by Susan Firtik
Lina was smiling and trying not to laugh out loud at her darling little sister. Though they were all approximately the same age they always thought of her as the baby, when in fact she was older than Lina by a month or so.
"I love you! You are adorable, beautiful, caring and you’re worried because a man loves you. So what if he’s not corporeal. If he can, uh… perform while you’re sleeping and together, who cares? Oh I know, it could be a little awkward bringing him to Sunday dinner with the family but we’ll deal with that when and if it comes up. For now, I say go for it and enjoy yourself! It doesn’t appear to hurt him and it sure seems to have a beneficial effect on you! I’ve never seen you so glow-y!”
She leaned over to hug her sister and told her she loved her. That just made Netta cry, which in turn made Lina cry, then they both exploded in laughter and that made them cry! Sisters! Geeesh.
"There’s more Lina. I’ve had dreams lately of a woman. No! Not that way, and actually it’s two women, although I can’t see the woman on the bed very well. The standing woman is dressed fully in white. Long flowing fabric like you’d expect in a dream." She chuckled in a nervous twitter.
"The woman in white has her hands over the woman on the bed. She’s dressed in blue by the way, kinda reminds me of a nun. Anyway...white’s hands are kinda glowing a white light onto the blue lady and she’s groaning. I don’t know if it’s a good groan or if she’s hurting her until...” She halted and turned away.
"What, honey? Are you okay? You know you don’t have to talk about it right now." Lina looked and sounded concerned.
“No, it’s not that. But I don’t want to get my hopes up and I don’t want you to either. It’s just that well...the white lady walks right up to me, puts her hands on either side of my face and smiles...like she knows me, then I wake up. The funny thing is, I always feel so much better. I hardly ever dream more than that. It’s like a looped video, someone or something is trying to keep me from finding out too much. Does any of that make sense?” She was pleading.
Lina knew she wanted someone to believe her, and funny thing was...Lina did! Lordy! With their history of late? What made sense anymore? Dream healers? Why not?
"I don’t care if it makes sense but it sounds like it could be true. The best part is you feel better! Don’t care how or why, just that it continues. Oh honey, don’t worry anymore and one more thing, missy! Don’t you ever hold anything back again! We need to tell each other everything.
Lina softened the admonishment with a loving smile and then changed in a flash, surprising Netta.
"Lunch time. I’ll make some iced tea and I will have that BLT. Hurry down or I won’t leave you any."
Lina ran around Netta, racing her down the winding stairs, laughing. Jason was sitting in the kitchen, sipping from a soda can, smiling at the sisters. It was good to see them happy.
He’d returned last night as promised and heard, damn his wolf ears, Keaton and Lina together, so he hadn’t stayed. Jealousy raised its ugly head but Jason knew he wasn’t ready for a mate just yet. Fate didn’t care if he was ready though. He just felt he needed to get the bachelor out of his system before he settled down. He was still very young in shifter years.
"Have you heard anything about where Tashi and Victor are being held?” A somber Lina asked. The fun was over and now was the time to deal with real life.
"Actually, Keaton brought us some information and we’re checking into it now. I assume he didn’t have time...to uhhh...tell you?” His grin was impish and evil! Lina had to laugh, even though she was blushing.
"Congratulations by the way and welcome to the family!”
Netta was watching, fascinated and curious.
“Uhhh, Lina? Jason? Whose family?” Netta looked worried.
“Keaton is my second or third cousin but in the shifter world, we’re all basically family. Now that Keaton has claimed Lina as his mate...”
“What!” Netta screeched. She hated doing that but lately it seemed appropriate. "What does that mean, claimed?"
Lina was calm. “It just means that Keaton and I are a committed couple. Two people who are now one. It’s like a marriage but in the shifter way."
Netta took a huge breath. Lina knew what her next objection would be and cut her off.
"No! Don’t start with me. We will have a wedding naturally, but not until we get Tashi back. Okay?”
Jason was sidestepping toward the back door.
"So… now… other than giving Netta a stroke and causing a little family trouble, I have nothing else to report, sooooo... I’ll be going. Now.” He dashed out the door.
"Chicken!" Lina called after him.
It seemed silly to say things returned to normal. Lina wasn’t sure what normal was now. She was in love with—and married to—a werewolf. Her sister was apparently spending time with a ghost, but only when she was asleep. A ghost that Lina herself could see and converse with. Her other sister was kidnapped and chained in some cave or dungeon by a black witch, with her boyfriend...a vampire.
Yeah... allll normal.
Lina was having the dreams more and more often and each time the detail in them was clearer. She flew over the mansion and saw the green glow from the attic and now she knew she had to find whatever it was up there. The nagging feeling of missing something was getting stronger daily.
Most of the larger pieces of furniture had been moved downstairs, so it was easier to see what else lurked in the corners of the massive space. Lina was drawn to the children's items. There were christening gowns that had to be antiques. They had the long skirts that fell to the ground while the babe was being held by a parent or godparent. They were all made of intricate lace, all probably handmade and not just on the fancier children’s clothing. It was everywhere. Hankies, table runners, shawls, head scarves, like the kind Catholic women used to wear for church, were stuffed into every box.
There were still quite a few boxes stacked up along the walls. Linens, all white, filled at least eight large boxes. They wouldn’t have to wash sheets for a year if they used them. But they were the kind suited for the cotton stuffed mattresses of another time, long ago passed. They’d been packed well, carefully and apparently with love. None of them smelled old or musty, as would normally be the case.
"I can’t believe how well everything has held up.”
She turned to Netta, who hadn’t said anything in a while. She was staring at the other end of the attic with an odd look on her face, her arms wrapped around herself as if cold.
"I feel like I’m being watched... it’s evil…almost feels like it’s trying to get through the walls but something is preventing that. It wants to hurt me, scratch me and tear my skin. Make me bleed. I can hear it thinking those words."
She turned around to Lina. "Why? And better yet, why me?"
Lina let her senses spread out. She often did that when working with her ghost friends, so maybe it would work here. Would it help her trying to find the evil?
"I can’t pick up anything. Other than Tomas but he’s not in here with us, although he is near. I think he senses it also. It’s some sort of vibration, coming from the walls. Reach out your hand but don’t touch the wall. Get close enough to see if you can feel the vibration. I need to know how it feels to you… from someone not so in tune with ghosts."
Netta had an arm out and held her hand just a hair’s width from the wall. She felt a tingle up her arm. It was like an invisible barrier and an outside force was banging against it like a battering ram, trying to get through.
"I can feel something shielding us or the house but something evil is definitely trying to get in."
Lina nodded her head.
"Yeah, that kinda what I thought. I feel something nasty behind that outside force. Think it could be that witch? Martiss?"
They both pulled away from the wall and stared at each other. Netta gasped.
“Lina! Your eyes are glowing! You look like a green lighthouse!" She was slowly backing away.
"I do feel odd. Not bad, mind you...just...kinda different.”
She turned her head a realized the glow emanating from her eyes made the attic look different from before... it was newer. None of this made sense. The wallpaper pattern seemed crisper. The paint wasn’t peeling any longer but looked freshly done. She was seeing the attic as it had been—long ago. Lina stumbled around for Netta’s hand. The minute they clasped hands, Netta was there with her.
"Oh my God! What are we looking at Lina?” Netta’s voice was a reverent whisper.
"I’m not sure but I think it has something to do with the dreams I’ve been having.”
Ooops, Lina had been keeping that secret and had even scolded Netta for keeping her dreams from the rest of them. Netta didn’t take the bait, although you could see the temptation on her face.
"Explain your dreams, Lina." Netta turned to look Lina in the eye and started tapping her foot.
"They all involved flying above the mansion and seeing a green glow coming from the attic—this attic. I think I need to find something in here and I’m assuming it’s green.”
They let go of each other—and the illusion disappeared. Netta started pulling boxes from the top of each stack.
"Let’s get looking.”
They spent the rest of the day going thru box after box of papers, books, and notes. There was a mountain of information on the mansion and some of the previous owners. There was information about Tomas and his family, but it wasn’t much and only confirmed a little of what he had already told them.
Lina felt drawn again to the items in the children’s area. She stood to stretch after hours of being hunched over papers and wandered over to see if she could sense anything there...or get a “pull” from an object. She held out her hands, palms down and just hovered over areas with stacks of toys, clothing and the like. The room became downright freezing in an instant and the same voice from the séance boomed.
"No! Again, you meddle where you are not wanted. This is none of your concern. Your father had his chance, now is my time and now is my rule. You will cease this hunt, retreat from this place and leave the realm to those who deserve it, you pitiful half-breeds!"
Yeah, right. Lina thought, unafraid of the disembodied voice. She was curious however, about the mention of her father, and she figured, what the heck have I to lose?
"Why do you talk of my father as if you knew him? You are nothing but a loud voice in a tiny room. You know nothing.”
That should work. She’d have him defending himself and give information just to prove what big bad monster he was.
“You are pitiful. Not even fully human and you disgust me. Your father, that bloodsucking, self-righteous, human-loving, do-gooder, should not have made any of you. And he wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been for a meddling white witch. But the vampire was taken care of eventually, along with the meddler. Now, we learn of you...you...half-breeds...his simpering spawn. We have taken steps to end this trial. You are nothing but mistakes. You are of no consequence. You will fail. You cannot defeat us!”
Their “father”, as in they were really and truly sisters! Half-sisters but wow! And oh yeah, by the way, Dad’s a vampire.
"Can my family get any more fucked up?" Lina whined.
"Hey! I’m standing right here!" Feigning insult, Netta joked. But this was serious.
They had a disembodied voice challenging them to win and he sounded pissed. Win what? But hey! They had vampire blood in their veins! How cool was that? How scary was that? Very cool and very scary. Netta and Lina both moved their hands up to feel their incisors to see if they had fangs, of course they didn’t, but who wouldn’t think they did after finding out they had this kind of heritage. Seeing each other probing their upper teeth caused a ripple of laughter.
"We need to continue the search. Our new friend didn’t seem to like me looking over here.”
She walked around the bedroom furniture, the bassinet, the cribs, of which there were four, which made her remember Tomas and his siblings.
"I wonder if these belonged to Tomas and his family.” More to herself than anyone else, she walked further into the corner. There were all manner of stuffed animals but the one that caught her eye was a woeful teddy bear on the bottom of all the others. He was tattered but to Lina that meant he’d been hugged, played with and loved. She picked it up and hugged it to her. Then she heard the whisper:
"Welcome home, Green.”
Just as she’d thought she heard in the garden. She twisted around trying to find the source but only Netta remained in the room and she was busy with her own attic-safari. She wasn’t interested in what Lina was up to.
"Netta? Could you come over here, please? I don’t think I can move right now."
Netta was there in an instant. "I wonder if that little burst of speed was vampiric?" She mused. This was just all so... cool! "What’s wrong? You look pale and you’re scaring me!”
Lina opened her arms and looked into the face of her teddy bear. Two very green eyes stared back. One however, held her in a hypnotic, trance-like embrace. She could almost see into the green eye. She saw people. Some she knew. Others were strangers to her. They were from all walks of life and all times of life. It was like a magic view of her past. She felt comforted and safe. Lina felt Netta’s arms coming around her from behind as she also stared at the bear over her shoulder.
"What the fuck?" Was all she got out before the eye glowed and the entire attic had a green hue. They both heard the eye speak...
"Colors join to close the breach—
To each child their color calls.
That heir will aim as if to reach...
Good wins out—Evil falls.”
Evangelina Green Maddox took the green gem from the bear’s eye socket, holding it in her palm, examining it as it shined, shimmered, and continued to glow. Netta was afraid to speak out loud so she whispered to Lina.
"What in the world is it? What are you supposed to do with it? Do you think it’s dangerous? C’mon Lina, let’s get outta here.”
Lina just shrugged, staring at the gem in her hand, trying to feel anything, something. One last blinding burst of green glow and the gem was gone! Shit.
"Lina? Are you okay? What happened? I’ve got spots in my eyes." Netta was walking with arms outstretched toward Lina.
"Netta...stop moving. I think I know what happened, but I don’t want you to get hurt, so don’t touch me!"
Everything went still. The air wasn’t circulating, the world seemed to stop spinning, it was that quiet.
"Look!" Lina held out her hand, palm facing the wall. A small thin line of green light shone from her hand onto the wall.
"It’s inside my hand.” There was awe in her voice. Lina felt like she’d been given a huge treasure. She still didn’t understand but she had an inkling. Excitement shivered up and down her spine. Nervous giggles burst forth, Netta rushed to her and they hugged for quite a while in the green glowing attic.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“I hope you know what you’re doing!” snapped Netta.
“What has you all fired up over these old newspapers? Talk to me!”
Lina was frantically scanning old clippings and tossing one by one aside as she searched for...for...something…just out of reach. Just out of sight. She’d had that feeling once before but now she felt she was closer to discovering what the “something” was.
She just needed the... "Ah ha! I found it!"
It was the article about the traveler and his strange tale of lights at the mansion. She pulled Netta back to the table in the kitchen where they’d finally eaten a meal. They’d been so excited in the attic, they hadn’t slept and hadn’t eaten since coming downstairs, when Lina began her frantic search for whatever it was she thought she needed... Netta was feeling cranky.
"Okay, hear me out. Let me finish before you ask any questions or I’ll lose my train of thought. If you think you’ll forget to ask, write it down just like I would. Yeah, I know, Ms. List M
aker. Ready?” Netta nodded.
“First, we are the daughters of a vampire and human match. At least, as human as we can tell, but I think maybe they had some magic in them. Maybe they knew, maybe not.
"Secondly, our dad apparently had a few liaisons, shall we say, and we are the result of that. Now… how many women did he meet and do we have other sisters out there? My mom had a moment just before she died when she said something odd to me. Where did I put that? I wrote it down the next day, cuz that’s the day she...she was hit by the bus, and she..."
Tears dropped from her eyes as she bent over to reach for the paper she’d just found. She held up her hand to stop Netta, when she made a move to come and soothe her.
"I’m fine...it’s just now, it all seems to be making sense. Netta? How did your Mom die?”
Netta’s head snapped up, her eyes wide open. "You think...that it wasn’t random? That someone killed her on purpose?" She couldn’t think about it right now.
With everything lately being so frantic and all the unbelievable creatures coming into her life, werewolves, vampires and a friendly ghost... she giggled... "Casperrrrr... the friendly ghost..." She sang the familiar refrain.
Lina was afraid Netta was going into shock and decided they could discuss this later—like tomorrow or never—but Lina had to know eventually. "I’m fine, Lina... I just needed a minute of losin' it...to shake it off, ya know?" She took a deep breath.
"Mom died when I was 16. She was the victim of a mugging. She’d never really been there with us anyway. She sort of lived in a dream world, but knowing she died that way, made me feel bad about hating her for not being my mom, ya know? My aunt Betty, her sister, was really the mom I needed. She is still alive, living in Baltimore last I heard anyway, we don’t keep in touch. She changed.” Netta shrugged.