Shelby shut the upstairs door and locked us in. “Yeah. Some of this stuff has to be a hundred years older than Eliza was when she used them.”
Allie stared at the doors to the tunnels with a worried look.
“Try almost a thousand years. This one dates back to 1215. You can tell by the binding and the skin used as backing. It’s real.”
“Please tell me you mean animal skin.” Shelby winced rubbing, her hands on her pants.
“Nope. Human. A sacrifice more than likely. They didn’t have morgues to steal skin samples from.” Anna Marie laughed at her joke.
I grinned but the girls horrified faces said they didn’t care for her joke. “Seriously, girls. If you’re going to learn to use these things, you’re going to have to get past all the discomfort of working with icky stuff.”
“I was born into this. I didn’t choose it.” Shelby went a bit green and held her stomach.
“I’m sure they sanitized it,” Kaitlyn said.
“Really?” Shelby could be so naïve.
“No, dummy. But if it had germs, they’re long dead now. Back to the matter at hand.” Kaitlyn flipped the book back open.
“I can probably help look through some of the books. The curse or a spell that might help us figure out how she created the curse is in here somewhere. I have a little background in linguistics.” All the girls looked at me with fascination.
I shrugged. “What? I got bored in 1998.”
“Smart people are sexy.” Allie grinned and flipped open a book. “Well, folks. I’m sorry, but about all I can do is analyze these crazy pictures and tell you if I find anything that looks like stick figures falling from the fourth story of a house.”
“You’d be surprised how much witches used diagrams and illustrations to help them flip through the old books. They rarely had tables of contents. It also might help if you try to read some of these journals.” Anna Marie held one open to the first page. “Her writing was neat, but it was small. I have trouble with fine print, and you never know what clues she could have given away in some of her personal writings.”
“Yeah, Allie. Read a journal.” I poked her in the side.
“It’s not alarming when the writing is about someone else. When it’s specifically about your soul in another body at a different time in the millennia, it’s unsettling to say the least.” Allie grabbed the book Anna Marie offered her and took a comfortable spot on the sofa.
“Being totally honest, while working with the Native Americans back home, I’ve rarely had this much excitement. It was nice to get a break from the everyday grind of providing them with stones for jewelry. When you called me for a stone to help with an exorcism, I was ecstatic. That was the only time in around three years anyone has called on me, and I got to use my true calling. White magic.” Anna Marie settled onto the couch with Allie, a spell book in hand. It looked a little newer than the one she’d had before.
“I just hope you can help us with the half-dead body we have stored in the catacombs.”
Anna Marie flipped a page. “What are you going to do with the corpse after it dies? She won’t last very long with an unfamiliar spirit inside her. A week tops.”
“We haven’t gotten that far yet.” Kaitlyn flipped a page.
“The pond is already occupied.” Shelby smirked. “She’ll probably end up at the bottom of the waterfall.”
“That’s another subject I wanted to explore. It would probably be in your best interest and all your future lives’ best interest to take Grace’s remains out of the pond and lay her to rest in hallowed ground. It’s not helpful that she’s at unrest. Water isn’t exactly hallowed ground.” Anna Marie looked at me and shoved her glasses up on her nose.
“These girls leave nothing out of a story.” I closed the book in my hand.
“I told them, just as I’m telling you now. I need to know every detail. Even the sordid ones. I know your past is full of things you’re not proud of, but they all need to be out in the open so we can peruse every moment for answers we’re looking for now.” Anna Marie looked back to the book. “Even things you may not think are remotely pertinent could help us solve the problem.”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, visions of Grace walking from the pond with chicken blood spread all over her slapped me in the face. Nausea wrenched my stomach.
“Grace killed a whole henhouse full of chickens. Probably around fifty hens altogether. She smeared their blood all over her, the bodies of all the animals she left living, and then wandered the grounds naked.”
Anna Marie sat straighter and forgot the book in her lap. “Chicken blood? That’s unusual. Pig blood was normally the choice for spells, or in your case, curses. I need more details. Anything you can recall that struck you as odd or supernatural.”
Allie’s brows furrowed. “I’m wondering how many times you saw this woman naked.”
I groaned. “I’m sorry. I hate that we have to talk about it. If it weren’t for the blood part of the story, I wouldn’t have brought it up. It just strikes me as something witchy. In that lifetime, I had no idea about witchcraft other than what Pop told me about Eliza. He said she thought she could transplant a soul. At the time, I thought that was the craziest thing I’d ever heard. I never even thought to connect all of Grace’s antics.”
Allie sighed.
I sat down on a chair facing Anna Marie and Allie. Settling down beside Allie would have been more comforting while I had to recount such a terrible time in my past, but it was nice to be able to gauge her reactions to my stories so I would know how much damage control I’d have to do when we were alone later that evening.
“Tell me all about what she did that seemed to be witchy, as you call it.” Anna Marie grinned. Thank goodness she didn’t take offence.
“One night before Grace started coming across as completely off her rocker, sharecroppers woke me from a dead sleep. I remember being so scared that the place had been invaded by thieves or God only knew what. People were screaming, horses whinnying and trying to break down their stall walls, dogs going nuts at their tie outs. It was complete chaos. A sharecropper said, ‘Come quick, Master Colby. It’s terrible bad.’ People were running all over the property, trying to chase down the animals Grace had freed when she covered them with blood. She’d gone to the chicken pen and torn the heads off so many chickens I couldn’t see the ground for the carnage. At first, I thought it was pig’s blood, the way they were making such a ruckus. But they were simply loose and running scared. I don’t know how she got them to hold still to cover them with all that blood, but she left none of them clean. Grace walked from the direction of the pond holding two headless chickens by their feet, swinging them like they were a handbag. She was covered head to toe with the same blood she’d spread all over the animals. It sounds even crazier telling it than it was when it happened.”
“No. I would have freaked out. I’m surprised you had any help left with her acting all bat-shit.” Shelby’s spell book slid off her lap. “Did she say anything?”
“That was my next question,” Anna Marie said.
“She made sure I knew she was aware of what she was doing. That she wasn’t out of her mind. Yet. Grace loved to get her way by manipulating situations. After she knew she couldn’t get me to come to her by force, she started doing things to gain more of my attention. I guess to get Marshall Rollins to hate her that much more. He already wanted to get rid of her, but she knew if she made an embarrassment of the family long enough, he’d jump in head first and help her with winning me over. If that didn’t work, she would have taken me against my will.” I stared at the floor.
“Damn. She’s relentless.” Anna Marie shoved her glasses up.
“You have no idea. That’s why she’s lying in a hole in one of those tunnels instead of resting half-humanely on a bed upstairs.” Shelby leaned back.
“So you’ve got a sleeping spell on her?” Anna Marie asked.
“Yeah, I guess it’s one that will hold her until we find what we need. I found it in the one book here that’s written in English that a layman could understand. After I did the requirements and said the words, one of the house staff came to me in a panic. Allie’s personal assistant had passed out cold.” Shelby straightened, arms folded with a shit-eating grin.
The rest of the evening, we looked through as many of the books as possible. I even ventured to the library to see if any of Ava’s old books had anything we might be able to use. When I got into the room, I just couldn’t focus. There were too many books. And so little time. I sank into the armchair facing the big bay window.
Marshall Rollins’s big desk and high back office chair sat between me and the view.
Why couldn’t we have just one normal life? All the rest of the Rollinses had no trouble living here. They lived everyday life with no problem whatsoever, and I had to struggle to make it through an hour.
This is why it was easier not looking for her.
Not that I didn’t want her to be happy, to finally find love, but I could imagine Allie could be content. This was no way to live. She needed to be without me.
“Oh my gosh. I see why Shelby gets so frustrated with you. Could you whine just a little more?” Kaitlyn pulled the library double doors shut behind her and flopped onto the sofa. “Yes, I know it sucks, but giving up is not the answer. We are going to put her in the ground and do away with her spirit once and for all. And when this is all said and done, you and Allie will never have to speak of her again.”
I simmered in self-pity. Silent. Going over all the ways I hadn’t committed suicide yet.
“And who’s to say if you did skydive from a plane and accidentally forget to pack your parachute that Grace would stop tormenting Allie after you died? Now that Grace knows where she is, you’d be dead, unable to do a thing but watch as Grace did anything and everything she wanted to Allie. There’s no easy answer. But you don’t have to try to find the right one alone. We’re here to help. Ava saw to that. She knew something we didn’t.” Kaitlyn stared at me with her eyebrows perked and an oddly unsettling smile. Now was not the time to smile.
“That’s another thing. Why couldn’t she just tell us what the answers were before she died? Why does everything have to be a riddle?” I felt like a five-year-old boy.
“Ava Rollins hated lazy people. So it follows that we’re going to have to work for this solution. So far she hasn’t been wrong. She just didn’t plan for an act of God. Of course, I’m pretty sure she thought the crew she threw together would be able to put their heads together and beat any obstacles that came our way. I still believe in that. I believe in us. Don’t give up.” Kaitlyn sounded like my mom in that moment too.
Funny how I kept going back to thoughts of my mom. My original mom.
“She had a lot to do with how truly sweet you are when you’re not being a dick.” Kaitlyn tossed a throw pillow at me.
I caught it. “Lately, that’s a lot. Sorry.”
“I think we’d do good to make sure Grace is still safely knocked out. Stop wallowing and go with me?” Kaitlyn yanked my arm and pulled me up.
* * * *
The basement stairs creaked as I loped down them. The girls’ happy thoughts and hopeful conversation floated up. “…and we might be able to get two spells to work together to stop her. I’ve found a few that exorcise demons. Not sure if that’d work on a human spirit.”
“Speaking of demons, Cole and Kaitlyn are coming down so we can go check on her as a group. And yes. I’m pretty sure God would classify her as one of the worst of Satan’s minions. I don’t want her to be up roaming around while we’re thinking she’s still unconscious.” Shelby was getting better at multitasking. Hearing, reading, talking, topping me at being a world-class smartass all at one time. I was going to have to buy her dinner or something.
A weight lifted off my shoulders as I got nearer to the group of ladies in the center of the basement. They made it aggravatingly hard to be self-loathing.
I looped my arm around Allie from behind. My fingers ached to touch skin, but I had to deprive them of it for now.
Allie smiled up at me. “We’re getting closer. There are a lot of spells in here that might work on Grace if we can just find the right one.”
“Since it exorcises foul spirits out of the person holding it, why didn’t we just go get another Amiante stone or find the original one?” I asked Anna Marie.
“I don’t think we can trick her into entering Allie’s body again. She’s pretty smart.” Anna Marie got up. “I want to see this Olympic-size swimming pool of dead animals. Chalk it up as morbid curiosity.”
* * * *
“I can’t believe we’re standing over a hole of dead animal carcasses. This is decidedly the most disgustingly horrendous and kick-ass thing I’ve ever seen.” Anna Marie aimed her flashlight into the pit. Skeletons of large birds, a few cows, a goat, oh, another goat, and plenty of deer carcasses. They were my favorite meat. And I didn’t feel so bad about killing them. Davidson County’s overpopulation had become a problem with highly traveled roads. I had done motorists a favor by reducing accidents by more than half.
Grace’s new body lay on what was left of a bear after I’d torn into it. Bear was probably my least favorite of all the meats. I’d had it canned as a child when Mama used to can everything, and it was amazing. A lot like roast beef. But fresh off the bone was tough and almost stomach churning.
Anna Marie and Shelby’s thoughts were synonymous. They thought it was the coolest thing they’d ever seen.
I can’t believe I fell in that. Allie looked at the roots hanging from the ceiling. “Could we please hurry? This place creeps me out.”
More for Allie than anyone, I said, “I’ll fill the hole in as soon as Sage’s body dies. This place isn’t one of my proudest accomplishments.”
“Hasn’t moved an inch.” Kaitlyn’s voice was hushed as if she thought Grace would hear us.
“She can’t hear us, can she?” The thought was alarming.
“No. She’s in a deeper sleep than a coma. If her presence was here, I’d know it. I could feel her.” Kaitlyn looked away from her body.
“I’m sorry you have to see this.” I hated that she or anyone had to smell the stench.
“You shouldn’t be embarrassed. This is actually brilliant. No one would ever guess you have to eat as much as you do when you shift because they’d never find the proof. And it doesn’t smell outside of the tunnel, so there’s virtually no evidence.” Anna Marie stared at the corners of the walls. It did resemble an Olympic-sized swimming pool. I’d dug the corners out almost perfectly.
“She’s going to be so pissed when she wakes up.” Allie crossed her arms and covered her mouth. She looked at anything but the pit. “I can’t stop thinking of the day I landed down there. I need to go.”
“You think we need to poke her? You know, to make sure she’s still alive?” Shelby kicked a pebbled. It pinged off a skull close to Grace.
Kaitlyn giggled. “No. I saw her chest move. You just want to poke her for the sheer satisfaction of it. Don’t lie.”
“Maybe,” Shelby said.
Chapter 12
Allie
There’s nothing like getting the stench of rotting animals stuck in your nose. For a few days after my fall into the pit, every once in a while, I would get a whiff of dead yuck. The smell never came up through the basement from the catacombs, so it was either a flashback from the traumatic experience, or I’d missed getting some of that yuck off my skin. Given the girls’ vigorous scrubbing and thorough bathing to get the rotting chunks of animal off me, I was sure I’d been left traumatized.
I shuddered as I walked back up the steps from the basement. I was thankful there was a cook to prepare food here. I wasn’t sure if I could touch any sort of animal flesh, even if it was to give myself sustenance. Being a vegetarian was something I’d never considered until now.<
br />
It was around six thirty and no one had eaten yet. Now they wouldn’t want to. Or if they did, they had a stronger stomach than mine.
“Hey.” Cole caught up with me.
In front of the swinging kitchen doors, I waited. The tapestry on the wall depicted an army of angels fighting a demon.
“Reminds you of the girls?” Cole’s work-hardened hands slipped around my waist from behind. His breath was warm on my neck.
“Yes. They’re going to find the cure to this curse. And when they do, I don’t want to think of the past ever again.” I sank back into him. A quick flash of him naked, slamming into Grace’s newly stolen body, or whatever she’d done to gain the use of it, assaulted me, but I shoved it away. I used to think Grace had been made by Satan, but now I wasn’t so sure she wasn’t Satan. She tried to ruin every precious moment I had with Cole.
That would stop.
It wasn’t his fault he looked like a Greek god with the manners of the finest nobleman. Most of the time. His rough edges were just as alluring. And he was mine. I suddenly didn’t care about food. I needed my strength, sure, but Cole gave me more will to go on than any eight-course meal.
“Let’s go to the cottage. I want some time alone with you.”
“Hmm.” He kissed my neck. “You’ve forgiven me faster than I thought you could.”
“You can’t help you’re hot.” I turned in his arms.
A flash of green that most people wouldn’t have caught sliced through his irises. His jaw worked. “I’m glad you still think so. I thought I’d find you packing your bags to leave this god-awful place and the life I’ve drawn you into.”
“Let the girls do their job. I’ll be waiting in the cottage. You go tell them to leave us alone for a while.” I cupped his chiseled jawline and pulled him down for a kiss.
Cole deepened the kiss as he searched for the sensitive skin at the base of my back. He slipped his hands under the waist of my pants and dug into my hips as he jerked me to him hard.
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