jims legacy 01 - jim sees dead people

by D. R. Rosier

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  I stepped out to go to the kitchen for some water a few hours later as we both needed some. Lia was sitting at the table on the laptop. When I was leaving the kitchen I saw her give me a glare. I wondered briefly what it was about, and then dismissed it as I entered the bedroom to Sabrina’s heart stopping smile.

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  By late the next morning Sabrina had found another cleaning gig, she also had an interview for a small role in a play in a couple of days. I wished her luck as she headed out. Lia had started to glare at Sabrina too, but even Sabrina couldn’t get her to talk about it so we weren’t sure what was up with her friend. If it wasn’t for the soft vulnerability she showed on those rare occasions I would probably be past caring at this point.

  I headed out do a different park when night time rolled around this time. I wondered about my relationship with Sabrina, it was really moving fast now and I knew I needed to keep aware of things, make sure I didn’t take it for granted. I mulled over Lia again as well. Guilt mixed in with confusion. The attitude yoyo was bothering me, but she had definitely earned some patience and slack for whatever was bugging her so much.

  Especially since, I let her die… On accident, but truth is truth.

  I knew I wasn’t focused enough and shook off my thoughts of Sabrina and Lia. I spent about an hour stalking around the part when I felt it, another demon. I stalked it. Following it, seeing if it brought me to any more quarry. That’s when I saw him pull out a bottle of liquor and a lighter. What the hell? Were demons determined to burn down Chicago or something?

  I ran forward and grabbed the bottle right out of the demon’s hand then I shot energy at him. Don’t ask me how I missed with something moving the speed of light, but I did, again. He just moved to fast for me to track, wound up hitting a tree in the background my eyes focused on when he left my vision. He jumped toward me and tried to take my head off but I ducked down and tackled him.

  I don’t miss from touching range so I pushed the energy into his body as we went flying down the street. By the time we landed from my tackle I was protecting the guy that was possessed by caging my arms together. Needless to say he ran off with a pants stain and not even a thank you.

  I snickered, having kicked the demon’s ass. I felt confident, strong, and I stupidly dropped my guard without checking for more energy in the area…

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  Ouch! What the hell was I hit with? I rubbed the back of my head, it was sore and my hand came away wet and sticky. Blood? Probably but I couldn’t see a thing so I tried to create some light. Nothing happened, I was completely drained. I also noticed that the river of energy that charges me was being eaten as it appeared. If I concentrated I could recharge my energy in minutes, relaxing takes a couple of hours.

  But here, I was screwed. No matter how hard I tried it got sucked out. I couldn’t even see enough to tell what was doing it. I also failed to figure out why I was alive and not dead, everything evil knows to just kill us if they get a shot at it. So what the hell? I stood up and hit my head on something. I was back on my ass, my head was worse and I couldn’t see. I carefully moved my arms around and finally discovered I was in a steel reinforced cage, the kind that holds vampires.

  Apparently it holds Nephilim as well because my natural strength didn’t help at all right now. I exhausted myself trying to escape anyway, and my cell phone is missing, that means no Ariel to the rescue either. I should have told her to link my sneakers or something. When I stopped moving around and making noise I heard another person sobbing quietly.

  “Hello?”

  Nothing but soft sobs. Whoever it was wouldn’t respond, maybe they couldn’t? I did the only thing I could do, I waited. It was what seemed like hours later but was probably only a half hour I heard a door opening and the lights came on.

  I wish they had stayed off…

  I was in a cage like I thought, I could see the dark energy around the bars, must be what was siphoning off my light energy. Outside the cage there were a number of ghosts, they all had a tortured look on their faces. I could see some type of control spell form in their bodies, which were really their souls.

  It was disturbing, they were locked down tight. I imagine they would have to be, dark energy is for controlling bodies, not souls. That’s why the energy can twist ghosts so badly, it doesn’t mix well.

  These ghosts looked like it was forced to mix, with horrific results.

  I also identified the sobbing sound, there was a vampire in a cage like mine but without the spell on it, she was rocking with her head tucked into her knees holding it all together with her arms wrapped around her legs. She seemed to be the only vampire down here which was weird? What kind of necromancer only had one vampire, and experimented on ghosts?

  The same kind that wanted him alive right now, which was not comforting actually. I preferred to be alive of course, but I had a feeling I would change my mind when I found out why.

  I looked up as the door to the room opened and my mouth dropped open. A woman necromancer? Not that a woman couldn’t do it, I just knew it was rare to find one that liked human sacrifice.

  She turned to the sobbing vampire and said, “Good job with this one, I can’t believe we nabbed one of the major enemies to our cause, and a nephilim at that!”

  The sobbing continued and the necromancer snapped, “Stop crying Lisa, right now. And come out of there, I’ll have use of you soon.”

  She turned to look at me, “Do you like my pets? The others laughed at me when I talked of subduing ghosts. It’s hard though, you got to nail down the soul when it’s still in the body. That’s why I have Lisa here. She snatches the live ones for me. I can’t wait to show off yours, once you’re controlled that is, and without your body.”

  She came over and started to cast spell forms on me. It hurt, badly. I was writhing in pain on the floor as they passed through my body to latch onto my soul. When it stopped hurting I looked up at her with fear in my eyes. She looked completely exhausted.

  “Those spells are a bitch, but don’t worry, I’ll have you ready in another day or two.” She snapped her fingers at the vampire and walked out.

  Lisa turned around and mouthed, I’m sorry, a tear falling down her cheek as she closed the door.

  Shit. Not good. Then I saw something that gave me hope. Out of the jumble of ghosts all twisted up in spells walked Lia. Right after that I was loaded with worry, how did she get here? Was Sabrina here? I didn’t want either of them risking themselves for me. She must have read my mind…

  “Idiota!, shut up and deal. We are saving your dumb ass.”

  “How…,” I struggled with it.

  She snorted and gave me that glare I was coming to expect.

  She muttered, “I was following you, saw vampire take you and I followed. Sabrina follows our connection. She should be here any minute.”

  She was following me? But… My head hurts too much.

  I said, “It’s important she not be seen, she could break me out, but the necromancer or vampire could kill her with a sneeze.”

  She looked at me like I was a slug and said, “Did you expect her to leave you down here then?”

  I shook my head. “No, just worried. You too, she could hurt you badly, even if she can’t enslave you anymore.”

  She started then scowled at me, “Pay attention next time. Then we will not be in danger.”

  Not much I could say to that, I did blow it. We waited a few minutes when I heard the outer door opening. I held my breath as the inner door opened and Sabrina walked in. I let it out in a long breath. She used what I showed her and unlocked the cell. I crawled out and felt light energy start to rush in me. I used it to purge the spells from my body and soul then heal my head.

  “Thanks, I’m sorry I got you in this mess.”

  I wanted to get them both out of there, it scared me them being here, but… I just couldn’t leave the ghosts, the souls, tied in knot
s the way they were. So we sat and waited for my energy to refresh while Sabrina told me all about her adventure getting here. Apparently we weren’t in Chicago anymore but in the suburbs outside the city.

  I thought I had enough energy back and started to cleanse those nasty control spells out of the ghosts one at a time. Luckily they must have had orders to stand still and not move, which made it easier. A few just left but I watched most of them crossover as I freed them, thanks written on their faces. I also needed to stop her from doing this to anyone else.

  Physical slavery was bad but… Enslaving souls just couldn’t be allowed. Luckily most other necromancers probably thought she was a nut.

  “I need to stop her, I can’t just leave. She will just enslave more souls if we do.”

  They looked scared, but they both just nodded in agreement. I led the way up the stairs, hoping they would leave when we got to the ground floor. I wasn’t surprised though when they continued to follow me up to the second floor of the house.

  When I got to the master bedroom door and opened it… The room was in deep red. Rug, bed covering, even the furniture was a dark cherry stain. On the bed the vampire was chained up, a look of resignation and disgust on her face. Her naked body had been recently… Abused.

  The necromancer had a whip in her left hand, not a leather whip used in BDSM but a wicked looking thing with hooks and shards of metal. She also had her right hand buried in her center and a shocked look on her face as we walked into the room. My face was stone when I pushed all of the power I had recharged out of my hand.

  Her dark energy shields flared, absorbing my attack for a split second, and then her entire torso and head simply ceased to exist. I may have also taken out most of the wall behind her. I was not new to seeing abuses of vampires and others. I had grown up fighting it. But walking in on it had caused a great anger in me.

  I didn’t see a phone so I opened a micro portal to my sister, I was helpless to help a vampire besides freeing them, and Lisa needed healing and sustenance.

  I didn’t want either of my sisters to have to see this, but I chose Mina, simply because she had been in a necromancer’s lair before. Ariel had not. She had only ever dealt with the aftermath at home. Sickened but determined to help this vampire who was sobbing.

  Lisa said in a cracked voice, “Please, just kill me. I don’t want to live like this anymore.”

  I opened a quick microscopic portal in my sister’s house and found her with my mind.

  “Mina, I need help…”

  I packaged up a memory of the last hour or so and sent it to her, trying to keep the worst of it blurry.

  Sabrina said, “What are you waiting for, her angry eyes focused on the bed.”

  Mina replied, “Be right there Wade… That looks really bad.”

  I sighed. “We will help her. She has been a slave under the thumb of her mistress, unable to control her actions. If she can adjust and control her darker instincts she will be free. The tears, regret and sorrow tend to make me believe she is a good person and will be able to recover. Assuming she can work through what was done to her.”

  A portal opened and my sister came through with Charlie one of her mates. They both looked a little mussed and I coughed in embarrassment. I must have interrupted their time together. Mina took one look at the vampire and I watched as her dark energy healed and fed the vampire at the same time purple energy destroyed the chains and necromantic spells binding her body to service.

  Mina briefly looked over while Charlie lifted the vampire Lisa off the bed and took her to the portal.

  Mina said, “Nice to meet you, I’ll get to know you better later, I need to get back with Lisa. Thanks for saving my brother!”

  Looking to me she said, “You’re right, despite what she was forced to do her energy is clear, she has a good soul.”

  I watched as she followed Charlie through the portal and it slammed shut. Both Sabrina and Lia were looking at me strangely. Did I not tell them we helped the good inclined vampires? That most of them were slaves? Hmm, well I guess I had some explaining to do…

  We searched around a bit, found my cell phone with the battery removed, my wallet and my keys. We didn’t find any other vampires or trapped ghosts in the house. I found the crazy necromancer’s journal. It talked about what she had done to enslave souls so I pushed some energy into it burning it to ash. I did not want others of her kind to get the same idea, or to find this information.

  I finished the cleanup, so that if a human ever came in here, which was possible when her bills stopped getting paid, that they wouldn’t find anything out about our hidden world. I was sickened by the time we were done. Normally other necromancers would cover for their ilk, but I didn’t want to chance she had completely broken off, or of another one of them finding out what she was up to.

  I opened a portal to the kitchen and completed the explanations about my family, what we did and that we currently had two sanctuary towns. My home town and my sister’s place. Sabrina looked more surprised about the polyamory idea than saving vampires from abuse and slavery, I of course had briefly explained all about my parents to Lia the other day so she asked some thoughtful questions about that part. I answered all their questions as best I could but I was pretty tired after the long night.

  Chapter 3

  I was checking some websites on Chicago volunteer fire departments. I had the beginnings of an idea that it might be a good way to track these fire starting demons. Plus I had to admit to myself the thought of saving people appealed to me, even if I would have to be subtle about any light energy use and nephilim strength.

  I accidentally closed the browser instead of the tab, so I was looking for the last site I was reading in the history when I ran across several polyamory websites listed there. My mouth kind of just dropped open. Could this be what Lia was looking at? I had dismissed the glares as anger about her death, or jealousy over being able to eat food.

  But as I thought back they also seemed to coincide with right after Sabrina and I had sex. Could the glares be jealousy of a more intimate kind? There was also her following me around, keeping an eye on me, making sure I was safe. She risked her soul’s safety to follow a vampire to a necromancer’s lair, even if that lair was a two story house in the suburbs with a dug out basement.

  I hadn’t consciously thought about it because I was so smitten with Sabrina but Lia was an extremely sexy and confident woman. Beautiful dark olive skin, expressive brown eyes, long wavy dark brown hair, curvy body and generous B cups. She also had a fiery personality which I liked. Those glares were definitely taking new meaning as I thought over it.

  But… I had always been neutral on this subject. My father had been bullied into it almost, granted with a big smile on his face. My sister Mina had gone out specifically to find polyamory as one of her goals, and had brought together a wonderful group of people with her love and open honesty.

  I however would be happy either way. I know Mina would have dropped someone if they weren’t into polyamory, because she had a focused goal. I on the other hand was just open to the possibility of it. I would not leave Sabrina if she hated the idea.

  I was also aware that it could be complicated either way. With her connection to Sabrina, Lia kind of came in the package. But would it be family friend or fellow lover? Or would things get bitter and push her to move on? I also took Lia’s questions about it in a new light in addition to seeing these websites, I had a feeling I would find out about it soon either way. Ladies love to talk about this stuff so I can’t imagine they won’t discuss it between them, soon.

  I also admitted I liked Lia, admired her. I was definitely open to the possibility. When she wasn’t glaring at me anyway, or calling me an idiot in Spanish while throwing both arms up in the air. Damn, ok, I was finding that part kind of hot too now. Mostly the thought of trying to tame her… And failing badly.

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  I tracked down what I needed to know and went to the
closest volunteer firehouse that had a training section. I would need to take and pass a course before I could join so I signed up. With my nephilim strength and reflexes I had no worries I would pass, I knew I would be more focused on keeping it down to a normal human level for someone in great shape.

  I took home the materials and got familiar with them, I didn’t have Mina’s ability to just memorize everything but my recall was slightly enhanced and I had no trouble graduating with a 4.0 from college. I spent the rest of the afternoon on it, looking forward to next week when the classes started.

  I was finishing up and thinking about Sabrina, wondering what she thought of polyamory. Mostly worried she and Lia wouldn’t be able to look past jealousy and see the benefits of such a relationship. Beyond the physical I mean.

  As I thought about her I felt a connection inside me and examined it. It seemed to lead to Sabrina but it wasn’t a one way hook, it was two way and I had never seen anything like it before. Had we connected to each other subconsciously during a love making session?

  I was pretty sure she was still taking a nap before heading out to work. I knew she didn’t need the cleaning job, but didn’t say anything, for the same reason I was looking into being a volunteer fireman. It was important to feel like you contributed to something.

  I opened up our link out of curiosity, her mind was completely opened up to me, and she was in a dream right now. I also knew that she could do the same to me at any time. I was filled with comfort by the idea of being able to talk to her and find her through the link and vice versa. I thought I should feel uncomfortable about the loss of privacy, but found I didn’t.

  I let the curiosity lead me and peaked inside her dream. She was having an erotic dream that I was taking her from behind. She also had her face buried between Lia’s legs. I had never seen Lia naked and couldn’t help but look, assuming it was accurate and Sabrina had seen her at one time or another when they were roommates.