Halton Cray (Shadows of the World Book 1) (36 page)

‘That sounds just like him.’ I smiled.

‘So, I went to find such a place,’ said Seth. ‘And
having done some thorough digging – pun intended!’ He laughed. ‘I found this
place, which qualifies for every requirement he gave. But this is the first
time I’ve been here to see it. I brought my camera to get some shots too. No
point in driving out here again if Thom doesn’t go for it. There’s only one
question not so easily answered – but I couldn’t find out for sure whether so “antique
a cemetery”, as Thom would say, really sat on hallowed ground. Even if a
decrepit record exists in some vault saying, “last blessed in 1733”, I wouldn’t
trust it.’

‘Neither would Thom,’ I said. ‘He’ll want to test
it.’

Seth took his pictures before heading back to the
car.

‘So what’s in the boot?’

‘The boot? Oh, you mean the trunk. Here –’ he
said, beeping it open.

I looked inside and saw the shovels I’d predicted might
be there.

‘What’s in the holdall?’ I pointed to a large blue
bag.

‘Yeah, you don’t wanna know. Thom’ll show you
later. It’s what I was getting earlier today. Listen,’ he said, closing the
trunk, ‘Thom was telling me about what you witnessed last night. I think it was
a good idea, you know, to take in a bit at a time, in order to accept these
things. I kinda wish I had too.’

‘But do you really need to?’ I quizzed, as we got
in the car. ‘I mean, considering you had a demon tenanting your body for
months.’

‘I remember it like it was a dream, Alex – a bad one!
It doesn’t exactly feel real. But yeah, it should make things easier to deal
with,
if
I could accept that it happened.’

‘How did it happen?’ I asked, as he drove us back
to the hotel. ‘Thom said it was through using a Ouija board, but he didn’t go
into detail.’

‘Truth be told, Alex, I don’t remember that much
about it. I know it was Halloween – of course! A group of us were going to a
costume party, only it got cancelled. We ended up at my buddy Rhys’s place
where we drank beer, got bored and decided to play the Ouija. Rhys had one in a
closet although it was missing some pieces. We knelt round it in the TV room
and used an upturned glass. Before even starting, this guy Carter, turns up the
glass and shouts into it “We only want evil mofo’s tonight!” Carter’s always
been a jerk. His sister, Ashley, refused to play because of that, considering
what might make contact. The first thing the board spelt out was that we were
all going to die at the hands of an evil rabbit. Carter’s costume was the
demonic bunny,
Frank
, from the film Donnie Darko. Carter turned over the
glass and told the spirit to eff-off.’ Seth shook his head as he steered the
car round a corner. ‘I thought it must’ve been him pushing the glass, so that
he looked tough shouting back. That’s when the glass began moving on its own,
spelling out that it was coming to get him. Then the glass moved to the numbers
on the board and began a countdown from ten. Carter was shouting at me to break
the glass, but I didn’t wanna touch it. It got down to one before Carter
grabbed it and threw it against the wall. It bounced off. He was physically
shaking. He placed it on the table and the glass eventually shattered on its
own. Ashley screamed from the kitchen. We raced in there. She pointed to the
floor, trembling, saying she saw a black shadow roll across it.

‘I don’t remember anything else that night, Alex, or
the next. Thom’s guess is that the spirit – after attaching itself to the glass
– couldn’t get inside Carter, so looked for anyone else nearby and found a way
to possess me. Next thing I recall, I was walking through Central Park talking
to Johan. I’m pretty sure he approached me. I ended up back at his place where
he talked about this guy overseas he wanted revenge on. But he wasn’t talking
to me; he was talking to whatever possessed me, promising it things.’ He
shuddered, his face becoming troubled.

‘So here sit two people who’ll never use a Ouija
board again.’

‘You got that right,’ he said, as we arrived at
the hotel.

I text Thom a message to say we were all done and
going out for pizza.

‘Might as well experience something good here on
your first trip to New York!’ Smiled Seth.

‘Is the pizza good here?’

‘Good? Did I use the word good? The pizza here is
phenomenal, and even
that
might be an understatement. I think I missed
this stuff more than my mom!’

I found the choice of pizza toppings in itself
phenomenal, and got out of having to make a decision by asking Seth to
recommend something.

It seemed the strangest night so far, and that’s
saying something considering what I witnessed the night before. It was because
of that that this was so strange. Sitting in a pizza place around the corner
from the hotel, eating slices as if I was on vacation, and not a murderous
adventure to deal with a sadistic vampire.

‘It’s seven-thirty,’ said Seth. ‘Thom text me
saying he’ll probably come get us around ten. He wants to check out the
cemetery tonight.’

Thom text me the same, but added kisses and a
comment that he hoped, one day soon, to take me out to dinner.

Thom’s light raps on my door woke me just after ten.
I’d dozed off after finishing The Body Snatcher. I opened my door and he came
straight inside, throwing his coat on a chair. It reminded me about the myth of
invitation.

‘You already invited me in yesterday,’ he said. ‘It’s
true, I can’t enter without invitation, or at least, I can’t enter without
suffering pain. – Alex, I’ve woken Seth already. He’s getting dressed and will
wait in the car.’

‘Okay, let me just grab my–’

Thom suddenly closed the distance between us and
slid his arms under mine. ‘I want to spend time with you, Alex.’

‘I want that too,’ I said, tracing the
hair-roughened skin of his forearms up to his elbows. ‘We just don’t have much
of it right now.’ I ran my hands over the fabric of his sweater, up to his
strong shoulders, until I could feel the cool skin at the back of his neck.

‘That’s why I knocked at Seth’s door first.’ He
smiled. ‘So that I couldn’t hang around in here too long, with you distracting
me.’

I found that he was becoming too distracted already.
His powerful hands found their way to the narrowing of my back, slipping under
my blouse, where he pressed his smooth fingers to my bare skin beneath the rim of
my jeans.

‘I want you, Alex,’ he murmured between caresses.

‘Then it’s a good job you’ve got me.’

‘You know what I mean.’

‘Did you see Seth’s photos of the cemetery?’ I
asked.

He gave me a knowing smile. ‘Yes. It looks
promising.’ Then looking from my eyes to my lips he went to my mouth again with
a sense of urgency. His hands, on a new mission, found their way to the gaps
between my blouse buttons, where he pushed his fingertips through to stroke my
skin hypnotically. I melted under his touch, but it didn’t feel right to go any
further, not just now. After a few minutes of trying to calm his energetic
kisses, I broke away once more.

‘It’s perfectly quiet too and abandoned.’

‘What is?’ His eyes had liquefied.

‘The cemetery!’ I exaggerated a sigh. ‘Let’s go.’

He groaned and reluctantly followed me to the door.

‘So what happened last night? Did he leave his
apartment?’

He huffed. ‘He did. I’ll tell you about it on the
way.’

We got into Seth’s car and again I sat up front,
because Seth didn’t want to feel like a taxi driver or a gooseberry.

‘I watched Johan’s place all day from a
neighbouring rooftop,’ Thom began. ‘He was always agoraphobic, so appeared to
have walled himself up in there. Soon as it got dark, he proved me wrong. The
amount of potentials he passed on the street without batting an eyelid astounds
me. I began to suspect he knew I was following and deliberately took me on a
pointless pursuit. Then he hungrily trailed some teenagers, before police
officers stopped them to check their ages. He moved on and after an hour of
hunting in vain, he walked to Brooklyn Bridge. He took the walkway and I
followed him on the shadowed underside, staying well back. He never crossed the
bridge to Long Island, or walked as far as the first tower. I’m guessing it has
something to do with that feeling I get myself, almost of hydrophobia, a fear
but accompanied with a detestation of the water. He turned back to fully circle
his apartment building, as an animal patrolling its territory.’

‘That’s another night he hasn’t eaten,’ said Seth.

‘And I don’t know how long he’s gone without
before we arrived,’ Thom sighed. ‘But he’s certainly weak; he put his lights on
again. That tells me he hasn’t been eating on a regular basis for some time. It’s
affected his vision. I don’t understand why he doesn’t accost someone to feed in
a secluded spot. He’s hungry. It makes no sense. I only hope he’s as weak when
I attack.’

I turned in my seat. ‘Thom, are you sure he didn’t
know you were following him?
You
always notice when someone’s following
you.’

‘That’s different; you’re human. I’m confident now
he didn’t have any idea. I trained my senses, Alex, to seek out Death, as you
know. Johan’s aren’t as keen as mine. Besides, I think he had as much faith in
Seth to do the job as he lacked in me to survive it.’

Thom was quiet as we drove over the East River.

‘Nausea?’ I asked.

He nodded.

‘Doesn’t the Shockers affect you in the same way,
since you dove into it after me?’

‘It affects me in a similar way, though not as
acutely. The larger the body of water, the more it hurts. But I would dive into
the ocean, Alexandra, if you belly flopped into it.’ He half-smiled.

Even for that time of night, the roads were busy. Lights
glowed all along the water’s edge, and below, bright orange waves danced on a
black canvas. Most of the stars abandoned the city.

Seth kept his mind off our dark task by acting the
part of a tour guide, introducing us to his hometown. He pointed out his window
to the left of the bridge.

‘See straight between those tramway cables, they’re
framing a clear view of Big Allis on Ravenswood site. Her red and white
smokestacks sprouting from Roosevelt Island.’

He drove on, taking us east into the borough of
Queens. The horizon cleared of tall buildings ahead, the sky slowly collecting
its stars once more.

We pulled up again outside the front entrance to the
cemetery, and found it was also somewhat impenetrable to streetlamps.

‘Seth, this looks perfect,’ Thom approved again. ‘You’ve
outdone yourself! Now did you get everything?’

‘It’s all in the trunk.’

‘Show me.’

I followed them to where Thom pointed out what could
be stored behind the driver’s seat. ‘Because,’ he said, ‘we’ll need the trunk
free, except for those.’

‘Here –’ said Seth, handing him the blue holdall.

Thom unzipped the bag and peered inside.

‘Excellent.’

He zipped it back up and walking round placed it
on the backseat. Seth left the two shovels in the trunk for now, but picked up a
large cutting device. From the sidewalk, Thom patrolled the exterior of the
cemetery, examining the fencing.

‘What are you looking for?’ I asked.

‘An ideal spot. Over there!’ He pointed. ‘Where
the fence takes a turn into that recess. Yes – this will do. It leaves room
enough for me to crouch here in the shadow of this wall.’ – He crouched there
now. – ‘And I have a good view through the trees within, to that well-canopied
section of the yard. So far, so good. But it’s useless if it isn’t consecrated.
I must test it, and prepare for a visit to hell. The fencing here is rooted in
the dirt, so should have the same effect on me if it’s blessed. I will merely
touch this fence. If I’m still doing that for more than a few seconds, I’ll
need you both to pull me back or prise my hand away, if you can.’

I nodded.

‘Are you ready?’ He asked.

I knelt down and kissed him. ‘Are you?’

‘For this? Not really.’ He forced an uncomfortable
laugh. ‘It’ll be excruciating. But better than nothing happening at all.’

‘Ready,’ said Seth, crouching on the other side of
him.

Thom slowly placed his left hand against the fence.
By the look of something like disappointment crossing his face, and by the way
his fingers began to curl around the wire, I felt disheartened that the
cemetery wasn’t blessed after all. Seth sighed deeply, having come to the same
conclusion.

I looked back to Thom to ask, ‘what now?’ but his
face was not reporting discouragement at all. It was distress becoming agony. He’d
frozen to the fence, locked onto it even, under the power of the place.

‘Thom?’ I uttered, grabbing his hand. I couldn’t
prise it away. ‘Seth, help me! See if you can pull the fence away as I pull him
back.’

Thom’s eyes rolled back and the visible whites
reddened. The pain in his face! Unbearable to look at while unable to free him.
He moved with the fence as we tried to separate them.

‘I can’t straighten his fingers!’ Seth cried.

Neither could I. Then I spied the cutting tool on
the sidewalk, which Seth had brought. I grabbed it and began cutting the wire around
Thom’s hand. I could only hope that once unconnected to that ground he’d be free.

On snipping the last piece, Thom moved back
instantly. I put the cutters down and flung my arms round his neck.

‘Thom, I’m so sorry! We thought you were–’

‘
You’re
sorry?’ he pulled back, his eyes
still red and glistening. He enclosed me fully in his arms. ‘Alex, my little darling–
I’m
sorry! So very sorry!’

‘What for?’

‘For the pain I’ve caused you!’ He pressed his cheek
to mine. ‘I had no idea how much hurt I’d bestowed on my beloved.’

I was about to tell him not to dwell on that now,
but he muffled my words by smothering my mouth with his.