The Shadows Trilogy (Box Set: Edge of Shadows, Shadows Deep, Veiled Shadows) (56 page)

Dane’s eyes glinted. “You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“Try me,” David snarled. As Dane’s fist came up, David heard Lila’s cry just before his hand caught it in mid-air and completely absorbed the momentum. Their joined hands hung there.

Dane’s eyes widened for just a moment before bringing his other fist up. David blocked the jab easily. David was shocked. As far as he knew, he had never been in a fight in his life, but his body seemed to know exactly what to do in that situation. Then David’s head swung down and the ensuing violet head butt caused Dane to stumble backwards. Dane fell to the ground with a heavy thud.

David advanced on Dane, but Lila threw herself down and covered Dane’s body. “No, David! You cannot hurt him. Please.”

Her strangled plea and tears in the corner of her eyes brought David out of his red colored haze. “He’ll turn me in and get us both in trouble.”

“Maybe, but then he’d only be doing his job,” Lila said. “You can’t blame him for that. We’re the ones doing something wrong here.”

“I need to get to Ellie. He won’t stop me,” David warned.

“If you want me to help you, then you can’t hurt him,” Lila said.

“Why?”

Then David heard Braz’s voice in his head. “
I see it now, even with my Lila.”

Instantly he felt a wave of guilt. He saw the shame cross Lila’s face that confirmed everything that he needed to know. “Fine. He comes with us, but you’d better keep him quiet,” David said.

Lila looked torn, when another set of feet appeared behind her. “I’ll help you with him, Lila. You go.”

An expression of relief crossed Lila’s face when she saw the voice’s owner. A slight blush blossomed on her cheeks. “Thank you, Peter.”

David sighed. He didn’t need Ellie’s psychic abilities to see what was going on between the three people in front of him. Purgatory, Hell, and now Heaven were all represented. He wondered again what in the Afterlife he had gotten into.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Ellie’s explanation of what happened with Mikel left Lucy annoyed and frustrated. “You should have yelled at the first sign of trouble. You made a bad deal,
again
, Ellie.”

Ellie was annoyed that Lucy had decided to judge her actions. “I need answers, Lucy. I never told Mikel about what I found in my parents’ house when he took me back there. He
knew
about them. I may find out later it was the wrong call, and I may regret it, but I needed more time with him to find out what he knows.”

“So you decided to put Hell on our asses. Yea, that’ll give us loads more time,” Lucy said, rolling her eyes.

“I understand that you don’t agree with me, Lucy. If you want out, just say so,” Ellie said. “I know that this makes things more dangerous. So, if you want to go, just go.”

Lucy sighed and then sat down next to Ellie. She put her hand on Ellie’s knee. “I want you to get your answers, El. I just wish you would have trusted someone else, anyone else, but Mikel to help you find them. Someone like me.”

“I do trust you, Lucy.” Ellie stood and started to pace. Things were swirling faster than she wanted, and other things, the unknown things were beginning to gnaw at her. She wished that things were simpler. It was a wish that was becoming familiar. Then something occurred to her. “Have you seen Jeffrey since we’ve gotten back?”

“No.” Lucy shook her head.

“That’s strange,” Ellie said. “I haven’t seen him since the Palmer children got here. Usually he’s popping up all the time trying to shove a cup of tea in my hands.”

Lucy shrugged. “I’m sure he’s around.”

Something felt off to Ellie, although she couldn’t put her finger on it. “I’m going to check on the kids. Will you go look for Jeffrey for me? Maybe he’s heard something from one of his contacts about Max Turner.”

Ellie could tell that Lucy still had many things on her mind, but Ellie needed to make sure that everything was secure in the waypoint first. It felt necessary.   Then Lucy finally nodded. “Okay, but let’s meet back up here later and figure out what to do with Mikel before Mikel decides what to do with us.”

Flashing Lucy a thumbs up, Ellie ducked out of the room. The sense of wrongness persisted. She quickly made her way back down the stairs and crept up to the door of Bobby’s room. She put her ear to the door but couldn’t hear anything. Just as she was getting ready to turn the knob, a hand whipped around her head and covered her mouth.

“Shhh, it’s me,” Jake whispered into her ear.

Ellie whirled around and saw Jake had his finger to his mouth. He pointed up toward the staircase and then pointed at the small door at the back of the landing. Ellie knew that it led to a small spiral staircase that ran along the three floors. When the Bradford mansion was built, it had served as a pass through for the servants on the Other Side so that they could move things like laundry through the house out of sight. Ellie hadn’t been inside the stairwell since coming to the Afterlife.

Ellie didn’t want to go into the stairwell with Jake, but she heard a door upstairs open. Lucy was going to appear any moment. She let Jake drag her across the landing and through the door just as she heard Lucy’s footsteps on the stairs above them heading for the second floor. Jake shut the door and motioned for her to be quiet.

The small landing was dim, and Ellie could just make out that Jake was listening for Lucy’s footsteps to fade away. Then he turned to her and smiled. “That was a close one.”

“Why can’t I tell anyone that you are here, Jake?” Ellie demanded. She couldn’t deny that the air of disruption she felt might have something to do with Jake’s appearance. She no longer believed in coincidence.

“Because it would be dangerous for you and for me,” Jake said. The smile fell from his face. “You aren’t supposed to be able to see me. So because you do, that means another one of your powers has manifested. And as long as I am here, I can help you. I can see things that you can’t.”

“Another one of my powers? What’s that mean?”

“Ellie, you know you are special. Psychic abilities are blocked here in the waypoints. The fact that you can use them makes you a potential threat,” Jake explained.

“If you are talking about the ability to see ghosts, I have this ability because I took it from you,” she said bitterly. “It was never mine.”

“I could see ghosts, but I could never talk to them,” Jake said. He leaned against the railing of the stairwell. “That’s all you.”

The idea that she had additional abilities that she didn’t know about made Ellie nervous. She wondered how much more freakish she could be.

“So do you have something useful to tell me?” Ellie needed time to think, but more pressing was getting some answers.

“That guy that works for you, the butler…”

“Jeffrey?”

“Whatever his name is. I’ve seen him talking to a woman when you aren’t around. I can’t get close enough to hear what they’re saying because I’m afraid that they would be able to sense me, but I heard them say your name.”

A terrible idea crossed Ellie’s mind. “What did the woman look like?”

“She’s older, but still attractive. Her hair is so blonde it looks white,” Jake said watching her face.

“Lillian,” Ellie said. She tried to think of everything that she had told him that could be used against her. She felt so stupid. Of course, if Lillian was alive, then Jeffrey was still working for her. On the Other Side, Jeffrey had worked for Linda Jordan, Lillian’s alias. Here in the Afterlife, he had served her for her tenure as the Guardian. “Thanks for telling me, Jake. That is really unfortunate.”

Ellie realized that she had to find Lucy and tell her about Jeffrey before Lucy spilled the scoop about Mikel. “I have to go, Jake. Keep me posted on what else you see and hear.”

“Ellie, wait,” Jake said, but Ellie was already heading down the stairs. If she was lucky, she’d catch up with Lucy by the time she reached the kitchen where she would inevitably run into Jeffrey. She figured since Jake was a ghost he’d find a way to contact her again.

She reached the landing of the first floor and pushed the door open. The staircase opened up a hidden door in the hallway that led to the kitchen. Ellie stepped out into the hallway and found it empty. She quickly made her way to the kitchen. She found Lucy standing in the middle of the room with her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide with fear.

“What is it?” Ellie asked.

Lucy pointed at the door to the pantry, which was closed. Ellie moved further into the kitchen so that she could see what Lucy was pointing at.  She gasped. The floor was covered in blood. There were smears all over the stove and countertops. She saw what had happened in her mind. Jeffrey had been standing at the stove. He was attacked from behind with some type of sharp object that drew blood quickly. He dropped to the floor and was dragged into the pantry while bleeding profusely.

“We need to open the door,” Ellie said. She started to shake. “If he’s still…alive…then we have to do something.”

“Ellie, things like this don’t happen here,” Lucy said. Her voice wobbled.

“Seems to be a lot of that going around,” Ellie said. Her heart was beating hard against her chest as she gingerly stepped around the streaks of blood on the floor. Her hand shook violently as she reached out to grasp the knob to the pantry.  She looked back at Lucy, who looked as if she was about to be sick. Ellie couldn’t stand the suspense any longer. She turned the knob and shoved the door open.

The room was empty.

“What the hell?” Lucy said.

“You rang?” Mikel’s voice caused both women to jump.

“Did you do this?” Ellie demanded as she swung around glaring at Mikel. “Where’s Jeffrey?”

Mikel took in the blood and disarray with a disinterested expression and shook his head. “Not me. I’ve been hiding away just like you told me to do. I’d say that the snitch was found out though.”

“You knew he was Lillian’s spy?” Ellie’s head spun. Did everyone in the Afterlife know everything except her?

“Lillian Bradford?” Lucy said in surprise. Her head swung between them. “I thought Mikel took care of her before you even came here.”

“I thought I did, but unfortunately I didn’t actually decimate her soul. I simply banished her,” Mikel said with an annoyed sigh. “Then Lillian cut a deal with somebody higher up the chain than me and turned me in at the same time you did. Poof! She got sprung from eternal torment, and I got the cell. No doubt she’s angling for my job.”

“If Jeffrey was working for her, she wouldn’t have done this to him,” Ellie said.

“No, but I keep trying to tell you that someone else has an interest here and in you. Someone who may not want Lillian snooping where she doesn’t belong either,” Mikel said. “I mean, that’s what I would do.”

“And you still expect us to believe that this wasn’t you?” Lucy said. Her tone clearly said that she believed everything bad in the world could be traced back to Mikel’s door.

“I need to show you something,” Mikel said to Ellie, ignoring Lucy’s question.

“So show me,” Ellie said.

“Not here,” Mikel said. “I need you to come with me.”

“I can’t leave the kids here by themselves,” Ellie said. Bobby’s accusation from earlier that evening still rang in her ears. “I can’t go anywhere. Plus we still don’t know what happened to Jeffrey.”

“I can tell you what happened to Jeffrey,” Mikel said. “He’s dead. By the looks of it, it’s the kind of dead that means he’s not coming back. It’s time to move on. Leave the witch to babysit the brats. We have work to do.”

“How about you go back to Hell?” Lucy shot at him. “I’ll gladly send you back.”

“This would be a whole lot easier if you could say one straight thing to me,” Ellie said. Her head was starting to hurt. She wanted to lie down, but she had a feeling that rest was far from where she was at that moment. “Tell me where you want me to go and what you want to show me.”

“The less people who know where you are the better,” Mikel said tersely. “I’m sure I’m not the only one who has noticed that things are getting dicey around here. You’ll be back in no time, I promise. I’ll even let the witch spell you so that you can get back without me once you are there.”

“Can you do that?” Ellie asked Lucy.

Lucy stomped her foot. “I can give you something like a homing beacon spell, yes, but you can’t trust him, Ellie. I can’t protect you if I don’t know where you are.”

“Perhaps it’s time you started letting Ellie protect herself,” Mikel growled.

“I can take care of myself,” Ellie agreed, and realized that she had accepted the fact that she was going to be leaving again with Mikel. Mikel had manipulated her perfectly. She glared at his smug smile.

“I’ll meet you downstairs,” Mikel said. He left the room before Ellie could argue.

“I guess I’ll just stay here and clean up and hope that whatever came and grabbed Jeffrey doesn’t come back,” Lucy grumbled.

Ellie was agitated, but she bit back her sharp retort. Lucy was scared, and she couldn’t blame her for that. “Maybe whatever Mikel is going to show me will help us clear all of this up.”

“Hurry back, Ellie,” Lucy said. Her voice was small. “The spell is already done. Just say “home” and you’ll be back here before you know it.”

“Thanks, Lucy.” Ellie gave Lucy a quick hug and then followed after Mikel. In the basement of the mansion, there was a large white stone altar where all of the power of the waypoint was focused. Ellie had traveled a way line from it once before, when Mikel had taken her to visit her childhood home.

Ellie found Mikel standing on the other side of the altar already drawing the symbols in the dirt floor that she knew designated the time and place where he wanted to go. “You going to let me in on the mystery yet?”

“Not yet,” he said. He stood up wiping the dirt from his knees. He looked at Ellie expectantly.

Stepping into the circle to join him, she extended her hands in the air. She barely felt the slash across her palm before the white light absorbed them. Unlike the teleportation with Lucy, traveling on the way line with Mikel was painless.

She opened her eyes and cried out in joy.

They were standing in the middle of her coffee shop. At the table that was always reserved for her sat Melanie Wilson who smiled broadly at her.

“Hey, Ellie. Welcome home.”