A Soul To Steal (The Sanheim Chronicles, Book One) (32 page)

“You okay?” he asked, and she loved him for it. His face was flush with excitement, but she knew if she asked him to stop, he would. He loved her and would do anything for her, even if that meant stopping. But stopping was the last thing she wanted.

She nodded and they began kissing again. Somewhere in the back of her mind there was a warning—a flash of a Tarot card with two lovers staring at each other while the Devil looked on. And a message: “Sex changes everything.”

But she wouldn’t—or couldn’t—stop. They were moving as one and it was like nothing she had ever felt. His touch was electric to her and her entire body felt a surge go through it. This was far beyond sex. Whatever was going on was joining them in more ways than the physical. She could feel what he felt, think what he thought.

Everything was becoming interlinked. As their bodies moved together, she was experiencing memories that weren’t hers. A first date with a girl she had never met, an awkward kiss in a college dorm room, the first time he had sex. It didn’t frighten her, it was like she was there, like she was Quinn. She saw the first time he saw her in the coffee shop, the way his heart raced, the way he had loved her even then.

This was dangerous. She should be frightened. She could tell that her every thought, every memory, was now inside of him as well. They were moving together faster, but it seemed to last forever. She thought she wouldn’t be able to think ever again.

And then it slowly receded.

Quinn was going to speak. He was going to ask what was going on. She knew that and didn’t want him to. She didn’t want to break the spell. He stopped without her saying anything and pulled away. When he left her, she felt unexpectedly empty.

When he lay down on the bed next to her, she pulled him to her and started kissing him again. It was even better than before. She felt everything he felt, every touch of her tongue. It was like being two people at once. There was no slow build up this time, they just immediately began making love again.

Kate knew they had already lost control. She thought of the Tarot card again and didn’t care. She wanted this. She deserved this.

It went on for hours. She loved him, but it wasn’t love that was driving them now, it was lust. They knew what the other wanted and reacted out of instinct. They had joined together and could no longer be apart.

Finally, after what felt like forever, they both collapsed back on the bed. He tried to speak, but couldn’t. She opened her mouth to say something, but they were both asleep in seconds.

*****

Quinn looked down the dirt road, straining to see anything in the darkness. Next to him, the trees stirred in a passing breeze. The night was cool, but not freezing. He wished he had brought a jacket.

Actually, he thought suddenly, he wished he knew how he was here at all.

“Where are we?” Kate asked behind him and Quinn jumped.

Quinn looked down the road past her.

(
He’s coming
)

“I’m not sure,” he said. “I think it could be the Phillips’ farm road.”

“How did we get here?”

Quinn looked at her and shrugged.

“I think this is my dream,” he said. “I don’t think we are here at all.”

Kate frowned.

“Look, I don’t mean to pick a fight, but I don’t see how I could be in your dream,” she said. “Either you are in mine, or…”

Quinn shrugged again.

“It’s just that I’ve dreamt this before,” he said. “I’m walking on this road and…”

(
He starts chasing me.
)

“Who’s he? Who’s coming?” Kate asked. “Did you think that or did I?”

Quinn was confused.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know what is going on. I’ve had this dream before, but it feels different now.”

He bent down to the road and picked up a handful of dirt. He let the dust run through his fingers and then shook his hand clean.

“This feels more real,” he said. “Are we sure we didn’t sleepwalk or something?”

(
He’s coming and he will be mad that I brought her
.)

“Quinn, who are you talking about?” Kate asked. “I feel something, this… sense of immense dread and I don’t know why. What’s coming?”

“Never mind,” Quinn said and looked up the road. “However we got here, we need to keep moving. The bridge is around the bend.”

(
What is going on?
)

“I don’t know what is going on,” Quinn said. “Wait. Did I think that or did you?”

Kate turned and looked behind her. Her heart was pounding in her chest.

“I think I’m feeling your emotions,” she said.

“And what do you think I’m feeling?”

“Terror,” Kate said.

“Sounds about right. Look, we need to start walking. We don’t have long.”

“What is coming for us, Quinn? Lord Halloween?”

He grabbed her hand (
it feels so real
) and they started walking down the road.

“I don’t know exactly,” he replied. “I don’t think they are connected.”

He moved a little faster and pulled her along.

But Kate stopped dead in her tracks.

“Kate, look, I will tell you all about it later,” he said. “This is the nightmare I told you about, remember? The one that I keep having? But this is the first time you’ve been in it.”

But she was not paying any attention to him. Instead she was staring at the ground.

(
What is it
?) Quinn thought.

“On the ground,” she said. “Look at the lines.”

She pointed at lines drawn in the dirt. When Quinn stepped back, he realized it spelled a word.

“Sanheim,” they both said.

And then Quinn started to hear the sound of horse hooves in the distance, like the beating of a far-off drum.

“We have to go now,” he said, and pulled her arm along to make her start moving. Kate looked back at the word in the dust again, but started jogging alongside Quinn.

“Sanheim—I’ve seen that word in my dreams before,” she said to him.

Quinn kept looking behind him.

“You have? But I thought…” (
I was going crazy
).

“You’ve seen it too?” she asked him, and now she started to glance behind her as well. The sound was getting closer and though she was not much clearer on what was coming, she thought she had some idea.

“Janus and I found it carved into a tree out near Leesburg,” he said. “A guy called us out to the Phillips’ farm and it was right there in a clearing.”

It was with some sickening feeling he realized he was close to that field now. As they ran along the road, the right side opened up to reveal that large narrow field.

(
It’s over there. He carved it into the tree with his sword.
)

“It was on the Tarot card,” she said. “I was so freaked out by the whole experience I didn’t think to mention it. Madame Zora didn’t know what it meant either.”

“Who the hell is Madame Zora?”

Then he saw in his head a picture of a woman wrapped in fake jewels in a candle-lit room. The psychic, he knew.

“Oh,” he said.

Kate looked at him funny but continued to run. Both looked over their shoulders. They were almost past the field now, but still not close to the bridge.

(
Why didn’t you tell me?
)

Quinn heard the thought inside his head and didn’t know how to answer. He was rapidly becoming too terrified to think.

“You had enough to worry about,” was all he said.

“But this could be important,” she said. “It could be a clue.”

The sound was much louder now and even Kate recognized it—the galloping gait of a large horse, riding as if it had the devil at its heels.

She looked to the forest around her.

“We could go in there,” she said, becoming slightly out of breath.

“The woods don’t help,” he said. “He’ll just get ahead of us. We have to beat him to that bridge. We will be safe there.”

But the bend in the road still seemed too far away and the hoof beats were getting steadily louder. They seemed to echo off the trees around them.

“What’s coming, Quinn?” she asked. “The fear I’m feeling, I can’t tell if it is yours or mine or both. But I don’t think you would be this afraid of just a horse. So what’s chasing us? What’s on that horse?”

“See for yourself,” Quinn said, as they continued running.

She turned to look behind her and she could now see something in the distance. It was little more than a blur, but it was moving very, very fast.

With a little relief, she saw they were now close to the bend in the road. She and Quinn ran forward, hearing the gait of the horse grow louder with every step. They rounded the bend and Kate felt her spirits drop.

The bridge was still far away. She could see it in the distance.

(
We aren’t going to make it
.)

(
I might be able to slow him down, Kate.
)

(
I’m not sure much could slow him down at this stage.
)

She could see details of the bridge, could tell they were getting closer, but now the sound of hooves was everywhere. The bridge was one of the old-fashioned covered ones—long and narrow. She had heard there was one in Loudoun County, but it had fallen into disrepair. It reminded her of something, some story she had been told.

(
The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow.
)

Kate looked behind her and stifled a scream. The horse had just rounded the bend and she could see the rider pushing it to go faster. Somewhere she heard a terrible laugh, deep and booming, and it did not sound human.

(
Because it isn’t human, is it, Quinn?
)

(
Just keep going. You have to keep going. Even if I fall behind. You will be safe in that bridge. I don’t know how I know that, but I do. You have to reach it.
)

She could tell the Horseman was gaining in huge strides behind her and she pushed herself to run as fast as she could. How could she feel so tired in a dream?

The bridge was closer. It was just 50 feet, then 40 feet.

The sound of the horse drowned out everything else. Kate and Quinn looked behind them and immediately regretted it.

The Horseman was no more than 15 feet away—a black rider out of a nightmare.

He was in ancient clothes that looked half-rotted away. A black tattered cloak spread out behind him. In the moonlight, they could see a long saber held in his hand pointed forward—like a cavalry officer on a final charge. Even the horse was frightful, with red penetrating eyes that seemed to flash each time a hoof hit the ground. But the rider’s most striking feature was what was missing… He rode with no head at all, with his sword held forward as if it was guiding the way.