by Dale Mayer
“And now he’s gotten weak again?”
“He got older, so whatever,” he said. “But look at that? I’m fascinated,” he said, “and that explains why I have access to you. Oh, my God, we should get you pregnant,” he muttered.
She stared at him in shock. “No, we shouldn’t, not so you can inhabit him and make my child your lackey.”
“Well, I’ll need a host in another thirty years when we’re done,” he said, “because your organic body will wear out. Besides, a son would be better. It gives me more physical strength.”
“And that’s how you managed to kill all those women and to flay open their chests. But why?”
“That’s what I did to my first one, my wife. When I found her, she had two other women suckling her breasts in some godawful evil manner,” he said. “I decided it would be better to cut them off. But I actually ended up flaying her alive.” He smiled at that. “She screamed and pleaded and begged, but it didn’t matter to me. I was getting the punishment I wanted for her. And now she and her lovers are dead and gone.”
“So, she didn’t get to live as a spirit past her death?” Gabby asked.
“They don’t usually, you know?” he said. “I’ve seen a few, like your mother, and she’s tied to me because I killed her, but the other ones I’ve killed, they didn’t stick around. I don’t know what the problem was with Andrea.”
“The problem is me,” Gabby said, “but really the problem is you.”
“Well, I’m already dead, so what will you do about it?” he said, then he started to laugh.
Damon whispered in the back of his head, “Stefan, what can we do?”
“We’ll destroy him,” he said.
“Sure, but how?”
“Well, for one, we need to cut the link. Without a host he can’t stay strong.”
“How long can you stay out of a body?” Gabby asked Fendster.
“Well, I must be close enough to get energy from you all the time,” he said, “which is what I’ve been doing since the mountain. You freed me up there. I was pretty frozen that whole time.”
“So, you were just waiting for somebody you could connect with?”
“Yep, I thought it was the tarot cards, but really it’s not. It’s the fact that I know the energy,” he said, shaking his head. “Wow, there are things that I still have yet to learn over here.”
“So, just because of my energy, the energy coming from my mother’s lineage, you managed to attack me, throw me down the mountain, make my life miserable, kill my friends, and now you’re still sitting here to torment me again?”
“Well, I probably won’t do very much of that,” he said, “because I’ll take your system over real fast.”
“But what if I don’t let you back in?”
“Well, if that were a possibility,” he said, “I’d probably fade away into nothing because, without energy to sustain me, I would just get cold and freeze up again.”
“I don’t understand,” she said. “Explain it to me.”
He groaned. “You see? Maybe you’re just too stupid for all this, but then that’s just easier for me to deal with you. I told you already. Without a connection between us, I probably couldn’t sustain it.”
Just then her mother stepped into the room.
Fendster looked at Andrea and smiled. “See? She can’t leave me alone. I’m the connection she has to you.”
“Do you really think she wants to be connected to you now?”
“I don’t really give a shit,” he said, “because that’s not my problem.”
“I don’t get it,” Gabby said.
He just groaned. “God, are we back to that? See? You’re too stupid to understand the simplest concept.”
Damon looked at her, but she was up to something.
“So show me then,” she said.
“What do you mean, show you?”
“Well, we’re not connected right now, correct?”
“Yes, we are, dummy. I’ve got an anchor in your system,” he said. “I can’t get an anchor into these guys. It’s not as acceptable, but now I know why, with you,” he said and started to laugh. He popped the anchor out, and both Gabby and Damon saw it slide along the floor. “See? Just like that.”
Gabby looked at her mother and said, “Now, Mom!”
Immediately her mother raced toward the entity in front of her and said, “You killed me!”
“Fucking bitch, of course, I killed you,” he said. “I’d do it again too.”
Only her mother started to grow and to increase in size. And, with an astonishing speed, she wrapped herself all the way around Fendster and fenced him in and held him tight. It was almost like watching a cartoon because the Fendster spirit held inside was trying desperately to punch out. But he couldn’t escape.
Damon cried out, “Stefan, what can we do?”
“Wrap your arms around them and hold each other close. Gabby, tell your mother that you forgive her. Let her go, and tell her that she can take Fendster with her.”
“She can take him with her?”
“Yes, but we’ll all work together and help.”
Damon and Gabby wrapped their arms around this crazy energy fight going on between them.
Stefan joined the circle too. All of a sudden, he said, “On the count of three, visualize that we’re helping Andrea cross over this big divide. Think of a great big light coming from it, and we’ll kick them both right into it.” He said, “Ready? Three, two, and one!”
With the weirdest energy ever, Damon could almost feel his right leg lifting to boot this energy ball, which lifted straight up and over and through the room and into this light.
Stefan smiled and said, “I’m directing him. And now it’s off and into the light.”
Only the ball had a golden glow, even as part of it beamed in front of them.
“But I don’t understand,” Gabby said, stepping close to Damon. He wrapped her up in his arms and just held her close.
“But feel the room,” Stefan said. “Feel the energy right now.”
“It feels completely different,” she said.
“It is very different. That’s because he’s gone.”
“I don’t get it,” she said.
“It’s okay,” he said. “You don’t have to. The bottom line is,” he added, “they’re gone.”
“But, if Andrea went into the light, what about him? Surely he’s not going where my mother goes.”
Stefan smiled and said, “That will all be sorted on the other side. It’s not for us to know. But, as long as Fendster can’t come back, we’re good to go.”
“How do we know he can’t come back?” she cried out.
He smiled gently and said, “All I can tell you is that he’s gone. You should feel it. Your mother is gone as well. And that’s what she’s been waiting for. She’d been waiting for an opportunity to save you and to get back at him, once and for all.”
“Wow,” she whispered.
Damon just held her close. “It’s over. That’s all we need to worry about.”
She smiled and said, “So, is it just us now?”
“Well, it will be,” Stefan said. “I’m leaving.”
Just then Damon’s phone rang. He looked at it and said, “Jake, what’s up?”
“The captain just had a heart attack,” he said. “The EMTs are there, but it’s not looking good.”
After thanking him for the call, he looked down at her, and she whispered, “I think it makes sense actually.”
“It does,” Damon said. “Grandpa Fendster’s probably been utilizing so much of his son’s energy, that he didn’t have a chance to live fully either.”
“What’s he been like lately?”
“He looked really tired and stressed the last few weeks. He wasn’t happy when I started looking into the old cases, but, once I had, he just wanted it all solved, so it would be over.”
“Do you think he knew?”
“I don’t think anybody could reall
y know. Did he worry? Yes, I think so,” he said. “But the bottom line is, it’s no longer our problem.”
“How will you close the cases?”
He winced at that. “I don’t know. It might just go into the annals of the cold-case files forever.”
“That would be a shame,” she said. “I mean, it’ll waste a lot of man-hours down the road.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” he said. “We’ll figure it out. I don’t know what, but we can come up with something. Maybe somebody who doesn’t exist can take the fall.”
“I know what you mean,” she said, “but I have complete faith in you to figure it out.”
“Really? And here I thought you put your faith in tarot cards.”
“You know what? I should pull a card to read my future.”
“Oh, hell no,” he said.
“Why not?”
“No way. I’ll take my chances in the real world with you,” he said, “but no more cards. Promise?”
She looked up, smiled, and said, “Promise.”
Of course she didn’t tell him that she’d already pulled the Lovers card earlier in the day. But she laughed to herself and smiled gently, as she cuddled in close. It was a hell of a good day.
“Did Wendy get a hold of you?”
“Yes,” she said, “she called me from the hospital.”
“Good,” he said. “You must be easy with her.”
“I will,” she said.
“So I assume she told you that this guy killed Meghan.”
“Yeah, but I had no time to process it before all hell broke loose. So that was the third death?”
“Yes, and you were likely to be slated as the fourth, until Fendster realized what the connection was and how easy it was for him to control you.”
“Wow,” she whispered. She shook her head. “And, if he couldn’t get me, then he’d have gone after Wendy.”
“Quite possibly,” he said, “but it’s over now.”
“Thank goodness,” Gabby said on a big sigh.
“And I think I know how to close all these cases without too much emphasis on the stranger parts of the investigations.”
“Really? How can you manage that?”
“I’ll add three things to each related file, going back to the original one some sixty years ago. One, I’ll link each of these older cold cases to each of the recent three murders. Two, I’ll note that further investigation likely reveals this serial killer to be dead. And three? In really small print I’ll add in Stefan as a consultant.”
“Wow. Would that actually work?”
“Let’s hope so. I just don’t know if I’ll add in Grandpa Fendster’s name to the original case. He was the captain back then.”
“I say, just think on that one some more. And I still need to get to the hospital,” she said.
“And I need to deal with the bodies,” he said.
She reached up, gave him a kiss, and said, “We’ll pick this up later.”
“At least we have all the time in the world now,” he said. “You’re not leaving, right?”
“I don’t think I planned on leaving from the moment I saw you,” she said, laughing. “I mean, I know I fell at your feet as one big snowball,” she said. “But honestly, you are the cutest cop to ever interrogate me.”
He burst out laughing, grabbed her face with both hands, and said, “As long as I’m the only one, I’m good with that.” Then he gave her a resounding kiss.
This concludes Book 18 of Psychic Visions: Ice Maiden.
Read about Snap, Crackle…: Psychic Visions, Book 19
Snap, Crackle…: Psychic Visions (Book #19)
Remember …
The haunting refrain torments Bethany, almost as much as the horrors of what she’s forgotten. Chased, terrified, and injured, she races away from a gunman into the woods, determined to once again escape those after her.
Hunter’s first meeting with Bethany reveals an injured, exhausted, and possibly dangerous psychic. Plus she uncooperative, barely civil, keeping everyone at arm’s length. Only she needs help, … and he is the one available. Time for the hunted to turn hunter, and that is his domain. Especially if he gets to champion the underdog, which, in this case, is a prickly and way-to-beautiful woman, who he doesn’t want to let out of his sight.
Not only is she being tracked but they want her back as a captive. A captive to do their bidding. And they’ve enlisted another of their group, her ex-best friend Lizzy, to hunt down Bethany.
They want, no need, her to remember who she really is …
With Hunter at her side, Bethany fights for survival, racing toward an explosive reveal that leaves them all gasping, as their world turns upside down.
Find Book 19 here!
To find out more visit Dale Mayer’s website.
Excerpt from Snap, Crackle…
“They were close, too close. She was too close, Izzy, her nemesis.” Bethany Metlomar murmured, fear and panic sneaking through her body, exasperating her already fragmented energy. She tried hard to pull herself together but could feel bits and pieces of her disappearing into the ethers. Her already low energy being further depleted.
“No,” she cried out, “stop. Get back here.”
The pieces refused to obey. But then her energy had been getting worse and harder to control these last few days. Directly correlating to her waning energy. As soon as she’d been found, her long-lost control and hard-won ability to move in this world around her were instantly shattered.
It was all she could do to keep herself together. At that, she laughed bitterly because, of course, she wasn’t keeping herself together. Finding out she was being hunted did that to her.
She shifted her sore feet, struggling to huddle underneath the tree boughs. No way anyone could have followed her here. Hell, there was no reason for them to have tracked her down in the first place, but they had. How had they known where to find her? That had to be Izzy’s doing.
Instinct pushed Bethany forward. One foot in front of the other—following that one thread that she’d kept close all these years. He was the only one who could help. But would he? Would he remember her? He’d helped her a long time ago, and she’d never forgotten his compassion and his truth. He’d been that older brother to the young scared child she’d been… but they’d only been at the compound together for a short while before he’d escaped. It had taken her fifteen years to manage the same feat. Had he changed? She had. So why not him?
She was staking everything on her memories of him. But then she had no choice. Not if she wanted to survive. She’d been running for days. Was it only that long? It felt like months, years. Seven long years since she’d escaped that prison.
She could feel the blood seeping down her side, from a bullet hole two days ago out of the blue. A shot fired from behind her while she had enjoyed the morning sun. She’d managed to disappear into the woods, but it had been hard-won victory. Even now she looked down gratefully at her huge jet-black Maine coon mix at her feet. He wouldn’t leave her side, even though she’d tried to get him safely away. He refused.
Then he was stubborn like that. Nocturne would survive, if she didn’t make it. She wasn’t sure she would, should their roles be reversed.
Shudders racked her slight frame, stronger than before, as she struggled to pull facets of herself back together again. She needed to find a source of warmth. Survival meant staying warm. She searched the darkness enveloping her world as the wind whispered around her. Other energies were tracking her. She could feel them reaching through the darkness, searching the ethers to find her. And then there was him.
Someone she could see—or rather feel. Someone she thought should have seen her. Should have been able to feel her, yet he didn’t.
Was he an innocent? Someone who had no idea of this insane shadow world? Or maybe she was sending signals, but they weren’t strong enough, for him to push up as she was fading quickly. She slumped against the tree trunk, wishing she didn’t need yet anothe
r rest. The night wouldn’t last forever, and she needed to make headway while she could.
Just the thought of getting back on her feet defeated her. Still she was so damn close.
Just not close enough.
A few vehicles were on the road below, traffic moving smoothly, zipping along in the darkness. Normal sounds of civilization around her. Except everything felt, sounded off.
Her senses strained for signs of the danger she knew surrounded her. Only her ears couldn’t be trusted right now. None of her senses could. Everything was too fragmented for that. She was desperate to pull them back, but it seemed almost impossible. She couldn’t use her energy for that and also make it down to the house.
After all this time, after all the crazy energy she had put into hiding in plain sight, appearing to be normal, appearing to be one of them, even after everything that had happened to her …they’d still found her.
She struggled to her feet, wincing as her energy drained into the puddle of blood at her feet. She was dying, and the window to stop that was closing. Only he could help…
She gave a bitter laugh as she pulled her hand free from the oozing bloody wound in her side. Forcing herself to move, she trudged forward one more step and then another, leaving a heavy blood trail behind.
Nocturne at her side moved quietly, his ears up, his tail twitching, as he searched the surrounding area. Nobody would see him. Nocturne was the darkness of night, but then so was she.
She tossed her jet-black waist-length hair over her shoulder, wishing she had a moment to braid it. But lacking food, water, and even a bandage to hold in her blood’s life force, a braid was the least of her worries.
“Nocturne,” she murmured. “You go to him, if I don’t make it.”
A tiny meow came from beside her. She felt it more than heard it. They’d always been able to communicate, like they were soul mates. So here they were, her a broken-down fugitive and this precious soul that stayed at her side no matter what.
*
A surge of electricity shot through the room, shocking Hunter who’d been sitting comfortably in Stefan’s living room. “Whoa,” he exclaimed, jumping to his feet.
