Dutch’s muscles tensed, sending a sharp pain up his neck.
Jade took a deep breath and held it, a hand to her face. “No, he’s not,” she said, very much like feisty Tinker Bell, Dutch thought. “I’m going up there.”
She stormed for the door, Jeremy on her heels, and she snatched her car keys from a wall hook on the way. Dutch dematerialized and whispered in her ear as she got in the car. “Don’t worry, sweetness, I will deal with Aaron.”
Chapter Seven
Dutch careened through the forest in a straight line to the grave he normally avoided. Making the trip in under a minute, he materialized in front of the stone and waited, pacing. The spot made his skin crawl, both because of the proximity to his mortal remains and the memories of his last moments of life. The shouts that’d reached his ears as he’d fallen still echoed in his dreams. Here, they seemed louder and ever present.
The real horror had come later that day. Dying hadn’t hurt, but being left behind certainly had. The living had benefited from his death once…it wouldn’t happen today.
After a few long minutes, Jade’s brother emerged from the trees, a black bag hanging from his shoulder.
Aaron smiled, smug. “You must be the—”
The exorcist’s eyes widened and he lifted a hand to his mouth. Fury in his expression, he tried to shout, but no sound came out.
Dutch grinned and circled. “You caught me off guard last night, but I have a few tricks of my own, exorcist. I will be no one’s pet.”
Aaron swung a fist, but Dutch dematerialized, assumed his corporeal form behind Jade’s brother, and seized him in a chokehold. “You see, I’ve spent a God-awful long time here, and for the first time in over a century, I feel alive. Even in my lifetime, no one made me feel the way Jade does. Now that I’ve found her, you’re going to leave us the hell alone. Nod.”
Aaron nodded against Dutch’s arm, struggling for air.
Not believing the bastard for a second, Dutch kept his preternatural grip on Aaron’s vocal cords. Sweat dripped down his spine. He couldn’t hurt Jade’s brother, and he couldn’t keep him silent indefinitely—that took concentration. “How are we going to guarantee that, I wonder?”
…
Jade pulled the car to an abrupt halt behind Aaron’s yellow Jeep at the trailhead. “Follow the orange blazes to the gravesite,” she said to Jeremy. “Keep Aaron and Dutch from hurting each other until I get there.”
“Aren’t you coming?”
“And do what? Argue with Aaron? Has that ever worked for me?”
“But what—”
“I will take care of everything. I’ll only be a few minutes behind you.” She shoved him, and he got out of the car.
“He’s just a spirit, Jay,” he said, his hand resting on the open door.
“He’s not just a spirit to me, little brother. Do this for me? Please?”
Jeremy held up his hands, then smacked them against his thighs in defeat. “I’ll try. Whatever you’re doing, make it fast.”
She drove as fast as she dared on the narrow road, hoping she could find the turn she’d taken mental note of while browsing a map of the park when she’d checked in.
She took inventory of her backseat in her head. Her grandfather’s book of incantations? Check. Her notebooks full of her own incantations? Check. Nerve? Did she have enough nerve to execute her plan?
Her mouth went dry and her heart’s rhythm shuddered as much as the car on the washboard road. There was too much at stake for her to fail. Both Dutch’s freedom and his existence could be lost—because if Aaron failed to enslave him, an exorcism would follow—but that wasn’t all. She hadn’t had time to gather all her thoughts, but lying awake the night before, she’d realized a way to further her professional goals was presenting itself.
Her brothers would never agree to the idea.
Dutch would never agree to the idea.
Without Dutch, she wouldn’t have the courage to go through with the idea.
Hell, it might not even work.
But if it did…
She had to jump in and get her feet wet. Literally. A small green sign identified her turn and she progressed slowly down the steep, even narrower road that led to a fishing area below the falls. She parked, got into the backseat, and opened her grandfather’s book.
She grabbed a pen and one of her notebooks. She needed a portion of her grandfather’s slave incantation edited into a passage she wrote a year ago, one that, at the time, had been a mistake. Almost a deadly one. She scribbled Latin in shorthand, using symbols for certain multi-purpose passages she’d long ago memorized.
She ripped the page out of the notebook and bolted from the car.
The nearest fishermen were well downstream. Jade waded into the water, the cold making it hard to breathe, and made her way upstream toward the base of the falls, the roar deafening.
The mist saturated the paper. The ink ran.
“Shit!” Shivering, she held the blurring words up and began to read the first verse even as she continued to progress, struggling on the slippery rocks beneath her feet. She needed to be here despite the danger. It was, she believed, the most concentrated area of power other than Dutch’s grave itself—perhaps the source of energy for the whole area.
If something went wrong and she died, it was best to be where Dutch died and continue living as he had.
As she recited one of the memorized passages, she looked up to the spot where Dutch had fallen over a century ago. He’d become a ghost here, among these rocks and rushing currents that tried to rip her feet out from under her. His first disorientated, conscious moments after his death may well have taken place exactly where she stood now.
But he hadn’t died, not the way a human being normally passes on. The power of this place, power perhaps centered at these falls, had given him a heartbeat.
A heartbeat that had given her and Dutch the chance to cross paths in this world.
A heartbeat that she wanted to listen to tonight when she fell asleep.
A heartbeat that now gave her the courage to read the third and final verse.
Shouting to hear herself over the falls, she completed the incantation.
…
“Let him go,” Jeremy’s voice shouted over the din of the falls below.
Dutch released Aaron from the chokehold, but didn’t return the exorcist’s ability to speak. “Ghost got your tongue?”
Aaron glared as he kneeled, catching his breath.
Jeremy walked over and stood between them. “Aaron, would it kill you to listen to someone else’s opinion once in your life?”
More glaring. Dutch shook his head. Damn, this guy never gave up, did he?
“Our sister has gone to do grandfather-knows-what because you can never be reasoned with,” Jeremy continued, staring down at Aaron. “If she gets into any kind of trouble, I’m holding you responsible.”
“Where’s Jade?” Dutch demanded. What was she up to?
“I don’t know.” Jeremy rubbed the spot between his eyes beneath his lenses. “Whatever you’re doing to Aaron, stop it.”
“And let him bind me to my grave with a few words? No.”
“This impasse requires a little trust to break,” Jeremy said quietly.
“Would you trust him if you were a ghost?”
Jeremy grimaced.
“I thought not.”
Jeremy paced around, scanning the area. “You have to admit, Aaron, this place is unique. Dutch is unique. To call him truly dead would be unjust. I agree with Jade that you need to back the hell off and let her handle this.”
Aaron shook his head.
“You know,” Jeremy said, turning to Dutch, “I could get used to him being mute.”