Ghost Stalker (21 page)

Nick slumped to the ground once more. Jessie’s heart broke in two as she realized Nagi had killed him. She watched Nick’s soul rise in a wisp of white. Above him the stars glittered more brightly as the Milky Way became a highway to lead Nick along the Way of Souls.

No! But he could not hear her.

She had only just found her soul mate and already he had been taken from her.

Nagi watched her. Could he see her?

“Do you love him?”

She wanted to attack Nagi but knew he was immortal and beyond her rage.
Yes,
she answered.

“Then follow him. Hurry, or he will leave you behind.”

Jessie watched Nick’s soul retreat. She had always followed the laws of the Dream Walker and so had never before even considered leaving this earthly plane, though at times she thought she glimpsed this portal to the Spirit World. But she did not hesitate. If that was where Nick had gone, then she would go.

She rose into the air, ready to follow him even in death.

Nick darted through the trees and under the brush, using the cover to get as close to the buildings as
possible. Jessie’s scent was strong and fresh. She was here. He knew it.

He made a half circle of the property before halting.

The spread was impossibly large, with twelve cabins of various sizes scattered in the woods and one central mammoth log-construction lodge. Any of the buildings might have Jessie trapped inside.

Bess landed beside him.

“Nothing unusual from the air. Folks on a trail ride in the woods back there. I didn’t see any guards.”

Nick nodded. He had found Jessie’s scent and set off again, keeping low and close to cover as he breathed in her familiar essence. He paused and pointed toward the large cabin.

“There?” asked Bess, landing on the ground at his left.

He nodded. She flapped her wings and flew around the log home. She perched on the deck and peered inside and then hopped over the roof and disappeared round back. Nick stole closer, making it under the porch before Bess returned.

“Curtains are all drawn. I can’t see a thing. You have a plan?”

Nick transformed. “Kick in the damn door?”

“Without knowing how many there are?”

“Your suggestion?”

“Let me knock.”

“No. If they are possessed, they will know what you are. We go together.”

From somewhere beyond his vision came a startled female voice.

“Look! A buffalo!”

“Do you think it’s tame?” asked another woman.

Bess hopped to the edge of their cover, with Nick close behind her. There, downwind, on the lawn stood a massive male buffalo. Nick recognized him instantly by his scent.

“Friend of yours?” asked Bess.

Nick assessed the sheer mass of the young bull, feeling better already. “Definitely.”

Bess chortled. “Odds just got better.”

The buffalo maintained his position, drawing a crowd. The distraction made it easy for Nick to transform back to a man and slip onto the porch.

The door was locked, so he lifted one of the rockers, constructed from sturdy logs, and threw it through the picture window. An instant later he dove through the void.

He came to his feet in a living room and was overwhelmed by the rank odor of death.

The room was still and unnaturally quiet. He followed Jessie’s scent past the stone fireplace and the efficiency kitchen to the second bedroom at the back of the cabin. Light crept around the drawn navy blue blinds, giving the room in an eerie, melancholy mood.

It took only a moment to find her, lying on her side, unnaturally still, with her unfocused eyes staring out at nothing.

“Jessie!”

He reached her in an instant. Her skin was cool, as if she had just been dipped in ice water. The scent of death clung to her skin. He pressed his ear to her chest
and listened. If not for his ability to hear faint sounds, he would have thought her dead, but her heart still did beat in a delayed cadence that could not keep her alive for long.

Jessie was dying.

Bess sailed into the room, landing on the floor beside him, and then surged upward to her full human height.

“What is wrong with her?” she asked, creeping closer.

“I don’t know. She smells of death.”

“Her aura is wrong. It is not that of a living soul, but she still has one, so she has not crossed.” Bess leaned close. “I see Nagi’s mark on her skin.”

Nick growled. “He has done this to her.”

Bess nodded. “A spirit wound.”

Jessie’s parents appeared in the doorway. Mrs. Healy gave a cry and pushed past Nick and Bess and attempted to lift her limp daughter from the bed.

“You’ve killed her.”

“She’s still alive,” said Nick.

“Not for long,” said Bess.

Mrs. Healy looked horrified.

“Can you reach her?” Nick asked Mrs. Healy.

“I’ve tried. She is behind some veil. She can’t hear me and I can’t understand what she is saying.”

Bess straightened. “A veil? Does it shimmer like starlight?”

Mrs. Healy’s grip on her daughter slackened as her mouth dropped open. “How did you know?”

Bess turned to Nick. “She has begun her journey on the Way of Souls.”

Nick stood paralyzed. It was what Nagi had planned all along, to use Jessie in this way. Either Nick let Jessie die or he revealed the location of the Seer.

“He has sent her to the one place I cannot follow.”

Mrs. Healy pressed her ear to Jessie’s chest, then straightened in panic. “Do something!”

Nick scooped Jessie off the bed and turned to Bess. “If I don’t bring her to Sebastian, she dies, and if I bring her, the Seer and her babies die.”

Bess pressed a hand to Nick’s shoulder. “Let me go to the Dream Walker. I can call her back.”

“No time.”

Bess stared up at Nick. “It’s the only way to protect the Seer. Please, Nick.”

Nick’s heart was breaking. Jessie’s cold, still body lay limp in his arms. He stared at Bess, silently begging her to help him. “All right.”

“Keep her close. She has not crossed yet.”

Nick sank to the bed, holding Jessie in his lap as he looked at Bess. “If you are too late, tell her I will not be far behind her.”

Bess’s dark eyes widened as she nodded. “Have courage, brother. I will be faster than the wind.”

With that, Bess transformed into her raven self and shot out the door, crying her hoarse call of farewell. George followed her to the cabin door and watched her disappear into the clouds above them.

Bess found the Way of Souls with a speed born of experience and urgency. She followed the shimmering
silver path of starlight, gliding over the river of souls to find Jessie. Nick’s soul mate stood before Hihankara, the old crone who guarded the Spirit Road.

Bess had never seen this happen. Hihankara either let a soul pass or cast them from the Way of Souls. She never hesitated or wavered. She knew exactly who should cross and who should not. By the tattoos that appeared only after death.

Bess hovered in the air. “Hihankara, what happens here?”

It was the first time Bess had ever spoken to Hihankara. The guardian tolerated a raven flying over her road but did not like it. She thought it disrespectful to disturb the departed with the business of the living.

“This one does not have any tattoos at all,” growled the old Spirit. “She cannot pass.”

“You can’t stop me. I
will
follow him,” said Jessie.

“And I’ve told you, he did not cross.”

“Who?” asked Bess.

“Nick. Nagi has killed him,” said Jessie.

Bess understood Nagi’s trick now. By making Jessie believe Nick had gone before her, he had fooled her into giving up.

“No. He’s alive,” said Bess.

Jessie jerked her head to look at Bess. “I don’t understand.”

“A trick,” said Bess. “Nagi is using you to force Nick to call the Healer. He is about to reveal the Seer.”

“What?”

“He is with you now. Can you not feel him?”

Jessie stared down at her empty hand and then back at Bess in wonderment. “Yes. I can.”

An instant later her astral form rocketed away in a streak of silver too fast for even Bess to follow.

Hihankara grumbled, “No wonder she had no tattoos. The girl isn’t even dead yet. Impudence!” She turned to Bess. “Did you say, Nagi?”

Bess’s wings grew tired from hovering. “I did.”

“He should not meddle with the living,” said Hihankara, more to herself than Bess.

“I agree. But all is not as it should be. Farewell, wise one.” With that she turned about and began the journey back to the world of the living. She raced, trying to reach her friends, knowing that Nagi had allowed Nick to find Jessie. But she doubted their escape would be so easy.

“My lord,” said the ghost sentry to Nagi, “the wolf has arrived.”

“Excellent. Has he found the Dream Walker?”

“Yes, Lord.”

“And has he called the Healer?”

“Not yet, Lord.”

“How long has he been with her?”

“Many minutes, Lord.”

“Yet he sent no signal?” Would the wolf let the Dream Walker die rather than expose his friend? It was a course he did consider. To let a soul mate die… He couldn’t believe it.

“What about the others, Lord?”

Nagi hesitated. “What others?”

“A raven, buffalo and two Niyanoka.”

Nagi simmered. “The Dream Children are united with the Skinwalkers?”

The ghost did not answer. Caution, no doubt, kept him mum.

It was as he feared. “Who are the Niyanoka?”

“The Dream Walker’s parents.”

“Ah.” Nagi understood temporary alliances that sprang from mutual interest. “Use as many as you need, but see none of them live to tell the tale.”

“Yes, my lord.”

The ghost departed, leaving Nagi to consider his plan. It was possible that all he would accomplish was the death of three Skinwalkers and the girl’s parents. He had not considered that Skinwalkers would prove so selfless. It was maddening. Perhaps he had such low expectations because of the souls he normally judged. Still he was stronger than any of them.

The room about him went dark and he felt a presence.

“Nagi? What are you up to?”

He knew the voice. It was Hihankara.

“Why does the raven say you tricked a Dream Walker into walking before her time?”

Nagi shivered and dissolved back into the safety of his circle, leaving his ghosts to fight alone.

J
essie held on to Nick’s hand, feeling it with her body as her spirit returned to him. She opened her eyes to find him there beside her, whole and perfect, just as Bess had promised.

“You’re alive,” she whispered.

Nick smiled down at her, his eyes shimmering with emotion. “Because of you.”

She reached for him and he pulled her gently into his lap, caressing her.

“I thought he had killed you, so I followed.”

Nick nodded, his cheek moist against hers. “I know. But we’re together now.”

“Always,” promised Jessie.

Her father’s voice interrupted them. “Nick.”

Jessie glanced about until she found her father, standing by the window, peering out past the blinds.
Beside him, her mother stood with folded arms, her eyes glittering with fury.

“I taught you the law. Yet you left the earthly plane. That was an incredibly dangerous thing to do.”

Jessie stiffened at her mother’s words and her face flushed, but she said nothing in her own defense.

“So you are bonded to him?” asked her mother.

Jessie tried to rise and found her body stiff and numb. Nick supported her as she stood unsteadily on her feet. How long had she been on the Spirit Road?

Nick kept one arm about her waist. She pressed her hand over his, gathering strength from his courage.

“Yes,” she said.

Her mother pressed a hand to her forehead in despair, covering her eyes.

Tuff charged through the door in human form. “They’re coming. We have to go now.”

Nick helped Jessie to the door, where she froze and staggered backward. Outside the guests and employees of the ranch gathered, their ghostly yellow eyes turned toward the little cabin.

Above them came the cry of a raven as Bess soared over them, returning from her long journey to fight by their sides.

“This is bad,” said George.

It
was
bad. Nick knew it, sensed it as he crossed the threshold of the cabin door. How could there be so many? Nick could not fathom the number advancing toward them. He knew that the only way for him to free a human from possession was to kill him. He felt sick at the prospect of killing so many innocents.

“Here they come,” said George. He closed his eyes for a moment as he stepped back and then opened them again, staring out at the mob. He turned to Nick, looking worried. “My suggestions don’t work on the possessed.”

“Get back,” said Nick.

George cleared the doorway just as three men barged in. Nick had time only to step in front of Jessie before they were on him.

The odor of death would have been enough to recognize them as possessed. But Nick could see the deathly yellow glow of their eyes.

They came at him all together and without weapons. It was a costly mistake. He threw the closest out the window. The second got one hand on Nick before Nick broke his arm. The man staggered away, howling in agony, his elbow bending backward at an unnatural angle. Nick ducked to avoid the swing from the youngest of the three and went for his legs, driving his shoulder into the man’s stomach as he carried him backward. They hit the wide pine floorboards together and with enough force to knock the wind out of the man.

Tuff glanced out the door. “More coming. Best face them in the open.”

Tuff stepped onto the porch. Nick followed, carrying Jessie, who was still barely able to stand. Beyond the gleaming varnish of the log rail, three dozen men and women, still as zombies, stood in a rough half circle surrounding the cabin. The stink of death made Nick gag. He lowered Jessie to his side, keeping her close,
knowing he could not fight and protect her. She bore her own weight now but clung to his middle.