The Temptation

by L. J. Smith

Page 10

 

  “To what do I owe this pleasure?” Scarlett asked.

  “We need to talk,” Cassie said.

  “I knew you’d come around. ” Scarlett gestured for Cassie to enter.

  Cautiously, Cassie stepped over the rickety threshold that reminded her of a barn door. Inside, the warehouse looked almost like a movie set, a backdrop to a film about World War II or Vietnam. Camouflage jackets hung on hooks, helmets above, jungle boots below. There was weaponry everywhere and an odor of metal and dirt. At any moment, Cassie believed, a whistle-blowing drill sergeant might storm the set, calling for attention. After nearly thirty years of this building being abandoned, standing in it now felt like traveling back in time. It was amazing that it had never been looted, perhaps because everyone who visited here recognized its rare timeless quality.

  Chris, Sean, and Doug appeared from the shadows. They gathered around Cassie, up on the balls of their feet, their fingers spread. Cassie steeled herself for whatever spell they were ready to hurl her way.

  “Leave us alone!” Scarlett commanded.

  Then Diana called to them from upstairs, snapping them to attention. Cassie could see her standing at the top of the stairwell.

  They lowered their arms, deflated, and made their way up the steps. Cassie checked every shadow and corner. There was no sign of Adam.

  Scarlett waited for Chris, Sean, and Doug—and Diana—to fully disappear before inviting Cassie to join her in a makeshift living room. They sat across from each other on drab green military cots, opposite a metal ammunition box that served as a coffee table. Kerosene lanterns propped up on rusted crates provided the only source of light.

  Cassie looked up and all around the vast mildewed room. Old paint chipped from the walls in broken, musty shards. The air was stuffy and stale, though the ceilings were high. Cassie felt a damp chill. This was a dismal place, and she didn’t want to be here a moment longer than necessary.

  “I’ll get right to the point,” she said, edging forward to the corner of her rank cot. “You’ve won, Scarlett. I’m done. ”

  Scarlett’s lips cracked slightly into a smile and her dark eyes widened, but Cassie could see she was doing her best not to reveal too much emotion. “Continue,” she said. “I trust there’s more. ”

  “I’ve come to offer you a trade,” Cassie said.

  Cassie glanced at each corner of the warehouse floor to check for spying spirits, but she saw none. Still, she couldn’t help but feel like she was being watched.

  “I’ll trade you Black John’s Book of Shadows,” she whispered, “in exchange for your help in exorcising the Circle. ”

  Scarlett’s face brightened, but she still appeared dubious. “You must be joking. ”

  “I’ve translated most of the book at this point anyway,” Cassie continued in a hushed tone. “And it’s brought me so much trouble, I want nothing more to do with it. ”

  “But giving it to me could unleash hell,” Scarlett said. “You understand that. So what’s the trick?”

  “No trick. All I want is to save my friends. ”

  “So let me get this straight,” Scarlett said. “You’re willing to sell out the entire world for friendship. ” She uttered the last word like it was a disease.

  “Yes,” Cassie said. She knew this was a dangerous deal, but she was desperate. And she had a plan to get the book back once her friends were on her side again. For now, she had to take it one step at a time.

  “I just need your help to properly perform the exorcism,” Cassie said. “I can’t do it without you. ”

  “You’re serious. ” Scarlett finally allowed herself to laugh out loud. “You’re even weaker than I thought. ”

  Cassie rested her hands on the rough green wool of her cot’s blanket. Its coarse fibers pinched the surface of her palms like tiny slivers of glass.

  “No wonder Adam was bored by you,” Scarlett said.

  Cassie made no reaction. She wouldn’t give Scarlett that satisfaction.

  “You’ve got yourself a deal,” Scarlett said finally.

  Cassie eyed her warily. For once it appeared that Scarlett didn’t have an angle. It must be in her best interest to be rid of the ancestors.

  “I said I’ll do it. ” Scarlett raised her voice. “I’m agreeing to what you want; the least you can do is say thank you. ”

  “I’ll want to do it right away,” Cassie said. “The text of the spell called for performing it at the point of origin. So we should meet at the caves. ”

  Scarlett shook her head. “The point of origin would mean the place the spirits rose from. That would be the old cemetery, where many of their bodies were buried. And where our father is. ”

  Cassie remained quiet for a few seconds. This was another reason she needed Scarlett’s help. She was simply good at this kind of thing.

  For a moment Cassie wondered if having the wrong location was the reason the spell didn’t work before, but it was already too late to go back on the deal.

  “I’ll gather the Circle tonight,” Scarlett said. “At midnight, near our father’s crypt. We’ll need to harness as much of our family energy as possible if this is going to work. The crypt is the best place. ”

  “How will you get them to the cemetery?” Cassie asked.

  “I’ll tell them I got one of you to cross over, that we’re performing a binding spell to complete the Circle. ” Scarlett stood up and signaled for Cassie to do the same.

  She led Cassie to the door by the arm. “Are you sure you’ve really figured out the text to the exorcism spell?” she asked. “It’s a tough spell to get right. ”

  What was it that Cassie was hearing in Scarlett’s tone? Mockery? Condescension?

  No matter. There wasn’t time to worry about Scarlett’s mind games. Once her friends were saved, she’d deal with Scarlett.

  “I’ve got it covered,” Cassie said.

  She continued forward and out the sliding door. The bright afternoon sun struck her eyes as a surprise, and the gust of fresh air was welcome.

  “I’ll see you at midnight,” she said to Scarlett, trying to sound unafraid. But she didn’t slow her pace away from the warehouse’s shadow until she was halfway down the sun-kissed block.

  Chapter 13

  It was ten minutes till midnight. Cassie, Nick, and Max were walking to the old cemetery, along Crowhaven Road. Nick carried a giant duffel bag over his shoulder filled with the belongings of their friends. Cassie carried the rest of the supplies they’d need to re-perform the exorcism.

  Max pushed open the wrought-iron gate that led to the cemetery grounds, but then hesitated, looking like he couldn’t bear to step through. He glanced at Cassie and then down at his shoes. “We just buried him here,” he said, meaning his father.

  Nick put his hand on Max’s shoulder. “Why not let us handle this on our own?”

  “Because I want to be there to see these ancestors go down,” Max said. “They tried to burn me to death with the rest of the school, remember?”

  “I know,” Nick said, backing off slightly. “Then why not watch from here? It’ll be safer, for Cassie and me, in case anything goes wrong. You won’t be able to help anybody from the middle of it all. ”

  Max considered this and after a moment agreed. “Good luck,” he said.

  Cassie and Nick continued through the gate, but they only walked a few feet when Nick also came to a halt.

  “What’s wrong?” Cassie asked. “Did we forget something?”

  “No, we’ve remembered everything. ” Nick slid the tip of his boot back and forth in an arc across the crunchy gravel path. “It’s going to work this time, I can feel it. This’ll all be over soon,” he said, without qualifying what exactly he meant by this.

  Cassie knew what Nick was getting at: that she would soon be reunited with Adam.

  She exhaled deeply, unsure what to say.

  Ni
ck reached out and took Cassie by the arms. “Not everything has to automatically go back to the way it was before,” he said. “You have choices. ”

  Cassie could see the love in his eyes. But what could she do? Adam was her soul mate. “One thing at a time,” she said, taking his hand. “Come on. ”

  Walking across the soft, uneven grass brought an instant flood of awful memories. So many of Cassie’s loved ones had died recently—her grandmother, Melanie’s great-aunt Constance, Suzan. Their faces, both alive and dead, all came back to her now.

  She and Nick marched straight down the middle row, which bisected the cemetery grounds, lined on both sides with stone arches. Some of the monuments were cracked like broken teeth. Others were white and solid as bleached bones. Cassie tried to avoid looking at the ones that were crudely etched with skulls and ominous images. The grim reaper had been carved into more than one.

  When I die, Cassie thought, I want a much more pleasant figure on my headstone. When I die. Not if, but when. This was what coming to the cemetery always reminded her—that life was precious but finite, that one day she would be dead.

  Nick wrapped his free arm around Cassie’s shoulders, and she leaned into his hold.

  Scarlett and the Circle were waiting just where Scarlett had said they’d be. Under the moon they appeared like ghosts swaying in the wind around Black John’s crypt. Cassie could barely look at the colossal stone chamber of his burial vault. The hairs on the back of her neck tingled as she and Nick came upon it. She hugged her father’s book to her chest—a moment later she would be handing it over to Scarlett.

  Gaslight lanterns provided extra light, which flickered across Scarlett’s face, not unlike the way it had in the warehouse. Cassie saw that a circle had already been drawn into the ground and her friends were standing within it, waiting for her.

  Diana, Adam, and Faye came to attention at the sight of the book, but otherwise they remained still. It appeared that Scarlett had cast a spell freezing them in place.

  Cassie joined Scarlett in the center. Nick emptied the duffel bag of their friends’ belongings onto the ground and arranged them into a neat pile beside Cassie and Scarlett. He worked quickly, lighting the necessary incense and candles with his Zippo. When all was set, he took his place on the circle with the others.

  He gave Cassie a reassuring nod and, finally, a smile.

  Scarlett closed the circle on the ground with her silver-handled knife.

  Cassie lifted her father’s book with quivering hands and held it out to Scarlett.

  Dropping her knife on the ground, Scarlett accepted the book. “Let’s do this,” she said.

  Cassie exhaled a breath of relief. Scarlett must have been satisfied enough to have the book to herself to keep up her end of the bargain.

  Cassie and Scarlett linked hands to meld their energy. Cassie scanned the faces of each of her friends. It appeared they truly believed they were about to perform a binding spell for a full Circle. Their enthusiasm was palpable.

  Together, Cassie and Scarlett began the exorcism spell exactly as Cassie had done on her own at the caves. They recited the chants and performed the purifying rituals with the salt, and then with the water. But this time there was a quivering excitement within Cassie’s chest, a tingling in her legs. The energy Cassie felt coursing through her body was double what it was last time she performed the spell.

  Cassie got the sense that she was rising, swirling, higher and higher. It was a dark feeling, there was no doubt about that; it was thick with power, equal parts pain and bliss. Her breath came quickly.

  She forced her eyes open to watch the effect on her friends. They appeared just as overcome by the incredible force of the spell as she was. She could see the darkness pouring out of their eyes like tears, and their mouths, like blood. It ran down their chins, their necks and chests, down the insides of their legs, until it seeped into the moist dirt.

  Cassie and Scarlett raised their arms up in a V and called out the final incantation in their strongest voices: “Discedere, malum spiritus. Exi, seductor. Relinquere haec innocens corpora. Abire!”

  Cassie could see the black shadows within her friends rise up and out of their bodies like smoke, coiling, wheeling. The spirits were breaking free, she was sure of it. Cassie felt their energy rush over her head and past her sides, cold and dark and quick, in an icy, deathlike whoosh.

  Cassie heard herself scream. She’d flown backward, and found herself on the ground.

  She lay flat there, still for a moment, gazing at the starless midnight sky. Her head was spinning. Her bones ached. Shakily, she sat up and refocused her vision.

  As her sight sharpened, she recognized what had come into view. She was seeing Adam’s eyes looking back at her. They were the truest, most beautiful blue she had ever seen—the color of the ocean at its most radiant. The rest of his face was the same as ever: arresting and kind, with pride showing in his high cheekbones and determined mouth.