McCann's Manor (28 page)

"I hope to find that out today,” he said.

"Let me see!” she demanded.

Liz and John looked up from their work to peer at Kim and Joel. “What's going on, Kim?” John asked.

"I was telling Kim I found a floor plan almost identical to this house in Tarrh's manuscripts; one which Tarrh apparently built more than a hundred years before Ben moved here and built this one,” Joel said.

Liz looked up, her heart in her throat. “What did you say?” she asked.

"The plans for this house; they seem to have been Tarrh's, not Ben's.” Joel said.

Liz stood up, her eyes wide. She fingered her throat, a stricken look on her face. “That is what he
said
,” she whispered.

"Who said that? When?” Kim asked.

"Tarrh—in the dream—” Liz breathed, “he said the design of the house was his and Ben took the plans for it, along with his books about magic, when he came to the New World. He said Ben didn't want to use the house or the magic the way it was intended to be used. He said Ben had summoned him by reading his writings and later bound him to go back where he came from.” She looked at Joel, then added, “He said he was never in Tir nan Og, but in a dark and cold place where he was alone and tormented."

Joel walked to her side, put his hand on her shoulder and asked, “What else did he tell you?"

Liz grabbed her throat; it hurt to talk suddenly, but she managed to whisper, “He said Missy and Leonard found his writings and because they
even tried to read them
, though they couldn't understand them, they had loosed him again and now he is determined never to go back. I tried to tell him we didn't want to send him back to whatever black pit he had been in and then he started choking me. I thought he had killed me because I actually felt like I was dying. That's really about all I can remember."

Kim rushed to Liz's side to put her arm around her friend. “All right, that does it; I don't want any arguments. We
are
going to put away these writings today and we
are
going to have Joel help us work another binding against Tarrh and then bless us all with holy water. Then we're going to try to contact Ben and see if he can help us,” she announced.

The others looked at each other, but no one said anything to argue with Kim. Liz felt like a small child who had just told a very bad secret and was going to be punished severely for her actions. She tried to slow her heart's pounding, but it seemed to be stuck in high gear. She felt weak and shaky in the knees; her hands were cold and clammy. She wished someone would hold her and make everything else go away. That wasn't going to happen today.

Joel performed a candle lighting ceremony to bless the house once more and to bind the troublesome spirits. Kim, accompanied by the others, cast the four directions, chanted the song her spirit guides had given her and led the procession to sage each and every room they had access to in the mansion. She saged each individual as well and called on the angels to guard and protect every one of them. Joel finished the ritual by praying for each of them and tracing the cross on their foreheads with holy water.

Liz didn't want to be a naysayer, but she felt none of the protection made any difference and that she was going to pass out at any moment. Her head continued to throb and the dizziness only seemed to intensify with every stage of the observance. She felt nauseous and when at last Joel traced the cross on her forehead a second time, she felt herself leaving her body. She tried to stay where she was, but it was no use. As she wafted higher and higher over the others, she watched her seemingly lifeless form crumple to the floor while the others scrambled to catch her.

Liz observed with a kind of detached concern as they lifted her limp form onto the sofa, tried to bring her to. John made for the phone and frantically dialed someone, though she couldn't quite hear what he said to the person on the other end. She watched him hang up the receiver and return to hover helplessly with the others over the corpse-like figure she thought of as being
her
. She regretted having been the cause of all this worry, but she couldn't quite be bothered to hop back into that cadaverous blob with its aching toe and tearing eyes. She really didn't miss the headache, the dizziness, the nausea or the louder-than-it-had-ever-been-before pounding of her heart, either.

Then she saw another diaphanous wraith ascend from the motionless visage below and come toward her, glowering and laughing as it neared her. It was Tarrh, his wicked frown seeming to pierce holes in her shimmering ethereal body as he drew closer to her. “You will die if you do not get back inside, you know,” he taunted.

She looked at him, knowing she should be more distressed about the temporal side of her being, yet she felt a strange freedom she had never known before. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say she didn't
remember
the feeling. She smiled at him, was instantly accosted by a blackness directed against her.

"Are you so ready to depart life?” he asked.

She shrugged, looked again at her friends. “Why did
you
leave? You had possession of my body. Isn't that what you wanted?"

His look turned piteous as he lost some of the dark glow that surrounded him, stared at her and moved yet closer still. “I have been
bound
by your priest friend, do you not recall? Kimberly called for the angels to protect you; I am forced to leave you, for now,” he said.

Liz wondered what had happened to this man to make him so bitter. She moved closer to him in her curiosity, was surprised to see him retreat. “Are you afraid?” she asked.

He turned slightly away from her, gave her a sideways glance, “The light is strong inside you; stronger than I have seen in a long time. It is why you grew so ill at my presence. It has made me weak to force myself to remain with you,” he said.

She understood, nodded. “Light dispels the darkness,” she said.

His eyes narrowed but he continued to retreat from her presence. “You have no comprehension of how
black
the darkness can be. It can extinguish the light most people have in them. It is cold, miserable, lonely ... Your eyes ache from peering into the nothingness for a flicker of light, but there is none."

She moved to stop his retreat, reached a luminescent hand toward his dark form. “There is still light
in you
,” she said.

His laugh was low and pitiful, grave as he stared full into her face, waited in a futile kind of hope for her to be able to prove her statement. “You lie,” he said.

"I never lie,” she told him.

"
There is no light here
; look at me,” he commanded.

"There
is
light in you; I can see it. Look at the reflection of it in my eyes. You see? It is a lucent darkness, not blackness at all. Look how it shines with the light. It is a weak, pale incandescence; but
it is
there,” she insisted.

He rushed toward her and for a second she thought he would drain all the light from her soul as his form coalesced with hers, but the radiance was still there and as he pulled away from her, he also caught sight of his own glow. He looked at her, bewildered, “You are a she-devil! How do you trick me thus?"

"Every soul in the vast universe is imbued with the divine spark of light given it by the Creator. How can you believe you alone are different?” she asked.

"You are full of false words of hope and wicked trickery, woman!” he spat.

She considered his words, reached out her hand toward him yet again, her eyes locked with his. He stayed where he was until she felt her soul touch his and suddenly she could
feel
his pain in a palpable flood of emotions so overpowering she longed to put it as far away from herself as she could. She remained with her hand touching the heart of his essence until the senses became unbearable for her and still she offered her hand to him. “Not all women are full of trickery, Tarrh,” she soothed.

His eyes grew wide and agonized as she lingered in front of him, their spirits coalescing into a swirl of churning light and darkness, flowing into each other, then away from one another and back again. She felt herself being drained of her soul's brilliance, but she didn't care. She wanted this tormented creature to know some peace at last, even if it meant she had to lose her own essence. She gave and gave and would have continued to pour out her spirit to him, but she felt herself being carried away from Tarrh in strong arms.

"No!” she screamed. “Let me stay with him and help him."

"This is enough for now, little one,” came an answer so soft yet so authoritative it made her shiver. She turned to see two giant beings of pure white light so dazzling it made her squint at their brilliance.

"I can
help
him,” she protested.

"Perhaps,” said one of the angels, “but perhaps it is not to be helped. You cannot help this being by losing yourself to it, cherished one."

"That one has much to consider before it can be ready to accept help from anyone. You cannot save it now, even if it
can
be brought to the light.” the other being said.

"But why?” Liz asked. Why were they calling Tarrh
it
?

"Because it is time for you to return to your body. Your life on this plane is not yet finished. It was right, you know; if you stay here, your body will die; you must go back."

His words echoed deep inside her mind and then she lost consciousness. They were taking her back....

Liz opened her eyes a mere slit and squinted into the light coming in the windows of the living room. After a few minutes of adjustment, she saw four faces peering at her. She recognized John, Kim and Joel, but not the other man as she blinked hard to try to focus in on him.

"Liz, this is Dr. Mark Adams. I called him to help us revive you,” John said in a strangely hollow and distant voice.

Liz opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. She looked anxiously from one to the next of the faces that seemed to be floating before her. Gradually, the others took on dimension and form as she continued to try to speak.

"You are all right, Liz,” Dr. Adams said to her, giving her hand a reassuring pat. “Your larynx and most of your glands are swollen; that's why you're having trouble finding your voice. It's also the reason you blacked out; the swelling stopped most of your air flow."

Liz nodded that she understood, but she wasn't at all sure the good doctor fathomed the true reason she had
blacked out
. Joel anointed her twice with holy water, which had evicted Tarrh from her body with such force that it jolted her out as well. She frowned at Kim, who seemed also to be unaware of the spiritual encounter that had just taken place. Was that possible? Surely Kim had seen
some
of it! Or had she been too concerned over Liz's limp body to take note?

Dr. Adams secured the cold compress around her neck, continued to smile affably at her. His warm brown eyes danced at her as she tried to loosen the compress. He shook his head, placed it again along the base of her neck. He was about six feet tall, she estimated, although she was none too sure of the accuracy of her perceptions just now, and his hair was brown with lighter streaks nearing blond running through it. She put her hands to her sides, allowed Adams to secure the compress.

"That's a good girl,” he said with a smile. “This vocal thing is only temporary,” he assured her, “if you leave the compress on and just continue to breathe deeply, you should be able to speak as well as ever by tomorrow. I'm going to prescribe a little something to help alleviate the swelling."

She grimaced, nodded grimly.

He smiled again, revealing two wonderful dimples and beautiful, even white teeth. Nice, she thought. “What's the matter? Don't you like drugs?” he asked.

Liz shook her head.

"I could take you in to the hospital for the night, but I thought you might rather stay here and take a few pills,” he said.

Liz sighed heavily, mouthed the words;
'I'll be good.'

He smiled brightly. “'Atta girl! I know you will. But you probably need to have someone nearby tonight just in case the swelling comes back."

Liz rolled her eyes, shrugged.

"We'll take care of her,” Kim said.

Adams finished scribbling on a piece of paper, handed it to John, “Here is her prescription. Maybe you can pick it up and give her a tablet before bedtime. The injection I gave her should work until then. You're lucky you were not alone when this happened, you know,” he said to Liz.

Liz smiled, nodded.

"My greatest concern is that I can't find any cause for the swelling; must have been some kind of allergic reaction that caused the anaphylactic shock. If it was a reaction to something, we need to figure out what she's allergic to and make sure she isn't exposed to it again,” Adams said.

John took the prescription, folded it and slipped it into his pocket. “Thanks for coming, Mark. I'll personally make sure Liz isn't left alone tonight,” he said.

Adams nodded. “Good. I'll be back tomorrow morning to check on her. Nothing solid to eat, and I favor cold or cool over hot. Don't hesitate to call me if there are any more problems."

"Don't worry; you'll be the first to know,” John said.

"All right. Kim, it was nice to meet you; Father, see you at mass,” Adams said as he let John lead him toward the front door.

"Right, Mark,” Joel said with a smile. “See you at mass, unless Mrs. Weathersby's baby comes. Her babies always arrive during mass, you know."

At the front door, Adams eyed John, his hands in his pockets. “You going to stay here tonight, John?"

John nodded, “I thought it might be wise. What is it you
aren't
saying, Mark?"

Adams looked at the floor, his lips pursed, sighed, “The only time I've seen anything that looked exactly like this was when Luke Peters died of strangulation last fall after that brute Michaels choked him. Is there something
you aren't telling me
?"

John frowned. “No, nothing; one minute she was standing there with the rest of us and the next she was collapsing beside me."