by Sarah Gilman
“Feel better?” he whispered into her shoulder.
She lifted her hips, taking more of him inside. “Yes.”
“Good.” He held her face in his hands. He kept kissing her as he moved, alternating between slow, deliberate strokes and a driving rhythm that had her scratching his skin. Without breaking stride, he pinned her wrists over her head with one hand, supporting his weight on his elbow. Having her hands restrained left her unable to do anything except feel his body in and around her, his every movement heightening the glorious tension where their bodies merged. His free fingers found her right breast and teased her nipple, sending shocks to her core.
The sensation overload gathered and burst free in an orgasm that left her twisting in the grass, fighting for breath.
He finished, then wrapped his arms around her body.
After lying still long enough for their breathing to settle, he carried her inside. They showered away the grass and dirt before curling against each other in bed. Jade fell asleep with her face tucked against his chest, refusing to let her thoughts drift to the looming fight with her brothers.
…
Dutch woke with his arm across Jade’s gently curved shoulders and couldn’t resist squeezing her tight against him. She woke, grinned, and stretched. She ran her fingers down his face and neck. “You’re still here.”
He widened his eyes. “Of course. You think I’m the kind of man who’d make love to a woman and run off?”
“No, not at all. But do you always sleep in your corporeal form?”
“Ah.” He lifted his arms over his head in a lazy stretch. “No. I usually just drift in the air. But last night I wanted to stay with you, and my natural form would have kept you up.”
“You don’t lose your form when you fall asleep?”
“Nah. Maintaining either form is easy. It’s the act of switching back and forth that requires concentration.” He combed his fingers through her hair, recalling how she’d flushed and squirmed under his incorporeal touch. “I wish I could have met you as a normal, living person. I haven’t come across anyone so lovely in my existence, and I’m not referring just to your beauty.” He ran a finger down her neck, between her breasts, and across her belly. “Your laughter makes me feel alive again in a way this manifested body never has. Just lying next to you gives me…”
She touched his cheek. “What?”
He swallowed. “I was going to say, ‘a reason to live.’ Lying here with you, it’s so easy to think like I’m not dead.”
She moved her hand to his throat and pressed her fingers into his skin. “You have a pulse.”
“It’s an illusion.”
“No, it’s not. This power you have, it gives you life.”
He ran his thumb over her bottom lip. “You give me life.”
The morning-after glow left her features and her tone thinned. “Do you still want to be exorcised?”
“No, not as long as I have you.” He positioned his body over hers, braced on his hands and knees. “Will you give me more than one night, Jade Clarence? Many nights?”
“Yes.” She glanced away for just a second. Hesitation? Something was on her mind. She pulled his head down and kissed him, her brow furrowed despite the passion in her touch. “Aaron will destroy you. He’ll also fire me. This assignment was a test to see if I could continue with the profession. I don’t know what to do, Dutch.”
“Sh.” He nibbled on her neck. “We’ll find a solution.”
He dispatched his corporeal form.
“Dutch?” She bolted upright.
He materialized at her back, brushed her hair to the side, and kissed her neck. She twisted around, but he vanished before she could touch him.
“Hey!” Pseudo-fury filled her eyes. She got out of bed, and he materialized with his hands on her bare backside. She whirled around and her arm shot out, her hand raised as if to slap him despite her wide smile, just as he disappeared. “Just wait until I get my hands on you!”
“Missed me.” He wrapped his arms around her from behind and pulled her down onto the bed in his lap, kissing her nape.
She squirmed away, laughing, but he pulled her body under his, holding her arms above her head.
“Kiss me.” He lowered his head, stopping short of touching her mouth.
She did. As she lingered against his lips, he released her wrists and she wrapped her arms around him. Rematerializing had clothed him in his pants and boots, so he reached for his buttons.
A knock on the front door jolted them both into a sitting position. Every muscle tense, he leapt out of bed.
“Jade?” A male voice called out, but not the voice that had inflicted so much pain the night before.
“It’s Jeremy, my other brother.” She got to her feet. “He’s more reasonable than Aaron.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Shall I go or stay?”
“Stay. We have nothing to hide from Jeremy. Hopefully, he’ll help.” She raised her voice. “I’ll be right out, Jeremy!” She rushed into the bathroom with her clothes in her arms.
Dutch donned the shirt he’d worn at dinner and went to the door. On the porch, Jeremy’s eyes narrowed from behind a pair of fashion lenses, his sleek city-boy look out of place in the rustic setting, despite his Native American features.
“Oh, sorry, I must have the wrong—”
“She’ll be right out, Jeremy.” Dutch invited the exorcist inside.
Jeremy stepped into the kitchen, folded his arms, and cocked his head. “And you are?”
“Dutch. We spoke on the phone the other day,” he said as Jade hurried into the room, wearing jeans and a loose green shirt that swirled around her arms. He let his corporeal body vanish and reappeared at her side, an arm around her waist.
“The client?” Jeremy muttered as if to himself. “Aaron said Jade had met a spirit that could materialize. I couldn’t believe it.” His gaze shifted to Jade and back to Dutch. “What about the motel?”
“I made sure everyone got out safely, and the building should’ve been condemned, anyway.” Dutch explained his original plan to be exorcised and finished by saying, “Things have changed.”
Jade leaned against him and rested her hand on his chest. He kissed the top of her head.
Jeremy leaned against the counter and rested his face in his hand. “Ah, shit.”
“What is Aaron planning to do?” Jade’s voice sharpened.
In silence, her brother rubbed his face and pushed his glasses up his nose.
“Jeremy!”
“He’s gone up to the falls. The park officers told him where to find the grave. He’s going to use the slave incantation.”
Jade staggered and Dutch supported her weight with an arm around her waist. He glared at her brother. “The what?”
“Aaron thinks having a spirit as powerful as you at his disposal will be useful, both for research and as a tool,” Jeremy said, his voice calm. “This particular incantation will make you a slave to his will. A puppet.”
Dutch’s muscles tensed, sending a sharp pain up his neck.
Jade took a deep breath and held it, a hand to her face. “No, he’s not,” she said, very much like feisty Tinker Bell, Dutch thought. “I’m going up there.”
She stormed for the door, Jeremy on her heels, and she snatched her car keys from a wall hook on the way. Dutch dematerialized and whispered in her ear as she got in the car. “Don’t worry, sweetness, I will deal with Aaron.”
Chapter Seven
Dutch careened through the forest in a straight line to the grave he normally avoided. Making the trip in under a minute, he materialized in front of the stone and waited, pacing. The spot made his skin crawl, both because of the proximity to his mortal remains and the memories of his last moments of life. The shouts that’d reached his ears as he’d fallen still echoed in his dreams. Here, they seemed louder and ever present.
The real horror had come later that day. Dying hadn’t hurt, but being left behind certainly had. The living h
ad benefited from his death once…it wouldn’t happen today.
After a few long minutes, Jade’s brother emerged from the trees, a black bag hanging from his shoulder.
Aaron smiled, smug. “You must be the—”
The exorcist’s eyes widened and he lifted a hand to his mouth. Fury in his expression, he tried to shout, but no sound came out.
Dutch grinned and circled. “You caught me off guard last night, but I have a few tricks of my own, exorcist. I will be no one’s pet.”
Aaron swung a fist, but Dutch dematerialized, assumed his corporeal form behind Jade’s brother, and seized him in a chokehold. “You see, I’ve spent a God-awful long time here, and for the first time in over a century, I feel alive. Even in my lifetime, no one made me feel the way Jade does. Now that I’ve found her, you’re going to leave us the hell alone. Nod.”
Aaron nodded against Dutch’s arm, struggling for air.
Not believing the bastard for a second, Dutch kept his preternatural grip on Aaron’s vocal cords. Sweat dripped down his spine. He couldn’t hurt Jade’s brother, and he couldn’t keep him silent indefinitely—that took concentration. “How are we going to guarantee that, I wonder?”
…
Jade pulled the car to an abrupt halt behind Aaron’s yellow Jeep at the trailhead. “Follow the orange blazes to the gravesite,” she said to Jeremy. “Keep Aaron and Dutch from hurting each other until I get there.”
“Aren’t you coming?”
“And do what? Argue with Aaron? Has that ever worked for me?”
“But what—”
“I will take care of everything. I’ll only be a few minutes behind you.” She shoved him, and he got out of the car.
“He’s just a spirit, Jay,” he said, his hand resting on the open door.
“He’s not just a spirit to me, little brother. Do this for me? Please?”
Jeremy held up his hands, then smacked them against his thighs in defeat. “I’ll try. Whatever you’re doing, make it fast.”
She drove as fast as she dared on the narrow road, hoping she could find the turn she’d taken mental note of while browsing a map of the park when she’d checked in.
She took inventory of her backseat in her head. Her grandfather’s book of incantations? Check. Her notebooks full of her own incantations? Check. Nerve? Did she have enough nerve to execute her plan?
Her mouth went dry and her heart’s rhythm shuddered as much as the car on the washboard road. There was too much at stake for her to fail. Both Dutch’s freedom and his existence could be lost—because if Aaron failed to enslave him, an exorcism would follow—but that wasn’t all. She hadn’t had time to gather all her thoughts, but lying awake the night before, she’d realized a way to further her professional goals was presenting itself.
Her brothers would never agree to the idea.
Dutch would never agree to the idea.
Without Dutch, she wouldn’t have the courage to go through with the idea.
Hell, it might not even work.
But if it did…
She had to jump in and get her feet wet. Literally. A small green sign identified her turn and she progressed slowly down the steep, even narrower road that led to a fishing area below the falls. She parked, got into the backseat, and opened her grandfather’s book.
She grabbed a pen and one of her notebooks. She needed a portion of her grandfather’s slave incantation edited into a passage she wrote a year ago, one that, at the time, had been a mistake. Almost a deadly one. She scribbled Latin in shorthand, using symbols for certain multi-purpose passages she’d long ago memorized.
She ripped the page out of the notebook and bolted from the car.
The nearest fishermen were well downstream. Jade waded into the water, the cold making it hard to breathe, and made her way upstream toward the base of the falls, the roar deafening.
The mist saturated the paper. The ink ran.
“Shit!” Shivering, she held the blurring words up and began to read the first verse even as she continued to progress, struggling on the slippery rocks beneath her feet. She needed to be here despite the danger. It was, she believed, the most concentrated area of power other than Dutch’s grave itself—perhaps the source of energy for the whole area.
If something went wrong and she died, it was best to be where Dutch died and continue living as he had.
As she recited one of the memorized passages, she looked up to the spot where Dutch had fallen over a century ago. He’d become a ghost here, among these rocks and rushing currents that tried to rip her feet out from under her. His first disorientated, conscious moments after his death may well have taken place exactly where she stood now.
But he hadn’t died, not the way a human being normally passes on. The power of this place, power perhaps centered at these falls, had given him a heartbeat.
A heartbeat that had given her and Dutch the chance to cross paths in this world.
A heartbeat that she wanted to listen to tonight when she fell asleep.
A heartbeat that now gave her the courage to read the third and final verse.
Shouting to hear herself over the falls, she completed the incantation.
…
“Let him go,” Jeremy’s voice shouted over the din of the falls below.
Dutch released Aaron from the chokehold, but didn’t return the exorcist’s ability to speak. “Ghost got your tongue?”
Aaron glared as he kneeled, catching his breath.
Jeremy walked over and stood between them. “Aaron, would it kill you to listen to someone else’s opinion once in your life?”
More glaring. Dutch shook his head. Damn, this guy never gave up, did he?
“Our sister has gone to do grandfather-knows-what because you can never be reasoned with,” Jeremy continued, staring down at Aaron. “If she gets into any kind of trouble, I’m holding you responsible.”
“Where’s Jade?” Dutch demanded. What was she up to?
“I don’t know.” Jeremy rubbed the spot between his eyes beneath his lenses. “Whatever you’re doing to Aaron, stop it.”
“And let him bind me to my grave with a few words? No.”
“This impasse requires a little trust to break,” Jeremy said quietly.
“Would you trust him if you were a ghost?”
Jeremy grimaced.
“I thought not.”
Jeremy paced around, scanning the area. “You have to admit, Aaron, this place is unique. Dutch is unique. To call him truly dead would be unjust. I agree with Jade that you need to back the hell off and let her handle this.”
Aaron shook his head.
“You know,” Jeremy said, turning to Dutch, “I could get used to him being mute.”
Dutch grinned.
“Me, too,” Jade’s voice said.
Dutch froze, overwhelmed by the presence of an unexpected spirit drawing closer to him, the additional energy visible as faint fog moving independent of the mist. She took form, wearing the jeans and green gauzy shirt she’d had on earlier, her dark hair loose around her arms.
“Jade?” He stared, his corporeal body as numb as his incorporeal one. “What…what did you…”
Jeremy stuttered something similar, from what Dutch could tell through the ringing in his ears.
Jade held up a hand. “It’s not what it looks like. I’m okay.”
“What, exactly, is it then?” Aaron said, his voice shaking, still on his knees. Dutch had lost his concentration on the exorcist’s vocal cords.
Jeremy stood still and wide-eyed. “Jay-Jay,” he whispered. “What did you do?”
Jade’s tone firmed and she leaned toward Aaron. “First, I chained my spirit to Dutch’s—not a full slave bond at all, not even enough to cause us any discomfort, but enough that if you exorcise him, you’ll destroy me, too. Enslaving him would enslave me. Understand?”
Aaron nodded, his face so pale he could have been a ghost himself. Dutch figured being as familiar as Jade was with t
heir great grandfather’s work, Aaron wouldn’t doubt she was right.
“Good. Second.” She straightened and met all their gazes. “Yes, I left my body to accomplish bonding myself to Dutch, but no, I didn’t kill myself. It was a risk, but I’m fine.”
Jeremy sputtered something unintelligible and sank to the ground.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Aaron got to his feet. He gripped Jade’s arms but she didn’t struggle, so Dutch resisted any vengeful spirit moves. “Do you have any idea how dangerous—”
“I know exactly, and I was as careful as time allowed. I had to show you how serious I am about you leaving Dutch alone. I needed to make absolutely sure you couldn’t exorcise him, enslave him, or anything else.”
“Such an incantation could have killed you. Ripping your soul from your body? It hasn’t been studied or practiced. What if you’d stopped breathing?”
“My body is safe in my car. Breathing. I know it could have killed me,” she said evenly, eased out of Aaron’s grip, and turned to Dutch. “But I would still have had a body and a heartbeat.”
“Jade,” he said, his throat tight.
She hooked an arm through his and spoke to her brothers. “I would like to stay here awhile. As a spirit myself, benefitting from the powers of this place, I’m an even stronger exorcist, and I stand to learn so much about the spirit world. I might finally be able to write an incantation to help spirits move on without destroying them. Both of you know how much that means to me, even if it means nothing to you.”
Aaron sighed. “I know I’m an asshole, Jade, but you’re my sister and that does mean something to me.”
Jeremy nodded.
“Don’t scare us like this again,” Aaron said, his voice broken.
Jade hugged him. “If you give me the same courtesy. Do you have any idea how scared I was when I heard you were going to enslave Dutch?”
Aaron’s throat worked. “Let’s call it even, then.”
“I happen to like Dutch very much.”
His breath left his body. Could he be that lucky? After so many years of being alone?
“Hmm.” Aaron scowled, but after a second, the corners of his mouth curved upward the slightest bit. “Derrick Hutchinson, you treat my little sister right, or I’ll find a way to break that bond and exorcise your ass.”