“A girl with immense power she has yet to understand. Trust me. I know it sucks and it’s horrible timing to test your powers this way, but I wouldn’t be here if we had another option,” Dom says, tilting his head to the side and glancing down at his outstretched hand.
“Dammit,” I spit, throwing a glance over my shoulder. He’s right. Dealing with zombie Cat is better than dealing with dead Cat.
“Go,” Dad says, tipping his head toward the vehicle in the drive.
“This isn’t finished. We need to talk about this,” I say.
“I’ll be here,” Dad agrees.
Racing behind Dominic, I fling open the passenger door and get back in. Before I even reach for the buckle, Dominic is in the driver’s seat and puts the car into drive. Pebbles and loose stones from the driveway kick up as we speed off.
Twisting around in my seat, I turn to face Dom. “Explain what happened to Cat. Now.”
His jaw clenches. “I honestly don’t know everything. Those two are hard to read because of their bond. But I got a desperate call from Colton—something about a car accident. He wanted my help, but I’m not a damn necromancer and he knows that.”
“He knows that? I didn’t know you all were friends. I got the distinct impression they don’t like you…” I say, trying to ignore the screaming in the back of my head.
“We were best friends as kids—all four of us,” Dominic mutters. “But you don’t remember, do you?”
“No, I—” I shake my head, refusing to take on more information that might blow my mind right now. “So, Colt doesn’t know you’re bringing me?”
“Not yet, no. He’s trying to find someone else—some other way. I’m sure he doesn’t want to pull you into it,” Dominic says.
“This whole thing is insane,” I say, shaking my head.
“Yeah, I know,” he says, taking a curve at a speed that borders dangerous for us as well.
“You might want to slow down a little bit,” I warn.
Dominic shakes his head. “We don’t have time. They’re on the other side of town. Besides, I’d see an accident for us in the works before it ever came to pass.”
I suck in a breath, trying to ease the panic rising in my throat. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. If Cat’s already dead…can I even help? Just because they think I’m a necromancer, it doesn’t mean I really am. Am I prepared to try and possibly risk bringing Cat back as a revenant?
If only I had known more earlier, or if I had been raised here with my dad instead of going to Mistwood Point with my mom. I could have been practicing or testing so much earlier. I could have been prepared for this.
Clearing my throat, I sit up a bit straighter.
“If it fails, and she comes back wrong...what do we have to do?” I say, needing to know the worst-case scenario.
“Then we have to kill her again,” Dominic says, shooting me a sideways glance.
My mouth drops open and I nod. “Super.”
“You won’t have to be the one to do it, so don’t worry about that part. Just focus on making this work.”
“How am I gonna know what to do?” I whisper, fighting back the urge to cry in sheer panic.
Dominic sighs, cutting the tension in the car. “I don’t know, Autumn. I’m telepathic and telekinetic, remember? I'm hoping… I don’t know what I'm hoping. I guess I just hope instinct kicks in or something.”
“What in the hell were they doing all the way out here?” I say, narrowing my eyes as the trees get even more dense. “They live near me—”
“Us,” Dominic says, “They live by us.”
“Oh, right…”
“I don’t know. There could be a hundred reasons. There are trails out here, places to hike. Colton likes to practice working on his ability away from town.”
I turn to look at Dominic, confused. “Why would he have to practice so far out?”
“He’s an elemental witch, like Cat. But rather than fire, he can manipulate the element of earth. Bending it and moving it. There’s only so much you can do on your own property, I guess,” he says.
“Oh, I didn’t know,” I whisper, realizing just how little I’ve paid attention to the supernatural abilities of those around me. I’ve been so wrapped up in myself and my own little world.
We hit a straightaway and Dominic floors it. Trees, scenery, and mailboxes fly by and I squeeze my eyelids shut.
Please make it in one piece… I mentally repeat in a mantra, despite what Dominic said about seeing into the future.
“Shit, there they are,” Dominic mutters. “Showtime, Autumn.”
My eyes pop open and up ahead Cat’s vehicle is turned on its side, halfway in the ditch. Beside it, Colton waves his arms in a wide, sweeping motion.
Time slows down as Dom’s car comes to a screeching halt beside Colton. Vehicle parts and personal items are strewn across the road and without even having to check for Cat—the presence of death lingers in the air. It vibrates through the trees with an intensity all its own.
Dominic kicks his car door open and I do the same.
“What's she doing here?” Colt says, jabbing a finger my direction.
“You know damn well why,” Dominic says, pushing past him. “Where is she?”
Colton points a trembling finger toward the ditch.
Rushing past them both, I slide down the leaf-infested ditch to Cat’s body. Within seconds, both men are practically on top of me.
“Back up and let me have some space,” I command, kneeling down and taking my place beside Cat. Everyone does as they’re asked, except for Colton who stays right by Cat’s side and refuses to let go of her left hand.
There is so much blood; it’s everywhere. Her shirt, her face, her hair, her jeans—the ground. It’s all over the leaves and grass in a large circumference around her body. Beside us, a yellow-orange ball of light hovers, as if needing to witness what comes next.
“Don’t let me go,” Cat’s voice echoes over the wind.
Suddenly, I realize this orb is different—it’s not a ghost, not like Abigail. It’s a disembodied soul looking for a place of its own.
Cat’s soul is no longer inside her body.
Shuddering away my own rising panic, I close my eyes, and place my palms along Cat’s abdomen.
I breathe and focus on the energy rolling off the scene in waves. At first, nothing happens.
I adjust the way I’m kneeling so I can hover over her.
For some reason, I intuitively know if I can get the right placement, through my hands, I can sense her. I should be able to tell if I can do anything to bring her back.
Tuning out the surroundings and the terror of those around me, a strange sensation washes over me. It’s like being submerged in water or floating away from everything tying me to the earth.
“Do something,” Dominic urges. “This isn’t time for a reiki session, for crying out loud.”
I flash him a glare and he backs up with his hands raised.
Beside me, tears begin to stream down Colt’s dark cheeks.
I close my eyes, summoning my will so it can force her spirit back into her body. The act feels like orchestrating atoms, as if one-by-one, I could pull her back into her body. But as they begin to reconvene, they must be missing something, because rather than congealing, they continue onward as they disperse again.
“It’s not working,” Dominic warns.
“I see that,” I spit, eyeing Cat’s orange orb of light as it races back and forth between me and Colton.
“What do we do?” Colt asks, kneeling down by her head and clutching her hand to his chest.
“I don’t know. I’ve never done this before,” I say, closing my eyes to hold back the tears threatening to emerge.
Suddenly, movement in the tree line draws my attention and out steps a man, dressed from head to toe in dark, tattered, soaking-wet clothes. His face is a muddy mess and his movements are slow, like he’s drunk or just woke up from a nap.
“Look, man…now’s not a good time,” Dominic says, stepping between us and the man.
The newcomer peers around Dominic, evidently unfazed by the scene. In fact, he grins, like he’s amused by it.
My insides scream. We don’t have time for this. Cat needs action, now.
“Guys, we need to go. Forget the guy. We need to get Cat somewhere safe to…”
Colton stands up, leaving Cat’s hand for the first time. With this single action, the man lunges at Dominic, throwing him out of the way as if he were a rag doll. Colt freezes, refusing to take another step toward him. The man tries to do the same to Colt, but the ground rises up, putting a barrier between the two of them. The man howls in pain as his right arm hits the shifted earth.
It’s the first time I’ve seen Colton use his powers, and he does so with surprising ease. A wave of jealousy rolls through me that I’m the last one to learn how to use my own gifts properly. It doesn’t last long, as the man takes another swipe at Colton, clearly trying to make his way to us.
Colton summons the trees; branches and roots flow out of the woods, groping for the man. One makes contact with his left arm, yanking him into the air and sending him flying backward into a tree trunk. He hits it with a thud, but immediately gets up and races forward.
The speed is so fast, it’s hard to even keep an eye on it. He slams into Colt, tossing him the opposite direction of Dominic. A smug smirk slides across his dirty lips and he makes his way to me and Cat, as if somehow, we’re the prize he was searching for.
Stopping inches from Cat’s orb, he raises his nose to the air and sticks out his tongue. “I can taste her…can you taste her?” he asks, his words tumbling out in a slow lilt. “She will be lovely for my collection. Never have I had a Gemini twin before.”
My eyes widen and I fight the urge to scramble backward and abandon Cat’s body. It’s not like I have any powers that match this creature’s. Worse yet, there’s a deep sense of familiarity bubbling up to the surface. Memories from the day of the Witching Stick, the morning right before the girls disappeared, I saw this man by my pond.
But more than that, I remember his smile… It’s the same one he used to lure me into the lake when I was a kid.
Chapter 27
I Can't Do This Alone
Before I can fully process, Dominic tackles the Vodník. Both land in the ditch with a hard thump. Despite the blows from Dominic’s fists, the Vodník seems completely unfazed as he waits patiently with a smirk on his face.
“I’m not gonna tire out, you piece of shit,” Dom says, possibly reading his mind.
“We’ll see,” the Vodník laughs. “Human will is so easily worn down.”
Dom raises a fist again and pummels the creature over the bridge of its nose, splitting it apart and sending blood splattering to the ground.
Again, it laughs.
Tree branches from the old oaks behind them wrap around Dom’s arms, lifting him off the Vodník. At the same time, rock slabs from deep in the earth push their way up, entrapping the hands and feet of the creature.
In the opposite direction, Colt’s dark face is scrunched in concentration as he clenches his fists at his side. The rocks bear down, crushing the creature’s extremities.
Colton’s eye sockets glow a blinding sky blue as the power he wields builds. Suddenly, he opens his fists. The small gesture expels all moisture from the creature’s body into the air. It doesn’t linger, either. Instead, it merges with the rest of the atmosphere. Water, blood…instantly, its skin shrivels and eyeballs obliterate.
Colton stands there, his glowing orb eyes refusing to leave the creature as it struggles to take its final breath. With a sneer, Colton crumples his hands back into a fist and the Vodník is reduced to nothing more than a pile of dust.
Dropping to his knees, Colt hunches over, groping at the grass. Dominic tumbles from the tree’s clutches and rushes over to him.
“Are you— Holy shit, man. That was awesome,” he says, a high level of admiration in his tone.
Colt looks up, his eyes now back to their dark brown. “I didn’t even know I could do that. Instinct just…took over.”
“Well, whatever your instincts, I do not wanna be on your bad side,” Dominic says, helping Colt to his feet.
In the center of the pile of Vodník ash is a clear, ornate glass container, no bigger than a shot glass.
“What is that?” Colt says, taking a step closer and picking it up. He rotates it in the light, peering into the contents. Colors swirl within in, spiraling around the edge, as if looking for a way out.
The tiny object emits an insane amount of energy and it makes my skin crawl. Overwhelmed by the intensity, I say, “Smash it.”
Colton doesn’t even think twice. He throws it to the ground and stomps down hard. The glass shatters into thousands of tiny shards and unearthly screams floods out, materializing into bright orbs of light in various colors. Some are white, blue, green, yellow… but only Cat is the bright orange. Each of the new orbs circle around each other, as if totally directionless.
My mouth drops open. “It’s where he trapped his souls.”
“How do you know?” Dominic says, taking a step closer to the broken glass.
“Can’t you see them?” I say.
“See what?” he mutters, taking a step back, his eyes scanning the space around us.
Before I have the chance to open my mouth again, a large black cloud billows open like a tear in reality. As it gets bigger and wider, a man in a meticulously press pinstripe suit steps out. The moment his feet crunch on the leaves in the ditch, the smoky portal collapses in on itself.
His timeworn face bears years of experience, and his dark hair and incredibly light-blue eyes flash around the space. It’s clear nothing about the scene surprises him. Instead, he quirks a dark eyebrow and raises his arms out wide. One by one the tiny orbs of light gravitate to him like magnets being called to their source.
When he has them all collected, he turns to Cat’s orange light. A wave of acknowledgement rolls through me and I shake my head. “No, not that one. You can’t have that one,” I tell him, concentrating hard and refusing to release it from my vicinity.
The man’s eyes lock with mine and a shiver rolls through my entire being. There’s something so familiar about his eyes, yet I can’t completely put my finger on why.
With a graceful movement, he walks closer to me, his gaze never leaving mine. Bending down, he leans in close to my ear and whispers, “I will be back, necromancer. Time is not on your side.”
As I turn to look him in the face, he’s gone—billowing away in a cloud of dark black smoke.
Blinking away my surprise, I return my gaze to Cat’s limp body. The color in Cat’s cheeks has faded and she’s taken on an ashen-gray complexion.
I can’t do this alone…
Suddenly, the answer becomes painfully clear. I know what I need to do—and where we need to do it. My eyes pop open and I stare at Dominic and Colt.
“We need to get Cat back to my house. Help me get her in the car,” I say, relying on my own instincts the way Colton had.
“She doesn’t—” Colt begins.
Dominic shakes his head. “Autumn’s right. We need to trust her.”
“You asked me to do this and I’m telling you what we need to do,” I say to Colton, determination settling in.
“But how do you know?” Colt cries. “What if the time it takes to get to your place makes it impossible to return her to me?”
“There isn’t time to discuss this. Quick, help me get her up,” I say, trying to grab hold of her legs.
Colt and Dominic spring into action, each taking a shoulder and hoisting her body up. Carefully, they place her across the back seat of Dominic’s car. He doesn’t even say anything about the blood soaking into the upholstery.
Taking a step back, I reach for the passenger door and hop inside. Dominic races to the driver’s seat and Colt slides in back, placing his sister’s head in hi
s lap. He runs his fingertips over her forehead and tears begin to slide from his cheeks.
“We’re gonna fix this,” I say, looking over my shoulder at him.
Without a word, or even looking up, he nods.
Dominic speeds away from the scene so fast, smoke kicks up from the tires.
I keep my focus on Cat’s orb, which seems to be straying further and further from her body. As minutes pass by, her essence continues to disperse—like snowflakes beginning to drift from the density of its cloud.
“Almost there,” Dom says, twisting down the last road that brings us to my house.
Closing my eyes, I try to reach out to Cat’s essence with my thoughts.
Stay with us, Cat. Hang on… We’re almost ready… I’m getting us help…
Dominic practically drifts into my driveway, skidding to a stop on the cobblestones next to the front door. Before the vehicle is even turned off, Dom is out the door. He grabs hold of Cat’s feet and starts to gently pull her from Colton’s lap. Colt scoots with her, helping to maneuver her body out of the back seat until Dominic has enough leverage to grab hold of her. The two of them manage to balance her body and I race toward the front door, kicking it open wide to give them space.
As we enter the main hallway, Abigail’s ghost joins us, as if already sensing my impending request.
I’m going to need all the help I can get.
“Come with me. We need to get her downstairs,” I declare, practically running the hallway down to my bedroom. Despite having closed it earlier, the little doorway to the basement is flung wide open in acceptance of its offering.
Abigail is ready for us.
“This way,” I say, pointing to the stairwell.
Dominic and Colt carry her quickly; their footsteps assured and careful at the same time.
When we reach the bottom, I slide the small altar to the side of the room and drop to my knees.
Quickly, I scrawl the same pentacle I saw on the floor from the vision of Warren and Abigail. Flames ignite around the space, not attached to anything, but available as a source of energy and offering their own enchantment. They burn brightly, as if sensing the presence of magic, and maybe that’s truly all it is.
The Windhaven Witches Omnibus Edition : Complete Paranormal Suspense Series, Books 1-4 Page 22