Suddenly Sam (The October Trilogy) (18 page)

Logan glanced at Dom.

Dom nodded. “The circumstances are perfect for the spell, but they also mean that we’re almost out of time,” he said. “If you don’t fix this now, before it’s no longer Halloween, nothing will go back to the way it was before Sam entered our world.”

Meagan said, “That’s right.
Alec will stay dead, Shawn and Nathan will stay vampires, Mr. Lehrer will stay a goblin, and….” She trailed off for a moment, looking Logan up and down. “To be honest, I’m not sure what will happen to you. Sam seems pretty intent on keeping you here for all eternity. He even dressed you up for it.”

Logan looked down at her gown.

“
Wicked
dress, girlfriend,” said Katelyn. Logan glanced up. Katelyn smiled knowingly and winked. “I want the
whole
story later. Even the mask is hot.”

Logan
blushed at the compliment. And then she blinked. She was still wearing the mask. Feeling suddenly stupid, she reached up and yanked the scrap of cloth off her face. “You’re a goblin?” she asked, changing the subject as quickly as she could and facing Lehrer.

The eight
foot tall monster nodded, and though she’d expected his voice to come out like gravel when he spoke, he sounded almost completely normal when he said, “Hell Hound poison.” He sighed. “It’s a long story, and like Meagan said, I’m afraid we haven’t much time.”

“
Okay.” Logan accepted it. She had no choice. She wanted to ask who the stranger was, but time was pressing in on them.

Meagan blinked
, and then, as if she’d been reading Logan’s mind, she hastily said, “Crap, I’m sorry. This is Hugh Draper. He’s….” She trailed off, Draper smiled sheepishly, and Meagan blew out a sigh. “He’s a wizard too. But the rest is too complicated and not important right now. I’ll explain later. I’m going to set up the spell.” She took a backpack off of her shoulders and knelt down, rummaging for supplies.

“Need any help?” asked Katelyn.

“Actually, yeah. I need soil from the grave of someone who was born in October and soil from someone who died in October. If you can find someone who did both, that’s even better.”

The others immediately set out to look for such a grave, spreading out in all directions.

“But don’t go too far!” called Mr. Lehrer as he knelt down beside Meagan to help her set up.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Logan walked a little way out from where the transport spell had landed her, cresting a nearby hill and ducking down on the other side. The roses were more rare here, and where they did crop up, they seemed the more beautiful for it.

“You do look amazing in th
at dress,” said Dominic, who had taken the same direction that she had.

Logan had just knelt down to brush some of the dirt from one of the graves in order to make out the dates. She looked up to see Dom
standing at the top of the hill, looking down at her. His expression was unreadable, but his eyes were both eerie and entrancing.

She watched as he moved
around the tombstones to come toward her. He moved gracefully, his stride long and sure, his balance perfect. She was reminded of the first time they met – on the playground in the fourth grade after she’d taken a tumble. He’d been right there, standing tall and sure over her, helping her up off the ground with a smile that stole her heart.

Dominic
pulled something out of his pocket as he drew near, and it gleamed in the palm of his hand. “I think, under the circumstances, you would look even better with this.” He held the object up, stepping over the last tombstone as he did.

Logan stood
to meet him. The object dangled before her, grasped firmly in his closed hand. It was the Celtic life pendant Mabel had taken from her.

“How did you get that?” she asked,
trying to imagine how he’d possibly come upon it.

“
You really don’t want to know,” he told her. Then his tone lowered, and with a mixture of gentleness and firm control, he said, “Turn around.”

She did.
She waited as he drew even closer, and she could feel the heat of the space between her back and his chest. When his fingers brushed against her bare shoulders to clasp the necklace securely around her neck, she shivered. “Thanks,” she said softly.

He leaned in
to whisper in her ear. “My pleasure.”

Warmth flooded her, and it took Logan a moment to realize that something… felt off.
The necklace felt heavier than she remembered it being, colder maybe. It was uncomfortable.

She dismissed the feeling a
lmost at once; it was inconsequential.

Dom gently grasped her upper arms and turned her back around.
Logan looked into his eyes. His lit up gaze filled her with a mixture of relief that he was there before her – and anxiety that he looked so strange. “You okay?” he asked, his brow furrowing.

“Yeah,” she said. “Um, to be honest, I’m more worried about you.”

Dominic smiled. “Why?”

“Well… you know.” She lowered her voice, whispering. “You’re sharing your head again.”

Dom chuckled. “I’m fine.
Really
,” he said softly, releasing her arms. “Besides, why worry about me?” He curled his finger and placed it beneath her chin. His touch was tender, but… there was something more to it. “When you’re the one who is about to make a horrible mistake.”

Logan froze
. “What?”

He smiled. Were his teeth longer than she remembered?
“You’re the one who is about to give up everything you’ve ever dreamed of, Logan. All so you can return to people who don’t appreciate you, a school that oppresses you, and a future full of endless work, aging, and pain.”

Logan’s eyes widened. She pu
lled away from his finger. “What are you saying, Dom? What the hell is wrong with you?”

His green eyes flashed, lightening
from emerald to jade. His expression became serious. “Nothing is wrong with me, Logan. I’m suggesting that I don’t think you’ve really given this the amount of thought it deserves.” He stepped back from her and gestured to the cemetery around her.

“No one here is ever going to beat you up, drink themselves to oblivion, or demand more work from you than you can give.”

“That’s because everyone here is
dead
, Dom!” Logan exclaimed, feeling utterly befuddled and out of sorts. Why was he saying these things?

He smiled, flashing those white teeth….

My god
, she thought.
They
are
longer
.

“You know very well I’m not just talking about Fall Fields, Logan. But all of October Land – and the realm beyond it.”

“You mean the Realm of the Dead.”

Dom’s eyes flashed again, and the jade in the
m lightened further, becoming almost white-gray. He nodded, just once. “You see, I’m having a hard time understanding why  you would prefer the life you know to one in which you are queen.”

Logan didn’t speak. She was afraid to. Her mind was moving so fast, it was making her dizzy.

“Do you know how many women would kill to be in your place? To have the choice you have to make?”

Logan swallowed hard. It was difficult; her throat had gone dry and constricted tightly, nearly choking her. She shook her head.

“Of course not,” he said. “You’re mortal. You can’t fathom things that big. Time that long.” He shook his head as well. “But that can all change.”

Finally, Logan choked down the last of her stunned silence, and asked, “What did he offer you, Alec?”

Dominic cocked his head slightly to one side. “Hmm?”

“What did Sam promise you in exchange for your servitude?”

Dom laughed. “Of course you would figure it out. If you must know, a body,” he said. “This one, in fact.”

Logan shook her head, disgust riding her
. “How can you do that to your best friend?” She tried to imagine doing that to Meagan and just couldn’t. Such betrayal was beyond her.

“
You have no idea what it’s like to be a ghost,” Dom –
Alec
– said. “You think you’re so much better than I am and that there’s no way you would have done the same.” He grinned. Dom’s teeth now sported full-fledged fangs. It looked wretchedly good on him. “You’re wrong, though. I promise.” His smile disappeared. His tone softened, all seriousness now. “Being half of something is beyond painful. It’s an agony you can’t quite feel. Like a phantom itch – but it’s a phantom
pain
.” He flinched, and Logan watched his hands flex and un-flex. “And it
hurts
.”

A phantom pain
, Logan thought. And she couldn’t help but see Sam now, alone on his throne beyond a valley of black roses. Suffering from phantom pain.

“I’m sorry,” she said, meaning it. Because she felt this phantom pain suddenly. It was her curse. “I’m so sorry this happened to you.”

Alec watched her for a minute, his jade-gray eyes emanating the light of the damned.

Finally, he said, “Don’t be. It’s different now. I don’t have to worry anymore. There’s no pain.”

Logan digested this. Tears collected behind some dam in her eyes, but they were held at bay for the moment. She lifted her chin. “And what did you have to do for it?” she asked.

Alec’s eyes left hers and trailed to her neck.

Logan’s eyes widened. She placed her hand over the life pendant he’d placed on her.

But when she did, it instantly burned her hand, and she pulled it quickly away.

But it wasn’t hot. It was
cold
. Cold like dry ice!

“What have you done?” she demanded, her voice rising. She suddenly wanted to yank at it. She tried, in fact, but her fingers curled around the chain and then hastily pulled away before they could even get a grip. It wasn’t just that it burned – it was that her body simply would not obey her. She could not take the necklace off.

“It isn’t the life pendant, is it?” she asked. There was a note of panic to her tone now. Her voice had that high-pitched edge to it that paved the way for hysteria. She could feel her heart pounding, and dizziness was creeping in.

“No,” Alec told her simply. He held up his left hand, and between his fingers was a small bit of black cloth – and grasped firmly in that
cloth was the actual life pendant he’d shown her before.

He’d tricked her
.

Logan was finding it hard to breathe. But she drew enough air for one last question. “Then what –”

“What did I put around your neck?”

Logan
waited. The tears were breaking through.

“This.”
He lifted his other hand. In it was a small silver lighter. Logan looked into its reflective surface. Around her neck was a black chain, and at the center of that chain was a brilliantly cut pitch-black gemstone skull.

“I was right, too. That dress does look better now.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Meagan let out a frustrated sound and ran a stiff hand through her hair. “It’s not working!” she growled.

Lehrer placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, his massive paw encompassing everything from her neck to her bicep. “Try again. Are you certain all of the components are spoken for?”

Something crackled in the air about a quarter of a mile away, drawing their attention to the rows and hills of tombstones tha
t stretched into the distance. It was relatively small, but disturbing none-the-less. For a moment, it looked like a portion of the air split, or maybe a tiny tendril of time was ripping in half.

“Is that a portal opening?” Katelyn asked, her voice trembling.

No one answered. They’d been told that portals opened up in Fall Fields on a fairly regular basis. Once they did, they sent the dead into the Realm of the Dead – and the living back to the mortal realm. If a portal opened up near them before Meagan could finish her spell, nothing would go back to the way it had been before Sam screwed it all up.

Meagan and the others
watched the distant portal in horrified silence as the crack split open a bit further, shimmered a little, and then shrank, fizzling out of existence.

About three seconds later, the four of them let out a collective sigh of relief.

“False alarm,” said Katelyn.

Meagan looked up at Lehrer, her gaze searching his. He leaned in, his very human eyes reminding her that he was
still her grove leader. “We’re in a cemetery and we have everything we need, right? Double check.”

Meagan looked down and recounted her supplies. Everything was here, even the grave dirt, which Draper and Katelyn had managed to find right away. She nodded.

“Then you can do this. You aren’t sick this time and you know this spell backward and forward. I believe in you, Meagan.”

Meagan hesitated a moment – and then nodded again.

She once more closed her eyes and began chanting the words of October’s spell. She was so careful with every word, every syllable. She made certain to visualize what she was saying, to
feel
it, as a good witch does.