“Max, I can take care of myself. You’re safer there with Joe. I’ve got Peanut. I need to take care of some things.”
“No! Just tell me where you are. Rewsna said we needed to stay together, remember? Just tell me where to meet you. Lauren, I can’t lose you again. The last time I thought I lost you I went to a really dark place. If you leave again, I don’t know that I’ll survive. Just tell me where you are. Lauren, don’t leave me behind.”
“I’m sorry, Max, I love you. I’ll call again soon.” I disconnected the call and powered the phone off. Peanut was looking at me as if he had understood the entire conversation. I reached into the back seat and petted him, telling him we would be okay. He must have known how much I hurt right now. He laid his head on my shoulder and whined slow and steady.
I thought back to the very first time I met Max in my dream. He told me we had to meet, and we had huge obstacles to overcome. I guess it’s a good thing he didn’t tell me we would be fighting demons and beasts, or I might have run the other way. No, nothing could keep me away from Max, at least until today. Today I had been lucky. Max and his family were all possessed, probably by the same thing that had attacked me in the nursing home. When I left, so did they. Joe’s heart couldn’t be that strong. I was lucky that one of those things didn’t accidentally kill him in the process. That look in Max’s eyes - that dead look. I couldn’t risk one of those demons taking up home in him.
I was doing the right thing. As long as I stayed away from Max, there wouldn’t be any reason for them to possess him again. It would have been easy to look back in on Max and make sure he was okay, but I knew that seeing him would just make me want to call him again. I needed to stay far away from him. Some people go their whole lives without knowing real happiness. I had known pure undiluted passion, a love so strong my heart hurts at the possibility of not seeing him again, and a chemistry that no two elements on earth could ever achieve. I just needed to be content with the fact that I was lucky enough to have more love in a few weeks’ time than most people were allowed to have in whole lifetimes.
I contemplated the prospect of being alone, not just living alone, but not having any interaction with anyone because I’d only put them at risk. My parents, my friends, everyone I’ve ever known could be attacked at any time. I couldn’t let that happen. It’s much better for them not to know whatever happened to me, than it is for something horrible to happen to them and it be my fault.
As I reflected on and savored the moments we’d shared this last month, I could feel my passion for Max morphing into steely resolve. I wouldn’t let this beast ruin the life I was rebuilding. I wouldn’t remain content to have had those few weeks with Max. I would do whatever it took to get my life back.
I still had Max’s truck. I would worry about how to get it back to him tomorrow. Once I found another way to get around, I would just leave it somewhere and mail him the keys.
While still petting Peanut I said out loud, “Looks like it’s just you and me, boy.” Peanut gave me one final whine and stretched out in the back seat.
Chapter 16
“Lauren, are you well?” I could hear Rewsna’s voice in my head. “Lauren, Max found me today. He wants to see you.”
“Rewsna, stay out of this one. Tell him I don’t want to see him. Tell him to stay away from you and to not think about me.” I had no sooner pushed the thoughts out telepathically before a memory from three mornings ago of Max freshly showered wrapping his arms around me appeared. The wetness of his towel dried body, the scent of clean and Max all swirled together in my mind before I could stop myself.
“Lauren, I can see Max is on your mind. You need him as badly as he needs you. Tell me where you are and we will come to you.”
“Rewsna, send him away and stay out of my head.” I purposely started concentrating on the periodic table of elements, at least those that I could remember from freshman Chemistry.
She somehow blocked out my review of elements, and said loudly, “Lauren, what happened? Max’s mind is blank, as if it were erased. Show me what happened.”
I did as she asked, from the moment Max had come into Joe’s house, until Peanut and I had sped away down the road. “Satisfied? Tell Max to go away. I don’t know what happened to him, but whatever had a hold of him seems to be gone. If Max doesn’t know where I am, maybe it won’t come back. Just get Max away from all this!” I concentrated harder on the periodic table, anything to keep my mind from wandering while I knew Rewsna was paying attention. I had gone through the entire chart one element at a time when I listened and realized she was no longer there.
I decided I would use my talent to listen in on what she was doing. I closed my eyes and thought of her: the tunnel appeared instantly and I stepped in. On the other side I saw her in a very nice house on the beach. Max was with her. He looked terrible, like he hadn’t slept all night.
“She won’t talk to me, Max. She told me to get out of her head and blocked me. I can’t make her listen.”
“She will listen to you; she always does. Just try again. Tell her I’m sorry. Tell her whatever I did, I won’t ever let it happen again. Tell her I need her to come back, or just to know where she is. Just….make her listen.”
“It doesn’t work that way, Max. Her fear has nothing to do with being fearful of you. She fears for you. Whatever attacked you could come back. I know you think you are invincible, but once you have been possessed, it marks you in a way that the demon can come back whenever it chooses. She was right to run away from you. She was also right not to tell you where she’s hiding.”
“Rewsna, I have to find her. I know you know.”
“Truthfully, Max, I do not, but if I did, I would not tell you. You need to keep your distance. You need to go on about your life right now. The Council will help Lauren. You have been marked by a demon. This mark will only draw the Beast to her. Stay away.” I could see Rewsna all but shoving him out the door.
I was right. If it happened once, it could happen again. Marked? So the demon could find him, and now the Beast could, too? That idea sent shivers up my spine. What if the Beast decided to go after Max? Max had to be okay. I couldn’t let something like this happen to him again.
****
I checked on Max several times throughout the day. He went back to his house instead of Joe’s. He sat on his front porch for hours, never moving. In four hours time he hadn’t moved once. Initially it looked like maybe he had dozed off in the rocking chair, but his eyes were open, and I saw him holding his cell phone.
I told myself it was just the shock of everything. He would be fine. He just needed to get back into the swing of things. When darkness fell, I looked in on him again. He had left the porch and was inside lying on the couch, the cell phone still in his hand. No one was anywhere. He was alone in the house. I heard him say, “I know you’re watching. Lauren, I’m so sorry – I don’t even know what happened. Just come home.”
My heart froze. He couldn’t be talking to me? He continued, “Lauren, I know you can see me. Just come back, I can’t stand not knowing where you are.”
I pulled myself back to reality and flipped on my cell phone. I started to dial Max, the phone flashed, “Twenty-four new messages.” I stopped, knowing that I wasn’t strong enough to keep telling him no. I sent him a text instead that read, “Yes I C U. Get some rest U look terrible.” I pushed send and powered the phone off.
I was getting ready for my second night in Max’s truck when I thought of the impossibility of the entire situation. My courage brought me to him. In meeting him and nearly losing him I felt unfettered passion. From our initial meeting there were three more things I had to achieve: Empathy, Trust and Virtue. Though I had never talked to Rewsna about any of this in any detail, now might be the opportune time to ask her some questions.
I closed my eyes and rather than look in on her when the tunnel arrived, I called to her telepathically, “Rewsna, are you there?”
I waited a minute and wondered
why she was the only one I was able to share a clairvoyant connection with, when she answered, “It is I, who share my connection with you, Lauren. Where are you?”
“I’m close. Rewsna, I need some straight answers. Can you help me?”
“I can try, but some answers you seek are within you. You hold the answers.”
“This power of sight thing, I like it and I am pretty good at it now. This Beast thing that attacked me, if I try to see him will he know that I am watching?”
“No, I don’t think that he will.”
“Max can tell when I’m watching him.”
“That isn’t surprising, Lauren. He is your other half. You two are connected spiritually – there are many connections you share. The Beast should not have the same type of tie to you.”
“How do I destroy him? It can’t be as simple as shooting him, right?”
“Ah, that was the correct question. You may kill him with a weapon, a stick, a knife, a gun - it does not matter, you can kill whatever form he is in. Human is by far the most fragile, but his life is vulnerable in any organic form. But you did not ask how to kill him - you asked how to destroy him.” She paused as if contemplating my question and finally responded, “I can only tell you how we destroyed others of his kind. Trust is a powerful element. If you trust in an outcome so deeply you do not need proof of its existence, it exists. Conversely, if you trust that something you can see, touch, and feel is nothing more than a figment of your imagination, then it ceases to exist. You must slay the Beast in any form it presents itself in, then trust that it has been erased from existence – that it is nothing more than a memory. If your trust waivers, the Beast will survive.”
“After I destroy it, I will be free of it, right? It could never come back to hurt any of us again?”
“If you destroy it, yes – it will cease to exist. But if you waiver, it will find you again. So far each time it or one of its minions has found you – you have held the upper hand and you have weakened it. Should you be unsuccessful, the roles will reverse and it will be the one to grow stronger. You should not attempt to destroy it until you are certain that you can.”
A plan began to form in my mind and Rewsna watched it unfold. “I think that is unwise, Lauren. It seeks you and will anticipate that action.”
“You told Max that the Council would help me. Where the hell are they? All watching from afar? Let me guess: they have full schedules and can’t be bothered?”
“Lauren, the Council is all around you. They have not left you, but they do not intend to interfere with your destiny.”
“That’s frickin’ great, all around me but a hands-off policy? I’m supposed to beat this thing on my own and then what? Someone jumps out of the bushes and yells April Fools – we were here the whole time?”
“That would be inappropriate, it is September.” Rewsna had never tried to make a joke before and this one caught me off guard. Her sense of humor was drier than the Mojave.
“You are hysterical. So I do this on my own?”
“Do you feel that you are on your own? Did a stranger not seek you out and help you communicate with your protector, Peanut? Did that same communicator offer you a way to contact Seth? Did you not notice the cell phone store that you stopped at with Seth at ten p.m. closed at nine? Did you think it not strange that a park ranger has not bothered you in two days, though you are clearly not camping? Of course, you did not. All these things you attribute to luck or your own good fortune are the things the Council assisted with. They will not interfere with your destiny, but they do not leave you alone and are moving you toward your correct path. I see your plan. I tell you now that it is unwise, but you will decide what, if any, action to take.”
My mind spun. Mike from the rest area was on the Council? He wasn’t creepy: he looked like a regular guy. The cell phone store? It was true, we were the only customers there. I had come and gone from the park today several times never seeing a park ranger. “Rewsna, why is it such a big secret? Why wouldn’t one of the Council have told me who they were, or offered to help me?”
“They did offer to help you. You just took it for granted that it was nothing out of the ordinary. Even if you had cornered them, they would only have guided you to the correct path. The decisions you make are your own.”
“You told Max you didn’t know where I was?”
“You were watching this morning?” She waited as if she expected me to deny it, then continued, “I did not lie to him. I knew you were in a park – I did not find out until this afternoon which park.”
I wasn’t upset with the idea that she had lied to Max, but it made me feel better knowing that she didn’t. “You saw my plan. Why do you think it isn’t a good one?”
“As I said, the Beast has a good understanding of your mind. He will anticipate your plan. It does not mean you will not be successful; it just means there is a possibility you may fail.”
I contemplated that for a minute. She had been more help than I had a right to expect. I decided to end our visit, “Thanks, Rewsna, I get it.”
“Good night, Lauren. I wish you all the continued luck you have been afforded.”
Chapter 17
I awoke to a bright sunny day nearly blinded by the rays of light shining through the windshield. My back was stiff, and sometime during the night, Peanut must have gotten scared or something because he was lying on the passenger side floor with his head stretched onto the bench seat. He saw me stirring and quickly licked my face and stretched.
I opened the door and stepped out to let him relieve himself. As I stood in the early morning light, I was ready to put my plan in motion. I put Peanut back into the truck and grabbed my shower gear that I’d bought from a convenience store yesterday and made my way to the bathrooms. I took a shower, pulled my hair into a wet pony tail, brushed my teeth and headed back to the truck. Peanut reminded me of Max in that he was a nervous wreck anytime I was out of his sight.
Sitting in the driver’s seat, I closed my eyes and thought of Max. The familiar tunnel appeared in front of me, and I stepped in quickly. He was again sitting on his front porch with his cell phone in hand. I knew I needed to call him again, and let him know I was okay, but not until I finished my first errand. Ripping myself away from Max when every fiber of my being wanted only to be near him, didn’t get any easier. Every time I peeked in on Max, I knew I had to stop all this and find my way back to him.
I put the truck in drive and headed back to Joe’s house. I had pulled the truck right up to the porch, made my way up the steps, and walked through the front door with Peanut at my side. Taking my cues from Peanut, I watched the hair on the back of his neck: as it stayed flat against him, I decided it must be safe, at least right this second. Joe was at the table eating a bowl of cereal and smiled, calling, “Loraine, I wasn’t expecting you!”
His enthusiasm was welcomed, but I only held my hand up in a quick wave as I walked into the bedroom Max and I had shared to retrieve my purse. I had it in my hand and tried to leave as quickly as I came. I was two steps from the front door when I heard Peanut release a deep angry growl. Crap!
In a voice I did not recognize, very low and gravely, I heard, “Lauren, my dear, we have been looking for you. Please make yourself at home.” Joe motioned for me to sit on the couch. As I tried to walk past him to the door, he caught my arm. His grip was forceful with his fingers constricting my arm to the point of pain. Peanut witnessed the exchange and lunged. Joe’s grip didn’t loosen, but we both fell to the floor, Joe landing with Peanut’s mouth around his neck.
I screamed, “Peanut, No Halt.” I knew whatever had taken possession of Joe’s body was evil, but I also knew that Joe was in there somewhere.
Joe smiled as Peanut’s mouth remained on his neck. In that same slow gravely voice, “Very nice of you, Lauren, to keep the dog from killing me. This body is on loan. I’m sure the owner would be none too thrilled to find himself in a cemetery. Now, are we ready to be cordial with one another?”
Pretending to be stronger than I was feeling, I answered, “I don’t want to speak to you, or your master, I’ve just come to gather my things and be on my way.”
Joe laughed, a sadistic horrifying laugh that made my skin crawl and every hair follicle on my body stand at attention. Joe maintained his rigid grip on my arm. With his free hand he reached up and grabbed Peanut by the throat and threw him across the room; Peanut’s body smashed hard against the far wall. A whimper escaped, and I knew he was hurt. Joe stood up from the floor still gripping my arm in his hand. “Lauren, he has waited long enough to see you again. I knew if I was patient, you would return. Your predictability is your greatest weakness. We’ll just take a seat here on the couch and wait. He will be here momentarily.”
“Who is this ‘he’? Do you mean the Beast? Not quite a man, not quite an animal, stripped of his powers by a girl – this is who you serve? You would be better off hooking up with a bartender; at least at the end of the night you would have some of that liquid courage.”
“Be careful, young one. You know not of whom you speak. He has been very good to you. I do not recommend you anger him again.”
“I know exactly of whom I speak. You know why I wasn’t fearful to come back here today? Because I took his power of sight. I know where he is all the time and he is blind to me. He couldn’t find me in a crowd at the mall - this is why he uses you. You think he’s all mighty and powerful? The truth is he is getting weaker by the day. I say - bring it on; I say - tell him I’m here waiting: I say - he’s nothing more than a coward!”
At this last statement the thing that held Joe’s body flinched and was so surprised by my demeanor he loosened his grip slightly. Slightly was all I needed to wrench my arm away, kick him hard in the chest and run like hell for the door. “Peanut, Fus!!”
Destiny's Revenge (Destiny Series - Book 2) Page 10
