Page 31 of Silver Claw

“Barb,” I said. “I can’t hear him when he speaks.”

For years, I could see ghosts but couldn’t hear them, and I wondered if Anika’s siphoning was interfering with my ability to hear some of them. Not all, because I’d picked up voices from spirits after the attack, even if I hadn’t spoken to them directly.

She nodded, her hand to her chest, as though until that very moment she hadn’t believed I’d really be able to see him. “Edgar was mute,” she told me. “He could never speak.”

The ghost began disappearing and then reappearing rapidly, blinking in and out as his emotions got the better of him. Finally, he appeared by Barb’s side, his arms around her, his head on her shoulder, and softness in his eyes as he stared at her.

He held her like he meant to hold her forever, and I understood exactly what he was trying to tell me. Why he hadn’t crossed over.

I sighed. “He doesn’t want to leave you,” I told her. “He hasn’t crossed because he believes he needs to stay here and take care of you. He’s been making all that racket because he was trying to find a way to show you that he was still with you.”

“Oh,” she said, putting trembling fingers to her mouth as she blinked back tears.

But Edgar wasn’t happy with me. I wasn’t interpreting things exactly, though I knew I was close.

He frowned at me, signed a word, and pointed at me, then at Barbara.

I nodded. “Go ahead. I’ll tell her.”

He touched the middle finger of one hand to his forehead, the other to his chest, then moved them away. I mimicked the movement.

Barb frowned. “Sick? He’s saying he’s…sick?”

Edgar shook his head, then pointed at Barb, his face sad.

“He’s sayingyou’resick,” I told her. “You need to go to the doctor.”

It took a while, but by the end, Edgar had informed her that he was going to wait for her, there in that house, until she died. He wanted her to cross into the afterlife with him, but not until it was her time to go. And he didn’t feel that now was her time.

He promised to be a quiet presence in the home if she would allow him to stay. If she told him to go, he would go.

“It’s your choice,” I told her. “He’ll understand if you want him to cross over now. But he’ll wait for you, no matter how long it takes, if you want him to wait.”

Once again, Edgar wrapped his arms around her. He kissed her cheek, then did what he’d been doing since he’d died. He waited.

And Barb’s smile lit up her face. “We’ve been together since we were teenagers,” she told me, her tears spilling over. “We promised each other on the day we got married that we’d stay together forever.” She closed her eyes. “I feel him. He has his arms around me, hasn’t he?”

“Yes,” I murmured.

“Stay, Edgar,” she whispered. “And when I leave this old body, we’ll go into the beautiful spirit world together. Or,” she added, wiping her eyes and smiling, “we might decide to stay right here and haunt whoever moves in when I’m gone.”

I didn’t have to hear his voice to know Edgar was laughing. But as I turned to leave, he had one more thing to say.

Barb snorted when I gave her the signs. “He wants me to leave the TV on.”

She hugged both me and Joe before we left, insisting we let her know if there was ever anything she could do for either of us.

“Make sure you get to the doctor,” Joe told her. “Get yourself taken care of.”

She smiled. “Maybe I will,” she said, then shrugged. “Maybe I will.”

“She’s not going to the doctor,” Joe said, as we got into my car. “Is she?”

“I don’t know.” Then, because we needed something more bloody and less emotional, I drove us deeper into Jakeston. There was always something going on in the city. Besides, I needed to talk to the vampire master.

“Where are we heading?” Joe asked, settling himself more comfortably against the seat.

“To find Bastien,” I told him. “He needs to know about Voss.” So did Jared. I called his cell phone and left a message when he didn’t answer. I told him only that Voss had some sneaky magic we’d need to be prepared for. We’d discuss it in detail when I saw him later.