“I’m suddenly not so sure following her was a good idea!”
Michael didn’t answer as they watched in astonishment at what was unfolding in front of them.
Theodore handed her a pocketknife. Celine sliced her index finger, not even wincing in pain as blood poured from the wound. She looked down at her sister. “Celeste, my sister, blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh, I call upon you now to awaken from your slumber.” She put her bleeding finger to Celeste’s lips, parting them and letting the blood drip into her mouth. “Let my blood give you life, as blood will continue to give you life. Shake off the sleep of death, sister, and rise. Rise. RISE!”
Celine removed her finger from Celeste’s lips, her wound already beginning to heal until it was completely healed. Within moments, Celeste’s eyes opened. Confused, she rose slowly looking around at everyone. “What happened? Why am I here?” she asked.
Celine turned to Theodore, “I need to go, keep her hidden, keep her safe.”
“Celine, wait,” Gray called after her.
Celine was in no mood to wait; she walked toward the main entrance. The doors blew open in front of her and she left the house.
“I’m going after her,” Gray said, pulling on a light jacket.
“Um, did the dead lady just sit up and talk? Was she not dead?” Damien asked.
“Yep.” Michael turned his back on the scene as Josie left the house. “Are we hallucinating? Have we been drugged?”
“No idea, but I think we should… I… I… hell, I don’t know what we should do. Follow Gray?”
“Getting out of this house, best idea ever, let’s go.” They snuck down the stairs, skirting past the people in the foyer, to leave the house.
“Gray!” Michael called, “Wait up.” They ran to catch up to him. “What the hell just happened? Have we been drugged? Where is Josie, is she okay?”
“She’s about to do something stupid, we need to find her, I’ll explain everything later. Come on, we need to find her.” They climbed into the car.
Celine walked into the bar, her eyes narrowed as she looked around until she found her target. He was sitting alone at the bar, nursing a vodka. Celine approached him, taking the seat next to him. “Stefano, fancy seeing you here,” she said.
“Celine! What a lovely surprise, although it’s not that much of a surprise. I thought you may visit me soon. I assume you know?”
Celine smiled coolly at him. “Yes, I know, that’s why I’m here. I’d really like to step outside and discuss it with you.”
The man threw his head back, laughing loudly. “Oh, I bet you would,” he said, “but I’m not that stupid.”
“Aww, Stefano, I don’t remember you being such a coward.”
He sipped his drink, wincing as it went down. “Now, Celine, let’s not resort to name calling.”
Celine put her hand on the glass he was drinking from. It shattered under her touch. She looked into his dark, nearly black eyes. “The next thing I break is something in your body, now let’s step outside, shall we?”
He leapt out of his chair, arm cocked back to strike her but his arm was frozen, unable to move forward. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Stefano.” He set his jaw, anger coursing through him but unable to do anything about it. He reluctantly followed her from the bar into a back alley. It was deserted. Fear shown plainly on his face.
“Did you think I would let you get away with it?” Celine questioned.
“I was just following orders. Besides, I thought you were powerless, human, please.”
“Please? Please what? Please make it quick? Did you make it quick when you strangled my sister?” she asked, drawing his throat into her grasp like a magnet draws metal. She lifted him off the ground, choking him. He gasped for breath, struggling, trying to pull her grip from his throat. She tossed him like a rag doll against the brick wall of the building. He collapsed into it, sliding to the ground. She lifted him again, tossing him across the alley.
She lifted him again in her grasp, tightening her grip on his throat. “Stop,” he choked out, “please.”
“Don’t stop, Celine,” a new voice joined in. “Kill him.” Marcus stood behind her shoulder.
Celine’s grip tightened, continuing to choke the life slowly from the man. “Kill him, Celine. Kill him.”
Celine wavered a moment, brow furrowing. “KILL HIM!” Marcus urged. A memory raced across Celine’s mind. A similar event, the Duke standing behind her, this time a knife in her hand. He urged her to kill the man in front of her, “Kill him,” he had said, “He killed your father in cold-blood, Celine, make him pay.” Her hand faltered on the man’s neck.
Marcus steadied her arm. “No, Celine, kill him. Your sister is DEAD because of him.”
Celine’s hand began to shake. Anger and rage had filled her when she had seen her sister’s dead body but if the Duke wanted her to do it, she couldn’t listen to him. A tear rolled down her cheek as she looked at the man in her grasp. He deserved to pay but perhaps not at her hand.
“Celine!” Gray shouted, entering the alley with Damien and Michael racing behind him. Gray stopped short of entering the alley, ensuring Michael and Damien were kept shielded from the Duke’s view. “Don’t.” Celine peered into Gray’s eyes, then back to the man in her grip. She dropped him; he fell to the ground in a heap, gasping for air.
Marcus growled with rage. “We’re not finished, Celine,” he said, as she walked away from him. “You’re back now, truly back, I can feel it, I can sense you again. You will be mine. You can’t defeat me.”
Celine walked to Gray, allowing him to take her into his arms. She embraced him for a moment before pushing back from him. “We need to talk about what will happen next. He will not stop this time.”
“Okay, but I think you need to take a breath…” Gray began.
She shook her head. “No, Gray, I don’t. For the first time since this started, I don’t. I’m not Josie anymore. I don’t need to rest or relax.”
“Okay, if you’re sure. What next?”
“I need to see Alexander and we should check on the children.”
“I’m sorry,” Damien said, breaking out of his stunned silence, “but would someone mind telling me what the hell just happened here?” He was wide-eyed, shock still plain on his face. He couldn’t fathom what was happening or any reasonable explanation for what he was witnessing.
“We need to get going,” Celine said, “I’ll fill you in later.”
“No. No way. I’m not going anywhere until I understand what is going on. Josie, you just lifted a guy up in a chokehold. How did you even do that, I mean, what… how…” he stammered, shock setting in as the words came out of his mouth.
Celine made a face at Gray. “We’re losing him,” she said, “he needs to lie down.” Gray took Damien by the shoulders leading him to the car, reassuring him everything would be all right. “How are you doing?” she said, directing the question to Michael.
“Oh, just fine,” Michael said, a hint of sarcasm showing through his shaky voice. “I mean I just saw a dead girl walking and talking and a fire start from spontaneous combustion and you with some kind of Hulk-like strength but, yeah, totally good.”
Celine smiled at him. “I’m sorry that you had to witness that but there wasn’t much I could do, everything happened so fast.”
“Josie, I…”
“Ah,” Celine said, wincing, “sorry, but can you just call me Celine. I realize it’s weird, but I am not Josie.”
Michael looked at her, surprise on his face with no understanding. “I’m sorry,” she continued, “everything will be clear soon, I think.”
She took his arm, leading him to the car. Damien was already sitting in the back seat murmuring to himself about what he had just seen. Michael slid in next to him, shaking his head as if to say nothing would be clear anytime soon.
“Are they going to be okay?” Gray asked as they got into the front seat.
Celine looked back at them. Th
ey had seen too much too fast; their minds could not process the events right now. She reached back and touched Damien’s cheek, then Michael’s, putting them both into a peaceful sleep while they drove back to the house. “They’ll be fine, they need to rest.”
Gray headed toward the house, taking the driveway to Alexander’s rather than the main house. As they drove, he put his hand on Celine’s knee. She smiled at him. “Despite everything, I’m glad you’re back,” he said.
“Despite everything, so am I,” she said, putting her hand on his.
They arrived at Alexander’s house; he ran out to meet them. “Theodore told me it was you. Welcome back, Celine,” he said, opening her car door.
“Help me get these two into the house,” Gray said. Celine made sure they were conscious enough to walk to a bedroom and lie down.
“Now,” Gray said, once they were all in the living room, “Can you stop him?”
“Not outright, no,” Celine answered.
Gray sighed. “So, you’ve sacrificed your normal life for nothing?”
“No, not for nothing. I can stop him for good, but I need a particular item to do it.”
“What do you need, Celine?” Alexander asked.
“The Book of the Dead.”
Gray’s mouth dropped open. “So we’re doomed,” he said, throwing his arms in the air.
“No one has known the whereabouts of that for centuries, Celine. If anyone has it, the Duke does and he’ll never let anyone get near it. I doubt you could get near it even if he thought you were on his side,” Alexander answered.
“I know where we can get the book,” Celine said.
Gray looked stunned. “You do? All this time you’ve known where it is and you’ve done nothing to destroy him?”
“No, not exactly. I don’t know exactly where it is but I know how we can get it. I realized it when my memories returned. Once they did, I was able to piece things together. I know how we can get the book.”
“I still don’t understand,” Alexander said, “the last time anyone saw that book was…”
“Was the night I became what I am, yes,” Celine finished his sentence.
“Did you remember something new?” Gray asked.
“No, but I met someone new. Or rather, Josie did.”
Gray looked confused, as did Alexander. “That night,” Celine began, “there were two men there, my English tutor and his brother, remember? I gave them the book. When I ran through the caves, I ran to them and I gave the book to them and I helped them escape.”
“By opening a portal through time, yes, I remember you told me,” Gray said. “But we concluded that they were inevitably working for the Duke, right?”
“Well, we were wrong,” Celine answered. “They were working for me.”
“You?” Alexander asked.
“Me. Like the me from right now. I sent them back to bring the book here. When I opened the time portal that night, I sent them back to me in this time.”
“How do you know this?” Gray asked.
“Because I finally met the two people that helped me that night. My English tutor and his brother. I know them. Or rather, Josie did.” Alexander and Gray exchanged a glance, realization dawning on both their faces. “Yes,” Celine said, nodding, “They’re upstairs asleep right now.”
The realization stunned Gray. “You knew then, that’s…”
“Why I wanted them to leave, yes. The moment they arrived here, I realized that it was too late, I realized where this was heading. I thought I could escape my fate but I couldn’t.”
“I’m sorry, Celine. I know you wanted a normal life,” Gray said.
Celine shook her head and smiled at him. “I’m not meant for a normal life. From the time I got my memory back I began to doubt that I could live a normal life. I prepared for this. I’ll always treasure my time as Josie but this is where I belong.”
Gray smiled back at her. “I couldn’t agree more.”
“Now,” she said, turning serious again, “I will need your help. I need a letter of introduction for them to my father, and I need to write a letter to myself. We’ll also need some clothes for them, Teddy should be able to help with that. Alexander, I will need your help, too. I can open the time portal again but it will take everything I have, it’s not an easy task. You need to mask me while I do that, Marcus cannot have even an inkling of what we’re doing.”
“I can do that,” Alexander said.
“I’ll write a letter of introduction to your father for Michael,” Gray said. “What shall I tell him?”
“Make him the heir to some American fortune, throw in the name of a middle-ranking nobility from England, something credible but not that my father would be too familiar with. Their backstory doesn’t have to be that elaborate. I was almost sixteen, my father was chomping at the bit to marry me off to some wealthy American so that’s all he needs to see and he’ll be in.”
“Consider it done,” he said.
Chapter 24
Celine sat on the edge of the bed; she wanted to give Damien a few more moments of sleep. What she needed to ask him to do he would consider impossible. His mind was already struggling to wrap around what he had just seen. What he would witness her do next would break most people’s grip on reality. He would need all the strength he could muster.
She hated to send him and Michael back, to ask them to do this for her, but there was no other choice. Only they were capable of retrieving the book. Still, she worried. This was her cousin, or rather, Josie’s cousin. She was protective of him. He wasn’t like her, like Gray, like Alexander, he was different; he was normal. She felt for Michael, too, but Damien had been Josie’s family since childhood and even as Celine she had a strong connection to him.
She reached over and took his hand in hers, giving it a squeeze. He began to stir, opening his eyes and looking around without recognizing his surroundings. “You’re at Alexander’s,” Celine said. “it’s okay.”
“Hey, Jos,” he said, blinking against the light in the room and squinting, “I had the weirdest dream. How did I get here?”
Celine smiled at him, at his innocence. “Unfortunately, D, that wasn’t a dream. I’m sorry I can’t break it to you more gently, but we’re running out of time and I need a favor from you.”
“A favor?”
“Yes, I need your help. Both you and Michael. I need you to get something for me, a book.”
“Like from the library?” he said, comprehension escaping him.
“I wish it were that easy, but no. I need you to get a book from a very special place. There isn’t much time to explain. I’ll fill in as many details as I can, but you’ve got to get up. I’ve got to tell Michael, too.”
Celine stood from the bed, still holding Damien’s hand and gave his arm a tug. Damien stood up, saying, “Um, okay, yeah I’ve got no idea what’s going on but I’ll help however I can, Jos.”
As they made their way to the door, it opened. Michael came in with Gray. “Hey, what’s going on, is everything okay?”
“It will be, but I need your help. Both of you. Come on, we’ve got to get you dressed.”
“Dressed?” Michael asked, screwing up his face and looking down at his body. “I am dressed.”
“Well, not appropriately for where you’re going,” Celine said. “You will travel to a very particular place and retrieve a book for me.”
“And I can’t get this book in a hoodie?” Michael asked.
“No, you can’t do it in a hoodie.”
“Okay. Where is this ‘particular place’ where hoodies aren’t allowed?”
“Martinque.”
“Like the island?” Damien asked.
“Yes, the island,” Celine answered. “In 1786.”
“So, we need to go to Martinque? Like tonight? We’ll never get a flight out that fast,” Michael said, missing the last statement that Celine made.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Damien interrupted, “did you say 1786?”
&n
bsp; “I did, yes,” Celine said. “I need you to travel back to the year 1786 and get the book. I’m sorry, there isn’t time to explain it all but I can get you there and I think it’ll be obvious after that.”
Michael’s eyes darted side-to-side before he uttered, “This is a joke, right? You’re joking.”
“I’m not. Let’s continue talking about this while you’re changing, we’ve got clothes for you. You will pose as a rich American, an heir to…”
Gray added in, “A shipping magnate,” as he shoved clothes at Michael and Damien and prompting them toward the bathroom to change.
“Right,” Celine continued, yelling through the door to the bathroom, “a shipping magnate, we have a letter of introduction for you. Give it to the Marquis Gaspard Devereaux. You’ll find him on the outskirts of the town, he has the biggest house there, large, and white, overlooking the sea, you can’t miss it. Tell him you want to tutor his daughter in English and that you hope to have the honor of courting her. And here is a second letter, give it to the Marquis’ daughter in the library two days before her sixteenth birthday, just trust me on this. You’ll understand once you are there. And you, D,” she said, “are his brother. You’ve got a good sense of history, D, so make sure Michael doesn’t do anything… well… stupid. You’ll need to get a very special book, you’ll get it from the Marquis’ daughter, it’s called The Book of the Dead. She’ll give it to you at a suitable time and help you return to us with the book, just play along until then.”
Michael and Damien emerged, dressed in their eighteenth century finery, both of them pulling at their collars. “I look ridiculous,” Damien said.
“Yeah, I look like a clown.” Michael looked to Damien. “Is this really happening?”
“Yes, it is happening. And, no, you can’t travel to 1786 in a hoodie.”
“Well… I’m not on board with the whole time travel thing yet so…” Michael contended. “Oh, by the way, how do you know all this?”
“Well, you’ll have to get on board with it. And I just do, you’ll understand later. Now, here are the letters,” Celine said, handing him letters, “follow me, we’ve got no time to waste.”
Shadows of the Past: A Supernatural Suspense Mystery (Shadow Slayers Stories Book 1) Page 22
