by Jill Sanders
“Okay, let’s do this a different way.” Xtina shifted. “You’ve been with Jacob for…” She leaned forward.
“Um, I guess a little over a month.” Jess reached for another candy. “Why?”
“And, in that time… has something happened… something unplanned?”
Jess laughed. “Yeah, I found my parents, discovered I was a witch, have friends with healing powers and the power to read other’s minds… Need I go on?”
“No.” Xtina shook her head and looked frustrated. “Has something happened to you… or not happened to you… physically since being with Jacob?”
“What are you…?” Jess’s breath was knocked from her. Her mind sharpened and she actually started hyperventilating. “Oh. My. God.”
“There it is…” Xtina smiled.
“You saw?” Jess set down the candy bar and placed her hand over her flat belly. “You saw?”
Xtina smiled and nodded.
“What? How? What?”
Xtina laughed. “As to what, a boy, as to how, I think you already know that part.”
“But…” Jess closed her eyes and wished she had a glass of water. When she heard Xtina gasp, she opened her eyes and rolled them as a tall glass of ice water appeared in front of her.
“Okay, I’m going to have to get used to this.” Xtina chuckled.
“I’m going to have to learn to control my thoughts around normal people,” Jess said, taking a drink of the cold liquid.
“Are you going to tell Jacob?” Xtina asked.
Damn! Jess thought. What was she going to tell Jacob?
Jacob stood at the entrance of the silo with Mike, Ethan, and Larry. They were loaded down with flashlights and climbing equipment, and he had his gun and his spare on him. Not that he thought he’d need it, but he wasn’t taking any chances.
“Why do we think Rachelle would return here?” Ethan asked.
“It’s the only place that makes sense,” Larry added.
“And why isn’t one of us back at the house, watching the ladies? You know, in case we are wrong.”
“I have Matt and Terry watching the house. Front and back,” Jacob added. “I couldn’t bring them along here… in case.”
“In case things got strange?” Ethan added in. Jacob wasn’t happy that he’d demanded to come along. Especially after seeing the dark circles under his eyes. His brother was spending all of his time in the field, waiting for Brea to return. He hadn’t even shaved since she’d disappeared a few days ago. Now, he had almost a full beard on his face, giving him a dangerous look. Jacob wondered if growing his beard out would have the same effect.
It took them almost half an hour to make it down into the main silo.
“Is this where you were? That night?” Ethan asked Larry.
“Yeah, we used to sneak in from up there.” He pointed upward. The thick hydraulic doors were still slightly opened. Jacob knew that the city had obtained bids to have the facility sealed once and for all, but so far, nothing had been done other than some extra police tape around the rim and a new lock on the outer doors.
“Have you ever been to another part of this facility?” Jacob asked.
“Yeah, a few times Rachelle would take us further in. She was the one who had heard about this place and suggested we come here to hang out.” Larry visibly shivered. “I remember the first time we came here, I was still dating Misty.”
Jacob turned to the man. “You were dating Misty? Brea’s aunt?”
“Sure, that was before Byron took her from me. Well, to be fair, I guess that was before Rachelle got her hands on my brain. Looking back at it now, I can see that she only went out with Byron to get back at me. If she’d only known.”
“We’ll get her back,” Jacob added. They had filled him in on how everyone had seen Misty. How she’d looked. What she’d done. Everything.
“Where else did you go? Where would Rachelle go now?” Mike added.
“There was a room back here where she took me once with Roy and Kelly. Back when we still lived in town. The Warrens were desperate to help their daughter.”
“Christina?” Mike added. “Where?”
They followed Larry to the red door, where Xtina had been held captive a few weeks ago.
“This room makes her sick,” Mike said under his breath.
Larry looked over at him. “This is where her parents would bring her. Where Rachelle would try and break out what was trapped in her.”
“What was… what?” Mike turned to him. “What are you talking about?”
“When the portal opened, something stayed after it took Misty.”
“How did it get to Xtina or the rest of us? We weren’t even there,” Jacob asked.
“I guess it shattered and pieces went into all of us, then on into our children,” Larry said, walking into the middle of the room and looking down at the table where Xtina had been tied up. “Rachelle used to try things on her here, while her parents sat outside, thinking she was cleansing their daughter.”
“How do you know all this?” Mike asked.
He turned to Mike. “Rachelle made me hold her down.” Larry closed his eyes. “I didn’t know what I was doing.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t stop myself.”
Mike walked over to him and set his hand on the man’s shoulder. “It wasn’t your fault.”
Jacob watched a tear fall down the older man’s face. “If I had only…”
“Maybe you should tell us everything you remember about that night.” Jacob stepped forward. “Starting at the beginning.”
By the time they drove into Xtina and Mike’s driveway, the heat from the pizzas they had stopped to pick up had fogged his windows. He was dirty and tired, not to mention starving.
He followed Mike and Ethan into the house, as Larry trailed behind them. Xtina and Jess were sitting in the living room, laughing.
“We brought pizza,” he said, setting the stack of boxes on the coffee table. “And beer.” He turned to Mike, who set the beer down.
“I’ll get some paper plates.” Jess stood up, then smiled at him. “Don’t freak out, okay?”
“Why would I…” His voice dropped off as he watched Jess disappear then reappear with a stack of paper plates in her hands. Her smile faltered when she noticed the worry on his face.
Chapter 18
One surprise down, one to go, Jess thought as she reappeared from the kitchen with the paper plates in hand.
“Don’t freak out,” she repeated.
“Can you find Brea?” Ethan interrupted before Jacob could say anything.
“I… I’ve only tried moving around Xtina’s house so far.” She felt her heart sink. “But if I knew where she was, I might be able to focus on her…”
“No,” Jacob broke in. His hands went to her shoulders. “It’s too dangerous. We can’t risk losing you, too.”
“Jacob, I have to try.” She took a step back and set the paper plates down. “I’ll be right back.”
She stood back and focused on Brea’s face. When she felt herself starting to fade, she opened her eyes and watched the room disappear around her. Suddenly, she was in complete darkness.
“Brea?” she called out, blinking a few times until her eyes adjusted.
“Brea isn’t here,” a voice echoed.
“Where is she?” she called out again, still unable to see anything but pitch blackness.
“Where are you?” the voice responded.
Realizing something had gone wrong, she tried once more and focused on Brea’s face. But this time nothing happened. She was still in the darkness.
“What have you done with her?”
“I? I haven’t done anything with her.” Suddenly, there was a circle of dim light a few feet away from her.
There, directly in the middle of the light, stood Brea, staring back at her.
“Brea!” Jess called out and started moving towards her.
“Wrong again,” Brea said in a strange voice, then tilted her head as
she looked back at Jess with black eyes.
“Let her go,” Jess screamed.
“She came to me,” the voice said through Brea. “She appeared and suddenly… I was awake. She went away, but I pulled her back.”
“I don’t understand.” Jess stood a few feet away from Brea at this point. “What do you want with her? Why won’t you let her go?”
“I need her, in order to get where I want to be.”
“Where?” Jess had a sinking feeling in her gut.
“Where do you think? Somewhere where I will be freed of this place.” Brea looked around, then held up her arms and motioned around her.
Jess glanced, but only saw darkness.
“As long as she sleeps, I must remain,” the voice said, just as another circle of light shone a few feet away.
Jess held in a gasp when she saw Misty, Brea’s aunt, laying in the circle, still dressed in the clothes she’d been wearing over twenty-five years ago when she’d disappeared.
“Let them go,” she cried. She tried to move, but something was holding her in place. “You can’t have them,” Jess said, trying to take a step forward.
Then, before her eyes, Brea twisted and grew. It was almost as if the creature came from Brea’s body. It sprouted horns, a long tail like a dragon, and see-through wings that were black as the night. It’s red tongue darted out, towards her. She jerked back as its silver eyes laughed at her.
Jess felt her heart speed up as fear consumed her.
“The girl is mine until I get what I want,” it hissed.
“What is that?” Jess asked, taking a step back and feeling its hold on her break.
“Freedom.” The word echoed in the darkness. The light was gone, and she could no longer see Brea.
Pain shot through her entire body. She doubled over and cried out with pain.
“You cannot stop me, witch!” Its voice echoed in the darkness. Her head felt like it was about to explode.
Jess fell backward, and when she heard the creature move towards her in the darkness, she closed her eyes and thought of Jacob’s face.
When strong arms wrapped around her, she collapsed in a fit of tears against Jacob’s shoulders.
“What happened?” everyone asked at the same time.
“Easy,” Jacob said, holding her against him. “Give her a minute.”
“I’ll get some water,” Xtina said.
Jacob walked her over to the sofa and helped her sit down.
“I… she… it wouldn’t let her go.” Jess took a drink of the water Xtina handed her.
“Who?” Ethan asked.
Jess shook her head. “I don’t know. It was dark. There was a strange voice, then a light, and Brea was there, but it wasn’t her.” Jess closed her eyes and tried to block out the blackness of Brea’s eyes. “He said he wasn’t going to let her go until he gained his freedom.”
“Freedom? From what?”
Jess looked outside. “I think he’s trapped in… Okay, it’s hard to explain, but I’m thinking an alternate universe? One where there isn’t anything, except… it.”
The room was silent for a while as everyone took in what she’d told them.
“What about Misty?” Larry asked breaking the silence.
“I… she was there, but… It looked like she was trapped in a beam of light, almost like she wasn’t able to move.” She thought back, trying to figure it out further.
“Could you try…” Larry started, only to stop. “Maybe tomorrow, you can try and see about finding her.”
“I can try.”
“Tomorrow,” Jacob broke in. “Right now, you need some pizza and rest.”
She nodded her head. “How long was I gone?” She glanced around the room.
“About two seconds,” Xtina said. “The pizza is still warm.” She joked, but Jess could see worry behind her friend’s eyes.
“I’m okay,” she assured her and reached for the pizza.
Jacob knew instantly that Jess wasn’t completely okay. He could see it in her eyes. She was afraid. He figured he’d keep that information to himself. At least for now.
They all sat around and ate pizza, drank beer, and acted like everything was cool. He stayed close to her and when the food was consumed, he took charge and told everyone that they would meet again in the morning, after they had gotten some rest.
When Jess was tightly pulled against his chest in bed, he brushed a hand down her hair, enjoying the feeling of her wrapped around him.
“You okay?” he murmured.
“Yeah.” He felt her shiver and pulled her closer. “It wasn’t her.”
“I know. We’ll get her back.”
“I know that, but at what cost?” She glanced up at him. “Whatever it is that has her wants to come here. I can’t explain it, but it was pure evil.”
“So, we’ll find a way to bind it,” he said absently.
Jess was silent for a while. “That’s it.” She sat up, then pulled the covers away and grabbed the book from its hiding place under the mattress.
“Here,” she said after opening the book and flipping the pages several times. “Terminus,” she said out loud, and suddenly Jacob couldn’t move, couldn’t blink, couldn’t breathe.
He heard Jess mumbling to herself as she continued to read the page, then she glanced up and gasped and suddenly he was released.
“Sorry.” She dropped the book and moved to him. “Are you okay?”
He was gulping in air and felt his toes tingle from the lack of oxygen. “Yeah,” he said after a moment. “Okay, next time, try to stay focused.” He chuckled and sat up as she wrapped her arms around him.
“I’m so sorry,” she said into his chest.
“It’s okay,” he repeated.
“So, at least we learned one thing.” She smiled up at him. “The spell works.”
“Yeah, but what are we going to do with it?”
“Well, if… if it manages to get through, we can bind it with this.” She leaned down and picked up the book from the floor.
But instead of bringing it back up to the bed, she stopped.
“Jess?” Concern flooded him and he reached for her.
“Look.” She jumped from the bed and knelt on the floor next to the bed. “When I dropped it, it must have broken free.”
He leaned over the bed and looked down at her. She was kneeling on the floor, holding the book. It was in two pieces. Well, to be more precise, the entire cover had come off, revealing several hidden pages under the thick leather.
“It’s the missing pages.” She glanced up at him.
“Come on up here.” He tapped the bed as he moved over. She climbed up and scanned the pages.
“Here’s the one.” She gasped. He glanced over and noticed a drawing of a full moon. “This has to be it,” she said. “Damn, it’s in Latin.” She set it down on her lap and sighed.
“Xtina and Mike are probably still up,” he suggested.
“No, it can wait until the morning.” She laid the page flat on her lap, then reached over, took her phone, and snapped a picture. “I’ll send it to Xtina, so if she is awake, she can work on it for the morning.” She typed on her phone. “There.” She tucked the pages back into the hidden section between the leather and the binding and hugged the book to her chest. “This changes everything.” She smiled at him. “We might actually have a chance.”
“Didn’t you have the book in your vision?” he asked. “The one where you saw…”
“No,” she broke in. “I would have been holding it. What I saw before, there was no book.”
She tucked the book back under the mattress and crawled back into bed next to him.
Her phone chimed and she glanced at it. “She’ll have it done by the morning.” She set her phone down and snuggled back into him.
“Feel better?” he asked, placing a kiss on the top of her head.
“Yes.” She smiled.
“Good.” He waited a beat. “So, just because you can pop yours
elf around now, doesn’t mean you should.”
She chuckled but nodded. “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I freaked Xtina out earlier today when I showed up in the kitchen. Which reminds me, I owe her a new set of wine glasses.”
He smiled as he ran his fingers through her hair. “I’m going to stop by the lake house again in the morning. Just to make sure your mother didn’t go back there.”
He felt her shiver. “I don’t like to think of her as that anymore.”
“What?” he asked.
“My mother. She’s Rachelle, now.” Jess shook her head. “How could she have done what she did? Not just to my dad, but to Brea’s mother too. She’s the reason the woman spent twenty some years in a mental institution.”
He shook his head. “Love will make you do strange things. I’d do anything to protect you,” he said absently. Once the words were out, he realized their meaning.
He felt Jess stiffen and took another deep breath. “I didn’t mean to tell you like this.”
“Tell me?” she said softly.
He shifted until he could look into her eyes. “That I love you.”
Chapter 19
By morning, Jess was feeling much steadier. She heard her dad and Jacob in the other room, and she climbed into the shower and let the hot water hit her full force.
Jacob had told her that he loved her. Why hadn’t she told him that she loved him back? She’d sidestepped around it until he had chuckled and pulled her close and told her to take her time and think about it.
According to the calendar they had made up, they had one more night before the full moon. Before all hell was supposed to break loose.
If Xtina was correct, and she was pregnant—she glanced down at her flat stomach and laid a hand on it—then she now had an even stronger reason to find a way to fix things. The best reason. A baby. Jacob’s baby.
She couldn’t help her smile as she started dreaming about a normal life. Raising a child, here, with the man she loved. Of course, she loved him. She had always loved him.
When she opened her eyes, she noticed a shadow cross the foggy doors of the shower and smiled. “You’re welcome to come back in here,” she teased.