Salem Moon (24 page)

“
Let me in,
”
he repeated again. The voice was coming into her consciousness as if through a form of telepathy, his lips never moved.

With an act of sheer willpower, she said
“
No!
”
and at once, she watched him as his eyes again grew sad. She
turned her eyes away from his
so
she wouldn
’
t be sucked back in by the sensuality of them.
And,
when she opened them again, she was stunned
.
Staring down at her was not the golden haired man
;
it was Gabriel, but
not
Gabriel. Everything was mixed up as was often true in dreams.

“
Now, will you let me in?
”
Gabriel asked. His manner, his words, his smile were all out of character for him
,
laced as they were with sarcasm.

It dawned on her, what Gabriel had revealed to her this very night. He
’
d warned her emphatically about the fallen angel that he
’
d brought here.

“
Lucien! That
’
s who you are!
”
She tried to
squirm away from him.

“
Ah, now you hurt me
, my sweet
. Do you not recognize the love of your life? It is I, Gabriel. I have to come to give you the most exquisite pleasure you have ever known.
”

She felt a strong pressure between her legs
.
Gabriel was a well-built man
as well, but
this was
not
the feel of his flesh
.

She remembered their lovemaking, his touch, his body, his scent, the way his eyes looked into hers, touching her heart, her soul
, the purity of it,
as if they were trying to meld together into one person.

“
No, you are not Gabriel,
”
she said coldly.
“
Get the hell away from me.
”

“
I know your secrets, Lily and still I love you. You cannot deny your desire for me
.
I hear the quickening of your breath, your heart
beating fast
.
I hear the blood pounding through your veins, making your face flush with the heat of passion.
”
Lucien
’
s face again, so close to
hers.
The sound of his voice was coming from nowhere and everywhere.

She was vaguely aware that she should not engage this creature in conversation
, and
yet she could
n
’
t
help herself.
“
If you know my secrets, then you must know that I would
never
betray Gabriel
’
s trust, that he is the only one I will ever love. What I
felt
for you
was
only
lust
not love.
”

“
Is there really any difference between the two? What drew you to Gabriel to begin with? Was it not the longing for his kiss, his touch? You love him
because
you desire him
.
”

“
That
’
s not true, and you know it. You
’
re a liar, Lucien, I see right through your illusions. As you say, you know my secrets. If so, then you know I can see your true colors. You
’
re very essence is one of evil
.
You take on forms of beauty
,
the white wolf and the glorious Seraphim to trick and beguile but
I
know better!
”

“
Many things in nature are both beautiful
as well as
dangerous
.
Take the rose with its thorns, for what is beauty on its own? Or the Lion, with its majestic countenance, he could rip you to shreds
.
That is what I am. My beauty is the lure that catches the prey. As for evil? There is inherent beauty in evil as well. I have the power to love you or hurt you…
”

“
Gabriel has more power than you and you
know
it. His love is pure, his soul innocent. That
’
s why you want him so badly.
”

Silence.

Again, he kissed her mouth, biting down hard on her lower lip before moving to her
shoulder. He bit her there as well. The pain was
excruciating
.

That was when she began to scream and scream
. She heard
the screaming
like
an echo in her head, and all around her
, a
scream without beginning or end
.

The next thing she knew, someone was shaking her and shouting.

“
Lily, wake…up! Jesus,
will ya wake up
? Lily!
”

Slowly, as her vision cleared, she saw it was Dylan who shook her.

“
You were dreaming, Lily.
Must
’
ve
been one hell of a nightmare
.
I heard your screams all the way downstairs. Christ, I thought someone broke into the house and…
”
Dylan stopped. He put his hand to his sister
’
s mouth. When he drew his hand back, his fingers were covered in fresh blood.

“
What the hell?!
”
His eyes
went
wide with fright.

“
I must have…bitten my lip in my sleep
.
”

“
You
’
re soaked with sweat
.
Do yah want a glass of water?
”

“
Yeah, that would be great.
”
She wanted him to leave the room. A throbbing pain was coming from under her nightshirt.

After he left, she threw back the bedcovers and pulled up her night shirt. She gasped when she saw her right
shoulder
.
It was bleeding
. The
blood oozed
down
her arm
in a small stream
.
She wiped hard at it with the night shirt. When all the blood was removed she saw the distinct
pattern of bite marks. Severe, deep punctures. As they began to bleed anew, she thought:
this doesn
’
t happen
in
a dream!
Dreams do not leave behind physical evidence. She yanked the blanket and comforter up around herself. She was shivering, her body soaked with cold sweat.

“
Where are you, Gabriel? I need you…
”
she
whispered, but there was
no one to hear her
, just an
empty room.
“
I
’
m scared.
”

G
abriel listened intently to Lawrence and Chloe as they ran down the Snow family history.

“
As Chloe told you, the curse is real. We
’
ve seen it in action over the years. There
’
s
great animosity between the families and for good reason. The
Blackstones
hate the
Snows
for what they did over
300
years ago. Over time, the hatred has calmed to a general dislike, and
a
kind of agreement to avoid one another. But, beginning with the descendants of the original Snow family, there were…occurrences,
”
Lawrence said.

“
Odd deaths are more like it to speak plain,
”
Chloe said
.

“
Yes, strange deaths beginning with the death of one of the accusers, Thomas Snow
,
the boy who sexually assaulted Abigail. He was burnt alive by some unknown force. Writings from those days tell of a ball of fire coming out of thin air and striking him down. There was nothing anyone could do, the fire encompassed his whole body in a matter of minutes and turned him to a mere pile of ash, fragments of bone and bloody tissue. But it was the
stench
coming from the
body
that drove the villagers away in terror. The scent of burnt human flesh was horrible
.
And so they fled.

“
At the precise moment of Thomas
’
s death, the trap door opened on the small platform where Abigail stood
,
the noose around her neck, and there she died.

“
The dark days that followed brought even more bloodshed. When it finally ended, all of Salem Village was left dazed and broken. The villagers tried to pick up the pieces and go on with their lives
. I
n retrospect
,
they had time to think of what they had done. There was no escape from the heavy burden of guilt and remorse, which would follow them to their very graves.

“
Doctors came from Boston to study them and came to the ultimate conclusio
n that Salem had suffered from
‘
mass hysteria.
’
A
form of what we know today as,
‘
group think
’
in which a group of people does something they would never do by themselves.

“
In the winter of
1692
, the untimely and unusual deaths of the Snow family began.

“
Priscilla Snow had somehow wandered off in the midst of one of the worst blizzards in New England history. Her husband, Richard went out to look for her when she failed to return before dusk. Why she would do such a thing, was beyond comprehension
. S
he was suffering with a bout of pneumonia, and had always been a sickly woman.

“
By morning when neither of the elder
Snows
returned, Joshua set out to find them. The weather had cleared
,
although the sky was still an ugly gray, the tree limbs heavily laden with snow. The ground was covered with a foot of
it
, making travel by foot virtually impossible
,
so he took one of the stable horses.

“
Joshua rode for hours across fields and around streams, seeing nothing. It was also bitter cold
.
No
one could have survived the night in weather
like that
. As he approached the place he now avoided like the plague, his heart leapt into his throat, for there at the public platform, sitting atop Gallows Hill were two shapeless lumps, covered with snow.

“
Joshua quickly jumped from his horse and brushed the snow away as fast as he could. He was immediately taken aback and sunk to his knees, his eyes wide, and his mouth gaping open as he looked upon the faces of his parents, their eyes half open and glazed over
in
death. There was no doubt they
’
d
frozen to death. Arms around each other, they were locked together for all eternity.

“
Joshua, the only survivor of the original family, was left a very wealthy man. He married a young woman from a prominent Boston family, Suzanne Smith. It was said that she was directly descended from John and Priscilla Smith, two of the original founders of the Plymouth colony.

“
The two set up house in Salem. Joshua had the original house torn down and built a splendid New Englander. He spared no expense to keep his new bride in the lifestyle she was accustomed. They were blissfully happy.

“
But, the darkness that so often visited Joshua when he thought of the past, consumed him
.
He was afraid of his happiness and was sure that it wouldn
’
t last, sure that upon his death, he would burn in Hell for his part in Abigail
’
s wrongful death.

“
Mary gave birth the following year to twins, a girl and a boy. Joshua thought his heart would burst with joy. Within days, however
,
his joy turned to despair when his infant daughter, Rebecca, died in her crib during the night. In the days that followed, the grief stricken parents buried their child, clinging to their surviving twin, their son, Richard.