Possession (27 page)

Luke faced me, his expression serious. “What is
reality but your perception of it? Warp or bend that perception and you can
change the way a person feels about the world, change their goals and
loyalties. You could make your enemies change sides without ever having to
fight. Even if you’re strong enough to resist, what about your friends and
allies? The only defense against readers like that is to keep them at a
distance. Her people tend to be isolated, and not always by choice, but no one
will move against them openly.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. If Wendy can
use mental powers to manipulate people’s thoughts, why is she so timid? “I know
Wendy’s a strong reader, but I don’t think she has that power. I get the
impression people have hurt her. Badly. Why would she let that happen if she
had the power to stop it?”

Luke shrugged his shoulders and looked thoughtful.

If Wendy had that kind of power, I would have felt
it.
She couldn’t have manipulated my thoughts without
me realizing it, without me feeling something odd happening.
Or could she
?
“I haven’t known
Wendy long, and her past is still a bit of a mystery, but I trust her. I feel
in my gut that I can trust her. I’ve never felt manipulated. But…” I thought
for a moment. “I know she has some strong reactions to Dean. Every time she’s
around him, she becomes quiet and withdrawn, and I don’t know why. He’s been
nothing but nice to her.”

Luke didn’t say anything. I stood there looking at
him, trying to read his expression. He didn’t look annoyed or mad, but there
was something in his eyes.

“Am I losing you?” he whispered. “I know how he
feels about you… I can sense his emotions now.”

He was talking about Dean. I had a flash of panic.
How could I make him understand that nothing had changed between us? “It
doesn't matter what he feels. You know how
I
feel.”

“You've been through a lot since you’ve been here.
I know that I can't be there for you all the time. That the two of you have
grown…close.”

“We've become
friends
.”

His eyes narrowed. “You never told me he kissed
you. You had suspicions that the killer was inside me, but you never mentioned
it to me.”

I didn’t know how to answer him.
I should’ve told him Dean kissed me.
Why hadn’t I?
Because I’m embarrassed.
I’d felt a rush of emotions when Dean’s lips touched mine. If I couldn’t explain
my reaction to myself, how could I explain it to Luke?

Luke was watching me. He said in a quiet voice,
“You used to confide in me. You used to trust me.”

“I still do. Being in this place, not having you
with me all the time…it’s been hard.” I felt tears threatening, but the
conversation was too important to break down, and Luke might take it as an
admission of guilt, so I forced the tears back.

He shook his head. “I know how much you’ve risked
for me.” I started to interrupt, but he raised a hand and stopped me from
saying anything. “I know how much you’ve had to go through…had to face on your
own. I know you must be lonely. I know there are times you must be afraid, and
I hate that I’m not there for you. That I’m trapped somewhere far away inside
this body, unable to reach you, when you might need me. But I’m gaining control
earlier and staying in control for longer. I’m hoping before long that I can
take control permanently, but until that happens… Colina, I don’t want you to
feel like you’re alone in this. I’m here for you. I’m always here for you.”

I didn’t hold back the tears this time. They slid
down my face. I went into his arms again.
This
is Luke
. I knew him as well as I knew myself. It was nuts to be afraid of
him. He would never hurt me. I raised my hand and let my fingers caress his
cheek. “I know you are. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what I suspected. I was
worried I was letting my imagination get the better of me. I’m so sorry I
didn’t tell you that Dean kissed me. I thought he was still you when it
happened. It meant nothing. You know how I feel about you. I love you.”

“I love you, too.” His lips came down softly
against mine. His arms wrapped around me. He kissed me again and again.

When we finally broke apart, I felt breathless and
my heart was pounding. I rested my chin against his chest. I felt guilty that I
had kept the kiss from him. I didn’t want to hurt him. I never wanted him to
doubt my feelings for him.

We stood together for a long time. I listened to
his heartbeat. Finally, with a sigh of regret, I pushed myself out of his arms.
I looked at him and smiled. “What should we do first? Save Mildred?”

“Let’s free Mildred.”

“Last time they put her in solitary, she said it
made her completely crazy.”

“Then we better get her out.” He smiled. “She’s
hard enough to deal with as it is.” He gave a fake shudder. “I can’t imagine a less-sane
Mildred.”

I laughed, and we started down the hallway. Whatever
happened next, we were together. We would face the world side by side. That’s
all that mattered. He put his hand in mine, and we headed down the hallway.

We slowly made our way to the part of the asylum where they
were holding Mildred. I worried that, at any moment, we would cross paths with
someone on staff, but the place was deserted. My mind kept wandering back to
the awful image of Caroline lying on the floor and the pool of blood by her
head.
Weatherton
must have used her blood to power
his spells. The symbols on the walls and floor looked freshly painted. What
kind of magic is it? What did the animal symbols mean? Why is he eating
his victims’
hearts? Do they give him
some kind of power?

The killer could be inside any of the patients or
staffers. He could be looking for us right now, hunting us. I hoped Wendy was safe
.
Luke was with me and the two of us
together had a better chance of surviving an attack by a madman. Wendy was all
alone. The quicker we got Mildred out, the better. I only hoped and prayed that
Wendy would be outside, uninjured and waiting for us in the woods.

Did I send
her off to her death by asking her to find a raven feather?

I shook the thought away. She was a reader. She
said she could feel the echo of the killer. I had to believe that if the killer
was near her, she’d know it. She would feel him before he could get too close.

“I think it’s the one on the right.” Luke said,
interrupting my thoughts. He pointed to a door at the end of the hallway.

When we were in front of the door, I took Mildred’s
keys out of my pocket and put one in the lock. It didn’t work. I tried several
other keys before the lock turned. I slowly opened the door and cautiously
walked into the room, but before I could make it very far something shoved
against me, and I fell hard to the floor.

“Let me out of here you total piece of—”

“Mildred, it’s us!” Luke reached down and grabbed
me out from under the old woman.

Mildred’s hair swung wildly around her as she
struggled against a straitjacket. She looked up at us with a haunted, desperate
look.

“Mildred! It’s me. It’s Colina.” She’d rushed me
when I came in the door, thinking I was one of the orderlies. I wondered what
they had done to her while she was in here. There was a bruise on her left
cheek and her lip was bleeding.

She looked at me. “Stay away from me! I’m warning
you! I’m more powerful than any of you realize!”

“Mildred!” Luke shouted her name.

Her head snapped around, and she stared at him.
“You’re the death dealer.”

“That’s right.”

“Where’s the girl?” she demanded.

I moved around so she could see me. “I’m right
here.”

“You’ve come for me. You’ll set me free?”

“If you stop thrashing around, I’ll get this thing
off,” I said, slowly making my way behind her and pulling on the straps of the
straitjacket.

“Thank the Goddess,” she sobbed.

It took me a few minutes to get the contraption
off, but when she was clear of it Mildred bolted across the room. She stood
trembling against the wall.

“Are you all right?” She didn’t look all right.
She looked terrified.

She nodded, but her eyes were still too bright. “I
will be. I will be… You came for me. You kept your promise. You didn’t leave me
behind.”

I walked slowly toward her. “I’m sorry it took me
so long to find you.”

Her gaze flicked up and she looked over my
shoulder, as if watching something. She said, “Don’t worry, I’ll tell her. Stop
pushing…”

She’s not talking
to Luke
. I turned and looked, but there was nothing. There were no spirits—if
there were I’d have felt them. Whoever she was talking to was purely in her own
mind.

I gently touched her shoulder. “Mildred.”

She looked at me and sang out, “
I saw Susie sitting in a shoeshine shop.
Where she sits she shines, and where she shines she sits
.”

The alarm I felt must have shown on my face. How
could I get Mildred out of here if she had completely lost track of reality?

Mildred blinked, seeming to come out of her daze a
bit, then reached out and patted my arm. “It’s all right. You came.
That’s
all that counts. Are we escaping
tonight?” A gigantic grin spread across her face, and she did a little jig. “I
wish they didn’t take away my runes… I have no idea how this will all turn out.
But it’s all very exciting.”

“No. We aren’t leaving until tomorrow.”

She sniffed the air. “Something bad happened… The
murderer struck again, didn’t he?”

I nodded my head. “He did. He killed an orderly
and Caroline.”

“Two this time?” She looked surprised.

Luke answered her. “A reader who’s helping us says
the killer has gone over the edge. He’s losing control.”

“The crazy is getting crazier.” Mildred laughed
out loud. “Best we leave before he gets all of us.”

“We can’t, not until we do a spell. I want to call
on Gloria Kincaid’s spirit. I want to see if we can get some answers,” I said.

Mildred was smiling and nodding at me. “You had a
change of heart. I knew you would. I knew you were too good of a person to
leave all these people in here defenseless against him.”

I wish she were
right
. But my reasons for doing the spell were selfish. I had to know for
sure if
Weatherton’s
spirit was inside Dean. I didn’t
want the little voice of suspicion going off in my head all the time, making me
wonder whether or not I could trust Luke. There was only one way to know for
sure. To find out where the madman was actually hiding. Who he was squatting
in.

“We need to get going,” Luke said. He was looking
at the door. “The coast is clear, but we’re running out of time.”

“Where are we off to?” Mildred asked.

“Dr. Barton’s office,” Luke answered as he walked
out the door.

“You’ve been through all his books. You should
give it up, boy. You’re never going to get that other one out of you.” Despite
her chiding, Mildred followed Luke.

I brought up the rear. “No, it’s not a spell to
get rid of Dean. It’s a spell to bring forth a ghost.”

Mildred turned and gave me a smile. “You’re
growing to like him—the quiet one. I can tell.”

Luke’s shoulders hunched at the comment.

I tried to look nonchalant. “We’ve become friends.
He’s helped me out a few times.”

She gave me another wide grin. “Of course he
would, the way he feels about you. Anyone can see it on him.”

I wished the old woman would shut up.

Luke’s body tensed, but he didn’t say anything. He
picked up the pace, and we followed him down the hallway.

I matched my steps to Mildred. “Did they feed you?
Did they give you water while you were in there?”

“They forced food down my throat and made me choke
on water, yes. Those orderlies are the worst. Which one was killed?”

“Larry.”

“It’s karma. He was a bad man. I’m not surprised
that bad things happened to him.” She shook her head and looked sad. “The nurse
was nice. Very sweet girl… She didn’t deserve to die. Is the reader who’s
helping you Andrew? Has he finally gotten brave and taken off his protection
pouch? Now
that
would be a thing to
behold.”

“No, it’s a girl I met the other day. Her name’s
Wendy.”

Mildred stopped cold. “Wendy. Dark hair? Dark
heart?”

Dark heart
?
“She has dark hair, but she’s been very kind to me. She’s been helping us out.”

“The girl with the marks on her arms? Scars on her
wrists?” Mildred hissed.

I nodded my head. “That’s her. You know her?”

“Don’t trust her. She’s not what she seems.”

“What do you mean?” I didn’t know Wendy very well,
but I had instinctually trusted her. Was Mildred implying that she was the
killer?

Mildred shook her head and then stated
matter-of-factly, “You aren’t taking her with us. Not that one.”

“I promised her that she could come,” I said,
ignoring her warnings. Mildred was not a reliable source for character
references.

“She can’t be trusted.”

“Mildred, you’re wrong. She’s the one who helped
us find you.”

“Why would she do that? She has no love for me. It
must have suited her…helped her in some way.” Mildred muttered the words out
loud, but I could tell she was talking to herself.

Luke was up the hall from us. I was tempted to
catch up with him and tell him what Mildred was saying about Wendy. Mildred
told me that the last time she’d been put in solitary, she had lost her mind.
Had it happened again? I was having a hard time pinning Mildred down. She’d be
completely lucid one moment, and then another she would talk like she’d come
unhinged, saying things that didn’t make sense.
Wendy is not violent. She’s never shown anything but fear and
sadness.
I just hoped that when we
finally met up, Mildred wouldn’t go nuts again and start yelling crazy things
at Wendy.

Mildred kept muttering to herself. I didn’t say
anything. I didn’t want to provoke her when she was so unsettled.

Our luck held out. We made it to Barton’s office
without running across anyone. Luke went inside and came out a few minutes
later, a black leather-bound book in hand.

“Is that the one?” I asked.

Luke nodded his head and tucked the book inside
the bag holding the Ouija board and the candles. “Let's hope Wendy can find the
feather.”

“What spell are we doing?” Mildred asked, looking
at the blue bag.

“A finding-and-binding spell,” Luke answered.

Mildred didn’t seem to like what she was hearing.
She crossed her arms on her chest and tapped one foot impatiently.

Luke started to explain. “We use a Ouija board to
call a spirit to us—”

She held up her hand and interrupted him. “I know
what a finding-and-binding spell is, boy, but we can’t do it here.”

“We have to,” I said. “I’ve tried to get the
spirits to talk to me, but they won’t communicate. This might be our one shot
at finding the answers we need.”

She raised both of her hands and took a few steps
back. “It’s too dangerous. This place is too full of evil.”

“We have protection—a medallion. Luke’s done
it before.”

Mildred threw back her head and laughed. “You
really don’t know what’s going on? Can’t you feel the darkness? It’s coming out
of the walls! It’s oozing out of this place!”

I looked around. I did feel something. This place
had always had an eerie quality that I’d never liked. But I needed this spell.
”A
place
can’t be evil,” I said,
trying to convince myself.

“Can’t it?” She cackled. “Why can’t it? You think
evil only attaches itself to people?”

I’d stood before the great black abyss during the
rituals. I’d felt the things calling out to me from the darkness. I’d heard the
unnatural beings, and even worse, had direct contact with a demon. I knew evil
existed, but I had never truly believed it could inhabit a building.

“Why would evil come to this place?” I asked.

She pointed down to the ground. “The spot they
built it on. Long ago the ground below us was used for magic. Sacrifices were
made, spells were uttered—and I don’t mean spells of healing or white
magic.”

“Death dealer magic?” Luke asked.

“Something older. Something that took into account
the ties between all things. Man and animal. Something more primitive then what
you practice.” She gestured wildly with her arms. “It’s magic fueled by hunger
for power, magic fueled by blood. As you know, blood has a magic of its own.”
She grabbed my arm and moved her fingers across the blue veins barely visible under
the surface of my skin. “Blood is your pure essence. It holds your power, your
energy. That’s why it’s used in so many spells—it gives spells their
power.”

Luke put his hand on my shoulder. “That’s why the
killer writes the symbols in blood—to power his spells.”

She looked at Luke. “Yes, but this is a darker
magic, an older magic than yours. Sure, you can talk to the dead, you can bind
them to you…but can you call on the
old
ones
?”

Luke frowned. “The old ones?”

“You think you’ve seen all this world has to
offer? You’ve faced evil and demons, true, but there are creatures even older
than demons. Creatures even older than good or evil. There are beings that roam
the ether sea, the place between our world and the ones beyond.” She let go of
me and gestured wildly with her hands again. “They move like giant shadows—like
dust storms. They roam around, not really aware of you and me. We’re like ants
to them. We are insignificant, for they were here long before we were born, and
they’ll be here long after we all perish. They move across the surface of the
earth, unaware of our mortal concerns.”

“What do they do?”

She laughed without humor. “Would you ask the gods
how they spent their time? Would an ant ask a man what he was up to? They
exist. They live. They somehow play a part in the thread of all things. But
they are unaware unless someone can pull enough power together. Can make a
large enough splash in the pond. If the waves are large enough, maybe they
notice.”

“And if they notice?” I whispered.

She shrugged her shoulders.

“You think that’s what the killer is doing? He’s
trying to get these older beings to notice him?” Luke demanded.

She shrugged her shoulders again. “If they are his
gods, maybe. Even if he’s doing these things in their name, that doesn’t mean
they’re aware of what he’s doing.” She shook her head. “Probably not aware.
He’s like an ant to them, but if the killer is trying to get their attention—if
he’s trying to create enough power on this land where evil has already drenched
the ground, where blood has been spilt for more than a hundred years…if he’s
creating a pool of power and offering it up to them…in hope of…” She looked off
in the distance.