimistic boy.  He believes in you, Mia.  Your counsel has planted a seed.  Your husband, if successful, will enable Mark to be able to communicate with his father, and the seed will grow.  You and Ted have the opportunity to change his and our future.”

“How?”

“I’m going to ask you to do a few things.  First, you need to show yourself to Mark, wings and all.  Explain that you’re not an angel because angels are made not bred, and when an angel is killed, there is no one to take its place.  Tell him that your wings were given to you by an archangel.  Let him know that those most scary of creatures are fighting for mankind, and they need his help.”

“That is an awful lot to lay upon the shoulders of a twelve-year-old.”

“Mia, you were fourteen when you knew you had to burn down that house to free your ‘misty mother.’  Don’t discount Mark because he is male.”

Mia did a double-take.  “Me?  A reverse chauvinist?”

“Maybe a little,” Orion said, angling his head.  “You forget, I’ve been in your head.  I know all your heartaches and all your joys.  I know you feel that Roumain has betrayed you in a way that you attribute to him being male, that a woman would never do that to you.  But may I remind you, it was a woman who did the most damage to your marriage.”

“Beth.”

“Whether we are male or female, we are capable of good and evil.  True, the men who fear women are the most dangerous, but I have seen a few women who should not be given dominance, too.”

“Is Beth a victim?”

“I don’t know Beth.”

“I thought I did.  I held her hand and didn’t sense a hex or a flitch, but I could have missed something.”

“Or she could be bad,” Orion said.

They flew higher through the cloud layer and into the starlit sky.

“Oh, before I forget, Mia, when you close your wings around you to transport, unless you are going to the aerie, you don’t have to be nude.”

“Really?”

“Yes, it’s the holiness of the aerie and the Brotherhood libraries that demand you bring nothing of this world into them.”

“So I arrived naked at Angelo’s for no reason,” Mia said, embarrassed.

“About that, transforming from a naked female in front of a male, showing yourself to him at your most vulnerable, is the start of birdman mating.”

“Kill me now.”

“Angelo understood you were improvising, but it was understandably difficult for him under the circumstances.  Had the Council not taken your fertility from you, it would have been impossible for Angelo to stop.”

“I am such a goof.  If it’s not demons, it’s birdmen.  Tell me, have I broken any etiquette rules that have bound me to any other strange entity?”

“The Other.  Don’t worry, Angelo took care of him.”

“By take care…”

“I find there are too many Others around for comfort,” Orion said vaguely.

Mia filed this information away.  She thought about Mark.  “You said, I need to do a few things,” she said, getting back on subject.

“Mia, you need to slay the negative elemental.”

“I sensed that.”

“When you do, you need to fly to Haiti and lay the corpse at the feet of Roumain.”

“Why?”

“It will become clear when you kill it.”

“It’s a who, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Are you going to tell me who it is?”

“No.  Trust me, Mia.  It will do you no service to know right now.  You have to save Mark.  That is why all of this turmoil which has happened to you, has come about.  Someone wanted you to shake your feathers loose.”

“I’m scared.”

“I know.  Will you do this for me?”

“Yes, Orion, I will.”

“I will stay and protect Brian.”

“Is my son in danger?” Mia asked, panicked.

“Oh yes.  But I know not from whom right now.  When Audrey and I were playing with Brian, he soiled his onesie, and I changed him. I saw that he has a particular birthmark on his shoulder. That combined with his innate knowledge of Hindi puts him in danger.  When this is all over, you need to bring him to the aerie so Elizabeth can hide the birthmark until he is a grown man.”

“Why?”

“It only happens a few times in the history of mankind, but you and Ted have given birth to a reincarnated sage.  He is marked.”

“I thought he was marked by Roumain.”

“No, don’t give the judge that much power, Mia.  This is bigger than Roumain.”

“Ted told me that he wanted to ask you to teach Brian.  He sensed that western civilization’s education facilities would not be enough to quench his thirst for knowledge.”

“Ted is right.  I think we have the rebirth of a very powerful sage, but he must be raised by you, Mia.  He must understand what it is like to be human and vulnerable, what it’s like to make mistakes.  How to ride a bike, play outside with friends. Being someone that is but a part of something bigger.  You and Ted need to teach him to laugh, to forgive, and to love.”

“My mind is blown, Orion.”

“What blows my mind is, this would have never happened if a duo of paranormal investigators hadn’t needed help to find Murphy’s farm.  It all started with them.”

~

Burt and Mike sat drinking in the RV.  They had moved on to the hard stuff.  Each had stories to tell about Mia that the other hadn’t heard.  How her obstinate refusal of taking the easy way out had enriched each of them.

“When you and Ted were stuck in that school, I thought I would have to pry the leadership role out of her hands, but I was wrong.  She seemed relieved.  Mia knows her strengths and ours.”

“More or less,” Burt agreed.  “She needs to be reined in at times.  Her impulsive nature gets her in trouble.  I’ve had to play the bully sometimes, but I really felt it was for her own good.”

“When you’re not looking, Burt, she looks at you in a way that every man wants to be looked at.  Whatever good times you had together are not forgotten.  No matter how horrible you were to her later, she still saw the man she shared her heart with.  I envy that.”

Burt looked sideways at Mike.  “You have her trust.  I wish I had that again.”

“It’s a heavy burden.  Although Ma says that it has brought out the best parts of me.  My mother actually told me that she was proud of me, and she was cold sober at the time.”

“Mia’s a slob,” Burt said, trying to pull out of the regret dive he had entered.

“Yes, she is.  She’s been raised by males.  Even prim, fussy Ralph never could convince the girl to pick up her discarded clothes,” Mike said.  “She’s like having an oversexed little brother sometimes.  She pushes my buttons.”

“That’s because you push hers first.  Do you know, Dupree, you and she have had more fights, physical and verbal, than any siblings I know?”

“Yet we’re still friends,” Mike said, pouring himself another drink.  He raised the bottle and examined the lack of contents.  “Ma’s going to kill me for taking her best whiskey.”

“I think she’s more of a gin girl these days,” Burt said, pushing his glass over for Mike to refill.

“Do you ever play What If?” Mike asked.

“Sure, everyone does.”

“What if I wasn’t so nasty to Mia that first day?”

“You would have been nasty to her the next day,” Burt said, laughing.  “You were way into satisfying your ego, bedding all the bodacious bods, and in short, all about Mikey.  I don’t think Mia was interested.”

“How the hell did you get her?”

“I don’t know. I think I walked in when she was the most vulnerable and listened.  It wasn’t on purpose.  I didn’t think we’d last beyond the investigation.  I was surprised that we did.  Honestly, I don’t think I could have handled all that has happened to her.  Ted’s a unique creature.  Not that he hasn’t fucked up, mind you.”

“Royally fucked up,” Mike said.  “Do you think they are going to be able to get past this latest fiasco?”

“Mia forgives, maybe too easily,” Burt said.  “But I’m very grateful she does.  Otherwise, I’d be back in Kansas filming residuals.”

Cid stood outside the door listening to the men inside.  He was glad that he and Mia never connected in the way she and Burt had.  He saw her for what she wanted to be seen as, Ted’s wife and Brian’s mother.  He sensed that this gave Mia peace.  He opened the door and changed the subject by asking, “Who’s in for a game of D & D?”

Ted sat waiting.  He had laid Brian down soon after Cid left.  Audrey was having a girls’ night with Glenda.  The cottage was quiet.  He thought about the revelations of the evening.  His opening up to Burt and Mike surprised him.  He’d thought it was best to lay his crimes on the table.  Clear the air. Mike almost personally convicted him.  He had misjudged the man.  How much had Ted’s turbulent school years affected the man he had become?  Did he still live his life in the pages of comic books?  Was there a way to balance the grownup with the child?

He heard the soft voices of Mia and Orion approaching the cottage.  Ted got up and walked out onto the deck.  Orion had stopped and was looking at his granddaughter’s face.  He said something too soft for Ted to hear.  Mia nodded and seemed to square her shoulders.  Ted knew that move.  Mia did that when she had resigned herself to something.  He wouldn’t pry, but he was curious what had brought that about.

“How was the flight?” he asked them.

The two looked up, and Mia smiled.  “It was fun.”

“Next time, take me.”

Mia nodded.  “I will.  Better bring a parachute though. I seem to have a problem flying upside down when I should be right side up.”