Footsteps of Angels (Marietta Book 2)

by M. L. Bullock

  “The sooner we get this over with the better. Let me help you tote the gear back. Ashland, I doubt seriously that Heather has all the salt you need. You’re going to have to go find some.” The three of us walked back to the house, Ashland put the stick inside the door near the coat rack and then headed out.

  “I’ll be right back, guys. Please, stay in the house. I mean, CJ. Don’t even think about it.”

  His wife gave him the stink eye and he vanished out the door.

  We dumped the gear on the couch, and I felt kind of helpless. What was I bringing to the table here? Nothing much. I can’t believe this was happening. “Let’s eat something. You need to feed that little guy. Or girl.”

  “I thought you were in the girl camp,” Carrie Jo smiled prettily. She was truly a beautiful woman. So tiny though. Petite and perfect.

  “Oh, I am but boy or girl, this child will be awesome. You don’t know how lucky you are, Carrie Jo. Really, really lucky.” I didn’t mean to sound resentful it just came out like that.

  “One day you’ll have your own family too, Rachel. If that’s what you want. I believe that completely. You haven’t given up on love, have you?”

  I took the bread out of the bread box and went in search of lunchmeat and mayonnaise. How to answer that? I wasn’t sure. Had I given up on love? I think so. Maybe it was time to let that dream go.

  “Life throws curve balls sometimes,” was all I could think to say. “Who knows what the future holds for me? Or for any of us for that matter.”

  Carrie Jo’s expression, a mixture of sadness and something else caused me to turn my eyes away from her. I was the worst friend on the planet. Why would I say something like that at a time like this? “Hey, don’t listen to me. I’m not lucky in love, just friends. Let’s eat. Ham and cheese okay with you?”

  Her smile returned and we slathered mayo on bread and assembled sandwiches. I expected Ashland to be right back but an hour went by and there was no sign of him. Carrie Jo called his cell phone, but we heard it ringing in the living room. I guess he’d been so flustered he’d forgotten it.

  “He’ll be back any minute, Carrie Jo. Let’s see what’s in the pantry. I know there’s at least one container of salt. We could start with that.” I said hopefully.

  “You heard, Ashland. It’s not safe, Rachel. You didn’t see what we saw. So many dead. So many Native Americans dying of smallpox. Then the Crossley family got murdered. The Beast was nothing like anything I’ve ever seen. I swear it resembled a large panther and a rottweiler. It is indescribable, really. I don’t think it’s a grim, Rach. I mean, it didn’t look like an ordinary dog. Then this thing came up out of the ground and merged with Adam.”

  I tapped my pen on my notebook. I needed to write all this down. I began talking out loud. “So not a grim, but we know there is a creature and then the Watcher. But the Watcher gave Ashland his medicine stick. That means he has abdicated his role as the Watcher. I didn’t think they could do that but then again, a human spirit still has free ill. Could the grim have morphed with Adam? Become something else?”

  “I guess it’s possible but how?” Carrie Jo sat beside me and began cracking her fingers, a thing she did when she was nervous about something. “The sacrifices! The sacrifices that the Lancaster family made! The grim was supposed to keep the devil away but they—”

  “They drew him in! They made a deal with him, I bet that’s what happened. That’s a hell hound, Carrie Jo. A freaking hell hound, a servant of the devil. Oh my God! Who would do something so evil?”

  Carrie Jo got up and began pacing back and forth. Her face was pale as she took in this turn of events. “Wait until Ashland hears this. It wasn’t Mary. She came to Marietta after this had been going on. Marietta claims it was happening when she got here too. Now it’s awake again because another Lancaster is here. Heather! Oh no! It wants Heather to bring it an offering! It must have started with Adam in the early 1800s or late 1700s.”

  “No, it wants to serve Heather, but it needs a sacrifice, preferably a child. Or a woman. Or a…” I couldn’t finish the sentence. It didn’t matter. Carrie Jo knew the truth know. The total and complete truth.

  The Beast wanted her, and her baby. As if she read my mind Carrie Jo whispered, “I have to go back. Before Ashland gets back. Once he figures this out, he’ll never let me go. I need to see Mary, Rachel. I have to dream walk.”

  “But you’ve been doing it all day, CJ. You have to rest and then…”

  She shook her head, “Nope. I tell you what though, I’ll let you record me. I’m willing to make a deal here, Rachel. I have to go. I won’t have much time.”

  “Carrie Jo, you don’t mean that. I am not going to do that. The Brotherhood doesn’t need to see this. They don’t deserve to see it. I’m done with them, CJ! All this time, it’s you they wanted but I didn’t know. I swear, I didn’t know. I thought they cared about me. They wanted to improve my gifts; that I was important to them, but I was wrong. So very wrong. I am sorry. You must know I would never betray you. Never, ever.”

  Carrie Jo suddenly hugged me up. “Of course. I know that. I know you would never do that. Never ever. I have always trusted you, Rachel. What’s going on?” I couldn’t help but cry, not because I was guilty but because this felt as if it were the end of something.

  But the end of what?

  “What am I going to say if Ashland comes back and you are dream walking. He’ll have a cow not to mention chew me out.”

  To my surprise, CJ took my hand. “Then come with me, Rachel. Come with me but keep quiet. All we can do is watch and observe. Don’t touch anything and stay with me. You have to stay with me. Okay? Deal?”

  Her offered surprised me but I couldn’t say no. I wanted to dream walk with Carrie Jo! This was the chance of a lifetime. I may never have another opportunity like this.

  “I’ll leave Ashland a note. I don’t want him to worry about us.”

  “Good idea,” I agreed as I provided her with a pen and piece of paper.

  She quickly scribbled a note and then she took my hand. “What do I do? Tell me how this works?”

  “You focus on a small item. Like that butterfly box over there. See the butterfly? See the wings? Just look at it and tell me about it and don’t let go of my hand. You have to stay with me, okay?”

  “Okay, Carrie Jo. I trust you. I’m looking at the butterfly. I am watching the butterfly…”

  Then the room began to spin, and the density of the air shifted, as if it thickened slightly. For a moment, I panicked. Was I going to smother? As if she read my mind, Carrie Jo squeezed my hand. “Keep your eye on the butterfly, Rachel. Stay focused and breath. The sensation will pass in a few seconds. I saw the light shift. I breathed a sigh of relief. We were inside Marietta.

  I could hear a woman screaming. I immediately began running behind Carrie Jo.

  Chapter Twelve—Marietta

  I watched with some amusement as my petite daughter in law haphazardly stuffed a few mismatched items in a traveling bag. She wasn’t thinking clearly, she didn’t understand what would happen if she tried to leave but I did.

  I, Marietta Lancaster, knew firsthand what would happen if Mary stepped off this property, especially with that child in her arms. She would be torn to shreds before her feet made it to the end of the driveway. Portia tried that too, but the Beast stalked her until she relented and returned. In her case, her attempt angered the Beast. He took her anyway. Her and her child. I couldn’t think about it too much. I didn’t dare to mourn over them.

  The Beast would know, he always knew when one of his own planned to escape. The Beast could smell the Lancaster blood. Or so that’s what Xavier told me. Could it truly have once been his grandfather, the ill-fated Percival Lancaster who’d made his own deal with the devil? Or something altogether different.

  How to explain it all to her? Maybe I should have done that start with. Maybe I should have told her all this in the beginning, but I had been afraid. Too afraid to bri
ng anyone here that would make a fuss. Finding John Lamar’s wife had been challenging for me. I couldn’t marry him off to a local girl although for a time, when he was fifteen, he had been smitten with the heavenly-minded Miss Amy Prentiss. After a few words to her father in private, he decided that the Lancasters were not a suitable match. We were not a religious family.

  The devil roamed the grounds here at Marietta. No, I couldn’t allow poor Amy to endure such a test. She was so sweet and pious it would have driven her mad. She wasn’t strong enough to endure the tests that would surely come her way. The loss of children, the death of other children. Madness took many Lancasters, at least the ones that knew the truth. Not my Oscar though. I kept him far away from this place. As far as possible. So far, he’d seen nothing and experienced nothing although he had yet married. The real test would come then. How far did this creature’s arm reach? Being part spirit, it may be far indeed.

  But I’d chosen Mary Fairbanks and I was not disappointed by her thus far. She had given birth to a son, which meant the Beast would be satisfied for yet another generation. Why had it killed my son? Why? I couldn’t say but I was eager to preserve my grandson, and even Mary Fairbanks. It appeared that all my hard work would end this evening. And I’d worked so extremely hard to bring her here. The letters, the trips to that godforsaken town to see her for myself. It had been the other one I’d selected, the real Miss Mary Fairbanks but this one had been a better replacement. Our Mary, although an imposter, had a good heart and earnestly loved John Lamar, traits that I am sure would have been missing in the real Mary Fairbanks. She’d been a calculating prostitute. The woman before me made quite an improvement. She had her own mysterious past, but she was faithful to my son and until now, obedient to me.

  “You’ll never make me stay here, Marietta Lancaster. My husband is dead and there’s nothing left for me. I know what you are and what you have done, mother-in-law. I know everything. If I stay here it will come for Jason, it will take him, won’t it?”

  Marietta sat in the straight back chair but made no move to stop her. She’d already made plans to appease the Beast. Already had her eye on another offering. Didn’t Mary understand what she was doing? Why would I make her stay? Why would I need to make her stay? If she wanted to die, how could I stop her. All that it meant was my poor Oscar would have to return home for the Beast would not be happy with any blood other than Lancaster blood.

  “Seven years, Mary. Only every seven years. That is what I had been told. I didn’t believe it, Eugenie Lancaster had always been a dramatic woman, an actress before she came to America and married Xavier’s father. But what she told me terrified me. Of course, I ran to Xavier and told him everything but he said he knew nothing. He lied to me, Mary. He knew it all. At least John Lamar knew very little. He did not lie to you.”

  Mary wiped her nose on a handkerchief she pulled from her oversized skirt pocket. “But you stayed. Even when you knew, Mrs. Lancaster. You let the children die.”

  Her words stung but I continued to speak. I wasn’t going to address her accusation.

  “Nobody knew but I was already pregnant. It’s not something that’s done, you know. Ladies don’t do that sort of thing, give themselves before they marry. That’s not how it happened. It was not my Xavier; he was a total gentleman. He never so much as kissed me until after we were married.”

  “Who was it then, Mrs. Lancaster? Who was the father?” She asked, her voice echoing through the room. It reminded me that we were probably not alone. We were never alone here. Especially now that the Beast could enter the house. Did Mary know that yet? Did she know that the boundary had been breached? Probably not. She did not want to know anything, did she? I ignored her question.

  My poor Sophie…

  “I didn’t know a thing, Mary. I married Xavier because I loved him. He knew everything and he didn’t tell me a thing. He knew about the curse and brought me here to feed the Beast. I wasn’t even his first wife. I was his third. Did you know that?”

  Mary shook her head; her wide-eyed expression did not surprise me. I would scarcely believe any of this if I hadn’t lived it myself.

  “Oh, don’t worry, dear. John Lamar didn’t know, Mary. Not in the beginning. He suspected something was amiss, but he did not know for certain. Don’t blame him for bringing you to our home. He didn’t know very much.”

  She didn’t appear to believe me.

  “John Lamar was not what you would call a gentleman. I know he cared for you, even loved you but like his father, and his father before him, John Lamar was cursed. The Lancaster name is in all ways afflicted.”

  “Cursed? Afflicted? I would say this is more than a curse, Marietta. We, the wives of these men are the cursed ones. If I stay here and one day you are gone, I’ll be the one leading women here and offering up the innocent. I can’t do that—you can’t ask me to do that. Never! You may as well kill me now if that is your true intention. Kill me, Marietta for I’ll not stay another day!”

  “You shall and you will! You must do it for your son. If not, it will take him. It will take him like it took my Sophie. Like the others. Give it what it wants, and Jason will live. Is that what you want? Do you want him to die?”

  “Do you? Do you want me to die?”

  I didn’t take the bait. I decided to keep going. She had to know everything before she made her decision. I felt tired. I couldn’t be responsible for another death. Unless I had to. No, Mary needed to distribute this next offering. Yes, that’s how it should be. I’d made my mind up about that.

  “Something happened, Mary. Eugenie died without leaving me much instruction. What she told me all those years ago sounded crazy, so I ignored her rantings. I should have listened. Maybe I did something wrong and I angered it. Maybe this is all my fault, Mary Fairbanks, but it did not start with me. I am trying to keep my family safe. That is all I wanted to do. Now it is your turn. I will not live forever. Then what will you do?”

  Mary began to cry as she sank on the bed. “He’s dead, Marietta. John Lamar is gone and now there’s only my son. Do I stay and continue to anger God with these unholy acts? I cannot do that. And I cannot bring another innocent woman into this situation. We need to leave, mother-in-law. We can leave together if you’ll just listen to me. Please, say you will come with me.” Mary’s pleading didn’t stir my heart. I already knew what would happen if we attempted to do so.

  “Do you think I haven’t tried? Do you think I haven’t crossed the boundary with my own child? It took my Sophie, Mary Fairbanks. My first born. It was only supposed to be every seven years. She was the bastard child, and it came for her.

  Mary gasped at my tired confession. “I didn’t have the heart to tell Portia and she and my son were in love, or so they believed. But it took her. You saw it yourself, didn’t you?”

  A tear streamed down Mary’s small, heart-shaped face. “What happens if I cross the boundary, Marietta? What will happen to me? What about Jason?”

  “It will come. The Beast will rip you to pieces. Or it will pull you beneath the ground and you will be buried alive.” I smiled at her not because I found joy in the telling but because I had thought the same thing once upon a time.

  “Do you think you are the first to try? It knows what you plan to do. It will find you. If it becomes angry enough it will come in the house, Mary Fairbanks. And nothing will stop it. Nothing and no one.”

  She suddenly sprang to her feet. “I don’t believe you! Nothing has that kind of power! Nothing! I have to go; I have to take Jason!” She lurched the bag off the bed, the contents half spilling on the ground. She didn’t care. Mary had every intention of leaving, regardless of my warning. My honest and truthful warning.

  “It’s too late, Mary. The baby is gone. Jason is gone. He’s safe, I promise you that, but he won’t be if we don’t do what we must. If we don’t give the Beast what he wants. Please, Mary. Do not fight me on this. Do not make me do something I will regret.”

  Mary shrieked as
she opened the door and ran to the nursery. As I predicted, the baby was nowhere to be found. Of course, I would never harm the child, he was my grandson after all. But she had to do the deed. It had to be Mary; she was after all Jason’s mother. Yes, it must be her.

  “I want my son! Give me my son, Marietta! How can you do this? How?” Mary cried desperately and even shook my arms. But I would not be moved. I was doing this for her own good. So that she would not know the pain of loss. She would thank me later. However, Mary could not run from this any longer. It was her turn to satisfy the Beast. It was time for fresh blood, so to speak.

  I rose from my seat and fluffed my skirt. I may as well tell her the truth. “Sally has taken Jason, on my order. You must give an offering. I will accompany you, but it is your turn, Mary. You are the child’s mother. Just as I inherited this curse, so will you. Everything has been prepared for you. The offering is waiting for us.”

  Mary smothered a scream with her hands. “An offering? You mean a child! You want me to murder a child! I will never do that. Never! Give me my son, Marietta! We will not stay in this evil place! You will burn, Marietta Lancaster. Have you no fear of God?” Mary’s Irish accent conveyed her deep feelings. Her Irish brogue always gave her away when she felt anxious or in this case, horrified.