Olivia’s car was parked on the road in front of the house, though. I should’ve known she’d be here after seeing those pictures. I wasn’t sure what we could do about the situation. It wasn’t like the woman broke into my house.
I walked in the house to find Olivia sitting at the kitchen table sipping a cup of tea. Alfred walked over to the table with a plate of cookies. I froze in the doorway, shocked to see my ghoul serving my friend. “What’s going on?” I whispered.
“Ava, why didn’t you tell me you had such a lovely friend?” Olivia asked and gave me an exaggerated wink. “He’s been ever so helpful since I came in.”
Little Sammie came running in the back door. “Mom, you said he could play with me!”
Alfred looked at me with his eyebrows raised.
“Alfred, do you want to go play with Sammie?”
Alfred nodded his head rigorously.
“Um, I mean, it’s okay with me.” The backyard was pretty secluded and led up to a fence at the edge of the cliff that overlooked the ocean.
“Stay away from the fence, sweetie,” Olivia called as Sammie ran out the back door with Alfred on his heels.
Snoozles came streaking out of the living room and followed them out. Crazy ass cat.
I set my purse and bag of groceries on the kitchen table and walked over to the back door to look out at Sammie and Alfred playing tag with Snooze.
“You’ve been holding out on me,” Olivia said. “Where can I get an Alfred?”
I gaped at my friend and watched her son play with my ghoul. Was she serious? Then a thought entered my mind. How much could one make selling ghouls? Okay, stop right there, Ava Harper. You can’t create and sell ghouls. It was wrong. Besides, ghouls needed a necromancer to control them.
“You know Alfred is a ghoul, right?” I glanced at her, watching for her reaction.
She shrugged. “Of course.”
“And you’re not surprised to see one in my house.”
A frown dimmed her features, but it vanished almost as fast as it appeared. “Sam told me you are more than a witch.”
Her tone was low as if she wasn’t sure I’d approve of Sam sharing my secret. They were married, so Sam would tell his wife things. Since no one was knocking on my door with a lynch mob, I assume Olivia hadn’t shared it with anyone. “What did he tell you?”
“You are a necromancer.” She peered out the window watching Sammie run around the yard with a ghoul. “I wasn’t sure if he was teasing me or not. But when we walked in Alfred was descending the stairs. I knew he wasn’t really alive. I mean look at him. That was when I realized Sam wasn’t joking. Did you create Alfred?”
I shook my head. “I inherited him.”
“Ah, from William.”
When I jerked my gaze to her, she laughed. “I’ve known the Combs for a long time. Penny babysat for me when the asshole went on his weekly ‘business meetings.’” She used air quotes as she spoke. “I knew William was a necromancer. Is that why he was killed?”
I sighed. “Penny thinks so.”
Sammie's squeal of excitement drew my attention back out the window. “Maybe I can glamour Alfred to look like a dog,” I said weakly.
We both burst out laughing. How was my life this crazy now?
Chapter Thirteen
A knock at the front door pulled me from watching Alfred play with Sammie. Who in Hades is knocking at my door? “Watch them,” I hissed at Olivia. “Let me go see who in the hell is here now.”
I rushed through the house and peeked out the glass on the front door to see Owen standing on my front porch. My heart lurched, getting stuck in my throat. After taking a deep breath, I opened the door a crack and peered out at him. A gasp escaped me as I took in his condition. “Shit, what happened to you?”
I opened the door wider to get a better look at him. He looked like he’d had the shit beat out of him. There was bruising and swelling on the side of his face. His hair was more of a mess than his usually oily look. And his shirt was torn at the sleeve.
“Can I please come in? I need to sit down.” He looked like he was about to fall over. His aura was dim like he was in a lot of pain and exhausted.
“Come in,” I said. “Better than you collapsing on my porch.”
Owen staggered forward. I threw his arm over my shoulders before he fell over. “What happened to you?” I asked again.
We struggled toward the couch. “Olivia,” I called. “Come help.”
She ran into the room and gasped. “Oh, no.” Rushing forward, she helped me lay Owen out on the sofa. His black hair splayed over my pillows.
When he settled down, he let out a shaky breath. I let him relax before saying, “Let me heal you, then you can tell us how this happened.”
Owen and Olivia both gave me crazy looks. “Heal me?” Owen asked with his brows drawn together. Yeah, I know. Not many witches can heal.
I nodded, grinning at him. I wasn’t sure if my grin was helping to ease his mind or not. Right then he was staring at me like I was about to do the impossible. Maybe I was. “I haven’t done it since I was a kid so bear with me.”
He continued to stare at me with wide eyes but didn’t stop me. So, I took that as his permission to use my magic on him.
I thought back to when I’d healed Snooze all those years ago. Then, I was shocked and panicked that I'd lost my beloved kitty. In my panic, I hadn’t realized the cat had died and I brought him back to life. That was a fact I never pointed out to Sam. My best friend thought I healed the cat.
Owen wasn’t dead. He was injured and I couldn’t let him bleed out in my house.
I gathered my magic and energy into the center of my body then directed that light and energy to my hands. I like to think my healing powers had nothing to do with my necromancer half, but I’d be lying to myself. It was the ghoul making and raising the dead part of the power I refused to practice. Healing injuries was different. It was positive and light.
When my hands started to glow with bright blue light, I lowered them to Owen’s chest. My magic flowed into his core, fueling his own magic to speed up his own healing abilities.
My light faded and I sat back, proud that I did it without harming anyone. Owen sucked in a shaky breath and looked down at himself. Flexing his hands and chuckling in disbelief, he sat up slowly as I moved to sit on the chair across from him.
“Better?” I asked.
“Yeah, but…” He shot Olivia a guarded glance, unsure.
I quickly glanced at her as well to see if she was still upright. She knew I was a witch but seeing how much power I had, was different than knowing. Focusing back on Owen, I said with a sigh, “You can speak freely in front of her. She knows what I am.”
“I’ve never heard of a necromancer being able to heal like that,” he said with a voice full of wonder. “I mean I guess it’s possible, but that should take a lot of power.”
Laughing, I looked at Olivia, who watched our exchange with fascination. “Well, that’s just silly.”
“No, seriously. Witches can make poultices and potions to speed up healing, give a little energy to cushion from the pain. And Necromancers raise the dead, but the creatures that come back are undead. But actually heal injuries? Not supposed to be possible. There’s a rumor of an ancient line of necromancers that can heal, but they supposedly died off like a hundred years ago.”