Haunting Me (An Angel Falls Book 3) Read online

  “Like it or not, it’s true.” I rise from the chair and begin to pace the room. Talking about my plans gets me moving, my mind working, and my anxiety pumping. “You know how things were left between Liam and me. If you will assure me a day or two, I’m going to make things right in Ireland. I will never be able to move forward with Juliana without finishing what I started across the Atlantic.”

  Vivi says nothing, but I know she’s listening. I stop pacing and grip the footboard.

  “You and I are the same,” I say. “Our honor stands before anything else. Even our own wellbeing.”

  “Honor? There’s no honor in cursing a man you once loved with all your heart. No nobility for walking away from your own child.”

  The water fountains in the room begin to gurgle louder. I look over and see the water flowing hard and fast in a sculpted copper basin.

  “Your honor makes you think you should still be punished for something you did as a young woman. Forgive yourself, Vivi, and let your heart heal.”

  “I cannot.”

  “You were doing the best you could. Can’t you see? That’s all any of us can ever do.”

  “It wasn’t good enough. She grew up without her mother.”

  I press my lips together and wait. The fountains are running high and look like they’re about to spill over. Vivi is now staring out the window, even though the shade is drawn.

  “You love her. You did what was best at the moment. You didn’t abandon her with a stranger. She was with her father. You didn’t have any other options.”

  “You’re one to speak. You don’t have to go back to Liam. You can take me to the Summerland and go be with your girl. You’re just as willful as I am.”

  “You’re absolutely right, Vivian. Except I gave my word and if I don’t go back I will have to live with being a coward. That’s one thing you are not. What you did was incredibly brave. I can only imagine the courage it must have taken to walk away and leave your heart behind because you knew it was the only way to save her life.”

  “I wasn’t brave,” she says, her voice lower now. “I was scared to death.”

  “Fear and courage are two sides of the same coin. If you weren’t afraid it wouldn’t have meant so much.”

  “Please leave now. I’m very tired.”

  I steady my nerves and hold my silence for an extra breath.

  She says, “You listen to your own words, Nathaniel. You’re risking losing your heart for honor. You’re scared you won’t be coming back from Ireland.”

  Her voice wheezes on the last few words. The water fountains stop flowing and the room is suddenly quiet as a tomb.

  “You’re right. I’m scared. I could lose her by returning to finish what Liam and I started, but if I don’t find a way to come back, I’m going to lose her anyway. Now it’s your turn. Let yourself be at peace, Vivian. Eileen is well. She has her own family and a home.”

  Vivi doesn’t open her eyes to meet my gaze as she answers. “Nathaniel, some wounds run too deep.”

  I think I have just been dismissed, but she adds, “Go find Liam. One of us should have a respectable life.”

  “I’ll be back the instant you need me.”

  ∞

  As much as I want to, I don’t picture Juliana in my mind’s eye when I leave Vivi behind. Jared’s lanky form with his shaggy thick hair, eyebrow piercing, dark eyes, and long nose is who I seek out. Their forest green house in the mountain neighborhood appears before me. The protective barrier keeps me from passing and knocking on the front door. My reckless behavior doesn’t escape me as I stand here wondering if Marcus will banish me to the Netherworld as soon as he sees me.

  I form a physical body, pick up a pine cone, and hurl it at Jared’s bedroom window. “Jared!” I call.

  It doesn’t take but a second to see the curtain being pushed aside and his familiar face staring out at me. The window slides open and before he has a chance to speak I say, “Invite me in. Now.”

  Movement from the neighbor’s house catches my attention. I know it’s Marcus before I even see him. I push at the invisible boundary surrounding the house with my willpower, but there is nothing I can do to force my way in.

  I hear Jared call, “Nathaniel, get in here dude.”

  Marcus grabs a fistful of my shirt. It tears off me as I slip into the front yard past the boundary line. I don’t look back as I disappear and reappear inside the house wearing a fresh shirt.

  Jared has guitars, guitar stands, pedals, amps, and music sheets spread all over his room. It appears he’s been living in the center of a creative explosion. A laptop computer sits open on his desk with a music program on the screen.

  “You look good. Feeling all right?”

  “I’m great,” he says as he rubs a hand over his chest.

  “I don’t have much time, Jared. I came to ask a favor from you,” I say. This is harder than I thought it would be. Jules and Jared look so similar. The black hair and oval face with the same cheekbones and wide mouths. I swallow the rising doubt about my plan and stare at his acoustic guitar.

  “Anything, man.”

  “Thanks. I haven’t seen your sister. Is she…how is she?”

  “Recovering. I’m about to head over to the hospital to sit with her. Want to come with?”

  “I do, but I can’t. Soon, I hope. Do you have a spare sheet of music I can have?”

  “Sure.”

  Jared riffles through some loose papers spread across the bed. “Here,” he says and hands over the paper and a pencil. “You play?” he asks, the surprise clear in his question.

  “I used to. Not with a band or anything,” I say as I write down the chords, but not the words. “In case I don’t make it back. Play this for Jules.”

  “What’s up? Why wouldn’t you come back?”

  “You know what I am. There’s always a possibility of failure.”

  “If you say so,” Jared says and looks at the song. “Play the first bars so I don’t mangle the crap out of your work.”

  I pick up the acoustic. The wood body against my thigh, the slim neck, and the steel strings under my fingers feels right. Until I was in the cave, I had forgotten how much I loved playing. I strum the first chord. Jared’s guitar is in perfect tune. I look up and find him watching me. I look back down at the strings. If I stop and think about what I’m doing I’m going to lose my nerve. I’ll rush off to be with Juliana and never leave her side again. She is my weakness and my strength. That is why I choose to deal with Liam first. The next time I see her I want to be able to hold her and tell her I don’t have to go anywhere. When I faded away from her side, sick, injured, and having no control over the situation, I knew it was the last time I was going to be able to say goodbye. Let this be finished forever with Liam, whether I am captive or free.

  The chords I had imagined in the fairy’s cave ring true in the instrument. It sounds better than I imagined. I keep playing, letting my fingers warm up and smooth out. I pick out a string of notes which seem to balance the chorus, pleasantly surprised at finding my muse so quickly.

  Jared sits down on the edge of his bed, grabs his Gibson, then reaches over and turns a dial on his small amp. He copies the first two refrains perfectly and stops.

  “Let me start this,” he says as he leans over and hits a few keys on the laptop.

  The computer monitor displays, “now recording”.

  “Keep going. I can edit it later,” he says with a nod at the guitar in my hands.

  I replay the song, strumming the acoustic with ease now. Jared lets me play for a minute, then jumps in, improvising on his electric, adding simple notes and combinations, making the song worthy of being heard. I add the last bit I just made up. Jared starts the chorus again as I play the melody. I’m thoroughly impressed Jared is so quick, but it is exactly what I need.

  I stop playing feeling satisfied with what we’ve just accomplished. Jared hits the stop on the laptop.

  “Not bad for an old fart,” Jared
says.

  “Hey! I’m twenty-two.”

  “Like a few decades ago. So Jules says.”

  “Yeah, she’s right. Maybe I’m not too bad for having such a long hiatus from playing.”

  “That was chill, Nathaniel. I’ll see Jules gets to hear it.”

  “Only play it if I’m not back in a few days.”

  “She’s gonna love it.”

  “One more thing?” I write on a blank piece of paper and fold it up.

  Handing it over, I say, “These are the lyrics. They’re for her. If you wouldn’t mind not reading them, I’d appreciate it.”

  Jared takes the paper from my hand and says, “Sure. You’re sort of a sap, aren’t you?”

  “Guess I can’t help it around your sister.”

  “She’s got it bad for you, too. I’ve never seen her like this before with anyone.”

  “Thanks,” I say again. “And hang in there. Record your album, Jared. You’re really good. The world needs your music before you leave it.”

  “Yes, it does.”

  ∞

  The ridge overlooking the sea is windswept and bare save for the ruins of an ancient temple and the hardy grass. I try to imagine the time when the Gaels worshiped here unhindered. Could this place have been a monastery? What’s left of the east-facing wall, with its remains of pointed Gothic style windows, and the altar below would suggest it may have been a cathedral. There are broken walls of the transepts to the north and south and the long outline of the west wall. It was a cruciform shape once. I imagine the rib vaulting and the glass in the windows. Even crumbling, the site is beautiful in the half dark of twilight.

  I lay my hand on the cold stone wall, staring at incised symbols carved into the rock. The maker’s mark? Is he buried here? Beneath my feet perhaps, or out in the ancient graveyard? Is he watching an angel ponder over thousand-year-old architecture and thinking highly of his work? Or perhaps wondering why this slacker is loitering about when there is a duel to win.

  I stare out across the timeless landscape to Liam’s bungalow. It’s nothing but a dark smudge on the hillside. The line of trees is off to my left. The ocean is a vast breathing organism somewhere behind me and over the cliff’s edge. Call me paranoid, but I’m keeping my distance from Rowan Cottage and the bungalow. Liam could have left any sort of booby trap for me. I don’t want to play that game again.

  I notice a light bobbing and twinkling from far off down the slope. I keep my eyes glued, wondering if in fact I have awakened the ghosts of the past with my thoughts about this place. It approaches slowly, floating through the dark like a lazy fairy.

  In another minute, I should be able to see a body attached to this mysterious light when all of a sudden it disappears. I ready myself for an attack, staying vigilant and alert. Is that him? Would he come at me unseen? Of course he would, the rotten scoundrel.

  The disturbance in the air near me is invisible but unmistakable. It’s a wind shifting directions, a subtle temperature change. Someone is here. I spin around, trying to find its face, but he’s nowhere to be seen.

  “Show yourself, O’Flannagain.”

  Something whooshes over my head and I reach out to grab it. It’s like catching an eel’s tail and slips through my grasp. “No more games, old man. You wanted an honorable fight, so let’s have it.”

  There’s a snap in the atmosphere. It’s more of a feeling than a sound and I’m suddenly surrounded with flickering amber lights. A dozen glowing lanterns sit in the nooks of the crumbling ancient walls or hanging from unseen pegs. Liam stands with the ocean at his back. His silvery-blue eyes are cold and calculating as he watches me. In the scruff of his beard I think I see satisfaction in the miniscule twitch at the corner of his mouth.

  “Ye’re back for more punishment.”

  “Not hardly.”

  He’s holding a crossbow at his side and has a pack slung over his shoulder.

  “I’ll let ye enter the fairy lock now and save yerself a fair amount of gross humiliation.”

  “No chance in hell, Liam. We were finishing up our first round when I last saw you.”

  “To be sure.” With his eyes steady on my face, he shifts the shoulder bag around and with one hand opens the flap. “I’ll be giving ye the first round, seeing as I’ll be winning with me bow here.”

  I grind my teeth at his arrogance. “Fine. Call it one for one and let’s finish this with our fists.”

  “Aye. A fighting lad. At last I see the fire in ye. And what does a numpty angel want to fall from his position in the afterlife for?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  Liam pulls out the two sets of boxing gloves from his pack. They’re more like thin knuckle coverings and I wonder why we even bother especially since he fights by using magic and tricks. He throws a pair over to me and they land in the grass at me feet.

  “The female sort is it?” he says as he lays the crossbow down and pulls on the leather gloves.

  I bend down to retrieve my gloves and refuse to answer.

  “What else is worth falling for, boyo? Isn’t it always a woman?”

  I narrow my eyes. If he already knows, why is he asking? “You tell me. Is that why you’re here?”

  “Ye leave me good wife out of this,” he growls.

  “You’re the one who brought it up,” I point out.

  Liam disappears from the glow of the lanterns. My gloves are on, but I didn’t have time to tighten the cuffs before Liam is in my face with a quick uppercut. My head whips back and my eyes roll. I throw a fast left and feel my fist connect with his ribs.

  “Arhh,” he grunts as he whirls away and disappears once more. “That’s what life has waiting for ye, gobshite,” he says from seemingly nowhere. “Ye get what ye give.”

  He appears as little more than a flicker of shadow on my right and boxes me in the ear. By the time I react with my next punch, he’s above me and I swing into emptiness.

  “Is a fair fight beyond your capacity, you bloody wizard?” I jump straight up into the air after him. My arms are pulled in tight and ready to jab at any soft part on him.

  He dodges to the right, but I was expecting that, so I let my left fist meet his jaw with a crack. He tucks and rolls away from me, landing on his feet as I come back to the ground.

  “There’s nothing fair about life and ye better get used to the fact. Ye want a life with yer beautiful woman, arsewipe? How are ye goin’ to protect her?”

  He swings with his left and catches me in the gut. I was too distracted by what he said to move out of the way in time. Not to mention he’s ungodly fast and more of an opponent than he should be for a man of his age against a celestial being.

  Taking one in the middle, I double up for a second and Liam takes the opportunity to knock me on the other side of the head. Stumbling back I realize if I don’t react he’s going to have me down on the ground with one more punch.

  Ducking and spinning, I land in a crouch ready for his next move, but Liam has vanished from sight.

  “What would she need protection from?” I call as I search the ruins for the old codger.

  He lands thirty feet away from me on the main altar. A beam of moonlight from low over the horizon breaks through the haze of clouds and shines on Liam just enough to see his wild hair standing on end and his sharp gaze.

  “A fall from grace warrants some attention, boyo. Others will seek to destroy ye.”

  “For what purpose?” I say as I move forward. I want this finished. If he’s taking a respite, I want to attack him while he’s tired. I also want as much information as possible. “Why would anyone care if I live my life with the woman I love?” I jump and summersault through the air, aiming for a landing right in front of him.

  He sees my move and is gone before I find my feet. Staying low to the ground, I pivot quickly before he can get the upper hand, but again I miscalculate, and I feel my ankle jerk out from under me. I crash against the stone floor.

  Rolling out of
his grasp, I’m back on my feet and hurling away from him. Flying over the chapel remains and out onto the grounds. I land staring back at the moonlit walls and wait for his next attack. Liam steps out of the ruins, fully visible, and un-winded.

  “Use your God-given brains. What is the first rule of the afterlife?”

  He doesn’t give me the opportunity to answer as he disappears and in the next second comes at me from behind and knocks me flat in a heartbeat.

  “Ye best learn to be quicker,” he says as he wrenches my arm behind my back. “Ye’ve a head as hard as stone and ballocks the size of melons,” he adds as he plants a bony knee on the side of my head.

  “Glad you noticed,” I grunt as I torque my upper body, drag my head across the rough ground and force myself out from beneath Liam’s knee.

  “Did ye say something down there? All I hear are the rocks tumbling about inside yer empty head.”

  “The first rule is….” Back on my feet I move like a flash of light and tackle the wizard to the ground. “Don’t interfere with the client’s death.”

  He lands hard on his back with a grunt, but he manages to catch me in the stomach with his boot, propelling me off him with a heaving thrust.

  I roll across the ground to keep moving so he can’t get me while I’m down. As I’m about to rise to my feet, I sense the wind shifting on my left so I feint hard to the right.

  He says, “Who escapes death, cabbage brains?”

  He mercifully misses and I lash out catching an unknown body part. There’s a crack of bone and I hear a sharp intake of breath. “No one.”

  It must have taken him by surprise because he chooses to disappear again and this time I can’t find him. The lanterns behind me go out leaving only hazy moonlight to see by.

  I wait another minute, wondering if he’s planning his next trick. Even if he wins, and I’m drained of all my energy, I’ll only return to the vast unknown where I recuperate. Then it will be on my honor to enter the fairy cave to complete my sentence. I’m not planning on dishonoring myself or ever entering that dark and damp cell again.