Hosts to Ghosts Box Set

by Lynne Connolly

  “What would you know?” Bernard growled. “I promised to give you the necklace after one ritual, and I will. But if I don’t give it willingly, you’ll be as cursed as the Sharmans.”

  “Unfortunately you’re right.” Didiane sauntered into Karey’s field of vision. She seemed out of place in this shabby little hut, or cellar, or whatever it was, immaculately dressed, as usual, not a golden hair on her head out of place. She smiled. “You didn’t think I’d let you go, did you? I told Jordan nobody walked away from me, and I meant it.”

  Apart from a thumping headache, Karey felt better, in control of her senses again. They must have knocked her out while she was asleep and brought her here. Terror streaked through her. Where was Jordan? What had they done to him?

  “So what now?” She kept the fear out of her voice. It was hard to believe. So much had happened recently, she wouldn’t have been surprised if Santa Claus and all his reindeer had broken through the rickety door and rescued her.

  “I want the necklace,” Bernard said, waving his hands irritably. Didiane stepped back. “I need to perform one more ritual, and I need the jewels to do it.”

  “What will it bring you?”

  Bernard shrugged, the flickering light playing over his shining muscles. “The usual. Wealth, power, eternal life.”

  Didiane sniggered. “Nobody has eternal life. Not even a vampire.”

  “I will.” Bernard moved forward, stepping over Karey’s bound feet and produced a knife. Fear clutched at her, but she refused to give in to it, even though the knife was long and wickedly pointed. At present it pointed at her heart.

  “Jordan!”

  His voice came back, clear and strong. “Where are you, my love?”

  Despite her situation, relief flooded her. He was alive. “I don’t know. In a hut or perhaps a cave. No, not a cave. Bernard and Didiane took me. I’m tied up.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “So far. They want the Blue Star, Jordan, and they think I can find it for them.”

  “No!” Didiane stepped forward and slapped Karey’s face, jolting her out of her communication with Jordan. “You will not talk to him, do you hear?” She exchanged a telling look with Bernard, then turned back to Karey, her eyes gleaming celestial blue with an inner light. Before Karey could prevent the connection, she had entered Karey’s mind and put up a block. Karey couldn’t explain how she did it, but when she tried to reconnect with Jordan, there seemed to be an impenetrable wall set up at that spot in her mind.

  “What have you done?”

  “You can’t reach him now. Did you think I was devoid of senses, of power? I have lived longer than Jordan Arcenaux, learned more than he ever will. I was married to Gillespie Cornell, one of the oldest, most powerful vampires in existence. He taught me more than Jordan will ever know.”

  Karey caught her breath and saw a slow smile creep over the other woman’s face. “That’s right, Karey. I let you contact him. He should find you now.” She stepped back, carefully avoiding the lines of cornmeal on the floor. “She’s all yours, Bernard. Make her suffer.”

  Bernard shot her a glance of amusement. “I’ll try.”

  He lifted the knife and Karey concentrated on keeping the terror out of her eyes. He might make her suffer, he might even make her scream but he wouldn’t reduce her to nothing.

  He sliced the loose gown they had dressed her in from neck to hem.

  * * * * *

  “Karey! Oh Christ, Karey!”

  He tried every way to reach her, but he couldn’t find a way in. She’d gone.

  Had they killed her? If they had, she wouldn’t remain alone for long. He burned in fury, in frustration, in fear.

  Forcing down the swell of emotion, Jordan took several deep breaths, dragging them down into his lungs. “Think, Jordan, think! Where would they have taken her?”

  He could think of only one answer. Back to the house to invite Susannah Sharman in again. Once in control of Karey’s body, it was doubtful Susannah would ever want to leave. When he’d broken the hold before, he felt Susannah reaching out, learning the recesses of Karey’s mind. He didn’t know if he could free her again. Karey would be as dead to him as if her heart had ceased to beat.

  “Sarah?”

  “I’m here, Jordan. What is it?”

  “Sarah, they’ve taken Karey. They have her somewhere at the house.”

  A moment passed while Sarah assimilated the news. “I’m engaged in a ritual. I can come shortly. Can you wait?”

  “No. I have to go find her now.”

  “I’ll join you when I can. Calm, Jordan. Think rationally. Only this will save her.”

  A blinding flash of whirling light took him back to his old room at the house. He’d visualized a painting on the wall, a reproduction of a portrait, and this guided him now. The room had been cleaned out; no trace of his occupation remained.

  He reached for her but there was nothing but a blank. No Karey, nothing. Searching room by room would take too long. She said she was in a shabby room, not an undecorated one. Not a cave. So damp and unkempt.

  The bayou!

  Jordan raced out of the room and down the stairs, trying all the time to contact Karey. What had they done? She must be unconscious. Either that or—dear fucking God!

  He reached out for Susannah. When she’d been in Karey’s body, he’d gotten her ‘signature,’ the feel of her presence. Enough to find her.

  He found her. She was a short distance away, perhaps a mile. Turning his mind to the spirit, praying he was right, he headed for Susannah’s presence.

  * * * * *

  Karey lay naked, covered with elaborate patterns drawn in on her body with chicken blood. When she tried to lift her hand, she couldn’t move it. She could smell the fresh gore, hated the cloying smell, the thickness of its touch on her body. Panic rose in her, but she drew on her inner strength and pushed it down. She needed all her wits about her.

  A movement attracted her attention. Bernard, as naked as she now, didn’t hide his desire for her. His erection, a long, thin prick topped by a vividly colored purple knob, bobbed against his lower belly. He glanced down and his lips curled in a feral smile. “I’ll give it to you in a while, maybe. If you feel the need. And you probably will.”

  She couldn’t move, although he’d untied her. Susannah invaded her, and Karey felt her creeping further in, seeping into every part of her body. The only part of Karey that remained was her mind. She felt shoved into a corner, unable to do anything to help herself.

  That was what they wanted her to feel. Bernard had let her remain until he’d made her feel completely helpless. Then she had no doubt that he would help Susannah to push her out completely.

  Well it wasn’t going to happen. Ever. She’d done what she could, put her mind to work, learning the woman, her vulnerabilities and the shape of her presence the last time Susannah had entered her body. Susannah had considered herself a beauty, so she was vain. She’d died too soon for the effects of aging to show.

  “Stand up, Susannah. Show us what happened to the necklace.”

  Bernard sounded positively friendly. Karey filled her mind with shame and embarrassment. It had been humiliating to lie bound while Bernard had explored her when he’d daubed those symbols over her body. He’d allowed his hands to linger on her breasts and thighs, almost purring his satisfaction. So she had that; he still desired her. Didiane hated her, Bernard wanted her and Susannah was a vain creature, afraid of her own shadow. It would have to be enough to keep her going until Jordan arrived.

  She stood and felt Susannah cover her body with her hands. “I can go nowhere like this. It is not what I am used to.”

  Didiane chuckled and threw a robe over her shoulders. It was a soft, silken robe in cream, trimmed with swansdown, full length.

  At least she could be thankful for that. Bernard pulled on a pair of powder blue sweats, incongruous in this dank place. But so was she. Her hair loose, the gown flowing around her, she felt like
a character in an antebellum play. At least part of her did. The other part, the Susannah part, felt completely at home. Both were happier once clothed.

  The gown hid little. When she moved, it flowed around her body, clinging to her curves. Almost worse than being naked, but not quite. Susannah spoke. “Will you let me stay here once I find the necklace for you?” Her voice was soft and breathy, quite unlike Karey’s usual forthright tones.

  “Yes, you can stay.” Bernard sounded completely sure. Overconfident.

  Karey sent a vision flooding through her mind. From the portrait of Susannah in the house she conjured up an image of that lovely face. Then she did a Dorian Grey number on it. Wrinkles crazed the once dewy skin, deep furrows appearing between the brows, and crow’s feet next to the eyes. Lines carved themselves between her nose and the corners of her mouth. She aged Susannah.

  “No!” Susannah covered her face with her hands, but she couldn’t keep out the vision. She lifted her chin, eyes swimming with tears. “I don’t want to get old. I don’t want to die again!” Turning to Susannah, she pleaded, “Can you help?”

  Didiane met Susannah’s eyes squarely. “Yes. I can make you a vampire like me, if you want.”

  Susannah missed the flicker in Bernard’s eyes, but Karey didn’t. Susannah also didn’t know there was no chance of Didiane ever making Susannah into a vampire. Not at the cost of her own life.

  With a jolt, she realized what Didiane meant to do. She only knew one other vampire. He could give himself for Susannah, especially if Susannah occupied the body of the woman he loved. Fuck, that was why she’d let Karey call him.

  Didiane smiled. “You’re still there, aren’t you, Karey?”

  Bernard frowned at Didiane. “Don’t call her out.”

  “Oh, I won’t. We’ll just let her watch, shall we?”

  Cold fear clutched at Karey before she forced herself to get in control. That was what Didiane wanted, to have her so afraid she couldn’t think properly. She needed to watch Didiane, not Bernard.

  Didiane wanted her dead, and if Jordan died as well, so much the better. Her plan became blindingly obvious to Karey now. Now, when it might be too late. She would compel Susannah to take Jordan’s blood, to destroy him and become vampire herself.

  No! It would not be too late, Karey was determined on it.

  Bernard waved his hands in an elaborate pattern, forcing Karey to stare at him. No, Susannah. Karey reached inside, found the place of their joining. Susannah was firmly seated in her body, but the first chance she got, Karey intended to rip them apart. Even if it meant her own death.

  “Do you remember your last night?” Karey felt Susannah’s fear. Bernard gave her a reassuring smile. The man could be so charming. “No, I won’t ask you to relive it again. But you know where the necklace is, don’t you?”

  Before Karey could stop the movement, Susannah shook her head.

  Bernard wasn’t accepting that. “Concentrate. You went upstairs to your room with Thomas. Then you went to the children.”

  Susannah recoiled, horrified at the reminder. “It wasn’t me. It was her!”

  Bernard frowned, but his brow cleared when realization sparked in his eyes. “Camille?” He laughed. “I should have known. Camille, newly dead, was searching for a new body. She wouldn’t leave willingly, not with the Blue Star at stake. Did Camille hide the stones?”

  Susannah nodded. “She took me over, just as I am taking Karey’s body. She—she—” Karey saw the horrifying sight before Susannah blocked it from her mind. Four children. Camille, firmly in possession of Susannah’s body, hadn’t hesitated to take her revenge.

  Susannah didn’t know where the Blue Star was because Camille had murdered the children and concealed the necklace. Had Susannah been forced to watch the spectacle, locked as helplessly as Karey inside her own body? The thought appalled Karey, made her realize why Susannah retreated into different aspects of her personality, escaped from persona to persona. Did she fight for her children’s lives, beat at the force that locked her inside her living prison?

  For the first time, Karey had an inkling of what Susannah had gone through, what she was still going through, and would continue to suffer until someone set her spirit free. To watch as her own hands, controlled by someone else—she knew precisely the moment Susannah had let go, clamoring for release, the moment Susannah had lost her reason.

  Silently she promised Susannah that if she ever got away, she would try to give her spirit peace.

  At that moment Susannah ceased to be the enemy. Karey felt her acceptance, the relaxation of tension. They were allies now. It was as though they were having a real conversation, as thoughts flowed through them, one to the other and back again. “I wanted peace, but while Camille’s descendants live, I am not allowed to find it.”

  “You will. I have a friend. She will free you, if anyone can.”

  “Please!”

  Karey had begun to turn the tide. With Susannah on her side, she still had a chance.

  Bernard turned away from her, scuffing his feet across the pattern it must have taken a great deal of effort to make. “She’s of no use to me. She doesn’t know where the stone is. I’ve called the wrong person back, wasted my time. I need Camille.” He growled. “I’ll have to start the ritual over again. It’ll take another sacrifice.”

  He spun around, but Didiane inserted herself between him and Karey. “Not this one. You promised, Bernard. When you finished with her, she was mine. I hold you to that, and I want her.”

  Bernard shrugged. “I’ll find somebody else. But remember, you promised to help me find the necklace.”

  “I will,” Didiane said.

  Although she couldn’t see her face, Karey knew Didiane was gazing into Bernard’s eyes, letting him have the full force of the innocent victim look she was so good at creating.

  Bernard turned away. “She’s yours. I don’t want her anymore.”

  He opened the door and walked out of the room. Karey smelled dampness and decay.

  The bayou! This place was close to the bayou. “Where are we, Susannah?”

  “I do not know. I have never seen this place before. I knew Camille had a private place for her magic. This must be it.”

  No help there, then.

  Slowly, Didiane turned to Karey. Her eyes held no innocence now. “Follow me.”

  Karey felt her feet moving, and knew it wasn’t Susannah or her. She followed Didiane into the moonlight.

  Outside the fetid chamber, the air was little better. The atmosphere outside felt humid and close, as though a storm was nearing. Perhaps it was. Karey felt compelled to follow Didiane.

  They stood close to the old cemetery. The iron gate swung open, creaking on its hinges in the stiff breeze, like a clip from an old Frankenstein film. Dracula would be more appropriate.

  Karey could hardly believe she’d made a crack about an old film. Her father had always told her she’d be joking on her deathbed. Except it didn’t look as though it would be a bed.

  “Susannah, do you want to live for a very long time, to be like me?”

  “Yes.” The brief alliance shattered; Karey felt Susannah’s longing as if her own. Not to get old, to be forever beautiful, to have another chance.

  “Susannah, she can’t do this. She’ll die if she does. She wants to kill us.”

  “I don’t believe you.” As though she was seeing the gesture, Karey saw Susannah take her bottom lip between her teeth.

  Susannah stepped forward. Karey strained to step back.

  “Come here, Susannah.”

  She was so close she felt Didiane’s breath on her neck. Karey knew this must be the time she fought back.

  With a clean wrench she sliced the point of joining, where Susannah was welded to her body.

  It worked. With a scream of fury, Susannah burst free. Her spirit melted, blended with the air, with the stones around them and dissipated, spreading out and up until she was gone.

  “Even better,” purred
Didiane. “Now I get to kill Jordan’s wife. I can’t wait until he sees this. He should learn not to defy me. This will increase my reputation in the community. I’ll become as powerful as Gillespie. He never let me share, but I won’t have to share any more.” Her last words ended in a breathy sigh of longing.

  Karey turned to run but Didiane’s arm snaked around her waist, drawing her close once more. Didiane bent her head.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jordan heard the unearthly wail of despair and raced toward it. As far as he could tell, it came from the vicinity of the old cemetery. His heart pounding, his feet sank into the soft dirt, but he pushed, put on as much speed as he was capable of.

  He encountered Bernard Foret on the way. Foret was alone, walking toward the house. His eyes opened wide when Jordan gripped his shoulders. “What was that?”

  “A death cry.” Foret smiled nastily. “Your mistress is taking another acolyte. Go worship her.”

  “What are you talking about?” Jordan didn’t bother to hide the red glow he knew suffused his eyes, turning the calm grey to a terrifying ruby. “Tell me now before I snap your neck!”

  Foret’s jaw dropped. “I thought you were her creature. She said you were hers. You’re not, are you?”

  “Where are they?”

  Foret tried for a nonchalant shrug, but with Jordan’s hands clamped to his shoulders, he found the gesture impossible. “You’re a vampire. Make me one and I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”

  Jordan released him. “Over my dead body.”

  Foret set off at a run, but Jordan brought him down with one powerful leap, landing heavily on him. Without pausing to draw breath he extended his fangs and tore into the concierge’s throat. He withdrew immediately. He didn’t want the blood of this bastard in his body. He stood up, noting dispassionately the dark blood flooding from the twitching body and turned away. Vermin. He’d just destroyed vermin, that was all.

  All that mattered now was saving Karey. He’d seen what jealousy had driven Didiane to when she’d killed Thalia. Karey would not go the same way.