Possession (37 page)

One of Gage’s cronies took a strip of flexible black
metal out of a bag. He moved in front of Dean.

“What are you doing?” I cried out.

“Calm down, my dear. We aren’t going to hurt him,”
Gage said.

The man wrapped the metal around Dean’s neck and
stepped back.

Gage observed the process with measured
appreciation. “Call it my insurance policy.” He pointed to Dean’s neck before
continuing. “It’s an enchanted collar. Clever, no? An extremely handy device. Perform
any magic within a one hundred-foot radius of the young man, and the collar
will collapse. You can imagine how hard it would be for him to breathe with a
crushed windpipe.”

My body tensed and my hands balled into fists.

Gage’s eyes narrowed at the action. “Your precious
boy won’t be hurt as long as you cooperate. But call up any magic, and you’ll
watch him die in front of your eyes.”

If I let the blind fury inside me loose, if I
tried to fight, Dean and Luke would both die. I forced myself to calm down. I
held up my hands in surrender. “Don’t hurt him. I’ll do whatever you want.”

Gage nodded, satisfied, and gave me a wide grin.
“That’s better. Let’s be friends, shall we?”

Two men picked up Wendy’s unconscious body. I
watched them put her in the back of one of the SUVs. Mildred pushed Dean over
to the same vehicle and shoved him in after Wendy.

I took a few steps toward them before a hand came
up and rested on my shoulder. “I need you to come with me,” Gage said softly.

I watched the black car holding Wendy and Dean
drive away. They took Dean, which meant Luke was gone. They were all gone. The
ones I counted on, my only allies, were taken away from me and I was left on my
own. The grip on my shoulder tightened. “Don’t get any ideas. Dean may be out
of range, but my men have their orders. Anything happens to me, and the boy
gets a knife in the back. Do we understand each other?”

“Yes,” I whispered.

I let him guide me to the waiting car and climbed
into the back.

Gage slid into the passenger seat. He looked at me
in the rearview mirror. “Make sure you put your seatbelt on. Safety is
important.”

The car started and I watched the asylum fade away
as we headed down the road.

* * *

We drove for hours. I
looked out the window and watched the passing landscape. We were climbing
higher into the mountains, leaving the storm behind us and moving into the
broken clouds. The trees were thicker now, and I could make out mountain peaks
between them, bathed in a golden glow by the late afternoon sun.

The beauty of the scenery did nothing to dispel
the cold dread settling around my heart.

Finally, the car stopped in what seemed like the
middle of nowhere.

“We’re here,” Gage said blandly. He opened the
door and stepped out.

It was nearly sunset; the sun sat low on the
horizon. I looked around, but there was no other car in sight or any other sign
of human habitation.
Both the highway and the dirt
road that brought us here were completely invisible through the thick
forest.
I stepped onto the dirt and Gage motioned for me to follow him.
He headed up a grassy hill rising through the trees.

“What I find so fascinating is that they’re both
in one body,” Gage said over his shoulder. “I understand that Luke—it is
Luke, isn’t it?—can’t always keep control and then the other one pops up.
It must make for a complicated love life. Or an interesting love triangle.” He
laughed.

I could feel a blush spreading across my cheeks at
his slimy, suggestive tone.

We walked until we were almost to the top of the
hill, and then Gage picked up the pace, jogging to its crest. “You, my dear,
will help me see my dream come true.”

I managed to stumble along behind him and stopped
next to him on top of the hill.
What is
he talking about?
He was looking off into the distance. I followed his
gaze. A wide, grassy field lay before us. My breath caught in my throat.

As far as the eye could see, dead bodies stretched
out on the grass in neat rows.

“You see, Colina, I’ve heard quite a bit about
what you can do. And I want you to raise an army to serve me.”

I took in the sea of bodies spread out before me. Shock
and disbelief filled me.
He knows what I
can do. He wants me to create an undead army. An army of zombies.
My body
began to tremble. I felt sick, nauseated. I could feel drips of sweat trickling
down my neck and forehead. I had been afraid before, in the asylum, but this
was different. This was pure panic. A sense of dread and horror rose within me
as I looked out at the bodies.

I heard the faint, distant howling of wolves on
the wind.
My spirit pack
. Many
perished during the battle with
Weatherton
, but some
had survived. They could feel my fear. If I didn’t calm down, they would come
to my aid. I didn’t know how—or if it was even possible—to restrain
them. I didn’t know exactly what kind of magic Gage possessed, but he’d made it
crystal clear that if I harmed him in any way, his men would kill Dean. I
fought to stay calm. My hands balled into fists, and my heart pounded. I took a
deep breath and forced my emotions back.
Gage
has the upper hand. He’s holding Dean and Wendy prisoner. If I don’t do what he
wants, he’ll kill them both.

He seemed to sense my inner turmoil. “If you don’t
raise every one, I’m afraid that I’ll have no choice but to kill Dean, and Luke
will be vanquished to the ether sea.” He looked at me. “I wonder… How long do
you think Luke will stay there before he crosses over?”

Obviously he wouldn’t think twice about killing
two people when there were hundreds of bodies lying in the field. It all
suddenly felt surreal, as though I was outside myself watching this happen to
someone else. I forced my words out of numb lips. “Did you…kill
all
these people?”

“Of course,” Gage said in a gleeful voice of pure
evil. “But they aren’t your normal citizens. I wanted something a little…
special
.”

And then it dawned on me. These were the three
hundred death dealers who were murdered, the ones Dean described.
Oh, Goddess. Gage murdered them so I could
resurrect them into zombies
.

Death dealers were hard to kill one-on-one—a
large group should have been impossible. Either this man already had an
army,
or he had serious power. An unearthly red
glow shone from Gage’s eyes. “You have a choice, Colina: do as I say, or risk
losing the one you love.”

I watched the sun hovering on the horizon.
What else can I do?

I looked down at the body closest to me. It was a
girl my age. There wasn't a mark on her, but her face
was frozen
in terror.

I’d once been a healer. I was raised to protect
life at all costs. And now I was about to create an army of undead. This was
the path I had chosen. I
had
welcomed
the darkness into me. Even now, I could feel it coursing through my veins.
I am a death dealer. I am a harbinger
of evil.
This is
the path I have chosen.

This is
the
cost of my revenge.

Dean’s face flashed before me—first with bright
blue eyes, and then Luke’s dark ones. I knelt in the grass, tears falling
freely down my face. They splashed on the ground below me.

Gage threw out his arms to encompass the carnage
and yelled out, “This is your true calling! Your gift!”

I
wiped
the
tears away.
Whatever it takes.
I drew
a deep, shaky breath and threw my shoulders back as I reached out.

Are you captivated by Colina’s story?

Read on for a glimpse into:

Revenant

Dark Rituals

Book
#3

Coming October 21, 2015

Chapter 1

I
lay on a dirt floor. Mud matted my hair and covered my filthy, torn clothes. I
kept track of the time by scratching out marks on the cavern ground with my
fingernails. I’d been here ten days. Gage had kept me alive, but barely. He
gave me just enough food and water to function. Gage, the minion of a demon
that I’d released. Gage, who’d taken me so I could create an undead army to do
his bidding. I was now a prisoner of a man more mad than the serial killer I’d
faced back at the asylum.

So far, the demon hadn’t
made an appearance, but I knew it was only a matter of time. The creature had promised
me that our fates
were intertwined
. It
told me we would meet again. It made the declaration before morphing into a
young girl and skipping out of a burning ballroom, a hellhound at its heels.
The plan that I was being forced to carry out was the demon’s doing. And I had
no choice but to serve at its bidding.

I heard footsteps in the
distance. I slowly forced myself to my feet and leaned against the rock wall.
This was
the one thing I
lived for
. My only moment of happiness in this
dark and desperate existence. I shuffled forward until my fingers wrapped
around the steel bars.
Any moment now…he’ll
be
here
. I realized I was holding my
breath. I closed my
eyes
.

When I opened them
again,
he stood in front of me, on the other
side of my cell door.

Luke
. His eyes blazed
with anger. His wrists were bound together by chains and a dark metal collar
wrapped around his neck. If I summoned any of my magic within 100 feet of the
collar, it would
collapse inward
and Luke
would suffocate. I looked down at the chains—the metal cut into Luke’s
bare flesh. A drop of blood slid down his skin, hitting the dirt floor beneath
him.

"Let him loose.
You’re hurting him," I cried out. I reached through the bars, but before
our fingers could touch, rough hands pulled him away.

Two men stood on either
side of Luke. They were identical—blond hair, brown eyes, both dressed in
black, both Gage’s henchmen. They were brothers. Twins. The only difference
between the two was that Caleb had hair that came to rest on his shoulders. His
brother, Jacob, wore his hair shaved close to his head.

My whole focus was now
on Caleb. He was the one I had to watch. He was the one who seemed to get the
most pleasure out of causing
me
pain.

My eyes met his.

Caleb gave me a wicked smile and then feigned sad
regret as he gestured toward Luke with a lazy wave. "Sorry, boss’s orders.
Lover boy has been bad. He tried to escape again. I like the other one—he’s
more docile. This one comes out every night and tries to make my life
hell." Caleb jammed his elbow hard into Luke’s rib cage.

Caleb was dealing with not one prisoner, but two in
Luke—and it was my doing.
After I had
unleashed the demon and caused Luke’s death, I’d committed myself to an insane
asylum with the sole purpose of finding an empty vessel—a living body I
could use to bind Luke back to earth and the living.
And it worked. I
found a young man who was once a death dealer. He’d become mentally lost during
his training while performing the second ritual. It was only after I had done
the spell and Luke possessed Dean that we realized Dean’s soul was still in
residence, and that I’d mistakenly allowed two spirits to inhabit the same body.
The second death dealer ritual trapped Dean’s spirit deep inside his body long
before I met him—so deep that even his guild had been unable to revive
him.

But my powers had somehow woken Dean. He’d been
able to come back and claim his body during the day while Luke had full use of
it at night.

But now it was only at night that I had any
contact with anyone besides my
prison guard
.
I
hadn’t seen Dean since
Gage brought us
here, but I knew he was in there somewhere,
listening to our exchange. Caleb said that Dean was docile, but I didn’t
believe it. Neither Luke nor Dean would sit idly by while some madman bound
them in chains.

Caleb hit Luke
again,
and Luke grunted, bending over in pain.

For a moment, I forgot
my exhaustion. I could feel the rage rising inside me. "Leave him
alone!"

"Or what?"
Caleb rushed forward and put his face inches from the bars. "
Sorry,
little bird—they’ve clipped your
wings. You try any of your magic, and you know what happens. And let’s not
forget the others. What about that dark-haired friend of yours? She’s a pretty
one,
she is." He motioned to his brother,
who was standing silent by Luke’s side. "She’s a quiet one, but I think
Jacob here has taken a real shine to her. Haven’t you, Jacob?"

"Don’t you lay a
finger on Wendy," I growled out. I moved to grasp the bars of my cell and
gave Caleb my most intimidating glare.

"More threats? And
here I thought we were starting to become friends. If you don’t want to say
hello to your boyfriend, I’d be happy to drag him away. I didn’t realize you
were so eager to start tonight’s work. There’s going to be a full moon out.
Should be a pretty sky full of bright stars. I bet you can’t wait to see
them." Caleb grabbed Luke’s arm, pulling him toward the door.

"No! Wait," I
begged.

"That’s more like
it. See how she changed her tune?
She tries to
look all tough, but when it comes to this one—" he yanked on Luke’s
chains, causing Luke to moan in pain, "—she’s all soft inside like a
marshmallow."
Caleb gave me another wicked grin. "You have ten
minutes. But no touching. The boss wants to make sure you
two
keep your distance. I think he’s worried
about what kind of magic the two of you might do if you ever get together.
Me? I’m not so worried.
Whatever Death Arts you
can muster up don’t scare me. Soft like a marshmallow," Caleb chuckled as
he shoved Luke forward.

Luke fell to his knees
on the ground just shy of the bars.

"Luke," I
cried out.

His head
was bowed
, and for a moment he didn’t say
anything. Then he slowly lifted his
head,
and his eyes met mine. "Colina," he said my name through dry, cracked
lips.

Tears streamed down my
face, leaving muddy tracks on my filthy cheeks. "I’m so sorry I got you
into this mess."

Luke
murmered
something I couldn’t quite hear. He was only a few inches away and I wanted so
desperately to feel his arms around me.
To put
my lips against his.
My whole body strained against the metal cage, but
the solid bars didn’t budge.

Luke leaned closer and
whispered, "If you have a chance, I want you to make a run for it."

He wanted me to save
myself, but I wasn’t going anywhere without him. "I’m not leaving you."

"If you get the
chance, you run."

I raised my voice.
"No."

There was anger in his
eyes. "You
escape.
You get free. Do
you hear me? I don’t know what this sick bastard wants with you. Colina, why
won’t you tell me what he wants?" The anger left his face. His eyes were
full of concern. "What does he have you doing?" He asked me the same
question each night.

I sat back on my heels
and wiped the tears from my eyes. Luke kept asking me why Gage had taken us and
what plan he had in store. But each time I refused to answer.
How can I confess to him the terrible evil
I’m doing? Worse, how will he react if he ever finds out?
I knew he would
tell me his life wasn’t worth the unnatural acts I was committing, but there
was nothing anyone could say that would change my mind. I would do whatever I
had to in order to keep Luke by my side. I had already broken nature’s laws by
bringing him back to me the first time. I would not risk losing him again. I
would do whatever this madman asked
of
me
if it meant keeping Luke safe.

I wanted so desperately
to tell him, to confess my wicked deeds, but I couldn’t bring myself to say the
words out loud. Because of me, dozens—no, hundreds—of undead now
roamed the earth. They were zombies, walking creatures formed from carcasses of
the living. Luke had once called them
draugrs
—creatures
pulled from his people’s myths and bedtime
stories
—but
the term “
zombie”
fit them better. They
were bodies raised from the dead, inhabited by wandering souls, and used as
slaves by the living, in the worst voodoo tradition.

Each night I raised the
dead and then bound them to my will. But I was just a puppet as well;
Gage was
the puppet master. Gage was the one in
control, and he could make me do whatever he wanted. He knew I would do his
bidding as long as he continued to threaten Luke’s very existence.

I looked away, unable to
meet Luke’s eyes. I knew they were full of hurt and sadness. He didn’t know why
I was keeping secrets from him.

"Mildred came to
see me," he said, finally breaking the silence.

My head whipped around.
Mildred
. A woman I’d thought was my
friend,
but who turned out to
be aligned
with my enemies. I asked the
question that had been haunting me since the beginning of my captivity.
"Why did she do it?"

"She told me she
was sorry. She never meant for us to get hurt. Gage promised to bring back her
daughter."

Mildred’s daughter died
years ago.
I knew the loss still
tortured her.
"Can he do
it?"

"He’s powerful.
He’s using
magics
not seen for a hundred years. Who
knows what dark and twisted spells he
’s been
working."

"But her daughter must
have crossed over." I was almost sure of it. I’d never heard, nor seen the
daughter’s spirit.
If she’s roaming the
in between, surely she would have come to her mother’s side during the time I
was in
the asylum.

"Gage says the
daughter’s spirit
is trapped
in hell. He
says her daughter’s death wasn’t an accident."

"The girl didn’t
drown?"

Luke paused for a long
moment before answering, and then he spoke slowly and carefully, his eyes fixed
on me with concern. "She
was killed
…sacrificed."

Sacrificed like my family
? My mind flashed back to the horror I had witnessed as I watched a
group of mad men kill my loved ones. I had watched the blood pour from my
father’s neck as their leader,
Macaven
, slit his
throat. I watched, helpless, trapped inside the pantry, bound by a spell and
unable to escape, as my mother was shot. The image of her face as the bullet
tore through her skin was still burned into my brain. And then the dark mage
had torn my brother James’ spirit from his body and turned him into a banshee
to do his bidding.

My family’s death had
set in motion this dark path I know found
myself
on
. A path that so far had caused more misery and heartache than I could
have ever imagined.

Was Mildred’s daughter
an innocent child scarified like my father? The thought filled me with an
incredible sadness. My eyes were full of tears as I asked. "What kind of
monster would murder a young child?"

"Someone without
conscience
. Someone without a soul." Luke looked over his
shoulder.
"Someone
not unlike the
people working for Gage. I’ve seen people become corrupted with the need for
power. Once you start down that
path,
once you cross over the first line…it’s
easy
to cross over the next one. Then you lose yourself. You lose all hope." Luke
reached out for me again.

In response, Caleb kicked
the cage, laughing harshly as I quickly dropped my hands from the vibrating
bars. He jerked Luke back by his collar, but Luke no longer seemed to notice
the manhandling. He focused on me. "Colina, what’s the work Caleb is
talking about
? Why are they taking you to the
surface every night?"

I looked away, unable to
meet his eyes.
I can’t tell him. I won’t
tell him
.

"Whatever it is,
you can’t trust Gage. Whatever he promises you, whatever he says he’ll do…he’ll
go
back on his word. He’s truly
evil."

And so am I. I’ve crossed one line and now another. I’m
raising the dead so Gage can have a zombie army at his beck and call
.

"Time’s up."
Caleb started forward.

"Promise me that if
you see your chance, you’ll take it. Run!" Luke said, this time
not
caring if they heard him.

I watched in silence as
Caleb and Jacob marched Luke out of the room.

My strength left with
Luke, and I fell back onto the floor. The tears
came,
this time fast and hard. I pulled my knees into my chest and rocked myself back
and forth on the dirt.

I’m not just creating
monsters…
I’m becoming one.