Chapter Thirty-Seven

I woke to find myself in a hospital bed. The room was dark and I tried to figure out what the weight on my chest was. I shifted and the weight moved.

“Mags!”

“Nell?” I felt a hand on my forehead. My voice sounded slurred and heavy.

The overhead light came on. Nell was in the chair by the bed, holding my hand. Nancy was in the other one. Serge on the window sill. Craig lay on the bed beside me. He smiled and removed his hand from my forehead. “You’re back.”

“I heard there was cake.”

“They were worried,” Nell said. “But I wasn’t. I knew you’d be okay. Rori said it would all work out.”

“I don’t know if I would call it that,” I said. “There was a ton of destruction and—”

“Don’t be a diva. Rori said it would work out,” said Nell. “She didn’t say you were going to get a Hollywood happy ending.”

I looked at Craig. “But you got a happy ending, sort of. They lifted your suspension.”

He shook his head. “No, they didn’t. Serge came, told me what was happening—”

“And he flashed into ferrier mode,” said Serge. “It was awesome.”

“Just like that?” I asked.

“I am what I am,” said Craig. “No one gets to tell me what I can be and when I can be it, especially when the people I love are involved. Maybe that’s what I had to learn, that no one can take my power from me.”

“Mags, you did get a happy ending,” said Nell. “You’re here.”

“Yeah, exactly how did I survive? The last thing I remembered was the bullet, and I know it was working its way to my heart.”

“I ripped it out,” said Serge. “But the bleeding was terrible.”

“I cauterized some of the vessels to stem the flow,” said Craig. “But the paramedics deserve all the credit.”

“What about the mortal fall out?”

Craig glanced at Nancy. “The ferriers and any of the hunters who were still there worked to shift the evidence. To the mortal world, it’ll look like we need it to look. Lucien took you and Carl hostage, shot the SUV, and blew it up. Nancy showed up, there was a fight. She got his gun away, but he got hers. He turned it on her, but you stepped in, taking the bullet.”

“What about Lucien?”

“When you dived in front of me, there was a flash of light,” said Nancy. “The combined energy of you and Serge. It blasted Lucien to smithereens.”

“But everyone else was okay? Our energy didn’t hurt anyone else?”

“Think of your energy like the world’s best targeting device,” said Craig. “It honed on Lucien and Lucien alone.”

“And hell claimed him,” said Serge. “I won’t gross you out with the details.”

“Thanks. Are the ghosts okay?” I asked.

Craig nodded. “All that were to be transported were transported.”

“Did you see my dad?”

Craig and Serge exchanged glances. “No, sorry,” said Craig. “But that can mean a lot of things.”

“But why? What can it possibly—”

Nancy put her hand on mine. “Questions for later, kid, when you’re stronger and can deal with the answers.” She looked at my friends. “Let’s go. I promise we’ll be back in a couple of hours and we’ll talk then.”

✦ ✦ ✦

I dozed, then woke to a faint light in the corner. Carl. “Why are you here? You should have crossed over.”

“I’m scared,” he said. “No one tells you—no one tells you when you die, you see all the moments of your life. I wasn’t a good guy. I took advantage of others, I was mean…”

“That’s not what’s holding you here,” I said. “You’re scared of what Julie will think of how you lived your life. She’s the reason you kidnapped me.”

“Kidnapped. God. I’m never getting into heaven.”

“I don’t know about heaven, but you’re not as bad as you think.”

“You don’t know that,” he said.

“I do. Hell took Lucien. It would have taken you too, if you deserved it.”

He began to cry. “I’m so scared.”

“Serge said you had supernatural protection,” I said. “Someone on the other side must love you, and loves you enough to have covered you. Someone like Julie. Don’t be afraid to cross over.”

“What’s on the other side?”

“Julie, for one.” I was too tired and doped up with meds to take my time with his transition. The quickest route to him crossing to the other side was via his lost love. “Tell me about her.”

“Julie? She was beautiful.” He smiled as memories came to him. His energy glowed and radiated soft tendrils of pink light. “Sweet. She was my conscience. I feel like everything went wrong when she died and—” He looked at the point by my bed. “Julie? Is it you?” He listened, laughing through his tears. “Yeah, I’d forgotten about that.” She said or did something that made his legs buckle. He sobbed, “I don’t know if I deserve it. I’ve been so horrible.”

The spot beside my bed glowed, moved close, then enveloped him. He cried, and cried harder, then disappeared in the fading light that left peace and love in his wake.

“Maggie?”

I turned as Zeke and Homer emerged from the other side of the curtain that separated my side of the room from the other.

“We didn’t want to leave until we said goodbye and thanks for saving us,” said Zeke.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t prevent Lucien from taking you.”

“Shucks,” said Zeke. “No one can stop bad things from happening. I just appreciate you helping fix it. ‘Sides, you gave me back my little brother.”

Homer climbed on the bed. “You did real good, Maggie.”

“Thanks for all your help. I felt you and your brother’s energies protecting and helping me.” I took his hand, trying not to cry. “I really am sorry. I’m so sorry for all the bad things you saw and did because Lucien trapped you.”

Homer leaned forward and wrapped his arms around me. “Even in the dark,” he said. “There is always love.”

I sank into his energy, hugging him back even as he faded from my arms.

Zeke had Homer, and together they’d crossed over. But where were my dad and mom? Had they found each other, or had they fallen between the cracks into a dark so consuming that not even my love could reach them?