Ghosts of the Falls (Entangled Ever After) (5 page)

Chapter Seven

Dutch careened through the forest in a straight line to the grave he normally avoided. Making the trip in under a minute, he materialized in front of the stone and waited, pacing. The spot made his skin crawl, both because of the proximity to his mortal remains and the memories of his last moments of life. The shouts that’d reached his ears as he’d fallen still echoed in his dreams. Here, they seemed louder and ever present.

The real horror had come later that day. Dying hadn’t hurt, but being left behind certainly had. The living had benefited from his death once…it wouldn’t happen today.

After a few long minutes, Jade’s brother emerged from the trees, a black bag hanging from his shoulder.

Aaron smiled, smug. “You must be the—”

The exorcist’s eyes widened and he lifted a hand to his mouth. Fury in his expression, he tried to shout, but no sound came out.

Dutch grinned and circled. “You caught me off guard last night, but I have a few tricks of my own, exorcist. I will be no one’s pet.”

Aaron swung a fist, but Dutch dematerialized, assumed his corporeal form behind Jade’s brother, and seized him in a chokehold. “You see, I’ve spent a God-awful long time here, and for the first time in over a century, I feel alive. Even in my lifetime, no one made me feel the way Jade does. Now that I’ve found her, you’re going to leave us the hell alone. Nod.”

Aaron nodded against Dutch’s arm, struggling for air.

Not believing the bastard for a second, Dutch kept his preternatural grip on Aaron’s vocal cords. Sweat dripped down his spine. He couldn’t hurt Jade’s brother, and he couldn’t keep him silent indefinitely—that took concentration. “How are we going to guarantee that, I wonder?”

…

Jade pulled the car to an abrupt halt behind Aaron’s yellow Jeep at the trailhead. “Follow the orange blazes to the gravesite,” she said to Jeremy. “Keep Aaron and Dutch from hurting each other until I get there.”

“Aren’t you coming?”

“And do what? Argue with Aaron? Has that ever worked for me?”

“But what—”

“I will take care of everything. I’ll only be a few minutes behind you.” She shoved him, and he got out of the car.

“He’s just a spirit, Jay,” he said, his hand resting on the open door.

“He’s not just a spirit to me, little brother. Do this for me?
Please
?”

Jeremy held up his hands, then smacked them against his thighs in defeat. “I’ll try. Whatever you’re doing, make it fast.”

She drove as fast as she dared on the narrow road, hoping she could find the turn she’d taken mental note of while browsing a map of the park when she’d checked in.

She took inventory of her backseat in her head. Her grandfather’s book of incantations? Check. Her notebooks full of her own incantations? Check. Nerve? Did she have enough nerve to execute her plan?

Her mouth went dry and her heart’s rhythm shuddered as much as the car on the washboard road. There was too much at stake for her to fail. Both Dutch’s freedom and his existence could be lost—because if Aaron failed to enslave him, an exorcism would follow—but that wasn’t all. She hadn’t had time to gather all her thoughts, but lying awake the night before, she’d realized a way to further her professional goals was presenting itself.

Her brothers would never agree to the idea.

Dutch would never agree to the idea.

Without Dutch, she wouldn’t have the courage to go through with the idea.

Hell, it might not even work.

But if it did…

She had to jump in and get her feet wet. Literally. A small green sign identified her turn and she progressed slowly down the steep, even narrower road that led to a fishing area below the falls. She parked, got into the backseat, and opened her grandfather’s book.

She grabbed a pen and one of her notebooks. She needed a portion of her grandfather’s slave incantation edited into a passage she wrote a year ago, one that, at the time, had been a mistake. Almost a deadly one. She scribbled Latin in shorthand, using symbols for certain multi-purpose passages she’d long ago memorized.

She ripped the page out of the notebook and bolted from the car.

The nearest fishermen were well downstream. Jade waded into the water, the cold making it hard to breathe, and made her way upstream toward the base of the falls, the roar deafening.

The mist saturated the paper. The ink ran.

“Shit!” Shivering, she held the blurring words up and began to read the first verse even as she continued to progress, struggling on the slippery rocks beneath her feet. She needed to be here despite the danger. It was, she believed, the most concentrated area of power other than Dutch’s grave itself—perhaps the source of energy for the whole area.

If something went wrong and she died, it was best to be where Dutch died and continue living as he had.

As she recited one of the memorized passages, she looked up to the spot where Dutch had fallen over a century ago. He’d become a ghost here, among these rocks and rushing currents that tried to rip her feet out from under her. His first disorientated, conscious moments after his death may well have taken place exactly where she stood now.

But he hadn’t died, not the way a human being normally passes on. The power of this place, power perhaps centered at these falls, had given him a heartbeat.

A heartbeat that had given her and Dutch the chance to cross paths in this world.

A heartbeat that she wanted to listen to tonight when she fell asleep.

A heartbeat that now gave her the courage to read the third and final verse.

Shouting to hear herself over the falls, she completed the incantation.

…

“Let him go,” Jeremy’s voice shouted over the din of the falls below.

Dutch released Aaron from the chokehold, but didn’t return the exorcist’s ability to speak. “Ghost got your tongue?”

Aaron glared as he kneeled, catching his breath.

Jeremy walked over and stood between them. “Aaron, would it kill you to listen to someone else’s opinion once in your life?”

More glaring. Dutch shook his head. Damn, this guy never gave up, did he?

“Our sister has gone to do grandfather-knows-what because you can never be reasoned with,” Jeremy continued, staring down at Aaron. “If she gets into any kind of trouble, I’m holding you responsible.”

“Where’s Jade?” Dutch demanded. What was she up to?

“I don’t know.” Jeremy rubbed the spot between his eyes beneath his lenses. “Whatever you’re doing to Aaron, stop it.”

“And let him bind me to my grave with a few words? No.”

“This impasse requires a little trust to break,” Jeremy said quietly.

“Would you trust him if you were a ghost?”

Jeremy grimaced.

“I thought not.”

Jeremy paced around, scanning the area. “You have to admit, Aaron, this place is unique. Dutch is unique. To call him truly dead would be unjust. I agree with Jade that you need to back the hell off and let her handle this.”

Aaron shook his head.

“You know,” Jeremy said, turning to Dutch, “I could get used to him being mute.”

Dutch grinned.

“Me, too,” Jade’s voice said.

Dutch froze, overwhelmed by the presence of an unexpected spirit drawing closer to him, the additional energy visible as faint fog moving independent of the mist. She took form, wearing the jeans and green gauzy shirt she’d had on earlier, her dark hair loose around her arms.

“Jade?” He stared, his corporeal body as numb as his incorporeal one. “What…what did you…”

Jeremy stuttered something similar, from what Dutch could tell through the ringing in his ears.

Jade held up a hand. “It’s not what it looks like. I’m okay.”

“What, exactly, is it then?” Aaron said, his voice shaking, still on his knees. Dutch had lost his concentration on the exorcist’s vocal cords.

Jeremy stood still and wide-eyed. “Jay-Jay,” he whispered. “What did you do?”

Jade’s tone firmed and she leaned toward Aaron. “First, I chained my spirit to Dutch’s—not a full slave bond at all, not even enough to cause us any discomfort, but enough that if you exorcise him, you’ll destroy me, too. Enslaving him would enslave me. Understand?”

Aaron nodded, his face so pale he could have been a ghost himself. Dutch figured being as familiar as Jade was with their great grandfather’s work, Aaron wouldn’t doubt she was right.

“Good. Second.” She straightened and met all their gazes. “Yes, I left my body to accomplish bonding myself to Dutch, but no, I didn’t kill myself. It was a risk, but I’m fine.”

Jeremy sputtered something unintelligible and sank to the ground.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Aaron got to his feet. He gripped Jade’s arms but she didn’t struggle, so Dutch resisted any vengeful spirit moves. “Do you have any idea how dangerous—”

“I know exactly, and I was as careful as time allowed. I had to show you how serious I am about you leaving Dutch alone. I needed to make absolutely sure you couldn’t exorcise him, enslave him, or anything else.”

“Such an incantation
could have killed you
. Ripping your soul from your body? It hasn’t been studied or practiced. What if you’d stopped breathing?”

“My body is safe in my car. Breathing. I know it could have killed me,” she said evenly, eased out of Aaron’s grip, and turned to Dutch. “But I would still have had a body and a heartbeat.”

“Jade,” he said, his throat tight.

She hooked an arm through his and spoke to her brothers. “I would like to stay here awhile. As a spirit myself, benefitting from the powers of this place, I’m an even stronger exorcist, and I stand to learn so much about the spirit world. I might finally be able to write an incantation to help spirits move on without destroying them. Both of you know how much that means to me, even if it means nothing to you.”

Aaron sighed. “I know I’m an asshole, Jade, but you’re my sister and that
does
mean something to me.”

Jeremy nodded.

“Don’t scare us like this again,” Aaron said, his voice broken.

Jade hugged him. “If you give me the same courtesy. Do you have any idea how scared I was when I heard you were going to enslave Dutch?”

Aaron’s throat worked. “Let’s call it even, then.”

“I happen to like Dutch very much.”

His breath left his body. Could he be that lucky? After so many years of being alone?

“Hmm.” Aaron scowled, but after a second, the corners of his mouth curved upward the slightest bit. “Derrick Hutchinson, you treat my little sister right, or I’ll find a way to break that bond and exorcise your ass.”

“I’ll help,” Jeremy said from his position on the ground with his head between his knees.

“Brothers,” Jade muttered.

“They love you. I can’t blame them.” Dutch’s hands found her hips. He bent his head and whispered in her ear. “Because I like you very much, too.”

…

Standing in front of the cabin’s bathroom mirror, Jade dissolved her corporeal body. She took form again. She disappeared. She reappeared.

“Neat.” The idea of being all but dead, her body in indefinite stasis, disturbed her to the point that she simply had to focus on other things, and the ability to blink in and out proved to be a great distraction. Being a spirit would take some getting used to, but she had no regrets.

Dutch materialized at her back, his arms around her waist. He brushed his lips across her nape, and her whole body warmed. “It’s done. They’re on their way back.”

She nodded, relaxing. After her reunion with her brothers and a lengthy discussion of the probable preternatural qualities of the gorge, they’d decided to pay off the park for long-term, exclusive use of the most remote cabin on the property—so Jade could do her work and not worry about hiding her body. No one wanted to risk removing her body from the area—the hot spot that fueled her and Dutch’s abilities—and accidently harm Jade in the process.

Dutch’s embrace tightened. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

“I’m okay.” She ran her hands over his arms, gathering her thoughts. He felt as real as ever under her touch—there was no difference between her living body and this one. “Are we trapped here?”

“No. I tested it once and traveled thousands of miles with no trouble, and I’m sure I could have kept going.”

She squeezed her eyes shut. “Then why stay here and let loneliness consume you as it did? You could have kept living. Gotten a job, made friends…”

“Perhaps,” he said, but he shook his head as he spoke. “I considered that course at one time. But I wouldn’t have aged, so I would’ve had to uproot myself every few years. Severed ties. Like dying over and over again.” He sighed. “It didn’t appeal. Even with you…”

She turned within his arms and kissed him. “I now have the sort of access to the spirit world that a living exorcist could never attain. This is a chance to prevent the exorcism of innocents by providing my brothers with information. But that’s not the only reason I chose to do this to myself.” She rested her hands on his chest. “I also have the chance to stay with you and, if it works out as I hope it will, we won’t have to worry about me aging. And since we’re not trapped here, I can take you out and show you firsthand all that’s happened in a hundred years. I promised you many more nights, and I make good on my promises.”

He cocked his head and ran his fingertips down her throat, warming her entire body with the lightest of touches. “Why do you want to stay with me?”

“So we can get coffee. Have dinner. Go for walks together.” She arched an eyebrow. “Make love every night—”

He crushed his mouth to hers and pressed her against the wall. “That,” he said between fevered kisses, “sounds like life.”

Acknowledgments

Tremendous thanks go out to all the editors and staff at Entangled Publishing who made this book possible, especially Marie Loggia-Kee and Liz Pelletier.

Thank you so much, Jeanne Haskin, for providing your always spot-on opinion and a second set of eyes, even in a pinch.

About the Author

Sarah Gilman writes paranormal romance. Her fascination with all things winged extends back to childhood, when images of the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis captured her imagination and never let go. She lives in Vermont with her supportive husband and two spoiled cats.