by Apryl Baker
I feel Selena’s displeasure from here, but I ignore her.
“It fed on my fear. And it’s fast, faster than anything I’ve ever seen before.”
“Faster than a shifter?”
“Yes, and I know how fast a shifter runs. My best friend growing up was a cheetah shifter, one of the fastest animals around. This thing would have caught him.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Anything else?”
“It played with me, taunted me, made me think I was going the right way, but constantly steering me away from the path. And it hurt when I died. It hurt so much.” He looks down. “I screamed and screamed, but it didn’t stop.”
“It’s okay now, Shane. You don’t have to be afraid anymore. It can’t hurt you, and I’ll make sure it doesn’t hurt your family. I will go see Philip and the rest of your family. It’ll give them peace knowing you aren’t here, afraid and hurting.”
“But I have to protect them!”
“I understand that you want to, but you can’t. They can’t even see you, and neither can the monster.”
“It’s a vampire,” he whispers.
“We know.”
“Did Aunt Eulah show you her diaries, too?”
Whoa…
“No, but did you see them?”
He nods. “I wasn’t supposed to, but I stayed with her over the summer when she broke her leg. I used to sneak up to the attic and read her journals while she napped.”
“And they talked about The Reaping Season and the vampire?”
“Yeah, but only that she was worried about how many victims it might take this time. She specifically said it was a vampire.”
“Anything else, anything at all about why the town ignores the deaths?”
“No, and I looked for that. I wanted to know, too. She knows, but she never wrote it down. If you talk to her, tell her she owes it to me. If she’d told us all the truth, maybe I wouldn’t be dead.”
“I’ll ask her, but not before you move on.”
“But…”
“I’m here to help not just you, but your family too. Help me give them some peace, Shane. If you do that, then your soul will find rest.”
His head falls. “I’m scared.”
“I know. I’d be scared, too, but where you’re going, there’s no fear, no pain, only joy.”
“Are you sure?”
I’m not, but Selena answers before I can say anything.
“Ella’s right, Shane. You don’t belong here. Let us help you go to a better place. You heard Ella. She’ll talk to your family. Tell them you’re safe. Let them have some peace in this dark time of grieving.”
“How…how do I leave?”
Selena smiles, and for once, it reaches her eyes. “Just take my hand and don’t let go. I’ll take you where you’re supposed to go.”
“It won’t hurt?”
“No, Shane, it won’t hurt. All your hurting is done for this lifetime.”
He takes her hand, and she nods to me. There’s a bit of respect in her eyes I wasn’t prepared to see.
“Come, Shane. Let’s go.”
The two of them disappear, and I sink to my knees, suddenly tired. My ability tries to seep back into its hiding spot, but I hold on tight. We have two more crime scenes to visit, and finding it again will be harder because I’m tired.
“Ella?” Eli kneels beside me. “Are you okay?”
“No, but I will be. Let’s go to the next scene, and I’ll fill you in on the way.”
He picks me up and carries me back to the Jeep. Ethan will have to wait until we reach the next location to hear what Shane had to say. I need a minute to gather my thoughts and my energy.
I’m not sure how much longer I can do this today, but hopefully, I can help the other two as well.
Chapter Fourteen
Ella
The next two crime scenes yield nothing. The ghosts are not there. I should have figured that out when Selena didn’t show, but how do I know how long it takes her to transport a ghost from this plane to the next? I don’t. So, I roamed around feeling for ghosts. There were ghosts, just not the ones I was looking for and not ones ready to move on. I tired myself out trying to talk them into going on to the next life, but they flat-out refused. One old geezer even got a little testy and started chasing me around behind the tavern. Not my finest moment, and the guys all laughed at me.
Now, we’re almost to this fabled fence line. I’m a little nervous, given how people’s tone changes when they speak of it, even the two police officers leading the way. It’s odd.
“You doing okay, Shortcake?”
“Yeah, I guess. Just tired.”
“How’s the leg?”
“Sore.” Even though my leg is fully healed, thanks to some kind of Guardian Angel magic Eli didn’t know he had, we can’t let it be known. My dad’s bosses would snatch us both up in a heartbeat if they found out he possessed healing abilities. Not that he knows how he did it, but they’d possibly continually hurt me to get him to try to reproduce the result.
“You’ve been walking on it more and more. I keep telling ya to let me give you piggyback rides.”
The thing is, we know Eli’s Jeep is bugged, so we’re always careful of what we talk about. The higher-ups know we know what Dad does, so us talking about him kidnapping people is fine. Everything else is a no-go.
“I can’t get better if I don’t push myself, Eli.”
“Pushing is one thing, trying to go for the Olympic gold medal is another.”
“Har, har.”
The SUV ahead of us comes to a stop, and so do we.
Eli gets out and comes around. “No buts this time, Shortcake. You’re getting a ride. I have something I want to show you, and it’s a hike, but worth it.”
For once, I don’t argue. I’m exhausted.
“Fine.”
I hop on Eli’s back, and the four of us set off on a hike up the mountain. Eli moves just as fast as the shifters, which surprises them since he’s not an animal shifter. Only a handful of people in town know exactly what he is. Ethan is one of them, but his deputy is not.
It takes us about ten minutes to come to the place known as the fence line. It’s a literal fence line, not a white picket fence, but the kind many in the area put around a livestock enclosure. Fenceposts driven into the ground every five to eight feet or so, with barbed wire in lines of three nailed around the entire area that goes farther than I can see.
“How far does this go?” Eli asks before I can.
“Five miles in any direction.” Ethan nods toward the area. “It has a working gate.”
And yet the officers haven’t moved toward it.
“They don’t want it to catch their scent.” Eli must have read my thoughts. He always likes to remind me he can hear them if I’m loud enough.
“What do you mean?”
“That’s how a vampire sometimes picks their prey.” Ethan looks toward the ominous fence. “It’s like a bloodhound and can follow your scent back to where you live. It’ll get into your head from there, and you’re dead before you even realize what hit you. Knowing what I do now about vampires, I understand why our elders put the fear of God into us when it came to this place. They didn’t want it to find us or them.”
“Vampires and shifters are more alike than I thought.”
You’d think I’d just compared the two shifters to the foulest-smelling sludge found on Earth the way they react to that statement.
“We are nothing alike. We don’t kill innocents.”
“Yes, you do,” I rebut gently. “Or do you not count furry little animals minding their own business as innocent creatures?”
“It’s not the same thing,” the deputy says vehemently. “We kill for food, not sport.”
“Do you, though? The vampire needs to eat, and it just so happens that we are its food source. Vampires like to play with their food, but don’t wild animals do that, too? I’ve seen Eli�
�s cat pounce a mouse and attempt to play with it before it kills it. All to instill fear. And don’t tell me your wolves don’t do that either.”
They both become very uncomfortable, and Eli’s just amused.
“Why don’t we get on with what we came here to do?” Eli suggests after he’s done laughing. Neither officer looks impressed with him.
“Lead the way, Obi Wan.” I point toward the gate, and we’re stopped before we get two steps.
“Neither of you is allowed to go in there.” Ethan stands in front of us, barring the path. “It’s too dangerous.”
“You think the vampire won’t be able to pick up our scents here as opposed to inside?” That’s ridiculous.
Ethan frowns. “Well…”
“The point of dragging me into this was to try to find information to help you stop this thing. Ghosts will be more likely to hang out around the vampire itself than just randomly in front of its home. I need to go inside if you want me to help you.”
“We don’t want to put you in danger, Ella.”
“You’ve already done that, Sheriff, just by bringing me here. It’ll have my scent now.”
Ah, he didn’t think about that now, did he?
“She’s right, Sheriff.” Eli sidesteps him. “She’s in no more danger here than in there.”
It takes a minute for the cops to catch up to us, and we’re already inside the fenced-off area when they do. Eli shakes his head at their hesitancy. Decades of having a simple truth beaten into your head over and over will do that. Not that their fears aren’t warranted. Anything that can track me back to my house is uber scary, but I’m drinking the nasty drink religiously. I’m not afraid of it getting into my head.
“Uh, I just thought about something. Is it true it can’t come in if it’s not invited?”
“Urban legend.” Eli puts a little more distance between us and the police. “Almost everything you read or see in movies is made up. You need a crash course in all things vampires. And you, Cecily, and your mom are coming to stay with us until this is over. Your dad can stay at the base.”
“Is all that necessary?”
“Yes. It can track your scent back to your house where your parents and sister are. It can go in and attack.”
“I thought we were safe as long as we drank the dead man’s blood.”
“From it getting into your head, yes. Like you just said, they like to play with their food, and head games are the best way to do that. It makes it easier on them if their food comes to them instead of them having to break into a house, but they will go in and get what they think belongs to them. If your scent is all over their territory, then you now belong to them. Rose Hill is safer for your mom and sister. Gramps has safeguards in place against the bloodsuckers.”
“And Dad?”
“Your dad…he’s not welcome at the house right now. The guy who disappeared was a friend of Gramps’. And I think he’ll be just as safe at the base as he would be at the house.”
“He might want us to come stay at the base with him.”
“No.” Eli’s refusal is swift. “We can’t protect you there, Ella. Can’t make sure they’re not giving you tests disguised as other things. You can’t let him take you to the Army base.”
“I’ll do my best, Eli, but he’s my dad, and if he and Mom say I have to go, there’s not much I can do about it until I turn eighteen.”
Which is a problem. I don’t want to go to the base either. I’d rather be at Eli’s, but if Dad pushes it, I might not have a choice. Hopefully, Mom will be on my side in this. But you can never tell, especially where her children’s safety comes into play. She might actually think the base is safer despite everything she knows about it. Once a soldier’s wife, always a soldier’s wife.
When we break through the trees, everyone stops. Before us is a meadow about six hundred feet wide. The grass has been mowed, and the area well kept. There’s a wooden bench sitting in the middle with rose bushes on either side. The bench itself looks to be old and weathered stone, like it’s been here for a hundred years or more, but at the same time, it’s clean and cared for. If that makes sense.
“That is freaky weird,” Eli whispers.
It is. I look in either direction, but there’s nothing else to see besides the trees surrounding the meadow. This place looks almost as if a piece of history has been preserved, and maybe it has.
“Was there ever any record of a house or anything here?”
“No.” Ethan and his deputy finally catch up to us. “No one’s ever built a house in the area, as far as we know, and my family has been here since the area was first populated by settlers.”
“But Indians were here first, weren’t they?” I glance around again, a shiver snaking up my spine. “Could they have had a homestead or something here?”
“Indians didn’t have homesteads, Shortcake. They moved in tribes around the area, traveling farther south for the winter and returning here for the rest of the year.”
“Okay, still, my question stands. Could they have been here before?”
“Well, sure, but why?”
“Why’s that there?” I point to the bench. “It seems like someone’s trying to preserve a moment in time.”
“Could be they are, but I doubt it would be the local Indian tribes that roamed the area. They wouldn’t have stone benches lying around.”
“I know that. I’m just saying maybe when the area became more settled, whoever lived here set up the bench as a meeting place or something? Maybe they even used it to sit and trade with the Indians.”
“And that’s important, because why?”
“I don’t know. It’s just an idea that popped into my head.”
“Do you notice how quiet it is here?” the deputy whispers.
It is unusually quiet. Not even the wind can be heard, and the trees are swaying.
“There’s nothing living left here.” Ethan’s gaze sweeps the area.
Which is why I’m here. “Take me over there.”
Eli frowns but does as I ask. I hop down off his back and sit on the bench. Closing my eyes, I lean back and let my gift crawl out of my fingertips and spread out in the area.
The reaction is instant.
Pain.
Anger.
Fear.
All those emotions lash out at me as a tide of ghosts so vast I can’t handle it descend upon me, and I start screaming. Arms wrap around me, but it doesn’t help. The ghosts here are in so much pain, it’s more than my human body can handle.
“Ella, why are you here?”
Selena’s voice reaches me through the pain, and I try to center myself around her, but I can’t. It’s all too much.
“We’re not allowed here.”
“Why?”
“It is forbidden. These souls belong to the creatures that live here.”
“Creatures?”
“Yes. Even I don’t know what they are, but I know we can’t be here.”
There’s a hint of fear in her voice, and that sets off alarm bells. If the scary reaper is afraid, then we shouldn’t be here.
“Wait.”
The faint voice rises above the rest, and I blink. I can see her. She’s a little girl of maybe four or five. She’s wearing a plain blue dress, and her bonnet covers her head, but the brown locks tumble down her back. Her eyes are green, and she’s looking at us with genuine curiosity.
She takes a step toward us, and Selena hisses—actually hisses—but I ignore her. The pain that had been assaulting me is gone, and I can think. Everything is hyperclear to me.
“Who are you?” the little girl asks me.
“I’m Ella. Who are you?”
“Madison. Why are you here?”
“We were looking to see if there was anyone here who is lost.”
She cocks her head. “No one here is lost, traveler. We live here.”
“You do? Where?”
“Would you like to see?”
“Yes, very much.”
“Ella, don’t…” Selena’s voice fades as I take a step toward the little girl. She holds out her hand and beckons for me to follow.
“Ella, where are you going?” Ethan calls.
“I’m following a little girl.”
“Your friends can come, too.” She smiles and starts skipping ahead.
“She said you can come, too.” I take off after her, afraid I’ll lose her in the thick trees. Her white bonnet is all I can make out for several minutes until I hear the sound of the creek. I’ve seen several creeks in the general vicinity, but it’s odd to hear the water running when everything else is so quiet.
When the creek comes into view, I have to stop and stare. All along the creek bank are little houses. Like miniature playhouses made to look like log cabins. They’re in perfect condition, and the doors are all closed.
“Do you like our home?” Madison asks shyly.
“Yes.” I would have loved to have had a playhouse like this growing up. I walk over to one and open the door. Inside, they’re just as lovely as outside. Small furniture, the perfect size for a child, crowds the space. A little hearth with a fire blazing sits along one wall, and a bed faces it, covered by a patchwork quilt. It’s perfect.
“Ella.” Hands pull me back, and I shake my head, trying to clear it.
Madison laughs, takes my hand, and pulls me deeper into the little house. “This is my house. Would you like to play with me?”
There’s a tiny teapot and cups set out on the table. The white and blue floral pattern reminds me of my grandma’s good china.
There’s a loud boom, and Madison’s melodic laugh floats around me. More tiny hands pull me along, and I laugh with them. I feel light and happy, like I did when I was little. When Cecily and I used to make tents and pretend we were camping in the wild or when we had tea parties with our stuffed animals. I feel safe and happy and like a little kid again.
There’s a sharp pain in my ankle, but I ignore it. Instead, I sit down at the table and pour Madison a cup of tea. “What kind of tea are we having?”
“Oh, it’s not tea. It’s apple cider. We don’t get tea out here, but there are lots and lots of apples.”