Matt woke with a crick in his neck and a stiff shoulder, both of which could be explained by Jorden’s head nestled in the cup of his shoulder, just below the collarbone, but he didn’t complain. It was the first night they’d ever spent in such close quarters and he hoped that there would be more.
Without making any sudden movements Matt looked around the den. He and Jorden had crashed out on the sofa at around two in the morning while Jesse and Saph filled the easy chair in the corner. Tony and Ana were both awake and working on Syd’s laptop, and as far as Matt knew, they had been there all night in spite of needing to get some rest. Syd, Isis and Jonas were crashed out on the floor on top of and under every blanket they could salvage.
Matt looked back down at Jorden and lightly brushed away a strand of hair that had fallen over her cheek and looked at her face. He would have liked to see some peace there but instead it was strained with whatever nightmares that plagued her. She jumped suddenly and her eyes popped open. For a moment she just looked at him with an empty stare that had him fearing he was dreaming but she suddenly blinked away her expressionless face and smiled at him before she settled back half on and half off of him.
“What time is it?” she asked into his chest.
Matt looked at the clock on the desk. “Just after four-thirty,” he said then brushed his hand down her back. “How’d you sleep?” As if he had to ask. Matt was a light sleeper and he felt her jumping all night.
“I really couldn’t but when I did it was nothing to remember,” she said then looked up at him. “What about you? Please tell me you got some rest.”
Matt thought of lying to her but whatever intuition she’d had when they arrived had turned into something close to telepathy and he knew that even if he wanted to he couldn’t fool her for long so he did the only thing he could and told the truth. “I didn’t,” he said, “at least not much. You were too jumpy.”
Her gaze grew concerned and she started to climb off of him but he held her in place. “You don’t need to be going anywhere just yet,” he insisted and held her close to him. “Who knows when we might get a chance like this again?”
“Hopefully tonight on the mainland,” she said with a smile and rested her head back on his chest.
Matt’s heart jumped and she gave a light laugh. “I thought you might like that,” she said quietly.
“Who knew you were so adept at torture?” he questioned as he swept his hand down once again and rested it on the small of her back.
“The ferry will be here in twenty minutes,” Tony said from the desk.
Tony’s deep voice was a rude awakening to the day that lay before them and no matter how much he knew that he shouldn’t, Matt wanted to tune him out.
However before he had the chance to ignore him Jorden was already sitting up and pulling her hair back into a thick ponytail. “Saph, Jesse,” she addressed just firmly enough to get them stirring. “You have less than twenty minutes to get ready and get down to the dock.”
Jesse was the first to open his eyes, though with the confines so close just that slight movement had Saph up and on her feet.
“Use the bathroom down here and stay together. No one goes anywhere near Nigel,” Jorden ordered.
“He isn’t here,” Tony said evenly, though his face showed signs of stress.
“What do you mean he isn’t here?” Matt questioned as he sat up and combed his thick, wavy hair with his fingers.
“He headed out about an hour ago. When I asked he said that he was having trouble sleeping and needed to take a walk,” Tony said. “He seems to be trying to keep up his unpossessed persona so I played along with him.”
Matt didn’t like it, but he nodded. “It’s not like we won’t know where he’ll be,” he grumbled. “But let’s take extra precautions anyway. Make sure that when you guys head down to the dock you stick together and don’t take any detours no matter what the circumstances.”
Tony gave him a nod and stood away from the desk. “We’d better head out now if we’re going to get down there in time. The ferry captain already told me that if we’re not there he isn’t waiting. I got the impression that he and the rest of the mainland folk are anticipating something.”
“Talk to people and find out for sure,” Jorden said. “They may give you nothing more than folklore but it could still be helpful.”
Tony nodded again and urged Ana, Jesse and Saph to hurry and get ready. Within five minutes they were out the door.
“Where are you going?” Matt asked as Jorden stood.
“To the computer to talk to a few old friends,” she said with a smile and light voice, though her eyes remained dark with worry. “Why don’t you go make us something for breakfast?”
“I’d rather not leave you alone in here,” he said as he walked up to the desk and leaned over her. “How about you come with me?”
She smiled and looked up at him from the chair Tony had just vacated. “I’m hardly alone,” she said as she looked down at the sleeping trio on the floor.
“Well then I would rather not be alone myself,” he said. “Come with me.”
He loved the way she looked at him, even when he knew that she was going to turn him down again.
“Fine, I’ll be in the kitchen. Did you have anything in mind for breakfast?” he asked.
“Something quick. Don’t go through too much trouble.”
Matt smiled and his heart skipped. “Miss me already?”
She smiled back at him with true love in her green eyes, which made his heart race even faster. “Like a shot in the ass,” she said in a soft, dangerously sweet voice.
From the floor he could hear a chuckle and when he looked down he found Jonas looking back at him with a wide, shit-eating grin stretched across his face.
When he looked back at Jorden she was still smiling at him and he couldn’t help but laugh himself. “Fine,” he said as he stood erect and stretched his aching back. “I’ll be back in a few.” He started his march to the kitchen but stopped just as he reached the doorway and looked back at Jonas. “Can I get you anything?” he offered.
Jonas’s grin dropped into an expression of shock and he propped himself up on his elbows. “You’re actually offering to make me breakfast?” he questioned.
Matt still didn’t like Jonas though he had managed to convince himself to cut the guy some slack; after all, he’d been through a certain amount of hell himself. However the guy was not making it easy and Matt narrowed his eyes at the man. “I’m offering to bring you in a bowl of cereal.”
Jonas smiled once again and it was cockier than ever. “I would love some, thank you,” he said in such a smarmy tone that Matt wanted to hurl, but he turned and headed to the kitchen instead. He wasn’t going to let anything ruin this morning.
Jorden wanted to laugh but didn’t. She loved the way Matt stalked off in a huff, especially since she knew that it was all for show. Also for show was Jonas’s fun loving expression. She knew that he had been through hell over the last couple of days and probably didn’t have a clue as to the extent, but for the bits and pieces Jorden and the others were able to feed him in between bouts of consciousness.
“How are you feeling?” she asked as he slowly made his way from the floor to the sofa.
“I’ve definitely been better,” he grumbled then grunted as he sat down and rested back. “And I will definitely be a happy man once this investigation is over,” he sighed.
That was an understatement that pertained to them all.
“So what have I missed that had everyone sleeping in here last night?” Jonas asked.
It was a question that Jorden didn’t want to answer but did. Using as much detail as she could, she explained to him everything that had happened since the moment he was hit over the head. When she was finished, he could only stare at her in awe and disbelief.
After a minute Jonas let out a nervous laugh. “Are you sure?” was all he could ask.
Jorden nodded. “Afraid so,” she con
firmed as Matt entered the living room with a couple of bowls in hand. The first went to Jonas and the second he handed to Jorden as he sat down in the chair next to her.
“It’s all so unbelievable,” Jonas said as he dove into his cereal. “Demonic possession?” he questioned after a swallow then followed up the question with another mouthful.
“Believe it,” Isis said as she sat up and tried to brush through her wild, dark mane with her fingers. “And if we don’t exorcise the demon by tonight we’ll lose him forever.”
Jonas shook his head. “I still can’t believe it.”
“Believe what?” Nigel asked as he stepped into the living room.
Jorden’s heart almost stopped completely and the others quickly quieted as they looked up at him.
“That were almost done with the investigation,” Matt said as cool as the sea that surrounded them.
“I thought that you rather enjoyed this place,” Nigel said as he took a seat in the chair that Saph and Jesse vacated earlier that morning.
“That was before it grew so damned inhospitable,” Matt sniped.
Nigel looked at Matt with narrowed eyes. “How so?”
Jorden knew Matt’s penchant for losing his temper and right now that wasn’t what they needed. Before he could say anything she lightly touched his back, out of sight of Nigel and the others.
“No one told you?” Jorden questioned with a mocked innocent and confused tone.
Nigel shook his head slightly.
“Something trashed all of our equipment yesterday both in the hospital and here at the cottage. I also got clobbered in the head by a flying chair.”
“And of course all of the business with the bell tower and the cemetery,” Isis added.
Nigel reached out to Isis and stroked her hair the way he would have had he not had a demon within him and Jorden knew by the look in her eyes that it took every bit of self-control she had not to slap his hand away or vomit. They had decided last night that it was imperative that the demon not know just how much they suspected, in spite of the contact Jorden had made with it. As far as the demon was concerned the contact was nothing more than a dream and Jorden was not going to change that belief.
“And how is your head?” Nigel asked as he narrowed his gaze at Jorden.
It was Jorden’s turn to play it cool. Unfortunately, unlike Matt, she was not practiced at deception. But Nigel’s life and very soul was on the line and she would have to do better than her best if she was going to keep him safe. “Fine,” she said. “Throbs a bit but it’s livable.”
“And how are you sleeping?” Nigel asked then donned a sympathetic gaze that she didn’t buy for a minute.
“Fine when I’m not having nightmares.”
“That seems to be a theme on this island,” Jonas stepped in. “Whacks on the head and nightmares seem to plague everyone.”
“And what are your nightmares about?” Nigel continued with his interrogation, and the gaze he fixed on Jorden was so resolute that she could feel him burrowing into her soul.
Jorden was far from practiced, but closing herself off to everyone and everything around her had been something she’d become expert in the years since Eric’s death and she used that pain and fear now to keep Nigel’s demon from getting inside of her head. “Nothing I care to discuss. They’re disturbing enough at night without having to remember them when I’m awake.”
Nigel’s face twisted into an evil smile that sent a chill up Jorden’s spine. “Well at least it’s nothing more than a dream, and one that you’ll be rid of soon.”
Jorden kept her gaze steady. “Not soon enough.”
Nigel and Jorden remained locked in a tense stare-off and it seemed that no one had the ill-conceived gumption to interrupt. At least she could count on the computer to come to her rescue.
“What is that?” Nigel asked as he rested back.
“Manners of cleansing spirits from their haunts,” she half-lied. “Jonas said that the new owners of this place want to build a resort here and I thought that it might be a good idea to purge as many of the lost souls as possible, try to get them to move onto the next life and such.”
“It’s hard to convince something that’s dead that it is in fact dead, then convince them to move onto a place they don’t want to go,” Nigel pointed out in a straight, matter of fact tone.
“Was it like that for you?” she asked then turned her gaze on him again only to see his reaction.
Nigel’s face remained unchanged but his eyes grew curious. “What do you mean?”
“When you fell beneath the ice and were declared dead,” she said as she recalled the tale Nigel told them about his fall through the ice on the lake near his home as a child. That’s where it all started for him…where it probably should have ended but didn’t.
“I wasn’t dead,” he said evenly. “The cold kept me alive.”
“Did it?” she questioned then looked back at the screen, which read of exorcisms and the dangers of them if they were done incorrectly.
“I’m here aren’t I?” Nigel questioned.
She glanced back at him with an attempted, warm smile. “Yes you are. And we’re all thankful for it.”
That brought a smile to Nigel’s face, and for the most part it appeared genuine. “As am I.” He looked at her a moment longer before he rose from his perch. “Well I have some things to attend to upstairs but I’ll be here for the rest of the day I think…” he said as he made eye contact with everyone in the room, “…in case you need me for anything,” he added then headed up the stairs.
They heard his footfalls fade up the stairs and the distant sound of a door closing, however Isis made certain that he truly was gone when she searched the upper floor and returned with a nod.
“Just what in the hell do you think you were doing?” Matt scolded. “You put yourself in danger.”
“We needed to keep up the façade that he’s in control and has us all fooled. As long as he’s comfortable he might let his guard down,” she explained.
Matt turned to face her and she could see just how dark and dangerous his eyes had grown. “But you didn’t need to put yourself in danger to do it,” he almost growled. “All you had to do was answer his questions. You didn’t need to volunteer any information or carry on a conversation with him.”
“And he wouldn’t have thought of that as suspicious?” she questioned.
Matt’s face remained dark but more than anger she could see and even feel his worry and she raised a hand to stroke his scruffy cheek. “I want to tell you that I know what I’m doing,” she said softly, “but I don’t. I can only do what feels necessary and right. To do anything else could kill us all.”
Matt raised his hand to cover hers. His touch was warm and inviting, and when he threaded his fingers through hers and squeezed, she did the same. “Just promise me that you won’t leave me,” he said.
She smiled and looked into his warm eyes. “Not even to go to the bathroom?” she asked.
His eyes rolled and his frustration was plain. “Damn it Jorden, I’m serious. Promise me.”
Never in her life had she made a promise that she couldn’t keep and she wasn’t about to start now. “I promise,” she said sincerely. “As long as you promise me the same.”
He gave her a nod then glanced back at the others, who didn’t really seem to be paying attention to their conversation, though both he and Jorden were acutely aware that they could see and hear everything they did and said. He looked back at her and squeezed her hand again and mouthed the words I love you.
She did the same then turned back to the computer.
“So what have you found?” he questioned as he straightened in his chair and donned his all-business persona.
“Not much so far,” she said then turned to him with a mocking smile, “too many distractions.”
He exhaled a laugh under his breath but kept his gaze on the computer screen. “Anything useful as of yet?”
She shook he
r head. “Just general information and none of it is much more than we already know from movies and television. “From what I understand we can drive the demon out ourselves but it isn’t going to be easy. Some basic tools we’ll need are sweet grass, sage and olive oil, but for the most part it’s going to take faith and strength in ourselves to come out of this alive. The one thing we have to our advantage is that we know what we’re up against.”
“How’s that an advantage?” Jonas asked. “I mean I know that it’s always best to know your enemy and all, but this is hardly a normal circumstance.” He stiffened on the sofa and lowered his tone. “From what I understand it isn’t living and it isn’t dead. And it has the power to damn us all. There’s a high likelihood that we may die and I don’t think that knowing who is out to kill us will change that.”
Jorden looked from the screen to Jonas and shrugged. He was right and there was no disputing it. “But we do have one thing that it doesn’t,” she said after a moment.
“And what’s that?”
She donned a rueful smile. “A strong will to live,” she said simply. “And that has to account for something.”
“That was Jorden,” Tony said as he dropped the satellite phone into his jacket pocket. “She wants us to find a store that sells foreign herbs or incense and pick up some sweet grass and white sage smudge sticks. Apparently both have been used for hundreds of years to keep evil away.”
“No offence to Jorden but it would take a fifty acre crop of both to get the evil off that island,” Ana groused. “I think that we’re officially screwed. We haven’t been able to get any of the local churches to give us a hand and the only person we’ve found who’s even remotely interested in helping us was that homeless man who kept babbling about the end of the world coming tonight under the shadow of a blood moon.”
“The guy was a little touched,” Tony agreed.
“A little?” Ana questioned.
Tony nodded as he thought. “But it makes sense,” he said suddenly. “We were trying to figure out why the old woman’s ghost kept telling Jorden and the others that the crossover would happen under a dark moon when tonight is a full moon. We kept assuming that her timing was skewed because we thought she meant a new moon.”
The Haunting of Isola Forte di Lorenzo Page 31
