Chapter Nineteen
Avery
“Hey.” The guy standing in Holden’s kitchen with two giant dogs scared the fuck out of me. “Who are you?”
I’d seen him and the dogs when Holden and I were at Two Bitches for lunch. The guy had come through the restaurant with those dogs straining on the leashes before he left through the front door when we were at the café with Oscar.
“I’m EZ. Happy mentioned me to you before, right?” The sexy guy slipped off his sunglasses to reveal red eyes. I wanted to laugh, but if he knew about Happy, maybe I could get some answers.
“Wait. You came here to talk to me about Happy?”
“I did. She’s disappeared, and I need you to bring her back. I’m not after her, you know. I’m looking for Hal. I think he has her, but I need you to draw them out. Happy can’t be away from her heart for long, and when she comes to find you, he’ll follow her and I’ll get him.”
“You’re using me as bait?” That was just my fucking luck.
“Eh, kinda. I won’t let you get hurt, Avery, but Hal needs to meet his ends. This won’t hurt, okay?” He touched a finger to my head, and I collapsed.
My eyes opened in a smokey place. Everything was blurry, but EZ was sitting next to me with those two big dogs on the floor staring at me.
“Where am I?” That seemed important to know.
EZ laughed. “Where everyone ends up. You’re just early. Once I get what I want, you can go back to your life. I just need you for a little time. As you said, you’re bait.”
One minute we were in Holden’s kitchen, and the next I was here in odd nothingness. What the fuck would happen next? “Shouldn’t you be able to catch him without using me?”
“With you, it’s much easier. I just need you until Happy shows up. Hal won’t be far behind her, and I’ll get him. End of story.”
I sucked in a breath and stared at the man. “What about Holden? What’s going to happen to him?”
EZ grinned. “He’s going to be fine. You wanna know what he’s doing now?”
Suddenly, we were in a hospital room with Holden sitting in a chair holding my hand. “Come back to me, sweetheart,’ he whispered.
I glanced at the bed to see someone who looked like me with a large bandage on his head while being hooked up to machines, so I turned to EZ. “Is that me? What happened to me? Am I going to die?”
“No. Remember the wreck when you were heading home after Christmas? You hit your head.”
I nodded, not sure where he was going with the information. My perplexed expression must have given me away.
“You had a little brain bleed from the accident, so they shaved a spot on your head and went in through the temple to drain the accumulated blood. Now you’re in a coma so they can monitor you to see—I’m no doctor, okay?
They treated it and you’ve got a bald spot.
After I get Hal, you’ll be just fine.” EZ stepped closer, but the dogs stayed seated.
Clearly, they had more patience than he did.
“What kind of dogs are those?” I looked at the two huge canines by his side to see they weren’t even looking at me.
EZ grinned. “Hell hounds. They won’t hurt you unless you give them a reason. Go sit over there and wait.”
I turned to see a couch like the one at Holden’s house, so I walked over and sat down. I had no idea what the fuck was happening. All I wanted was to get back to Holden.
“You want to watch television or something? We might be here for a minute.” EZ handed me a remote control but I couldn’t find anything to aim it at. The place was odd—no walls that I could see, but it felt closed in. Never had I experienced anything like it.
“What kind of channels do you get? Where the hell am I?” I definitely needed answers.
Just when shit got good with Holden and me, I was snatched away. Who was that cruel to fuck it up?
“Aw, now, don’t think of it like that. What if you’re like a confidential informant? You know, like the human cops use?” EZ petted his dogs as he stared at me.
“I have nothing to say that might help you, EZ. Why is Happy missing?” She’d just been with me at Holden’s house earlier, though I had no idea how much time had gone by.
EZ smiled. “Avery, you have Happy’s heart, and she doesn’t want to be away from it yet. She needs to decide where she wants to spend eternity. With Hal after her, I think she’s feeling pressured to be with him. I know where she should go. She just has to figure things out on her own.”
That made sense. “What does she need to figure out?”
“You’ll see. So, here’s what you’re missing.” EZ pressed a button on that remote, and the space in front of me lit up like a big screen television. I saw myself in the bed, and Holden in a chair next to the bed with his forehead on my left hand.
“Am I going to die? What’s wrong with me?” Now I was getting pissed.
“I told you that you had a small brain bleed from that accident. You’re going to be okay. I’m not telling you again,” EZ responded.
He wasn’t exactly nice, but he wasn’t rude. “Sorry.”
EZ grinned. “You wanna come look for Holly with me? Maybe we can get this over with sooner?”
“Lead the way.” I wanted to get back to Holden. It wouldn’t be long before my parents were called, and they’d been through enough already.
“Do they eat?” I pointed to the two gigantic pooches that seemed nothing like sweet little Oscar, who I missed a lot. He was a sweet little boy, and I’d never had a pet so I was looking forward to helping Holden take care of him.
“Of course they eat. They eat souls. The souls of the damned who think they can get out of paying for their misdeeds by escaping the eternity they created for themselves. Like Hal. The boys are looking forward to having Hal for breakfast.”
That sounded ominous. “What happens to Hal if they eat him?”
“He’s no more. Poof. Gone. He won’t get the chance to live again.
All souls have a chance at earning forgiveness and getting another chance for atonement among humans.
Some call it reincarnation. You get the chance to take another trip through a human cycle to do better.
Between births, you spend time in a place according to your previous transgressions.
“For instance, Hal actually killed eighteen young women, not just eight. Some of those victims may never be found because he lied. Let’s just say he’s nasty business, so his time before the next rebirth would be spent receiving punishment for his actions.
Hal decided he did nothing wrong. The ones he eliminated deserved his wrath because they’d been foolish enough to trust him.
Now, he’s escaped. Therefore, he forfeits his chances for redeeming himself, and my hounds get a treat.
” That was a lot to take in, especially from a guy—entity—who minced no words.
“So, reincarnation is really a thing?” I had a friend when I was in grade school whose family had moved to DC from India. His family followed Hinduism, and his mother would talk about karma and samsara, as they called reincarnation.
“Sure it is. A lot of work goes into creating souls, you know. As humans recycle plastic, metal, and glass, the universe recycles souls. The between is where experiences are reviewed and lessons are learned, and hopefully, the soul corrects the mistakes they made in their life and are reborn to do better the next time.” EZ stopped and reached into the pocket of his jacket, pulling out what looked like a smart phone.
“We’re getting closer. They’re taking you into surgery to deal with the bleeding in your brain, so we better hurry.” EZ flipped the device so I could see Holden walking next to a gurney as he held my hand.
At a set of doors, the nurse stopped. “This is it, Mr. Rose. End of the line. We’ll keep you updated.”
Holden leaned forward to kiss my hand. “I love you, Avery. I need you. Please fight.”
My knees buckled at his words, and I fell to the... Whatever we were walking on.
EZ chuckled as he and the dogs stopped. “It must feel amazing to hear someone say something like that to you. It’s not my purpose to experience those things, but it’s nice to see how it affects humans.”
“What’s your purpose if it’s not to love and be loved?” I couldn’t fathom the emotion I’d heard in Holden’s voice, and I would fight like hell to get back to him so I could look into those beautiful blue eyes and tell him I loved him, too.
“Much like humans, we in the afterlife are created like this.” He swept his hand down his body. “I was created to assist with crowd control, more or less.”
I decided, for my own sanity, not to further explore what he meant. Maybe it was like the Mafia, the more you knew, the less likely you were to get away? I was taking no chances. I had a man who loved me, and I wanted to get back to him.
“Is there any way I can help with this? Can the dogs sniff Hal or Happy out?” They were some sort of canine I assumed, and I knew that humans used dogs for things like hunting, bomb and drug sniffing, and tracking escaped inmates.
Maybe those big dogs on the black leashes in EZ’s hand had similar abilities?
“If I had something that smelled like either of them, probably they could, but I don’t have anything.” EZ patted each dog on the head before returning his attention to me.
“How were you tracking them before? You showed up at Two Bitches and you were on their trail. What were you doing then?”
“One of Hal’s victims was helping me, but that soul has gone for rebirth. I’m on my own, now.” EZ shrugged.
Okay... “Aren’t there more of his victims to help look for him? Do they live somewhere that we could go talk to them and ask for their help?”
EZ gave me a half-smile. “Hal was executed in 1965. His victims have all been rebirthed. We kept them separated from where Hal was located for less trauma to those who were harmed by him. Like I said, he escaped, but it wasn’t without help.
Once I get him back, I’ll then go after his accomplice.
We have very few rules here, but if they’re broken, the consequences are endless. ”
I swallowed hard as I looked at the dogs. “What are their names?”
EZ smirked. “Hellfire and Damnation.”
That made me laugh. Who knew a demon—or whatever he was—had a sense of humor.
“I have Holly’s heart. Can they smell me? Would that help?” I was up for trying anything that would move the process along.
“Hell, it can’t hurt anything. Just get on your knees, please.”
I glanced at him, and he chuckled. “You don’t want them putting their weight on you if they get on their hind legs. They need to smell your heart. They won’t hurt you. I don’t think they would. Just don’t make any sudden moves.”
Without thinking too much about what he said, I knelt and didn’t move a muscle. EZ touched my chest, and both dogs sniffed for a few seconds before they wandered around for a minute. One of them, Damnation, maybe, growled in a direction—I think. It was all just cloudy to me.
“Come on. This might work.”
Damn, I hoped so.