Possession (32 page)

I could feel the tears start to spill down my
cheeks. Without another word, I turned and walked out the door.

Nurse Harrington followed close behind me. “Did you
have a restful sleep last night?” she asked. She seemed unaware of the pain her
news had brought me.

I wiped the tears away. “I did. I slept like a
log,” I lied. “I can’t wait for breakfast, I’m starved.” I sounded calm, but
inside a whirlwind of emotions raced through me. Guilt, anger, fear. Even if we
make it out of here, we won’t be safe. People are killing death dealers. Luke
and I will be fair game once we’re on the outside.

Nurse Harrington’s hand came down gently on my
shoulder. “That’s the thing, dear… You can’t really eat before the procedure.”

“Procedure?” I turned and looked at her in
confusion. That’s when I noticed two orderlies trailing us.

Her fingers tightened, and she said in a quiet
voice, “I didn’t want you to make a fuss, not in front of your roommate. Dr.
Barton’s written the order. You’ll get electroshock therapy later this
afternoon. It’s best if you come with us now and we get you ready for it. We
find that sometimes people get a bit…
agitated
before they have it. Spending time beforehand on your own in a nice, quiet room
keeps everyone happy.”

Nurse Harrington must have seen the shock and
panic in my eyes. I started to move away, but before I could take a step, I
felt the prick of a needle in the back of my neck.

“Come, come, now. Don’t put up a fuss,” she said,
pulling the needle out.

I twisted away from her and started to run dead
out down the hall toward Luke’s room. I only took three steps before the drug
started to take effect. My mind began to fuzz and my limbs became limp. Strong
arms grabbed me from behind. I struggled against them futilely.

Nurse Harrington watched the orderlies holding me.
“There’s no use fighting. You know how much good the electroshock therapy did
you last time.”

If they give me shock treatment, my memories could
be lost again. We’re escaping tonight. If I get the procedure, how long will I
be in a mental funk?
I tried to kick
and scream, but a hand came down hard against my mouth.

Nurse Harrington addressed one of the orderlies. “The
doctor’s orders said that if she resisted in any way, she was to be sedated and
restrained.” Then she leaned in and whispered in a honey-sweet voice, “You make
this
so
much harder on yourself by
struggling.
Relax
, my dear. Before
you know it, the whole thing will be done and over.”

I cried out Luke’s name, but the palm across my
mouth muffled my scream. I yelled out for him again as everything around me faded
to black.

* * *

I woke up in a familiar room.
They stuck me in the small one again,
I observed. One bed and
white padded
walls. I had woken in this
room once before, not knowing who or where I was. This time my wrists were in
restraints. I looked around the room. I was alone. I had no idea how much time
had passed.

No one knew I was here. Wendy thought I’d headed
off to breakfast. She would be in the room all day. It would take her a long
time to realize I had disappeared and was in trouble.

Wendy.
She’s
a reader. She said she was strong—the strongest of her kind. If I focused
my thoughts on her, maybe she would hear me. I brought her face into my mind
and concentrated.
Goddess, let her hear
me.

I took a deep breath and then—with all my
concentration focused on my room and the reader within it—mentally
screamed.

WENDY!!!
HELP ME!

There was no way to tell if she could hear me, but
I found myself pausing to listen for a response. I tried a few more times,
hoping she would at least feel something and come to check it out, before
giving up. I was struggling in vain against the restraints when the door
opened. Nurse Harrington came in. She walked over to the bed and looked down at
me. Her expression turned grim. And then her face began to change, to morph. For
a moment I could see another face superimposed over the top of the portly
nurse’s—a harsh, angular face with eyes that seemed to suck in the light.
I shook my head and the image faded, leaving only the nurse’s smiling face. It
must be a side effect of the drug they’d given me.

The nurse gave me a wide grin. “Thought you were
so smart, huh? You and your friends.”

It wasn’t until she spoke that I realized the eyes
had not changed back. The black eyes of a killer gazed at me hungrily, even as
the nurse’s pleasant face still smiled. I stared at her, unable to hide my
shock and confusion.

“That’s right. Your boyfriend isn’t the only one
who’s special. I squat inside this body, listening to everything going on
around me, and when it suits me, I come out. And then I do what I was born to
do. This place is wide open to me. The staff is even crazier than the patients.”
He touched the nurse’s face. “This one more so than most—she’s the
perfect tool!”

Weatherton
.

“Killer,” I hissed, trying to move back. There was
nowhere to go. I struggled hard against the restraints.

“Killer?” A wicked laugh came out of Nurse
Harrington’s mouth. “Such a pedestrian word. I hunt and give sacrifices to my
gods. My gesture to them is pure and grand.”

“There is nothing pure about murder,” I retorted.

“No? I'm helping those poor souls ascend to
something greater. These puny mortals can become part of a great masterpiece.
I'm like…a painter.”
Weatherton
gestured wide. “And
this is my canvas.”

Oh, Goddess.
He is completely mental.
The desire to get away was so strong I could taste
it, but I was restrained, held captive. Unless I could get my restraints off, I
wasn’t going anywhere.

I’m not a
victim. I’m a death dealer
, I reassured myself
. I have power. I have magic.
But the strong drugs were still
coursing through my blood. My thoughts were still fuzzy and unfocused. I took a
breath, stemming down my panic.
You have to
concentrate. The power is inside you. If you can just concentrate, you can call
it up
.

“It’s no use.”
Weatherton
laughed. He must have seen the effort on my face. “You think I’m a fool? Even
if you could conjure up your magic while sedated, the charm won’t let you.”

He pointed to my wrist. I noticed for the first
time that a silver bracelet was wrapped around it.

“True, they don’t hold very powerful charms here,
but don’t you think they’d take precautions in an insane asylum full of mage-born?
There are things that can mute magic. Enchanted things that can hold the magic
at bay.”

I was desperate now to keep his attention on me
and away from the impending electroshock therapy.
If I can stall him, maybe Wendy will find me…
“I’ve met your gods!”
I spat the words at him.

Rage filled his face. Rage and madness. “You’ve
what?!”
Weatherton’s
face came down inches from mine.
“Who—?” Understanding filled his face as quickly as the anger had. “Morgana.
I forbade her from telling you my body’s name, but I never thought she would
betray me so. How could she bring such an unworthy before those magnificent
beings?”

“I didn’t just see your gods. One of them
noticed
me. One of them
came
to me,” I hissed at him.

A hand came up fast and hard across my cheek.
“Liar!”

I breathed through the stinging pain and continued.
“I’m not lying. One of them left a mark on me.” I lifted my arm as far as I
could.

Weatherton
reached out
and grabbed my arm, pulling up the sleeve of my sweatshirt. There was a gasp of
surprise as he saw the bear mark burned into my skin. “This is a trick.”

I shook my head. “No trick. I called to one of
those creatures of yours, and it came to me.”

He slapped me hard across the cheek. I tasted
blood. “Liar! They are not creatures. They are
gods
. They are greater than any other
magics
,
older and more powerful.”

I breathed through the stinging pain.
If I can just keep him talking… The doctor
has to come soon
. I looked at the door.

Weatherton
followed my
gaze. “You think you’re so smart, but you aren’t. I was there under your nose
the whole time.” He laughed. “Well, no worries. You won’t be remembering them
much longer. The doctor is planning on doing the procedure, but I have a bit of
a
surprise
planned. You know, if I
distract him for just a second and give the knob on the machine a proper twist,
how many volts do you think I can zap through you?” He took a few steps and
towered over me. His fingers tapped against my forehead. “How many volts can we
get running through that noggin of yours, do you think?”

I could feel panic rising inside me. “The doctor will
never let you do it!”

“Wouldn’t he? He’s not a fan of yours. I’ve seen
the way he looks at you. I imagine he would like to inflict a bit of pain on
you himself.”
Weatherton
moved his finger back and
forth in the air,
tsking
at me. “You were a bad girl
to scratch the good doctor after your first electroshock session. A man like
that doesn’t forget such a slight. He’s been looking for an opportunity to get
even. And now I’ll give him one.”

“He won’t let you do it!” I shouted, struggling
again against the restraints.
Wendy,
where are you?

“Maybe he won’t have a choice. Maybe I’ll just
slit his throat before he can say a word.”
Weatherton
slid his finger across Nurse Harrington’s throat. “Then who will know? It will
be just you and me in the room. I could tell them that you went wild.” His face
instantly changed back to Nurse Harrington’s effeminate expression and his
voice became higher. “Oh, mister police officer, sir, she just went berserk,
out of her mind, and she got loose from the restraints!” A wide grin spread
across Nurse Harrington’s face. “She killed the doctor before I could stop her.”
Weatherton’s
grim expression returned, along with his
deeper voice. “They’re going to believe a nice, stable, hardworking nurse”—he
smoothed his hands down the white uniform—“over a nut job like you. You
know, if we get enough volts running through you, then those memories of yours…they’ll
burn out forever.”

I twisted and bucked, but the restraints held
tight. Short of cutting them, there was no way I was getting out.

“Actually, I have a better idea. I was going to
kill you. I won’t say I haven’t been thinking about it for a long time. You
ruined all my beautiful plans. I wanted to kill you, but now, now that I’ve seen
that mark…I realize what a waste it would be to kill you.”

He leaned in. I could feel his hot breath against
my cheek. “You have powerful magic—I’ve felt it flowing through you. You
tried to hide what you were, but I saw. I saw from the very beginning. And now
you’ve been touched by the gods. I don’t know how you did it. I don’t know why
they chose you…” His eyes filled with anger, and he leaned back. His hands
curled into fists. “Why, why would they choose you over me? What is it about
you that called to them?” He looked at me with anger and insanity in his eyes.

“Now, what if I just turn the knobs enough to
clear your thoughts away? What if I turn you into an empty vessel? Think of the
fun I’d have possessing such a body. Think of the power I’d have! The things I
could do!” His eyes glittered, and he gave me a wild smile. “Now wouldn’t that
be something?”

The fear inside me was so intense I could barely
breathe. Through the roaring of blood in my ears, I heard a knock on the door.
Weatherton
seemed to stop and gather himself. He turned
toward the door. When he glanced back over his shoulder, I realized I was
looking into the face of the nurse once more.

Nurse Harrington walked over and opened the door
just a crack. I could hear her talking and then she was back at my bedside.
“Now, now, cookie, you should stop getting so upset.”

Is that
really Nurse Harrington, or is
Weatherton
controlling
her
? “Listen to me. There’s a madman inside you. You’re strong. You can
keep him from coming out again. You have to fight him. If you just fight—”

She patted my arm. “You’ve gotten yourself
excited. Let me give you a little something to calm you down again.” She pulled
out a needle from the pocket of her uniform and leaned down toward the bright
blue vein visible in the crook of my elbow.

I could feel the needle sliding under my skin and
screamed in frustration. “
Weatherton
, do you hear me?
You won’t get away with this!”

The nurse just watched me, her face full of
concern and sympathy. She thinks I’m a raving lunatic. There’s no way she’s going
to believe anything I tell her.

I could feel my muscles relax and my vision start
to narrow. Another loud knock came at the door and then it opened. Figures walked
in. I tried to focus on their faces, but my vision was too blurry. My brain was
fogging up, and I was having a hard time thinking clearly.

The bed started to move.
They’re moving me into the procedure room.
Any minute I was going
to have electricity flowing through my body. If
Weatherton
had his way, that electricity would destroy my mind.

And then he would possess my body.

* * *

When I woke again, a mask covered my mouth. As hard as I
tried, my eyelids were too heavy to open. I could hear machines beeping next to
me.

A female voice spoke. “The patient is all ready, Doctor.”

I tried to move my arms, but they were bound. So
were my legs. At any moment, they were going to go through with the procedure.
I twisted my wrist. My fingers grazed across the surface of the table. I could
move my fingers.