Risen (Haunted Series Book 22)

for the light, will Murphy go with her?”
“Great, there we’ll all be on the Starship Enterprise.  Me, Mia, and Murphy.”  Ted put his head down on the table.
“I don’t think Michael will let her leave,” Burt said, patting Ted on the back.
“Heaven help us,” Ted said, rubbing his jaw.  “Mia would be one royally pissed off angel.  She’d be the first angel in history to volunteer for smiting duty.”

Chapter Eight
Kevin and Fergus stopped their progression down the cave.  No pirate in his right mind would have dragged his booty this deep into this type of structure.  With their combined observations, they agreed that it would just take too damn long to retrieve it.  They started back up towards the waterfall, searching each alcove as they came to them.
Fergus put a hand on his friend’s shoulder.  “Hold up, there’s someone moving fast.  Up against the wall.”
Kevin did as he was told.  He almost missed his son, Stephen, who was moving so quickly.
“Stephen!” he called out.
Murphy turned around and approached the two ghosts.  “Come on.  We have to get you two off this island.  It isn’t safe for man or ghost.”
“Why?”  Fergus asked.
“Mia had a conversation with someone who escaped from what’s at the other end of this passage.  Tell me, did you see anything down there?”
“We didn’t get that far.”
“You’ve been here eighteen hours.”
The two ghosts looked surprised.
Murphy gathered his thoughts.  “I’m sorry, no one has told you about ghost time, have they?”
“There wasn’t an instruction book handed out as we exited the bar, son,” Kevin said.
“There isn’t one…  Oh, you’re being facetious.  You’re right.  I had to be told this by Mia - or was it Burt?  Anyway, our time is different.  When Mia OOBs into our dimension, she has to be constantly checking the time because, as you’re finding out, time means nothing to the dead.”
“You’re lucky to have found her,” Fergus said.  “She seems to be very familiar with our lot.”
“She found me,” Murphy said.  “Come on.  There is a storm coming, and the sea is getting rough.”
Kevin groaned.  “I hate the sea.  It unsettles my bones.”
“Ghosts don’t have bones,” Fergus stated.
“We have the memory of bones.  I share your weakness.  It must be hereditary.  I can’t abide flying either.”
“Your da spent the time curled up in the corner,” Fergus told Murphy.
“I did not,” Keven lied.
“You did.”
Stephen put a comforting hand on his father’s shoulder.  “We aren’t good travelers, but we are mighty fighters.”
“All the Callens are,” Kevin agreed.
“Speaking of Callens, where are those fleshies?” Fergus asked.
“Climbing the cliff, headed this way,” Murphy told him.
“We may as well stop them.  There is no treasure here,” Kevin said.
“Burt says the treasure is on another island in the Great Lakes,” Murphy informed them.
“Then why are we here?” Fergus asked, irritated.
“I’m really not sure, except the Callens were convinced that this was as good of a place as any to start looking,” Murphy said.
“Ahoy, in the cave,” Mia called out.
“Mia’s here?” Kevin asked.
“Not officially.  She came to save Sabine.  I’ll tell you the story once we’re rid of this place,” Murphy promised.
Mia pulled off her sunglasses and stared into the cave.  She clasped her hands in front of her to stop her from making accidental contact with the rocky walls. “It smells bad in here,” she said, wrinkling her nose.
Patrick had to step out of the entrance to get a handle on his physical reaction to the revolting smell.
Mason pulled his t-shirt collar over his nose, preferring the smell of his body odor to the stench that the cave now seemed to breathe. “What is causing that horrible smell?” he asked.
“We found bits of flesh clinging to the walls a dozen yards in,” Fergus reported.  “Along with some scratch marks, which seem to match up to the human hand.”  He flexed his fingers before making a claw.
“Might be evidence of what may have happened to the people Whitney is looking for,” Mia said and moved to withdraw one of her gloves.
“NO!” Murphy shouted, forcefully pulling Mia out of the cave.
“What the hell, Murph?” Mia sputtered when she found herself being drenched from the falls.  “What gives you the freaking right to control me?”
The Callens had followed them out of the cave and watched as Mia and Murphy glared at each other.
Murphy spoke first.  “Touching this cave would paralyze you.  We need to get off this island, and we need to do it now.”
Reason flickered in Mia’s eyes.  “I’m sorry.  You’re right.  Come on, ghosties, time to go.”
Murphy, who hated being called a ghosty, put a firm hand on Mia’s arm until she had cleared the slippery platform behind the plummeting water.
Kevin watched the battle of wills with concern.  He sensed that Mia wanted to haul off and punch Stephen but knew that this kind of childish tantrum had no place in this investigation.  His son’s jaw was clenched.  He too was holding back anger.  How could two beings love each other, yet could at any time throttle the other?  They were too much alike in temperaments.  No wonder Mia thrived under the accepting nature of Ted.  Kevin was starting to understand the dynamic between the two beings bound together by love but separated by fate.
“You’re deep in thought,” Fergus said, catching up to his friend.
“Yes, I think I’m becoming a connoisseur of the human condition.”
“Ah, that’s just the whiskey talking.”
“That may be, but there is a reason God put this in my hand for all eternity,” Kevin said.
Fergus looked at him sideways.  “God, huh?  Is this the same creature that gave me a knife, your son an axe, and that poor girl a lovesick ghosty?”
“To the Almighty’s sense of humor,” Kevin said, raising his flask