“Don’t you think we want to?” Blanche asked as the auras around her began to take shape and gain detail.
There it was; that ‘we’ word again. I had dealt with a handful or so poltergeists in my life, and they all seemed to be very self centered creatures. It was all about the pain they personally felt in their lives, during their hardships. I had never even heard of a poltergeist who worried themselves with the pain of others.
Then, as my leg snapped from the pressure, I saw why.
The auras had all taken shape now and, as I looked them over, I saw that they were all the shapes of the slaves who served in this house when I owned it. Every face stared at me with hate, every eye turned to me in judgement.
That didn’t make any sense though. This wasn’t the movies. That wasn’t how hauntings worked. Poltergeists were solitary creatures. They did exist in the same place as other spirits and, if they did, they certainly wouldn’t work together. Something else was going on here and, if I wanted to get out of this situation before I lost ownership of my body yet again, I was going to have to figure out what it was.
“Why are you here?” I asked, swallowing hard again as my mind rolled back to that time. “What do you want, revenge? Justice? I promise you, more has been done to me than you can imagine. You might not have dealt it, but I have been given my penance one hundred fold since the last time we saw each other. I know I wasn’t as kind to you as I should have been when you were alive, but I didn’t think I was a horrible person. I tried to save you when the soldiers came and the house burned. I swear that, if I could have, I would have.”
“You misunderstand, Christopher,” Blanche answered, her voice sounding more human than it had before. “We harbor no ill will to you for what happened before our deaths. Your evils to us then were innate and- though are lives were made worse for knowing you- our ends were not at your hands. We do not hold you in contempt for what happened before our deaths. Rather, it is for what happened after.”
More of my bones broke under the mounting pressure. First my other leg and then my right arm. The pain was unbearable, but I had to stay awake. If I fell unconscious, there was no guarantee that it would be me who woke up.
“After your death?” I asked, breathing as heavy as I could, given my injuries. “After your deaths, your souls should have been free. You should have-”
Then, the truth of what happened slammed into me and weighted every bit as heavy as this magical pressure. It might have been snapping my bones, but this broke my heart.
“You’re not poltergeists, are you?” I asked, peering down at them. I didn’t need the answer. I knew it was the truth. As much as I hated the idea of it, as much as it tore into my mind, this was Blanche. It was her soul and the souls of all the servants of this house. They had been twisted by time, twisted by the pain and agony they felt- not by what happened during their lives- but by being stuck in this house that should have been ashes long ago.
But why? Why hadn’t they moved on?
“We just want our freedom,” Blanche said, a century and a half of weariness in her voice. “Finally, Christopher. We just want you to release us.”
“Me?” I asked, and then I remembered.
When the soldiers came to Savannah, the Confederacy still thought they had a chance of winning. Full of Southern pride and bluster, we all thought the Old South would last forever, though we were all afraid the Union soldiers would destroy what we had in the process of defeating them.
Mine was a large and profitable plantation, and I didn’t want to lose it. So I asked a powerful witch to place a spell on it. I asked for this house, and all the possessions inside of it to be saved from people who might choose to take it as their own or destroy it. I asked for that to happen by any means.
When the soldiers came and lit it on fire, I assumed the witch had lied to me, that she had taken my money and never bothered to cast a real spell, but what if she had? What if the reason this house was still standing, the reason I hadn’t been able to see it, was because that- after the fire-the spell I had that witch cast reacted and made it imperceptible to human eyes. What better way to keep it safe than that. And, since the land it had been built on had since grown up into a forest, it wasn’t like people were going to be trying to build around it or something.
Of course, that didn’t explain why I could see it now, and it certainly didn’t explain why the souls of the slaves here were still trapped.
Or did it?
My heart broke all over again and a sour sensation filled my stomach as I realized what had happened.
Blanche had been right. I hadn’t thought of them as people. I thought of them as possessions. I thought of them as things I owned and, when the witch cast the spell, it effected them in a way similar to how it effected the dishes or the paintings on the wall.
My selfishness, my pig headedness had inadvertently trapped the souls of these people in this house, and I was the only one who could set them free.
“I don’t own you,” I said, blinking hard. “I don’t own you, and I never did. As master of this house, I relinquish my hold on you and ask pardon for ever assuming it in the first place. Be free,” I said, blinking back what I now knew were tears. “And, if you can, please forgive me.”
A whoosh of energy ran through the house and I fell hard to the floor. Looking up, I saw through pain and haze that the spirits of the people in this house had reverted. No longer were they twisted and deformed. They were now human, spirits of light and peace. Blanche looked at me as she faded away. She didn’t smile, and I couldn’t blame her. All I could do was hope that she would smile in the place she was headed. God knows she deserved it.
The world began to fade away and I fought like hell to stay awake. I didn’t want to go through what I had been through in Purgatory again but what was more, I didn’t want whatever had controlled my body to get back in.
“Hey!” a familiar voice shouted from over me. “Hey! You stay with me!” As she knelt down, I saw Merry over me. She had been here the entire time. Her hair was shorter and there was a long gash on her face, running up and down her left cheek, but her eyes were still as bright.
I lifted my hand, trying to touch the gash, but she grabbed it.
“Do not go out on me again. DO you understand me, Callum? You do not get to leave me again. Not ever.”
Her words sent a warming balm through my tired soul. She wanted me here. She needed me, and that was enough to get me to stay.
“I’m here,” I answered weakly. “I’m not going anywhere. I swear it.”
“You’ll have to break that promise, I’m afraid,” my mother said. “At least momentarily.”
Looking up, I saw sparks of red energy surrounding her hand. Twisting her finger, the energy drove into my body, narrowly missing Merry.
I steeled myself, ready to go through another bout of agony, but it wasn’t to be. Because, before I could feel anything at all, I lost my fight, and the world went black.
10
I woke with a start, half expecting to find myself once again floating in the shapeless, empty void of the Nexus. The place known by many as Purgatory acted as a cleansing ritual for souls; a place and an experience created solely to prepare one for the next life. But, when you can’t really get to the next life, it’s just a lot of overture with no real show behind it.
That was why, when my eyes flew open to find that, not only was I still on Earth, but that I was laying atop a pretty comfortable feather bed, I took a huge sigh of relief. I sat upright, looking around the room and remembering it pretty vividly given the fact that it had been over a hundred years since I’d been inside of it.
This had been my master bedroom back in a time when- unfortunately- more than a bedroom would refer to me as master. I shuddered, thinking about Blanche and the others. I had kept them trapped here for so long. It was a fate worse than death. A fate worse than the Nexus even, and I was responsible for it.
They were gone now though, and hopeful
ly that meant they were at peace. Though something told me that the reason I was here and what was going on was somehow bigger than trapped spirits.
Having looked around the room, my eyes settled on a glass of water on a dresser beside the bed. The ice in the glass was smaller, but not completely melted. I hadn’t been out too long, and that was a good thing. It was also surprising consider that, not only had I expected to be thrust out of my body again, but all the broken bones and punctured organs I’d suffered at the hands of justly angry spirits felt as good as new.
The door opened and I braced myself, which was kind of silly. Now that the spirits were cleansed, the only enemy I had within the walls of this house was my mother, and if she had wanted to do me harm, she had ample opportunity when I was unconscious. No. Whatever her true goal was had not yet been revealed to me. She was playing a long game, and I was a crucial piece on her board.
Still, my eyes narrowed as I looked at the door, and then relaxed when I saw it was Merry.
If my eyes relaxed, then my heart started to work overtime as I took her in. A beauty in any age, she looked particularly pleasing today, draped in a sun dress with yellow and white flowers dancing across the fabric as she moved.
As much as I enjoyed seeing her though, my eyes and attention went right for the gash on her face. It was an nasty addition to a perfect face and it lit a vengeful fire in my spirit. Someone had given that to her, perhaps the Romani. I would make sure they paid for that transgression and, more importantly, I would make sure everyone who had ever heard my name knew they were not to mess with this woman or anyone she held dear.
I made that silent pledge to myself as she looked over at me.
“Oh good. You’re up,” she said, smiling a luminous smile. “I was beginning to think you were going to sleep all day.”
“Are you okay?” I asked, looking her up and down again, this time with a more critical and searching eye.
“Me?” she balked, nearly chuckling. “I’m not the one who had nearly every bone in his body broken and his lungs nearly liquefied and squeezed out through his ears by a bunch of Scooby Doo villains.” She peered at me. “The question is, are you okay?”
“I’m durable,” I answered, nodding firmly. “I’m also not important.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” she answered, sitting down on the foot of the bed and running fingers through her thick hair. “You might be durable, but you sure as hell are important.” She blinked. “At least to me.”
For some reason, I found myself tearing away from her gaze. I wasn’t worthy of it. I had done so many horrible things in my life. I had been so many different horrible people. I couldn’t be important to someone as amazing and wonderful as Merry. The world didn’t work that me. Not for me anyway.
“What you saw back there, the spirits,” I started, still looking at the magically unaged blood red comforter and remembering nights I used to spend under it. “I deserved what happened to me back there, Merry. Blanche wasn’t wrong.”
“No she wasn’t,” Merry said, shaking her head. “But neither were you. You are a different person than you were back then, Callum.” She put her hand under my chin and pushed my face upward until I was looking her square in the eyes. “Or should I call you Christopher while we’re here?” She grinned.
“Don’t be stupid,” I answered, a reluctant smile tugging at my lips. “You can call me any name you’d like, save for one.”
“Save for one,” she agreed, and thankfully didn’t mention what that ‘one’ was. This house had already suffered through a sinkhole. Protection spell or not, I wasn’t sure it could handle another natural disaster so quickly.
“Maybe I have changed,” I answered, bringing the conversation back to the topic at hand. “But that doesn’t excuse what I did back then.”
“Of course it doesn’t,” she answered, moving her hand from my chin to my palm. As soon as her fingers touched mine, I enclosed around them, squeezing her hand tightly. “But that’s true for all of us. When you first met me, I was pretending to be a doctor in order to get close to you. On our first date, I kidnapped you and tried to hand you over to witches. Do you still hold me responsible for that?”
“Of course not,” I answered instantly.
“Then how can I hold you responsible for something that happened well over a hundred years ago?” She shook her head again, her hair bobbing slightly. “It’s okay to feel bad about where you’ve been, but only if it doesn’t stop you from being proud about where you are.”
“I’m sort of in the same place,” I said, smiling and looking around the room. “The exact same place actually.”
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it, you dork,” she answered, squeezing my hand. “The only reason my daughter is alive right now is because of what you did for her. It’s the only reason I’m alive too, by the way. So I don’t want to hear you talking about not being important.” She leaned in and brushed her lips against my cheek. “You’re one of the most important people I’ve ever met.” She nodded at me. “And, in case you’d forgotten, I’m kind of always right.”
I laughed a bit harder than I should have. “You won’t get any argument from me.” Staring at her, I couldn’t help but look at her lips. I could still feel them on my cheek in some weird way. It was crazy. I had been around since the dawn of time. I had bedded more women than I could have counted if I’d have been given another eternity just to do it, and I kept my cool during all of it. I’d slept with queens, romanced heads of state. I’d even had a quick romance with a future Prime Minister who shall remain nameless. Somehow though, a cheek kiss from this woman had me mooning like a little boy with a crush on his teacher. It made no sense at all, and I couldn’t get enough of it.
“I thought you were gone, you know,” Merry said, her eyes seeming to drift on through me. “When Andy called me, when he told me what happened to you, I figured that was it, that I was never going to see you again.” She laughed. “I guess that’s kind of stupid, given who you are.”
“It’s sweet actually,” I answered, looking her square in the eyes. “And it means more than I can say.”
“I want to be honest with you ,Callum. As honest as I can be anyway,” Merry said, and my heart leapt into my throat. What was this about? Was she going to admit that she had the same feelings for me that I had for her, that this electricity I felt between us was real, and not just the result of…you know having been electrocuted a lot?
“You can tell me anything,” I answered.
“I hope so,” she said. “Especially since, what I’m going to tell you, is that I can’t tell you everything.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, my body instinctively tensing.
“When you were unconscious, when your mother was healing you and keeping you from slipping into the Nexus or whatever, Andy told me you’d ask about where Amber is.” Merry shuffled uncomfortably, which struck me as odd.
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “I was worried about you, about the both of you.”
“And I appreciate that, but the truth is, I can’t tell you where she is. Not right now anyway,” she answered softly.
“What?” I asked. I was sure I had misheard. “Why on Earth wouldn’t you want me to know where Amber is? I’m one of the strongest beings alive, and you know I’d always protect her.”
“Even from yourself?” Merry asked.
Apprehension fell over me like a shadow. “What are you talking about?”
“This isn’t the first time I’ve seen you since you disappeared that night, Callum,” she answered. “I mean, I guess it’s the first time I’ve seen you, but it’s not the first time I’ve seen your body. You came to me one night, found us in a hotel outside of Macon.”
“Macon?” I balked. That was where Andy said she and Amber were almost captured. I had assumed it was by the Romani. Was it possible that it was me instead
“I had already heard from Andy. So I knew what was going on, but whoever was in your body
lied to me. They pretended to be you, pretended to be normal just to get close to me.” She shook her head. “If I didn’t know you so well, then I might have fallen for it, but there’s only one you, Callum. Even if you do have a thousand different names. Besides, the thing wearing your body, it didn’t have your mark.”
The idea of that struck me as weird. Because of her connection to the curse, Merry was the only person in the world who could see the mark the Big Guy but on me all those eons ago. Still, if even she couldn’t see it, it meant I took the damn ting with me when I left. The mark wasn’t burned into my body. It was etched into my soul. I sighed. For whatever reason, that hurt on a completely different level.
“Did I hurt you?” I asked, reaching for the mark on her face. “Did I do that to you?”
“No,” she answered. “It wasn’t you. It was someone in your body.”
“Goddamn it!” I screamed and threw myself off the bed. Pacing around the room, I couldn’t stop thinking about what could have happened, about the fact that I very easily could have killed Merry and her daughter.
“You can’t beat yourself up for this. We got away. We’re fine,” she answered.
“You’re not fine. You’re hurt,” I said, pointing to her face. “That’s going to leave a scar.”
“Then we’ll both be marked,” she answered. “I can think of worse things.” She took a deep breath. “I knew you were in trouble, and I knew that the only way my daughter was ever going to be truly safe was if I helped you. So I sent Amber away with Kyle.”
I turned to her with a start.
“I know you don’t like him, and I’m sure you think it was a mistake, but he’s a good man with a good heart, and he has the power to keep her safe.”
“It’s not that I don’t like him,” I answered. “I don’t like the idea of you being separated from your daughter because of me.”
“It’s not because of you,” she answered loudly. “I told you, we’re only alive because of you. Now if you’ll stop blaming yourself for every little thing long enough to listen to me, you’ll see that I have this under control.”
Rise of Cain (Immortal Mercenary Book 3) Page 6