One

Iwas startled awake once again, and I knew Edith was there with me. She'd been showing up nightly for more than a month. Bran thought she'd moved on, but unfortunately for me, she'd just changed her tactics. She knew he could see her so instead of getting in his face while he ignored her, she had now chosen to try to reach me.

Her icy hand gripped my arm, and a flash of emotions and images hit me. I fought the need to pull away and forced myself not to move or react in any way.

"I know you can feel me," she whispered. Her voice was like ice water dripping down my spine. "You need to see. You have the ability even if you choose to ignore it."

She'd said this same thing to me every time she was here, and every time I ignored her the best I could. This time something snapped in me, and my eyes flew open. There was nothing there, but I could still feel her hand gripping my arm.

"You can't ignore me forever. You'll either help me or I'll continue to haunt you."

"What do you want?" I asked through gritted teeth. I hoped I was dreaming and there would be no answer but of course I couldn't get that lucky. Bran pulled me closer to him but didn't stir.

"There's something I need you to do," she said, but still hadn't released my arm. Then I realized I could hear her. And I had before, but it hadn't really registered with me. Normally I could feel all the emotions of the dead, but unless I threw my spirit from my body, I wasn't able to hear or see them. Something I was more and more thankful for.

"I can't help you, Edith. You either choose to cross over or you don't. It makes no difference to me, but you can't continue to harass me."

"Jordan, I can do whatever the fuck I want. You have no control over the workings of the dead."

Once again, I was shocked that I could hear her, but she wasn't the mild-mannered old lady I thought she was. Not even close. "I have to be dreaming," I mumbled.

"Believe whatever you want, but I need your help. I've tried to talk to your boyfriend for months and he refuses to listen."

"Edith, you've screamed in his face for months. Maybe if you actually talked to him, he'd listen, but what you've been doing won't work." At this point I questioned my own sanity. I was aware of every word I said, and every word she said in return, but I also knew this couldn't be real. "Why can I hear you?" As the words left my mouth a mist swirled around where I knew she still held my arm. A woman with white hair and weathered skin, was just visible. She was obviously old, but she didn't seem frail or weak, no, just the contrary.

"Because you're dreaming, and if you won't get your boyfriend to listen to me, I'm going to continue to come to you nightly until you finally do as I ask." She grinned as she leaned in closer to me with her hands on her knees. I pulled away from her until I backed into Bran. His grip around my waist tightened and he buried his face in my hair, but he didn't wake. I glanced back at her fully expecting to see her grinning face, but she was gone.

"Hey, is everything okay?" Bran asked, his voice heavy with sleep.

I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly while repeating the words I'd been taught to take away the splitting pain usually associated with encountering a spirit. But there was no pain. "Yeah, just a bad dream." Bran had enough to worry about without me adding more to it. If Edith wanted to reach out to him, she'd need to do it on her own.

He rolled me over, so we were face to face and brushed my hair back from my forehead. Bran was so different to how I imagined him to be. He was sweet and gentle and had a good heart. The idea that a coven of witches wanted to use his powers was unimaginable to me. We'd been together a few months now, and not once had I been concerned that Bran could be lost in his power, but I also knew things could change. Then there was the fact that I was keeping my own secrets from him. Not that I wanted to deceive him, but because this is what my family had always done.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked again before brushing his lips as gentle as a feather against mine, making me smile. Without answering I leaned in close enough to kiss him. It would never be enough. It felt like we'd waited so long to touch each other that now I craved him every minute of every day.

"I'm okay," I whispered. His fingers traced the Celtic symbol that was tattooed over my heart.

"I love this," he said for what had to be the hundredth time. Not that I was counting and not that I minded in the least. "You're always full of surprises."

"Look who's talking. By the way, Justice isn't here is he?" I leaned back to look around the room making Bran laugh.

"No, he's in the basement. He's been watching The Walking Dead."

"Are you serious?" I asked, and he laughed again.

"I know, it's the definition of irony, but apparently he was a huge fan and wanted to see how it all ended."

So much had changed since Bran had bonded with Justice. He wanted to help as much as he could from the other side of the veil, and even though he could cross over if he chose to, he seemed content to stay here for now. "Let's get some sleep, it's a workday tomorrow," I said and kissed him once again. There was so much I needed to tell him but wasn't sure where to start. I hoped it didn't hurt our relationship, but I knew Bran didn't like secrets, and I was definitely keeping more than a few.

"Good night, again," he said and closed his eyes.

"Good night, I love you," I whispered the last part, but I knew he heard me as he fell back asleep with a soft smile on his lips. That was one thing that wasn't a lie, I did love him, but there were some things that it wasn't time yet for him to know.