Awakening (28 page)

“
But those bodies were
dead, and now they’re crawling and walking around. You were there.
You saw the same thing I did, I wasn’t hallucinating.”

I wasn’t seeing things, not like
before. That ointment had done a number on me. It had set my body
on fire and filled my head with visions. Could this have something
to do with the devil’s berry? Maybe it had something to do with the
last ritual. Dead bodies walking around, that was not something
that was going to go unnoticed.

“
That mob was in a fight
with those creatures. Those people saw us coming out of the room
ahead of those…things.”

As I spoke a look of horror filled
Luke’s face. “They know we’re death dealers. They’ll blame us for
what happened.” He reached out and grabbed my hand. “We have to
figure out what happened. If you did do something, what was it? And
how did you do it?” His grip tightened. “We already scare the
general populace. They know that we help people who are sick pass
on, that we can raise spirits and that we have banshees do our
biding. Those things scare them enough that they already treat my
kind with disgust. But this…” his voice broke, “…if they think that
we can raise up the dead…if they think we can create walking
corpses…Draugrs…zombies…whatever those things are, people won’t
just despise us, they’ll start to hunt us.”

“
It couldn’t have been me.
I didn’t do anything. I swear.”

He turned away and looked out the
window. We sat in silence for a few minutes before he spoke again.
“There has never been a healer turned death dealer.” He looked back
at me. “I knew that you had some magic of your own, that you could
heal, but I never imagined what your natural abilities and the
power you got from the rituals might combine and create.” He let go
of my hand. “You’re something no one has ever seen
before.”

“
You think I can create
zombies…these Draugrs?” If I did create them, did that mean I had a
way of destroying them?

“
The people I could ask are
at the retreat.” He shook his head slowly back and forth. “I should
never have agreed to teach you. Maybe when I did the rituals I
messed them up. Maybe I did something wrong.”

He looked so distraught that I put my
hand on his shoulder. “You didn’t mess up--I survived the
rituals.”

“
You did. And for that I’m
thankful.” He reached out and caressed my cheek. “But…” he left the
thought hanging.

Suddenly I could read what he was
thinking on his face. “But what if you turned me into some kind of
monster? Some kind of abomination?” I moved back, away from
him.

“
That’s not what I was
going to say.” His voice was soft.

“
What if you did?” I
demanded. I looked down at my hands. “I touched the dead body and
Wanda somehow jumped into it.”

“
You’re not a monster,” he
said pulling me into his arms.

I rested my cheek against his chest. I
closed my eyes and tried to think the whole thing through. If Wanda
jumped into the dead man, what jumped into the woman? She screamed
like a banshee. “Tell me more about the banshees.”

Luke’s hand came up and stroked my
hair. “The spirits we bind for banshees, they’re spirits that have
been around a long time. People that were murdered, died
tragically, or died suddenly. Their spirits are unable to come to
terms with their deaths. They can’t move to the other side. After
years of roaming the in between they go a bit mad.”

“
You only bind spirits of
the dead that have been around a long time?” I asked.

“
It would be wrong to take
someone that just died. They need to have a chance to come to terms
with their death. They need a chance to move into the light and
over to the other side.”

“
If my mother…if she stays
like she is…” my voice choked up.

He pulled away from me and looked in
my eyes. “She won’t stay like that. She’ll eventually get over her
grief. One day she’ll find her way to the light, I’m sure of
it.”

How could he be so sure? He told me
many spirits he came across never found the light. My mother was
out there now roaming the in between, mourning the loss of her
family. If I could see her again, communicate with her, maybe I
could help her find the light. When this was all over, when Darla
was safe, and we found the men who killed my family, when I avenged
their death, I’d try and find my mother and help her move
on.

Luke pulled away from me and turned
the car back on. “We’re going back to Pagans place.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“But you said they trashed it.”

Luke nodded his head. “They did, but
the books I need to try and figure out what’s going on are at
Pagan’s. They didn’t destroy all the books. They ripped out the
pages of some of them and smashed anything that was
breakable.”

“
But it’s not safe, they
found us there before.”

“
I still don’t know how
they did that, but we’ve no choice but to risk it. I have to see if
I can figure out what you did in the morgue.”

“
And those creatures we
left in the morgue?” I asked.

Luke’s expression turned grim. “We
can’t go back there. Not until we know what we are dealing with. If
we go back now, they’ll string us up without asking any questions.
No one has strong enough magic to fend off a mob.”

“
And what about Darla?” I
demanded.

“
It’s two days until the
dark moon. I know she’s still alive, I can feel it. If they haven’t
harmed her yet, they won’t until the dark moon.”

“
Freddy said he’d help us.”
Three of us against, who knew how many?

“
I won’t go back on my
promise. I said Freddy could come and he can.”

“
So we go after Darla in
two days?” It wasn’t long enough. We needed more time to
prepare.

He shook his head. “I’m not waiting
that long. Tomorrow night we go in. I know that doesn’t give us any
time to check out the layout of the mansion, but I know the place
I’ve been there once before.” He looked over at me before turning
his attention back to the road. “I figure we go up and see if we
can get her out. If they’re too heavily guarded, or it’s not safe
to go in, we’ll come back to regroup and go in the next night. But
if we leave it until the night of the dark moon…”

I finished his sentence. “By that time
it might be too late.”

“
These lunatics are doing
human sacrifices. Whatever they’ve planned, whatever spell they’re
trying to power, it’s old. I found some references in Pagan’s books
to the type of rituals they might be trying to perform when I was
studying the spells for the last ritual.” His voice turned angry.
“Whatever spell they’re planning, it has to be something that’s
truly dark and powerful. Something that hasn’t been seen in a
hundred years. If they succeed, I don’t know if even the eldest in
my guild could fight the type of magic they might
raise.”

“
So we save your sister and
then what?”

“
And then we wait until my
clan comes back and we take on the whole pack of bad
guys.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“But…there were other people being held there. Sarah showed me in
her visions a group of people being held hostage in the room with
her. If we save your sister, they can always just sacrifice someone
else.”

Luke looked back over at me. “There’s
no way the three of us can save all those people.”

“
So we let them die?” I
demanded.

He shook his head. “We come back when
we have reinforcements. We make a stand against the whole group
with my guild. We take these guys out and stop them from ever doing
this again.”

“
But your guild won’t be
back for another week.” We’d no idea what the guys were planning.
If we didn’t know what spell they were trying to power, how would
we stop them? If Luke’s guild came back would they keep me out of
the fight? How could I be sure they would make my family’s
murderers pay? “What if they release this terrible, powerful spell
before your family gets back?”

“
Colina, we can’t stop
these men on our own. We need help. Right now we need to focus on
getting Darla out.” His voice was calm, he was trying to reason
with me. “I swear to you, when my family is back in town we will go
back, and we will save everyone.”

“
Save everyone who’s still
alive?” I was mad. The anger was flowing through my veins. “If
they’re responsible for all the deaths, if they’ve been posing as
redeemers, then they’ve already killed five people. Six including
Sarah. How many more will die in a week?”

“
There are only three of
us. What do you think we can do?”

“
Fight, save
everyone.”

His anger was back, but this time
directed at me. “You’re being unrealistic. I have power, but Freddy
isn’t mage born.”

“
What about me? You said
that, after the three trials, I would have the power.” I could
apparently create zombies. What else could I do?

“
To have true power you
need to learn spells. It would take months, maybe a year or more to
teach you Latin. It’s a long road to teach you the spells you need
to become a powerful wizard. But you do have the power now to bind
banshees.” He lifted his hand before I could interrupt. “I can show
you how to create banshees. It’s powerful magic.”

“
You want me to make slaves
out of lost spirits?”

He raised his voice. “I told you
before you’re a death dealer now, binding banshees is part of the
magic we wield.”

I crossed my arms in front of my
chest.

“
You don’t have a choice!”
He slammed his hand down on the steering wheel. ”I don’t know what
you expect me to do. We have a slim chance of getting Darla out. An
extremely slim chance, but I’m willing to take the chance to save
my sister. You of all people should understand.”

I could. I’d have done anything to
save my family. I’d have given my own life trying to protect them,
but I couldn’t stop thinking of those other people. Those innocent
people being held against their will, waiting to be slaughtered by
the men who’d killed my family.

I knew Luke was focused on getting his
sister to safety, but my goals were not his. There was no saving my
family--I could only avenge their death. The men needed to pay for
what they’d done, at any price. I’d wanted desperately to be
reunited with my family, and now I may get my wish. I shook my
head. I didn’t want to die--I wanted the bad guys to die. I wanted
them to rot in hell.

I suddenly felt exhausted. I’d
survived the trials. I’d apparently raised a couple of zombies, and
now I had to learn to create banshees so I could storm a mansion
against an army. The chances of us surviving this ordeal were less
than slim.

I turned back toward Luke. “So, we are
heading back to Pagan’s?”

“
We should be there in a
few minutes.” The anger had left his voice. He sounded as tired as
I felt.

“
Binding banshees? When do
we start the lessons?” What choice did I have but to do
it?

“
We need to get some food
in us and then get a few hours sleep.” He glanced over at me.
“Colina, I know you’ve been strong through this whole thing, this
won’t be bad, I promise it’s not as bad as you think.”

I really wanted to believe
him.

Chapter
Fourteen

Pagan’s house was in shambles.
Shattered glass and shredded papers covered the floor. Someone had
taken a knife to the couch and pulled most of the stuffing out
through the long, jagged slits in the leather. The dining room
table was turned over, and the wooden chairs looked like they’d
been slammed against the ground until parts of them had finally
flown off.

What was the point of all the
destruction? Had they been searching for something?

Luke picked a book off the floor.
Someone had ruthlessly vandalized the once ornate cover and ripped
out a handful of pages. “This is one of the books I need. We have
to see if we can find the missing pages.”

He had to be kidding--he wanted to
stay here? To go through this mess? And what if these maniacs came
back? What would they do to us if they did this much violence to
inanimate objects?

“
It’s cold in here. I’ll
start a fire.” He looked around and gave me a half grin. “Shouldn’t
be hard to find kindling.”

He was making jokes? I expected him to
be enraged at the destruction done to Pagan’s house, instead he
seemed cool and collected.

He gestured toward the kitchen. “Can
you see if they left anything for us to eat? I don’t know about
you, but I’m starving.”

I made my way into the kitchen. All
the cupboard doors were wide open. Anything that they could smash
was now in pieces on the floor. I stepped carefully over broken
glass and looked through the cupboards. There were a few tins of
food. I found a few more on the floor by the back wall. I ran my
hand down the wall now covered in dents--they must have flung tins
at it, it was the only thing that explained all the divots. I
leaned over and picked up a can marked chili. I found a couple of
pots a few feet away. If I was going to try and cook anything in
here, I had to clean up the glass. I found a broom and dust pan in
a closet. By the time Luke came into the kitchen, I had most of the
mess swept up.