Six #3
Reggie had handed me my food like it was radioactive, and Fletcher shook his head as he watched me eat my veggie burger.
Abel finally turned to me after a few minutes.
“Merritt, if you could explain, please, what happened, we would all be so appreciative.”
I met his gaze.
“I know you’ve heard that I was mistakenly angry with you, and I’m very sorry. It was a knee-jerk reaction that was short-sighted and ungracious after all you did for us.”
I huffed out a breath and let the irritation go, then smiled at him. “Thank you, Alpha.”
He blew out a breath of his own and smiled back at me.
After finishing the last bite of my burger—everyone always said I ate way too fast—I wiped my hands, passed my fries to Evan, who’d already finished his own, and his onion rings, took a sip of Pepsi, then leaned back in my chair.
“Evan was possessed by a ghost, and normally that can’t happen unless it’s a person who’s related to you.
The channel can open because of the bloodline. ”
“I don’t understand.” Cole turned his chair so he was no longer sitting beside me, but facing me. “You’re saying some entity that’s related to us tried to kill him?”
“No, not kill him. The ghost was just trying to communicate. It had no idea that it was hurting Evan in the process. Possessions have differing effects on the systems of the body. Some people would have been sicker, some less. It’s an unknown. The truth is, the spirit just wanted to talk to you.”
“To me?”
I nodded.
“So this ghost wanted to say what to me?”
Whenever I spoke to ghosts, spirits, any kind of spectral anything, I spoke in a lower register than humans could hear.
If Teague had been there, or Ondine, they would have heard me, because that was in their wheelhouse as well, but the shifters in the room with me had seen my lips moving but heard no sound.
“It wanted you to know its death was unnatural.”
“What?”
“The bones that were found, whoever they belong to, their death wasn’t natural.”
“So the bones that were recovered on pack land—”
“How can that be?” Abel broke in, coming around the bed to stand beside Cole. “We haven’t been there long enough to bury any of our dead and—oh.” He went still, the words dying in his throat.
“What’s wrong?” Narah asked him.
“I was just reminded that there are members of our pack in cemeteries in New York, meaning we do, in fact, have people that we’ve left behind in Matthias Haviland’s territory.”
“Yes, but the dead have never been counted as part of the pack once they pass. Matthias can’t possibly believe we still owe him anything because of that.”
“That’s the only reason I can think of as to why he sent Tuss to demand tribute,” Abel told her before turning to the rest of us. “I’m sorry, everyone, but I’ve been trying to work out what the Haviland Pack was doing here, and why, and I’ve been mulling it over for days.”
“Have you tried calling Matthias at this point?” Cole asked him.
“He won’t speak to me, which of course makes sense. We killed his men; he only has blood on his mind now.”
“Which means he will return,” I stated.
“Yes, and when he does come, I would like you to stand with us, Merritt.”
Cole stood up, and because the room was cramped and full of people, Abel had to take a step back or be nose to nose with his nephew, which I was certain he hated.
“You can’t ask Merritt to help us fight another pack,” Cole blurted out. “He has no blood pact with us, no mating—”
“But there could be one. I know that Justin—”
“Alpha,” Cole began, and his voice had a hard edge to it, “you cannot mean to suggest that Merritt—”
“Your son needs to expand your pack,” Narah chimed in as I moved my chair closer to Evan, making more room for Cole, “and I know you don’t want him to mate with Merritt. That was made very clear on Friday evening.”
Abel immediately said that wasn’t true, and Narah argued that it certainly was; she’d seen his reaction to me Friday night. Justin was quick to add that he wasn’t ready to even consider having a mate and that his father needed to get the idea of an arranged anything out of his head.
I could have said something, because the alpha was basically trying to make decisions about my future with no input from me, but I wasn’t a big believer in adding to the noise.
Once everyone got whatever they wanted to say out and calmed down, that was when I normally spoke my piece, gave an opinion, or said yes or no.
The same thing happened at the restaurant every now and then.
There was yelling, people talking over one another, and when it was done, I made suggestions that were then debated.
Everything always worked out. It would be the same here once everyone was done.
“Everyone needs to stop,” Cole ordered, and it was impressive how quickly there was total silence.
He looked at Abel. “I know the pack politics are important, I do. I understand that as the alpha your concern is everyone, but at the moment, I think we need to figure out what is going on with the bones that were found on the pack land and what that has to do with Evan.”
After a tense moment, Abel said, “Yes, of course.”
Cole took a seat again, turning his chair so he was no longer facing me, but back at my side. Reggie and Fletcher crowded around the bed, Fletcher near Evan’s head on the left, Reggie on the other side of me on his right.
“So the ghost who possessed me is related to me?” Evan asked.
“In your line, yes,” I told him. “And when the bones are identified, we’ll know who it is and what was unnatural about their death.”
“Excuse me.”
We all turned to the nurse standing just outside the door, glaring.
“I know Evan will be leaving us soon, but we can’t have raised voices on the ward. It’s not permitted. We have other sick people here who desperately need their rest, so if you’re going to continue with the yelling, you need to do it outside of the hospital.”
“Yes, of course. We apologize,” Narah said quickly.
The nurse glanced around the room, making sure we’d all heard her, then left.
“Okay.” Narah sighed, putting one hand on her husband’s shoulder and the other on her son’s knee before she turned and looked at me. “We’re so sorry, Merritt.”
“Nothing to be sorry for. I don’t have a dog in that fight.”
She nodded. “Sadly, these men here are missing the importance of that.”
“Narah?” Abel said sharply.
“You insulted him the other day, and Justin doesn’t see what he should.”
Abel shook his head. “I don’t understand what that has to do with—”
“Merritt.” Evan sounded a bit annoyed, and I had to smile. He wanted his answers. “I don’t get how the bones of someone related to me ended up under the machine shed. How could that happen?”
“That part might scare you, but I need you to understand just a bit about magic.”
He gasped. “You are magic! I knew it.”
“It’s not the kind you’re thinking. Alongside what is scientifically known, like dinosaurs, pieces of Pangea breaking apart, the fossil record, and evolution, we have, running concurrently with that, religion, mythology, and lore.”
Evan was excited, so he scooted as far over on the bed as he could, to the very edge of the thin mattress, to be close to me.
“In certain places, there are ancient pockets of what we call magic because it’s an easy word to parse, but are actually abandoned workings of things outside your realm of understanding.”
He scoffed. “Use smaller words, please, Mere.”
I chuckled. “When the old gods walked the earth, my boy, and performed their rites, sometimes they left behind places that we call magic.”
“Oh, I see. Like those vortices in Sedona. We studied those in class.”
“Those are actually earth energy. There are a lot of them clustered together there, and it’s awesome.”
“Have you been?”
“A long time ago, yes.”
“Okay, so you mean something different.”
“Yes. The places I’m talking about are much smaller, but when you cross one, depending on what was done there, for good or evil, you can feel cold, or scared, or excited, or happy for no reason that makes any glimmer of sense.”
“I’ve felt like that. Sometimes you go to a place and it just makes you wanna cry and you don’t know why.”
“Right. And I mean, certain places you understand from a history book or a giant sign that tells you horrible things happened there, and that can be overwhelming, and you’ll cry.”
“Sure.
“But sometimes, for no reason, out of the blue, you’re having the best day, and then suddenly you’re scared to death, and you feel like you’re—”
“Drowning in mud,” Evan said, shivering.
“Aye.”
“What?”
“Sorry. I meant yes.”
“And this time, for me, that’s because the magic left behind allowed the bones to be there, and then the ghost moved from their bones into me.”
“Exactly right.”
“Okay, so since our pack lands are new, how did the bones get there?”
His questions were so on point and methodical, and I appreciated that. “I think they got there, were moved there, because of the spot of magic, and when I killed those two guys and spilled blood on the land, it triggered first the movement of the bones, and then the ghost.”
“And that’s because the person was killed. Or more likely murdered, right?”
“I suspect so, yes.”
“Okay, so because this person was murdered, and related to me, and Cole, and my alpha, and Narah and Justin—because of the connection to our family between the magic and the blood…boom, we got a ghost.”
I grinned at him. “Yes. Very good.”
He smiled back at me. “If it wasn’t so scary, it would be awesome.”
“Yes, it would.”
“I have a question,” Abel said.
I looked over at him.
“The bones, you say, are from a member of our family?”
“Most certainly. When they’re identified, you’ll find out who. They’ll also have a forensic pathologist check over the bones and try to find out exactly how the person died so there won’t be any mystery. But who, in your family, has died in the last twenty or so years?”
“Both my parents,” Cole said quickly.