I shoved my phone back down into my pocket and pulled out the small vial of holy water that I keep in an antique perfume bottle. I started doing this recently, after Allie and I found a box of the tiny bottles at a flea market.
I realized that if I kept a few of these in my purse—and had Laura and the girls do the same—then anytime I needed to test for a demon, I could just pretend like I was going to dab some perfume on my wrist. Then I’d touch the person with my damp fingers.
They’d either think nothing of it, or they’d start to sizzle. Either way, I’d have my answer.
As I walked back into the room, I dabbed some of the liquid on my fingertips then pretended to trip on something on the floor. A lame maneuver considering the floor was pristine with no obstacles whatsoever, but I made it work.
I reached out, then grabbed Nancy’s wrist with my damp hand. She gasped, and for a moment I thoughtaha!But then she said, “Oh, dear, are you okay?”
I steadied myself, then smiled at her. “Yes, sorry, I don’t know what I tripped on. New shoes. Must be the flooring.”
“You should watch where you’re going, girlie.” Eddie’s voice came from behind me, and I turned around to glare at him, certain he understood exactly what I’d done.
He just grinned. “I see you’ve met Nancy.”
“You knew Rita was bringing her in?” Silently, I added that he could have warned me.
“I accidentally tripped on the poor thing, too,” he said, clearly trying hard not to laugh. “Probably need to start walking with a cane.”
I flashed him a smirk. “I guess we both do.”
If Rita and Nancy thought our conversation was strange, they were polite enough not to show it. I rolled my eyes at Eddie, then turned back to face Rita’s cousin.
“Despite my clumsiness, I truly am glad that you’re here. Rita, thank you so much for arranging this. Nancy, the job doesn’t pay much, but if you want it, it’s yours. I’m not sure if Rita told you that it’s a twenty-four hour gig, though. Basically, you’d be living in with Stuart. We have him on monitors so you can leave the room and sleep in the adjoining room, but the job is to keep an eye on him, turn him, exercise his muscles, take care of his physical needs. He’s fed with an IV, but you’d need to change the bag sometimes. We do have a medical staff for the school, and they’ll oversee. But you’d be the day to day care.”
We’d put Stuart in the nursery attached to one of the upstairs bedrooms. My room is next door, with another attached nursery that was for Timmy. Allie was already setting up her room downstairs in the dorms. She was sharing with Mindy, and Eliza was in the room across the hall. And while Jared could have grabbed an upstairs room, he chose to take a dorm room for himself and to do dual work as a dorm monitor.
As I ran down the arrangement in my head, I realized that it was really just me up here. And for a moment, I wished that Eric had made the decision to live on property. Or Cutter. Or Laura.
Maybe I’d insist they each keep a room. For those occasions when they want to stay the night.
And, I remembered with relief, Marcus would be moving in later today. At least I wouldn’t be the only conscious human on the second floor at night. Especially if Nancy took the job.
I turned my attention back to her, realizing that she hadn’t answered. “Of course, if you’d rather stay at home,” I added, “we could try to find someone else for another shift.”
The truth was, I hadn’t thought this out well at all. Then again, I wasn’t expecting to find a candidate so quickly, and I was totally winging it.
“Oh, no, no. To be honest, I would love it. My Harold passed away ten years ago, and it was just me and Miss Kitty. But I lost her last year, and the house feels so very empty. Plus, the more I’m here, the more I’ll see Rita. I’m sure she’ll be here a lot too,” she said with a significant look at Eddie.
Eddie cleared his throat, but didn’t deny the comment, and I was pretty sure I saw color rise on Rita’s cheeks. I thought about Stuart and hoped that we’d be just as flirtatious with each other when we were that age. Then I remembered that Stuart might not make it to that age or if he did, he might not be in any condition to flirt.
“I’m very sorry for your losses,” I told Nancy sincerely.
She waved the words away. “It’s a natural part of life, dear.” She nodded toward Stuart’s bed. “That, however, is not natural at all.”
I glanced at Eddie, and he gave me the slightest shake of his head, silently telling me that he hadn’t said anything to her about this being in any way a mystical injury.
“Yes,” I said. “The accident was horrible.”
“Rita said it was a head injury?”
“Yes. He got in the middle of a fight. Ended up getting slammed into a stone table. Banged his head pretty hard.”
“I’m so sorry. There are cases though where victims came out of comas even after the doctors had lost all hope. So don’t you lose hope.”
I’d been told that so many times over the last few months, but for some reason, this woman saying that made me feel better. “Thank you,” I said, “I promise I won’t.”
“I know I’ll be mostly with Stuart, but I understand this school is about more than just the three Rs?”
