Cyrus thought for a moment, but before he could answer Isabella rushed forward. “You can’t be a member of our community you deceiving little witch.”
Leah visibly stiffened at that comment. Her eyes flashing anger as she brought her hand up. Her mother hurriedly pushed it back down by her side.
Isabella came to stand in front of Clarissa, her own hands reaching out to Clarissa. Just as she was going to give Clarissa a terrible shock Isabella found herself on her beautiful little teenage bottom. She stared up with indignant furry on her face as she clutched at the area above her heart.
“Did you see what she just did,” Isabella shouted like an errant child up at Cyrus. “Cyrus, make her pay for that.” Cyrus remained thoughtful as if thinking the situation over carefully. Seeing that he was going to be no help, Isabella turned to look behind her at Henry. “Henry, do something.”
“Sorry, brat,” he said. “This time you can’t have your way.”
Isabella rose to her feet, glaring down at Clarissa. “You’ll pay for this, if not today then one day of my choosing. I suggest you watch yourself.” With that she stormed out of the room, several people following close behind her. Her little slaves, Clarissa thought, people who were afraid of her wrath; people that were not Clarissa.
“Now that the children are out of the room I can finish,” Cyrus said with what looked like a smile, the first Clarissa had ever seen on him. He looked very handsome with a smile, his silver eyes shining against his slightly tanned face.
“You have given me something to think over for the next several decades.” At first Clarissa wasn’t aware that he was teasing until the smile broke out full force on his face. “You will give me and my council some time to think this over. As of now, however, you remain on suspension from the community. I only hope that there is someone to take you in.” His eyes roved over the collective faces of the LeMoyne family.
Clarissa felt Corrigan’s arm press tightly into her side as he wrapped it around her and she looked up at him. “Would you be willing to stay with my family? I know the attic isn’t a great place, but I’m sure Ambrose will let you use one of his many guest rooms. Won’t you?”
“Of course,” Ambrose answered back quickly.
They had had much to discuss while the women were out on their nightly adventure. When his wife and sisters had reached out to him to tell him of Clarissa’s danger he had insisted on going with Corrigan.
“You are my brother, Corrigan. If this woman means so much to you then I can do no other than be there for you both.” He’d hugged Corrigan then, an act that had never taken place in all the years that they had known each other. Then he’d punched him in the arm, a motion that appealed to Xavier who mimicked the gesture. Then the rest of them followed suit.
“I’m sorry I was an ass,” Chas had said as he hugged his younger brother and best friend. “But in my defense, I wouldn’t have really taken a bite out of her. I’m not sure I could have anyway. She’d knock me on my ass again.”
Corrigan looked down at the person he’d given his heart to. When she had lain so still on the floor moments earlier he had thought his heart had truly been ripped and shredded into unidentifiable pieces on the floor with her. He could not exist in this world without her, not anymore.
“On trial basis, if you want,” he added. “There are more property choices farther along the beach if you would prefer a place of your own.”
“We can stay with your brother,” Clarissa told him, “for now at least,” she added.
He hugged her closer to him. Leaning down and kissing the side of her head. Clarissa watched as Eleanor and Richard stared at her as if she had grown a set of angel wings. Henry continued to smile, the dimple evident in his cheek. He nodded to himself before his eyes roved over to Eleanor.
Clarissa saw something painful flash across his face before he hid it behind another smile as he turned away. He then moved to stand with some of the S.S. talking to them, suggesting that they return to their homes.
“Then it is settled,” Cyrus said. His eyes scanned his side of the divide. “For now,” he added.
The Eidolon people who were present filed out of the room followed by the few S.S. members who had joined them. All that was left now were Cyrus, Clarissa and the LeMoyne family. The heavy doors shut silently behind the last to leave, Hanna Zespedes. She gave her council member one long look before she shut the door in her wake.
A small cry interrupted the sudden silence in the room, bringing to attention Maddy who still crouched in the corner next to her dead grandson. She held his fast cooling hand in her own, pressing it to her cheek as if she could keep his warmth from escaping.
“He said he didn’t want to die,” Clarissa whispered as she removed herself from Corrigan’s side. She walked the distance to the dark corner. Only now did she realize that the lights had been brought up, but still the corner remained shadowed as if Death’s presence still lingered in the room watching over this young man’s body.
Clarissa knelt down beside Jackson, touching Maddy on the shoulder. She jumped at the contact, turning her face up to Clarissa’s with the wild eyes of a women lost in the depths of her own grief.
“Will he be like you?” she asked. “I thought it would take less time.” Maddy looked around the room like she was looking for a ghost that wouldn’t appear when it was called. “Please, Clarissa, when is he going to come back to me?”
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “If he’s not meant to exist as a ghost I can’t make him come back.”
“Then make him like them,” she said, her voice frantic now. “I want him, even if he’s not the Jackson I knew. I don’t care. He’s too young to die.” She turned her face down, her tears falling harder as she whispered over and over again, ‘He’s too young to die’.
Ambrose came to kneel by the living woman, taking her by the shoulders and lifting her away from the body of her grandson. She let him lead her away to the waiting arms of one of his sisters. He returned to where the body lay and to Clarissa’s side, taking up the cool hand of the dead young man.
“Not only does the dagger destroy, it creates new life in the form of one of our kind,” Ambrose began. He brought the dagger, holding it with as little of his skin as possible. Pain was evident in his face but he didn’t let go. Clarissa took it from him quickly and she could see instant relief on his face when she did.
“How,” she asked him. “How can I force him into an existence that he didn’t ask for? If you had a choice, would you wish to be what you are?”
“I had no choice,” he bit out. Then he said in a softer voice, “But even still I think there are worse things in this world than what we are. This young man has known of us for some time, even finding friendship in us.” He looked to Corrigan, then back at Clarissa. “It is your decision.”
Clarissa wasn’t sure how she knew the precise steps, but she placed the dagger length-wise over Jackson’s chest with the hilt facing toward his head. It made the sign of the cross over his heart. She closed her eyes, imagining his death but backwards as if she could reverse the effects of time and return his body to the way he had been in life. But even still, she knew that Jackson would not be the same person he was. Death had touched him and he would never be the same.
Warmth flooded through the dagger into her arm and into Jackson’s cooling body. Energy washed over his body encasing him in a living cocoon. Jackson’s skin began to twitch and move as the re-animation began. Under normal circumstances the ease of the process required several attempts and something a kin to a blood sacrifice, but Jackson’s spilt blood was enough combined with the enhanced bokor powers from Clarissa.
The first thing Clarissa heard was a sigh of breath coming from Jackson’s lungs. When she heard the sound of his first breath her eyes popped open to see Jackson's gaze focused and on her. He reached down to touch the open wound in his chest only to find it closed leaving the broken bloody fabric of his shirt as evidence to the dagger str
iking him down.
He tried to speak but no words formed. Ambrose touched his forehead forcing Jackson to look at him. “Don’t strain yourself. It will take a moment for you to regain your power of speech. I won’t let anything happen to you.” It was something like a father would say to a son, the look in Ambrose’s eyes as he talked quietly to Jackson.
Clarissa stood up, finding warm hands to steady her. Again, she felt wobbly on her feet. The effort of reanimating Jackson had taken a toll on her strength. “I’ve got you,” he whispered in her ear.
“I’ve got you too, babe,” she said in a poor Sonny and Cher imitation. He just looked down at her with a ‘you’re-crazy-but-I-love-you-anyway-look’.
Cyrus came to stand near the scene, his gray eyes going from the newly formed flesh-eater on the floor to Clarissa and Corrigan. “Again Ms. Schofield you surprise me.” He looked down once more at the young man who he had seen grow up before his eyes. Now he was a creature he hated most in this world and for good reasons. Perhaps his opinion of the LeMoyne family had softened, but not to such an extent that he could forget his personal past with one of their kind. “I’m leaving now before you try using your talents against me and my non-corporal ass.”
He left, striding away purposely in a way only a man like Cyrus could pull off with such intensity. Clarissa watched as he closed the doors behind him. She heard her name being called and turned around to find Jackson on his feet making his way slowly toward her.
Corrigan stepped back as Jackson stopped in front of her. “I’m sorry,” he said, taking her into his arms as he hugged her. “It wasn’t me who said those things to you. It was the ghost, the astri-zombie. I would never hurt you.” Jackson stepped back, his face drawn down in anguish. “I killed those people because he made me and I couldn’t stop him from forcing me to do it. I don’t even remember when he started using my body.” He scratched his blood soaked blonde head. “Even now it seems fuzzy like I was in a dream and I can only remember parts of it.”
“Jackson,” Maddy screamed running up to him and taking him into her arms. He hugged his grandmother back with obvious restraint as if he were afraid she would break. “I asked her to do this,” she said when he pulled back, putting distance between them. “I thought it the only way to keep you here.”
“But I’m,” he looked down at his hands covered in his own blood and suddenly a thing inside him started to growl, wanting to taste it. He licked his hands, but it wasn’t what he wanted. His own blood wouldn’t stop the beast that was roaring inside him. “I’m like them now,” he finished.
“I know,” she said, “I’m sorry, I wanted you and I wasn’t thinking.”
Ambrose interrupted them. It was useless now to discuss things that could not be changed. “We will take him home with us now, madam, and see that he is well taken care of. We’ll think more on the ramifications of these nights’ events on a later date. You should return to your home as well and rest. I know this is as traumatic for you as it is for your grandson.”
Maddy nodded her head stiffly as she stepped away, putting more distance between herself and the flesh-eaters. She turned then and walked out of the room, a single sob escaping her lips before she could make it to the door.
Xavier already had a mop in his hands and a bucket near him as he began washing away the blood on the floor. “I find it insulting that I must wash up after his mess,” he said. His wife popped him on the back of the head as she instructed him to continue his given chore.
Trueman and Chas were removing the large metal chair, putting it into a room where they locked the door. Soon enough the room was set to right and one could almost believe that nothing had happened in this space. Except for the smell in the air and strange current of a diminishing energy that reminded them that death had been close to this room. He had likely been brought here by Jackson’s death and seeing the corrupt soul of Francisco had thought to kill two birds with one stone; a terrible pun to bring up in this situation.
What was left of Francisco Fatio lay in a dark smear on the floor. It could not be scrubbed up, but in a few days it too would disappear with the rest of him.
The LeMoyne family, along with their newest extended family members, made the long walk back to the complex in a short amount of time, making it to the bridge quicker than humanly possible. Clarissa grabbed Corrigan then, shifting through the atmosphere with him leaving the others to jog the rest of the way home. She didn’t think they’d mind.
***∞***
Clarissa held onto Corrigan as they appeared in his attic bedroom. Turning in his arms she pulled his head down for a kiss that she was sure sealed their heart to soul connection forever. Corrigan tightened his hold on her, running his hands along her back as he returned her kiss ten-fold.
After several minutes she pulled back. “I love you,” she said, running her fingers along his warm cheek, moving it to touch his mouth.
“As I love you,” he answered, kissing her fingers as they covered his lips. Then he scooped her off her feet taking her to his green comforter covered bed. He looked down at her as she was laid out for him like a feast, her arms open and raised near her head, a smile on her enticing little mouth. Corrigan stood there for several seconds just watching her.
Clarissa grabbed his shirt front, pulling him down over her onto the bed. She ran her fingers through his dark midnight hair, loving the feeling of him so close to her. Pulling his head down for another kiss, she draped her leg around his hip bringing him in closer contact with her body. “You’re not getting out of it this time,” she told him with her lips pressed against his, a saucy tone in her voice.
“Whatever your heart desires,” he said, kissing her.
“Our heart,” he heard her say inside his brain. It was the first time she had ever spoken to him using the band of communication he had with his siblings. Cyrus was correct, Clarissa was full of surprises.
###
The End.
Thank you, dear reader, for downloading this book. And if you are wondering what will become of the other characters in this story, then perhaps it would please you to know that their adventures are not quite complete. The next installment at this time is entitled Dead End, which will explore Jackson’s story more fully. I would be most appreciative if you would return to the site from which you downloaded this work to let me know your thoughts. Please critique and not criticize. Thank you very much for your interest.
Works By: K.E. Rodgers
Divine Kingdom
Shadow Musique
When Man-Made
Rainbow Heart
Life in Pause
Table of Contents
Grave Danger
Grave Danger Page 35