“You fool,” he said, looking up, eyes blazing with a mad gleam. “You can’t defeat me.” But already the skin that had been flooded with his blood was decaying, turning to ashes before Slade’s eyes.
Disgusted and sickened, Slade turned from the sight and hurried to Erin, taking her in his arms. She lay limp, pale and lifeless, unresponsive to his touch. “Erin! Can you hear me?” Dear God, it couldn’t be over. He couldn’t be too late to save her….
A voice spoke in the darkness, and instinctively Slade’s arms tightened around Erin. “Get her inside,” Traymore said urgently. “Hurry. It’s almost dawn. The sunlight could kill her. I’ll take care of Racine. She’s merely hypnotized, I think.”
Gently Slade picked Erin up, cradling her in his arms as he carried her into the building and up the stairs to her apartment. For a moment, his gaze lit on the roses she’d bought a few days ago. Already they had wilted, and now he understood.
D’Angelo could have taken her at any time. She didn’t have to invite him inside. He’d already been in. The withered roses he’d seen the night Megan had died should have told him that. But he hadn’t known then who he was dealing with.
D’Angelo could easily have taken Erin at any time, but instead he’d waited. Waited until Slade had fallen in love with her. Waited until the pain of her loss would be unbearable. And now, even in death, D’Angelo was still exacting his revenge.
“Put her down on the bed,” Traymore said behind him. Slade did as he was told, and the old man bent over her, examining the puncture marks on her neck. “Downstairs in my apartment,” he said over his shoulder, “there’s a book on my desk. You’ll know it when you see it.”
“Can you save her?” Slade questioned hoarsely. “Is it too late?”
“I don’t know,” Dr. Traymore said. “Go get the book. Quickly!”
Slade rushed out, then came back, carrying the book gingerly. It was so old some of the pages were hardly more than dust. Dr. Traymore carefully took it from him.
“There are certain incantations in here. Prayers that we can try.”
“No amount of hocus-pocus will help Erin now,” Slade said angrily. “I thought you had a medicine. A cure, you said.”
“This is all we’ve got,” Dr. Traymore said. “You better muster up a little faith, Detective, if we’re to have any chance at all. If anyone can help her, it’s you. Talk to her. Let her know she has a choice. Let her know that there is a way out of the darkness. It’s called love, Detective. Show her the way.”
* * *
The darkness was complete, but Erin wasn’t afraid. The night welcomed her. She heard Megan’s voice and knew she wasn’t alone anymore. But she couldn’t find her sister in the darkness. There seemed to be two paths ahead of her, and Erin didn’t know which way to go. One was dark and one was light. Megan spoke to her out of the shadows.
“I’ve been waiting for you, Erin. Now we can be together forever. You want that, don’t you?”
“Yes.” More than anything she wanted to see her sister again.
“Then come to me,” Megan whispered. “Make the choice, Erin.”
Without thinking, Erin started toward her sister’s voice. But another voice was speaking to her now, speaking to her from the path with the light. “Come back to me, Erin. I need you. I…love you. Please, Erin. Can you hear me?”
“Nick?” Her heart surged with joy. “You love me?”
“Yes. More than anything. Come back to me, Erin.”
Erin turned back to the dark path. She could still see her sister in the shadows, but Megan’s form was wavering now, dissolving like mist. “You’ve found your way and I’ve found mine,” she said. “Goodbye, Erin.”
“Goodbye, Megan,” she breathed sadly.
She opened her eyes and saw Nick.
He was sitting on the edge of her bed, clutching her hand in his. He was no longer wearing the dark glasses, and his eyes—so light and clear and beautiful—were staring down at her with so much love, so much faith that Erin could have wept.
“You came back,” he whispered.
“I heard you calling to me,” she said softly, lifting his scarred hand to her face. “I heard you say that—”
“I love you? I do,” he said. “More than anything.”
Erin had never known such joy. Her smile was radiant, full of light. “I love you, too, Nick. I have from the moment I first saw you.” It wasn’t his darkness that had drawn her, Erin realized now. It wasn’t her fear of him that had so intrigued her. It was his strength. It was his faith that good could triumph over evil.
Deep inside, she had always known that he was the one man who could rescue her from the nightmares. He was the one man who could lead her out of the darkness of her past. And he had.
He lifted her up and carried her to the window. It was still dark outside, but in the distance the sky had lightened.
“What about your eyes?” she asked. “Shouldn’t you cover them?”
“In a minute,” he said. But Erin didn’t want to take any more chances. Tenderly, she slipped his glasses on him.
And then he kissed her as dawn burst upon the horizon.
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eISBN-13: 978-1-4603-6151-1
Dark Obsession
Copyright © 1995 by Marilyn Medlock Amann
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