David took two steps forward and thrust the gun against her temple. She breathed in the acrid stink of alcohol and sweat, felt the cool metal against her skin. The sensation honed her reflexes to a razor’s edge. She thought she could predict how David would react. The shaking of the object in his hands was evidence the man she knew was still there somewhere.
“Listen,” she said, keeping her voice calm. “You can take me. I won’t resist. But only if you promise to leave Sebastian alone.”
David snorted, but the gun shook harder. Her words were making an impact “No!” David shouted. “One isn’t enough.” As he spoke, his voice changed, deepening to a rumbling baritone.
She met his eyes, and knowledge passed between them.
“Who are you? No, that’s not right. Who were you?”
The shade possessing David’s body laughed. “You’ve figured it out, have you? Like mother, like daughter. She took my life, and now I’ll take yours.”
Elena’s heart dropped into her stomach. “Edward?”
It didn’t make sense. The python on Sebastian’s shoulders was Edward. Chloe had told her.
“Don’t call me that,” David snarled. “I cut that pathetic creature out of me.”
Her stomach churned, and there was a sour-sick tang at the back of her throat. “You’re the one who has been hunting me all this time? You killed Chloe? Your own sister?”
David’s jaw twitched. “Bitch thought she could change my mind. Threatened to report me. And since you’re not interested in helping me take down the others, I’ll have you as an appetizer.”
All along, she’d assumed the Harvester was the same shade that had taken over her mother. But it had been Edward who had formed as a shade and chased her all over the country.
“You don’t have to do this,” she cried. Fear squeezed her in its claws, and terrible images entered her mind. The things he could do with her body. The people he could hurt by pretending to be her. Everyone she knew would be at risk.
David took a step, forcing her to shuffle backward. That’s when she noticed two other people in the house.
The first was Sebastian’s friend, the one she’d met at the diner doing the food challenge. He met her gaze and held a finger to his lips, then pointed to the woman standing beside him.
It was Sandra, her arms splayed, her head tilted upward, her mouth open. Electricity sparked over her skin and gathered in her hands.
Elena stared, transfixed, until Peter waved his arm and mouthed the words “stall him.”
Whatever she’s doing, she needs time.
She forced her gaze back to David, who had his eyes narrowed. If she didn’t do something, he’d turn around and see her friends.
Get him angry, and focused on you. What does he hate more than anything?
“You know, it’s a good thing we’re ending our game now,” she said. “You are so predictable. It was getting boring.”
It worked. The suspicion fled David’s face, and he bared his teeth. “Boring? Predictable? Impossible.”
The flickering balls of energy in Sandra’s hands grew to the size of apples. Was that enough?
Best keep going.
The more the Harvester focused on her, the better Sandra’s chances of finishing whatever she had planned.
“Oh, yeah,” she continued. “I can read you like a book. You’re in it for the thrill of the chase. Now that it’s over, you’ve lost interest. So predictable.”
“We’ll see about that,” David said. Then he lunged toward her.
“Now!” Peter shouted.
David fell to the ground and flopped around as if he’d been hit with a bolt of lightning. At the same time, Sandra collapsed into Peter’s arms.
“I’ll take care of her,” Peter called, hefting Sandra as if she weighed nothing. “You deal with that one. I don’t think he’s done yet.” Then he exited out through the open sliding glass door to the deck.
They were right, of course, and she barely had a second to scuttle backward before David pushed to his feet. But the attack had done a measure against him. The veins on his face stood out in startling detail, and blood flowed from his nose and dripped down his chin.
“You bitch! I was planning on doing this nice and easy, but now you’ve tipped my hand.” His face split in a wicked grin. “This is going to hurt.”
He said something in a language she didn’t recognize, and a fierce, throbbing pain ripped up her arms. It was agony, like having her bones shattered one at a time.
The shade exerted its will over her, compressing her consciousness and forcing her to retreat deep inside her mind. So deep, she could no longer see or hear anything happening in the real world.
It’s over. I did everything I could, and I still lost.
Her heart ached for Sebastian, Sandra, Peter. Everyone she knew. The Harvester would systematically destroy each of them for trying to stop him.
And on top of all that, the shades she’d hoped would help her had never appeared.
I wish I’d never had this curse.
Then, in the darkness, a flickering form appeared. First it was a man, then it morphed into the shape of a large cat, an eagle, and back to a man.
Who are you? What are you doing in my mind?
We have always been here.
The voice was a chorus of noises, speaking all at once. Male, female, young, old, human, animal. It was everything and nothing.
What do you want?
We have passed judgment.
It approached, and her mind exploded with static, like an old TV turned on to the wrong station, the noise echoing with a ferocity that sent her reeling.
Stop, please!
The pressure ebbed, and she sensed the creature was fighting with itself. She shrank from it, searching the darkness for some escape. What could she do to get it to leave?
You are unworthy of the gift, the creature finally said. But it is tied to your life force. We cannot take one without the other.
The truth thrummed through her like a hammer blow. They wanted to kill her. Although at one time she would’ve gladly accepted death, faced with the prospect, she balked. There were so many people she didn’t want to let go.
Please, I don’t want to die. I promise I will no longer resist. Just don’t kill me.
A mumbling all around her, a sense of disagreement, compromise, decision.
We agree.
The man melted away, and with it, the pressure on her chest dissipated. She expanded her mind to fill the vacant space. Inch by inch, she returned to herself, her feet, her arms, her nose.
She opened her eyes to see David’s contorted face inches from hers, his features twisted into a mask of rage. “No! How did you resist?” He shook her, spittle flying from his lips. “How?”
A prickling started in her chest and spread to her arms, where the fox bounded through her skin. It reached David’s hand and, with an audible popping noise, transferred into David’s skin.
“No!” David scratched at his skin, dropping the gun. “No, go away!”
The fox prowled until it found its quarry. It pounced, struck the hare, and dug its teeth into the hare’s neck.
Words whispered in her mind. The soul has separated from the host. The transition is incomplete. Soon, the soul will die, and only the Harvester will remain.
“Can you cure it?” Elena asked aloud. “Can you help him? He wasn’t always like this.”
I can. It is what I am. It is what I do.
Without waiting for her to respond, the fox flexed her claws into the hare. It struggled for only a few seconds before David slumped to the ground.
Elena touched his body, and the fox climbed back onto her skin.
You have realized your purpose. You requested an exchange. This is what we ask of you. Seek the broken, the sick, and together we will heal them.
The fox winked at her before scurrying out of sight, leaving David’s body unharmed but for a sheen of sweat over his skin.
With the danger dealt with, she scrambled into the kitchen and used a knife from the drawer to cut the restraints binding Sebastian, then carefully peeled the duct tape off his mouth. Although he was still unresponsive, the python graced his neck. A good sign. Edward, or whoever the python was, hadn’t abandoned him.
“Ugh.” The man in her arms stirred. “Elena?” He jerked upright. “Your lawyer. David. Where is he?”
She wrapped her arms around his neck with a half-sob, half-laugh. “He’s dealt with. But it wasn’t really David. It was Edward.”
Sebastian squeezed her. “I know. I talked to him. He killed Chloe.”
She melted into his embrace.
Then the sound of tires on gravel had her heart pounding once more. They got up and looked out the front window. A sleek, black limo idled in the driveway. The passenger door opened, and Aunt Martha stepped out, dressed in the same flowing robes she’d been wearing at Haven.
“Wait here,” Elena said, stopping Sebastian from following. “I have to do this on my own.” She made her way down the stairs, dreading the inevitable confrontation. She stopped a few feet from the car, out of grabbing distance, and folded her arms over her chest.
“Is it done?” Martha asked.
“It’s done.”
Martha’s shoulders slumped. “Thank God.” Then she smiled and walked forward, her arms outstretched. “I knew you could do it.”
Elena backed up until her heel hit the steps. “What will happen to David?”
Her aunt shrugged. “I don’t know. But I think he will sleep for a while, and when he wakes up, he will no longer be the man he was.”
I hope he doesn’t remember any of it.
Given what Edward had done while possessing his body, she suspected David would not want to have those memories back.
“Come, dear,” Martha said, beckoning with her hands. “Let’s go home. The council will let you stay now that the threat is dealt with. I made sure your room was prepared.”
Elena remembered the stark white room with its pristine walls. Then she shook her head. “No. I’m staying.”
Martha’s smile faded. “You’re sure?”
Elena looked up at the house. Sebastian stood in the window, watching her. “I’m sure.”