Page 134 of Dead Vengeance

“I haven’t seen him all day,” I say. “I’m sure he’s around here somewhere.”

“It’s all right.” Fabian leans forward, placing his flowers down on the table. “I’ll wait here. With you. I don’t want to come off as needy.”

It might be considered inappropriate to laugh right about now, so I choke it down as best I can and wait for Liam, who’s got his hands on his hips and a frown on his face. “We’re actually kind of busy,” he explains to Fabian. “Just in the middle of something.”

“Kraa!” Edgar agrees, nodding at Liam.

Liam nods back, and somehow I adore him all the more for it.

Fabian finally notices the darkened room, the candles, then surprises me again by looking appropriately mortified. “Sorry. Was this… Were you having a date? Right now? During work hours?”

“No one’s having a date!” I try to cover for Liam, having forgotten entirely that he is actually technically on the clock.

“We were having a séance,” Liam informs him. “For work reasons.”

“Oh, I love séances!” says Fabian. “Who are we calling up?”

“We?” Liam rasps out. “We are not calling anyone up.”

“Well, you must be calling someone up,” Fabian counters. “Though I’m not sure why you’d need to. Seems to me you’ve got plenty of ghosts around here.”

“We don’t need to,” I attempt.

But Fabian carries on with, “Is it about old mate upstairs? Simon reckons he’s going to kill you both.”

“Oh, does he now?” I reply, full gall.

“Yeah. He thinks you should move away. That Liam and I should go back to work. Get on some safer job. But I told him, if you won’t let me die, I’m not leaving here until we fix this, so he and I can be together, even if I’m stuck in this flesh suit. So…” He gives the small setup another once-over. “Can I help? More people, more energy, isn’t that right?”

“Kraa!” says Edgar.

“Mmm,” says Liam. “Edgar’s got a point.”

What the hell is even happening in my house? “You’re listening to Edgar now?”

“He’s a very smart bird,” says Liam.

“Kraa!” agrees Edgar, adding a pleased gurgle at the end.

“What?” asks Fabian. “What does he say?”

“He says you clearly love séances, and that if we don’t let you join, we’ll be here all day. So I guess you can stay.” With that, Liam grabs my arm and pulls me back towards the coffee table.

Fabian gently moves his flowers to the floor, which is a relief, because the paper wrapping lying so close to the candles was making my eye twitch.

And, another small mercy, Liam then settles onto my side of the table, his arm pressed against mine, and oh, how I wish we were still upstairs in the office. Alone. Together. All the ghosts and the ghost botherers outside, away from us, just for a while.

But Liam’s keen to get back to this, for the obvious reason, so I do my best to push down all the stress and frustration and be some kind of professional. “Fabian, we’re calling up Liam’s brother.”

His blue eyes widen, and he looks at Liam anew, more serious and caring than I’ve ever seen him to date. “I’m sorry, man. I didn’t know. Sorry.”

Liam lets it go with a flippant-sounding, “It’s been a while since it happened.”

“I would have been more respectful,” Fabian says. “I’m so used to these things having happened a long time ago, you know? Like a hundred or more years.”

“Are you?” asks Liam, a touch of humour in his tone.

“Yeah.” Fabian nods, completely serious, as if that’s a full answer.