Nocturnal Part 33

"If you do not believe, then Derek will die."

I sobbed with pain and fear, staring into Derek's lifeless face. "How can I, Eva?"

"Let go of Derek. Open your mind to Edgar Templeton. Let him come to you as he comes out of Derek. Whatever happens, don't touch either of us until it's over."

With a choking sob I released Derek's wrist and backed away. I had no idea whether I believed, or whether my belief was strong enough to save Derek. I was full of doubts, and terrified of what was going to happen next. Was I killing the only man I'd ever loved, or saving him?

As soon as I let go of Derek Eva's body stiffened. Her mouth flew open in a silent scream. She fell backward as heavily as a statue and lay sprawled and unconscious, but with her milky eyes open, staring up at the sky.

In the middle of a spasm Derek's chest was pulled toward the sky as if by an invisible hand. His body continued to rise until he hung, suspended, with just his hands and feet touching the ground. There was a strange whimpering sound, which I eventually realized was coming from me. Derek's mouth opened wider than seemed anatomically possible. A white cloud gushed out. It gathered above his head and then condensed, becoming more opaque as the stream emerging from Derek's mouth grew thinner and paler. When the last of its molecules were gone, Derek flopped back onto the rock like an empty sack. The urge to run to him was almost overwhelming, but I held back, thinking of Eva's warning.

The miasma stretched into a long rope and whipped through the sky. Its movement reminded me of those acrobats who perform with ribbons on sticks. The whitish cloud circled wildly, darting through the air in a dance that was both beautiful and horrifying. I was having so much trouble breathing through my fear that I was close to joining Eva and Derek in oblivion. The cloud shot into the sky like a firecracker, burst apart, and then drew back together, only to dive back down and chase its own tail through the trees on the edge of the glade. Whatever the misty substance was, it had consciousness, and it was enjoying itself.

For a moment I lost sight of it. A second later it reappeared directly in front of my face. As I screamed and jumped backward I heard a familiar maniacal cackle. The cloud divided into thousands of dots, and then the dots transformed. Some lightened, others darkened, some grew while others shrank. They became like pixels in a graphic, and the image that appeared was Edgar Templeton's face, adorned with his trademark smirk. But I could see the trees through it, and it wavered as if he was having trouble holding the image together.

"Fancy meeting you here," the ghost said.

"Get out of here. Disappear. My sister is far more powerful than you," I replied with much more bravado than I felt. It was getting colder by the second. I started to s.h.i.+ver uncontrollably.

The ghost turned its transparent face toward my sister's prostrate body. "It doesn't look that way to me."

I took a step backward, feeling more frightened and vulnerable by the second. And Edgar could feel my fear, because the more scared I got, the more solid he became.

"I have to have a body, Maggie, that's all there is to it. Any young, healthy one will do. It doesn't have to be Derek's. In fact, yours is preferable, in a way." The cloud drew closer. "I've never been a woman before. I hear you can have several o.r.g.a.s.ms in a row, is that true?"

I gulped thickly.

He chuckled. "But it would have to be with someone besides Derek, because he doesn't do that for you, does he?"

"Oh, good G.o.d." I pressed my hands over my eyes. My body s.h.i.+vered until my teeth clattered. Every part of me was being a.s.saulted: my mind, my body, and my emotions. Only my desire to rid Derek of this demon held me in place.

"Let's horse trade, Maggie. You love Derek, don't you?"

I nodded without moving my hands from my face.

"Enough to die for him?"

I nodded again. Yes, I was willing to die for Derek, but I didn't intend to go gently into that good night. I was going to fight Edgar with all my strength. If that wasn't good enough, at least I'd tried. I put my hands down and stared at the ghost.

"Open your mouth." Even in his transparent state he managed to make the simple command sound s.m.u.tty.

I obeyed. The ghostly apparition thinned and lengthened into the shape of a knife. It stabbed its way down my throat and into my chest. His essence burned through my body with every beat of my heart. My blood felt like it was made of battery acid. My knees crumbled and I sank to the ground, landing on my side halfway up the rock where Derek and Eva lay.

At that point my death began in earnest.

Chapter 9.

I couldn't move any part of my body, but I was aware of being cold, of pain in my flank and my cheek, of the uneven surface of the rock pressing into my hip and rib and thigh. I could hear the rustle of wind high in the trees. I could smell the mineral tang of the rock, the damp gra.s.s, and the burning candle wax. I could taste blood in my mouth from when I fell.

But slowly, like sand out of an hourgla.s.s, my ability to experience physical sensation faded, until I was left with only the memory of being cold, of lying on a rock, of smelling gra.s.s and candles. I had become a miasma like Edgar, floating somewhere inside the universe of my own body.

Once he had stolen my five senses, he began to work on my memories. He flipped through my mind like the archivist at the Historical Society, setting up a slide show of scenes from my life. Then he showed me the images, one by one. I saw them, although I couldn't say what I was seeing them with, with, since I had no control over my eyes, or even my brain, as far as I could tell. since I had no control over my eyes, or even my brain, as far as I could tell.

My father holding me up to see the lions at the Audubon Zoo.

My mother helping me to light a candle in church.

My sister and I walking to school on a fresh spring morning, and seeing a tiny green frog on the sidewalk.

Kissing my father goodbye as I boarded a bus to leave New Orleans.

Putting the name tag on my white coat that finally said Doctor Doctor Dillon. Dillon.

Edgar had presented the moments that I would have chosen myself if I had only a minute left to relive my life, but probably he already knew that. Each of the images hovered for a moment and then dropped away, like candles being snuffed, and when they were gone I couldn't remember them. Piece by piece, everything that I was and ever would be was being siphoned out and destroyed. I still wanted to fight, but there was nothing left to fight with. I had no body, no soul, no humanity. Soon there would be no reason to fight. I would be an empty vessel, ready for Edgar Templeton to move in and take possession.

Then Edgar made a mistake. He showed me an image of Derek.

He was in the psychiatric hospital, his wrists wrapped in bandages, singing the song I'd heard when I first walked in. As I listened to Derek sing that beautiful song which held so much meaning for me, I begin to reincorporate. Awareness and physical sensation crept back in, and soon I had enough control over my body to realize that the song was not a memory, plucked out of my mind by Edgar like a photo that he was about to toss in the trash.

Derek was singing to me, here and now.

I struggled to open my eyes but they felt like they were melted shut. So I concentrated on listening.

"No, no, no!" Edgar screeched.

A crus.h.i.+ng weight ground me into the unyielding rock, squeezing the breath out of my lungs. Red sparks exploded behind my eyelids. As sensation flooded back in, so did pain. It was worse than anything I'd ever imagined, much less experienced. I felt as if my limbs were being severed from the inside out, every joint and ligament disconnected and pulverized like I was in a giant mortar and pestle.

"If I can't have you n.o.body will."

Edgar Templeton's voice was inside my head. It echoed and multiplied, driving out the sweet sound of Derek's voice. The experience of Edgar Templeton taking my body was like being filled with hot molten lava. I felt my heart begin to slow down. My life was fading out.

But then I heard the singing again, and this time another voice had joined in. It was my sister's sweet soprano, singing harmony with Derek's tenor. The sound was so lovely it almost broke my heart, and that was when I realized that my heart was my own to break. My eyes began to open, and Edgar Templeton flowed out of me as easily as water down a cliff.

The first thing I saw when my vision returned was Derek, sitting on the edge of the rock, clutching his knees.

"Maggie?"

I nodded. "Yes, it's really me."

I tried to stand up and go to him, but all my body parts were not yet under my control. From the way Derek was struggling I could tell that the same thing was happening to him. We moved toward each other like a couple of lurching zombies, but when we met our lips functioned just fine.

"Thank G.o.d you're okay. I wasn't sure we'd be able to...," I blurted.

Derek squeezed my arm. "It's not over yet."

He pointed into the sky. The ghostly cloud was above our heads, glowing and pulsating with malevolent light. My heart sank down to my heels. I didn't have the strength to fight Edgar again and I was sure Derek didn't, either.

But then I heard Eva. Turning toward the sound, I saw her standing in the center of the rock. Her arms were outstretched and her head tipped toward the sky. She was chanting in that unintelligible tongue. A white cloud surrounded her. As I watched, she seemed to spread out and become insubstantial, as if her body was vaporizing. The chant continued, but it grew quieter, as if Eva was on the back of a truck driving away. There was a battle going on between Edgar and Eva, a molecular tug of war, as each of them tried to drive the other out of existence.

All the candles in the circle went out at the same moment, although I hadn't felt a breeze. The ghostly mist concentrated above Eva's head, darkening and lengthening into the knife shape it had used to enter my body. Eva's head began to tilt upward, toward the ghost.

"Let's sing the lullaby," I said quickly, clutching Derek's arm.

We joined hands and approached Eva, getting as close as we could without entering Edgar's miasma. Derek sang in his beautiful tenor, and I harmonized as best I could. My voice was nothing like Eva's, but I didn't think it mattered whether I was on pitch or not. It was the emotion that counted.

Hark, a solemn bell is ringing Clear through the night Thou, my love, art heavenward winging Home through the night.

Eva stopped chanting and joined in our song, although her voice seemed to be coming from somewhere deep underground. The white cloud pulsated angrily and then pixilated, breaking into millions of tiny dots. Edgar was trying to incorporate again.

At that moment my eye was drawn to the edge of the woods, where a light had appeared. As it drew closer I saw that it was another miasma, similar in substance to Edgar and yet entirely different. While Edgar whipped through the air like an angry hornet, this cloud bobbed gently, like a b.u.t.terfly. Instead of being white, it had a rosy-pink hue, the color of a sunset. And this ent.i.ty filled me with joy and comfort. It didn't have to take on human form for me to know who it was.

Mama surrounded us, breathing warmth into my frozen body. Derek and I joined hands with Eva and we quietly repeated the song. The rosy cloud pulsated rhythmically, like a giant transparent heart. I felt strength flow back into my body, and I could see that Eva looked rejuvenated as well.

As we sang, the dots that made up Edgar separated and pulled farther and farther apart. Millions of white specks flew high into the air and hung there for a few moments, looking like a sky full of stars, and then one by one they winked out, until there was nothing left.

Eva slumped and started to fall, but Derek caught her and held her under the arms. I checked her pulse and found it strong and steady.

"She'll be all right," I said.

I turned around, looking for the rosy cloud, hoping that it had incorporated into something I could hold in my arms, but she was gone. The sky and the air were empty and quiet.

"Mama!" I ran to the edge of the glade, peering into the opaque darkness for some tiny sign, a winking firefly light that said she was still there, but I already knew she wasn't.

Derek slid his strong arm around my waist. "Are you all right, Maggie?"

I leaned back against his chest, letting his strength support me. "Yeah, I'm okay."

When we got back to the rock, Eva was waiting. We each kissed her on the cheek, and then, laughing like children, we joined hands and skipped in a circle on the rock until we all collapsed, exhausted, in a heap.

Chapter 10.

As soon as the door closed behind us I ran. When I reached the bed I collapsed onto my stomach and closed my burning eyes. A moment later Derek dropped down beside me. His hand felt around until it found mine.

"This is a really nice duvet," Derek said.

I stroked the silky surface. "It should be, at that price."

The manager of the Inverness Inn had stared at us in disbelief when we banged on the door of his upscale establishment at two a.m., covered with dirt and b.l.o.o.d.y scratches, but he had enough discretion not to ask any questions, especially after Derek produced a platinum AmEx card to cover two rooms at five hundred dollars each.

"I don't think I've ever been so tired," I said.

"For you, that's saying something." Derek stroked my hand. I turned my head and met his smiling brown eyes.

"Thank you, Maggie," he said.

"You don't have to thank me."

"Why not? You risked your life for me."

"I did it for myself as much as for you."

"How's that?"

I couldn't look at him when I said this, for fear of what I might see, so I turned my face toward the window. The fog had cleared, and the moon smiled in on us from a purple sky. "I couldn't bear to lose you. I need you, Derek."

He touched my cheek and turned me to face him. Tears glimmered in his eyes. "I love you."

Now it was my turn to cry. So much had happened in such a short time that my head was still reeling from it all. I felt like I'd been living inside an egg, self-contained and protected, with no idea how tiny my circ.u.mscribed world was compared to what was outside it. And then the egg cracked and I emerged into a world that contained other people, and wide horizons, and love.

"I love you too."

Derek enfolded me in his arms and kissed me gently. He molded my hips to his, and I could feel that he was hard and ready.

"I want to make love to you again," he whispered into my ear before he licked the tender skin behind it.

"And I would too," I replied.