Mystical Love

by Rachel James

  She sat staring at Ginger but Jasper knew she wasn’t really seeing the girl at all. She was working out their new predicament in her head. Her unseeing stare signified it. Whether mildly disturbed or severely rattled, Jasper knew she had the power to shut down, go inside herself and seek God’s solace and answer. He envied her that trait. For all his ministerial prowess, he was unable to connect with God’s solace by the same method. By the look on her face, he guessed she was worrying about Janice and Adrian’s disappearance. He had to admit she had reason. He was more than worried himself.

  Unsettled by her intense concentration, Jasper had a sudden inexplicable feeling of emptiness. For a brief moment, his senses warned him he was going away from Muriel. Was his death imminent? Was that why his mind was blocked? To shut off the knowledge from him? He murmured a prayer of hope that his senses were wrong. He didn’t want to leave Muree. Not quite yet.

  Taking a deep, steadying breath, he shelved his worry and crossed the small distance to the ottoman where Muriel sat. He wedged himself into the seat next to her. His touch on her elbow was light, yet protective.

  “They’ll be all right,” he said, quietly.

  Not to his surprise, she came out of her reverie, understanding his words without interpretation. She scanned his face, feature by feature.

  “Can you sense them, Jasper?”

  “No. I’m being blocked out. I can’t read any life force, not even yours.”

  She must have sensed the hidden worry in his word because Jasper found his hand clutched tightly. Her voice was patient and encouraging.

  “It’s not so surprising really. You pose the biggest danger to the spirit. With your ability to tell when it’s crossing over, it can’t use the element of surprise on us.” She leaned her forward, her voice turning overly serious. “You’ve changed a lot of people’s lives by pretending you can’t read their future, Jasper. And I love you for it. But this is not the time to be silent. You must force your mind past the blockage. I’m worried for Janice. If forced to, she will sacrifice herself to the spirits to save us. She may have already.”

  Jasper dismissed the thought with an airy wave of his hand though his expression grew thoughtful.

  “She’s with Adrian, and he will see to it she doesn’t do anything foolish.”

  “I’m not so sure. Janice was going to convince him they must separate from the rest of us.”

  “Yes, I heard.”

  She directed a stare at him that spoke volumes about eavesdroppers.

  “Then you already know Adrian said he wouldn’t agree, but what if he had no choice?” They’d both heard Janice’s frantic screaming through the wooden door earlier. Even now in his own head, he could hear the panicked shout followed by a desperate pounding on the doorframe. “You heard her voice, Jasper,” Muriel continued, “she was scared. Something was happening to them out there. If only we knew what it was.” She lifted her eyes, seeking his comfort and Jasper immediately caught her hand in his. He squeezed her fingers with more encouragement that he actually felt.

  “Adrian’s not about to let anything happen to Janice. You’ve seen the way he looks at her. His eyes smolder with passion one minute, brim with tenderness the next. Unless I read him wrong, and I haven’t,” he stressed quietly. “Adrian will sacrifice his life for Janice if it comes to that.”

  Muriel nodded dubiously.

  “Janice can be quite persuasive. And quite stubborn.” Without warning, she lifted her fingers and caressed his cheekbone. “I love you, Jasper. Have I told you that today?”

  Jasper’s pulse skittered in response and he drank in the comfort of her nearness.

  “In every glance you gave me, Muree.” Unexpectedly, he found himself stilling her fingers, flipping her hand over and pressing a kiss in the center of her palm. “This isn’t exactly how I envisioned this trip would turn out,” he commented. “I was hoping we’d have some romantic moments together.”

  Her gentle laugh rippled in the air.

  “Why, Jasper, we’re literally surrounded by romance. Ghosts have traveled across time to rekindle a love that was lost and two young people we just met have fallen madly in love and don’t know it yet. And we’ve been locked in a room together with two bedrooms. Now, if that isn’t romantic, I don’t know what is.”

  Jasper threw back his head and snorted good-naturedly. God, he did so love Muree’s Pollyanna sense of humor. In a flash, a busted laugh joined his and he cradled her into the circle of his arms. Spirits soaring, he kissed the tip of her nose, then her eyes, and finally, his lips descended and captured her mouth.

  At first her lips were warm and pliant beneath his and then like a sudden blast of icy wind, her lips turned cold and she pulled away. She raised a hand to shelter her eyes from him and Jasper had the uncanny sensation of emptiness again. Something’s coming, something bad. The warning had him almost jumping out of his skin. He leaned forward, knotting his fingers with Muriel.

  “What’s going on, Muree? Tell me.” Her gaze never left his face but Jasper sensed a slight withdrawal from her. “Are you ill?” he prodded again, this time more urgently.

  She shook her head.

  “Not ill, experiencing pain.”

  Something’s coming, something bad. The words seemed to reverberate like an echo down a well. He let go her hands, his palms suddenly beginning to sweat.

  “How long?” he quizzed. “What kind of pain?”

  “I’m having difficulty concentrating,” she murmured as she raised her hand to her temple to massage the flesh. “I’m short of breath and I feel an odd draining of energy, as if someone’s trying to pull open a locked door.”

  Offering his unspoken support, Jasper touched her elbow lightly. A sharp gasp burst from her throat at the touch. Her body twitched once, twice, and then stiffened with a taut jerk. In the next instance, she threw her hands up in front of her face as if to barricade herself from some unseen presence.

  “Crossover.”

  The word startled Jasper as she toppled forward, sinking into a sudden, total blackout.

  Lightning-quick, Jasper made a dive for her slumping body. He absorbed the weight of her fall, and neatly hoisted her up and about, settling her into the deep green cushions of his vacated chair. Wrapping his fingers around her pulse point, he sought entrance to her thoughts.

  He met fire. Angry fire. Waves of it. Reeling under the invisible heat, he pulled his mind back and frantically shouted toward the doorframe to his left.

  “Lloyd!”

  Waiting for no response, his gaze returned to Muriel, attempting to connect the mind link again. He had to know if she was all right. He shut his eyes, driving his mind deep into hers. A second later, his mind collided with two life forces instead of the one he expected.

  Feeling the power of the presence, he tried to force the alien entity out of Muriel’s mind. Instead, he found himself taking the brunt of a savage fire bolt along his forehead. His physical body jerked backwards, as if stung. The entity wanted him out, would drive him out if he resisted.

  Well, he wasn’t going. He wouldn’t leave Muriel to the mercy of such blind rage.

  Steeling himself, Jasper pushed his energy into overdrive, fighting to keep his mind linked to Muriel’s. Shock. Anger. Fury. Hostility. Sensation after sensation of pure hate hit him, yet Jasper refused to drop his mental barriers. He intended to block the alien link with just as much force as it was blocking his.

  Little by little, through the stabbing pressure, Jasper began to perceive random thoughts. The entity was furious, had been thwarted in some way. Jasper tried to fathom the impulses. Perhaps if he delved past the unintelligible thought patterns. He tried and it worked. A vivid image of a cross flashed across his mind’s eye, almost severing his mind link. He threw up another mental barrier against the pain, and immediately tried to bring the i
mage into focus. It came this time, a pure, strong shimmering shape of God’s cross.

  Suddenly, Jasper understood. A cross could only mean one thing. Janice and Adrian were safe, had taken refuge in the chapel one floor above. Somehow, miraculously, they had escaped the spirit’s wrath and had bought precious time by hiding themselves away.

  Now having been shut out by the pair, the spirit was intending to exact revenge on the remaining trio. Another searing bolt of pain rocked his forehead and he knew the spirit had deciphered and understood his own thoughts.

  Gritting his teeth, Jasper shifted his mind and energy to locate Muriel. Their minds collided, held for a moment, then severed completely. Bounced from the mind link, Jasper attempted to bring one firm thought pattern with him. The one that came tore at his heart.

  Muriel was wilting under the spirit’s ongoing pressure and in her weakened physical state, he knew her ability to hold on was doubtful. The spirit’s hammering impulses would be too much for her. Somehow he had to short-circuit the spirit’s power. But what could he try?

  He had no time to find out as he felt his shoulders jerked back roughly. The mind link severed completely, bringing Jasper back to the physical room around him. Something was shaking him so ferociously, he lost his grip on Muriel’s wrist. In his ear, he heard Lloyd’s crazed snarl.

  “For God’s sake, man, what’s going on?”

  Jasper ignored the question. He had no time to explain. He had to re-establish the mind link with Muriel. Recapturing her wrist, he clamped down, seeking entrance. He found none and he groaned as a fearful image began to build in his head. Muriel’s breath cut off. Muriel’s mind fluttering away. Muriel lost and broken. He pressed down on the pulse point, praying for a sign of entrance.

  Her eyes flew open at his touch and, stunned, Jasper withdrew his mind. He took a small step back and felt a cold knot forming in the pit of his stomach. Something’s coming, something bad. Hatred blazed in the blue eyes probing his and a voice that seemed to come from a long distance emerged loud and clear from Muriel’s throat.

  “You cannot stop me,” the voice warned with cool authority.

  The words washed over him, stinging his senses, and Jasper realized what Muriel’s last, mysterious word “crossover” had meant. Before him now sat, not Muriel, but Lisette’s murderer. The throaty voice spoke again without inflection.

  “You cannot stop me. Do not try.”

  Disconcerted, Jasper took another step back. Beside him, Lloyd did the same. Neither spoke but they both knew the entity was beyond intimidation. It had no intention of letting them fall from its spell. Muriel’s lips parted in a curved stiff smile and Jasper heard a deep breath punctuated with several even gasps. Then the voice ordered belligerently.

  “I want the woman you are protecting from me.”

  Jasper answered quickly, hoping to stem the spirit’s increasing hostility.

  “We don’t know what happened to her.”

  The spirit twisted Muriel’s face into an expression of loathing and Jasper’s heart chilled at the disfigurement. Again, the voice spoke, this time its tones filled with cold contempt.

  “You lie. My thoughts have been yours. You know the woman is above. With the man who guards her from me. You can summon the man through your mind. I saw you do it one time.”

  Jasper offered no comment. Beside him, Lloyd offered a brusque warning.

  “Don’t tell it a damn thing. It’s bluffing.”

  Jasper thought so, too, but at the moment they had to be cautious. Muriel’s hand arced to her chest, her fingers clawing at the region as if intending to rip the chest cavity open.

  “You will summon the man and woman from above or I will harm the woman’s body further. She is weak, but I can prolong her pain as I choose.” To prove the threat, Muriel’s body pitched forward and slammed back with a vicious jerk. Immediately, her fingers fluttered to her head and sharp gasps burst from her throat.

  Sickened by the defilement, Jasper didn’t know how he managed to keep from launching himself across the space to Muriel’s side. Probably because he knew without doubt that the spirit would terminate her life before Jasper could reach her. Still, he knew he mustn’t back down from the spirit, so he shoved his hands into his pants pocket and hunched his shoulders forward. Eyes darkening with pain, he spoke in a suffocated whisper.

  “Release my wife and I will summon the woman you seek.”

  Jasper felt an iron grip on his arm.

  “It’s bluffing, do you hear? If it weren’t, it would have already killed Muriel. Don’t let it feed off your concern for her. Make no promises. Let’s see the bluff out.”

  Jasper removed Lloyd’s iron grip from his arm.

  “Stay out of this. I know what I’m doing.” Jasper faced the spirit again. “You will release the woman you hold or we will not help you,” he stated calmly.

  At his decree, a resounding mewl spewed from Muriel’s lips, and to Jasper’s horror, Muriel’s body was yanked to its feet. From the very air above, a circle of lights began to cascade down. An icy blast of wind followed, hitting the pair full force. They fell back at the assault, and then thinking better of it, both men planted their feet firmly on the carpet and stood their ground.

  Behind them, as if propelled by an explosive force, the hallway door tore from its hinges and slammed to the floor with a walloping thud. The sound animated the whirling cyclone of lights. In a flash, it had propelled Muriel by them and through the door, leaving the air above the men’s heads filled with deafening cracks of thunder.

  The pair leaped through the door, in full pursuit of the cyclone. Through the corridor, down the staircase, the cyclone kept the lead. Jasper and Lloyd stayed close on its heels and before Jasper knew it, they had descended two floors and were entering the second level portrait gallery. The circle of lights sped to the south end of the room, subsiding its mewling as it stopped before the portrait of Lisette.

  The men followed at a more leisurely gait, cautious of drawing too close to the spirit in its present whirlwind. And then the swirling lights turned opaque and offered Muriel’s plump form to their view again. Simultaneously, the cloud shifted to the left side of the portrait and boasted arrogantly.

  “I would hear from your lips the name of the woman in the portrait. If you can tell me, I will release the woman I hold.”

  “It’s a portrait of Lisette,” Lloyd whispered swiftly.

  The cloud spoke again, this time its tone held a rasp of excitement.

  “Be careful of the name you call out. It is possible to see what is not there. Your eyes may deceive your mind.”

  “It’s full of shit,” Lloyd said strongly.

  Jasper studied the portrait before them. No, not this time. The spirit was in deadly earnest. He strode forward and examined the portrait more closely. The woman etched in oil was a vivid beauty with crackling red hair. For a moment, he could see how Janice could be mistaken for her. Their hair colors were exact. But there he thought the similarity ended. The woman in the portrait had a wild quality about her whereas he knew firsthand Janice’s nature was compellingly serene. Was the portrait of Lisette? He didn’t know. If only he could pierce the canvas. Sense the model.

  “Arretez! Stop! I forbid it!” The command was like a thunderous cannon echoing on the battlefield, and at first, Jasper thought the spirit hurled it at him. And then he saw it. The portrait before them began changing, the colors seeping and bleeding into each other. “Stop!” The cry came again and this time, Jasper was physically thrown aside, out of the cloud’s path. It swirled before the canvas, ordering loudly. “You will stop! I demand it!”

  Righting himself with Lloyd’s help, Jasper kept his eyes glued to the portrait. The colors were dissipating through the pores of the canvas faster, replaced by a new set of colors saturating the fabric from the reverse side.


  “Non, you will not have him!” The voice raised an octave and then faded to a hushed stillness. Soon, a keening wail emerged from the center of the cloud. The wail was so tormented Jasper could almost feel the spirit’s pain within his own mind. The colors were finally settling in the portrait. Through the pores, a new portrait was forming. All at once, Jasper felt his mind open up. Across the darkness, images and thoughts one after the other began to bombard him.

  At first, the thoughts were disconnected, a curious form of double think, and then he was given one cold, lucid thought that replayed sickeningly in his head. Tuning into it, he suddenly knew what was coming. There, just around the corner of his mind, he caught a glimpse of the swimming future. As he picked up the strings of time, memories from the past opened before him like a curtain drawn back on a string.

  And just like that, Jasper knew the identity of Lisette’s murderer. Saw the undeniable truth. He cast a curious look at the circle of lights pulsing nearby. How wonderful to hold the key to the terrible secret at last.

  Chapter 22

  SATURDAY — 5:00 AM

  Seated on the lower slab of altar steps, Adrian wished he wasn’t so damn bad at waiting. Since his declaration that they would wait the spirit out, the silence in the chapel had grown oppressive, making his insides feel like a taut cable wire. Though he hadn’t been to church in years, he still believed in an all-powerful God, and right now he didn’t think God would approve of them using his house of worship as a battleground. But what else could they do? They were safe nowhere else in the house. No crawlspace or corner would keep them immune from the cloud of sparkling light.