Grave Danger (48 page)

Cyrus thought for a moment, but before he could
answer Isabella rushed forward. “You can’t be a member of our
community you deceiving little witch.”

Leah visibly stiffened at that comment. Her eyes
flashing anger as she brought her hand up. Her mother hurriedly
pushed it back down by her side.

Isabella came to stand in front of Clarissa, her own
hands reaching out to Clarissa. Just as she was going to give
Clarissa a terrible shock Isabella found herself on her beautiful
little teenage bottom. She stared up with indignant furry on her
face as she clutched at the area above her heart.

“
Did you see what she just did,” Isabella
shouted like an errant child up at Cyrus. “Cyrus, make her pay for
that.” Cyrus remained thoughtful as if thinking the situation over
carefully. Seeing that he was going to be no help, Isabella turned
to look behind her at Henry. “Henry, do something.”

“
Sorry, brat,” he said. “This time you can’t
have your way.”

Isabella rose to her feet, glaring down at Clarissa.
“You’ll pay for this, if not today then one day of my choosing. I
suggest you watch yourself.” With that she stormed out of the room,
several people following close behind her. Her little slaves,
Clarissa thought, people who were afraid of her wrath; people that
were not Clarissa.

“
Now that the children are out of the room I
can finish,” Cyrus said with what looked like a smile, the first
Clarissa had ever seen on him. He looked very handsome with a
smile, his silver eyes shining against his slightly tanned
face.

“
You have given me something to think over for
the next several decades.” At first Clarissa wasn’t aware that he
was teasing until the smile broke out full force on his face. “You
will give me and my council some time to think this over. As of
now, however, you remain on suspension from the community. I only
hope that there is someone to take you in.” His eyes roved over the
collective faces of the LeMoyne family.

Clarissa felt Corrigan’s arm press tightly into her
side as he wrapped it around her and she looked up at him. “Would
you be willing to stay with my family? I know the attic isn’t a
great place, but I’m sure Ambrose will let you use one of his many
guest rooms. Won’t you?”

“
Of course,” Ambrose answered back
quickly.

They had had much to discuss while the women were
out on their nightly adventure. When his wife and sisters had
reached out to him to tell him of Clarissa’s danger he had insisted
on going with Corrigan.

“
You are my brother, Corrigan. If this woman
means so much to you then I can do no other than be there for you
both.” He’d hugged Corrigan then, an act that had never taken place
in all the years that they had known each other. Then he’d punched
him in the arm, a motion that appealed to Xavier who mimicked the
gesture. Then the rest of them followed suit.

“
I’m sorry I was an ass,” Chas had said as he
hugged his younger brother and best friend. “But in my defense, I
wouldn’t have really taken a bite out of her. I’m not sure I could
have anyway. She’d knock me on my ass again.”

Corrigan looked down at the person he’d given his
heart to. When she had lain so still on the floor moments earlier
he had thought his heart had truly been ripped and shredded into
unidentifiable pieces on the floor with her. He could not exist in
this world without her, not anymore.

“
On trial basis, if you want,” he added.
“There are more property choices farther along the beach if you
would prefer a place of your own.”

“
We can stay with your brother,” Clarissa told
him, “for now at least,” she added.

He hugged her closer to him. Leaning down and
kissing the side of her head. Clarissa watched as Eleanor and
Richard stared at her as if she had grown a set of angel wings.
Henry continued to smile, the dimple evident in his cheek. He
nodded to himself before his eyes roved over to Eleanor.

Clarissa saw something painful flash across his face
before he hid it behind another smile as he turned away. He then
moved to stand with some of the S.S. talking to them, suggesting
that they return to their homes.

“
Then it is settled,” Cyrus said. His eyes
scanned his side of the divide. “For now,” he added.

The Eidolon people who were present filed out of the
room followed by the few S.S. members who had joined them. All that
was left now were Cyrus, Clarissa and the LeMoyne family. The heavy
doors shut silently behind the last to leave, Hanna Zespedes. She
gave her council member one long look before she shut the door in
her wake.

A small cry interrupted the sudden silence in the
room, bringing to attention Maddy who still crouched in the corner
next to her dead grandson. She held his fast cooling hand in her
own, pressing it to her cheek as if she could keep his warmth from
escaping.

“
He said he didn’t want to die,” Clarissa
whispered as she removed herself from Corrigan’s side. She walked
the distance to the dark corner. Only now did she realize that the
lights had been brought up, but still the corner remained shadowed
as if Death’s presence still lingered in the room watching over
this young man’s body.

Clarissa knelt down beside Jackson, touching Maddy
on the shoulder. She jumped at the contact, turning her face up to
Clarissa’s with the wild eyes of a women lost in the depths of her
own grief.

“
Will he be like you?” she asked. “I thought
it would take less time.” Maddy looked around the room like she was
looking for a ghost that wouldn’t appear when it was called.
“Please, Clarissa, when is he going to come back to me?”

“
I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “If
he’s not meant to exist as a ghost I can’t make him come
back.”

“
Then make him like them,” she said, her voice
frantic now. “I want him, even if he’s not the Jackson I knew. I
don’t care. He’s too young to die.” She turned her face down, her
tears falling harder as she whispered over and over again, ‘He’s
too young to die’.

Ambrose came to kneel by the living woman, taking
her by the shoulders and lifting her away from the body of her
grandson. She let him lead her away to the waiting arms of one of
his sisters. He returned to where the body lay and to Clarissa’s
side, taking up the cool hand of the dead young man.

“
Not only does the dagger destroy, it creates
new life in the form of one of our kind,” Ambrose began. He brought
the dagger, holding it with as little of his skin as possible. Pain
was evident in his face but he didn’t let go. Clarissa took it from
him quickly and she could see instant relief on his face when she
did.

“
How,” she asked him. “How can I force him
into an existence that he didn’t ask for? If you had a choice,
would you wish to be what you are?”

“
I had no choice,” he bit out. Then he said in
a softer voice, “But even still I think there are worse things in
this world than what we are. This young man has known of us for
some time, even finding friendship in us.” He looked to Corrigan,
then back at Clarissa. “It is your decision.”

Clarissa wasn’t sure how she knew the precise steps,
but she placed the dagger length-wise over Jackson’s chest with the
hilt facing toward his head. It made the sign of the cross over his
heart. She closed her eyes, imagining his death but backwards as if
she could reverse the effects of time and return his body to the
way he had been in life. But even still, she knew that Jackson
would not be the same person he was. Death had touched him and he
would never be the same.

Warmth flooded through the dagger into her arm and
into Jackson’s cooling body. Energy washed over his body encasing
him in a living cocoon. Jackson’s skin began to twitch and move as
the re-animation began. Under normal circumstances the ease of the
process required several attempts and something a kin to a blood
sacrifice, but Jackson’s spilt blood was enough combined with the
enhanced bokor powers from Clarissa.

The first thing Clarissa heard was a sigh of breath
coming from Jackson’s lungs. When she heard the sound of his first
breath her eyes popped open to see Jackson's gaze focused and on
her. He reached down to touch the open wound in his chest only to
find it closed leaving the broken bloody fabric of his shirt as
evidence to the dagger striking him down.

He tried to speak but no words formed. Ambrose
touched his forehead forcing Jackson to look at him. “Don’t strain
yourself. It will take a moment for you to regain your power of
speech. I won’t let anything happen to you.” It was something like
a father would say to a son, the look in Ambrose’s eyes as he
talked quietly to Jackson.

Clarissa stood up, finding warm hands to steady her.
Again, she felt wobbly on her feet. The effort of reanimating
Jackson had taken a toll on her strength. “I’ve got you,” he
whispered in her ear.

“
I’ve got you too, babe,” she said in a poor
Sonny and Cher imitation. He just looked down at her with a
‘you’re-crazy-but-I-love-you-anyway-look’.

Cyrus came to stand near the scene, his gray eyes
going from the newly formed flesh-eater on the floor to Clarissa
and Corrigan. “Again Ms. Schofield you surprise me.” He looked down
once more at the young man who he had seen grow up before his eyes.
Now he was a creature he hated most in this world and for good
reasons. Perhaps his opinion of the LeMoyne family had softened,
but not to such an extent that he could forget his personal past
with one of their kind. “I’m leaving now before you try using your
talents against me and my non-corporal ass.”

He left, striding away purposely in a way only a man
like Cyrus could pull off with such intensity. Clarissa watched as
he closed the doors behind him. She heard her name being called and
turned around to find Jackson on his feet making his way slowly
toward her.

Corrigan stepped back as Jackson stopped in front of
her. “I’m sorry,” he said, taking her into his arms as he hugged
her. “It wasn’t me who said those things to you. It was the ghost,
the astri-zombie. I would never hurt you.” Jackson stepped back,
his face drawn down in anguish. “I killed those people because he
made me and I couldn’t stop him from forcing me to do it. I don’t
even remember when he started using my body.” He scratched his
blood soaked blonde head. “Even now it seems fuzzy like I was in a
dream and I can only remember parts of it.”

“
Jackson,” Maddy screamed running up to him
and taking him into her arms. He hugged his grandmother back with
obvious restraint as if he were afraid she would break. “I asked
her to do this,” she said when he pulled back, putting distance
between them. “I thought it the only way to keep you
here.”

“
But I’m,” he looked down at his hands covered
in his own blood and suddenly a thing inside him started to growl,
wanting to taste it. He licked his hands, but it wasn’t what he
wanted. His own blood wouldn’t stop the beast that was roaring
inside him. “I’m like them now,” he finished.

“
I know,” she said, “I’m sorry, I wanted you
and I wasn’t thinking.”

Ambrose interrupted them. It was useless now to
discuss things that could not be changed. “We will take him home
with us now, madam, and see that he is well taken care of. We’ll
think more on the ramifications of these nights’ events on a later
date. You should return to your home as well and rest. I know this
is as traumatic for you as it is for your grandson.”

Maddy nodded her head stiffly as she stepped away,
putting more distance between herself and the flesh-eaters. She
turned then and walked out of the room, a single sob escaping her
lips before she could make it to the door.

Xavier already had a mop in his hands and a bucket
near him as he began washing away the blood on the floor. “I find
it insulting that I must wash up after his mess,” he said. His wife
popped him on the back of the head as she instructed him to
continue his given chore.

Trueman and Chas were removing the large metal
chair, putting it into a room where they locked the door. Soon
enough the room was set to right and one could almost believe that
nothing had happened in this space. Except for the smell in the air
and strange current of a diminishing energy that reminded them that
death had been close to this room. He had likely been brought here
by Jackson’s death and seeing the corrupt soul of Francisco had
thought to kill two birds with one stone; a terrible pun to bring
up in this situation.

What was left of Francisco Fatio lay in a dark smear
on the floor. It could not be scrubbed up, but in a few days it too
would disappear with the rest of him.

The LeMoyne family, along with their newest extended
family members, made the long walk back to the complex in a short
amount of time, making it to the bridge quicker than humanly
possible. Clarissa grabbed Corrigan then, shifting through the
atmosphere with him leaving the others to jog the rest of the way
home. She didn’t think they’d mind.

***∞***

Clarissa held onto Corrigan as they appeared in his
attic bedroom. Turning in his arms she pulled his head down for a
kiss that she was sure sealed their heart to soul connection
forever. Corrigan tightened his hold on her, running his hands
along her back as he returned her kiss ten-fold.

After several minutes she pulled back. “I love you,”
she said, running her fingers along his warm cheek, moving it to
touch his mouth.

“
As I love you,” he answered, kissing her
fingers as they covered his lips. Then he scooped her off her feet
taking her to his green comforter covered bed. He looked down at
her as she was laid out for him like a feast, her arms open and
raised near her head, a smile on her enticing little mouth.
Corrigan stood there for several seconds just watching
her.