“What should I do, Sophie?” Summer broke contact and stood.
“I can see the future, chere, but that doesn’t mean I know what will happen. The future is as fickle as a woman. There are some things that are meant to be and others just simply sway, dependent on the choices we make.” Sophie put a soft hand to Summer’s cheek, brushing a tear away.
“You and Cayden have to decide together what is fate and what sways.”
****
Summer left Sophie’s shop with a new look at her Cayden’s relationship. She would go back and tell him that everything would be okay and she would fight tooth and nail to overcome the obstacles that stood in the way. A nasty undead pest was the first thing that came to mind. But, first, he wanted to walk to the bayou. She had yet to fully see it. She had smelled it, sensed it, had seen its fog as it rolled in to cover the town, but she had never stood on its banks.
She stopped when she got to Cayden’s favorite bench and sat down, realizing that it had been a few days since he had had the time to sustain his ritual. Resting her head on the back of the bench, she let the cool black iron take away some of the heat that beat down at her, the sun gaining in it’s potency as the day moved on. Looking up, she saw twisted and gnarled branches that reached for roots instead of the sky. They were strung with greenish-gray moss that swayed with the breeze from the swamp.
A willow tree stood tall and proud to left, she studied it upside down. What a beautiful piece of nature. Summer could imagine a picnic with Cayden underneath those branches, closing them into their own little sanctum. The weeping of the branches gave way as another breeze floated towards the main street.
She stood up and walked around the short iron fence that surrounded the inn. Deciding to walk up the gravel drive, she headed in that direction. The rock crunched beneath her tennis shoes and broke the eerie silence that seemed to linger the closer she got to the bayou. She stopped for a moment when she got to the sparse thicket of trees that separated the road from the bayou.
Giving a fleeting look towards the inn, Summer wondered what Lurleene was doing. She was probably checking guests in, bossing around the staff and looking lovely while she was at it. Summer smiled as she stepped into the woods that bordered the property. She could see the bayou from where she stood. Even though it was early afternoon, fog still shrouded the top of the green water, though in some spots, you could see the emerald green fighting it’s way through, sparkling in the bits of sunshine that shone down like arrows of light into the mysterious place.
Trees jutted out from its depths and fallen logs lay on their sides, half in mud and half in the air. It was breathtaking. Vines hung from deformed branches, attaching themselves to every surface they came in contact with. Close to the shore, she saw what looked like something beneath the water. Stepping closer, her shoes sank into the mushy moss that covered the bank. Mud squished up and out around the soles of her shoes and she thought of quicksand when she tried to take another step. Her shoe came out, with a sucking sound as she squatted to look deeper into the mist that covered the water.
She let out a bloodcurdling scream when she saw that the something in the water wasn’t something after all. It was someone. Falling back, she felt her hands land in the soft soil, and she scrambled to back away from the face that had come from the bowels of the swamp.
In horror, she watched as the face inched itself out of the water, parting the haze that had kept it obscured. It was a woman with round brown eyes and hair the color of cinnamon. Though she had just been underwater, the apparition looked dry, composed. Her hair hung loose down her back and she wore an ivory colored dress from a by gone era. The apparition cocked her head to the left, then the right and opened her mouth. Water flowed out, down the front of the woman’s dress, making the material transparent as her small breasts and the tuft of hair at the juncture of her thighs became visible through the material.
Summer blinked her eyes, wondering if this was a vision. It didn’t feel like it. But a figure had just risen from what Summer was sure had been a watery grave. Those things only happened in visions.
The woman once again opened her mouth; this time sound instead of water flew forth. “Please, can you help me?”
Summer watched as the phantom hovered to where she sat, mystified. The ghost spoke again. “Can you hear me? Please say you can hear me.”
Summer nodded, unblinking and replied, “I can hear you.”
The woman floated closer. “Oh, thank you. It’s been such a long time since anyone spoke to me.”
Summer pulled one hand from the quicksand mud. “The only thing I do not understand is why I can.”
“I don’t know that, miss.” The woman spoke as if she had been a slave in her previous life, her head hung low, admonishing herself for being so forward to begin with.
“Don’t call me “miss”. We’re almost the same age.” Summer groaned with the lunacy of her comment. “I meant that we look the same age.”
“Yes, ma’am, we do. What is your name?” The figure asked.
“My name is Summer.” She glanced down at the soaked predicament of the lady’s clothes. “Could you uh…do something about that?” Summer pointed at the petite breasts that were staring at her.
Amazingly, the girl laughed and blinked her eyes and the dress was back to normal, high-necked and, most importantly, dry.
“I’m sorry about that, I don’t know why that happened, I’ve tried to speak before but nothing would come out.”
“Well, you’re speaking now. What’s your name?” Summer asked.
“I am Frances. I guard this place.”
“You guard it?” Summer repeated.
“Yes, from the evil that seems to be drawn to it. Humans of all kinds have tried to commit despicable acts here fouling up a magnificent place like this can do such terrible things to a person’s fate.” Frances shrugged her shoulders as Summer laughed.
“I used to live there.” Summer pointed towards the inn.
“I was a maid or slave if you like. I took care of the family. They were such good people. I loved it here.” The apparition continued, “So, when it was my time, I was given a choice and they let me stay here.”
“So you know that you’re dead?” Summer asked.
Frances nodded. “Yes, I can remember it clearly, the night I died. I said I loved that family and I did, but every family has an evil seed in the bunch and Henry was theirs.”
“Henry?”
“He was a nephew to the master of the house. He would visit often, always following me, groping and touching and threatening to tell my master that I had seduced him.” Frances looked into the swamp, seeing an event that took place over a hundred years ago.
“I came out here in secret every night. Nobody knew. It was my special time with the beauty and quiet to sit, to relax. I should’ve have known that if he followed me everywhere else, he would eventually come to find that I came out here alone most nights. I was young and stupid and honestly believed that in all of his offenses, he just didn’t know any better. After all, boys were trained back then to take what they wanted. Never take no for an answer.”
Frances looked unbearably sad as she told the tale of her death. “I sat over there.” She pointed to a spot not ten feet from where they were now. “I heard someone coming and tried to hide, but I was too late, Henry was already behind me. I thought that I could survive if he just raped me, if I just lay there and let him do what it was he needed to do, then I could get up and I would never speak of it to anyone. But, halfway through, as he’s tearing me to pieces and biting me so hard I could feel the flesh rising off my bones, he put his hands around my neck. I died watching that boy’s face twisted in exertion as he pummeled my dying body.”
Summer looked at the spot where a young woman had died and wanted to weep.
“I wanted to make sure that what happened to me, never happened to anyone else at least not in this bayou.” She encompassed the area with a sweep of her arm. Floating
to her feet, she floated back over to the spot where I had first seen her face, hovered there. “When he was done, he tied rocks to me and put me here. He told my masters that I had run into the night, swearing I’d never come back again. So, here I rest.”
“Is that where you want to rest?” Summer asked.
“My spirit is bound here no matter what, my bones just a shell of who I once was, though being properly buried might give the unrest I feel in my spirit some type of peace. I hate to think that my bodily soul lies within those bones, re-living its horrible tragedy over and over again.”
“I will bury you. I promise.” Summer declared.
Frances began to dip back into the water. “Summer,” she called out.
“Yes?”
“Will you come back and visit me from time to time?”
“I can’t think of anything I’d rather do.” Summer smiled as Frances returned to her grave.
She had to return home. Tonight’s ritual waited for her there. Could she pull this off without inviting the very evil she feared into her new home, into the lives of the people she’d come to love? Looking past the murky fog, she focused on the heart of the bayou and asked a question with her mind. Would her bayou summons really work?
Chapter 21
Cayden looked like a wildcat caged in a zoo. From one edge of the room to the other, he retraced his steps. Since Summer had stormed out of the house, that was basically all he had done. Besides call Sophia and Lurleene. He knew she’d go to one of them. There were really the only other females she knew in this town and Cayden knew how females liked to band together when there were man troubles.
Sophie had all but chewed through the phone to give him the word lashing he deserved. He answered her with, “Yes, ma’am” and “No, ma’am”. If he hadn’t felt shitty enough before the call, Sophie’s revenge would’ve done the trick. He felt selfish, pig-headed and mean. Before, it wouldn’t have bothered him to be those things, but he had never wanted to be those things to Summer. He had never wanted her to see the beast inside, the one that lashed out quick and was harsh with words. Where in the hell was she? He checked the time on the grandfather clock and continued to pace his cage. Sophie had said she left in hour ago. What could she be doing? Maybe she had stopped at inn. Just as he picked up the receiver to dial Lurleene’s number, he heard the door open behind him.
There she was, safe and sound and gorgeous. He couldn’t get over the fact that just looking at her, no matter what she had on, where she was, made him yearn to touch her. He didn’t think it would ever go away. In fact, the thought of her older, with gray in her hair made him love her even more. She was the type of person that would stick around, stay by his side and he was for damn sure going to be that person for her.
He didn’t want to speak first, so he stayed quiet and let her come in, sit on the couch. She took in a deep breath and said, “Well, I think I met a ghost.”
“You met a ghost?” he stuttered.
“Yep, she was really nice. A tragedy what happened to her though.”
He was at a loss for words. She had taken off after a huge argument this morning. Now, she was acting as if nothing had happened. And she was talking about ghosts.
Aggravated, he asked, “Since when do you see ghosts too?”
“Since an hour ago, you big jerk.”
Cayden stood there wanting to get the apology that had been doing back flips in his head all morning out before he went crazy. “Look, Summer, I’m sorry. I should never have talked to you like that.”
Summer stood up, suddenly ready to battle. “You should be sorry. If you ever talk to me like that again, I swear, I will leave this state and never give you another thought.”
“I wouldn’t blame you.”
“I’m sorry, too.”
“What for?” Cayden asked.
Summer lessened the distance between them. “For not understanding how scared you must be.”
Cayden hung his head, “Oh.”
“I didn’t realize that you are just as much or even more terrified than I am.”
“I am, but the worst part of it is, I can’t protect you. There’s not a damn thing I could do if that bastard wanted to take you right now.”
Summer cradled his face in her hands, feeling the stubble she had come to appreciate on his chin. “Don’t you see that you are doing something? The only reason he hasn’t gotten to me is because of your spells. If I were alone, he would’ve already imprisoned me, and I’d be lost forever.”
“But the spells don’t last. They won’t last long enough.”
“We will find a way to defeat Alsandair, I promise. And I’ll do it with or without your help, that’s how much I want him to burn.” Summer took him by the hand and led him to the kitchen. “Now, give me the words to summon Faline. The answer is there. Either with her or the book she tried to give me or I have a feeling that if we can find the book, we can defeat Alsandair.”
Cayden scanned the table, looking for his great-grandfather’s book of shadows. It was underneath two others. Moving them aside, he picked it up and returned to the parlor with it. Summer sat on the couch and flipped open the book as he set it in her lap.
“There are different kinds of summons, or at least different words. But these are the words I think we should use to summon Faline.” He pointed at a stretch of fancy calligraphy handwriting that graced the middle of the page. She read what it had to say.
I search the realms for a spirit
Strong and true;
I look in field and fairy glen
And where the dragons once have been;
I search for truth and honesty,
I look for love and loyalty.
I touch the green pulse of energy,
I manifest (spirit’s name) for me.
“Do you think this will work?” Summer asked.
“It does sound a bit juvenile, I know, but my grandfather was a wise man and an even smarter warlock. These words are ones that Faline will be drawn to, at least I think. From the stories I’ve heard about her, she loved dragons and fairies.”
Summer nodded her head. “She certainly looked fairy-like.”
“You have to remember that anything else you bring into your mind will come through with her. For that reason, you must think only of her. Not of me or anyone else.”
Summer nodded in agreement.
“Will the rest of the coven be here for it?” she asked.
“Yes, I’ve invited them all. They want to help in any way they can, especially because they know it’s not only us they’re helping. They will be saving themselves as well.”
The truth of that observation struck like a dagger in her chest. She looked down at the words that she would be repeating that night and traced them with a fingertip. “I never thought I’d be saving scores of the undead or helping to sustain humanity. I always thought I was a loon, a crackpot. Now that I know what I am, I wish I was the crackpot instead.”
Cayden laid his arm over her shoulders. “Don’t be too disappointed, my love, you’re still a crackpot. But, you’re my crackpot.” She slugged him hard in the chest as he fell back, laughing heartily.
“Thank you very much, you inconsiderate blockhead!” Her yelling only made his laughing increase. So she did what any self respecting woman would do. She stood up, and catapulted onto him, elbowing him in the ribs. She bounced back off him and fell in the floor.
Through bouts of laughter, he said, “You’re so tough that it’s funny.”
Giving up, she rolled over onto her stomach and kicked him hard in the shin.
“Do you ever give up?” Cayden asked with another chuckle
Summer gave him a devilish grin, “Never.”
****
The coven had arrived on time, carrying dishes of all kinds and drinks for refreshments after the summoning. Summer found it a sign of incredible hope that they’d survive that long. She was glad they still had some shred of it left, because she was precariously close to acc
epting her fate of never ending torture.
Looking at all the smiling, kind faces made her want to surrender herself over to Alsandair. She’d do it, too. If she knew he’d never harm any of them. She wasn’t naïve to think that. Summer knew that if she did give herself over, every one of these people would be either dead or lost soul prisoners in less than a month. Knowing the truth still didn’t stop her from wishing it was different. As one coven member after another filed through the door, Summer began to feel like she was taking part in a potluck dinner, not a magical ritual. She was handed a pie of some kind that smelled divine, a bottle of wine, shrimp, something spicy that had made her nose run in the two seconds she had held it. She could seriously get used to this.
Lurleene had swept through the door, oyster pie in hand, looking the most casual Summer had ever seen her, but no less beautiful. She wore pressed white Capri pants with sling back heels and a black silk shirt. Instead of big jewels, she wore simple gold rings on each ring finger and diamond studs at her ears.
Sophie came in an electric orange wrap around skirt, tied in a knot at her side. A matching loose t-shirt and turban completed her outfit. She had on massive earrings that hung to her shoulders that stirred and rang like bells every time her head moved. She had come in, swooping down upon Summer in her arms and swallowing her in a balmy embrace. Summer struggled to breathe and when Sophie let go she said, “I’m going to have to get used to all this affection.” Sophie laughed and moved on to the next bystander.
Cayden had been watching across the room and when Summer met his eyes, they were so warm with rich laughter that she could swear she heard, though no sound was coming from his lips. Feeling their connection growing, she reveled at the thought of what it would be like a year from now, ten years from now. A stirring began in her belly and she subconsciously brought a hand to it.
Cayden began to move toward her, shifting through the people who were crowded in the space of the parlor. She had a strange look on her face that Cayden couldn’t decipher. He felt the panic crash over him, the waves pinning him, making it hard to breathe yet again.
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