CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Ellyn awoke in a cemetery. She stood before the grave of someone she had only vaguely known named Lewis Ashford. The grave appeared to have been visited recently and was well tended.

"Great," she said. "First, I see the end of the world, now I'm blacking out and waking up in cemeteries. Could this get any weirder?"

She started to walk away, but she felt compelled to turn around and study the headstone. Lewis had died fairly recently, and he was described as a loving father and husband. He was buried beside the empty plot dedicated to his wife, Maggie, whose tombstone listed her date of death as the same as his. Ellyn remembered hearing about his death. He hadn't been a member of her father's parish, but had sometimes attended mass there with his family. He'd been a lawyer, his wife was a doctor, and their family had been the perfect picture of a wealthy suburban family. Flowers, stones, and small gifts had been left by his grave. A notebook lay open in front of the headstone and at first, Ellyn thought it was one of the items that someone had left there, but when she picked it up, she realized that it was one of her journals.

"What the hell is going on?" Ellyn wondered aloud. The words written on the page were in a handwriting she did not recognize and she stared at the page in disbelief as she read the same words over and over again until there was no more room on the page.

Save Deenie.

~*~

Aideen was surprised when the phone rang in the middle of the night, but she picked it up and answered it before it could wake her mother and sister up. "Hello?" She asked. She hadn't been asleep yet. In fact, she'd just barely gotten back from slayer patrol. She still sounded annoyed.

"I know it's late, but we need to talk," a voice replied without preamble or introduction. "Who the hell was Lewis Ashford to you?"

Aideen dropped the phone. When she picked it back up, she tried to sound threatening. "Who the hell is asking?" She retorted.

"Oh, right, sorry. It's Ellyn... From the waterfront."

Aideen tried to be patient, but Ellyn's question had caught her off-guard. "Hi Ellyn," she replied cautiously. "Why are you asking me such random questions at this hour?"

"I just got home after blacking out and ending up at his grave, and... Well, I found a message in front of me when I came around. People call you Deenie for short, don't they?"

"Yeah, they do. Why do you ask?" She wasn't entirely sure that she wanted to know why Ellyn had ended up in front of Lewis's grave. She tried very hard not to think about the first person she'd ever fallen in love with, especially with how inappropriate their relationship had been. Still, since almost no one knew that Lewis had ever been anything more than her lawyer, Aideen knew that Ellyn hadn't just decided to mess with her head by making this call.

"One of my journals was at the foot of his grave. An entire page is filled with writing that's definitely not mine. It just says 'save Deenie' over and over again. Why does he want me to save you, and from what?"

Aideen nearly started to cry. Instead, she took a deep breath and said, "Can you meet up with me right now?"

"Yeah, sure. My dad's an insanely sound sleeper. When you cause Armageddon, he'll probably sleep right through it, which is a shame because judging from the way he preaches about it, I'm pretty sure he'll be sorry to miss the show."

"Be at the waterfront as soon as you can get there. I'm on my way." Aideen hung up the phone, grabbed her jacket, and ran out of the house.

It didn't take Aideen long to get to the waterfront. Ellyn arrived two minutes later. She immediately showed Aideen the page in her journal.

"Oh Gods," Aideen whispered.

"What is it?" Ellyn asked.

"I know whose handwriting this is. Lewis wrote exactly like this." She carefully ran her fingers over the words, wishing they could somehow undo all of the damage that Lewis had done.

"How did a dead guy write in my journal?" Ellyn demanded.

"It's called auto writing. Your body wrote it, but he guided the pen and created the words."

"That's not creepy at all." Ellyn sighed. "You know, my life was much less complicated before you entered my dreams."

"Sorry about that," Aideen replied. "I tend to complicate things."

"I didn't mean it as an insult. I'm just sarcastic by nature and when I'm cranky, it gets worse."

"It's okay. I didn't take it personally. I'm just very involved with the supernatural community, so where I go, trouble often follows."

"Did Lewis possess me?"

"I doubt it."

"Then why did I black out and end up in a cemetery?"

"You were probably in a trance. It happens more often than you'd think."

"This is a new one for me... I've had prophetic dreams and I have a few other parlor tricks up my sleeve, but I didn't know I could auto write. Who was he to you, Aideen? Why was he so determined to tell me to save you?"

Aideen stared at the concrete. "He was my lawyer. He worked with my dad's best friends, so I knew him pretty well. I'm also friends with his kids, Beth and Kevin."

"That's it?" Ellyn asked skeptically.

"Yeah, why?"

"Your lawyer wants me to save your life? It's a bit odd, don't you think?"

"What's odd is that he wants me to live. I helped kill him. He turned out to be a warlock. He was supposed to murder Beth for them."

"That's awful... She must be pretty screwed up in the head."

"Beth's... complicated. She deals pretty well, most of the time."

"So what am I saving you from? What the hell causes the end of the world?"

"I don't know."

"Apparently, this Lewis guy knows something. Why didn't he tell me?"

"Spirits never do. It's something about tipping the balance unfairly or some other BS."

"Great. Even the dead have to deal with red tape."

Yeah... Anyway, thanks for showing me this." Aideen reluctantly handed the journal back to Ellyn.

"Do you want to keep it?" Ellyn asked. Aideen stared at her in surprise. "It just seems like he was important to you, and it's his handwriting, so..." Ellyn tore the page out and handed it to her.

Aideen wanted to hug her but refrained, seeing as how she barely knew the girl. "Thanks," she said. "Let me walk you home."

"I'm fine to walk on my own."

"You shouldn't be out so late at night by yourself."

"I'm supposed to protect you, according to what I'm seeing."

"I'm a slayer, Ellyn."

"Which makes you insanely stubborn, right? Well, I'm stubborn, too, but for the sake of getting to bed sometime this decade, I'll let you walk me home tonight."

"Excellent." The two girls began walking together toward Ellyn's house as Aideen tried to process what had just happened.

~*~

As she did nearly every night lately, Jade left her house and went to Spencer's grave. She only left when Beth and Joey were both safely dreaming, and she was always back before they woke up. It was the only time she really allowed herself to think about him. Anything else was too painful.

"I miss you," she whispered. She didn't feel him. She kept desperately hoping that she would, but it never worked. Every night, Jade left the cemetery feeling even emptier, but she kept going back hoping to find some small piece of Spencer that she could hold on to.

That night, she sensed a familiar energy nearby, but it wasn't Spencer. Knowing who had shown up only irritated her. "Go away, Corey," Jade said.

"I have orders," Corey Shaw replied. "There was a serious threat made against you by some of the vampires. Cassandra wants protection on you."

"Then she needs to assign someone else. Can't you go guard Aideen or something?"

"Aideen's got a mysterious hitman protecting her. Come on, Jade... Don't you remember that I'm Cassandra's second? She only assigns the best to Silver Society members, and she can't do it herself."

"You're so full of yourself," Jade said, rolling her eyes.

"I'm honest," he replied with a smirk. He softened slightly as he added, "I haven't seen you in a while. How are you doing?"

"I'm wonderful. Now go away."

"Haven't we evolved beyond you hating me at all?" Corey asked.

"Sure," Jade replied. I don't hate you. I dislike you immensely."

Corey laughed, and his eyes lit up in genuine amusement. "You know, you're kind of funny for a goth girl, Jade," he said.

"Look, Corey, I'm sure you have good intentions, but I just want to be alone," Jade replied.

"You come here every night, except for the period of time when you weren't in Salem for the weekend."

"I thought you said that you hadn't seen me in a while," Jade said suspiciously.

"Okay, so I should have said that you haven't seen me in a while. I've been worried, and I patrol the cemeteries normally anyway, so it's not that unusual that I'd be here."

"You're such a stalker. I should call the cops on you."

"I'm just concerned, Jade."

"Don't be. I can take care of myself."

"That's debatable."

"You saved my life once, Corey, not a hundred times, and I could have gotten out of it on my own. Get over yourself."

"You would have been toast if I hadn't shown up." He didn't argue that he'd saved her twice. He didn't want to bring up the night of Spencer's death, when Jade had curled up on a grave and basically lost her mind. It was okay to tease her about superficial things like warlocks trying to kill her, but Spencer's death was too sensitive of a subject for him to approach.

"Please. You're so arrogant. You think far too highly of yourself."

"Only because I know how incredibly awesome I am," he replied.

Jade actually laughed. "Yeah, you're just that good, Corey," she said sarcastically. "I'm sure there's a cult of wannabe slayers worshipping the ground you walk on somewhere out there."

"No, no, they worship Cassandra. My cult will be born in the unlikely event of her demise," he replied. "I'm good, but even I'm not as skilled as she is. Of course, she has the unfair advantage of never having her own life, leaving her a lot of time to become the ultimate slaying machine."

"Don't let her hear you say that."

"I just think that Cassandra needs to take time off once in a while and relax."

"It'll never happen."

"I agree, which is why I'll always be a slacker compared to her."

"Well, at least you can take solace in the fact that she'll never be able to compete against you for the title of the slayer with the most acne."

Corey shrugged. "Hey, I'm a teenager. Acne happens," he replied. "At least I have my delightful personality to fall back on until my dashing good looks kick in."

Jade laughed and found herself more relaxed than she'd been in a while. That disturbed her. She wanted to hate Corey. He was arrogant, annoying, and always popped up when she wanted to be alone, yet she was oddly comforted by his presence. If she had met someone like Corey in New York, she'd have hexed him and called it a night, but she was starting to almost consider him tolerable. Something about the night Spencer had died had changed her opinion of him.

"You're not going to go away tonight, are you?" She asked.

"Nope. I have orders," Corey replied. "Considering someone tried to murder Melissa today and now a credible threat was made against you, Cassandra isn't taking any chances."

"Cassandra needs to find me a different bodyguard if she's so concerned for me. Still, if I'm stuck with you for the night, so be it. I'm too exhausted to argue. I'm going home and going to sleep."

"I'll walk you home," Corey replied.

"Oh, so you're not going to carry me tonight?" Jade asked dryly.

"You know about that?" Corey asked in obvious surprise.

"Beth told me how I got home that night, since I was confused and relatively certain I didn't just send a body to my room and merge into it." Jade paused before softly adding, "I guess I should thank you for that."

His voice took on a teasing tone as he said, "I could carry you, if you want me to. I'm super strong."

Jade pretended to glare at him. "Are you calling me fat, Toothpick?" She demanded.

"No, I'm calling myself strong. Don't you listen?"

"Why should I listen when you never do? I keep telling you to go away."

"What can I say? I like you."

"You're a glutton for punishment then."

"Definitely!" He replied cheerfully. "So, am I carrying you or not?"

"My legs are working fine today, but I'll keep you in mind the next time I need a pack mule."

"I could tuck you into bed if you want," he offered.

"In your dreams, Acne Boy."

"I'm going to hold you to that." He grinned at her and offered her his hand. "Are you ready to stand up?"

Jade stood up without his help as a matter of principal. "Time to go home," she said. When Corey started to walk away, Jade kissed Spencer's headstone before hurrying to catch up to him.