“Oh, God, no. Please don’t die. Please don’t.”
I’d rather not go, if you want the truth. Not just yet. I want a life with you. I can have one, you know, if you don’t mind sharing yours.
“Then take my life. I’ll gladly give mine in exchange!”
No good. If you want me around, you’ve got to stay around, too, I’m afraid. At least that’s the way they’ve explained it to me.
“They?”
Look around the room. It’s getting crowded in here.
He looked up to see Amanda’s parents and another couple from the photo he had seen-her aunt and uncle. They were joined by others-Harry Williams, Benecia Wright, Horace Dillon, and the ghosts of a dozen more began drawing closer. Familiar faces-some recent, some from long ago-appeared. It was Private Makin who stepped forward.
Hallo, there, Captain! We’d have brought the others, but it was decided a delegation would be best, given the limited space and all. I’m going to be brief, on account of-well, time being what it is for the living.
You passed a little test, you might say, by not being selfish about handing off your duties to Amanda. Showed you loved her. That’s a good thing. That said, your time’s actually not quite up yet. You want to live it alone, no problem. You want her to wander the earth waiting for you to show up-’cause that’s what will happen to her-no problem. But if you don’t mind having a partner-we’ve asked her, and she’d like to stay with you, for however long your lives last, and how long that may be is nothing we have any say over.
As for all of us, we’re just here to tell you to trust yourself. You’ve always done right by us, and we know you’ll do right by her. Oh, and-every last one of us thanks you, whatever you decide.
In the next instant, they were gone.
“Do you-do you truly want to stay with me, Amanda?”
Without a doubt.
“Then, oh yes, I want you at my side.” He paused, looking slightly panic-stricken. “I’ve never, um…saved anyone. I don’t know what to do next.”
If you don’t mind, ask Wraith to stand up-she’s been protecting the ring by lying on it. And, Tyler? Better hurry.
Her skin was cold and her breathing had stopped. He turned to the dog, but Wraith was already coming to her feet, and Tyler saw the ring-the ring he knew to be the true ring. He picked it up and carefully placed it on Amanda’s left ring finger.
Wraith exhaled softly on her face, and Tyler felt her warm beneath his hands. She was breathing again, and he could feel her pulse. A moment later, her eyes fluttered open, and she smiled sleepily at him. He could feel the fever just starting to take hold of her.
He was about to kiss her and tell her that he was going to take her home, when Daniel said, “Captain Hawthorne, sir-help.”
They looked over to see him doubled over in pain-and a legion of spiders coming down the stairs.
56
Adrian is causing this,” Tyler said. “He’s trying to revive. He must be trying to control Daniel as well.”
Amanda looked up at him and smiled. “Here’s where all that sleeping on the floor is going to pay off.”
He thought the fever must have her further in its grip than he imagined, but she turned to Wraith and said, “Now.”
Wraith eagerly leaped onto Adrian’s carcass and bit into what remained of his neck. Adrian burst into fire, although the dog was untouched by the flames. A moment later, Adrian disintegrated without a trace.
The spiders on the staircase halted their march, bumped into one another in confusion, then began to scurry back up the stairs as if they couldn’t wait to be away from the place.
Daniel remained curled up in a ball, shaking as both Shade and Wraith approached him next. The dogs merely breathed on him, then went back to their masters.
Daniel gradually looked up at them.
“Feeling better?” Tyler asked.
“Yes, sir.” His face clouded. “I’ve no right to ask it, but what’s to become of me?”
Tyler looked to Amanda, who read the question in his eyes, and nodded.
“Would you like to live with us?” he asked. “We can always use-er, discreet staff.”
“You’d allow that? After all I’ve done to you?”
“You gave him the key to the manacles, didn’t you, Daniel?” Amanda asked.
“Yes, ma’am, but I also robbed his place, and nearly killed him on a road, and delivered him to Adrian, and what I’ve done since-”
“We know,” Tyler said. “Now, if you’ll lock up here, we’ll wait for you outside.”
“In the van at the end of the drive,” Amanda said. Tyler felt her skin growing warmer with the rising fever and watched her struggling to stay awake. She reached to touch Tyler’s face and halted in amazement. “Oh, look! My finger! It’s back.”
“Yes, you’ll get used to such things. Eventually. Now about the van-” Tyler’s eyebrows drew together. “How did you find this place?”
“Colby helped me,” she said drowsily.
“Colby helped-”
“Yes. I think we need to try to help him one day soon. Whose fever am I feeling against my skin, yours or mine?”
“Both, I’m afraid,” Tyler said. “Although Adrian gave me a potion to reduce the effects of mine. I’ll be able to guide Daniel home.”
“Oh, good,” she said, and fell into a deep and healing sleep.
57
Tyler Hawthorne put his arm around his wife. Amanda, far from fearing the dogs, now enjoyed sitting on the floor with them, or in this case, the deck outside the bedroom. So the Hawthornes, barefoot and in bathrobes, leaned their backs against the wall, a dog at each side. The sun had set an hour ago, but the night was warm, and no one was in a rush to go inside.
Amanda, nestled close to him, looked down at her house below. Brad and Rebecca were still staying at Amanda’s house, but had gone out to a concert this evening with some friends.
Colby had stayed at the wedding only long enough to claim a kiss from the bride, and seemed disappointed when Tyler had not responded jealously. He had given Amanda a chaste kiss on the cheek, shrugged when Tyler asked him not to be a stranger, and disappeared.
Ben and Daniel had the night off. Alex, who had sent the rest of her team on to other assignments, was on a first date with Ron. He smiled, thinking of how hard it had been for Ron to work up the nerve to ask her out, when she had wanted nothing more for weeks.
The ghosts were about their business elsewhere.
What the future held for them, he hardly knew. But he looked forward to it, content, as he had not been in a long, long time.
“Listen,” Amanda said, sitting up a little straighter.
He did, on the alert for any disturbance. But the dogs were relaxed.
She smiled slowly and said, “They’re back.”
He listened more closely and returned the smile.
A soft rhythmic song carried on the breeze.
Crickets.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nationally bestselling author Jan Burke has written twelve novels and a collection of short stories. Among the awards her work has garnered are the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar® for Best Novel, Malice Domestic’s Agatha Award, Mystery Readers International’s Macavity, and the RT Book Club’s Best Contemporary Mystery.
She is the founder of the Crime Lab Project (www.crimelabproject.com) and is a member of the honorary board of the California Forensic Science Institute. She lives in Southern California with her husband and two dogs. She is currently at work on the next novel in the Irene Kelly series. Learn more about her at www.janburke.com.