by Leanne Leeds
“Stop it,” I muttered to myself as I descended deeper into the darkness.
“Stop what?” Dalida asked. “I can’t see anything.”
I held up my palm and whispered several words. A tiny ball in my hand flared into incandescence.
“You need to teach me how to do that,” Angie called from above.
Suddenly, hands gripped my waist and pulled me off the ladder.
“I reached the bottom, but I don’t see a door. Where’s the door?” Chris asked me frantically.
An agonized shout from Martin.
I placed my hands on the cave wall where the entryway used to be. It was just there, open, for me the last time I was here, so I wasn’t sure what to do.
The last time I was here, Anna led me to her chamber, too. She talked as soon as I climbed down the ladder, mind to mind. I think.
She talked me through getting to where she lay, imprisoned.
Now, her voice was silent.
“Oh, God, please, just open,” I whispered, the fear overtaking me as I banged against the stone. “Please, please. Don’t let me fail at this.”
As if by magic, the cave wall disappeared, and I spilled into the pitch-black chamber. With rapid-fire movements, I flung balls of light in every direction to illuminate the room.
“She was toward the back wall!” I shouted and ran in that direction. “This way!”
A strange hush fell over us, the sound of our feet shuffling against the floor the only sound. I made my way to the ledge and…
…I stopped short and stared.
The selenite had shattered.
It lay around Martin’s mother like shards of glass from a shattered window. Anna was pale. If she was breathing, I couldn’t detect it. “No,” I whispered. “No. Oh, God, please, please. Please don’t let us be too late. Please.”
A frantic Martin was struggling behind me, shouting questions.
Dalida and Angie held him back.
“Let her work, Martin!” Angie shouted, but Martin was beyond hearing anything.
I reached out tentatively, Chris by my side, and touched her cheek.
At the slight pressure from my fingers, an agonized wail escaped Anna’s lips. “Fortuna!” she gasped.
“Mother!” Martin shouted.
“I’m here! What can I do? What can I do to help?” I pleaded with her. “Tell me!”
She moaned, and her face contorted into an expression of agony. Gasping, Anna shook her head. “You could never save me. I knew it, always knew it. I’ve been locked in here for years.” The woman, scarcely alive, choked and coughed with the effort to speak. “I knew when I told you what to do, but the others had to be saved. You all had to be saved. She had to be stopped.”
“Stop it!” I demanded. “We’re not going to let you die! I have to be able to do something! Anna, tell me, I’ll do anything!”
Anna moaned again in pain, her suffering etched into every line on her face.
“You stay here, Martin, do you hear me? Just stay here with Dalida!” Angie tore herself away from Martin, her healing power useless against the depth of his grief. “Let us try and help her!” Without waiting for his agreement, she ran over to Anna and placed her hand on the woman’s shoulder.
The gaunt, almost ghost-like face relaxed and Anna exhaled with a wheeze. “Child, that’s a wonderful power you have,” she told Angie. “My son is lucky to have you. Take care of him. He was never willing to accept my death.” She breathed in deep as if savoring the air. “Help him to see that it’s all right.”
“No, Mother!” Martin Salvi, a rich, tough guy, sobbed as he pulled away from Dalida and came face to face with his mother for the first time in decades. “There has to be a way to save you! I didn’t come this far only to lose at the end! I did this for you! I did this all for you!” His eyes swept over her skeletal body, the damage from her imprisonment clear. Anna’s muscles had wasted away, her skin pale, her hair brittle. “These are powerful witches, Mother!” Martin looked up at me, his mother’s hand clasped in his. “I’ve seen you do amazing things. You have to be able to fix this!”
“I don’t know how,” I whispered, the despair overwhelming.
“Martin, I’m the healer, and all I can do is make it so she doesn’t feel pain,” Angie told the love of her life stoically as tears ran down her cheeks. “I don’t know how to fix what’s been done to her. I’m so sorry.”
“NO!” Martin roared. “This can’t be how it ends!”
“Martin,” Dalida whispered, her arms wrapped around him. “Martin, you may only have a few moments with your mother. Don’t spend them fighting against the inevitable.”
Martin stared at Dalida, his face lined with horror. He lowered his head gently against Anna and whispered how much he loved her, that he always knew he would see her again.
“So, perhaps not entirely inevitable,” Chris, standing at the end of the stone slab, said quietly. Martin’s head snapped up as he looked at his friend. “I can bring her over. The vampire blood can heal pretty much anything.” He looked down at Anna. “I know you don’t know me, and I don’t know how much you know about being a vampire, but—”
“Do it,” Anna told him, her face confident. “My life was stolen from me thanks to Martin’s father—much as yours was—and I know more than you think. You’ve been a good friend to my son, a better friend to him than his father was a father.” Anna paused as great, wracking coughs overtook her. After a few moments, her raspy voice wheezed, “I’d be honored if you would make me a vampire.” An amused smile danced on her thin, dry lips. “And frankly, imagining the look on Marty’s face when he sees my fangs? It’s the first thing I’ve got to look forward to in a very long time.”
Chris looked at Martin and raised an eyebrow.
Martin stood up and stepped back. Hope danced in his eyes.
Then he nodded.
And that’s how I wound up watching another woman suck on the neck of my boyfriend for several hours.
Twenty-Two
It wasn’t quite finished, but it felt finished.
Making a vampire is a time-consuming thing. We stayed huddled in the cave into the morning and on through the rest of the day. Anna fell into a breathless sleep after drinking her fill of Chris’s blood, and for a bit, I was nervous. Eventually, within hours, her hair grew fuller, and the color slowly pinked up her pale cheeks.
“When will she wake up?” an exhausted Martin asked at least once an hour.
“I told you. The sun is up,” Chris would remind him sleepily as he dozed in the corner. “We sleep during the day. Just let her rest, Martin. When the moon rises once again, she’ll open her eyes.” He would sigh and close his eyes, hoping to dissuade Martin from asking the question again.
Which he always would.
Sometime in the afternoon, Miss Bessie floated in with another ghost I didn’t know. I yawned, stood up, smiled, and greeted them despite the weariness clinging to me like a shroud.
It was the tenth person that day.
The ghosts from the crystal ball had scattered almost immediately to all corners of the town in search of relatives, descendants…and, okay, a few seemed excited by the concept of “haunting” someone that wronged them in life. A few returned to the church to thank me. Miss Bessie staffed the multipurpose room and floated them into the cave. We chatted quietly in the corner for a few moments, and then they would fly off.
“Martin, get some rest,” Angie told her boyfriend as he sat up restlessly and looked over toward Anna. “You’re going to be up all night talking to your mom, I’m sure. Take the chance now to recover.” She pushed him back against the wall and settled his jacket around him like a blanket. “You don’t want me to start experimenting with my powers to see if they can knock a person out, do you? I will. Don’t think I won’t.”
“You must be exhausted, too.”
“I’ll rest tonight when your mother wakes up. It’ll give the two of you some time alone. Now, sleep.”
&nbs
p; Martin settled fitfully on the rocks. Gideon walked over and crawled up next to him. Soon his breathing was rhythmic.
“Our men are as stubborn as the day is long,” Angie said as she picked her way back over to Dalida and me.
“Mine’s snoring,” Dalida responded with a chuckle, glancing back at drooling Gabe Wilcox, his head resting on the back of the greyhound Bella. Ollie and Pepper were curled up beside him. “I think he fell asleep before anyone.”
My mother was lying on her back, paws up, in the center between us.
“She looks so peaceful,” I said as I watched her barrel chest rise and fall. “What are we going to do with her?” I looked up. “Can we take our mom to an animal shelter? I mean, we can’t just drop her off as abandoned, can we?”
Angie tilted her head. “It would be a karmically fitting end to our relationship, wouldn’t it? She abandoned us, so we abandoned her?” Angie frowned. “It just doesn’t seem right, though. I don’t want to be the type of person that would do that. She would do that. I’m not like her.”
“I’ll keep her,” Dalida announced as she reached out and petted the dog’s soft fur. “You guys both have dogs, and I’m the only sister that doesn’t, so…I don’t know, it kind of seems like it was meant to be, doesn’t it?”
I shuddered. “I don’t think I ever want to hear that phrase again.”
Despite my psychic powers, I never could have predicted today. I didn’t foresee my mother, or my two sisters, or an entire town of the dead locked in a ball—a vampire boyfriend.
Despite Miss Bessie’s insistence I was the mystic and destined to set it all right, I couldn’t have done it without the people in this cave. Humans and witches, the living and the dead…everyone worked together.
Even Clutterbuck.
And I really couldn’t have predicted that.
Maybe it wasn’t meant to be, but I was grateful it came to pass all the same.
“Why didn’t anyone offer to make me a vampire before?” Anna asked, enamored with her speed and strength. She whizzed from one side of the cave to the other, stopping periodically to lift large boulders and then place them down gently. “The feeling of freedom is absolutely incredible!” She looked over at Chris. “Thank you so much!”
He gave a quick nod.
“Mother, we really should get everyone out of this cave. We’ve been here all day, and the sandwiches Dalida brought back were not all that filling,” Martin said as he put his tailored jacket back on. “I’d also like to call my father and let him know—”
“Oh, no,” Anna said fiercely, pointing her finger at her son. “I realize I’ve been out of the picture for over twenty years, but Marty is still my husband. I’ll deal with contacting him if and when I decide it’s time. For the moment, I just want to enjoy being able to move again.” She shook her tangled halo of strawberry blonde hair and gazed hungrily toward the door. “I may not be able to see the sun again, but the night air…the moon…” Her eyes lit up with excitement. “Come, my son. Accompany me on my first step of freedom.”
Pepper looked back and forth between Chris and Anna. “Is it my imagination, or is she suddenly talking kind of like him?”
“We vampires do seem to have a mode of speech that tends to be a tad more elegant than you humans,” Chris told her. “It’s not something we pick up over time, just something inherent in our nature.”
“Uh-huh. You have an exquisite way of insulting people, too.” Pepper raised her eyebrow. “I’m inelegant, am I?”
“I meant no disrespect,” Chris responded kindly, He silently put his hand over his heart and gave a slight bow.
“Man, you just can’t rattle that guy, can you?” Pepper chirped, following Martin and Anna toward the exit. “Martin’s right though, I really am starving. Speaking of starving,” Pepper glanced toward Anna, “does she know not to eat people? Well, at least not people we like?”
Chris nodded. “We’ll head back to Martin’s house. There’ll be food for all of us there.”
Anna and Chris ferried the dogs up the ladder and out into the night. We followed much more slowly.
I was a little disappointed I didn’t get to see Anna’s first impression of the night sky. By the time we reached the surface, the new vampire was running around the clearing. She was so excited by the moon, then the stars, then the wind.
She couldn’t erase her smile, and it was contagious.
“Where were all of you today?” Clutterbuck asked. He arrived accompanied by a sheepish-looking Reverend Kane. “I was getting worried. I came back to the church, and all of you were gone. No one could find you.”
They joined us on Martin’s patio overlooking the glittering town. The moon, full and bright in the sky, bathed it in a silvery-white glow. Uncle Vito brought out plates of Italian dishes while Aunt Addie and Anna sat off in a corner. They spoke animatedly in hushed whispers, and once in a while, peals of laughter echoed.
Chris and Anna sipped something from metallic tumblers.
I didn’t ask what it was.
No one else did, either.
“Chris turned Martin’s mother into a vampire,” Pepper blurted out between bites of lasagna. “She slept for a few hours after drinking all the blood and stuff, and by then, it was the middle of the day. You know the whole thing about vampires and day and sun…actually, maybe you don’t.” She pointed at Reverend Kane. “Since you told your parishioners to pick up minced garlic from Costco and toss it in case of an emergency.” Her eyes narrowed. “Did I mention we were in a cave with the vampire all day? The vampire that was covered from head to toe in wet garlic? In a small cave? With no ventilation? Because of you and your dumb advice?” She let out what sounded like a growl. “Thanks for that.”
“You slept the whole day,” I pointed out.
“And I dreamed about garlic the whole time,” she countered. Pepper shook her head and then took a bite out of a slice of garlic bread. “Had a nightmare I was swimming in the stuff.”
“My apologies again for that,” Chris told her.
“Wasn’t your fault. Was his fault.” Pepper jerked her chin toward the elder Kane.
I snuggled up closer to him and breathed in deeply. I didn’t know what magic he used in the shower, but if it came in a bottle from Bed Bath and Beyond? I wanted some. Chris smelled fantastic, not even a whiff of garlic anywhere on him.
“How are your parishioners doing?” I asked Reverend Kane.
“They are actually more upset with me regarding my salary than they are with what they saw last night,” Kane said as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He glanced across the table at his son and then dropped his eyes. His expression was slightly embarrassed. “They weren’t aware that my salary was as high as it was, and the board was quite upset when they realized had I been paid less? Well, we wouldn’t have needed Karen quite so much.”
“They’re not freaked about all the ghosts they saw?” Angie asked, surprised.
“We believe in the paranormal, so much so that we worked to contain it,” the Reverend responded. “Most of them are really excited that they got to finally see something supernatural. They’re rubbing it in the noses of the people that didn’t come to church last night.” He chuckled. “Beulah Conroe says last night was a revelation. Of course, her mama was one of the people stuck in that ball, and I think they had a few words before Dalida left and the ghosts disappeared.” Reverend Kane turned toward Dalida. “Speaking of which, some of our members have asked if you’d be willing to come back so they could finish the conversations they were having.”
“It didn’t even occur to me the ghosts would all disappear as soon as I left,” Dalida told him. “I mean, I should have, but I didn’t realize. Of course, and please let them know I’m sorry.”
“So what happens now?” Angie asked.
Clutterbuck shrugged. “None of us live under Karen’s thumb anymore. The ghosts go wherever they want? We all stay away from Fortuna when we’re thinking about something no one else sh
ould know?” Clutterbuck leaned forward and scooped some baked ziti onto a clean plate and then leaned back in his chair. “I expect Reverend Kane’s church will have to make some adjustments.”
“That’s an understatement,” he murmured.
“I don’t think there’s much more to uncover,” Clutterbuck nodded. “Maybe we all just get to relax and get to know one another. I think all the secrets have finally been dug up.” He looked at Angie. “Your mom, by the way, would like to talk to you later. Before she disappeared, she said a few things to me that I think you should hear.”
Angie tensed and swallowed. “Like what, Daddy?”
“Like that she loves you. There’s more, but that was the gist. I still think you need to hear it from her.” The lawman winked at his daughter.
Her eyes teared up, and she nodded.
Chris abruptly pulled away from me and pushed out his chair. “Excuse me for a moment.” He turned and disappeared through the french doors before I could ask him where he was going.
“What happened?” Martin asked, confused.
I stared blankly toward the closed doors and bit my lip. “I don’t know, but I think I’m going to go find out.”
After wandering through the mansion, I finally found Chris in front of the house, looking at the parked cars.
I coughed discreetly, even though I was sure he heard me calling for him in the house. He turned and smiled faintly, then turned away again. I frowned. “Hey, are you okay?”
He nodded without turning around. “I’m fine.”
“You don’t seem fine.” I walked up behind him and placed my hand lightly on his shoulder. He turned swiftly and folded me into his arms, his hand cradling the back of my head. “Oof, goodness, that was unexpected.” He squeezed harder. After a few moments of weighty silence, I got even more worried. “Okay, as nice as this is, now you really don’t seem fine,” I said, my voice muffled because my mouth was smashed into his right pectoral muscle.
