Page 128 of Hounded: Ashes to Ashes

“We’re… human?”

The angel nodded, and I nodded right back.

“And he’s…” I looked at my beautiful boy again. My light, my love, my everlasting. “He’ll be okay?”

Evander dipped his head. “Given a bit of time.”

Time. We’d had a lot of that.

My phoenix was a transient thing. Forever coming and going, and I was always there. For every death and rebirth, I’d been beside him, and I told myself I excelled at grieving. But really, it was more about waiting. For Indy to become himself again. To return to me life after life, and to love me as fiercely as he always did.

We had time. And, for Indy, I would wait.

Indy

Four weeks into forever,the Urban Easel reopened for business. Sully wanted to celebrate by hosting an exhibition, but few artists were available on short notice. Luckily, my schedule was wide open.

Loren and I raided the storage unit looking for the best of the best to bring to the show. Canvases I’d painted over the decades were loaded in the back of his new truck—nottoonew; he gave a serious side eye to anything with a computer in it or, god forbid, an infotainment system—then hauled across town.

I also made sure his new ride could tow the Airstream for our next, less harried, cross-country adventure. He promised me the Hoover Dam. And Vegas, of course.

Besides setting the gallery back to rights, we found more permanent homes for Dottie, Abigail, and Gunnar. Whitney opted to stay at Sully’s apartment, and they both seemed pleased with the arrangement.

I hadn’t been back to the club, but I had been going to meetings, and I got a new pin. Thirty days sober. Last week, Loren went with me when I worked up the courage to stand and share my story. Well, the human-approved version of it. Mybravery earned me a pat on the back from Travis, who offered to be my sponsor. I told him I’d think about it.

Today, I was focused on the caterers setting up chafing dishes and a champagne fountain for my big show. The gallery was decked out. Tulle swagged from the ceiling in rainbow stripes, coloring the spotlights that beamed on the watercolors hung on every wall and partition. The paintings were mostly skyscapes I always thought I’d imagined, but now I knew they were pieces of Heaven.

Loren was around here somewhere. Last I knew, he and Whitney had been moving the tables out of the storage closet, but I’d lost track of them. I stood in the middle of everything, holding a clipboard and feeling very official, though all I’d written down so far was outfit ideas for tonight. A certain lace suit coat called to me, structured so I looked like a professional, and the hot pink color would match my latest dye job.

A pair of caterers laden with linens bustled by, and I glanced around the space in another search for Loren. It was almost time for lunch, and I had in mind to treat him to hot dogs from the cart down the street. Might bring some back for Sully and the gang, too.

I thought of Sully about the same time I spotted her, signing papers offered by another man with a clipboard. I decided his list probably had more important things than the contents of his wardrobe, so I waited until he and Sully were done speaking to approach.

She saw me coming and turned with a grin, dressed more colorfully than her usual boho neutrals in preparation for the evening. She’d even put on some makeup. Swaths of pale yellow covered her eyelids and brought out the warmth in her brown eyes as she turned them on me.

“Hi, honey.” She pulled me into a hug. “Are you ready for tonight? Excited?”

“I think I’m gonna wear pink,” I told her, and she laughed and gave my curls a tousle.

“It does seem to be your color.”

“For now.” I shrugged. “Next month, who knows?”

She chuckled again as we turned to face the floor side by side.

The repairs had come with a bit of a remodel, and the place looked amazing. White-painted drywall butted up against the original brick of the structure, and the slick floors reflected every source of light. With the addition of my paintings and the fabric floating overhead, it looked like we had walked into a prism.

“Have you seen Lore?” I asked after a pause. “Thought we’d step out for a bite.”

Sully’s lips bent in a contemplative frown as she scanned the gallery. “I’m sure he didn’t go far.”

Since my near-death experience, Loren had been stuck on me like glue. I spent the first few days sleeping and waking to find him curled against my side, so present I wondered if he ever left. By the time I was well enough to eat, he busied himself cooking and bustling around the trailer, doting on me. He would have spoon fed me if I’d let him. Maybe I should have. Then we could have roleplayed some sexy patient/nurse fantasies. Oh, the missed opportunities.

But I was better now. It was a strange feeling and, from talking to Loren, I knew he felt the same. We were less than we had been, but so much more. More ourselves. And the quiet times we’d shared in recent days felt impossibly intimate. In a way, I was getting to know him again. He was happier. Relieved with all the fear and dread that had plagued him for a century finally put to rest.

I wouldn’t die in ten years or even twenty. I would get old—which I wasn’t particularly excited about—but Loren’s eyes went soft anytime I mentioned it. I talked about gray hair and wrinkles like they were the scourge of beauty, but he assured mehe would cherish every blemish. And I believed him. Silly man with his old-fashioned sensibilities. He’d probably think I was cute all liver-spotted and hunched, eating prunes and steamed foods to keep my digestion regular. Hell, I’d probably think he was cute like that, too.

Whitney emerged from the back corner of the gallery, padding up to join Sully and I.

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