by Dawn Gray
Wide-awake and curious, I flipped the covers off, and pulled down the long tee shirt that I had worn to bed. I grabbed the blue jeans off the dresser and pulled them on, buttoning them as I walked down the hall.
“What the hell?” Zander’s confused voice picked up, as I moved closer, becoming stealthy on my bare feet. He sighed and I could just imagine him rubbing his head. “I’ll go wake her up.”
“What’s going on?” I asked, as I rounded the corner. I was looking for Zander in the crowd of men, but as they turned to look at me, I saw the blood red writing on the wall. I placed both hands over my mouth as I approached, my heart racing as the words registered in my brain.
GO HOME SAMMY RICKETTS, GO HOME AND PLAY!
I couldn’t catch my breath, looking at the scratchy lettering that sprawled across the white paint, and I reached out to touch the words with my own hand. It shook as I stretched it towards the wetness and I brought my finger down over the last letter, the blood draining from my face as it stained my fingertip.
I turned and looked at Zander, whose storm had fired up again, and he raced towards me as my knees gave way and I crumpled to the floor, my eyes filled with fear.
11
“We have to stop meeting like this,” Zander whispered against my temple as he held me, shaking, in his arms. Daniels wiped the blood from my fingers and Harris approached with the small glass full of light brown liquid. Zander took it from him and held it to my lips. “Drink, Sam.”
I took a whiff of the liquid inside and turned my head away. “It’s brandy.”
“Yeah, what did you expect it to be?” Harris replied sarcastically, and shot me a smile from across the room.
“Come on, girl, drink it up,” Everett encouraged as Zander wrapped my fingers around the glass.
I choked down the liquid, coughing as it burned all the way down, and added to the fire in my stomach. The fuzzy, warm feeling of the alcohol overwhelmed my body in minutes, making it hard to hold my head up as Zander helped me to the chair. Walters and Rodriguez had done a fine job removing the words from the wall, but I still shook as I remembered what they had said.
Zander stood at ease, his feet apart and his hands folded behind his back, while he looked over the wall. It was the first actual military stance I had seen him take, noticing now that he had never once saluted Everett in my company. I assumed it was because of the whole profile that they wanted to keep, but it was odd that even in private company, they all acted like a group of buddies.
“There’s no way anyone got in here,” Daniels said, after coming inside from a perimeter sweep. “No signs of foot prints, other than ours, and no signs of any other vehicle than ours.”
“Walters!” Everett barked, the old cigar that he had finally gave way and he took it out, picking tobacco from his mouth. He tossed the thing in the trash and turned to the stocky man. “Coffee and donuts! Make sure you bring extra sugar and cream this time. You forget again, and I’ll make you do a hundred more of those sit-ups!”
“Yes, sir,” Walters answered and disappeared out the door.
Zander leaned over me, smiling as he looked into my eyes. “You’re not a big drinker, are you?”
“How could you tell?” I giggled and rubbed my nose. “My hands feel swollen and my head feels like it weights a hundred pounds. You don’t think something less potent would have worked just as well?”
“I wasn’t trying to get you drunk, Sam; I was trying to calm you down. The flames in your eyes were brighter than I’ve ever seen, and if we didn’t get you stable, you were going to burn the house down.” His voice was very plain, as if he were trying to distance himself from his decision. I took his hand. The heat raced from my finger up his arm and he took a deep breath, groaning in his head as his heart rate soared. Woman, if you don’t stop, I’m going to have to take you somewhere private.
That’s the idea, I whispered and looked up into his eyes as the storm flashed within them. He cleared his throat and then glanced up at the Captain, who seemed preoccupied with the maps on the table. “Zander, I don’t feel to well. I think I need to go lay down.”
Sneaky! His voice laughed as he looked around. “Do you need some help?”
“Please,” I asked and he slowly helped me from the chair. The brandy did amazing things to my body, not to mention to my head, but it seemed to keep the voices away, at least for the moment. Zander quietly walked me back to the bedroom, where he shut and locked the door. “You’re pushing your luck, you know.”
“Please, Everett is so caught up in catching these things that he probably didn’t even notice we left.” Zander sighed and placed his hands on my shoulders, pushing me back to the bed. “Now, you were saying something about an idea?”
I laughed at him, shaking my head, and suddenly I was caught in the whirlwind of a passionate kiss. Zander’s arms wrapped around me, holding me tightly as he laid me back on the bed, but as I was about to give into him fully, a pain shot threw my abdomen. I doubled over, breathing in deeply as Zander pulled away and he looked down where my hands covered my stomach. The red line of blood started to leak through my shirt and, with shock in my eyes, I looked up at him.
His eyes widened as he turned and watched the mist swirl in the room around us. The evil cackle boomed in my ear as I placed my hands to the side of my head. Although I blocked the audio communication from effecting Zander, he was wide open to showing me just was what standing in the bedroom with us.
It was the same ghoul, his skin pulled taunt across what remained of his skeletal being, his elongated teeth gnashed against each other with the threat of ripping us apart. As the morbid laugh grew louder, he stepped closer to the bed.
Welcome home, Sammy! It spoke to me, my eyes wide and unbelieving, and I shook my head as I scurried across the bed. Zander had picked a weapon out of the top drawer of the dresser, aimed the black 9 mm Beretta, and fired off a round into the chest of the creature. It laughed at him, swinging a decrepit hand at the gun, sending it flying, and then he whipped around again, knocking Zander to the ground. I’ve waited many years for you to come back!
“Who the hell are you?” I questioned, shaking my head, as I yelled.
Don’t you recognize me, Sammy? His voice shifting from the evil deep-throated growl of the demon to a more human one that I thought I recognized. I built this place for you!
“What do you want from me?” I whispered, trying to ease the fright in my body, as I felt the heat and flames brew from my stomach.
Setting the fire loose in the house would only cause it to burn down on top of us, and for a moment, I believed the creature knew that. Zander stood up, looking out at the beast from under the locks of his dark hair that feel in front of his eyes, and I could see the storm brewing once again. This time there was no stopping it.
I want you to come with me! You were supposed to come with me!
My heart skipped, unsure of what the creature was talking about, and then it flashed in my head. The day at the lake, when I almost drowned, I remembered that I hadn’t even bothered kicking to stay afloat, that something heavy was pulling on my legs. Just as I saw the mist swirling into a picture, I lost it, to Zander.
He stepped up to the creature, his teeth clenched in anger. He raised a hand in front of him, aimed directly at the demon, and let the storm loose. I screamed as the lightening swirled out of his fingers, hitting against the fiend with such ferocity that I thought it would fly threw the wall, but it held its place.
“Zander!” I screamed, both mentally and verbally, as the power burst around him and the imp blew up, creating a dust cloud that filled the room.
Zander had flown backwards, striking the wall as he did, and once the dust cleared, I felt my heart hit my chest with the intensity of the recoil on the gun he had just fired. I scurried off the bed, tears already cascading down my face and I knelt down beside his lifeless form. My fingers checked his neck for a pulse, and found one that was good and strong, but he wasn’t breathing and tha
t worried me.
My brain couldn’t seem to function, thinking of the next step in CPR, but my heart knew exactly what to do as I leaned down and placed my lips against his. Fire and lightening flashed before my eyes as our lips connected. He arched up towards me as his lungs filled with life. His hand gripped my hair as he tried to breathe and kiss me back at the same time. Slowly, I released him, staring down into his eyes, which held the spark of fire in them and the flashes of his inner storm.
“Your eyes,” he whispered as his breathing quickened.
“Yeah,” I smiled. “Yours too.”
A smiled played on his lips as he shook his head and blinked his eyes several times, clearing out the emotions in them as they faded back into the dark pools. I kissed his forehead, as I cradled him in my arms, while he sought to make sure all of his limbs were working. The electric current in them made them tingle, and every time he touched me, I felt the faintest of shocks.
“What the hell was that thing?” he whispered, moving the fingers of his hand individually and then clenched them together.
“Our demon,” I replied, and placed my cheek against his head. “Yours from the basement, mine from the woods.”
“But he said that you were supposed to come with him.” He sighed, and shook his head. At that moment, I realized that Zander hadn’t been as protected from the vial voice of the demon, but he had heard it through me, and that made my stomach turn. He sat up and turned in my direction, brushing my cheek with his fingers. “Listen, baby, you can’t keep me from everything.”
“I can try,” I whispered, as my voice broke and the tears ran down my cheeks.
He smiled, brushing the wetness from my skin and shook his head. “I’m a big boy; I’ve been doing this a long time. I wasn’t expecting the voice that first time, but I can grow accustom pretty quickly, so stop trying to protect me, and let me protect you.”
“Who was he? Why did he say that I was supposed to come with him?” I sighed and shook my head. “This thing just keeps getting blown open wider and wider and I’m getting a little irritated with it!”
“We’ll figure it out,” he replied quietly and sighed, closing his eyes as he rested his head against the wall. The door flew open and Captain Everett looked around the room, his gun drawn and a half-eaten donut in his hand. “You’re a little late!”
“What the hell was all the ruckus in here?” Everett snarled, looking at the disheveled room.
“We had a visit.”
“From a ghosty?” he questioned, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.
These were the men who were going to save MY ass from the big bad monsters? Lord help me, I think I’m in trouble!
“No!” I snapped and got up, slowly pulling Zander to his feet. “From the Maytag repairman, Everett! Yes, from a ghost, and not only a ghost, but apparently the one who wrote the little love note on the wall in the kitchen!”
“Baby, calm down,” Zander whispered as the tips of my hair began to flutter off my back.
I glanced over at him and took a deep breath, then moved passed the old man and his two sidekicks and walked into the living room. Walters was standing at the kitchen counter pouring sugar and creamer into several different cups and then he turned to me, a white powered mustache across his upper lip. He smiled, offered me a cup and I shook my head, taking the warm Styrofoam and stepping out the door.
The cool breeze of the morning air swept across my face, cooling the fire that burned within me. Then I looked up at the multicolored sky as the sun rose higher, casting an orange glow above the trees. Sunrise was the only good thing I remembered about my childhood. The sunrise meant the end of the terrifying nights that I spent curled up under the covers of my bed, and I closed my eyes to take in the warmth.
I smiled as soon as I felt it, the telltale pulse of Zander as he stepped quietly out the door, coffee in hand. He quietly sat down on the two-foot high wall of stone slabs that my thighs leaned against.
“I’m sorry, but it’s like a freaking school trip for these guys,” I muttered angrily as I kept my eyes tightly shut. “Do they even take this seriously?”
“When it comes down to it, yeah, they’re the best there is.” I opened my eyes and looked over at him, coffee in one hand, chocolate frosted donut in the other, and I smiled.
“I think they have a bit of hero worship for you.” I grinned and watched him cough as he swallowed the hot coffee that he had just taken a sip of.
“Oh yeah,” he laughed. “How so?”
“Well, to say the least, you are the best looking one of the bunch, not to mention at the moment you have the undivided attention of a girl, whom they have all been scolded at for staring at, innocently, and you seem to have the run of the operation,” I replied, the smile in my voice, as I slipped my hands in my pockets and leaned back on the large SUV that sat behind me. “Thank you, Zander.”
“For what?” he inquired, quite confused.
“For saving my ass from being trampled, handcuffed, beaten up by a ghoul in a cave and oh yeah, for the little heroics in the bedroom with the gun.” I smiled, looking at him as he glanced around.
“All in a days work.” He grinned and I shook my head.
“If I didn’t like you so much, I would say that you are full of yourself.”
“If you didn’t like me so much, you wouldn’t have let me kiss you that first time near the cornstalks.”
“Good point, but I’m not sure I was totally prepared for your advances at that moment. I thought you were just doing it to take me out of the current problem, which was me about to go hysterical.” Zander laughed at this and nodded with agreement.
“To tell you the truth, I wanted to do that the moment I had you backed up against the tree, the first time you stopped on the hill. God, the temptation was awful,” he said, rolling his eyes. I couldn’t help but laugh at the face he made and I shook my head. “So what about now, how should I go about helping you with your hysterics?”
“Hum,” I laughed. “As much as I would like to tell you to take me into the bedroom, after what just happened, I think we might just need to go and get this done and over with. My heart is racing, my stress is up, and I can tell that there is a storm in you that is brewing so fiercely that, at some point, it’s going to open up on top of us.”
“Wow, you really are very good at reading me.” He sighed and stood, setting his coffee down on the wall as he walked over. Gently he pushed my hair back from my shoulders, and out of my eyes, and then he rubbed my upper arms. “You have got to be the bravest woman I have ever met.”
“Not brave, just scared shitless and wishing it was over.” I huffed out a breath, grabbing the waist of his jeans. “You’ve helped, whether you know it or not. You’ve helped me fight through the urge to crawl under the nearest rock and hide until it was done.”
“It’s not helping,” he whispered; his hands resting on my neck, as his thumb traced my cheekbones. “It’s caring too much to let you get hurt. You don’t know what you do to me, Samantha. From the first moment I saw you, you were mine.”
I smiled as he leaned down, words caught in my throat. As his lips touched mine, as the fire and the storm twirled together, the door to the house burst open and the five other men in Zander’s unit came screaming out the door, weapons in hand, screeching a war cry to end all wars. All I wanted to do was cry.
12
The black men’s boot cut jeans fit tighter in some areas that I would have rather had loose, but considering they were my only option, I had no choice but to accept the fact that my bottom would be a target for every male eye on the team. They fit fine in the length, and I was able to pull them over my black boots hiding the fact that they touched three-quarters up my calf. The tee shirt was tight, and I started to wonder just what size they had decided to put me in, and after discussing it, go a size smaller.
It fit me like a glove, stretching to round over my breast and curve at my waist, showing off my shape. But I wasn’t there to b
e ogled over, I was there to settle the past with whatever strange things were going on. There was a slight knock at the door, and I glanced over it as I pulled my hair up in a pony-tale.
“Why do you knock, I can feel you through the door?” I questioned, smiling, but it came out with an irritated sound. Zander slipped in, gazing over my apparel. Then he closed the door and leaned against the wall with his shoulder, arms crossed in front of him.
“It’s only polite,” he said, staring up into my eyes.
I sighed and shrugged. “Sorry, it’s been one of those mornings.”
“Yes, I know all too well.” He sighed. “So they fit I see.”
“Ha ha, you know I think they did this on purpose.” I used my hand and modeled the black OPS outfit as if I were walking the runway.
He whistled a catcall and when I turned back to look at him, his eyebrows were up and he seemed quite impressed.
“You’re not helping.”
“You look beautiful, Sam, as always, but we’re not going in to play, and this was all we had.” He sighed.
“I know what we’re going in for, trust me, I can feel it down to my bones. Bitching about clothes just gives me something else to think about!” I snapped, and quietly sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“Sam, you haven’t done anything wrong. It’s a natural response to what’s on right now. I’m surprised you’re not terrified,” he said, shaking his head.
“I am,” I admitted, sitting down on the bed behind me. I ran a hand over the ponytail my hair was secured in and shrugged. “But, I need this; I need to know what comes next. Everything, right from the start, has led up to this point. It’s time to find out what happens now.”
“Okay.” He reached out a hand. “Let’s go see what’s next.”
