I removed my jacket, laid it over a nearby wooden chair, and took a seat as Ava, Daniel, and Donna entered.
“So what’s going on?” Donna asked.
I explained that Ava had been to my home that morning and that she’d asked me to test her for abilities. Both remained quiet as I told them about the runes, about the glowing. About Ava not being human.
“Is there any point asking if you’re wrong?” Daniel asked.
“No,” I told him.
“Oh, Ava,” Donna said, taking her granddaughter’s hand in her own. “Why didn’t you talk to us?”
“Because I was scared,” Ava said. “I know you both say that it doesn’t matter who or what you are, but people at school, and on the news, they’re always talking about those who aren’t human as if they’re monsters. I didn’t want to be a monster.” Tears rolled down Ava’s face.
“You’re not a monster,” I told her. “No one is born a monster. We decide the kind of person we’re going to be. Now, sometimes there are forces at work that want to make us mean, cruel, and unkind. That make it seem like it’s okay to be unpleasant to others, to bully and hurt people weaker than ourselves. But it’s up to us whether or not we allow those forces to win. Everyone is responsible for their own actions, no matter who or what they are.”
“How can you be sure?”
“A long time ago, I was married to a woman by the name of Mary Jane Garrett. Most called her Mary, but I knew she preferred Jane, so I usually called her that. She was murdered by bad people. Bad people I spent a long time tracking down and punishing. I allowed my rage and hate to consume me. I allowed myself to become everything I swore I’d never be. That was my choice. And despite my friends helping me see that I was heading down a dark path, it was my choice to come back from the brink of darkness and become something else. So I know a little something about being responsible for your own actions.”
“I’m sorry for your wife,” Ava said.
“Thank you. It was a long time ago, when I was much younger.”
“Did you ever remarry?” she asked.
I shook my head. “There is a woman I love very much. Her name is Selene, and I hope that one day we’ll be reunited.” I smiled sadly. When I thought of Selene, my heart ached for her, but continuing down that path brought only sadness and hurt. “But we’re not here to discuss me.”
Daniel placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently.
“What am I?” Ava asked, taking a deep breath.
“You were born human,” I told her. “But when you were young, you almost died after contracting meningitis. Your recovery was seen as a miracle. It wasn’t. A spirit bonded with you, healed you, kept you alive. That spirit was a shinigami.”
“What’s a shinigami?” Daniel asked.
“It’s a spirit that senses death around them and tries to bring peace to people who die. But they occasionally bond with children. No one is really sure why, but while they’re bonded, the child has no knowledge of the spirit’s presence. From that moment on, the child will be stronger, faster; it won’t get sick, and it will heal quickly. But in return, it will see death. It will dream of death that happens around it. The child can’t stop it; it can’t do anything but accept the shinigami. In accepting them, the host can gain some measure of control over them.”
“How?” Ava asked.
“I’ve only ever met two others of your kind in my life, and only one of those was ever interested in discussing his bonding. He said that he asked to speak to the spirit while asleep, and from there they came to an agreement. It’s probably the best place to start. Spirits, and anything that bonds with a person, are usually open to discussions. At least at first.”
“Just talk to it?” Ava asked.
“Why not?” Donna asked. “Sounds like a good start. We can find more information on them and go from there.”
“I have a few old books on spirits,” Daniel said. “We can look into shinigami and see how best to help Ava.”
The look of relief on Ava’s face was easy to spot. “Thank you,” she mouthed to me as her grandparents hugged her.
“Thank you for telling us this,” Daniel said, leaving Ava’s side to embrace me. “I can never repay you for what you’ve done.”
“You’ve repaid me a hundred times over,” I told him.
After several offers of food for the journey home, all of which I had to turn down because otherwise I wouldn’t have left the house until the early hours of the morning, Daniel walked me to the front door.
“Do you really think she’ll be okay?” he asked me as we both stepped outside. The snow had started up again, although it was light compared to the usual fall.
“Yes,” I told him. “Shinigami are not evil; they offer no harm to their host. They are a mystery, but they are a kind one, despite the dreams. She’ll need her family, though. I won’t pretend it’ll be easy for her to learn how to control the visions, but she’ll get there.”
“How about you?”
“I’m fine,” I told him. “I’m still human, which sucks, but I’ll be okay.”
“Just stay out of trouble.”
“Funny, Chris said the exact same thing,” I said.
“Because we both know who you used to be,” Daniel said.
I climbed into my pickup and started the engine. Feeling the warm air rush out of the vents, I drove away, ready to completely ignore the warning of both Daniel and Chris.
Chapter Seven
NATE GARRETT
Parking the pickup outside of the mortuary, I wondered if I was doing the right thing. But I needed to see the body of the dead Nazi to figure out what had killed him, and I doubted that the police were going to let me just have a look at his report.
There were no cars parked outside the mortuary and no lights on inside. Brooke had once told me that aside from two guards, no one worked there at night, a fact that she’d been exceptionally annoyed about at the time, as she’d been waiting for some drug tests to be completed.
My phone rang, and the screen said Brooke. “Hi,” I said after answering it.
“Get out of your truck,” Brooke said.
“What?” I asked, trying to maintain some semblance of innocence.
“I can see you in your truck.”
“Where are you?” I asked, looking around.
The main entrance to the mortuary opened, and Brooke Tobin stepped out into the night and leaned up against the wall of the building. She wore jeans and a jacket, but I could see her holstered weapon sitting against her hip. “You would suck as a ninja,” she called out.
The mortuary was far enough away from anything residential to ensure that no one was going to hear her, but even so, I looked around at the woods on the opposite side of the road.
“We’re here alone,” she said as I reached her. “I wanted to check on something.”
“The dead Nazi?” I asked.
“You’re here to check, too, I assume?”
“Well, I was accused of killing him, so I figured I’d at least have a look.”
“I heard about what happened. I’m sorry. You seen Antonio?”