Banshee Box Set
Page 88
“He’s got a heartbeat,” she sobbed. “He’s alive. Please don’t take him.”
A small smile curled the corners of Mic’s mouth. “Of course. He has so much left to do.”
Relief left her weak. Still, she couldn’t help but babble, “Why? He died. I don’t understand.”
“He’s a male Banshee born from a corpse. Death is complicated for ones like him.”
Like him? “There are others?”
Something strong, ancient, and unrelenting flashed within the depths of her eyes. “He is Legion.”
Nicole looked down to his sleeping form and back up to the ghostly woman, unable to sort her jumbled thoughts. “Will he stay like this? Why did you make him go through that?”
“Ahanu Adams,” Mic pronounced the words carefully, a gift for Nicole to explore later, “has eluded us for centuries. Hiding between worlds where we could not reach. Benton needed to be reborn for us to end this. It was his part to play.”
“And what will this do to him.”
“Much.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Mic lifted her serene face, training her gaze upon the moon that poked out from behind the drifting clouds.
“We are out of time. The veil between life and death is never lowered for long. Soon, you and I will once again be on opposite sides of it.”
“The veil?” Nicole repeated, mind whirling. “That’s why you told Benton to leave when you did. Why the Skinwalker, Ahanu, could touch him.”
Mic’s soft laughter interrupted her thoughts. Whatever crossed her mind, she kept it to herself, and took one last look at her unconscious son.
“I’ll take care of him,” Nicole assured.
“Of course, you will,” Mic said, gliding back toward the lake without moving a muscle. “It’s your part to play.”
Chapter 13
Benton absently gnawed on the homemade jerky, watching as the sun began to creep over the horizon. Day two of my death.
The first day had been filled with questions he couldn’t answer, endless medical checkups, and disconcerting stares. He supposed it would take a while for that to change. An unexpected upside was that no one seemed all that afraid of him anymore. They still kept their distance. But now it was almost reverent. Helping to kill a Skinwalker had shifted him from ‘freak’ to ‘celestial being.’ Bird squawked, his talons scraping against the trunk floor. Benton retrieved a small chunk of jerky from the bag and passed it to his hungry pet.
“I don’t know if owls can eat that,” Nicole said.
“I’ll look it up later.”
Gulping down the dried meat, Bird silently took flight, sweeping out of the open trunk of the Jeep, dipping over the rim of the Buffalo Jump before soaring up into the endless sky. The crisp morning could have been bitterly cold if it weren’t for the protection of the sleeping bag. They had been in it for a close to an hour, waiting for the gray sky to give way to the brilliance of dawn. Benton really didn’t know why they had a sudden interest to watch the sunrise from this particular vantage point. But he didn’t regret it. After everything that had happened, all that had changed, the moment of peace was exactly what he needed.
Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed Nicole staring at him. “It’s still creepy.”
“You’re just so pretty.”
“That’s what your father says,” he grumbled. Nicole still stared. “Cut it out.”
“Sorry. Sorry.”
He knew she wasn’t sorry at all.
“So, do you want to go first? Or should I?” she asked.
Benton thought it over, trying to decide which conversation he wanted to get over with quickest.
“You go.”
She nodded. “There’s not much to find on Ahanu Adams. The records were deliberately destroyed. Then it hit me. Fort Wayward can burn their files, but they couldn’t control what neighboring settlements did.”
“I’m ready to be impressed.”
“It’s all speculation and guesswork, but there’s a record of Ahanu Adams working his way across the country when the white settlers first came through. People remembered him because he was trying to gather followers for a cult. He claimed that he could look through the veil and reconnect them with lost loved ones.”
“He was really using them to boost his own power?”
Nicole swallowed thickly. “There’s no actual record. However, I have basic math skills.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“Records show that a group of 600 settlers left Ottawa to create Fort Wayward, Ahanu Adams amongst them.” Again she paused. “Fort Wayward’s records say the number was closer to 200.”
“400 people go missing, and no one says anything?”
“It’s a Siksika tradition to move camp after a death to avoid any potential ghosts. And, if Ahanu had possessed them, none of them would have remembered what happened.”
“Or they knew they were responsible and couldn’t face it.”
“Not something you’d want to tell your children, either.”
“When I was your age, I joined a Skinwalker’s cult and slaughtered a few hundred innocent people. Yeah, that’s an awkward conversation.” And explains why only some bloodlines were still open to him. The sins of the father and all that.
“When Oliver’s sacrifice failed to bring him back, I think he stayed in the woods, feeding off the evil there to keep himself tethered to this world. Remember that theory − how the death of one paranormal creature would draw in others? I think it also created an energy that helped him. All this time, we were making him stronger.”
“I wonder what his death will bring in,” Benton mumbled around a new strip of jerky.
“Your turn,” Nicole chirped.
Benton licked his lips and sighed. “There’s not much to say.”
She thumped his arm.
“Alright, alright,” he muttered. “You know how they found out that we’re related?”
“You were brutally attacked, needed a blood transfusion, and found out that two people with their blood types couldn’t create a kid with yours,” Nicole rattled off swiftly.
“Well, of course, the cops opened up an investigation. The leading theory was that I was abducted.”
Nicole was clearly trying desperately not to hurry him but utterly failing in keeping a calm composure.
“There was a horrible storm the night I was born. A crash on the highway overwhelmed the hospital. Cheyanne gave birth to a child without a doctor present. Just a nurse. The child was stillborn.” Benton took a sobering breath. It was still strange to think that he wasn’t Benton. That name had been chosen for someone else. “In a weird twist of fate, the same nurse had been the only one in the room when a strange woman had died during childbirth. When the cops tracked her down, she admitted to switching us. By her thinking, she had spared everyone involved from painful truths.”
“Why didn’t the investigating officer tell you?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “I guess they decided I had been through enough.”
“I’m sorry,” Nicole whispered.
“They found them,” Benton said absently. “The graves I mean. They had buried Jane Doe with little baby John Doe. That’s why they left me with Svetlana. They went to pay their respects. I might have yelled at them a lot for that one. Guess what mom said in their defense? ‘He was our son.’” He snorted. “She was my mother. I had something to mourn, too. But no, they just let me live some other kid’s life for another few years.”
“It’s your life, Benton,” Nicole insisted.
“Yeah.”
The sky was filled with brilliant shades of gold and pink. They watched it for a moment before he had the courage to add.
“I kind of feel like a jerk now. I mean, I have a second chance to learn a bit more about my mom. Mic will be back once this all settles down. They’re not going to see their son again.” He groaned. “I should apologize, shouldn’t I?”
“Maybe,”
she winced. “Although I think there’s plenty of apologies that need to go around.”
Benton smirked. “And I think we’re finally in a place to say them. We, um, well, we came to an agreement. I get to keep living with you guys, but the Bertrands are going into family therapy. I also have to have three meals a week with them.”
“That’s great.”
“They’re still scared of me.”
“But they’re willing to put the work in, actually build a relationship with you. That’s a good thing, Benton.”
She beamed at him and he couldn’t help but smile back.
“Yeah. It is, isn’t?”
“Of course, it is.” Hugging one of his arms, she tipped her head against his shoulder. Apparently, being reborn as a Banshee didn’t necessitate a growth spurt. They were still the same height. “And I’m always right.”
He chuckled and they both let out an exhausted sigh. Sunlight had stretched out across the ground by this point, gilding the grass and making the snow shine.
“Fort Wayward really is a beautiful place,” Benton said absently.
He felt Nicole’s smile against this shoulder. “What did I tell you the first day we met? Huh?”
Benton rolled his eyes even as he smirked. “You’re always right, Nic.”
“I know. Stick with me, Benny-boy. It might rub off on you.”
* * *
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