“He feels bad about what happened, what he did. It’s been three hundred years, him trapped here in Salem, and now he knows that what he did was wrong. That not all witches are evil. He wanted to help me.”
She stared for a moment longer before she laughed. “Oh, Sarah. You are not the first to be taken in by the words that come out of that bastard’s mouth. Is it because he reminds you a little of your husband? A man who has changed with time, who’s become better, not worse, as the years have passed?”
I flinched at the possibility I’d been manipulated. I hadn’t totally believed Malik, but I was open to the concept. I liked the idea of redemption. Then again, my Achilles’ heel was the fact that I trusted too easily, especially handsome men with dark pasts.
“The ghost sounded sincere,” Todd cut through the silence between us. “I mean, I believed him, too.”
Raina groaned. “So let’s get this straight. You think I’m one of the bad guys because I’m a witch, and he’s the potential hero because he says he’s sorry for a few mistakes he’s made. Fabulous. I hate this town.”
I exchanged a look with Todd while I tried very hard to ignore Miranda’s body. It was not curling up on itself and disappearing like the wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz.
Raina caught my glance. “I’ll take care of the body in a minute.”
“You do both murder and cleanup. Handy.” I exhaled shakily. “Look, I’m not going to debate this any longer. You saved my life. Thank you for that, seriously. I owe you one. But I need to go now. I need to get back to Thierry so he doesn’t fret. The man is a major fretter.”
I turned away, but she grabbed my arm. I spun back around, alarmed that her grip was even stronger than I expected.
Her eyes were red again. My newly healed heart leapt into my throat.
“What are you doing to her now?” Todd demanded.
She shot him a dark look. “Stay where you are or you’ll regret it, toad.”
There was suddenly a dagger in her other hand. For a moment, I thought she’d stab me, but instead she sliced it across her forearm. Blood welled up.
“Get away from me!” I tried to pull away from her, but I couldn’t quite manage it.
Using the blood, she began to write on my arm.
“You won’t believe my words,” she said, “so you must see for yourself.”
Finally she released me. I wiped her blood off my arm, both disgusted by what she’d done and disgusted with myself for letting it trigger my thirst like she’d just waved a can of salmon under a kitten’s nose.
“You need to stay away from—” I didn’t get any further before a dark whirlwind swirled all around me, and the next moment the street festival, Raina, and Todd vanished before my eyes.
I blinked a few times before I realized what she’d done.
I’d been sent back in time. Again.
Chapter 17
It had been a hell of a day. Breaking and entering, spell casting, time traveling, kidnapping, getting killed, and now back to time traveling.
I seriously needed a nap.
But here I was, back in Pilgrim times. The town looked just as it had before. It was night. There was a small crowd of people milling about near the church. Another gathering clustered around the town hall.
I couldn’t tell if it was the same day I’d been here last time, or a month, a year, a decade later. Now there was a chill in the air and the sky was dark, but the stars and moon were bright enough to light the area enough to see well enough with my vampire eyes.
When Heather had done the spell, it hadn’t been perfectly precise. She was an amateur, one who didn’t have very much magic inside her. I knew I was lucky to have found Thierry at all when I searched the town.
Raina was different—and this was her spell. An alpha witch had alpha control. She knew where she’d wanted to send me and had delivered me to that exact spot and that exact moment.
I knew this because only seconds after my arrival I saw her.
Raina zipped past me, seemingly in a major hurry to get somewhere. Or to escape from someone.
Then I saw him. Malik trailed closely behind her.
I followed both of them swiftly. Nobody could see me. Nobody could hear me. But I could see and hear just fine.
Raina knew I wouldn’t believe anything she said—I needed proof. So here was history in the making, right in front of me. Fair enough. I would be an observant observer. All I lacked was some popcorn for the show. Still, part of me was afraid of what might happen next. What I might see.
“Stop,” Malik growled after her.
She ignored him and kept walking, nearly running, until she’d left the main part of town and was near the forest, wild and dark. It was somewhere that didn’t look safe for a woman on her own, even one able to wield powerful magic.
He finally grabbed hold of her and wrenched her to a stop. “Why are you leaving me?”
Her eyes flashed. “It’s over, Malik. I can’t be with you anymore.”
“I won’t let you leave me.”
Tears streaked down her cheeks. “You killed them. Without a moment of kindness, without listening to them beg you to spare their lives. Even those not officially on trial . . . now gone, and no one will ever know where they disappeared.”
“You were on my side.”
“I came to my senses. I was blinded—”
“Because you love me.”
A sob caught in her throat. “How can I love someone who enjoys causing such pain to those who don’t deserve it? Please, let me go. I want to forget.”
He didn’t let go of her. Instead, he shook her. “No, you’re too powerful. I still need you.”
“Why?”
“You must teach me your magic and help me become what you are. So I can be immortal—so we can be together forever.”
She gaped at him, her lovely but strained face lit only by the moonlight. “You would destroy the lives of witches only to try to become one yourself?”
“It’s different.”
“I can’t teach you witchcraft. Such magic is born within us.”
“Don’t lie to me. You can do a spell to give me power—I know you can.”
She turned her face away, her expression anguished. “I won’t.”
He grabbed her wrist. “Don’t you want to be with me?”
“Once I did. No longer. It’s over between us, Malik. Forever.”
“It will never be over between us. Do you think that a passion such as we have shared can be forgotten, even in death? I won’t let it and I won’t let you leave me. You said you’d be mine forever, and that’s exactly what you’ll be.”
She shook her head. “Let me go. Please.”
“Never.” His eyes were filled with anger, with fury, but also with pain, as if the thought that she’d run from him was something he’d never considered before. “Do you really think me a monster, my love?”
“Yes.” She said it quietly.
His handsome face hardened. “So be it. Then be a monster with me. We could be so powerful together if we face our true natures. If you truly give in to your magic, we could be omnipotent.”
“I thought you said you loved me.”
“I do.”
“If you loved me as I love you, you would not wish to use me in this way.”
His brows drew together as if he didn’t understand.
I watched all of this, barely breathing. Raina wanted to show me that she’d chosen to turn away from the evil she’d done because she regretted it bitterly. But Malik didn’t see that it was evil. Either that, or he didn’t care.
“I’m leaving and you can’t stop me,” she said evenly.
“Wrong. I can. And I will.” He grabbed hold of her throat and shoved her up against a tree. Any emotion left his dark eyes, making them cold and hard. I imagined it was the same chilling look he got when he killed an accused witch. “If you insist on turning your back on me, I’ll find another. There will always be a beautiful young witch
who’ll do as I ask. But I wanted it to be you. Remember that, Raina.”
He squeezed tight enough that her eyes began to bulge.
I wanted to do something, say something, scream something to stop this, but it was impossible and there was no one nearby for me to possess even if I had half a chance to stop him.
She gasped as her face began to turn purple, and then grasped hold of his wrists. Her gaze sought his and held—then turned red. The next moment electricity charged the air and he flew back from her, losing his footing and falling hard to the muddy ground.
He looked at his hands, which had nearly killed a woman he claimed to love. “Change your mind, Raina. There’s still time. It doesn’t have to end like this.”
“Wrong.” The word was nothing more than a soft gasp. “It does.”
“So be it.” Malik leapt to his feet and charged her again, his expression fierce and determined.
And then I heard a sound I remembered all too clearly: an echoing boom that could be mistaken for thunder or a cannon.
It was neither.
Malik’s eyes grew wide. Then he fell to his knees before collapsing completely to the ground.
Raina let out a wail and dropped at his side. She touched his face.
“I’m sorry, my love,” she said over and over again. “I’m so sorry. I should have done this months ago to stop you, but I couldn’t bring myself to lose you. I won’t lose you. No matter what, I’ll honor our promise. We’ll still be together forever.”
She pressed her hands against his chest and began to speak in that strange, ancient language, the one she’d used to heal me. For a moment I thought she was healing him, too, and bringing him back to life like a necromancer could.
But that wasn’t her goal.
Malik’s spirit now stood nearby, watching her with confusion. “What have you done, Raina?”
She finally tore her gaze away from the man on the ground to look at the ghost before her.
“I’ve bound your spirit to this town. To me.” Her eyes were black—just as they’d been when she’d killed Miranda. Slowly they shifted back to red.
Malik didn’t look horrified by this; he looked awed. “You’re even more powerful than I thought you were. Resurrect me. There’s still time.”
She turned away from him and began to dig into the ground with her bare hands.
He watched her with growing horror. “Raina! Do as I say!”
“I’ll bury you here,” she whispered. “You’re dead, Malik. You’ll never hurt anyone else. I won’t let you.”
He stood there in impotent fury, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. “So you curse me to haunt this town. For how long?”
“Forever.”
“Why?” he demanded. “Why would you do this to me?”
She looked up, her hands coated in mud and dirt from the shallow grave. Tears streaked down her cheeks. “Because I love you.”
At that moment, the dark whirlwind swirled around me, obliterating my view, and spun me back to the present.
I found that I was now seated on the ground, with Todd crouched in front of me.
“Hey,” he said, relieved. “You finally snapped out of your daze.”
“Snapped out of my daze, traveled through time. Same diff.” I didn’t pause too long to nurse my spinning head. I immediately jumped back up to my feet, then checked myself. I felt okay. Last time at Heather’s house I’d passed out, but I didn’t think that was going to happen again. Different witch, different results.
I slowly looked toward Raina, where she stood with her arms crossed over her chest. Miranda’s body was gone without a trace.
“Did you see?” the witch asked, her expression solemn.
I nodded. “You’re the one who trapped his spirit here in Salem for all these years. I don’t understand why, though.”
“If I’d let his spirit free, he would have gone to Hell for his deeds. I—saved him from that because . . . despite everything, I did love him. Part of me still does.” Her expression tensed. “It’s punishment enough for both of us. I can’t leave. My magic is what sustains his curse.”
“For three centuries.”
“Yes.”
I regarded this woman now with more wariness than when I thought she was totally evil. Evil was way simpler than what she’d done. “You’re incredibly powerful.”
“I am. My magic was strong from the very beginning. It’s what makes me, as you say, alpha. Only an alpha witch has the ability to do that time travel spell.”
I blinked. “Heather could do it.”
“Then Heather is also an alpha witch,” Raina said.
Todd stared at her in disbelief. Behind him walked an oblivious family of four, carrying helium balloons imprinted with black cats and friendly-looking ghosts. “She’s not. She can’t be. I mean, she’s always had some magic, but it’s not very much.”
Raina spread her hands. “All I know is that the spell to send someone’s spirit through time, no matter if it’s witch blood or vampire blood helping to power it, must be done by an alpha witch. End of story.”
My mind raced. “Thierry thought an alpha was responsible for Owen’s murder—death magic. And if it wasn’t you—”
“It wasn’t,” Raina said firmly. “I meant that vampire no ill will. He was . . . fun. He made me laugh. I’m sorry he’s dead.”
I turned to Todd, but he shook his head. “Don’t even suggest it, Sarah. There’s no way Heather had anything to do with Owen. I wasn’t thrilled about it, but she was crazy for the guy. And she’d never hurt a fly. I mean, she fed me cat food for the last two months. Not that I would have been thrilled with flies, but”—he made a face—“either way, it was really gross.”
Miranda had wanted me to have the impression that Heather was deceptive, that she wasn’t as innocent as she let on. Had Heather been keeping this secret from everyone?
Raina gasped. “Oh, it can’t be.”
“What?” I asked, alarmed.
“Malik . . . he could have gotten to her. Maybe he knew she was more powerful than she let on. Maybe she found the spell . . .”
“What spell?”
Her face paled. “A spirit transference spell. He’s tried to convince me to attempt it—to find him a new body to possess and give him the chance to live again. I found the spell a year ago, after many decades of research. I couldn’t go through with it. I didn’t want to destroy another life. He was furious and he hasn’t spoken to me since. But maybe . . . maybe he’s been speaking to someone else.”
A spirit transference spell? “Thierry’s body was possessed by Owen’s spirit—and it was strange; Owen claimed he had nothing to do with it. He can’t get out of the body even though he wants to. Is that the same thing?”
“If it isn’t, it’s quite a coincidence, isn’t it?” She was breathless. “Malik is up to something.”
My throat tightened. “He wanted me to disable you. He’s planning something—tonight. He could be planning to possess a body with that spell . . . and another witch’s help.”
“Whoa, whoa, wait a minute.” Todd held his hands up. “Calm down, both of you. Heather has nothing to do with this. It’s got to be a coincidence. There have to be lots of ghosts in Salem capable of possessing bodies, right? And lots of witches to help them? People die all the time!”
“It’s different here in Salem.” Raina’s gaze drifted across the happy people and families moving through the street festival. “A spirit has attachments to the mortal world for three days after their death. In those three days they are very vulnerable. After that time has elapsed, they can move on to their final destination. But a spirit like Malik, eternally bound to the mortal world rather than free to move on to the spirit world, he becomes . . . very hungry.”
My mouth went dry. “Hungry how?”
“Just as a vampire is driven by its hunger for blood”—her face paled—“a trapped spirit like Malik hungers for the energy of other spirits.”
My mi
nd raced. “If he finds Thierry . . .”
Raina’s gaze was as haunted as her doomed romance with the witch hunter. “Pray that he doesn’t, vampire. For he will destroy your husband without hesitation.”
Chapter 18
Malik hungered for other ghosts like a vampire hungered for blood. He’d lied to me, trying to use how I felt about Thierry’s dark past to gain my sympathy toward his own. I was ashamed to say it had worked—until now.
He wasn’t a redemptive man who regretted anything. He was a cursed spirit who manipulated others whenever he could. He was no better than he’d been three hundred years ago. He might not be a danger to me, or anyone else currently breathing, but he was a direct threat to Thierry.
That was all I needed to know.
I turned and started running in the direction of the Booberry Inn without saying another word. I arrived only a few minutes later and burst through the front door.
Heather looked up at me, her expression strained. She sat on the living room sofa with Raina’s grimoire spread open before her.
“Sarah!” She jumped to her feet. “Are you all right? I haven’t known what to do! I was about to go to Raina’s house myself. I . . . I was scared, but I was coming!”
I found myself momentarily speechless, faced with the girl I’d considered to be a new friend. If Raina was right, then Heather had lied to me from the beginning about her magical ability. Lied to everyone. This timid, shy girl who had secret crushes on vampires and ran a quaint bed-and-breakfast was an alpha witch, every bit as powerful as Raina herself. But I couldn’t let on that I knew the truth. It was too dangerous.
Her gaze swept over me as if fully seeing me for the first time. She gasped. “Oh, my God! You’re covered in blood! What did she do to you?”
I glanced down at my destroyed shirt and my arms, which still bore dried-up evidence of Raina’s time travel tracings. Heather was right; I looked like the walking dead. “Forget about it. I’m fine. Well, now I am. Where’s Thierry?”
I craned my neck and searched the general area, hoping he was lurking in a dark corner, but there was no sign of him.