Haunt My Heart

by Medley, Lisa

  And Tanner?

  Her heart squeezed painfully. Despite everything, she had to admit she had feelings for him. As crazy as it was. As quickly as everything had happened. Something drew her to him, and she didn’t want to lose him or anyone else.

  Alex continued, “This line here.” She traced her finger along a faint line a bit below the first, which had been speared by the asterisk. “This is a dual lifeline. See how it picks up and runs just beneath the star, and then angles upward toward your mount and beyond the star? Sometimes it means a dual career, but for you? I’m not sure. Your aura is not manufactured by your own energy at all. In fact, I see no signs that you can even produce your own aura. I don’t want to know how or why. Not yet.”

  She glanced down to the ring on the table and pulled a pale blue crystal with a silver chain from her pocket. After grasping the pendulum between her thumb and forefinger, she draped it across the back of her hand and fingers. Lifting her pinkie finger so the crystal hung down, she allowed the pendulum to swing freely over the ring. Her eyes closed, and the air sizzled in Sarah’s ears. Alex breathed audibly, her bare feet pressed firmly against the hardwood floor beneath her. Growing very still, Alex finally opened her eyes, her steady hand still held the pendulum above the ring.

  “Show me what ‘yes’ looks like,” she said, apparently to the pendulum.

  Immediately the pendulum began a gentle sway, rounding in a clockwise circle.

  “Thank you,” Alex said. “Show me what ‘no’ looks like.”

  The crystal took up a slow, rhythmic pattern left and right, like a Newton’s Cradle, pinging against an unseen force.

  “Thank you,” Alex said once again. The pendulum stilled.

  Her gaze passed over the three of them, one at a time. “Is this ring under the influence of malicious magic, a curse or a hex?”

  From a dead stop, the pendulum began to swing in a clockwise circle indicating ‘yes.’

  “All right then. Spill it, you three. What are we up against here? Clearly the ring.” She turned, directing her gaze to Tanner. “And you, sir, are hexed. It feels like some sort of old, black magic. Honestly, I’ve never come up against anything like this before.”

  Tanner leaned forward, elbows on his knees and his hands clasped. “Can you destroy it? The hex?”

  “Every hex that is cast can be undone. Tell me everything you know about who hexed you and how you discovered it. Then we’ll work on the cure.”

  Sarah sat in rapt attention, barely able to endure the torturous squeezing of Ellie’s hand around her own as Tanner recounted his tale, or as much as he could relay to Ellie and Alex, concerning the Brothers of Peril, the General’s insistence on dealing with the witch, Sylvia’s fury and the resulting hex.

  “Holy shit, this has been going on the entire time?” Ellie blurted. “For weeks? And Jason? The ring actually burned the engraving into his skin?” She aimed her amazed look at Sarah. “This doesn’t excuse everything that happened before he held the ring. You know that, right?”

  Sarah did. Mostly, but still.

  “Right?” Ellie pressed. “This was not your fault. Or even Tanner’s, now that I hear the entire story. This Sylvia chick was bad news.”

  Alex blanched. “Sylvia. Did you happen to know a last name?” she asked Tanner.

  Tanner ran a hand through his hair and leaned against the slatted back of the chair, tilting his head upward and concentrating on the antique ceiling.

  “DeWitt,” he finally said. “Sylvia DeWitt.”

  “And you say she was a known witch whom you worked with personally? As in, in the flesh?” Alex asked.

  Tanner hesitated, clearly trying to puzzle together her odd question. “Yes, she was very much in the flesh. That, it turns out, was the main problem and why she hexed me. She wanted…” Tanner’s look cut to Sarah and a blush colored his face. “She had unrequited feelings for me of a sexual nature.”

  “There was a long line of witches named DeWitt. Some perished in the Salem debacle. Others escaped to Virginia. One you may know from the very grounds of Chatham as The Lady in White. Ring any bells?”

  “Ellie, the ghost hunt?” Sarah turned to her friend, and the color had gone from her face.

  “The night Sarah found the ring we were at Chatham for a ghost hunt,” Ellie said. “The Lady in White had been seen, or at least some supposed activity had been seen on the grounds. We didn’t see anything. But Sarah found that damned ring, and then started having all of this great luck. We thought it was a lucky talisman. But then things with Jason kept escalating. What’s going on, Alex?”

  Alex picked up the Brothers of Peril ring by its chain and held it like she had the pendulum, holding it up toward the light for a more thorough examination. “The stone is interesting. Onyx is actually used to keep energy vampires at bay. It resists the draining of energy and has been used as a protection against black magic. It’s curious how she turned it against its nature. It’s mounted in silver, which normally restores desire to live but, no, it’s not a talisman or an amulet. This object, this ring, had great importance to you, Tanner?”

  “Yes, it’s my Brothers of Peril ring. I never took it off. I was, as I told you, the supernatural liaison for them. I cannot tell you any more of their affairs, only of the final result.”

  Alex nodded. “It is a fetter then. Sylvia cast a hex on the ring and tricked you into sacrificing yourself by leading that charge. She was denied once before and forced to marry another. She died more than seventy years before you met her at Chatham. Reincarnated perhaps? Somehow she cheated death once at least, and when she thought she was about to lose at love again, she clearly snapped. I’d say there’s a very good chance that whatever magic bound you to this ring also entrapped her to Chatham. Breaking the hex may free you both.”

  “What does that mean for Tanner?” Sarah asked. “Will he…die? Again?”

  “That’s a chance Tanner has to decide if he’s willing to take. I can’t predict the outcome of breaking the curse. But it’s already killed one man by the Law of Association and Contagion, it would seem.”

  “What does that mean?” Sarah asked.

  Alex leaned in. “The Law of Association makes it possible to easily deliver a hex to a person through an object. The ring was hexed and it carried the curse to its intended target—Tanner. Unfortunately the Law of Contagion makes cursed objects dangerous to others as well, whether they are the intended target or not.”

  Ellie stood, then began to pace. “I touched the ring, same as Jason. Why did it affect him and not me? Or the jeweler Sarah took it to a few weeks back?”

  “A cursed object can continue to plague a person who has touched it if his or her personal energy, their chi, is drained or diminished by chronic ungrounding. It can lead to insomnia, irritability, mood swings, paranoia, irrational thoughts.”

  “You can check all of those boxes for Jason well before we ever came across that ring,” Ellie offered. “He was ripe for the taking.”

  Alex returned the ring to the table. “Yes, and if he were that susceptible, his rapid decline would likely continue to feed on itself. If the ring actually burned him, reacting with its inherent energy? His decline is understandable. Regrettable, but understandable. The only way to make sure nothing like this happens again is to remove the hex and destroy the cursed object. Then live with the results.” She looked at Tanner. “Whatever they may be.”

  “Agreed,” Tanner said. “Let’s put this to rest once and for all.”

  “When can you perform the ritual?” Ellie asked.

  “The moon begins to wane tomorrow night,” Alex said. “The fetter must be exorcised first. That will remove the curse. Then the ring must be destroyed. The results should be immediate. A hex cannot renew itself without the energy of the maker who created it. Since Sylvia is clearly a ghost again and has no energy of her own, she and Tanner should both be released.”

  Sarah slid her hand into Tanner’s and a visible flicker of energy spar
ked between them.

  “So tonight could be your last night on Earth? Are you sure this is what you want?” Sarah asked Tanner.

  “Dear one, it is the only way to keep you and your loved ones safe. What I want no longer matters. This is what we need. Let it be done.”

  “Sarah, I’ll settle up with Alex and make sure things are ready for tomorrow. Why don’t you go home?”

  Sarah cringed. Were there still cameras, bugs, surveillance at her home? Did she care? After tomorrow, Tanner would be gone and no amount of surveillance or questioning would bring him back. Not from the other side. Not this time.

  Her mind grappled with all that had happened and had now been explained. She couldn’t deny the evidence before her. Or the man.

  “Okay.” Sarah gave Ellie a long hug. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “No problem. It’s what friends are for, right? Breaking hexes, kicking ass. Typical day, really.”

  Sarah turned to Alex and offered her hand. Alex shook it.

  “Thank you, Alex.” She reached down to retrieve the ring and slipped it back into her purse.

  “You don’t want to take that ring with you. You’ve been exposed to it enough. It’s been proven unsafe,” Alex said.

  “Tanner goes with the ring, and he’s coming with me,” Sarah replied.

  “At least let me store it more safely then, until tomorrow night.”

  Alex returned with two gallon-sized Ziplock bags full of what looked like fresh earth, a can of salt and a small pine box. She filled the box half full of salt, then picked the ring up by the chain and lowered it into the salt, letting the chain fall around it in a pile. When the ring was covered to the rim, she closed it and flipped the little latch down snuggly. Alex opened one of the Ziplock bags, then placed the sealed box inside. She added more earth from the other bag, filling it until the bag barely zipped.

  She presented the bag to Sarah. “That should keep it safe until we can unhex it.”

  “Thank you.” Sarah smiled up at Tanner and took his hand back into hers.

  “Let’s go home.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Tanner was emotionally drained but still very corporeal, having maintained his overindulgence of hospital energy.

  A psychic vampire, Alex had called him. Yes, that seemed about right.

  He was not good for Sarah. Made even more apparent after Jason’s disintegration and death. Yet another dead soul he counted himself responsible for. He deserved to pass into the beyond, to face whatever was to come on the other side.

  Sarah busied herself about the apartment, overturning sofa cushions, dumping drawers, swiping behind photo frames and furniture edges in search of listening or tracking devices—in search of spy works, she’d said. When she found none, she escaped to the shower for nearly an hour, hot steam leaking from beneath the bathroom door and rising like a cloud into her living/bedroom. Finally she allowed herself to collapse on to the couch. Bitly remained at Ellie’s for the night, having been unable to accompany her to the hospital, and Sarah had not wanted to return to Ellie’s so soon after Jason had passed. His blood still pooled on the floor, no doubt. Someone would have to clean that up.

  Tanner was amazed Sarah even wanted to be near him after all that had happened. He kept his physical distance all the same, unsure of what she needed or wanted from him, if anything.

  “Come. Sit by the fire beside me, Tanner,” she said, her invitation sparking something within him. Hope, he realized. Maybe they could end as friends. He’d thought she was his salvation when she’d freed him from the ring, but now he realized he didn’t deserve salvation, and no longer expected it. Still, an ember of that hope burned inside him like a hot coal. What could he give her? He had nothing.

  Tanner sat beside her, more than a foot away from her so they wouldn’t touch, not presuming her invitation to be anything more than an offer of friendship to a dying man.

  Not long for this world, he thought and almost laughed aloud at the irony of it.

  Not long indeed.

  Sarah closed the space between them and snuggled up against him, the heat of her body warming him more deeply than the fire ever could. His heart cleaved in two when she laid her head against his shoulder.

  “I am sorry for your loss, Sarah. If I had never been released, he would still be alive.”

  “And I’d still be with him. And eventually, he would likely reach a similar end. It’s not your fault. The hex may have exacerbated the circumstances, but deep down, I think it would have all eventually played out. The difference is you were there to save me. More than once.”

  Tanner stiffened. “I didn’t save you this time. Agent Sykes saved you.”

  “Only because he was still looking for you so he could interrogate the Brothers of Peril key from you. Which you’ll take to your grave, once again?”

  “I think, after everything, Agent Sykes can be trusted with the key, but I’m not sure the rest of the government can. Not if Agent Falkner is any representation. The question Agent Sykes asked you, before he released you?”

  “Something Latin? About the peril of night?”

  “Yes, that was a code itself. A greeting of sorts. He is indeed a Brother of Peril, of the most recent incarnation, at least. I don’t know that it’s wise to continue in the Brothers of Peril mission, considering my outcome.”

  “Maybe that’s not your decision to make. Maybe you should pass along the code and let your brothers take up the fight. You could die a hero. Again.”

  “Yes. Would that ease your suffering, if I were to do that? Write out the key for you to hand over to Agent Sykes after I am gone? If so, I will do it. For you.”

  “Tanner, do it for your country and for your own peace of mind if that is what you think is right. I wouldn’t ask you to give anything of yourself that you didn’t want to.”

  “And that, dear Sarah, is why I fell in love with you these past weeks,” Tanner said.

  “You’ve been with me through everything. The entire time I’ve had the ring.”

  “Yes.”

  “Tanner, I…” Her eyes locked with his and he stilled, held by her gaze alone. In the firelight, he memorized her face to take with him for however long the next Purgatory might be.

  Sarah stretched up and brushed her lips across his, her hands searching to find access beneath his jacket. His ridiculous Union jacket. His body simmered beneath her touch, and he savored every moment, knowing with mortal certainty it would be his last.

  His pulse quickened, pounding against his ears and urgency ratcheted his adrenaline, sending it spiking through his body in response.

  More. Now. Forever.

  When he could resist his heart’s demands no more, he eased her back onto the couch and stretched out across her, pressing her into the cushions, her face illuminating, angelic in the firelight. She reached to unfasten the many fat buttons of his coat, and he peeled it off and over his head instead, saving them time, because time was as precious as ever.

  This night. This one more night they would have together, and then he would be gone, unable to even watch her from afar through the veil. Once the ring was destroyed, his tether to it would be severed, and he had no doubt he’d plunge into whatever dark afterlife awaited him.

  But it was the right thing to do. The only thing to do.

  What he would do.

  For Sarah.

  Her hands wove through his too long hair. Kissing her lips, her chin, her throat, Tanner worked at her shirt with his hands, and she arched for him, making it easier to strip the blouse up her torso, shoulders, and finally off. The sight of no undergarments to discard brought a smile to his face.

  Cupping her breasts, he bent and took her nipple into his mouth, rolling his curious tongue around its pink and roughened skin until it stood high at attention. He slid a hand beneath the curve of her lower back and pulled her to him, fit her against him as they were meant to be joined and ground against her through his trousers.

  �
�Enough,” Sarah ordered. “Clothes off. All of them. Now.”

  “You first,” Tanner countered and pulled the drawstring on her pants. Once loosened, her trousers slid down her body easily, revealing her smooth, bare beauty. “You are different.”

  “Where?” Sarah asked, her doe eyes black in the light.

  “Here,” Tanner answered. He lowered his mouth to her core and drew his tongue through her folds. “When did you do this?”

  Sarah gasped in a sharp breath. “In the shower. Shaved. All of it. It was a bitch, but so far…totally worth it.”

  “Yes. It is.”

  Tanner couldn’t keep his eyes, or his mouth, from her now and planted his hands beneath her hips to raise her to his face and satiate his desire.

  “Still clothed, soldier. Let’s see more naked, please.”

  A growl of frustration escaped him, surprising himself with his base animal urges. He hurriedly dispatched of the remainder of his clothing.

  “If Sykes still has eyes and ears here, he’s about to get a show,” Sarah said.

  “I don’t care.” Tanner resumed his previous position, raising her hips from the couch and burrowing his face between her legs.

  “Oh, God. Me either. Don’t stop doing that. Ever.”

  Ever was a long time. A time they would never have.

  He pushed the thought away and refused to address it. He had the here and the now and that would have to sustain him for what was ahead.

  Skin against skin created a delicious friction that demanded action. He climbed up her body and settled his erection between her legs, nestled within reach of her sweet heat. The pulsing head of his cock pushed against her folds, sliding inside just enough to take his breath away with the agonizing pleasure. Sarah’s urgent restlessness and slight movements only increased the torture until her fingernails bit into his buttocks as she grasped him, raising her own hips and pulling her body up to meet his. Undone, he acquiesced and slammed his shaft into her, eliciting a moan, which consumed him and spurred him onward in the hopes of earning more of her sweet affirmations.