Surprised by the strength of her power, Cain fell back and tried to ward off her magic. But the force of her energy zapped through him before he could shield himself and it burst his heart. He fell like a rock to the ground and held her eyes as his life force drained from his body and rose again into blackness.
As soon as she saw the last of his life snuff into the darkness of the beyond, Isidora collapsed to the ground, her own energy spent. She turned her head and watched as the cabin burned to the ground, her tears soaking into the earth in which she would soon be part. When the last of the flames became nothing more than glowing pulses of hot embers, she turned her gaze to the stars. "I cannot do this anymore."
There she lay through the night and when Clay came and dropped to her side, she used her last bit of strength to share with him the story the strange woman had told her. It was now their story to tell. Hers was done.
I pushed away from the computer and stood to pace. This was quite incredible. The Dark One, Cain, was aware of my writing his story and even addressed me! And if I was to get this right, the rumors attached to Jonathan Buck's grave actually came from me! Of course it couldn't be true. But there were elements of truth and it was those elements I needed to focus on.
"Tess! Come out here."
Kade's voice had an inflection in it that made my blood run cold. I raced to the door, down the porch steps and around to the side of the house where he stood knee deep in dirt.
"What's wrong?"
"I think there are human bones in here, Tess. We need to call the authorities."
"It must be Naylee."
Kade had dug an area about four feet wide by four feet long. Half the hole was several feet deeper than the other half. "What made you concentrate on that particular spot?"
"Rocks. If a cottage existed here, most of it was taken away. This area is pretty well peppered with rocks."
"Naylee's cottage burned to the ground with her in it. She must have been buried here rather than moved elsewhere."
"If she was too badly burned to bother with then it's not an unlikely situation."
It made sense that Naylee was left to rest where her cottage once existed. But how did it come to pass that her grave was lost from knowledge of its existence? "I just finished my story. The Big Bad's name definitely is Cain. He was Isidora's half-brother."
Kade stopped digging and looked at me with a raised brow, his expression going from surprise to thoughtful. "Really?
"Well, we knew her father escaped punishment for his deeds and was never heard from again. It stands to reason he would end up fathering more children. But he knew of Isidora which means he still had connections in this town, one that kept him abreast of Isabelle and her daughter."
"So what happened? Why is he still here and what does he want?"
"He wants what his father was after but more than that, he said something about this property being magical and that he and Isidora were special. He obviously practiced the dark arts, Kade. He was evil. Like his father and probably his mother as well. He said she was a witch." Then again, he called me one as well so I couldn't take that at any sort of value.
"What good is money to a dead guy? It's not about that anymore."
"No. It's about power." Heaving a tired sigh, I dropped to the grass next to Kade's dig site and stared off toward the marsh. "People always want to be powerful and rule over others. I can't think why."
"Because we aren't like that. It's hard to understand something we have no desire for ourselves." Kade reached down and picked something up. "Another bone fragment. Looks like a rib piece."
"Ew. Kade, really. Let's just let her stay there. We know who she is and I see no reason to bring in authorities. They'll dig up my yard and come up with nothing and I'll be left with a mess."
"I don't think we should leave her here in the driveway. Do you? Let me find what I can and we'll put her to rest somewhere else." He leaned on the handle of his shovel while looking around. Finally he pointed toward a small clearing in the woods a short distance from where we stood. "Let's put her there. It's out of the way, it's already cleared and it's a nice spot."
I glanced to the area in question and nodded in agreement. It was a great spot. Grass grew nice and thick and there were lots of violets from what I could see. Though no longer in bloom, I recognized the dark green clumps they grew in. "I wonder why it's open right there? Why haven't the woods taken it over?"
"Maybe there's a ledge under the grass. That would prevent the trees from growing. It won't matter for our purpose. There isn't much left here to bury. We won't have to dig a very deep grave. It's more the thought that counts anyway."
'We are talking about a person's body, Kade."
"Well parts of it anyway."
"You're terrible!" I leaned forward to bat at his leg. He caught my hand and gave it a squeeze. "I'm not being disrespectful, Tess. But this really is rather a gruesome task and I'm trying not to focus too much on that."
"Where do you suppose Isidora is buried?"
"You didn't come up with that in your story?"
"No. It ended with her death." And while he continued to dig and sift through the dirt and pull out bone fragments which he placed in a small wooden box he must have found in the shed, I told him about my story. He paused every now and then to look at me with that incredulous, admiring look he often sent my way when talking about such things and it warmed my heart. He loved my gift as much as I loved his.
"The Big ... Cain must be buried in the woods near that rock wall and my guess is he's under that rock bed we found. It must have been Clay who took care of burying their bodies since he's the one that found them. There's no mention of any of this in Bucksport's history is there?" Kade paused to rest, sweat running down his face.
I stood up with the intent of fetching him a drink but something shiny caught my eye. It lay in the dirt next to Kade's feet and I swear a little zing of energy charged through my arm when I picked it up and held it to the light. At first I thought it was nothing more than a flattened piece of silver but when I turned it around I noticed that something was etched upon it. Because it was caked in mud, I spit on it to clean off the dirt and when I wiped it dry with the bottom of my t-shirt, the symbol was clear enough to see. It was the outline of a hand with an eye in the center of its palm. How interesting.
"What's that?" Kade leaned in to look and I handed it to him.
"I think it's a pendant or something though there are two holes … one on each side which is odd."
He rubbed his hand over the etching. "It looks like a hand with an eye in the palm."
"Yes, that's exactly what it is."
Kade turned it over and over, examining it closely. "Looks homemade. What do you think it means?"
"I've no idea but it must be a symbol for something. You can be sure I'll be looking it up."
"Do you think it belonged to Naylee?"
"I wouldn't be surprised." Kade handed it back to me and I headed for the house. "I'm going to get you something cold to drink and then I'm going to clean this up and find a chain to hang it from."
"Why don't you just add it to the one you are already wearing?"
"Good idea!"
Kade didn't give up on the digging for almost another hour. He found several bone fragments though not near enough to make up an entire body. Still, we both concluded that this was probably all that was left of Naylee since it happened so long ago. She was mostly part of the earth now.
I found a nice little ceramic jar to use for an urn and after we placed all the bone fragments within it, we headed for the small clearing. Kade eyeballed the approximate center and began digging. Though he didn't have to go down far, he dug deep and was about to call it good when his spade hit on something hard. A rock? But a little more digging made him grab a small hand trowel and proceeded more carefully.
It soon became apparent that there was a layer of rock buried under the dirt. They formed a flat bed and were too precisely placed to be coinci
dence. Since it was covering quite a big area, I grabbed the other shovel and removed the top coat while Kade worked to remove the dirt close to the rocks.
After uncovering an area about three feet wide by three feet long, Kade told me to take a break while he removed some of the rocks to see what was underneath them. They were about eight inches deep and again we wondered to what purpose they were there for it was by no accident these rocks were layered just so. Finally, beneath the rocks we found rotted wood planks and beneath that, fragments of cloth.
"Jesus, Tess, I think this is another grave. Christ, you have bodies all over the place." He dropped the cloth fragment and straightened up. "I'm not going to dig the rest of it up."
"It's Isidora." I just knew for certain we'd just found her resting place. Someone had taken care of it enough that it never became overrun by shrubs and trees. I handed him the urn. Put Naylee in there with her."
Kade pressed the jar down in the hole he'd made in the rotted wood and then we began the painstaking task of replacing the rocks and the dirt and finally the grass turf we'd been careful to peel away from the dig site. Once we replaced the turf, it was almost hard to tell we'd dug up the area. If not for the fresh dirt lying about, no one would know.
Feeling like something more should be done, I brought one of my ceramic garden angels over and placed it above the grave. "We'll plant flowers here. They'll like that."
"Great. Now we've solved that mystery. Let's check out the area in the woods before it gets too late. I don't want to be caught out there come nightfall."
As soon as I opened the front door, Alex and Dennis came charging outside. They ran straight for Naylee's and Isidora's gravesite and while Dennis chose to stretch out next to the angel statuette, Alex sniffed busily around the entire area.
"Interesting." Kade stood with hands on hips and watched them for a few minutes before glancing at me.
"Animals are naturally curious as to what their human family is up to, they could be checking it out because that's where we've spent a good part of our day." But I did think there was more to it than that and judging by Kade’s next words, so did he.
"But they bypassed the area where Naylee was located and we dug around there as well."
"Yes. It's most curious isn't it?"
As interesting as it was to watch our animals, we had other things more important to concern ourselves with. Cain.
So with shovels in hand, we headed down the driveway into the woods and when we got to the area where Kade's car died the night before, we left the road and headed for that bed of rocks.
Chapter 21
Alex joined us just as we were about to enter the woods. He didn't look very enthused about our destination but he came along anyway, sticking close behind Kade. Dennis, too, decided to join us though he moseyed behind at a much slower pace, pretending disinterest when I knew he was, in fact, quite curious as to what we were up to. Most cats hated being left out of anything. Dennis was no different. Oddly, I found comfort in his presence. If he was about then Cain was not.
As we made our way to the bed of rocks, the closer we got to it, the darker it became. I looked up through the trees and saw that the sun was becoming more and more obscure for a thick cloud cover was moving in above us. A cool breeze kicked up just as Kade dropped his spade and set the bucket we'd brought along down next to it. Swirling dead leaves lifted from the ground and blew about us. I instinctively reached for Kade and though he wasn't facing me, it was as if he knew what I needed for he reached back and grasped my hand.
"No matter what ... we keep together." Kade turned to look at me and his expression was so serious I wanted to smile and ease the severity of the situation, but I couldn't quite muster one up. "I mean it, Tess, if things get harry we bolt for the house."
"Okay."
He nodded, satisfied that we were in total accordance with each other and started removing the larger rocks from the area we intended to dig up.
A fluttering in the trees made me look up and I was disturbed to see scores of crows gathering around us. It seemed my acknowledgement of their presence broke their silence for their loud screeching cries suddenly filled the air, the sound harsh to my ears. They hopped limb to limb in the trees above us and appeared to be agitated by our activities. Though I began to feel a distinct unease at their presence, it wasn't like crows were an unusual bird to see. They were everywhere in Maine from what I'd noticed.
But when their number began to increase at an alarming rate, I knew we were heading for some trouble. They filled every available branch and their screeching cries were like nails on a chalkboard to my ears.
Kade paused to look around. "What the hell? Where did all these damned birds come from?"
Cain sent them. But what could these birds possibly do? As much as I tried to erase the image riffling through my head, that Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds came to mind and try as I might, I couldn't shake the fear that began to build inside me.
One of the crows landed on the ground a few feet away and I eyed it warily. He cocked his head this way and that, looking first at Kade, then at me. Once we locked eyes, neither one of us moved. There we stood in a sort of face off and the other birds went quiet. That rather freaked me out more than their riotous noise.
Kade straightened and took note of our staring contest. He gave my arm a gentle tug and I pulled my gaze away to look at him. "Don't stare at it, Tess."
I moved closer to him and the two of us watched the bird with growing trepidation. He was bigger than the others so I surmised he was the leader of the bunch. If, in fact, crows had such a thing. I had no idea if there was a hierarchy among birds but it sure seemed that way to me. Finally the crow leaned forward and let out a loud high pitched cry.
"I think that bird is telling us to get the hell out of here," Kade said. But he was amused by this more than anything. When neither of us moved, the bird hopped a little closer and this time lifted its head toward the sky and let out another loud piercing cry.
That's when Alex barked at it and rushed forward. The bird immediately flew into the air and as he cleared Alex's half-hearted lunge, the other birds went crazy. Scores of them started flying in every direction while others remained in the trees and hopped limb to limb in obvious agitation. Their screeching cries were so loud I had to cover my ears. Alarmed, Kade and I moved close together and prepared ourselves for anything.
One of them made a dive toward us and Kade waved his spade around in an effort to ward it off. The bird managed to evade the swing and his screeching cries motivated the others to try the same.
They circled and dipped, coming closer each time and I knew if they could, they’d attack. Kade picked up a nearby branch and started swinging it wildly around, confusing the birds and making them retreat.
“Make a fire, Tess. Quick.”
I dropped to my knees and pulled together a fire ring in record time, using the rocks lying close at hand. Though I was desperate to get rid of the birds, I was not willing to start a forest fire to do it. Once the fire ring was in place, I scooped up some pinecones and dead leaves and threw them in the center.
"Jesus! Hurry, Tess, they are getting bolder."
Another bird came from behind and managed to swipe at my hair. I screamed in terror and batted at it wildly. Kade swung the branch and knocked it away. More birds came and the noise was deafening.
"Light it now!”
Though my hands were shaking like crazy, I managed to operate the lighter Kade tossed to me and set fire to the dry leaves. They went up quick, in a whoosh of flames.
"Add more leaves. They should create enough smoke to scare away these noisy assed birds."
I scooped up an armful of dried leaves and tossed them on the fire. Kade was right, they created a lot of smoke. At first the birds continued to flutter around us but as the fire grew and I continued to toss on more leaves, the smoke became thick and the birds began to retreat.
Kade dropped the spade and picked up a few dead p
ine branches and tossed them on the fire. The quills crackled and popped as they whooshed up in flames. The birds retreated further and then were gone. Just like that. Where they went, I couldn't even guess. One minute they were all around us and the next, they were not.
"I honest to God feel like I am living in a horror story right now, Tess." Kade pulled me close and pressed a quick kiss to my mouth. "Keep the fire going in case they think about coming back. I'll remove the rocks and do the digging."
It was slow going for him because it quickly became apparent that digging was going to be impossible. There were just too many rocks.
Since the crows were gone and all was quiet, I decided my supply for the fire was sufficient enough that I could join Kade in his task. "Do you think this is another grave? Isidora had a lot of rocks over her coffin as well."
"Maybe it's how they did things back then though I don't recall any customs of using rocks on gravesites."
"Actually, I think its common among the Native Americans to use rocks but don't quote me on that. I'm no expert on grave practices."
"More than likely the rocks were used as a deterrent from animals. Last thing they'd want is for bones to be dug up and found."
The deeper we managed to get in the ground, the darker it became in the sky. Finally I looked up and saw that the gathering clouds were beginning to look like a threat of rain. "I think we are about to get wet." I no sooner got those words out and the first drops hit us.
Kade looked up and swore under his breath. "Just what we need."
"Look ... we can dry off later. I don't mind getting wet. If something is here, we need to find it today."
His mouth drawn in a grim, determined line, Kade nodded. "Okay then."
We picked up our efforts a notch but the rocks were wedged into the ground pretty snug. Luckily we thought to bring the hand tools needed to dig at the dirt and pry the rocks up from their resting places. It wasn't long before the cold rain and the chilly breeze began to penetrate our clothing and freeze our hands. My teeth began to chatter but I tried my best to control it. I was determined to press on no matter what.
Vanquishing Ghosts (Tess Schafer-Medium) Page 30