Flight From Death Read online

  “What are you getting at?” Ralph cocked his head. “You have an idea, don’t you?

  I nodded. “Consider this: We looked up the history of the house and found out about the soldiers and the family who vanished here. This thing has been around a long time. Suppose it’s physical? An actual physical being that can move itself through space . . . maybe through time?”

  “You might be on to something.” Tonya stopped midbite and put her cookie back on her plate. “What if it can phase in and out of this realm at will? That might account for some of the shadows we saw. What if this creature exists here, in this same space, but in a slightly different realm or dimension, and crosses over now and then?”

  Ralph paled. “I don’t think I like that idea very much.”

  “I don’t think any of us do, but it’s a possibility we should consider.” I leaned back, taking a sip of my tea. The infusion of raspberry and lemon settled deep in my body, radiating out. I stared out the window. “I’m not sure why the thought didn’t come up before.”

  “Because we were too focused on the ghosts. But you’re right, just because it has trapped ghosts, doesn’t mean that it has to be a ghost.” Tonya frowned, pushing back her mug. She worried the cookie into crumbs on her plate. “I’m making a connection and I’m not entirely sure what it is. Hold on . . .”

  Standing, she began to clear the counters, and I could tell she was thinking as she worked. “What you’re saying resonates, feels right, and it reminds me of something else, though I can’t quite remember what. Something very familiar. A couple years back, I ran into something that had the same feel . . .” She frowned, concentrating as she stopped by the window and stared out into the growing dusk.

  “Is there anybody in town who might know the legends of creatures and spirits that lived here before the town was established?” I carried my cup back to the kettle to refill it with hot water.

  Tonya whirled around. “That’s it! I know where I’ve felt this thing—or something very much like it! I ran into something similar at the abandoned battery.” She motioned for us to clear off the table. “Set up your laptop here, Ralph. I want to show you something.”

  He obliged and once he was hooked to the Net, she took over and typed “Kinzie Battery” into the search engine. It brought up a string of results. She scanned through the links, then clicked on one. What came up was a picture of a brooding structure of concrete and steel.

  It was obviously a military instillation of some sort, but it was equally obviously abandoned. The word KINZIE was emblazoned across the top, with the date 1909 on one side, and the date 1940 on the other. The building stretched wide, entirely in concrete, with double staircases on either end, and then staircases from the second story to the roof.

  Two wide openings hid behind the center columns on the main floor, and either the doors had been removed or they were open so far I couldn’t see them. They led into the dark bowels of the building. On the floor above, a similar setup with three openings peered out from between the staircases leading to the top of the roof. The paint had weathered away, though it still looked like it had once been painted with camouflage, and the structure appeared to have been graffiti tagged. The concrete looked old and dirty, and the staircases rusty.

  “That looks about as inviting as the cell they had me in back in the Dragon Reaches.” I grimaced. “What the hell was it used for?”

  Ralph peered over Tonya’s shoulder. “It was a fortification in Fort Worden, which, apparently, added a couple guns to the defenses. The battery was able to defend below the level of the fog—which was extremely important when you think about how an enemy could sneak in silently from the water onto the shore.”

  Tonya nodded. “Okay, so I went there a few years back when I returned to Port Townsend. I used to live over in Aberdeen on the far west coast of Washington. I moved there when I first left home, and only came back when my mother and I made up our differences. Anyway, I went out for a walk early one morning and ended up at the battery. Immediately, I began to get cold sweats. By the time I got there, I was scared out of my mind and afraid to go in.”

  “Did you see anything?”

  She shrugged. “Shadows moving. I kept hearing a deep laughter in my head, and had the feeling that something was trying to pressure me to go deep within the building. Luckily, I had my personal shields up and I was able to resist, but there was something there that I knew—I absolutely knew—could influence people’s actions. Some dark shadow creature.”

  “Lacy said that something was making her family do what they did to her. Okay, let’s say this shadow creature can influence behavior. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, there’s more than one of them. I know the battery is in Fort Worden, which is across the street from Patrick’s house, but this spirit seems bound to the house and land here. Maybe they are territorial?”

  “Or tied to their territory by some connection?” Tonya bit her lip and then let out a gasp. “Hold on. Let me look up something in my bestiary here.” She crossed to a bookcase with locked glass doors, turned the lock with an ornate key, and pulled out an old book with a leather cover. As she sat down again and gently cracked the spine, the pages crackled. “Kindly keep all edibles and beverages away from me while I look through this. I can’t afford to lose this.”

  I put my tea on the counter, and Ralph did the same with his coffee. I had the feeling we were in the presence of what was probably a very old artifact. As she slowly paged through, cautiously turning each page, I sensed something else and, leaning forward, I put the tip of one finger on the leather binding.

  “Dragon leather . . .” I stared at the book, both fascinated and horrified. “Tonya, that’s made out of dragon leather.” The skin of one of my kind had been used to bind this book.

  “I know.” She didn’t look up. “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do about it, and the leather is what keeps these pages intact. The magic from the hide slows the aging of the pages by an incredible amount. But even so, I’ll have to recopy every page within the next few years and put the new pages in the binding. That’s been done a couple of times.”

  “Where did you get this book? It’s not something you can buy off eBay.” Ralph frowned.

  Tonya glanced up, grinning. “I found it on a dead wolpertinger out in the Hoh rain forest.”

  “A dead . . . what?” I’d never heard the word, but Ralph gave her a sharp look.

  “Wolpertinger. A Bavarian chimera. When I found it, it had turned back into its natural form—a very large rabbit with antlers, wings, and nasty claws. But wolpertingers can shapeshift. And they are terribly nasty. When they shift into human form, they tend to be lowlifes and toadies for bigger, badder guys. I was out doing some wildcrafting—” She paused and gave Ralph a shake of the head. “Don’t even start . . .”

  “Start what?” I had no clue what she was talking about.

  Tonya gave me a sheepish shrug. “The park officials don’t appreciate those of us who might take it in our heads to do a little plant collecting. I never take anything even remotely endangered.”

  Ralph laughed. “Okay, then. We won’t tell Paris and Roger.”

  Tonya stuck out her tongue at him. “Anyway, I heard a noise. It can be dangerous out there if you’re alone. There are some freaks, yes, but the spirits of the forest are numerous and chaotic. So I hid. I saw this Fae—he was strong and lean and had pale blond hair—racing through the forest after another figure, a short, squat man who was barreling past like no rock or tree stump could stop him.”

  I stared at her. “You really do get around, don’t you?”

  “Don’t you mean to add, For a human? And yes, I do.” But she laughed. “I’m not sure what the ruckus was about, but the upshot was that the Fae caught the wolpertinger, killed him, and then something startled him, and he ran. I waited, but nothing showed up and so I meandered over to take a look at the body. The creature had shifted back into his natural form. I found his backpack, which he had tos
sed under a bush in their fight, and this book was in it. My guess is the Fae was after this book. But he left before he could find it, so I ended up with it.”

  I gazed over her shoulder. The language it was written in was foreign to me, but as she ran her hands over the runic symbols, I could somehow read them. Ralph gasped and backed away. Of course. Magic made him nervous.

  “That’s a wolpertinger. And next to it? The creature I think we’re facing.” She pointed to the page. There was a picture—hand drawn—of the wolpertinger, and as she said, next to it was a drawing of another creature. Its face was malicious, almost barklike in nature. A forest wight. Among the forest wight’s various and dubious talents was the ability to control humans through subliminal suggestion. Also, the ability to move in blurred form, so quick that mortal sight wouldn’t be able to see more than a dark shadow.

  “They stake out territory and claim that land as theirs. They feed on fear, pain, humiliation, and anger, and tend to pick victims who are weak-willed by nature, using them to bring harm to others.” Tonya looked up at me. “Forest wights hive. They are solitary within their lairs, but you’ll always find them in groups within a given area. In other words, they won’t be pals, but you can be sure that where there’s one, there will be more.”

  I arched my back, stretching. “Then, if we’re facing a forest wight, the question is: How do we kill it?”

  “No, I think the question at hand is, what the hell is going on?” Alex opened the door leading to the basement and, carrying their body bags, both he and Patrick stepped into Tonya’s kitchen. “What the hell happened and where are we?”

  CHAPTER 13

  “Alex, you’re awake!” I was so happy to see that he and Patrick were all right that I practically smothered them both in a bear hug. Or dragon hug. Take your pick. Patrick gave me a boyish grin while Alex laughed and—without thinking—planted a passionate kiss on my lips. I heard Ralph clear his throat, and Tonya snicker, but neither said a word as we turned around, although Ralph had a crestfallen look on his face.

  “As to where you are, welcome to my world.” Tonya waved to them from the table and went back to the book, taking down notes. “You have Shimmer and Ralph to thank for not being two piles of dust right now.”

  “What are you talking about?” Patrick looked confused. I let out a long sigh and slipped my arm through his elbow, garnering an odd look from Alex. “Come over to the table and sit down. There’s something we have to tell you.”

  Looking worried, both vampires silently followed me to the table. We settled in and I glanced over at Ralph, who gave me a nod.

  “First, the exorcism didn’t work. The spirits are still there.”

  “Wonderful, but what does that have to do—” Alex started to say, but I cut him off.

  “The spirits are still there and they started a fire, and your bed-and-breakfast is now lacking a living room and part of a kitchen.” I didn’t like being so blunt, but it was cruel to pussyfoot around. And though I could be clueless at times, I wasn’t deliberately mean.

  They both stared at me like I’d grown another head or stated I wanted them to turn me into a vampire. I thought of saying more, but I’d just be blathering at that point and I didn’t trust my sense of propriety not to say the wrong thing at the wrong time.

  After a minute¸ Patrick managed to stutter out a few words. “My house burned down?”

  “Part of it. The creature started the fire, though I imagine the fire marshal will find a more logical reason. But yeah, your house needs some major renovations. We managed to get you guys out, but it wasn’t easy. You might want to install some emergency settings on those rooms in the basement so we don’t have to bust the hinges off the metal doors.” Ralph gave him a sympathetic look. “Truth is, you’re lucky that the spirit picked a time when Shimmer and I were awake, or we’d all be toast now.”

  The men remained silent for a moment, so I decided to plunge on ahead with the rest of our news. “We found the murder weapon used to kill Lacy. It was under the bed in the attic. And I found a bunch of papers up there I want to go through. We might be able to figure out what happened to her through them. We also figured out that the dominant spirit, the one keeping the others trapped, probably isn’t a spirit at all but actually may be a forest wight. A creature that lives between the realms. We think it’s feeding off the fear and chaos its causing.”

  Again, they stared at me, silent. Alex cleared his throat and leaned forward. “So . . . we’re not chasing ghosts . . .”

  “We are,” Ralph said. “We’re also chasing this forest wight, which can trap spirits. We think he feeds off their pain. And they’re easier for him to keep under control.”

  “Now that we know what he is, we can probably figure out a way to trap him—” Tonya started, but Patrick stood, shushing her.

  “I’ve had it. I don’t want to trap this creature, or free the spirits, or look through a sack full of old papers. Right now, I don’t care who killed Lacy Buckland, or why they buried her in my yard. My business is in the toilet. The High Tide Bed-and-Breakfast should have just burned down entirely—I’d probably be better off because then, at least, I could collect the insurance money and sell the land and leave without a problem.” He jumped up and stomped over to the refrigerator, then stopped cold. “I don’t suppose you have any bottled blood?”

  Tonya winced. “I’m sorry—I knew I forgot to buy something this afternoon. I can run out and grab a six-pack.” She started to stand, but Patrick shook his head.

  “Don’t bother. And don’t get me wrong. I appreciate you guys saving my ass—our asses—but I’m tired of this. I’m tired of fighting an invisible enemy. I just want to get on with my life. For what it’s worth anymore, at least.” And that was a telling sentence because he dropped to the floor, back against the sink cabinet, and stared at the toes of his boots, looking terribly morose.

  Alex glanced at me. I shrugged. I didn’t have a clue what to say. Patrick was his friend, not mine. So Alex settled himself next to Patrick and leaned back, too, staring at the ceiling.

  Ralph went back to whatever it was he was searching for on the Net, while Tonya studiously ignored the pair of vamps, her nose deep in her book. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I leaned across the table to watch Tonya.

  “Mate, what’s eating you?” Alex spoke in low tones, but we could all still hear him.

  Patrick didn’t answer for a moment, and then he said, “This isn’t the way I thought it would be. None of it.”

  “Do you want to take a walk outside? We can talk privately.” Alex leaned back on one hand and quickly jumped to his feet. He was lithe and strong, and the buckles on his motorcycle boots jingled a little as he steadied himself against the kitchen sink. As I watched him, I found myself wondering what he looked like underneath those jeans and boots. Determined that I was going to find out as soon as possible, I tried to steer my thoughts back to the issue at hand.

  Patrick accepted his hand. He brushed off the back of his jeans. “No, it’s okay.” They returned to the table and sat down, Patrick mulling over whatever it was that stewed inside him.

  Alex poked his head over Tonya’s shoulder, frowning. “That’s an old book, love.”

  She nodded. “Very old. And this is our spirit.” She pointed to the picture of the forest wight. “He can move in a blur and a shadow. He feeds off pain and anger and can influence mortals to do what he wants them to. He’s basically a fucked-up little sadist.”

  Patrick hunched his shoulders then, letting them slump, deflated in his chair. “Okay, we’ll do this. I’m sorry I was so whiny. I’m just . . . I wanted to be a vampire for so long. Alex—he was the first vamp I met and he made it all look so easy. He was—is”—he looked over at Alex and smiled softly—“one of the coolest dudes I’ve ever met. When I found out I had aplastic anemia, I asked him to turn me. I didn’t want to die. I was scared.”

  “Anybody would be.” Tonya gave him a faint smile. “Mortal life? We’re
told we should enjoy it more, that it’s more valuable because it’s so short, but the truth is, that’s a bunch of bullshit. Death sucks and most of us don’t have any choice about the matter.”

  Patrick laughed then. “I love how blunt you are. You’re your mother’s daughter, all right, minus the part where she kept threatening to cut off my dick.” He grinned at her and she returned the smile. “Okay, so yeah, I didn’t want to die. I don’t know if Alex has told you the rest . . .” It was more of a statement than a question— but we all shook our heads. Better he think we didn’t really know anything about the matter.

  After another pause, he continued. “I asked Alex to turn me.”

  “I should have helped you out, I realize that now.” Alex interrupted him, a guilt-ridden look in his eyes. “I was being selfish.”

  “You were being kind. I had no clue what being a vampire would mean and you tried to tell me, but all I could see was that long dark journey into oblivion and right then, anything sounded better than going there.”

  Patrick leaned back and crossed his arms, one side of his lip tilted up in a half smile. “I should have listened, I guess. After you left, I spent a couple months partying really hard. A friend—or rather, a cocaine buddy—introduced me to Zera, a vampire. We partied at her place. I couldn’t let them use me as a bloodwhore because I was so low on blood as it was, but then . . . she took me aside one night and offered me what I had longed to hear. The chance to become a vamp. She said she’d turn me and we could be together. I didn’t care so much about the latter. Oh, I liked her enough, but what I really wanted was that immortality. That freedom from disease and decay and death—the three big Ds.”