“Men. You always stick together.”
“Ahem,” Audrey chimed in. “Ted is right, Mia. You’re still a bit scrambled. Best to leave it for another day.”
Mike hopped down from the truck. “I thought I heard someone. I took a look at the footage, and that thing is six shades of nasty.”
“Murphy’s here,” Mia said. “Show him. Show him, please,” she corrected.
Mike hated to see Mia being nice, especially to him.
“Come on, Murphy, you’re going to have to tap, because I’m one of the few that can’t see you.”
“Ted, can I at least flip over? I feel like a beached whale,” Mia asked.
“No. Lie there and be good.”
Audrey laughed behind her hand. Burt was enjoying Ted’s treatment of Mia. He had a firm hand on her when she needed it. He had to be the only person brave enough to do that.
“It’s a negative elemental,” Murphy said.
“What’s that?” Mike asked.
“They are a type of ghost that is drawn to places where a tragedy has occurred. They feed off the rage until they are so powerful, you can’t stop them.”
“Mia stopped it with salt.”
“She killed it?”
“No, but it went away.”
“She may have to slay it,” Murphy said. “That angel sword should do it.”
“She’s not going to be able to do this today. Her back is whacked.”
“I don’t understand whacked.”
“Twisted. The muscles seized up. I think it’s amazing she’s not dead.”
“Sariel’s armor.”
“Pardon? Who’s Sariel?”
“Ask Mia. Have to recharge.”
“Okay,” Mike said, looking around. He finally had to call for help. “Where the hell are the energon cubes?”
“I’m coming,” Cid said.
“Mark’s on the way here” Mia said. “Someone has to stop him.”
“I’ll do it,” Audrey said. She got up and jogged down the lane.
“See, you don’t have to do everything, Mighty Mouse. We have other PEEPs,” Ted said, trying to make a point.
“Can I get up now?”
“No. Twenty minutes of ice, and then you go home.”
“How long has it been?”
“Eight minutes.”
“Bloody hell.”
“They are going to need you in there, Ted. I’ll watch her,” Burt promised. “I shouldn’t have asked her to show me the bruises. I think that little action pretty much sealed her fate.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Mia said.
“Okay, Mia, turn your head and look at me,” Ted instructed.
She did.
“No OOBing. Murphy’s worn-out, and you can’t be effective in that state. Plus, you could get sucked into that ley line to nowhere.”
“You’re right. Go, I’ll behave,” she said.
Burt waited until Ted was out of earshot before he asked, “You were going to OOB, weren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Seems to me, Ted’s got a good idea of your modus operandi.”
“He pays attention.”
“Mia, I’m sorry you’re hurting, but you need to take time to heal. Hug your son. Float on a raft in the water. Enjoy the afternoon. We’ve got time to figure this out. If you go in there in your present state, you may not come back. You’ve already had two episodes of the house, or something in that house, taking control of you. Last thing we need is you attacking us with a sword because the house has convinced you to.”
“You’re right,” Mia admitted. “You weren’t too heavy for the floor, Burt. They don’t understand how graceful you are.”
“Are you buttering me up? Because it’s not going to work.”
“Damn.”
Burt laughed.
Mia closed her eyes a moment. She heard the boys calling her, “Meee ah, Meee ah…”
“Do you hear them?” she asked Burt.
“No, I don’t hear anything.”
“The boys are calling me.”
“Tell them you’ll play with them tomorrow.”
“K.” Mia closed her eyes and projected her thoughts towards the house. “Tomorrow.”
They seemed satisfied because they stopped calling her.
~
“I know you’re disappointed,” Audrey said, walking Mark home. “Mia can’t even stand right now, her back is so bad.”
“How did it happen?”
“Something bad and nasty in that house tried to rip her in half.”
“Oh my god.”
Audrey considered if maybe she should have sugarcoated it. Well, it was too late now. “Sometimes we run up against evil things. Until we have a viable solution, we have to pull back. Mia is very upset, and her first thoughts were for you.”
“She’s an angel.”
“She’s just a woman,” Audrey clarified.
“Come on, I’ll show you.” Mark opened the door and invited Audrey in. “Wait here.”
Audrey was standing in the mudroom when Edie found her. “Well hello, Miss Audrey, can I help you with something?”
“Mark wants to show me something.”
“You can go up to his room.”
“He told me to wait here,” she said, feeling like an eight-year-old.
“Can I get you a cool drink?”
“Yes, please. It’s horribly hot out by the house.”
Mark came back to see that Audrey had moved. He found her in the kitchen sipping lemonade with his grandmother. He put the bible down in front of her and pointed to the picture of the angel. “That’s Mia.”
Audrey was shocked. It looked exactly like her, wings and all.
“Mark, did you explain to Audrey what Mia said when she saw it?” Edie asked.
“No.”
“Audrey, Mia thinks perhaps a relative of hers posed for it. Evidently, she is related to the artist,” Edie explained.
Audrey looked at the name, Émile Neyer. “I’ve certainly seen these paintings before, but I never looked at the artist who painted them. The model could be Mia’s grandmother on her mother’s side. I heard that she is supposed to bear an uncanny resemblance to her.”
“But what if it was her?”
“It would be a miracle, Mark. Mia’s just a little younger than I am. I’ve seen her baby pictures and know the people who raised her. Mia is kind and fierce, but she’s no angel.”
Edie put her hand over her mouth.
“Oh, I didn’t mean it that way,” Audrey said, embarrassed.
Mark didn’t pick up on it. “When I first saw her, she was standing on the steps to the cottage holding Brian. And she shone. I saw wings behind her. Wings like… No, they were different.”
“I was with you and didn’t see any wings.”
Mark didn’t seem to be hearing his grandmother. “They were larger and spiked downward.”
Audrey was amazed. The boy was describing the wings she herself had seen. Was Mark a
