“I know.”
“No, Becca, you don’t.” He dropped his hand and turned toward Sabastian, stroking his nose as my hand fell from his chest and slipped down to my side.
“Leo, what’s going on?” I asked delicately.
His back was toward me, “I don’t know. I think I may have really screwed up.”
“Why? What’d you do?” I couldn’t fathom Leo messing something up so badly that he’d be this bothered.
“I cast a spell,” he turned and locked eyes with me.
“Okay?” I waited for the other shoe to drop. I could feel it coming. I always could.
“It was a, a dark spell.” He looked panic stricken.
“What? Leo, why? Why would you do that?”
He let out a built up sigh, “To bring back my mom, Bec. I swear, I didn’t think it would work, but I had to try. I needed to see her, even if it was only for a minute, but I never thought it would actually work. You have to believe me.”
“Of course, I believe you. Leo, it’s okay. It’ll be okay. But why? Why did you need so badly to see her again?” I didn’t understand. I couldn’t understand why he’d ever risk doing dark magic.
“I had to. I couldn’t…I didn’t save her, and I needed to tell her that I was sorry. She didn’t have her powers anymore because of me. She gave them up for me!” Leo was almost yelling now. “After everything she’s done for me and given me, and I let her down. I couldn’t do what I’m supposedly made to do. I couldn’t save her. I just needed to know…to see…that she was alright, wherever she ended up. It’s my fault.”
“Leo, are you crazy? How in the world could anything involved with you mom’s death be your fault? That’s insane. You did nothing but try to save her. You and my dad chased off the Shifter…the Wizard. You made her attacker flee our entire area, and they haven’t been back since.”
“Exactly! I didn’t catch them, and I didn’t kill them! I didn’t avenge her death, Becca, and she died in vein. I didn’t save her and I didn’t catch her killer,” Leo let out a giant breath. He seemed exhausted, and I doubted if he’d slept much over these past months of solitude and separation.
“Leo, you did everything you could…everything within your power, literally. You and my dad both did. There’s absolutely nothing for you to feel sorry for. That stuff is not your fault. None of it. Do you hear me? It’s not your fault.” I pled with him to understand. I caressed his cheek with my hand, whether he wanted me to or not.
“I’ve been seeing her,” he stated bluntly.
“You brought her back? It worked?”
“No, no…I don’t know.” He looked so overcome with more emotions than I could possibly guess.
“Leo, you have to tell me. What did you do?”
“I don’t know. God, Becca, I don’t know. I’ve been seeing her. She just appears out of nowhere when I least expect it. At first, I thought the spell worked and that it really was her…or whatever I brought back. But she doesn’t speak or come to me. She’s different too…dark, scary. It’s not really her…I know that…it can’t be. She watches me, and it’s not like she’s watching out for me, but almost as if she’s biding her time and when it’s right…” Leo lowered his head and his eyes looked almost dark. “She’ll come after me.”
“Are you sure? I mean, couldn’t you just be imagining her? You know, because of guilt or whatever, because you want to see her so badly?” There had to be a logical explanation for all this.
“That’s not what’s happening. I’d never imagine my mom, I couldn’t imagine her…” he paused. “Like that.”
“Okay,” I stated simply, trying to form any conclusions in my mind that made a lick of sense.
“Becca, I don’t know what to do. She’s appearing more often now, and at night I’ve seen her outside the cottage just wondering around. It’s not my mom. My mom would know the way in, but this one…she’s searching for something. She knows I’m there, but she can’t figure it out. Not yet anyway.”
“We’ll figure this out,” I assured Leo. “Maybe, maybe you could stay at my house, you know, safety in numbers kind of thing.” “No!” he spit. “I’ve seen here there too. A couple times out by the woods.”
“Jeez, Leo! Why didn’t you warn me…warn my family?” This was turning into a huge mess. No wonder he’d been so distraught.
“I’m telling you now. I didn’t know what was happening at first. I thought it was just my spell. I didn’t know that something dark was stalking all of us. I didn’t know there was anything to tell.” He sounded so desperate.
“Okay, okay, but good Lord, Leo. This is serious. I mean, this could be the work of another Wizard. A dark Wizard. Maybe a Shift…oh, God, no.” I shook my head as the realization flooded into my mind.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Leo said slowly. His tone allowed for the entire gravity of the situation to hit me all at once. It felt as if I’d just been hit by a two ton MACK-truck.”
“Is it possible?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied flatly and stone-faced.
“To possess a…?”
“Yes,” Leo answered with a somber tone.
“Human soul?” I whispered, afraid of his response, but I already knew what his answer would be.
“Yes.”
“My, God…I didn’t know. I should’ve suspected I guess, but I never imagined you could…we could…I didn’t know.”
“It’s her killer, I’m sure of it,” Leo said quietly, gritting his teeth.
“Do you know who killed her?”
“No, but I have my suspicions,” he squinted his eyes deep in thought.
“Who?” Anxiety rose inside me. Suddenly I had a mission, and my world had finally come back to life after months of hibernation.
“Becca, think about it. You know who,” he sounded desperate, shoving Sabastian’s lead into my free hand. Leo walked out into the morning light, shedding his flannel shirt now that an official, springtime temperature had begun to make sporadic appearances. This was one of those days.
I followed him through the barn and out into the warm rays of crystal clear sunlight with Sabastian and Cleo clopping lazily on either side of me.
I stood flabbergasted, “How could I possibly know something like that, Leo?” Anger tinted my tone.
“Becca, you know,” Leo turned to confront me. “That’s what the killer thing is…you’ve known all along, and somewhere deep inside so have I. You just won’t allow yourself to believe it.” He was so sure of himself.
I racked my brain, searched each and every corner of my mind. Memories replayed themselves in my head as I desperately sought out an answer.
“Come on, Becca…think. You know who’s capable of this.”
“If you’re so sure, then why won’t you just tell me?” I almost yelled the question at him.
We stood in silence, eyeing one another, for what seemed like minutes.
A stick, or cornstalk, snapped in the distance. It echoed across the warm, dirt cornfields and rang out over the symphony of chirping birds, relishing the warmth of the sun. We both turned to look.
“What was that? Did you hear it too?” I asked Leo in a hushed tone.
“I think it came from your house,” he answered in a whisper, his body rigid and alert.
We both remained completely still, then I looped the horses’ leads around my hands, tightening their leeway in order to still and steady them. I continued to stare toward my house.
“There, I heard it again.”
“I know, Leo, me too. But I don’t see anything. Maybe it’s just an animal nosing around. Where’s Lullabelle?”
Lullabelle had returned to her corner in the barn and resumed napping on top of the old ratty, horse blanket. As I turned to check for her, I thought I caught a hint of a fiery-red blur disappear behind the back corner of my garage. Perhaps not. There was still nothing to be seen when I focused my eyes again across the road and cornfield.
Something happened whi
le I was attempting to spot another flash of red. Leo was on the move. He hastily unwrapped Sabastian’s lead from around my fist, pulling me forward with him a few steps. In one swift movement, Leo pulled the lead up, spun around, and with a running leap he jumped onto the horse’s back and was barreling bareback across the field toward my house.
“Damn it, Leo!” I called out. Did he ever think of consequences? No, of course he didn’t, but wasn’t that one of the reasons I had always been so drawn to him?
I hurriedly backed Cleo up against her stall, climbed onto the chair sitting just outside the sliding stall door, and slid my leg over the arch of Cleo’s slick back. I hadn’t ridden bareback since I had been a little girl, and even then it was only at a walk or trot at most. I held on tight, closed my eyes for one second and said a silent prayer that I could stay on my horse, then kicked Cleo with my heal to get her moving.
Once out of the barn, I tapped my heal again, giving Cleo a “giddy up”. I followed the same path across the empty cornfield toward my house that Leo had plowed through just moments ago. The sweet smell of fresh earth and new Spring grass filled my senses as my white-knuckled fists refused to ease up on the lead.
I attempted to catch up to Leo, but that was an impossible feat. He had already crossed the road dividing our properties, and was already approaching the side of my garage. He barreled around the corner of it and a figure darted out from the opposite side. The figure was obviously female and had sandy-blonde hair, that much I could tell from the road.
I made a slight adjustment in angle on Cleo’s lead, angling myself toward the running female figure, and sped across the field toward the woman so desperately trying to escape into the woods. I couldn’t allow her to get away. I knew that if she reached the woods, we’d lose her. We wouldn’t be able to ride the horses through the dense trees.
I aimed to cut her off, intercepting her path toward escape. I closed in. Where the hell was Leo? I glanced behind me with a half turn of my head, but he’d never emerged from behind my garage.
“Leo!” I screamed.
The woman glanced at me momentarily. Instinct had taken over her actions, and my scream for Leo must have startled her enough that her body simply reacted as she looked back toward the sound.
“Oh, my God.” I slowed my pace for a split second, then kicked my horse into a full-fledged run.
The woman, it was Leo’s mom. Her killer actually, but disturbingly one and the same.
“Leo!” I screamed again, somehow even louder this time than before.
Leo finally emerged. He was no longer riding Sabastian. He walked out from behind my garage with an arm wrapped in a deathly headlock around none other than Zoey’s brother, Luke. What the hell was Luke doing here? This is crazy, I thought. I’m chasing Leo’s mom --- her murderer, actually, that somehow looks like Leo’s mom --- across a cornfield riding bareback while Leo is about to strangle Luke Fitzgerald in my backyard. What the hell had my life become?
Leo shouted something at Luke that I couldn’t understand. Luke was nonverbal, crumpling under the strain of Leo’s bicep against his esophagus.
I shouted again out of desperation, “Leo, let him go! We have to catch her!”
I sped across the field as rapidly as I could ride without losing my grip, and even now I wasn’t so sure how long I could keep this pace without falling off.
I looked back once more. “For the love of God, Leo, leave him!”
Leo hesitated for a moment, lost in indecision. With a growl of frustration and pure anger, he threw Luke to the ground. “Shit!”
Luke put up a hand, bracing himself against the side of my garage, and struggled for breath as his chest heaved, sucking in fresh, desperately needed oxygen. A moment later, Leo barreled around Luke, riding bareback on Sabastian once again.
The killer, camouflaged in the body of Leo’s mom, neared the front row of trees to the woods.
“Ha!” I heard Leo yell to Sebastian, the galloping hooves quickening behind me.
“Let’s go!” I kicked my heal into Cleo’s side one last time, knowing I couldn’t handle the speed, but I couldn’t tolerate the image that flashed across my mind of the evil person --- Wizard --- fulfilling their attempted escape.
Leo was nearly side by side with me now as the killer approached the first few trees at the entrance of the woods.
“Faster!” Leo urged me.
“She’s gonna get away, Leo! We can’t catch up to her in time before she runs into the woods! What should we do?”
“I’m not losing her, not this time,” he said, gritting his teeth.
“Should we get off and run after her? Follow her? We could fly. I don’t think anyone would see, not if we’re in the woods.” I racked my brain for ideas.
“Hang back a minute,” Leo stopped me, putting his arm out to have me bring Cleo to a halt. “Let’s see which direction she’s headed. Any visions, Bec?”
“No…none.” I still couldn’t figure out why my visions came and went at random. Not one of my Wizard family members had been able to pinpoint my visions’ origins or their triggers.
“She’s going to the river, I think. Get over to the road and we’ll ride down to the gravel pits. We’ll bypass the woods and cut her off where the woods and river meet up,” Leo explained, angling Sabastion’s lead toward the road.
I pulled on Cleo’s lead, guiding her toward the road as well. Leo and I picked up the same break-neck speed again, more desperate and determined now than ever. The frantic clip-clop of hooves against packed gravel resonated in my ears, and the heavy breathing escaping from both horses continued to keep me aware of the intensity of our racing pace.
The sun had risen higher in the cloudless, blue-gray sky. It’s pinkish rays blinded my eyes between shadows, but I barely noticed. I only had the killer’s lingering image in my sights; the killer masquerading as Leo’s mom. How insanely difficult it must be for Leo to chase down his mother’s murderer wearing the very same face that cared for him throughout all his life.
We approached the gravel pits just minutes later, and slowed our pace to accommodate the thin dirt path that led the way to the river. Leo and I covered the distance as rapidly and quietly as possible, jumping a fallen tree trunk lying in the path, but I couldn’t hold on. I slipped from the slick arch of Cleo’s back to her side, barely holding my grip on the lead. The horse continued to clatter on, following Sabastian and Leo while I fought to regain my upright position.
The river was a mere hundred yards before us now, and I could see the shining tips of tiny rapids glistening through the brush that lined our dirt path.
Leo reached the river first, tied his horse around a tree camped permanently at the water’s edge, then helped me down from my horse and tied her up as well.
“I’m pretty sure she took the path that ends just over there. Let’s walk downstream, then we can hide in the brush 'til we hear her coming and we’ll ambush her.” Leo’s eyes filled with a glinting revenge.
I simply nodded then followed silently until Leo picked out our stake-out sight. He chose an area where we could hide behind a few leafy trees, shrubs, vegetation, and a large boulder that would hide our bodies.
This would be Leo’s show from here on out. It was his mom who died, her killer we were stalking, and his needs and decisions would determine this sadistic Wizard’s future. I was merely a willing pawn in the scheme. I’d do anything and everything within my power to execute Leo’s plot for revenge. His mother’s killer would inevitably pay for their wicked ways. They would pay for what they did to Leo, his mom, and me.
I hunched over and hunkered down on a piece of washed up river wood, making myself a place next to Leo. He was leaning against the back of the boulder focused on the woods ahead, and more specifically the path exiting the trees.
Leo turned to me with a softened look in his eyes. “Thank you for being here with me.”
Before I could respond, he lunged toward me, taking me by surprise. Leo’s lips hi
t mine, hard and passionately, as he tangled his hands in my hair almost violently. I groped his solid, sweaty back with my frantic and trembling hands. The kiss lasted for what seemed like minutes. What were we doing? Full-on make-out
session while we stalked his mom’s killer? Really? But I couldn’t help myself. It had been so long since Leo and I had spent any real time together, and many months worth of attraction and need had built up to this moment. Certainly ramped-up, teenage hormones had been responsible for more insane interludes than this one.
“Ow,” I mumbled when he bit my lip.
“Sorry. Kinda four months of pent up attraction, anger, and frustration coming out all at once,” he grinned.
“That’s okay,” I giggled, wiping my lips.
He smiled, then gently kissed me once more. “I missed you.” Leo smiled his crooked smile I loved so much.
God, I’d do anything when he flashed that smile.
“I missed you, too.”
A faint crackling noise sounded straight ahead, and we crouched lower into our hiding place as light footsteps inched cautiously out of the woods, exactly where Leo predicted they would. We turned instinctively toward the noises, and there she was.
“You still know how to shield?” Leo whispered, shutting one eye with a wink.
“Definitely,” I answered, winking back flirtatiously.
And with that, Leo was off.
Chapter 13.
Friend or Foe
friend
/frend/
Noun
A person whom one knows and with whom one
had a bond of mutual affection, typically
exclusive of sexual or family relations.
Leo took a flying leap over the boulder. The Wizard turned to run back into the woods, but Leo was already closing in. The killer with his mother’s face fled, grappling for tree trunks, roots, rocks, anything to grasp hold of. But Leo was faster. He had caught her in only a matter of seconds.
I focused all my energy and power on Leo. I felt the familiar shivers and tingles wash over me, reassuring me that my shield was active and in place. The killer held out her palm as Leo dragged her by the ankles, pulling her out of the forest brush. He dragged her fighting, kicking body across the rocky dirt toward the river’s edge. She was screaming horrible, bloody incoherent words I assumed were some type of curse.
Beautiful Souls Page 18
