S.P.I.R.I.T (11 page)

“So he trapped one? For what, to see what happened to it when he fried it or something?” Zander’s voice became irritated and he got up off the bed. “They’re scary looking mother fuckers, Sam, and to put the audio and visual together makes them more terrifying than anything I have ever seen. What, with you in the house, would give a man the great idea of locking one of the bastards in the basement?”

“My father was a genius,” I said with a little crazy laugh in my voice. I looked up at him as I pulled my knees to my chest. I smiled but it faded quickly and I glanced down at my toes. “He said he did it for me, to try and find out why the voices wouldn’t let me be, but I think he got much more than he bargained for. They made him mad, drove him to the brink of insanity and then disappeared.

“The portal is still there, in that house. I know because I can feel it every time I step over the threshold, but my father can’t hear them any more, he can’t even see them.” I looked up and him, fire sparking behind my eyes and in my chest as the tears streamed down my face. “It got away that night, you know, and my father thought that the best way to rid me of my fears and shake the voices from my head was to expose me to one of them. He told me that there was some plant, an herb, that he needed, and he sent me on my way. I had a small woven bag and a flashlight, and went up to the garden that he had planted in the middle of the woods.

“I will never forget that night, the pain of hiding the marks from my parents. Trying to put the salve on myself was interesting enough, but I burned the shirt and never told anyone what happened. It was the day the fire came to me, but I put it in the past and I closed and locked the door.” With a deep breath, I smiled and shook my head. “I moved on, the best I could, finishing school early so I could move on early. I even got a third shift job in the summer so I wouldn’t be in the house, and I moved out as soon as I graduated; out of the house, out of the state. For all intents and purposes, the voices stopped that night, just like my dad had wanted, but the nightmare continued.”

I watched as he stood by the window, the clouds outside swirled over the house, and his hands clenched in anger. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to soothe him, or let the storm work its way through. It was something he needed, after all that he had experienced, to let go of the anger and the confusion of the past, not to mention the present. But slowly he opened his fingers, letting the stress flow from them, and his eyes went calm once again, like the weather outside.

“You’re not going to let it out?” I questioned and watched him shake his head.

“I don’t want to scare you,” he replied. I smiled at him, watching him walk towards the bed.

“It would take more than an electrical storm to scare me, Lieutenant.” I giggled and felt him grip my ankles. With one small tug, he had me lying on my back on the bed. My smile widened as he moved up the covers, pulling the end of my shirt with him, as he came to rest beside me. “What are you doing?”

I laughed at him this time, as his touch turned into a tickle as he sent little currents of electricity through my skin. I slapped at his hand, looking deep into his eyes as I did, and he smiled broadly at me.

The tips of his fingers worked magic on my skin, bringing goose bumps to the surface as he ran them up and down my bare arm. Exposing my breasts, he touched and teased, but stayed away from the sensitive nipples. I found that as well as sexual, touching them could be quite relaxing. Slowly I turned on my side, loving the feel of his warm skin curled up against my back, and he slipped one arm under my neck and the other he kept over my waist.

“Can I keep you?” he whispered breathlessly before nodding off.

“Only if its forever,” I replied back, certain that he wouldn’t remember the conversation in the early morning hours.

Forever and ever,
he mumbled in his mind. I felt him press his forehead against the back of my head, the twirling motion of his finger on my stomach slowed and his breathing relaxed, letting me know that he had finally given in. Once that happened, I began to feel at ease.

There were no more bad dreams, no more tainted memories as we faded off to sleep once again. The gentle caresses of his fingertips against my sensitive skin brought nothing but thoughts of thunderstorms and campfires to mind when I finally let the darkness take over.

The covers were bunched up on top of me, keeping the glaring light of the morning sun from my eyes and I could hear the door creek open just a crack.

I felt the covers flip off from behind me and Zander slip out of bed, tucking them around me as he went. The boots that lay on the floor by the chair he sat in thumped against the wood as he slipped them on, and then grabbed the stiff button up that he had worn the night before. I listened to the fabric crackle against his charged skin. Apparently, he was not a morning person, just as much as he wasn’t a night one, for the electricity bounced off from every corner of the room as he walked out, closing the door quietly behind him.

Wide-awake and curious, I flipped the covers off, and pulled down the long tee shirt that I had worn to bed. I grabbed the blue jeans off the dresser and pulled them on, buttoning them as I walked down the hall.

“What the hell?” Zander’s confused voice picked up, as I moved closer, becoming stealthy on my bare feet. He sighed and I could just imagine him rubbing his head. “I’ll go wake her up.”

“What’s going on?” I asked, as I rounded the corner. I was looking for Zander in the crowd of men, but as they turned to look at me, I saw the blood red writing on the wall. I placed both hands over my mouth as I approached, my heart racing as the words registered in my brain.

GO HOME SAMMY RICKETTS, GO HOME AND PLAY!

I couldn’t catch my breath, looking at the scratchy lettering that sprawled across the white paint, and I reached out to touch the words with my own hand. It shook as I stretched it towards the wetness and I brought my finger down over the last letter, the blood draining from my face as it stained my fingertip.

I turned and looked at Zander, whose storm had fired up again, and he raced towards me as my knees gave way and I crumpled to the floor, my eyes filled with fear.

11

“We have to stop meeting like this,” Zander whispered against my temple as he held me, shaking, in his arms. Daniels wiped the blood from my fingers and Harris approached with the small glass full of light brown liquid. Zander took it from him and held it to my lips. “Drink, Sam.”

I choked down the liquid, coughing as it burned all the way down, and added to the fire in my stomach. The fuzzy, warm feeling of the alcohol overwhelmed my body in minutes, making it hard to hold my head up as Zander helped me to the chair. Walters and Rodriguez had done a fine job removing the words from the wall, but I still shook as I remembered what they had said.

Zander stood at ease, his feet apart and his hands folded behind his back, while he looked over the wall. It was the first actual military stance I had seen him take, noticing now that he had never once saluted Everett in my company. I assumed it was because of the whole profile that they wanted to keep, but it was odd that even in private company, they all acted like a group of buddies.

“There’s no way anyone got in here,” Daniels said, after coming inside from a perimeter sweep. “No signs of foot prints, other than ours, and no signs of any other vehicle than ours.”

“Walters!” Everett barked, the old cigar that he had finally gave way and he took it out, picking tobacco from his mouth. He tossed the thing in the trash and turned to the stocky man. “Coffee and donuts! Make sure you bring extra sugar and cream this time. You forget again, and I’ll make you do a hundred more of those sit-ups!”

“Yes, sir,” Walters answered and disappeared out the door.

Zander leaned over me, smiling as he looked into my eyes. “You’re not a big drinker, are you?”

“How could you tell?” I giggled and rubbed my nose. “My hands feel swollen and my head feels like it weights a hundred pounds. You don’t think something less potent would have worked just as well?”

“I wasn’t trying to get you drunk, Sam; I was trying to calm you down. The flames in your eyes were brighter than I’ve ever seen, and if we didn’t get you stable, you were going to burn the house down.” His voice was very plain, as if he were trying to distance himself from his decision. I took his hand. The heat raced from my finger up his arm and he took a deep breath, groaning in his head as his heart rate soared.
Woman, if you don’t stop, I’m going to have to take you somewhere private.

That’s the idea,
I whispered and looked up into his eyes as the storm flashed within them. He cleared his throat and then glanced up at the Captain, who seemed preoccupied with the maps on the table. “Zander, I don’t feel to well. I think I need to go lay down.”

Sneaky!
His voice laughed as he looked around. “Do you need some help?”

“Please,” I asked and he slowly helped me from the chair. The brandy did amazing things to my body, not to mention to my head, but it seemed to keep the voices away, at least for the moment. Zander quietly walked me back to the bedroom, where he shut and locked the door. “You’re pushing your luck, you know.”

“Please, Everett is so caught up in catching these things that he probably didn’t even notice we left.” Zander sighed and placed his hands on my shoulders, pushing me back to the bed. “Now, you were saying something about an idea?”

I laughed at him, shaking my head, and suddenly I was caught in the whirlwind of a passionate kiss. Zander’s arms wrapped around me, holding me tightly as he laid me back on the bed, but as I was about to give into him fully, a pain shot threw my abdomen. I doubled over, breathing in deeply as Zander pulled away and he looked down where my hands covered my stomach. The red line of blood started to leak through my shirt and, with shock in my eyes, I looked up at him.

His eyes widened as he turned and watched the mist swirl in the room around us. The evil cackle boomed in my ear as I placed my hands to the side of my head. Although I blocked the audio communication from effecting Zander, he was wide open to showing me just was what standing in the bedroom with us.

It was the same ghoul, his skin pulled taunt across what remained of his skeletal being, his elongated teeth gnashed against each other with the threat of ripping us apart. As the morbid laugh grew louder, he stepped closer to the bed.

Welcome home, Sammy!
It spoke to me, my eyes wide and unbelieving, and I shook my head as I scurried across the bed. Zander had picked a weapon out of the top drawer of the dresser, aimed the black 9 mm Beretta, and fired off a round into the chest of the creature. It laughed at him, swinging a decrepit hand at the gun, sending it flying, and then he whipped around again, knocking Zander to the ground.
I’ve waited many years for you to come back!

“Who the hell are you?” I questioned, shaking my head, as I yelled.

Don’t you recognize me, Sammy?
His voice shifting from the evil deep-throated growl of the demon to a more human one that I thought I recognized.
I built this place for you!

“What do you want from me?” I whispered, trying to ease the fright in my body, as I felt the heat and flames brew from my stomach.

Setting the fire loose in the house would only cause it to burn down on top of us, and for a moment, I believed the creature knew that. Zander stood up, looking out at the beast from under the locks of his dark hair that feel in front of his eyes, and I could see the storm brewing once again. This time there was no stopping it.

I want you to come with me! You were supposed to come with me!

My heart skipped, unsure of what the creature was talking about, and then it flashed in my head. The day at the lake, when I almost drowned, I remembered that I hadn’t even bothered kicking to stay afloat, that something heavy was pulling on my legs. Just as I saw the mist swirling into a picture, I lost it, to Zander.

He stepped up to the creature, his teeth clenched in anger. He raised a hand in front of him, aimed directly at the demon, and let the storm loose. I screamed as the lightening swirled out of his fingers, hitting against the fiend with such ferocity that I thought it would fly threw the wall, but it held its place.

“
Zander!
” I screamed, both mentally and verbally, as the power burst around him and the imp blew up, creating a dust cloud that filled the room.

Zander had flown backwards, striking the wall as he did, and once the dust cleared, I felt my heart hit my chest with the intensity of the recoil on the gun he had just fired. I scurried off the bed, tears already cascading down my face and I knelt down beside his lifeless form. My fingers checked his neck for a pulse, and found one that was good and strong, but he wasn’t breathing and that worried me.