by Val Crowe
Negus punched me again, slugging me hard, knocking my head to the side.
And I punched back, this time with my good hand. I really slammed my fist into his face.
Negus looked stunned. He didn’t make any noise at all. And then he crumpled to the ground.
I was stunned. What had just happened?
Negus’s eyes were wide open. He wasn’t moving.
Shit! That was Rylan. I’d knocked her out. I put my fingers to my lips.
Okay, okay, now what?
Why wasn’t Negus leaving her body? Couldn’t he do that? Maybe if he was in there when she got knocked out, he was knocked out too. I really didn’t know.
“Come out of her,” I said to Rylan’s body.
Nothing happened.
Screw it.
I needed help. I got up and started back through the woods, debating whether I should go after Dominique, try to save her from Macon, or just try to get back to the bridge and bring someone back.
I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do anything with Macon. On the other hand, I didn’t know how long it would take to get back to the bridge. And even if I could get there, I’d still be screwed, because I had to get down this whole damned mountain.
Maybe I should just go back and wait for Negus to wake up and then… and then…
What?
Okay, I had leverage against Negus with his daughter. But he’d already proved that he wasn’t willing to make deals if it meant that he was denied his ability to drain me and become permanently corporeal.
So, what could I get him to agree to that didn’t also mean that I was also going to die?
Maybe… maybe that was just the end I was going to have to make my peace with? It hadn’t been that long ago that I was convinced Macon would kill us all. It was still possible that he would.
But I did have this box that Mads had given me. It was supposed to be my endgame. If I got Negus into the box, then I would be cut off from the supernatural forever. I wouldn’t see ghosts anymore. I would be free.
Of course, Negus had said that the only way to get a spirit into this box was for them to go willingly. And Negus wasn’t going to go willingly.
No, I was screwed.
There was nothing that I could do.
I turned in a circle. I checked the position of the sun.
I decided that the campground had to be closer than the bridge and took off in what I thought might be the right direction to get me to Dominique. She was the one in the most imminent peril. If she was still alive, I should try to save her.
* * *
After walking for a while, I came across a backpack, which I was pretty sure had been Rylan’s. She had lost it running from Macon at one point. I tried to figure out if that meant I really was heading for the campground or not.
I couldn’t make heads or tails of that.
It had water in it, though, and I stopped to sit and drink an entire bottle of water. There was food too. Nothing great, but there was a package of Oreos. I scarfed those things. I swear, nothing had ever tasted better.
Maybe it was the food that made my brain start to fire on all its cylinders or something, but I suddenly had an idea for that leverage I’d been thinking about. It was crazy, and it probably wouldn’t work, but I had to try.
I headed back through the woods to find the spot where I’d left Negus, passed out.
But before I could get there, I was met by Negus, still wearing Rylan’s body and barreling through the woods. Rylan’s lips and chin were covered in blood that had gushed from her nose, and her face was swelling. She was going to have two black eyes. I felt guilty, because I had done that to her.
“You,” said Negus, roaring at me. “Tell me where my daughter is.”
I raised both of my hands, palms up. “I’ve got a proposition for you.”
“I’m not interested,” said Negus. “You tell me now, or I’ll suck you dry anyway and then take my chances that I can find her.”
Time had passed. I wasn’t even sure if Dominique was still okay. She’d been gone a long time, and Macon could have killed her by now. I had no way of knowing if I even had anything to bargain. But I had to try.
“All you want is to keep Dominique safe, right? You can protect her from the supernatural threats that are connected to her if you’re in corporeal form, right?”
“Yes, we’ve been over this, now tell me where she is.”
“What if there was another way to protect her?” I said. I got the box out of my pocket.
“That thing again?”
“It can block the supernatural if it’s properly powered,” I said. “If a powerful enough entity is inside.”
Negus reached out and snatched the box away from me. He turned it over and over in his hands. “Where did you get this?” he said in a different voice.
I snatched it back. “My mother found it. She was trying to help me. That’s the whole reason she summoned you in the first place.”
Negus chuckled. “Yes, well, I guess I was too strong for her, wasn’t I?”
I shoved the box back in my pocket. “The point is, we could use it to save Dominique.”
“But that’s not why you have it, is it?” said Negus. “The plan was to use it on yourself, I suppose? Block yourself off from spirits?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“You lured me here with Dominique so that you could do that.” He laughed again, helplessly. “This has been your plan all along.”
“No, you’re giving me too much credit,” I said. “I just thought of this, after I ate the Oreos.”
“What Oreos?”
“There were Oreos in this pack that I found, and… never mind.”
“You want me to get in that box willingly,” said Negus. “And then you say that you’ll give the box to Dominique. But you won’t. You’ll use it on yourself.”
Oh, whoa. I hadn’t actually thought of doing that. It was devious. I licked my lips.
“Forget it,” snarled Negus and started to reach for me.
I sidestepped. “Wait. I won’t do that. Because that would be stupid. It wouldn’t solve any of my problems. Dominique is still out there, and so is Macon, and she’s made him corporeal. So, yeah, great, I’d be cut off from the supernatural, but I’d just get stabbed by that ghost.”
“Maybe you would, maybe not,” said Negus. “You’d still do whatever you could to save your own skin and don’t deny it.”
“I am denying it,” I said. “That’s not who I am.”
Negus shook his head at me. “You’re an idiot, that’s what you are.” He rushed at me.
I ducked.
He was too fast for me. He grabbed the back of my neck and yanked me up so that I was facing him, and then he started to feed on me, dragging my essence out of me.
I felt everything drain out, and it was worse than it had ever been. It was agony. I was frozen, just as I always was, and I couldn’t stop anything from happening to me. But I tried harder than I’d ever tried to get free. I tried to thrash. I tried to struggle.
Nothing worked.
And the pain built inside me like a swelling balloon, pressing against all of my internal organs. There was no room for it inside me. Eventually, it was going to make my skin split, and I would explode.
Until then, it just kept stretching and stretching, and the agony built and built and built.
Until, mercifully, I passed out.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
When I awoke, it was sometime later.
I could tell by the position of the sun in the sky.
Also, I had been moved. I wasn’t sure how that had happened, but I guessed that Negus must have moved me. For some reason that I couldn’t fathom, he hadn’t sucked me completely dry. I was hanging on by a thread still. I was still alive.
I wasn’t sure. Maybe there was more to it than sucking out all my essence? Maybe he needed to do some special ritual to become permanently corporeal? Or maybe he had just decided that it was more impor
tant to find Dominique first.
He seemed to have done that.
I was back in the campground area, and I was lying on the ground outside the cabin where the murders of Macon’s family had taken place. Above me, the afternoon sun shone down almost cheerily, as if it was mocking me.
I could hardly lift my head. I was very, very weak.
Two people crashed down the stairs of the cabin.
I blinked, and I could recognize Macon and Rylan. Of course, it must not be Rylan. It must be Negus. Macon was brandishing his knife, advancing.
Negus was stumbling backwards down the stairs, gasping. “So… strong…” he said.
“Yes, from Deborah,” said Macon reverently. “I have fed upon her energy, and now I am reborn. “
Okay, well, great. This was just perfect.
Negus put his hands together, cupping them over his belly button. A flash of green emanated out of his hands and hit Macon in the chest.
Macon grunted, clutching the place where the flash had hit him. He slashed out blindly with his knife.
The blade cut into Negus’s stomach.
Rylan!
Negus coughed, doubling over, hand to the wound.
Macon panted. He seemed to be having trouble keeping his balance. He clung to the railing of the cabin.
Negus turned to me. “You,” he growled.
I moaned. I had no energy to move. I couldn’t do anything. I tried to crawl away, and I only managed to move an inch over the grass.
Dominique appeared in the doorway of the cabin. She looked haggard, her skin pale and exhaustion all over her expression. But she was standing. She was alive. Apparently, Macon had fed on her, not stabbed her.
Negus went to his knees next to me.
“No,” I managed. My lips were dry and thick and moving them was incredibly difficult.
“I have to have the rest of your energy,” Negus said. “It is the only way I can save my daughter.”
Macon was still clinging to the railing to stay upright, but he wasn’t trying to move. He was tired, but not beaten.
“Stop it,” said Dominique.
Negus looked up at her. “Peanut, please.”
“You’re not my father,” said Dominique. “You’ll never be my father. And if you try to follow me around any longer, I swear, I will make it my life’s mission to run from you, or destroy you, or both.”
Negus’s nostrils flared. “Peanut.”
Dominique gestured to Macon. “And from the looks of things, I’m pretty strong.”
“No, you cannot tap your own strength,” said Negus through clenched teeth. “Only creatures like him can take it from you.”
“So, I’ll juice them up and sick them on you,” said Dominique.
“All I want to do is protect you,” said Negus.
“All I want is for you to suffer,” said Dominique.
Negus’s jaw worked, but no sound came out.
Macon was starting to make his way down the steps. He was moving slowly, but he was still up and going. He wasn’t down for the count.
I coughed. “There’s always the box, Negus.”
Negus sucked in a sharp breath. “Where is it?”
I tried to move my arm, but I barely was able to inch it. “My pocket,” I said.
Negus felt my pockets, came out with the box, and then opened it. He hesitated. “If you don’t use this for Dominique—”
“I have to,” I said.
Negus snapped the box closed. “I’ll just make sure, then, won’t I?” And then he marched back up the steps, stopping to punch Macon in the face as he went by.
Macon tried to stab him with his knife but missed.
Negus met Dominique on the steps and handed her the box. “This will keep you safe.”
“What?” said Dominique.
“Open it,” said Negus.
She shook her head.
“It’s okay,” I called out, my voice raw. “Do it.”
She hesitated, and then she opened the box.
Immediately, Rylan’s body went slack, and she dropped to the floor of the porch in a heap. Blackish green liquid poured out of her eyes and nostrils and mouth. It swam through the air and all congealed inside the box. It seemed as though there was too much to fit, but the liquid kept moving inside, and it didn’t spill out.
The box was starting to glow a bright orange color.
“What’s going on?” said Dominique.
“Don’t let go of it!” I said.
The box glowed brighter and brighter. It started to hum.
The humming intensified, growing louder and louder.
That was when I noticed that Macon was climbing down the steps, heading for me.
I couldn’t move. I had to hope that whatever was going on with the box would be quick, because as soon as that power was contained, it would cut Dominique off from the supernatural, and Macon would no longer be corporeal.
Well, in theory, anyway. There was a lot about that box that I didn’t understand.
The humming was so loud now as to be deafening and the orange glow was brighter than the sun in the sky. I couldn’t look at it, and I couldn’t even see Dominique behind it.
Abruptly, it all cut off.
Dominique let out a gasping noise.
I turned to look at her.
She shut the box and peered down at it. “What?”
Macon was right on top of me. He brought his knife down into my chest.
Pain lanced through me and blood welled up. Fuck.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
I had it wrong. That box hadn’t done anything. And here I was, lying helpless, and Macon was going to carve me to pieces.
His face loomed over mine, his beady eyes and yellow teeth, and he pulled the knife back out. It was red with my own blood. He raised the knife high, ready to plunge it in again.
I wasn’t going to survive another stabbing, not there, not when the one he’d already given me hurt this bad. I was fading out, and these were my last minutes. I couldn’t believe it, not really.
That was what was so strange about it all. I’d thought that I was a goner more than once during this experience, but now, when it came down to it, it seemed so impossible.
I wasn’t ready to die. I had more to do. Sure, I’d trapped Negus, but that didn’t mean I was ready to die. How could this have happened?
It was unbelievable.
Unbelievable…
That was it!
“Not real!” I screamed out. Macon was a ghost, and he was screwing with my head, but he wasn’t actually stabbing me, not now, not that he wasn’t corporeal. It was a trick, like all the other times I’d been tricked by ghosts before.
And right away, my chest was healed. There was no wound at all.
Macon looked down at his knife and then looked at my chest, and he looked confused.
Wait a moment. I remembered something that Macon had said when I’d first questioned him. Only I remain alive.
Macon didn’t know he was dead, did he?
“You’re a ghost, Macon,” I said gently. “You’re not the incarnation of evil. You’re just a spirit that is stuck here trying to find your way to resolution. You don’t have to do this.”
Macon sat back on his knees. He cocked his head at me, surveying his knife. “I am evil,” he said. “I was a sacrifice to evil, but I killed my father before he could finish the job. I should have died.”
“You did die,” I said.
“I did?”
“Furthermore, how could you be a sacrifice if you weren’t dead?”
Macon scratched at the top of his head with his knife, puzzling that out. “No, hold on. I didn’t die, or I’d be gone. But I’m still here, so, I’m not dead.”
“Then why didn’t I die when you stabbed me?” I said.
He licked his lips.
“Because you’re a ghost,” I said.
“A ghost,” whispered Macon. He looked down at his hands and they seemed transparent.
/>
“It’s okay to let go,” I said quietly. “You can find peace. You can find your family. Little Lydia and Deborah and your mother.”
“And the baby Deborah lost,” Macon murmured, and now his arms were transparent too.
“And the baby,” I said.
“My son,” he said.
“Yes,” I said.
Macon closed his eyes.
His whole body turned transparent. And then he disappeared, and there was a loud crack that echoed against the mountain.
I gasped. I couldn’t quite be sure what had happened. Part of me expected him to reappear at any second and to drive his knife into me, because he decided that he was actually evil, after all.
But instead, it was Dominique next to me, kneeling on the grass. “He’s gone,” she said.
“I think so,” I agreed.
“I knew he could move on. We just had to reach him.”
“Yeah,” I said, and then I couldn’t stand to hold on anymore. I was so tired, and I’d been holding on to consciousness out of sheer adrenaline. That was gone, and I was relaxing, and my hold on reality was fading…
Darkness swallowed me up.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
When I woke up, it was dark.
I felt a good bit better, and I was able to get to my feet. Once standing, my entire body felt like a bruise. It ached.
“Deacon!”
Was that Rylan? I turned quickly, but the movement was too much for me. Dizzy, I fell down hard on my backside.
Someone was giggling. No, two someones.
I rubbed my forehead and tried to get back up again, but it was hard. I spied a flashlight, and it was coming from one of the cabins. “Hello?” I called.
“We’re wounded,” called a voice. “You need to come to us. We can’t come to you.”
Well, when it came down to it, I was wounded too. My arm had been stabbed, and it hurt. But everything hurt, so I couldn’t much distinguish that pain from the other pain. “Who is that?”
“It’s me, Rylan,” said the voice, who I did now recognize as Rylan. “And Mundy’s here too.”
Wait. What?
Okay, maybe I was still asleep. Maybe this was a dream. Or worse.
