Page 65 of Stronger Than Blood
I didn’t need Kalinda to tell me it was the victims of the serial killer entity we were here to exorcise. I still should’ve gone to Mick, but I was rooted in place. By magic or by fear, I had no idea, but I couldn’t get my body to move.
Finally, the spirits began to settle, eventually disappearing altogether, along with their screams.
Kalinda, although she looked as though she’d been tossed in a hurricane, was smiling sadly at Mick. Then she confirmed what I’d thought. Mick had somehow helped the victims—the other victims, ’cause he was also one—with their crossing over.
As soon as I could, I rushed to him, drawing him into my arms. I’m ashamed to admit, not until then did I look at Ida, who was the one we should’ve all been looking at since she was the most fragile.
Although shaken, I could sense that she was fine. Then, she looked even better when Kalinda told her that her daughter had been freed.
Mick snuggled into me for a good hug before he pulled away and helped Kalinda take Ida into the house and tuck her into her bed.
The house felt different; the entity was still there but had lost most of his strength. Probably from a combination of Kalinda destroying the mojo bag Ida had made mistakenly with anger and the loss of the spirits he had victimized and, I assume, somehow trapped.
We stood around Ida’s bed as Kalinda went to her room and came back with a bottle of wine I had personally witnessed her bless months ago. “We drink tonight to toast our success but also in celebration of those who were trapped being set free,” she said as she poured each of us a glass.
I could tell the entity wanted to resist, to fight back, but it was weak, just as we had intended.
I lifted my glass, clinked it with the other three, and sipped the wine. It was sweet. Sweeter than I usually drank, but if Kalinda had blessed it, she would’ve done so for a reason, and I didn’t dare complain.
I could tell Mrs. Ida was tired. I suspected the wine, although Kalinda only gave her a few sips, would be enough to put her over the edge. Kalinda took her glass, and Mick helped her lie down, then covered her up.
“I’ll sleep in the living room tonight,” Kalinda said. “So I can be here with you, Ida, in case you need something. Rory and Mick, you should sleep upstairs. For the next few days, we should stay here. We need to bring life to the space. For this home is no longer a place for death. It’s a place for celebration and the living.”
Both of us agreed, and even though it was still early, Mick and I climbed the stairs, undressed, and snuggled in bed.
“You okay?” I asked once he was spooned up against me.
“I will be, but that was a lot.”
“Yeah, it… well, it scared me when you had all those ghosts flying around you. I think I was sorta paralyzed.”
He leaned up and looked back at me. “Flying around me?”
I nodded. “Yeah, your eyes were shut, but I counted at least seven spirits that swirled around you out there. You were saying something I couldn’t quite hear, but it must’ve helped.”
He rolled back over and sighed as he snuggled into me again. “I was telling them to be at peace. I didn’t say it, but I think I was letting them know we were going to deal with the asshole that caused them to… well, who killed them.”
“That makes sense,” I said and tightened my hold on him.
We lay like that for a while before I kissed his neck and said, “I-I think you must be very powerful to have done what you did tonight. I doubt the entity knew how powerful you are.”
“I don’t think I am. I was just tired of being hurt by him and felt bad for those poor people. My grandmother was one of them. I could tell that, but I-I couldn’t see her. Could you see their faces?”
I shook my head. “No, they were just wisps of what looked like smoke.”
Mick turned back toward me, staring me in the eye. “When this is done, I don’t think I want to deal with ghosts again. I-I know you see them, and you and Kalinda help them and stuff, but I-I want to live the rest of my life ghost-free.”
I snorted and smiled. “Dude,” I whispered and leaned over to kiss him. “No one I know wants to see or deal with ghosts—it’s unnatural. Even Kalinda says it’s not right for the dead to be on this side of the veil. I see them because I have no choice. Kalinda took an oath while she was the Queen in her family, so she was obligated to do her part, but no… none of us do it because we want to.”
“So, you won’t be mad if I don’t go ghost hunting with you and Kalinda?”
I laughed out loud, not meaning to be as loud as I was. “We won’t be looking for ghosts, Mick. They might find us, but if you don’t see them, neither of us will even tell you if you don’t want to know.”
He nodded but didn’t respond. “I really like you, Rory. Thanks for being here for me and Granny.”
“Nothing could’ve kept me away.”
Mick fell asleep then, as I suspected he would. I had only participated in something like tonight a couple of times and never anything that intense. Both times, I was wiped out. I could only imagine how tired he was, considering all the energy tonight had been focused on him.
