by Amanda Paris
I called Annie to ask about whether or not Kirsten was dating Ben, but Annie didn’t know or wasn’t telling. She was more than a little angry with me for my friendship with Kirsten. If you want to know where she is, she’d told me, why don’t you call her yourself?
It didn’t help that I had to keep all of this from Damien, at least initially, which was more difficult than I’d anticipated. He knew me better than anyone and could read my mood swings. During the first few days, when I waited for something to happen, he knew something was wrong. Two weeks after Kirsten frightened me in the drugstore, I couldn’t keep it a secret any longer. I told him the story.
“Kirsten is Lamia? Are you sure?” he’d asked, alarmed and looking around Sugar Hill as if she might appear any moment.
“Absolutely positive,” I replied, more worried now that I had no idea where she was or what she was doing. I knew it was part of her revenge to keep me guessing, frantic and worried all the time.
“Why didn’t we recognize her before?” he asked.
“Because that’s her power,” I answered.
“I thought she was able to bewitch people,” Damien said, confused.
“She is. Ramona says she’s just a very powerful witch. I suspect she’s had many past lives. That gave her time to develop her powers of concentration to a point where even I couldn’t immediately recognize who or what she was.”
Damien grew speculative, and I knew he was making his own plans, which didn’t include me. He thought he could handle Lamia, but I knew differently and told him so.
“You can’t go after her, Damien. She’s too dangerous and too powerful for you.”
“I’m certainly not going to let her get to you. Emmeline, she killed you last time. Do you think I’d ever let that happen again?” he asked.
He pulled me to him close, stroking the back of my head. I felt so safe in his arms. I wanted to stay wrapped in the warmth and security of him, but my need to save Ben was uppermost in my mind.
“What am I going to do?” I moaned, burying my face in his shoulder.
“No, Emmeline. What are we going to do, is the question,” he said in a resolved voice I remembered from long ago when we had to escape Lamia and her evil power before.
It was a relief to know that I didn’t have to do this alone, though I was frightened by what she could do to Damien, who still carried scars from his last confrontation with her. It still puzzled me that she hadn’t gone after him first. Though I knew she couldn’t bewitch him—I thought she had probably already tried that—she still had enormous power. I still didn’t know what she was after, exactly, and I was worried I wouldn’t solve the mystery in time. I’d been caught by her unawares before, with deadly consequences. I didn’t want to underestimate her again.
Damien thought we should wait for her to come to us; he felt assured that Ben was just a lure, that she wanted to choose her time and place and to make me watch her kill him before coming after me. It was just a waiting game, he said. It was part of her strategy.
Whatever she was doing, it worked. By the third week, I was completely on edge. Having heard nothing from Ben, I suspected the worst. I considered joining the Y just to keep an eye on him, but after our last conversation, I decided against it. He obviously didn’t want to see me, and I wanted to respect his wishes as far as I could while still making sure he was safe.
By the fourth week, life had begun to return to some semblance of normalcy. I couldn’t keep up the state of nervous tension that I’d felt for the last several weeks, and I knew that, when the time came, I’d have to focus all my energy on defeating Lamia.
Six weeks passed before I saw her. I’d just finished at the drugstore for the day. We’d decided to close early for the Fourth of July parade happening downtown that afternoon. As I locked the front of the store, I happened to see them drive up together. Lamia, looking like Kirsten, sat behind the wheel in the convertible with the top down. Ben was in the passenger’s side, and they laughed together. They pulled up to a stop light near where I stood on the street, and she reached up to smooth back his hair. I caught the glimmer of the emerald on her hand. It was the ring that Ben had given to me. She turned, knowing exactly where I stood, and smiled. The light turned, and she sped away, leaving me in the dust behind her. Understanding finally dawned on me. She needed something of mine, something valuable to me personally to control me. That’s how I’d brought Damien over—the force of my concentration plus the rosary that reminded me of him. It wasn’t strong enough to bring him directly to me because it wasn’t actually an object of his, but it had been enough. But she now had something I had worn, something that symbolized the love I’d felt for Ben. She might kill him to get to me, but her ultimate goal had been to control me, if she could.
My cell phone rang at precisely the same moment. It was Ramona.
“I see her clearly. She isn’t trying to hide anymore. They’re driving out to Ben’s parents’ house. She’s going to kill him. And she’ll try to kill you too,” she said urgently.
I dropped the phone and ran. The parade was just getting started, and I had to make my way through the floats to get to the Saratoga, which was parked two streets over from the drugstore. I couldn’t use my power to help me. There was literally no space to get any car through, even if I could imagine it. I’d have to do it the old-fashioned way, I thought.
No one would let me through, so I started elbowing my way through the crowd, drawing lots of grumbling complaints and one ice cream cone, which somebody’s toddler threw in my direction. Fortunately it missed, but just barely.
Now I just had to get across the street. The local police made sure people didn’t come too close. They’d already spied me, ready to make a bee-line in my direction if I so much as stepped out of line.
One of the floats threw out candy, so when the children rushed to scramble for the goodies, creating an opening, I followed. I couldn’t get through the throng of kids, so I knew I’d have to climb over the float. Lunging over them, I stumbled onto the Miss DeLand float, landing right in the center of the largest pie I’ve ever seen—it was the size of a large kiddie pool. Now covered in peaches, syrup, and whipped cream from head to toe, I literally stopped the parade, backing up the floats. I didn’t have time for this, I groaned, too worried about Ben to think much about the entire town’s seeing me covered in pie.
Undaunted, I stumbled right into Miss DeLand herself, who just happened to be Angela Rossi. Under different circumstances, I would have enjoyed seeing her land in the pie, peaches dripping from her rhinestone crown, but I had more important issues than embarrassing my old rival. I had a more dangerous nemesis to contend with.
I finally made it to the other side of the float, jumped off and made my way to the other side. The crowd immediately parted. I ran the rest of the way unhindered, climbed in the Saratoga, not bothering to turn the ignition. I let my power do the rest.
The car sprang to life, roaring down side roads to avoid the onlookers and traffic. On my way, I thought about Lamia’s revenge. She’d wanted me to see her with Ben and to follow them. I thought she’d probably wait, planning to have me watch everything. I was glad Damien, at least, was safe. But for how long? Would he be next on her list?
It took me half the time it normally did to arrive to Ben’s place. I saw his truck and her convertible. I may already be too late, I thought in a panic, wondering if I’d guessed incorrectly as I ran to the front door. Maybe she’d already killed him.
I didn’t bother to knock, though I didn’t have to. The door stood wide open, and I could see Ben lying face down on the deck through the sliding glass. I ran inside, frantic to open the door, when Lamia’s voice stopped me.
“Don’t bother. He’s dead, Emmeline. You don’t think I’d leave him alive?” she said, in that low, dark voice I knew so well.
I slowly turned around.
“You knew I’d come. Why did you have to kill him too?” I asked, tears filling my eyes. Ben was dead becaus
e of me.
She laughed, a cackling sound I’d remembered from long ago. She held up her hand, showing me the ring, which caught the light filtering through the glass.
“I really should thank you, Emmeline, for bringing me through with Damien. Every time it happens, my power increases.”
So that was how she’d done it. When she’d come through, it had added to her abilities. I wondered how many times she had traveled through time.
I tried to concentrate, to focus on shifting the context around us, but it was as though she blocked me. I knew then that it was the ring. She could already hide herself from other witches, but she was using the ring to control my power. As long as it meant something to me, she could take my power and use it.
She moved more quickly than I could have anticipated, easily overpowering me. I thought she meant to kill me with her bare hands, but she didn’t, instead hitting me, hard, across the face and half-dragging me to the Saratoga, which she’d started even before we reached it. I could feel myself losing consciousness and fought it as she almost literally threw me into the passenger’s side. I tried to focus on breaking free, but she’d locked me in and drained my power, unlocking the driver’s side and getting behind the wheel before I could act. I thought for a moment of wrapping my hands around her throat, but if I tried killing her now, I knew I’d have little chance of success in such a weakened state. She was too powerful, and with my ring in her possession, she was capable of using my power against me.
She backed out into the street, and we made erratic zigzag patterns across every lane, going and coming. If anyone passed us, we’d all be dead. She laughed as we went along, talking incessantly as she drove.
“Yes, Emmeline, I really must thank you. When I came through, I found myself possessed of enormous powers—greater than I’d ever had before.”
Her voice had dropped several octaves to another level that I recognized, a kindly voice. The man in the woods. I looked at her then and stared in amazement. She didn’t look like Kirsten or Lamia but like the large man who’d found me in the woods.
“You!” I cried.
She smiled, baring her pointed teeth, and stepped on the accelerator harder.
“But why? Why didn’t you just kill me then?” I asked, furiously trying to work out a plan for my escape.
“Believe me, I tried. But coming through drained me for a time. I couldn’t kill you then; I never realized how weak you really were, Emmeline. Now I know,” she said in the same triumphant voice I recognized from long ago.
“But you had enough power to change shapes,” I argued, angling for more time.
“Yes and no. The man in the woods was the first person I met when I came through.”
“Then that means…”
“Yes, I can inhabit other bodies too.”
“But why? When you can change shapes?”
“I was weak then. It was easier just to tap into his life force.”
Poor man, I thought, cringing to think of what she’d done to him. He had probably been a nice person before he met Lamia. If it hadn’t been for me, he would still be alive. I couldn’t imagine her letting him live after taking him over.
“So why did you help us?” I wondered, desperate to know what she had planned. “I knew I could always find you later when I was stronger. And I wanted to see what your life here would be like with Damien” she said, laughing maniacally, an inhuman sound that nearly paralyzed me.
Even as we spoke, she transformed again, but this time she looked like me. I didn’t understand why she cared about seeing what my present life was like, but I didn’t have time to think about what she said. I was certain of one thing only—that she would try to kill me again. I knew my only chance was to grab the steering wheel and try to wreck us. The odds of my dying along with her were stacked against me, but at least I’d have a chance. If I didn’t try something, I knew I’d end up dead…again.
I realized in some panic that we were headed to Sugar Hill, and I became more frantic. So she wasn’t just going to kill me, I thought. She was after Damien as well. That decided me. I might not be able to survive this, but at least I could save him.
I saw the bridge crossing the St. Johns River. It was now or never. I waited until we were just approaching it and surprised her, jerking the steering wheel and sending the entire car over the side and into the river. If I was going to die, I would take her down with me.
We plunged down into the water. Lamia reached over, grabbing my hair and pulling me to her. I thought she meant to strangle me, but she released me abruptly, using the force of her strong arms to break open the driver’s side window and swim out. Water flooded the car immediately, and I couldn’t move, the old fear of drowning coming back to me.
I knew then that I would die again just as I did before. History moves in interlocking circles. She’d already gotten away and would kill Damien. Perhaps her plan had been to make me watch her kill him.
We were doomed to continue repeating this pattern throughout time. Maybe I could try to save Damien in my next life. And maybe then, I thought, I would finally succeed. I wondered before losing consciousness how many times we’d done this before.
Chapter Eighteen
"Being and Unbeing"
She was a gordian shape of dazzling hue,
Vermilion-spotted, golden, green, and blue;
Striped like a zebra, freckled like a pard,
Eyed like a peacock, and all crimson barr'd;
And full of silver moons, that, as she breathed,
Dissolv'd, or brighter shone, or interwreathed
Their lustres with the gloomier tapestries
So rainbow-sided, touch'd with miseries,
She seem'd, at once, some penanced lady elf,
Some demon's mistress, or the demon's self.
Her head was serpent, but ah, bitter-sweet!
She had a woman's mouth with all its pearls complete:
And for her eyes: what could such eyes do there
But weep, and weep, that they were born so fair?
As Proserpine still weeps for her Sicilian air.
Her throat was serpent, but the words she spake
Came, as through bubbling honey, for Love's sake…
John Keats, Lamia
I awoke in the hospital, an IV hooked up to my arm. My first thought, when I saw the bright sun pouring across the floor, was that I’d died. But I heard Aunt Jo’s voice calling my name, and I realized they’d just given me a cheerful room with extra light. I blinked a couple of times and saw two faces above me.
Relief poured through me. So Lamia hadn’t gotten to Damien, after all. I reached out my hand, and he took it.
“She’s waking up,” I heard Aunt Jo say.
“What happened?” I asked them both at once.
I felt drugged and knew they’d likely given me some sort of sedative. Either that or I was really, really out of it.
“You almost drowned, Emmeline,” Damien told me quietly. His eyes said what we were both thinking: again.
I remembered then why I was there and what had happened.
“Lamia?” I asked Damien, worried.
“She’s gone. You don’t have to worry about her anymore,” he assured me.
“But what happened? How did I get here?” I asked.
Damien sat down on the bed, looking from me to Aunt Jo. Of course, he couldn’t tell me the whole story in front of her.
“Emily, dear, you drove off the bridge. If Damien hadn’t seen your car, you’d have drowned. He pulled you out, saving your life,” Aunt Jo explained. “Who’s Lamia?” she asked.
Damien and I looked at each other.
“Oh, nobody, really,” I said quickly, “just somebody I used to know in the past. Aunt Jo, will you go get the nurse? I’m really thirsty,” I said, trying to change the subject.
“Sure, but I think there’s a call button somewhere on this bed,” Aunt Jo said, searching around me. She stopped when she caught the look on my fac
e.
“Why don’t I just go look for the nurse in the hall?” she finally said, leaving me alone with Damien.
Aunt Jo always knew when to make an exit.
Damien’s shoulders visibly slumped.
“How long have I been here?” I asked him.
“Just a day. But it’s been the longest twenty-four hours of my life,” he said. He was right. Dark circles appeared under his eyes.
“How did you know how to find me?”
“You didn’t come by after work, and when I didn’t hear from you, I called Ramona. She filled me in, and I thought you might be headed to Ben’s. When I got there, I saw the convertible and went inside. That’s when I saw Ben and called 911.”
“Damien, Ben’s dead,” I said, tears welling up in his eyes.
“No, actually, he isn’t. He’s down the hall.”
“What?”
“When I saw him lying there, I thought that he’d been killed, but he had a faint heartbeat. I confess, though, I didn’t wait for the paramedics. There wasn’t much I could do for him, and I was more concerned about where you were. I thought Lamia might be headed to Sugar Hill, so I raced home. When I saw the Saratoga on the way, I knew I was right. There are definite advantages, I guess, to driving that old thing.
I eventually gained on you, but I wasn’t sure what to do. What confused me was that I saw two red heads struggling at the wheel before the car crashed over the bridge. I immediately got out, afraid I wouldn’t be in time. I thought at first that you’d escaped, but I knew you couldn’t swim. The girl I saw swimming upriver moved like a fish. I concentrated on pulling out whoever was trapped in the car. I dove in, and when I saw you trapped, unconscious, I nearly lost my mind. I reached through the smashed window and pulled you out. Fortunately, I just learned CPR. The rest you can imagine.”
“Wait, they don’t teach CPR in school,” I protested.
“I know. I taught myself by getting a book on it in the library,” he said, proudly.
“But why?” I wondered.