“You do look amazing in that 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 almost 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 pulled 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 them 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 that 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.
When she was finished, Lehrer nodded his approval. She’d done it right.
They sat back, waiting.
But nothing happened. Meagan watched her grove leader for any sign of change, but he steadfastly and stubbornly remained a goblin.
From somewhere behind them and again just over a hill in the distance came the crackling sound of another portal pushing its way into existence.
Meagan spun where she crouched down, her hair fanning out around her. They all watched as a line burned its way into the air once more, and then zapped out of existence. These were small, and they were far away, but they were coming closer. And getting bigger.
Meagan felt more pressure than she had ever felt before. Her teeth were grinding together, her fingers curled into fists. “What am I supposed to do, Mr. Lehrer?” She spun back around and fixed him with a desperate look. “It’s not working and a portal is about to open up and send us back home!”
Before Lehrer could respond, Katelyn cut in.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do, but I’m not getting sent back without Logan,” she said. “I’m going to get her. I don’t know what’s taking them so long anyway.”
“They’re probably just making out,” Meagan growled, as she frustratedly picked up her spell components and looked them over none-too-gently. She couldn’t figure out what was going wrong.
Katelyn ran past them, weaving in and out between the tombstones and trying hard to avoid the thorns on the roses. Meagan glanced up to see her go.
Something worried at her brain. Her brow furrowed and she sat up a little straighter.
“It was Alec who suggested we try this spell,” she said, thinking out loud.
“Yes,” said Lehrer. “Why?” His gaze narrowed. “What are you thinking?”
“I don’t know… nothing probably. It’s just that….” She took a deep breath, glanced in the direction Katelyn had disappeared, and shook her head.
She dusted off her hands and stood up. “Why did Alec enter Dominic’s body?”
Lehrer shook his head. “To be honest, I’m not certain.”
“Me neither,” said Draper, who came up to stand beside them. “It did seem an odd thing to do.”
“Yeah,” said Meagan. “It was. Especially given what Dom has been through in that respect already. Alec has to know how he would feel about being possessed by another spirit. A true friend wouldn’t do that unless he had to.”
Lehrer mulled this over, his massive jaw moving from one side to the other as he considered Meagan’s words. “What are you thinking, exactly, Meagan? That Alec has ulterior motives? That he set us up?”
Meagan blew out a second frustrated sigh. “I don’t know! I have no idea! I feel really confused. I mean, I assumed that Alec had done it so he wouldn’t get left behind if the portal opened up and we couldn’t fix everything in time, but now that I think about it, that makes no sense. If we can’t fix everything, then he’ll stay dead. And if he stays dead, then he’ll stay a ghost and he’ll just be stuck in Dominic’s body anyway.”
“Then why did he do it?” Draper asked.
Meagan again looked toward the hill over which Katelyn had vanished. “That’s a very good question,” she said softly.
There was a moment of silence between them in which they were all no doubt trying to figure things out. Then Meagan asked, “What is taking them so long?”
*****
Logan raised her hand to the pendant again, but was careful not to touch it. “What is this?” she demanded, trying very hard to keep her voice from cracking. “What did you do to me, Alec? And why does it burn me when I touch it?”
“It only hurts when you try to take it off,” he corrected her. He raised his finger and waggled it at her as if she were a naughty girl. “Tsk, tsk. You learn quick, though.”
“Tell me what it is!” she yelled.
“Think of it as the opposite of a life pendant,” Alec laughed, flashing fangs. Seeing him with them again was disconcerting and highly confusing. “I suppose you could say it’s a death pendant.”
A death pendant! Logan didn’t like the sound of that at all. If she’d wanted to remove it before, the urge was tenfold now. She swore, grabbing a fistful of her own hair on top of her head to keep from trying again to yank the damn necklace off. “Tell me what it’s going to do to me!”
“Well,” said Alec, with abhorrent nonchalance. “When that portal opens up over there between us and the castle,” he said, pointing to the sky in the distance. “Your friends will be sent back to the mortal world.” He dropped his hand and faced her again. “You, on the other hand, will remain right here where you belong, since as long as you wear that, October Land won’t know what the hell to do with you.”
“You bastard!” Logan finally screeched, losing control once and for all. She lunged at Alec, no longer seeing Dominic, but his terrible, horrible excuse for a best friend, who had destroyed any chance for a happy ending any of them had ever had.
Alec didn’t try to avoid her. Instead, he grinned as she came at him, and with the speed and agility of a vampire who had been a vampire for a thousand years rather than a few minutes, he grabbed both of her wrists, spun her around, and yanked her up against his chest.
“You know,” he said, his lips beside her ear as she struggled in his grasp, “I haven’t had my first meal in this body yet.” He took her right wrist, which she tried with all her might to pull from his grasp, and raised it to expose the vein on the inside. “Why don’t we see what all this fuss over you is about, hmm?”
Logan cried out as he moved with inhuman, brutal speed, sinking his razor-sharp fangs through her flesh and into her vein without hesitation.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The pain was incredible, and she screamed, but his free hand covered her mouth with al
most casual ease, blocking all but her smallest sounds.
Logan bucked, kicking, fighting. It was no use. His hold on her was nothing short of unbreakable, and his teeth were firmly lodged in her wrist.
He pulled the first swallow of her blood into his mouth. It was excruciating, like a vacuum on her veins, stealing the needed oxygen from her heart. There was no gentleness, no kindness, no following pleasure as there had been with Sam. There was only the merciless pull of his incredible thirst as he drank deep, taking what he wanted at her utter and miserable expense.
She went limp as the first wave of dizziness swept through her, followed by a mild but very real despair of nausea. Her head fell against his shoulder, and he held her there, chuckling softly against her brutalized skin as he continued to drink.
Moments later, he stopped, slowly removing his fangs with some semblance of newfound gentleness.
He lowered her wrist, curling it against her as he hugged her intimately close. “Now I can see what Dom was always on about,” he told her. “I’m beginning to understand.” He used one strong arm to hold both of her wrists, keeping her close, using his other hand to gently brush a lock of her golden hair from her cheek. “I thought he was nuts, the way he watched you and dreamed about you but never did anything about it. For eight fucking years.”
He laughed again, but there was more than just cruelty to the laugh. There was something else, something new and appreciative. “But now?” He grazed his knuckle down her cheek to her collarbone, brushing against the slowly pulsing vein in her neck. “Now I get it.”
Logan swallowed as a wave of queasiness swept over her and was gone. It was fading. She hoped it would stay that way. She tested her tongue, wondering if she could trust it to talk.
Then she tried. “Sam will kill you,” she told him.
“How can he, Logan?” There was a bitterness to his tone now. “You can’t kill a man twice. I’m already dead – thanks to him.” There was a complete lack of fear in his voice. “He owes me. I did what he asked. Now it’s time for me to make the most of this.”