how she half-shifted on occasion. He stared at her. “I know but knowing and seeing are two different things.”
All I could do was pat him on the hand. He only knew the half of it. “I told you my life is crazy now. But I’m loving it.”
Before we could go any deeper into it, Zoey turned to the door and sniffed the air. “Pizza's here.”
I stood and motioned her toward the kitchen. “Go help Wallie put away the things Wade brought and get us some plates and napkins.” Technically, Zoey was of age, but in many ways, she was like a young teen. She hadn't been around other kids her age enough, nor had she gotten enough of an education. We were doing everything we could to help her catch up, so to speak.
Although, she hadn't been absolutely sure she was eighteen. She'd spent almost a decade with the shifter fighting ring and time had been hard to keep track of.
With a nod, she skipped off to the kitchen. When she was out of sight, I answered the door and thanked the delivery guy.
When I closed the door, Wade said, “She seems so alive. How is she a zombie?"
It was my turn to shrug. “Not a zombie, really. They're people who are turned into mindless animals. She's a ghoul. It’s the part of me that is different.” I set the pizza boxes on the coffee table and called, "Come eat!"
I didn't bother waiting for plates, just threw the first box open and grabbed a slice. "Owen thinks I'm special and far more powerful than other necromancers. Alfred, Zoey, Snoozer, Lucy-fur, and Larry are all connected to me. When I die, so do they, unless I transfer them to another necromancer. Even then I worry that another one wouldn’t be able to keep five ghouls alive without draining their powers.”
He grabbed a slice as the kids came back in. “Doesn’t it drain yours?”
I shook my head. “That’s just a small part of me being special, as far as we can tell.”
We ate pizza, talked about random things, and told Zoey silly stories about things Wallie did as a kid. Heck, he was still a kid, just a college kid now.
At my urging, Wade stayed throughout the evening and until nearly dark. Finally, I yawned one too many times and he stood. "I'm going." He bent over and pressed a kiss to my forehead. "See you tomorrow."
After he closed the door behind him, I locked up the house using magic, then headed to bed. The kids had gone up an hour ago.
We'd given Zoey the guest room, while Wallie took his old room. It was a good thing I hadn't collected my menagerie in this house. It wasn't big enough to hold all of them. We were bursting at the seams in Winston as it was.
I entered my room and stopped short. A smile drifted on my face as I could've sworn I felt Clay again. The feeling was stronger than it had been in the living room when I'd first arrived. I was beginning to believe that maybe it was his ghost. But why would he be here now? I'd never felt him like this before I went to Shipton. It better not be to haunt me.
Moving to the bed, I pulled out my night clothes from the dresser. The feeling was still there. “Clay? Are you here?”
Nothing happened. Dead silence. Maybe it was all in my imagination, wishful thinking.
Closing my eyes, I sent out a low current of magic to see if I could call him that way. Could I communicate with ghosts? Again, nothing happened. Okay, Ava, you have lost your mind. Or I was just being hopeful to see him one last time. Like I'd seen mom's ghost and Yaya in the mirror.
Opening my suitcase, I pulled out my toiletries and set them on the counter in the bathroom. As I brushed my teeth, I moved to my walk-in closet. I'd left the door closed, so there shouldn't be much dust in there. I sniffed and looked around, pleased to see it looked fine.
It had to have been the memories inside this house that made my senses and emotions work overtime. Pushing away the feelings, I took a quick shower and dressed in the pajamas from my dresser, some of the many clothes I’d left here in Philly and would be taking back to Shipton with me.
Even though I was so exhausted, it took a while to wind