Grave Danger (47 page)

Clarissa stepped back as a bright light seeped out
from the hole in Jackson’s chest cavity. It moved over his form for
a moment only to move away and become solid revealing the figure of
Francisco Fatio, one of the Eidolon Council members. He eyed
Clarissa up and down.

“
You never did notice me, Clarissa.” His face
made an angry frown as he approached her. “Your eyes looked right
through me every time even when I smiled at you or tried to get you
to notice me. I was invisible.”

“
So you used Jackson’s body to commit murder
against the people who work for you?” This made no sense at
all.

“
His life essence was strong,” he commented,
licking his lips. “It was easy to take over him and he never
remembered the crimes he committed when I was using him. Those poor
fools trusted him so easily, never suspecting that I was
underneath.”

Olivier pushed Debora away from him and into
Clarissa’s waiting arms. She held the other woman to her as they
both watched him stroll over to where Francisco stood now eyeing
Leah who had regained herself and was pressed against the wall
hoping no one would remember she was there.

Olivier held him back with one outstretched hand
when Francisco would have lunged after Leah. He held the ghost in a
stunned suspension. As the women watched they could see most of
Jackson’s life’s essence seep out of the ghost’s pores, a life unto
itself, and reach for Olivier. The death bokor smiled as he too
tasted the life essence of the psychic young man.

It occurred to Clarissa then as it should have much
earlier. The reason Olivier was so strong in his abilities was
because he was stealing them from other psychic beings. And that
was why he killed her, not because he was angry but because he
wanted her gift. But he hadn’t gotten it. She had been too strong,
even for him.

The ghost and he were in it together this entire
time. Olivier had planted the dagger he’d used against her in
Maddy’s home knowing that it would draw itself to her. He’d been
hoping that she’d use it against Corrigan and his family and when
she hadn’t he finally agreed to come to the city to force her to
remember her past with him. Thinking to force her back to his side
and using Jackson as bait to do it. He’d used a boy to make a
point, that she was destined to kill. But she had changed since he
had known her and she’d never trust the words of this man
again.

“
I see the gears working in your ghostly
brain, my dear,” Olivier said as he let the ghost out from his
suspension.

Francisco glared angrily at the death bokor. “You
always take more than your share,” he complained.

“
Don’t be such a baby. Friends share.” Though
Clarissa knew that Francisco was no friend of Olivier, he had no
friends, just people he manipulated into working with him. “You can
have the witch.”

At that, Francisco’s face turned to instant joy. He
turned to see Leah steadily making progress away from them. She
turned fearful eyes when she realized they were talking about
her.

She screamed as the ghost lunged at her from across
the room. Clarissa only had a moment to think before she rushed
them, knocking Francisco away from Leah. She pushed the other ghost
with power he could not compete with, forcing him up against the
wall, his feet dangling above the ground.

“
What are you going to do?” he teased her.
“You’d never kill one of your own kind, you know they’d force you
out of the community. I am a respected councilman and you are
nothing but a troublesome girl.”

Clarissa squeezed the mental hold she had over his
throat watching his face bulge and the ectoplasm in his system to
color his cheeks. He made a struggling movement, kicking his feet
in the air. She closed her eyes as she concentrated, letting
everything else fall away as she thought committing the worst crime
of her existence.

“
No,” he blurted out of tight lips, but it was
too late.

Clarissa held firm, knowing he’d never be able to
fight her. Francisco struggled against the hold, his pupils dilated
and his hands clutching at something near his heart. A hole emerged
from the energy waves that covered his skin revealing the interior
of his body, a light not unlike the tears that had spilled from
Clarissa’s cheeks, falling out into rivers to spill on the floor
beneath him. His ectoplasm held some of the essence of life keeping
him intact and his was spilling out quickly like blood in a
human.

Something emerged from the gaping hole in his chest
cavity, an almost smoky substance that quivered in its loose form.
It was being pulled like a steer on a lasso closer to Clarissa. She
held open her hand letting it settle into her palm. It was cold,
like holding a ball of ice, but glowed like the lights of the
heavenly hosts from above.

Francisco watched as his soul was held in Clarissa’s
hand, the thread that connected him to it was tight and starting to
break one delicate thread at a time.

Olivier came to stand just behind Clarissa. She
could feel his presence now, but she kept her eyes closed. She
couldn’t look at Francisco without losing her hold.

“
You are a truly talented woman, Clarissa.” He
brushed her gently waving hair from her shoulder, placing a kiss on
the side of her neck. In the past that intimate kiss would have
made her feel special, now it only made her feel sick. “Forget my
past mistakes and join me. Francisco was too reckless in his greed.
I wouldn’t have let him kill your witch friend. I only wanted to
show you the full magnitude of your gifts.” His hand reached out to
touch the soul within her grasp, squeezing it, causing Francisco to
cry out in anguish. “End his existence, take his soul and join me,”
he said, his hand going under hers to hold her hand in his own,
connecting their powers.

Clarissa felt his strength flow through her and it
made both of their skins glow in an otherworldly light. It was like
two lightning bolts had found one another, crackling with their
combined intensity. Once it had been everything to her to have him
by her side holding her hand as she administered extermination on
the abominations of nature.

“
No,” she whispered. “I am not God to play
with the souls of men.” She released the soul letting it go back to
its host body.

Clarissa opened her eyes to see the soul of
Francisco hover in front of his body. When it should have returned
to him, it was snatched up by the force of something stronger than
anyone in this room. His hand held the quivering soul of a man who
had damned his soul for all eternity.

“
Death,” Maude whispered as she stood by her
sisters.

He inclined his head to the collective women, eyeing
them each before focusing his attention on Clarissa. “You have
chosen wisely this time, Clarissa.”

Death held tightly to Francisco’s soul as the room
was filled with the man’s horrendous screams. Clarissa and the
others were forced to cover their ears from the intensity of his
voice. The damned cried endlessly and forever and there was no
absolution from their crime.

A blast rent through the atmosphere around the
collective people, hitting Clarissa full force as she was the
closest to the scene. It knocked her to the ground, her eyes shut
tightly against the blinding light. Her own scream escaped her
mouth, but it was covered up by a deafness that stole her away into
an empty nothingness.

Chapter 27-

A warm hand touched the cool surface of her face.
She moaned drawing closer to its heat. Clarissa’s eyelashes
fluttered open to the sight of a fallen angel, his iridescent blue
eyes filled with concern and beneath that a love she was beginning
to think could be everlasting.

“
I didn’t know that ghosts could pass out,”
Corrigan said, his voice rough with raw emotion. “You scared me for
a moment. I thought I lost you.”

Clarissa smiled up at the person she would
miss most in this world if she was forced forward onto the next
plane of existence. Then a line from one of her collections of
beloved movies popped into her head. Reciting a line from Tom
Cruises character in
Far and Away
and with her most convincing Irish accent she said, “For a
moment there, you did.”

“
Clarissa,” a woman’s anxious voice said
before Eleanor’s frowning face came into view. “Are you all right?
You’re not crossing over are you?” She touched Clarissa’s cheek,
before turning to Corrigan as she pushed him away from them. He
moved back with a curse that Clarissa didn’t think to translate.
Eleanor didn’t care. “Oh, we were so worried about you. I heard
your scream. Actually everyone within a fifty mile radius heard
it.” Eleanor ran her hands over Clarissa as if she was a doctor and
not a ghost.

“
Stop fussing over her, Elle,” Richard said as
his face came into view on the other side of Eleanor. “She’s a
tough cookie, aren’t you, death bokor.” He winked at her and
Clarissa cringed before looking at Eleanor.

“
I thought we were friends and you would keep
something like that from me?” Eleanor made a pouting motion with
her lips like an insulted child. “Not to mention him,” she threw
her hand to where Corrigan was standing with his brothers. “You’re
dating a flesh-eater.” She said it in a tone that Clarissa couldn’t
help but take as funny.

“
That’s not funny,” she said.

“
Leave her alone, Eleanor,” Henry’s voice
could be heard just behind her. He moved Eleanor gently out of the
way so he could lean over seeing for himself that Clarissa was all
right. “You okay, Clarissa?” He smiled down at her, a dimple
showing in his scruffy cheek. “I told you, you were something
special and I’m never wrong about these things.”

“
You just want credit for unmasking me,” she
said. “Can you help me up now?”

Henry and Richard got on both sides of her, helping
her to regain her feet. She wobbled for a moment. The blast had
made her shaky. As soon as she was on her feet Corrigan was by her
side pulling her away from the two ghost men. He pulled her to
stand with his sisters and brothers who had joined him.

The flesh-eaters and Clarissa stood on one side of
the room while the ghosts stood on the other, both sides watching
the other with suspicion. There were several ghosts she recognized
standing there besides Henry, Eleanor and Richard, including the
remaining council members and some of the S.S.

Cyrus walked out from behind the crowd of ghosts to
stand at the front of the divide. He inclined his head toward
Clarissa before his gaze settled on Ambrose. Ambrose walked forward
from his position behind Chas to meet Cyrus on his side of the
dividing line.

“
I told you Francisco was not what he
appeared.” Ambrose spoke to the slightly taller but younger man; in
deathly years. “It was his doing along with the death bokor that
murdered your human servants. You wouldn’t believe that one of your
own could do something so heinous, even when members of your own
council spoke out against you.” His eyes went to Hanna who nodded
her head in agreement. She had known there was something odd about
Francisco; that he was growing too strong when if anything he
should have grown weaker.

“
Where is this death bokor?” Cyrus looked
through the mass of people on both sides. He did not remember
seeing the death bokor, Olivier, when he and the others had reacted
to Clarissa’s scream of anguish. Instantly, he had known what that
sound had meant.

“
He escaped,” Leah said from the Eidolon side
of the room. Her arms where around her grandmother's body in a deep
hug, afraid that if she let go they would be separated. “When the
blast came I saw him fall but he recovered quickly and was out of
the room, using some kind of illusion to hide him from the others
who were coming.”

Leah looked once toward Jackson’s still body that
had been moved to a dark corner of the room before she hid her face
in grandmother’s soft shoulder. Clarissa’s own gaze went to the
still form in the corner. There she saw Maddy bent over her
grandson, tears streaming endlessly from her eyes, her face looking
older than she was. Her mouth made movements, prayers to guide her
grandson’s soul to a better place. He was too young to die, but
Clarissa knew that Death did not discriminate.

“
We reinstate our contract with the LeMoyne
family,” Cyrus said in his most authoritative voice.

Ambrose inclined his head saying nothing more. He
stepped back, returning to his wife’s side. She clutched his hand
inside her smaller one. He brought her hand to his mouth where he
placed a gently kiss on the side of her knuckles.

“
I gave the dagger back to her,” she
said.

“
I know,” he answered back.

Cyrus’s attention was back on Clarissa. Once again
his gaze raked her body from head to toe. By now she was used to
his intense stares. “So do you now choose to be with the LeMoyne
family and cease your association with the Eidolon community? You
have already made your feelings clear about me and under the
circumstances I can understand your bitterness to the council.
There is no obligation that states you must leave the city, only
that you would not be a citizen of the Eidolon people. You of
course would still be under the protection of us as you still
remain a citizen of St. Augustine like any other human.”

“
I don’t see why I have to choose between
being a member of your community and being with the LeMoyne’s.
Aren’t we all under one community despite our differences; we are a
community of the dead.”