“Kerrigan, stop!” Dominic reached out to stop her, but he was too late.
William’s ghostly figure lunged and grabbed Kerrigan’s face. She let out a shriek of surprise before her head was tilted back by a force unseen by her. His mouth hovered over hers as he sucked in a deep breath. White light rose out of Kerrigan like smoke rising off the end of a lit cigarette until it danced into William’s opened mouth. Her body convulsed, and she gasped for air until she began to go limp in his now solidifying arms. William laid her on the ground and knelt, hovering above her menacingly as he continued to rape her of all the energy she had to give. Apparently, he had no intention of leaving any for her to survive on. It was like watching a glutton shovel food in their face just for the sake of greed.
Dominic could see the whites of Kerrigan’s eyes as they rolled to the back of her head. Her life force was being drained, but he didn’t know what to do to stop it from happening. He felt like he was back in Availia’s room watching her Light being extinguished all over again.
Not this time. And definitely not Kerrigan, he thought with anger and desperation surging through his veins.
William was so focused on the life essence that he was greedily inhaling to pay any attention to Dominic. So, he seized the opportunity and charged at the apparition, grabbing him by his shoulders. William’s form was more human than Dominic had expected. He wasn’t sure what a ghost was supposed to feel like, but he hadn’t imagined that was it. He sure as hell never looked that solid when he was in his transformed state.
Dominic yanked William from Kerrigan and threw him against the wall. The photos behind him were knocked to the floor with a loud crash, and he fell with a thud.
“What’s going on in there?” the twins’ uncle called, his heavy footsteps signaling that he was coming into the room.
The ghost sailor sneered at Dominic, but disappeared through the wall, not wanting to be seen by the old man.
“Dude,” was all Talon could say as he entered the room and took in the scene.
“Kerr Bear!” Gabe squeaked and ran to Kerrigan’s side. “What did you do to her?”
“I didn’t do anything to her, Gabe. We don’t have time for this. We have to get her back to the house.” He gathered Kerrigan into his arms and carried her through the museum. Her arms and legs were dangling limply, and her head rolled on his shoulder. “Get the door!” he barked at Gabe who was sobbing behind him.
The other girls and the twins were in a flustered rush behind them, but all he was concerned about was getting Kerrigan home.
“Shouldn’t we take her to the hospital?” Olivia asked.
“No. I have to get her home. Just trust me,” he answered. Gabe fished Dominic’s keys out of his pocket and unlocked the driver’s side door. “Get in on the other side, Gabe.”
Gabe went around to the passenger side and bent the seat forward so that he could climb in. Once inside, he helped Dominic lay Kerrigan down with her head in his lap, and he cradled her to him, running his hands through her hair and assuring her she would be okay. He wasn’t convinced that what he was saying was true, but he had to believe that Dominic knew what he was doing.
Dominic sped through the streets of St. Augustine with no caution to the speed limit or traffic lights. Luck was on their side as they didn’t draw the attention of any police officers. Not that it would have mattered. Dominic would have just kept going and dealt with them later.
He whipped into the driveway, not bothering to pull his car back into the garage and carried Kerrigan inside. Then he handed her to Tyson and told him to take her to the upstairs bathroom. He kissed the top of her head and told her he would be back, hoping he wasn’t too late and she could actually hear him. Everyone looked at Dominic like he was crazy when he turned and went down the hallway and disappeared out the back door.
Once outside, he went over to Availia’s flower garden and started picking some of the Passion Flower buds off. He raised the hem of his T-shirt to create a makeshift basket and placed them inside so that he could gather more than a handful. When he was convinced he had enough, he made a beeline for the upstairs bathroom, shoving past the others who were just standing in the way wringing their hands in worry.
Dominic turned the faucet on and ran a bathtub full of hot water. He tested it with his wrist, like a mother does for her baby, to make sure it wasn’t too hot. When he was satisfied with the temperature, he started tossing some of the flowers into the water.
“Put her in,” he told Tyson.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Put her in. You can leave her clothes on.” He grabbed one of the paper cups from the holder and started to pick the petals off the remaining flowers to drop them inside.
“Dominic, what the hell are you doing?” Sydney asked the same question that was on everyone’s mind.
“Something Availia taught me.” He ran a few drops of water into the cup and then stuck his fingers inside to crush the flowers. “The flowers in the water will hopefully soak through her skin, but this paste will work quicker.”
Tyson shrugged his shoulders and walked Kerrigan over to the bathtub, gently placing her inside. Gabe stayed by her head, holding it at the edge of the tub to make sure she didn’t slide in and drown. When Dominic was satisfied with the consistency of the mixture in the cup, he asked Gabe to move and knelt down beside Kerrigan’s head. He tilted her head back and forced her mouth open. Then he reached a finger inside the cup and got some of the paste out, coating her tongue with it.
Kerrigan moved a little in protest of the distasteful concoction, but Dominic held her mouth shut. “Shh, you need to swallow this, Querida,” he whispered in a soothing voice.
“Is she okay?” Olivia asked.
“She will be,” Dominic answered as he shut off the faucet. “You guys should go downstairs. I’ll stay here with her.”
“I’m not going anywhere, boo,” Gabe said with a shake of his head. He pointed at Kerrigan. “That’s my Kerr Bear lying there, and she’s the only family I have. We need each other, and I’m not about to abandon her now.”
“It’s fine, Gabe. You can stay,” Dominic relented because he knew he wouldn’t be able to leave her either.
The rest of the gang reluctantly left the bathroom, leaving Gabe and Dominic alone with Kerrigan. Dominic opened her mouth and saw that most of the paste was gone from her tongue, so he put a little bit more on it and closed her mouth again. Kerrigan scrunched up her face, which was more of a reaction than she had been giving.
“So, what does this stuff do?” Gabe sniffed at the cup.
“Availia told me that particular flower is special. There was this one time that she was nearly as weak as Kerrigan is now. She told me how to mix it up and what to do with it. She was almost instantly revived, and I’m just hoping it works the same way for Kerrigan. We need to see what the weather’s going to be like tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s going to need sun and plenty of it. Modern medicine won’t always work for her. Natural light will be what she needs most, especially when she gets like this. I’m telling you this in case I’m not around when, and if, something like this ever happens again.” Dominic watched Kerrigan’s eyes flutter as if she were in REM sleep. “Gabe, has Kerrigan told you about her dream?”
“Which one?” he asked, uncurling his legs to sit on his butt so that he could lean against the wall.
“The one she had the other night, about Availia.”
Gabe shrugged his shoulders. “She always has dreams about Availia. She just said she had another one, and I told her it’s because she’s missing her. Why?”
“You should ask her to give you the details about it. Kerrigan is special. It’s the reason this happened to her tonight.” Dominic rested his chin on the lip of the bathtub and stroked Kerrigan’s hair, watching her.
“And what exactly did happen, Dominic?”
“You’re going to think I’m crazy, but I’m going to tell
you the truth.” Dominic sat up and ran his hands over his face. “Kerrigan’s spirit was attacked by a ghost at the lighthouse that wanted her energy.”
Gabe guffawed and then rolled his eyes. “Very funny, Dom. What really happened?”
“That is what happened, Gabe. Do I look like I’m kidding right now?”
“He’s telling the truth,” Kerrigan’s hoarse voice whispered back.
Dominic and Gabe’s eyes flew to her face, not expecting that she would be able to talk so soon.
“Hey,” Dominic greeted her with a relieved smile.
“Hey, yourself.” She smiled back, and then smacked her lips, making a face. “Why does my mouth taste like ass?”
Gabe giggled, happy that his bestie was okay. “Because Dominic held your tongue out while Tyson stripped from the waist down, spread his ass cheeks, and then sat on your face.” Gabe shrugged. “Had to be done, sweets. We were out of toilet paper.”
“Whatever,” she laughed weakly and looked back at Dominic. “So, what happened?”
“What do you remember?”
“Well, it got really cold, and I could feel that presence in the room and thought it was Grammy. And then I felt like I couldn’t breathe, and I remember getting weaker and weaker, like the life was being sucked right out of me.”
“That sounds about right.”
“From there, everything’s pretty much a blank, but I distinctly remember hearing your voice.”
Dominic nodded and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Let’s get you out of this tub and into some dry clothes.”
Gabe put his hand on Dominic’s arm to stop him. “Um, exsqueeze me, but I think I’ll just be doing the undressing and dressing, thank you very much.”
“That’s fine with me, but I want you to come and get me as soon as she’s done so that I can carry her to bed.”
Gabe left to get Kerrigan some clothes, and Dominic looked down at his watch, noting that it was already a little after eleven o’clock.
“Thank you.” Kerrigan sighed, letting her eyes close, her long lashes delicately sweeping across the soft skin under her eye.
Dominic leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “You don’t have to thank me.”
Gabe came back just minutes later, and Dominic made his exit so that Kerrigan could get dressed. He knew their friends would be worried, so he went downstairs and told everyone that she was fine, but would be resting the remainder of the night. Olivia and Sydney expressed their dislike of leaving, but relented only after saying they would be over to check on her first thing the next morning.
Dominic went outside and drove his car back around to the garage, hiding it away. He didn’t need to risk Sinclair or one of her cronies finding out where he was. His car would definitely be a dead giveaway. Once he pulled into the garage, he shut off the engine and let his forehead rest on the top of the steering wheel. The events of the night were quickly catching up with him. All his fears that he wouldn’t be able to fulfill the promise he had made to Availia before she passed away were coming to fruition.
Dominic was sitting at the old table in Availia’s kitchen nursing a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice as she finished cooking his breakfast of bacon and eggs. He hated that she insisted on catering to him because he felt like he owed her so much already. He should be cooking for her instead, but she insisted. She always insisted, and if you knew what was good for you, you accepted what she offered or suffered the consequences of being chastised like a child.
Availia was much too kind to him, and he couldn’t understand why she felt him worthy of her constant attention. He wasn’t exactly contributing monetarily to the household. She had refused to let him keep up his previous lifestyle to bring money into the house. No, she was good to the core and wouldn’t have tainted money in her home, but she did willingly let him do some repairs around the house in an effort to earn his keep. There wasn’t much she wanted changed, but it was enough to keep him busy. For some reason, she was mostly concerned about whether the changes would be something her granddaughter, Kerrigan, would like.
There were two topics of conversation that Availia loved to indulge in: her granddaughter and the Light. She talked about them as if the two went hand in hand, synonymous with each other. Although he had never met Kerrigan, he knew the Light was what enabled Availia to save his God forsaken soul on the darkest night of his existence. Availia was special, magical even. Although magic was a blasé description for the things she could do. She didn’t need to chant colorful words to make things happen. She simply willed something to be, and it was. Well, most of the time anyway. Sometimes she had to actually channel a higher concentration of the Light to help her. There was one time in particular that he actually saw it for himself, and he was still in awe of the power it really had. It was the night she saved him. It was like something out of one of those supernatural sci-fi movies. Not any of that slight-of-hands, hocus-pocus fake parlor tricks stuff either. This was real.
Dominic picked up a piece of bacon and bit it in half, thoughtfully looking at Availia as she sat in her chair beside him with her morning coffee.
“Availia, how were you able to do that thing you did that night you saved me?” Dominic picked up his fork to dive into the scrambled eggs. He was hopeful that, this time, she wouldn’t avoid his questions.
“Why whatever do you mean, Dominic?” she asked in a playful tone, raising her coffee cup to her lips for a sip. She knew exactly what he meant. He would give anything to know just one-quarter of the secrets the old woman was keeping.
“Seriously? You’re never going to explain all that bright light, hoodoo voodoo bullshit?” he asked, waving his fork around in the air. “I was floating above my own fucking body, Availia, and that shit just ain’t normal.”
“You watch your mouth, Mr. Grayson, or you’ll be walking around here with a bar of soap hanging out of it,” she scolded him in a motherly tone.
“Yes ma’am,” Dominic said with a slump of his shoulders as he hung his head in shame.
In all the time Dominic had been staying with her, he never saw a stern look on Availia’s face, and that day was no exception. It just wasn’t necessary. She had an air about her that commanded respect. Dominic knew how she felt about using foul language in her house. It didn’t belong there. He had done well to keep it at bay, but he was growing frustrated. It had been nearly a year since she brought him there to live with her and although she had told him a great deal about “The Light”, she had yet to tell him how it was possible.
“You’ve been with me for quite some time now, and I’ve observed you closely, Dominic.” He shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He didn’t like feeling like he was being put under a microscope like some kind of science project.
“You don’t think you were worthy of being saved that night because of the things you’ve done in your past. But, you have to believe that regardless of any of that, you do have a far greater purpose in life. It’s very important that you fulfill your destiny,” she said as she tapped her index finger on the tabletop to emphasize her point. “That night in the graveyard, your free will was being stolen from you. It was not your choice to allow that wretched woman to take your soul, and by doing so, she would have altered your destiny, and thus, your fate and the fate of others.
An alteration of that magnitude will prompt the universe to intervene to make it right again,” she continued. “Since it was not your choice, I was able to use the Light to thwart your father’s and that demon woman’s attempt to divert you from your journey. You are more important than you know, Dominic. You have yet to discover your true destiny, but you will, in time.”
Dominic’s fork was suspended in air as he lifted one brow. “And, what exactly is my true destiny?”
Availia took another sip of her coffee and smiled at him sheepishly. “I don’t know the answer to that, although, I do have my suspicions. Your destiny is affected by the decisions you make, young man. Be patient and persevere. You’
ll know when the time is right. Now, I must ask you a favor.” She sat back and placed her coffee cup on the table in front of her.
“Anything,” Dominic agreed without hesitation. He would walk to the ends of the Earth and back for the woman.
Availia smiled and patted his hand, knowing he felt he owed her, but she had only fulfilled a stop on her own journey by saving him. “I will need to leave soon. My granddaughter, Kerrigan, will be paying a visit and staying for a while. I need you to look out for and protect her, do your best to make sure no harm comes to her. She has a very important role in the universe, Dominic, and I think you’ll find that she will be equally important to you, too. The Light shines bright within that one.”
What she was asking wasn’t exactly going to be hard for him. He had become very resourceful on the streets and had managed to protect three people at once. Surely protecting one innocent little girl wouldn’t be as daunting of a task as that.
“With my life,” Dominic swore his allegiance. “No harm will come to her, Availia. You have my word.”
“I believe you,” she said, cupping his cheek in the palm of her withered hand. “I’m going to tell you everything you’re going to need to know to help my Kerrigan. It’s going to be a lot of information, but feel free to ask questions wherever you may have them. I need to know that you understand fully what you need to help her along the way. Now, eat your breakfast before it gets cold. Growing boys need proper nourishment,” she said with a wink as she pinched his cheek.
She had answered all of his questions and had given him more information than he knew what to do with. He would become Kerrigan’s friend, her confidant, her protector and as such, he would be there for her when she needed him the most. But she was so vulnerable, so susceptible to attack. Back at the lighthouse, it was like she had a target painted on her back that said, Herein resides the essence of all that is good and powerful. By all means, come and suck me dry.