Page 23 of Aftermarket Afterlife

Olivia adored Greg, as only a small child with no preconceptions or preexisting phobias could. She brightened and nodded.

“Let’s go.”

“Thank you, Mary,” said Verity.

“It’s my job,” I said, and led Livvy out of the room, with Evie calling, “We’ll wait for you,” after me.

I walked Olivia to the front door and out, circling the house to the firepit. It was a short-enough distance, but walking it was tedious compared to my normal forms of travel. Since pulling Livvy through the land of the dead wasn’t an option, I was constrained to her speed.

Then we were approaching the firepit, and she spotted Sarah, seated with the vast, hairy lump of Greg leaning up against her leg. Olivia squealed, pulling her hand out of mine as she took off running for the giant spider, flinging herself at him without hesitation.

Mary?Sarah’s mental voice was confused.

Can you just watch her for me for now?

Sure. Greg likes her.

Great. Get someone to call me back to the living room?

I heard Evie’s mental call a split second later, and waved at Sarah and Livvy as I blipped out, returning to the rest of the family.

They had clearly waited for me. Thomas was sitting bolt upright, eyes as wide as saucers behind his glasses, which he reached up and deliberately removed, wiping them on his shirt before putting them back on, and asking, in a delicate tone, “Now that we’re ready to resume...Pardon me if this is inappropriate, but Verity and Dominic, who is that behind you?”

“Oh, this is William,” said Verity, gesturing to the dragon like the presence of an entire male dragon was no big deal. “We’re using his account, since our computers went up in the fire.”

“My wireless is extremely stable, and my monitor is very large,” said William. His tone was dry, his accent as British as Thomas’s, although clearly much, much older; he was from an earlier era, a time when things were said a little differently. “Some of you are familiar. Others are not. As this matter has already impacted me and mine, I requested to attend this meeting.”

“We’re sorry about Cara,” I said. So far as I knew, she was the only dragon to have died in the attack on the Nest. Being essentially fireproof is sometimes a useful adaptation.

William briefly closed his eyes. “She was among the most recent of my wives,” he said. “She should have had many years to spend with her sisters and her children, and with me. She will be properly grieved.”

From the looks on the faces of more than half the people in the room, they had just realized we had no information on draconic funeral rites, and were going to wind up asking some vaguely inappropriate questions later. So long as they didn’t do it right now, I didn’t mind that much.

“We’re just waiting on the others now,” said Kevin. “Very, you’re sure you’re all right? You don’t need reinforcements?”

“Honestly, I want to call an all-hands and scramble every gun we’ve got out here, but I don’t think it would help,” she said. “Olivia’s safe in Portland, and I need her kept as far as possible away from this whole mess. As long as I know she’s okay, I think I can get through this.”

“Istas was fairly badly burned, but she’s at St. Giles’s for treatment, and Dr. Morrow expects her to make a full recovery,” said Dominic. “Ryan turned himself to stone as soon as he realized what was happening, and he’s fine, although angry with himself for allowing her to be put at risk.”

That sounds about right, said Sarah.

“Sarah says that sounds about right,” I said. No one looked particularly surprised that I was relaying messages from her when she wasn’t in the room, but no one else looked like they had been about to speak, either. She was listening to us all, but apparently, I’d been chosen to serve as her intercom. Fascinating.

Another square blinked on, and the mice cheered again as Uncle Mike in Chicago appeared, his wife Lea visible behind him, along with several lesser gorgons, the snakes atop their heads exposed and twining together anxiously. Their surroundings were palatial, polished wood and hanging velvet, and clearly the lobby of an expensive hotel. They were at the Carmichael, then, a gorgon-owned establishment that had been the heart of Chicago’s cryptid community for decades.

“Miss Evelyn,” said Mike, respectfully, with a nod for the lady of the house. Then he looked around the room, clearly taking note of the new faces, and raising his eyebrows at the sight of Thomas, being smart enough to know what a heavily tattooed man who looked that much like Kevin was likely to mean. “Ma’am, is that your father-in-law?”

“Yes, it is, and you know you don’t have to stand on protocol with me,” said Evie. “Thank you so much for joining us on such short notice.”

“And thank you for including us in a family meeting,” said Lea. “I know you must be taking a very generous view of the word ‘family’ for us to receive an invitation, but we still appreciate it. We heard a rumor that there had been an attack in New York? Is everyone okay?”

“Yes, there was, and no, we took some losses, but we can’t recap the whole thing every time someone logs on,” said Verity. “Let’s let the others get here, okay?”

Lea nodded.

She and Evelyn chatted quietly as one by one, the other windows came on. Alex and Shelby in the kitchen in Ohio, Martin visible behind them; a dimly lit tent wherever the Campbell Family Carnival was currently staked, the carnival’s current leadership clustered around a splintery wooden picnic table; a motel room in Toronto, the curtains drawn and Drew barely visible in the shadows; even a chrome-and-vinyl diner that looked like something straight out of the 1950s, Rose and Apple sitting side by side in a narrow booth. I blinked at that one.

Apple almost never leaves the Ocean Lady, which is both a literal goddess and a level of the lands of the dead. She was calling in from a whole separate layer of reality. Talk about long distance.

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