Souls Lost (Appalachian Souls Book 1)

by Bonnie Elizabeth

  “Mommy, do you have a tissue?”

  Dixie rooted around in her purse where she had a small pack of them. She should have put two in there. Kay was already miserable. Lorne would probably walk her out into the back of the church and which meant there would be a week where the demon might trick her daughter into a bargain.

  Dixie wished her own mother had been as protective. She’d had some protections, according the demon, but clearly not enough, for Emrys had found her. And she’d made her own bargains and deals with him. It had seemed innocent enough.

  Her mother had taken her to the Bible church at least once every few months and definitely on all the holidays, but she’d been easy about it.

  “Everyone knows God,” her mother used to say. “He lives in your heart, and if you listen very carefully to what’s in your heart, not to your wants, not to your wishes, but to your heart, about what’s right and wrong, then you’ll hear God all on your own.”

  Except that wasn’t true. Dixie had always listened for God in her heart and she’d only found Emrys. And he was clearly a demon. Hadn’t she read the chapter about God casting out demons as she’d lain in her bed after the miscarriage? That was when that idea had formed, and the more she thought about it, the clearer she became.

  The best wish she’d ever made was that the demon not touch her child. But she wasn’t taking any chances. Kay would go to church. Every single week. No matter what.

  Kay sniffled in the backseat.

  Lorne sighed, glancing at her.

  Dixie looked straight ahead, willing him not to say anything.

  They arrived at the church, their Accord only the second car in the lot. The minister walked as he had a small home just around the corner. Lorne parked, and Dixie got out. Kay moved more slowly, eyeing the blocky little brick building that looked more like a prison than a church. It had once been the old community center but when the old Bible Church, which had looked more like a normal church, had been destroyed in a winter storm, the congregation had used the building. Eventually the city gave them a deal on the land and the building, and they’d had a huge fundraiser to make the down payment and to make some changes to the building, like the narrow stained glass windows.

  It was why it looked so un-church-like, though they’d done what they could to make it look better. Still, it would always be a blockish room in a small building, a church dressed in second hand clothes.

  “Come on, Kay,” Dixie said, trying to be pleasant.

  Kay sniffed and followed her parents inside, across the red carpet and into the square room with the light wood pews that lined the aisles. Kay sneezed four times when they walked in, making the usher who was moving around up front turn and smile a little at them.

  Dixie headed to the middle of the church to sit. Lorne followed her, and Kay sat on the end, sniffling and sneezing. The girl was sneezing so much Dixie was beginning to think she was faking it, but Lorne, always the one to be easily pushed over, took her out of the church, heading back towards the parking lot as most people were entering, a salmon swimming upstream.

  Dixie fidgeted, worry eating at her. Could the demon find her child there in the church parking lot or was she protected on God’s property? Should she go out and drag her back in? Had the demon afflicted her with those allergies to keep her from hearing the word of God, hoping to catch her too innocent to understand what he was?

  Dixie had far too many questions and far too few answers. She wanted to pray about it, but realized she had no idea how to do so. Every time she cleared her mind, Emrys was there, either in reality or in her memory. She was damned for certain. Her only hope was to save her daughter.

  Chapter 32

  Kay drove into Zoe’s driveway just after three. Zoe had sent her father out on an errand, suggesting it would be easier if the two girls talked alone. He’d agreed but with a certain amount of reluctance. She had had to agree to call him if anything happened. And then she would call Taran no matter that he and Kay were divorced and probably didn’t want to see each other.

  When Zoe opened the door to Kay, she was surprised at how young the other woman looked. Zoe felt like she aging, becoming a woman, but Kay had the youthful look she’d had when she graduated high school. She looked better, in fact, having lost a few pounds, probably from working out at a fitness center. After all, she did live in a city now. Her hair was perfect, with highlights that brought out the green of her eyes. Zoe had always thought Kay’s eyes were brown, not that she was in the habit of looking into them or anything, but the green was a surprise, not something she remembered.

  “You look fantastic,” Zoe said, stepping back. The boots Kay wore had heels perhaps an inch high and were caramel colored with laces up the front. Her jeans were skin tight, stone washed, and had once been pressed given the slight crease that ran down the front. Her blouse was plain cotton but in a stylish design that hugged her narrow waist and accentuated her breasts, not that she was super large in that area. In her slightly baggy jeans, slippers and t-shirt, Zoe felt frumpy.

  “I finally went to school to do hair,” Kay smiled. “I loved doing hair and nails but my daddy thought I should get a degree in something. Momma thought it was a good idea, saying I could always go back to learn to do hair. I got an associates in business and then met Taran so I never followed up on that, until now.”

  “Well it suits you,” Zoe said. She’d not known Kay well enough to have ever talked about dreams and ideas.

  “But you think I know something about your momma?” Kay asked, walking into the entry. She looked at the family room, then at Zoe, then walked into the front room where the more formal chairs were, not that anything in the Hyer house was particularly formal. Zoe followed as if she were the guest and not Kay.

  “Yeah,” Zoe said slowly.

  Kay flopped down on the sofa which was pale blue with dark wood accents around the arms and the feet. It was more comfortable than it looked. Zoe took one of the club chairs she loved, which were a navy and pale blue print that flanked the sofa on either side.

  “You know very well I never talked to your momma and have no way of shedding light on anything about her,” Kay said. She was looking at Zoe directly. There was something in her eyes, like she was just waiting to confess to something. Zoe just needed to ask the right questions.

  “I know,” Zoe said, deciding to play this honestly.

  “So what is it you want from me?”

  “I saw something in the yard. When Chief Rees was here. I think he and I both saw it. It said I was in danger and I needed to bring you to town,” Zoe said.

  “Momma always said there were demons and that I needed to be careful about how I consorted with them. She had me protected until she died, you know,” Kay said.

  Zoe waited, not sure what to say. She wasn’t at all certain what she had seen, only that it was real and that it seemed to want to warn her.

  “It said I wasn’t strong enough alone. That with me and Chief Rees we might hear it but it needed you,” Zoe continued.

  “But not Taran,” Kay pressed.

  Zoe shook her head. “Just that he knew you and needed to get you back here.”

  Kay sighed. “And he didn’t do it, did he? He didn’t get me back here. You did.”

  “It seemed easiest. He wasn’t sure you’d come if he asked.”

  “I probably wouldn’t have. I was trying to leave this whole place behind, the memories from my momma and then the things with Taran, all those times we weren’t able to be who the other person needed, you know?”

  Zoe nodded, watching. She did know all too well, although she and Tyler weren’t officially divorced. How hard would it be for her to return to Portland to help him? She didn’t think she could do it, although if a girlfriend, like LeAnne called, she would have. She’d probably have gone even for a casual friend, the sort she and Kay were.

  “What do I need to do?” Kay asked. “It wants to talk to me. Did it say how?”

  “I was in the back
of the house,” Zoe said. “I think I closed my eyes and it was there. I didn’t get instructions on how you were to talk with it.”

  Kay drew in a breath and stood. “I think Momma used to go to the backyard. That’s what Daddy always said, at least. Up until she lost the baby she was pregnant with before me. She almost died then.”

  Zoe listened to Kay talk as they walked through the house. Kay stopped at the sliding door. Zoe held back. “I was told I shouldn’t go out in the backyard.”

  “And I was told I shouldn’t consort with demons,” Kay insisted, looking at her. “I think we’re about even, don’t you?”

  Zoe tried to smile although she didn’t really feel like smiling. This could be her life, but she had a feeling Kay wasn’t going to go any further if she didn’t go with her.

  Kay was reaching for the slider as Zoe slid her hand into Kay’s. The other woman looked at her, sliding the door with her free hand. The warm air hit them. Zoe closed her eyes, hoped that Kay was doing the same. Together they stepped out onto the patio.

  Chapter 33

  Blake was back in the witness room, papers now scattered all over the place, still sitting in Johnny’s office chair, about which Taran had a complaint on his voicemail. Johnny didn’t like the folding chairs, no matter that he was rarely in the office.

  Blake had put up a timeline on the wall, both from Elaine’s murder and the ones earlier, looking for commonalities. Both Bethany and Jodie had been murdered on a Monday. Amanda had been killed on a Wednesday.

  The dates appeared to have nothing in common, at least not that they’d found. According to Blake, he had people looking up what had happened on those dates to see if any of them held some significance, although chances were that the dates were only significant to the killer.

  Taran stood in the doorway, holding his late afternoon coffee, which smelled better than it would taste, his shirt sleeves already rolled up because it was warm outside, although not nearly as humid as the day before. In fact, it would have been a pleasant day if he worked in an office that actually had air conditioning.

  “Get anything from Frank?” Taran asked.

  Blake looked at him, glared. “Did you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Come off it. If you’re half the officer you’re supposed to be, you were there right after I was. Probably had to pull over into the trees to avoid being seen on that narrow road unless there’s another way in,” Blake snorted.

  Taran was proud of himself for having waited until morning to go see Frank. He hadn’t had to worry about running into Blake.

  Taran shook his head. “Frank wouldn’t tell me anything back then. Didn’t think he’d tell me now. He just had a gut feeling you guys wouldn’t be any more successful than he was.”

  Blake glared and looked back at the papers, ignoring him. “What about that Zoe woman? She dead yet?”

  “You’ll be the first person I call,” Taran said, though he wanted to punch Blake for making light of someone’s potential demise, especially Zoe’s. He got nervous thinking about her, that gut feeling that something was wrong, that he needed to try and protect her, except to do so, he’d need to think in ways he hadn’t ever thought before. He’d need to think about things that shouldn’t exist, couldn’t exist.

  That creature was part of a world he didn’t understand and couldn’t just make light of, so here he stood, hoping that Kay was around and helping out, keeping Zoe safe so they’d know what they were dealing with. The newspaper archives hadn’t panned out, not the way he’d hoped. He’d been led into an attic room that no one had been in in about twenty years, at least since they’d started saving old copies on computer, and it was every bit as dusty and dank and cobwebby as he’d expected.

  “You don’t worry about something eating the paper?” Taran had asked.

  The kid who had led him up there shrugged. It was only a small town paper. They probably didn’t think they had much worthwhile in there. But Taran had dutifully set himself in his chair and began going through the papers looking for family links.

  “I got back about thirty years in the morgue,” Taran said when it was clear Blake wasn’t going to say anything else. “Nothing that linked the women so far as I could see, at least nothing other than what we’d said about them.”

  “They know each other?” Blake asked.

  “To speak to, probably. I think Jodie Mason-Hyer was friendly with Bethany Shields. Zoe called her Beth rather than Bethany. So far as I know only those who knew her well shortened her name.”

  Blake nodded, making a note.

  “The families go back, all of them, but again, didn’t see anything linking them other than living in town. They don’t avoid each other. Now and then they worked together on a pumpkin fest or the woodworking carnival they used to have here, but they weren’t close friends. More like neighbors in the same small community,” Taran said.

  “Seems like there’s something connecting them. They don’t go to the same church. They didn’t work in the same office, although they were all connected to the city government. You interview your mayor?”

  “Everyone talks to the mayor,” Taran said. “If you think he’s a suspect, you talk to him, but he’s been in a wheelchair for the last six years after a car accident.”

  Blake frowned and made another note, disappointed that a high profile collar had probably just passed him by. Not that someone in a wheelchair couldn’t kill someone else. Poison and guns were both great equalizers. Chances were, given that the women all looked untouched, the method was more likely poison, but that still left the question of why, at least it would for Blake. If Taran hadn’t already convinced himself that the killer wasn’t a who but a what he’d be tempted to mention Jodie’s dream of running for mayor

  “Chief Rees?” Mattie called from the front.

  “What’s up, Mattie?” Taran called back. He stepped out of the witness room and into the hallway that was painted a too bright white and was scuffed and scraped after years of use.

  “Got a call over on Esther. Mrs. Fisher says she saw something in her garden. She thought it was a dog but when she went out, nothing was there. She’s scared after all the stuff with this killer,” Mattie said.

  “I’m on my way,” Taran said.

  Blake was looking at him thoughtfully. “Think I should join you?”

  Taran thought about it. The Fishers would be catty corner behind the Hyer home. If something was going on, Taran didn’t want Blake there to interfere.

  “Mrs. Fisher isn’t young anymore and she’s always seeing things. Last week she was certain there was a panther in her yard. Haven’t had one of those in this area since I was born, I don’t think,” Taran said. It was true enough. It was only the timing that was off. That had been last summer, close to the anniversary of Amanda’s death.

  Taran realized that it hadn’t meant anything then, but maybe it meant something now. Something that was concentrated around the house Zoe was staying at. He needed to get over there.

  Chapter 34

  Zoe felt Kay trip slightly as she walked through the open door, not realizing that there was a slight step where the house met the concrete patio. Kay didn’t fall but she moved forward awkwardly. Zoe steadied her. The air smelled fresh and clean after the storm the other day. A few birds chirped, but they abruptly went silent when Kay tripped.

  The creature that Zoe had seen appeared in her mind’s eye, much clearer now, like he was closer. She saw others behind him, stranger creatures than even this one, with faces that were elongated like a horse or with tusks like a wild boar. She moved closer to Kay.

  “Emrys?” Kay whispered.

  “Child of the Blood,” Emrys said. There was something joyous in his voice, something that was missing from a face that did not smile.

  The others moved closer, looking at him, looking for a way around him. Their gaze was fixed on Zoe, and she clung to Kay for her life.

  “How can she help me?” Zoe whispered.
>
  Emrys turned his head slowly towards her, as if seeing her for the first time and then looked back at Kay, dismissing her.

  “How can I help her?” Kay asked when it was apparent that Emrys was not going to respond to Zoe.

  “You could wish that I protect her as I protect all of the Blood,” Emrys said.

  Kay was silent. Zoe willed her to say it. Wanted to scream that the other woman needed to say something. Now the other creatures were moving across the yard, getting closer. She could hardly make out the trees behind them or any of the bushes. Normally she wasn’t good at visualizations, but these were every bit as detailed as a movie in a theater.

  Kay was still not making a wish.

  “What is it, Child of the Blood? Do you not wish to save her?” Emrys pressed.

  “If I do make this wish, I’ll be damning my own soul, won’t I?” Kay said.

  Emrys cocked his head.

  The creatures were nearer to him now.

  Zoe fancied she could smell raw meat on their breath, though she did not see any of them breathing in and out.

  “It was a strange thing that your mother believed. I am not a demon sent to capture your soul, not as your church would describe demons. I have existed before the church and likely I will exist after. If I don’t, I will, at least, exist until the end of said church. Asking me for something should not damn your soul. If it does, the god who would do so is petty and inconsiderate,” Emrys said.

  Kay was still silent. Zoe felt her moving, like she was shaking her head.

  If she turned to look at Kay, would she still see Kay or would she look something like the Emrys creature and the things behind him? Would that space just be empty because Kay wasn’t one of these creatures?

  “Please,” Zoe whispered.

  The first of the creatures was past Emrys now.

  This was one of the ones with tusks that broke through its lower jaw and jutted up to its eyes. It had skin a color between brown and green, as if it had sprung from the earth, a carnivorous plant. The tusks themselves were cream. It opened its mouth like it wanted to take a bite of Zoe, showing a line of spiked teeth, all cream colored.