Soul Snatcher (40 page)

“
None of it, everything you know of him is false. He
has played a good game and now he is livid that he has lost what he
had started,” Martha answered.

“
Tell me. Tell me what he has done,” Annie implored.
She felt sick to her stomach that she had let someone into her life
that didn’t care about her at all.

“
All those years ago when he heard your father rambling
on about how he had freed himself from the burden of fatherhood,
Micah thought you would be an easy target. He thought you would be
vulnerable, needing a man to come and save you. He came here and
changed me and ever since he has been forcing me to bow to his
every command,” Martha confessed, finally feeling relieved that she
could do so. Annie remembered Micah’s version that he had told her
and realised how much he had skewed it.

“
What has he made you do?” Annie asked starting to see
that Martha was nothing but a puppet in Micah’s sick
pursuit.

“
He obviously had to do the groundwork so he spent many
years getting close to you. It all was going to culminate in him
rescuing you. He thought that would guarantee him winning your
love.” It sounded as if she thought it was a ridiculous plan. “So
he left you stranded at the markets one day and waited for you to
walk back to the manor alone. He had organised one of his minions
to attack you and he had planned to save you but Baden stepped in
unexpectedly,” Martha said, disgust from Micah’s actions evident in
her voice.

“
He had that snatcher attack me?” Annie asked it more
to herself than anything. She was disturbed to her core by what
Micah had done.

“
He was furious. I was beaten to within an inch of my
life!” Martha said it as if it was nothing out of the ordinary.
Annie tried to make the connection as to how Micah saw it as
Martha’s fault that his plan had not succeeded, but she supposed
that if someone was crazy enough then anything was an
excuse.

“
I am sorry,” Annie said knowing that it would not take
away the pain from the past.

“
Annie, do not be absurd.” Martha thought it was
preposterous that Annie was the one apologising. “I am sorry
that
you
were hurt so badly.” Annie could see tears in
her eyes and she almost went to comfort her but she thought it
might be a little awkward for them both.

“
What is done, is done.” Annie brushed it off trying to
make Martha feel better.

“
After his plan failed he told me to start openly
treating you badly so when I threw you out it would not seem
strange,” Martha retold the story with regret. “I am sorry that I
slapped you. I only did so because I thought if I made it seem that
I was trying my best to assist in Micah’s plan then he would not
see what I was truly trying to do for you.”

“
Wait, Eli told me that he had intended to get me
thrown out,” Annie interjected.

“
It was merely coincidental timing when I decided to
action the plan. I could see Eli cared for you and I thought if I
did it seemingly because of him, then he might take it upon himself
to intervene or pursue you.” It sounded as if there was hope in
Martha’s voice.

“
You did it to try and help me?” Annie was surprised by
her attempt.

“
Yes. I had to try in such a way that Micah would not
be suspicious of my motives. If he found out then he most likely
would have killed me.” She said it as if she found the thought
desirable now. “So I slapped you, hoping that it would convince
Micah of my loyalty to his plan and guilt Eli into helping you.
Micah scolded me for it afterwards. I am not sure but I think along
the way he did start to care for you, in his own perverted way,”
Martha mused aloud.

“
Then what?” Annie urged her to continue with the
story.

“
So when you were making your escape he quickly
organised to have someone in the graveyard waiting to attack you.
He followed you as you fled and he managed to divert your path by
blocking every other passage except through to the graveyard.
Though his plan was foiled yet again, this time by Eli’s
appearance.” Martha sounded pleased that Micah had not succeeded so
many times. Annie was starting to see how truly lucky she
was.

“
Then he lost his advantage,” Annie guessed. Martha
simply nodded, her lips tightly shut as if to keep something from
slipping out. It was obvious she did not want Annie to know the
repercussion it had on her and Annie decided not to ask. Micah was
clearly insane and Martha seemed to be his stress relief when
something didn’t go his way.

“
As you know he proposed, then sent me to try and
negotiate your return with Eli but all attempts failed. So he went
back to his first theory of saving you. When you were sent to the
safe house he had another of his sycophants attack you but again
Baden was there.” Martha sounded relieved and shocked at the odds
of it.

Annie
recalled the story Micah had spun to her about that night also. She
was astounded by what she was hearing. How could she not have
known?

“
He did all that?” Annie asked in disbelief.

“
There is more. He not only organised to have Baden
trapped in that place but he…” Martha’s tears came gushing out as
she could not hold them any longer. Annie rushed over and embraced
her, she would not be human if she refrained from trying to comfort
someone in this much anguish. “He killed Rosemary and planted her
outside the safe house so you would come out. He grabbed you from
behind so you could not see him and forced me to speak so you
thought it was me. Then he could come along and ‘rescue’ you from
me,” she sobbed as she told the story.

“
And then I made it clear that I would never love him
and now we are both in trouble,” Annie concluded. She couldn’t
believe such a sick creature existed. One that not only almost had
her killed multiple times but killed someone she cared for so
dearly, trapped the only one she had ever loved, changed an
innocent woman into a soul snatcher and abused her for years when
his sick plans were ruined.

“
No one knows where we are and if I break through the
door he will kill us both. No one knows you are in trouble because
he made it seem as if you left by packing your things,” Martha said
as she wiped away her tears.

“
How did he enter the Westwood house?” Annie asked the
useless question.

“
He had been there previously. It is only I who could
not enter,” Martha explained.

Annie was
beginning to realise that there may not be much hope of escaping or
being rescued. All that was left was Eli and it seemed he would
think she chose to leave. Maybe he would figure it out?

But the more
time that passed the more she was convinced that he
wouldn’t.

CHAPTER
40

After Eli
consulted with Garrick he decided to ask the only other person who
may know where Annie was. So he made his way back to Baden. As Eli
was walking up to the cottage Baden heard him approach and he was
at the door in an instant. He opened it in a rush and Eli stopped
as soon as he saw Baden.

“
What are you doing here?” Baden asked curtly. Eli was
trying hard to control his temper because he needed answers from
Baden.

“
Do you know where Annie has fled to?” Eli asked as
politely as he could manage. Baden’s face dropped in
fear.

“
You do not know where she is?” He asked trying to hold
back the terror that was trying to creep in. Eli swallowed hard
seeing that Baden didn’t have an answer for him.

“
I went to the safe house and she had packed her things
and left. I thought you may know where she has gone,” Eli said. He
tried to fight off the suspicion that he was missing something
obvious. Baden stood there in disbelief. How could Eli be so
stupid?

“
Are you daft? She has been taken and someone has gone
to the trouble of making it look as if she has willingly left!”
Baden yelled. He turned and smashed a hole in the wall beside him.
“Find her!” He demanded.

“
Where?” Eli’s fear was crowding his
thoughts.

“
Who else would have her?” Baden yelled as if the
answer was obvious. Eli just stared at him and didn’t answer.
“Micah!” He screamed when Eli just stood there like an idiot for a
moment.

As soon it
clicked Eli was off. He was headed to the only place he thought
Micah might be, Miss Danes’ manor.

Baden walked
back into the house and looked for something to smash. He picked up
the nearest chair and hurled it against the wall. The wooden chair
didn’t stand a chance as the force of his throw shattered it into a
million splinters. He yelled into the air in a rage that was
greater than anything he had ever felt. He was stuck in this house
and could do nothing to save Annie. The one time he could use his
strength to help he was rendered useless.

This whole
time h
e had felt that Micah’s
soul was obsessed with Annie, and that made Baden wary of him, but
Micah had somehow convinced himself that he was not going to hurt
her even though his plan was to do just that. His self-delusion
made it impossible for Baden to sense his true desire to steal her
soul.

Stewart
walked into the room after the chair was destroyed but could think
of nothing to say that would bring comfort to his new companion.
When the hopelessness overwhelmed Baden he went into the nearest
room, which was a small library, and locked the door. There he sat
against the wall with his legs pulled up to his chest and his head
on his knees, hoping with everything in him that Annie was
safe.

Annie and
Miss Danes sat there together in silence trying to think of
something they could do to help themselves.

“
I have someone I love also,” Martha said out of the
blue. Obviously she had gone off topic in the silence.

“
Who?” Annie asked, thankful for the
distraction.

“
Do you recall that man you found in my bed?” Martha
reminded. Annie simply nodded in reply, trying not to feel
embarrassed by the memory. “I found him on one of the trips Micah
had sent me on. He would send me away to secret facilities
organised to research soul snatchers and offer them education.
Micah wanted to know as much as he could about what he was but he
would not be able to explain his long absences if he
went.”

“
So every time you were ‘travelling’, you were really
researching?” Annie clarified.

“Most of the time,
yes
. Not too long ago I met a
man there, he was so kind and he was everything I wanted to be. So
I spent as much time with him as I could. He eventually said he
loved me, even though he knew what I was.” Martha retold the story
with wistfulness.

“
Then what?” Annie asked excitedly. Martha smiled to
herself at the memory.

“
He asked me to change him so he could be with me
forever,” she said as if she still couldn’t believe it. “The day
you found him, he was just waking up after the change was complete.
He was a little confused but he eventually managed
himself.”

“
Where is he now?” Annie asked just realising he may be
their hope.

“
I sent him away not too long ago.” Annie felt her hope
drift away as quickly as it had come. “In one of Micah’s
particularly aggressive rants he threatened to kill him. So I
begged him to leave and told him I would come for him when it was
all over. Neither of us was strong enough to go against
Micah.”

“
What is his name?” Annie felt happy that Martha had
found love.

“
Everard,” Martha said the name with all the affection
she felt toward him. Annie smiled at her new found friend’s
happiness. “Tell me about Baden?” Martha asked with curiosity in
her voice. She wanted to share in Annie’s joy of finding someone
she loved.

Annie smiled
and went to speak but before she could get a word out Micah came
through the door. The women looked up in shock and their fear came
rushing back as he stood there looking between them. Micah set his
eyes on Annie and started toward her. She instinctively shuffled
back as fast as she could but there was nowhere to go. Micah
grabbed her arm and pulled her off the floor.

“
No,” Martha screamed from behind them and went to
attack Micah.

With a strong
back
hand he slapped her
across the face and she fell to the ground. He let go of Annie and
turned to deal with Martha so Annie fled the room. She didn’t want
to leave Martha but if she could escape and get help then she had
to do it.

Micah slammed
Martha against the wall so hard she fell limply to the ground. He
locked her back inside the storeroom and ran after Annie. She had
barely made the top of the stairs when he grabbed her from behind.
She screamed in fright but he just laughed.