by Shara Lanel
Chapter Eleven
Jordan stared at her friend in shock. What the hell was going on? Had Celeste possessed Nina? And how did it happen?
“Nina,” Jordan began. “I know you’re in there.”
“Shut up!” Celeste snapped.
Drake pushed Jordan to the side as they began to circle slowly around, moving Celeste away from the door and toward the tower wall.
“Fight her, Nina. You’re stronger than she is,” Jordan demanded.
“I said, shut up.” Celeste pulled the trigger, but her arm moved inexplicably at the last second, the bullet hitting the wall by Jordan’s hip.
Jordan jumped and screamed, staring at the wall beside her with wide eyes. Damn, that had been close.
Celeste growled, and Jordan narrowed her eyes, watching her closely. She felt encouraged, for it had to be Nina that moved the gun at the last second. Her friend was in there—she just knew it.
“Jordan, get out of here,” Drake snarled, never taking his eyes from Celeste.
“No! This is my home and she’s not running me off.”
Celeste moved closer, and Drake stepped between them.
“It’ll go right through you, Drake and you know it,” Celeste purred. “Your pathetic attempt to play the hero won’t work.”
“Let her go, Celeste. I’ll do whatever you want.”
“No!” Jordan snapped. What was he thinking? He couldn’t do this. She wouldn’t let him. “Damn it, Nina. Fight her. Don’t let her do this.”
“It’s no use,” Celeste snarled, once again aiming the gun. “She can’t fight me, she’s not strong enough.”
“Come on, Celeste. Getting me is what you wanted. So let her go. I’ll go with you.”
“Drake don’t do this, please,” Jordan begged. “You can’t go with her.”
“Damn it, I said shut up!” Celeste snarled and raised the gun once more.
Jordan swallowed as she stared down the barrel. Her heart was in her throat and her hands shook with the need to run, but she refused. She knew in that instant she did love Drake, and she wouldn’t leave him. No matter what.
Rene stepped through the doorway and crept up behind Celeste, shoving her forward hard just as the gun fired. This time the bullet hit the wine bottle on the table, splattering glass and red wine over the white tablecloth and floor. Drake pushed Jordan toward Rene. “Get her out of here.”
“Yes, sir,” he replied.
“No!” Jordan fought against Rene’s hold, struggling to remain on the roof. “Rene, let me go.”
“Jordan!” Nina screamed, and Jordan spun to face her.
Nina’s body began to blur and weave. Nina was trying to shove Celeste from her body. Twice they split, forming two definitive shapes, only to merge again as one. With one final scream, Celeste separated from Nina, taking physical form.
Drake’s gaze met Jordan’s, and he gave her a half smile. “I love you,” he mouthed.
Jordan watched in horror as he rushed forward, throwing his body into Celeste. With a loud squeal from Celeste, they both flew over the tower wall and disappeared into the night.
“No!” Jordan screamed and fell to the floor. The hold on her was gone as Rene, too, disappeared into thin air.
Nina rushed forward, hugging her tightly as her body shook with sobs, her heart breaking into a million pieces. “Drake, no,” she sobbed.
“Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry,” Nina cried.
Together they sat on the cold stone floor of the tower, the night silent around them. In just a few short weeks he’d become her everything, and in just a matter of seconds, she’d lost him. To her, at that moment, it felt as though nothing would ever be right again.
* * * *
Jordan closed her suitcase and set it on the floor, taking one last look around the room she’d shared with Drake. Her six months were up, and it was time she returned to the States. She couldn’t stay here anymore. The place reeked of Drake and her heart broke every time she thought of him.
Twice, in town, she had been convinced she’d seen him, only to run home and cry her eyes out when she realized she’d been mistaken. The only way she would get over him was to forget him and that meant leaving this house.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Nina asked from the doorway.
Jordan nodded. “I need to do this.”
“I just don’t think it’s over.”
She turned and stared at her friend in confusion. “What do you mean, you don’t think it’s over?”
“I’m not sure really. It’s just that the closer we get to leaving, the stronger the feeling becomes. As though something is trying to hold us here.”
Jordan sighed. “Nothing is holding us here. Drake is gone. I have to accept that.”
Picking up her suitcase, she headed to the entry hall, Nina close on her heels. She couldn’t live in a constant state of expectancy. She needed to move on. Drake was never coming back. In spite of how much she wanted him to, or even needed him to come back to her.
Halfway down the stairs, she stopped short and stared at the bouquet of flowers on the center table. A sudden chill snaked through her, and she turned to glare at her friend. “Did you get flowers from the garden?”
“No,” Nina whispered, her face pale. “Those weren’t here a minute ago. I swear.”
Kimberly came from behind the stairs, her arms laden with flowers and Jordan gasped, her mouth dropping open in shock. “Kimberly?”
“Oh, good morning, Miss Jordan, Miss Nina. Beautiful day isn’t it? I just had to have fresh flowers from the garden. The entry hall isn’t the same without them.” Kimberly smiled up at them, her face beaming, her eyes shining in merriment.
Jordan’s heart began to thump loudly in her chest. “What the hell?”
Rene appeared in the dinning room doorway and bowed in his usual stately manner. “Good morning, ladies. Breakfast will be served shortly.”
Her mouth worked silently, still terrified to hope that if they were back did that mean Drake was back as well? She glanced at Nina, and her friend gripped her arm, her fingers digging into her flesh. With a nod of her head, Nina smiled, her eyes shinning in excitement.
Slowly, fearful of what she might or might not see, Jordan turned and caught sight of Drake standing at the bottom of the stairs. He was dressed for riding, a crop in his left hand. He tapped at his thigh with the tip of the crop and stared at her in displeasure. “I know you weren’t planning on leaving this house without me. Where you, Jordan?”
She gulped in air and swallowed a hard lump that had formed in her throat. “Drake?”
He looked around the entry hall, his eyes shining with amusement. “I see no other man here.”
“Drake!” She dropped her suitcase and flew down the stairs, landing with an ‘omph’ in his outstretched arms. “Oh, my God.”
Taking his face in her hands, she covered him with kisses, terrified to let go because he might disappear. His arms tightened around her waist and pulled her closer. “Five more minutes and you would have been gone,” he sighed into her neck. “God, if I had missed you I would have died all over again.”
“What happened?” she asked.
“They took pity on us and sent us back to finish out our lives.”
“So you’re real? You can leave the house?”
He smiled and nodded. “Yes.”
“What a minute,” Nina stated from the stairs. “Who’s ‘they’?”
“I’m not sure,” Drake replied with a shrug. “Does it matter? I’m here ready to finish out my life with Jordan. How I got here isn’t important. Only the fact that I’m here.”
Jordan choked back a sob. “I couldn’t agree more.”
Epilogue
Fixing up Drake, Kimberly and Rene with identities had been much easier than they initially thought it would be. Nina called in a few favors from some not-so-savory characters, and two weeks later the three of them had birth certificates, passports, bank accounts and even a credit sco
re.
Drake resumed his work in the garden and on the grounds and before long, the estate became the thriving farm it had been the first time he had been alive. He also proved to be quite proficient at the stock market and almost tripled the small investment he’d started with in a matter of months. Jordan continued to write and had reached the New York Times Best Seller list for the third time the day their son was born—Christopher Thomas Montgomery.
Nina was Christopher’s godmother and took her position very seriously, even going so far as to move to the small town near the manor. She still kept her office in New York and traveled back and forth, but she’d come to think of Dursley as her home.
Kimberly and Rene doted on the child, spoiling him rotten despite the continual threats from his parents.
Jordan had never been happier, and she was sure her grandfather smiled down at them from wherever he was. Every night she said a thank you to him for sending her here to the man of her dreams.
The End
About the Author:
Trista Ann Michaels can be found deep in the mountains of Tennessee writing her stories by a swift, flowing stream. The sound of running water has always relaxed, as well as inspired, her.
Before becoming a writer, she worked as a paralegal for a prominent prosecuting attorney; that is until she met the man of her dreams, her very own airline captain by the name of David.
When she isn’t writing, she can be found piddling about in her garden or watching movies. Her favorite pastime is traveling, and you can always find her at a RWA meeting, sharing her writing experiences and encouraging fellow writers to follow their dreams.
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