Locked in Stone

by Tory Michaels

  Rose crossed her arms as cold swept through her body. She’d never really thought about how strong Gwen was. To see Tom in awe of her made her wonder why she’d been such a fool to ignore the many bad signs over the years.

  “Her presence comes through like nothing I’ve ever felt, and she’s not even conscious right now. Mother fu…” Tom grimaced and didn’t finish the word. “Cal, you know ghosts better than I do, in some ways. What are the chances she can strike out at us while dead?”

  Rose looked at Cal. Strike out? Like actually interact with the physical world?

  “Nervous?” Cal asked Tom, not immediately answering the question as he reached the edge of the circle with his hands clasped in the small of his back.

  “Now that I feel her strength, you bet Rose’s sweet butt cheeks I am,” Tom answered. From the quick little smile and wink that Tom sent her, she knew he’d said it both to get her goat and try to relieve the tension tightening up her shoulders right then.

  “Refrain from checking out her ass, why don’t you?” Cal snapped.

  Rose blinked in surprised. Why, he almost sounds jealous. She studied him anew. So, Mr. Cool and Distant objected to other men scoping her out. So much for keeping his hands off. He couldn’t be serious about keeping his distance if he cared what other men did or didn’t do with her, right?

  “Despite the stories you may have heard, ghosts are harmless. My gift should keep Gwen under control, so don’t stress about being in the circle with her. If nothing else, get the hell out. She can’t leave it since the rest of the estate’s blessed and she’s clearly evil.”

  Trying to steady her breath, Rose clasped her hands in front of her. Tom being nervous made her even more worried about what they were about to do. She filed away Cal’s jealous comment for later.

  Tom took in a deep breath. “Here we go.”

  Nerves flooded Rose’s body, closing her throat and cutting off her air. Tom hummed a tuneless little noise as he closed his eyes. Something touched her hand, held it. She glanced down, found Cal’s hand around hers. Startled, she looked into his eyes.

  He gave a strangely reassuring smile. “This will work, Rose. Breathe.”

  She sucked in a breath, torn between nervous giggles and a watery sniffle. Giles was out there, looming over her future. She refused to cry.

  The amber in Tom’s hands spat out sparks from between his grasping fingers, and even from two feet away, she saw it tremble in his grip. She shuffled her feet, squeezed Cal’s hand, and leaned into him. He didn’t make any attempt to push her away and warmth grew at his silent support.

  A soft sigh and a savage wind whipped through the room as the stone ignited into a burst of orange flames. Tom yelped and thrust the stone away. The amber tumbled to the ground, but though it shimmered with flame, no scorch marks appeared on the wood floor.

  Finally, the fire went out as a white light shot from the stone and the wind died. The amber lost its gleam, turning dull and lifeless.

  Rose licked her lips. Her palms felt clammy. She started to tug her hand free, to cover up the nerves, when Cal stiffened. His eyes widened as he stared into space.

  “Cal?” she whispered, afraid to say any more. Was he having a seizure? Had he somehow gone into the Nexus?

  “She’s here,” he said so quietly she barely heard him. His hazel eyes narrowed in concentration and he pulled his hand from hers just before he said, “Exorior, Rose!”

  In precisely the area his gaze focused, silver and gold shimmered as a shape formed, indistinctly outlined at first until finally the features solidified into Gwen’s familiar face.

  Rose stared at the woman she’d looked up to for so long, the familiar blue-green eyes, ruler-straight brown hair, and slender physique. She wore what she’d been wearing when Rose found her body, a pearl-gray nightgown with a white robe belted at the waist. Thankfully, there was no trace of blood visible.

  “You’re here.”

  Gwen smiled, but it wasn’t the complacent expression Rose had seen over the years. No. This was more of a smirk, cold, with calculation glittering from the depths of her slanted eyes. “Well, well, Rose. You went to the Sentinels.”

  The ghost turned in a slow circle, surveying the area, her path briefly pausing as she looked down at Tom’s head. Tom peered around the room, but looked straight through Gwen. Cal must not have made her visible to the other man.

  “I’m sorry you’re dead.” Stupid thing to say, but really, what were you supposed to say to a ghost?

  Gwen stretched her arms above her head, her hair falling in long waves down her back. “Mmm, Calhoun Levesque. Or perhaps you would prefer I call you Robin? I’m surprised you would tolerate his presence, Rose, after he failed you so many years ago.”

  “Ms. Heir,” Cal started, and then paused before continuing. Rose almost saw the wheels turning in his head, working through the best way to start asking questions.

  “My, my, you’re a bold one. Not even calling me Johnson? Ah well, it matters not. Rose, you look surprised? Confused even. Whatever could be the matter, dear?”

  Gwen’s mocking tone finally pushed Rose over the edge and she took a step forward. “Is it true? Were you behind the Day of Hell? Is Reny alive? You told me she was dead.”

  Gwen trailed a finger over her lips, blood red fingernails glinting in the overhead lights as she appeared to consider the question. “Reny. Reny? Oh yes, you mean the other little brat I took. I honestly haven’t the faintest idea if she’s still alive.”

  The lazy admission hit Rose like a slap in the face. Brat? Anger burned through her. “You lied? You told the Sentinels you could lead them to Reny if they brought you out of the stone.”

  Blood pumped in her veins and her temples throbbed.

  Trilling laughter filled the room as the ghost continued her slow pace around the interior of the circle. “Of course I did. They certainly wouldn’t waste their time and resources to bring me out of my soul-stone if I hadn’t.” Gwen gave an exaggerated yawn and study the area around her with great interest. “Oh, it’s true enough that I took your sister with me. I couldn’t have you screaming for her. I only took her so you’d shut up and leave with me before anyone else noticed.”

  “Gwen…Why? Why, if you hate me and my kind so much, did you bother?”

  Gwen’s upper lip curled into a feral snarl. “All that lovely blood in your body, mine. I could use you for decades and you were so grateful, so pathetically weak, you believed I cared about you.”

  Each word flung a knife at her heart and Rose choked, one hand coming to touch her throat. “That’s it? This is all about blood? What use could it be to you?” Sure, it super-charged her spells, but to keep someone around she clearly hated seemed a bit extreme.

  Gwen tittered, stepped up to the line as if about to cross it, but then stopped and tapped the air. A tiny ripple of green and blue fluttered where she touched it. “Oh, very clever, Ghost-Talker. Holy ground that I can’t cross through. And yes, Rose, that’s it.”

  “Then where’s Reny?” Screw anything else—Reny had survived. “Did you kill her later? What happened to my sister?”

  “I haven’t the faintest. I dumped her after you passed out in the car. Probably died of exposure. One can hope, at least,” Gwen purred, each syllable laced with loathing and disgust.

  She shuddered at the clear hatred that radiated from the ghost and tried not to let herself feel crushed. There was no way to know what had happened to Reny, if Gwen herself didn’t know. She focused on not letting any tears fall. She’d known her sister was dead; she shouldn’t have gotten her hopes up. Chances of them both having survived the massacre were ridiculously low.

  Gwen stepped back from the edge of the circle, running her hand straight through Tom’s head. He shivered, looked up with a startled glance before he climbed to his feet, peering at the apparent emptiness surrounding him. “Did she just walk through me?”

  Rose stumbled back to clutch at Cal’s arm.

  “Tsk
, tsk. Why on Earth did Lucifer have to find me so soon? He was so upset with me, for running away from my responsibilities to the coven, but still…” Her lips jutted out in a faux pout. “I did so want to see what happened when demons walked on Earth.” She laughed again, the brittle sound slicing deeper into Rose’s heart.

  As she tried to force words out, demand more to know more about why Gwen had been so determined to have a supply of gargoyle blood on hand, she noticed the ghost’s series of tiny gestures. It looked almost like she was trying to cast a spell. But that was impossible. Cal had told her that ghosts couldn’t work magic.

  “Guys, I’m getting some major bad vibes here,” Tom said at the same moment, his expression wary as he edged around the circle. Rose noticed that he didn’t try to break the circle’s edge either, and hoped he didn’t need to escape in a hurry. “She, uh, she can’t do anything to me. Can she?”

  …

  Cal shook his head at Tom’s question. No, the witch couldn’t do anything. She was brand new to ghosthood. It took time to learn how to physically interact with the world beyond the occasional ghost-talker. At least that’s what he’d always seen. There were rumors, of course, of a handful of ghosts capable of more. But that’s all they were.

  When he glanced at Rose, his calm shredded. Her face was a study in misery…and fury. Downturned lips, crestfallen expression, the works. But no tears, no screaming. Just like Anniko. Strong. Resolute when she faces an unfortunate truth.

  In that instant he knew one more incontrovertible truth: somehow, some way, he had fallen in love with Rose Johnson. Despite all his backpedaling, claiming he just wanted to keep her safe, he actually loved her.

  “Calhoun, transport me from this wretched place and I shall be on my way. I have no desire to stand here while you stare at me.”

  Gwen’s taunting voice pulled him from the revelation. Riiight. She couldn’t really be that stupid, could she, expect him to let her go? The only place she was going was to Otherworld…after he pulled out every last ounce of intel she had hidden in that deadly skull of hers. Someone who’d planned the massacre and taken two little girls for sinister purposes wouldn’t have blithely discarded one. Right?

  Rose turned to him at the same time Gwen raked her fingers down her own arm. Ghosts could touch themselves, of course. A trail of goose bumps rose along his arms as blood welled from the cuts.

  Ghosts were not supposed to bleed. They were dead. No bodies. No blood.

  “Cal,” Rose said urgently. “She’s casting something. Something big.”

  Reaching forth with the same sense that let him see ghosts, he felt for Gwen’s emotional state. Until a moment ago, she’d been calm, a bit gleeful, and definitely spiteful toward Rose. But now? Now fury built in the ghost along with a surge of energy he’d never felt from the dead. “Are you sure?”

  Gwen’s silly titter once again filled the room as Tom shuddered. She’d just walked through him again. “Oh, good eye, Rose. But too late.”

  The witch clapped her hands together. The lights overhead exploded in a shower of sparks and he instinctively lunged for Rose to protect her.

  To his horror, after the blowout, the witch smiled at him, kissed her fingertips, and stepped across the edge of circle as if it didn’t exist.

  A chill settled in him as he became brutally aware of something. Somehow, a baby Casper had just fucking defiled and destroyed the blessing on the entire estate.

  Oh, shit. Other than Lucifer himself, there was only one kind of creature he’d ever read about being capable of getting rid of a blessing.

  Cal yanked Rose behind him. Gwen might have some tricks up her sleeve, but she surely couldn’t walk through him unless he allowed it. Right? And legends about powerful ghosts were just that: legends.

  He was a ghost-talker after all, not a normal Sentinel that was unable to see the spirit world.

  “Tom, call Lucas, tell him to get his ass home” he said, and made a small gesture of his own. It would hold the witch.

  She just kept coming.

  Fuck. He refused to let this bitch get away while he still had questions. Rose might have bought the shit about Reny, but he hadn’t. He knew when a ghost tried to lie, and Gwen had told one hell of a whopper when she claimed to have dumped Reny.

  “Wha-what? How can you do this?” Rose sounded like she wanted to launch herself at the witch. It wouldn’t do much good here on Earth or he’d have taken a swing at her himself.

  “Thank you, dear, sweet, Rose, for making this possible.”

  Rose slipped through Cal’s grasp, dodging around him to stare at Gwyeira. “What do you mean?”

  “All the blood, all those years.” Gwen ran her hands along her slender body, shivered a little at the sensuous movement. Wind swirled around the witch, tugging at the hem of her nightgown. “I was hoping you’d find a way of rescuing me after Lucifer killed me. I certainly didn’t want Giles draining me.”

  Gwen started glowing. Not just a ghost’s normal transparent wispiness, but she gleamed with an actual, white glow as she gestured, mumbling to herself.

  “Cal? Can’t you stop her?”

  He tried concentrating, freezing the witch in place, but her chanting never let up. He couldn’t understand her spell and suspected she was using some sort of Otherworld language. The most powerful demon-based spells were from Otherworld. Tom finally started moving toward the door, but it slammed shut before he reached it.

  Glistening, supernatural fire licked down the seam of the door.

  “Please, don’t hurt them,” Rose said, once again standing between him and the witch.

  Stubborn gargoyle, that’s my job! Cal grabbed at her, but she dove forward, her body almost passing through Gwen’s.

  “Just tell us where Reny went. Cal won’t hurt you if you tell us. He’ll, he’ll…”

  Rose trailed off, glancing at him uncertainly. Not surprisingly since she didn’t know what he could do with and to ghosts. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was going to do with this ghost. He wasn’t entirely sure that was all Gwen was either. A newly dead ghost shouldn’t be able to cast spells, much less destroy the holy-ground status of the estate. For that matter, nothing short of Lucifer himself should be able to blaspheme the grounds. Unless his growing suspicion was correct.

  “He’s useless, Rose. Can’t you tell? Just like he was all those years ago, when he let your precious mother and sister die.”

  Rose straightened, like a puppet with its strings pulled taut. He heard the growl emerge from her throat as she bared her teeth at Gwen. “Don’t you dare blame him for the massacre, you bitch! He was doing his job. Robin always does what is right.”

  A tendril of warmth curled through his body at her fervent avowal. She really believed in him that much?

  “He would have banished me to Otherworld already if he could.”

  “Like hell I can’t do anything,” he snarled, trying again with his power to hold her in place.

  This time the spell worked. Barely.

  Based on the strain he felt from her pull against his magic, she wouldn’t be stopped for long.

  Tom didn’t waste the opportunity as the purple flames around the exit died out. He slammed his foot against the door and managed to crack the solid wood. His shoe flamed to ash in no time, proving even dying fire was bad when it came from a witch.

  Cal ground his teeth together, keeping his will focused so she couldn’t escape. He would drag answers from her one way or another. “Try again, about Serenity. What did you do with her? Tell me the truth and I’ll send you to Otherworld, not the Nexus for the Demon Gatherers. My vow as a Sentinel.”

  “You’ll do no such thing, silly boy,” Gwen said dismissively. Her fingers started weaving at the air again.

  She really really shouldn’t be able to cast spells. Ice slid through his veins as the horrifying truth became blindingly obvious.

  “Thanks to Rose’s blood, I’m so much more than when I was alive.” As if to prove it, a ball of
black flame flickered to life. It looked remarkably like one of Giles’s hellfire spells.

  “Watch out,” shouted Rose.

  Gwen hurled her ball of death toward Tom as the man finished battering open the door. He dove forward, doing a neat little summersault to get out of the line of fire.

  Cal’s stomach turned over. The black fire confirmed beyond all doubt his suspicions. Gwen had become the impossible: a Death Angel.

  Before he could call any sort of warning, silver and black light outlined the ghost’s frame and she let out an unearthly howl. “Die, gargoyle!”

  A roar filled the room like waves crashing on the beach. Fire spewed from Gwen’s fingertips.

  He didn’t think twice, just grabbed Rose around the waist and swung her from away as he shouted, “Mitto vos usque ad locum Nexus!”

  The world flashed around him as his angelic powers flared to life.

  Pain rocketed through his body as he shattered the chord that bound his soul to his body and sent Gwen and himself to the Nexus. It was the only way he could keep Rose safe.

  Goodbye, he thought as gray swept over his vision.

  …

  As Cal dragged her around, Rose flinched, expecting to be consumed by flames, but then he sagged against her and nothing happened. The room went silent.

  She blinked and barely kept her feet as he fell to the ground. When she looked behind her, Gwen was gone.

  What had he yelled? It had sounded like Latin, but she didn’t know the language. When she looked down, she found Cal on the floor in a heap, his neck turned in an uncomfortable position, but with the same blank stare he’d had in Orlando. She twisted her hands, uncertain what she to do.

  “Tom?” She called out, hoping he had heard whatever it was Cal had yelled. He dealt with ghosts, didn’t he? Since he’d been one himself.

  She crouched down, yanked a pillow off the couch, and rested Cal’s head on it. Might as well make his body comfortable. He’d be right back, right? Just like in Orlando.

  Movement out of the corner of her eye sent her pulse racing again. Tom bolted through the still-smoldering doorway, waving a cellphone. Though the speaker, Lucas demanded, “What’s going on?”