“But why? How can you die? What’s wrong?” he asked, complete despair in his voice.
“I am not immortal.” Her melodic voice floated on the air and in the very waves of the ocean. “I cannot sustain my life much longer.” She paused, making sure he was looking her in the eyes. “Unless…”
“Unless what?” Memory Matt asked quickly.
“Unless I am able to receive an immortal soul to sustain me,” she said, and I felt the air shift around me, around all of us.
“How do you get an immortal soul?”
“From a human man,” she said softly, pressing more kisses to his cheeks and neck, working down to his collarbone.
“But you said immortal?”
“Humans have immortal souls, my love.”
“Why a man’s soul?” he asked.
“Because I am female, I need the complimentary soul,” she whispered into the hollow of his neck.
“Take mine then, we can share it,” he offered excitedly.
“No, my love,” she said sadly, shaking her head. “You cannot share a soul, you can only give it away, and if you gave me your soul, then you and I would be lost to each other forever.” Pain stole over his face at her words and he clutched her tighter against his body. “But you can find me a soul. Bring someone to me, here in the water, and I will take care of the rest,” she whispered again and the look of complete joy that came over him totally erased any other feeling.
“I can do that, I promise. I won’t let you die,” he said, and she twined her fingers in his hair and kissed him full on the mouth, making him lay back in the water as if it were as firm as a bed and she was lying on top of him. I realized I was expecting to see a tail taking up the lower half of her body, but instead her slender waist gave way to round hips and long, lean legs. Her skin shined silver in the moonlight just as brightly as her eyes had. As she kissed him and caressed his body, they sank into the water out of view. I turned and looked at the Matt standing next to me and he nodded. Matt guided us into the water until we could see them clearly and it took the rest of my self-control not to claw my way out of the water when I looked at them.
The beautiful woman that had appeared above the water was transformed into something reminiscent of a fish or amphibian. Her face was wide and flat, green skin stretched over the sharp bones. As it reached up to caress Memory Matt’s face, I saw those same black, nightmarish nails that the creature that had pulled me under had. The beautiful legs were gone and in their place was a large powerful fishtail, the scales glinting in the water and moonlight. Memory Matt broke away from the kiss and began kissing down its neck and it turned its face towards me and I swear it looked right at me; I fought the urge to look away from the terrible face.
Matt gripped my hand tightly and pulled. We were still in the water, but the moon and stars were gone and in their place was a bright sun and blue sky. We were alone in the water. I looked at Matt, confused, and started to open my mouth to repeat the command to remember when he gave a tug on my hand again and nodded towards what he was looking at, so I turned to follow his gaze.
At first I couldn’t see anything because the water was so black and polluted. Although I could not feel, smell, or taste anything, I had felt my stomach roil at the thought of being submerged in the murky water and wanted desperately to get out of it. Matt raised his free hand in front of us and waved it in the water, as if dispersing a cloud, and the water cleared in front of us just enough to see through. I saw the creature again, but its face was something out of a horror movie, all razor teeth and crazed eyes bulging out of its face. A body was floating in front of it, arms slightly open, legs still, and the water playing games with the dark hair; for one brief moment, I was terrified I was looking at a drowned body, but I couldn’t look away from the water creature long enough to let that thought register.
It reared its hand back, black claws glinting in the muddy water, flashing dangerously, before it struck out at the body in front of it, plunging into the chest of the boy in front of me. I screamed before I could stop myself. I heard a sickening sucking sound and watched as the wound closed around the wrist of the creature, as if healing around it, and fought not to look away.
The creature pulled its hand free excruciatingly slowly and, as its hand emerged out of the chest cavity, the wound sealed itself. I was watching its hand and the glowing orb pulsing golden light through its fingers. A look of rapture transformed the terrible face into some horrible beauty as it clutched the treasure to its chest. Matt pulled us to the surface before I could see what it planned to do with the soul it had ripped from the body. When we came up, I could see Memory Matt treading water with a blank look on his face as his brother’s body came to the surface, bobbing on the surface of the water.
“Oh my love.” I heard the melodic voice whisper behind me and I spun to look at the now beautiful, naked woman treading water just a few feet away from the two boys. “That was magnificent, but I’m afraid his soul didn’t work,” she said, her face falling, making Memory Matt’s heart ache at the sight of it. I could taste the lie of her words. One pearl like tear that trailed down her cheek snapped Matt out of his daze as he swam to her, gathering her into his arms.
“What can I do? Please, anything, just tell me,” he begged while Dale floated helplessly besides them. His face was scrunched up in pain, but he was definitely coming to and I knew the boys would make it back to the beach, separately, where Dale would attempt to drag Benny into the water next. The woman kept one hand wrapped around Memory Matt’s neck as she stared into his eyes and reached out with her other hand and grabbed Dale’s ankle, sinking her nails into his skin, and I felt the air shift again as if she had just cast a spell I missed.
“Find me another soul,” she commanded.
Chapter Eight
I came back to myself, still kneeling in Matt’s living room, my hands still on him and Jodi next to me. It took me a minute to get my bearings before I could release Matt from the trance and leave him lying asleep on the couch. When I was able to take my hands off of him, I sat back on my heels and looked at Jodi, who was now paler than normal and looked a little tired.
“You okay?” I asked, examining her face carefully.
“Yeah, just took more than I expected,” she said in a breathy voice.
“I’m sorry, sweetie, he’s got it bad. Even though it was a memory, he was totally affected and was affecting me,” I said, shaking my head.
“It’s okay, I just need a little…” she hesitated, as if not sure what it was she needed.
“Here, hang on,” I said and ran into the kitchen. I opened the fridge and found the milk and poured her a glass after I whispered a blessing over it and added a dollop of honey to it. We called Jodi “Fae” as her elemental name because she was so closely linked to the faeries, and I knew this was like a tonic for them. “This should help,” I said, pressing the cold glass in her hand.
Steven and I watched silently as Jodi drained the glass after the first tentative sip, finally lowering the glass and wiping away the mustache it left behind. The faint pink came back to her cheeks almost immediately and her blue eyes sparkled in the light again.
“Better?” I asked, and she nodded with a smile. “Good, now we need to get to work on him,” I said, pointing at Matt still asleep on the couch. I filled them in on what I had seen in the memory walk with Matt, explaining how the creature was able to look like any teenage boy’s wet dream, but once under water her true form came back. They both looked like they had swallowed something sour by the time I was done explaining.
“So what do you think we need to do?” Jodi asked.
“Binding?” Steven asked.
“I think we’re gonna need to banish first, sever whatever connection she’s got over him, and then try to bind him. If he’s the one fetching souls for her, then we’ve definitely gotta stop him.”
“So how do you want to do the banishing?” Steven asked.
“You mean how do I want you
to do the banishing?” I corrected.
“Me? Why me?” he asked, a little panic evident in his voice.
“Because she’s a water elemental and you’re a fire; you’re our best weapon to repel her.”
“Right,” he said slowly and I could tell he wasn’t too happy being put in the spotlight just yet. “How do we know his parents won’t walk in while we’re working?”
“Good point. Fae,” I said, looking around to her, “go find a mirror that we can use.” She nodded and hurried off into the house, coming back a few minutes later with a small hand mirror. I blew a hot breath over the glass, causing it to fog, and waited as it cleared and I was staring into the yellow-gold eyes of the mirror spirit, looking for all the world like an ordinary house cat.
“We will need a warning,” I said and pictured the faces of Matt’s parents in my mind, holding it there until the cat turned his head to the side and then scampered off into the depths of the mirror, disappearing from sight. “Okay,” I said, “I think that’s the best we can do right now. Let’s just hope we’re able to finish before they come back.”
Jodi and I went into the kitchen to look for supplies, not wanting to go out to the car and call attention to our presence from the neighbors. I found the salt and olive oil in the same cabinet and Jodi grabbed the rosemary from the spice rack and found garlic in a drawer. I grabbed a small saucepan from the pot rack on the wall and Jodi found emergency candles in a junk drawer.
When we came back into the living room, we saw that Steven had picked up Matt in a fireman’s carry, tossing him over his shoulder, and was opening the back door. We didn’t question him and just followed him outside and helped him lay Matt on the patch of grass just past the patio.
Steven took the salt from me and pulled open the spout while Jodi and I began organizing the other items. Steven walked a wide circle around us, whispering a prayer normally heard in Catholic churches. He was careful to be on the inside of the line before he sealed the circle by joining the two ends and then sat down on the opposite side of Matt from me and Jodi. I was pouring the olive oil in the saucepan and Jodi was crushing the dried rosemary in her palm to release the oils before sprinkling it in. Steven reached over Matt’s body, grabbed the garlic, and broke off a couple of cloves from the bulb, peeling them and dropping them in the oil. I held the pan up to Jodi, who took in a deep breath and blew it over the liquid, making it swirl in a tiny whirlpool before it settled again.
“Angels, hear my call,” I started the spell, calling on angels to make Steven more comfortable. “Bless the oil and bless this space.”
“Earth, Air, Water, Fire.” Jodi had turned her face up to the sky and started the chant of the elements while Steven and I worked.
“Angels, hear my call,” Steven took up the second line of the blessing. “Bless this oil to banish all negative energies that are near.” I felt the air surrounding us still momentarily, and even Jodi missed the beat of her chant in that moment. The oil in the pan grew warm in my hands and the air around us swirled in anticipation. I could hear the distant whisper of feathers on the wind and was suddenly very aware of weight hanging from my back. I thought of those times I had seen myself sitting with large black feathered wings erupting from my back and smiled, knowing Steven’s call had been heard and answered.
Steven picked up the candle and contemplated it for a few moments, moments that were silent except for the whisper of Jodi’s chant invoking the four elements. Finally he shook his head and set the candle down and reached two fingers into the pan I was still holding, dipping his fingertips into the oil and smearing them over Matt’s eyes and whispered, “Let him see what is truly there to be seen.”
He dipped his fingers in the oil again; each time the pan became a little warmer in my hands and I had a moment’s worry about just how warm the pan could get. Steven smeared his fingers over the hollow where the collarbones meet and whispered, “Let him say what he truly wishes to say,” and smeared a cross over his chest above his heart, under his shirt. “Let him feel what he truly wishes to feel.”
Warm air swirled around us, trapped inside the circle of salt, and narrowed down until the warmth only surrounded Matt and Steven. I set the pan down next to me, took Jodi’s hand, and began chanting to the four elements with her, cutting in to chant only to Air and Fire every other line. Steven held his hands out over Matt’s body, palms open over his chest, and whispered, “God be with me. Angels, watch over us.”
A blue flame sparked to life between Steven’s hands and Matt’s body, but Matt’s clothing didn’t smolder under the heat of it, and if Matt felt the fire, he didn’t make any motion to indicate it. The blue flame flickered white and purple intermittently as the wind swirled faster and faster around Steven, finally erupting from his hands and snaking over and around the two boys. The fire covered Matt’s body, and if I didn’t know what I was looking at, I would have assumed he was being consumed in the flames, but still he laid there, calm as a Hindu cow.
“Earth, Air, Water, Fire,” I continued to chant while Jodi whispered, “Air, Air, Air, Fire, Fire, Fire.” The flames leapt and smoldered until they began folding back on themselves, centering on a point just over Matt’s chest, exactly where Steven had smeared a cross with his fingers. The flames flashed to black, startling all of us, and we could smell the burning sour of sulfur just before the flame exploded over Matt, the force of it rocking all of us. Then it was just gone. Even the wind had faded away and the whisper of feathers had stopped.
I felt a surge of anger just like I had when Jodi and I had laid hands on Matt in the water and felt it die away. The connection was severed. I took a deep breath, feeling it burn my lungs as I held it there before blowing it out.
“Oh crap! Terra!” Jodi said frantically, pointing at the mirror by our side. The feline mirror spirit was sitting inside, waiting for one of us to see her. She turned away from us when we looked up, flicking her tail as she walked away. The glass shimmered and we watched the distorted imagine of Matt’s mother’s car driving down the road as it passed other cars.
“Move!” I said suddenly, making Jodi and Steven jump. We turned as one and said a quick thank you and blessing as we broke the circle to let us out without letting in the negative energies that were always attracted to light. Jodi and I began scuffing the salt into the ground with our feet to hide the evidence as Steven bent over Matt’s prone body and hauled him up over his shoulder and went for the back door. We ran inside, Jodi taking the pan of oil into the kitchen and rinsing it in the sink quickly while I rushed to the couch where Steven deposited Matt again.
“Sleep well now,” I said with one hand over his forehead. “Let no spirits enter here. Guardian angels, watch over this child. Sleep well and keep all negativity clear.” Matt inhaled deeply as I watched and his breathing became slow and steady like anyone else asleep, and we all ran for the door.
“Too late,” Steven said, the only one who was tall enough to look out the half-moon window at the top of the door. “She’s coming up the walk,” he whispered and ducked quickly as he spun around. I cursed under my breath, looking for an escape route. I thought about going for the back door again until we heard the jingle of keys just on the other side of the door.
We ran for the hallway, getting around the corner just as the doorknob turned. We hurried down the hall as quietly as possible until it turned to the left, leading to the master bedroom. We stopped there, hidden around the corner, so I could look down the hall and check on Matt’s mother’s progress. She stepped out in front of the hallway and I pulled my head back before she could look down and see me.
“Matt?” she called out tentatively. Matt groaned softly in answer and I breathed a little easier when she stepped into the living room and was past the hallway entrance. “Oh, honey, are you okay?” Her voice was distant, but I could still hear her. If Matt answered her, I couldn’t hear him.
Should we try to get out of here through this bedroom? Jodi’s worried thoughts came to m
e in bright yellow as she touched my back. I nodded wordlessly. Steven grabbed the doorknob to the bedroom and turned it as slowly as possible, but the door didn’t give right away. He leaned his shoulder on it and gave a light, but firm push. The paint on the edge of the door stuck to the doorframe and made a noise as it gave that made us all freeze, our hearts pounding somewhere in our throats.
“Hello?” Matt’s mother called out from the living room. “Ted, are you here?” I pushed Jodi into Steven, forcing them through the door and into the room. I closed the door as quietly as I could and turned around to their terrified faces. Steven mouthed a curse and looked around frantically, but I was suddenly very aware of a sense of curiosity and trepidation coming from the hall and I knew Matt’s mother was gaining on us. I pointed to the side of the bed farthest from the door and Steven dove for it. Satisfied that I couldn’t see Steven unless I walked around the bed, I grabbed Jodi and dashed into the open closet just as we heard the door make the same protesting sound as Matt’s mother opened it.
“Huh, must be swollen from the heat,” we heard her say as we crept deeper into the closet, letting the dresses and coats hide most of us and praying the darkness did the rest. “Ted?” she called out again and paused. When no one answered, I heard her shoes clack on the floor and realized she must have gone to check the adjoining bathroom. “Strange, I thought I heard this door open,” she said quietly to herself. Jodi and I were still holding hands, our nails digging into the other as we held our breath.
When we heard the door close, Jodi started to move, but I held her hand and pulled her back, urging her to wait. I concentrated on a point of energy in the palm of my free hand, feeling it heat up almost instantly. Imagining a flower made of pure light, opening one petal at a time to the sun, I sent the line of power out of me to search the room for Matt’s mother’s signature. When I could only find the answering heat of Steven’s magic thrumming on the floor, I pulled it back to me, satisfied we were alone in the room again. “Okay,” I whispered, “now we can go.”
Elemental Series Omnibus Edition Books 1-4 Page 66
