INK: Vanishing Point (Book 2) (8 page)

Gabriel’s voice is haunting. “I
need you.” He calls to me over and over. The sound saturates
all of my senses, creating an angered confusion that I can’t
control. My hands are balled into fists and my nails bite into my
palms with enough intensity to draw blood.

Thick dripping lines move along the wall
forming the words: “You have the power to leave.” They
disappear once I’ve read them.

The message prompts me to try the knob
again, but my hands are slick with the blood I’ve released into
my palms. I kick at the door, trying to break it down, but I’m
not strong enough. I try the window again, but my body is impotent to
climb through, and it’s like my shoes are filled with gravel.
Something is watching and won’t let me leave. In frustration I
smash the rest of the glass out of the window frames, cutting my
arms. I scream out in pain and frustration, “Why can’t I
leave?”

Lines appear on the wall moving slowly
through soot and crumbling drywall, “Outside the door.”
The words fade.

“Outside the door? What the hell
is that supposed to mean? I want to be outside the door.” I go
to the window and crane my neck to see the welcome mat. Carl is
standing there in his customary guard stance with his hands folded in
front of him. “Carl!” I call out to him but he doesn’t
respond. I call again, but nothing. He can’t hear me or he is
ignoring me.

“Fuck, he’s keeping me in
here.” Gabriel’s form is fading into the fog, but I can
still hear him calling out.

“Come to me.” His voice is
far away, but the anguish in his tone shoots through me, causing me
to double over in pain.

“Use the power within you.”
The words are scratching into the drywall, causing more of the wet
burnt surface to crumble to the floor.

There is no power in me. I can’t
do anything. My body folds to the floor in a pool of hopelessness
that I’m filling with tears that won’t stop falling.

“Reach out to him; I’ll help
you.” The meaning is unclear to me.

A surge of power courses through me and
I’m lifted effortlessly off the floor to my feet. I go to the
window where I can see Carl. I reach my hands toward him. As I do,
dark tendrils of smoke make their way toward him. I’m
astonished at what I’m doing but the power flowing through me
is overwhelming. I’ve never felt so strong. As my black smoky
hands near Carl I feel like I can do anything. I put the hands on his
shoulder blades and push. He looks at me and shakes his head, he’s
unmovable.

“Let me out!” I gravel out
in a voice that isn’t my own.

Carl plants his feet firmly on the mat
and shakes his head. His eyes challenge me, but I know I’m
stronger than him. My eyes fill with the hatred burning in me for
anything and everything that is keeping me from Gabriel. He holds my
gaze, unyielding. He’s raised the ante and I’m going to
see him – dead.

Guiding my hands to his neck I command
them to wrap around his throat and squeeze. His eyes round out in
shock as he tears at the hands strangling him. He’s helpless;
he can do nothing to stop me. I will get out of this house, I will
get to Gabriel and no one can stop me.

Carl’s face flushes with reds and
purples and I hear the voice in my ear, “That’s it, my
love. Feel the power within you.”

***

Eli

Sitting in the living room watching the
game, I can’t stop myself from stealing glances in his
direction. This guy is creepy quiet. I’m not buying into this
paranormal shit. Aiden shot Shay plain and simple. I don’t know
why, but I’ll be damned if he’s going to get near her
again.

Carl is a little too sympathetic to
Aiden, but the cop outside isn’t. He’ll keep him away
from her. That is if Aiden ever comes back. I seriously doubt he’ll
be showing his face around here anytime soon. He doesn’t know
what she does or doesn’t remember, just left her there alone
bleeding. She could’ve died.

The theory that Shay stabbed him just
doesn’t make sense unless she was protecting herself. Leave it
to her to bring a knife to a gunfight; that’s my girl. A laugh
escapes on a breath. Carl glances in my direction with a hint of a
smile. Shay couldn’t hurt a fly and I know she would never harm
Aiden or she would have killed him already.

I tick my head in Carl’s
direction, “Good game?”

He nods coolly, pretty typical for this
guy from what I’ve seen. I focus back on the game, Miami is
tearing Syracuse a new asshole. In my peripheral vision I see Carl
shoot forward from the couch, throwing his water bottle onto the
coffee table.

“What the hell?” Who throws
an opened water bottle on a table? I turn to tell him he’s an
asshole; I don’t care how big he is and I see his face.

Carl is turning three shades of purple
and grasping at his throat. I have to help him; he’s choking.
“What were you eating?” I'm trying to figure out what
could be lodged in his throat. I try to get him to stand so I can try
the Heimlich maneuver. He shakes his head and points to the hallway
where the bedrooms are.

“I don’t understand; let me
help you.” I pull at his arm to get him to stand.

He shakes me off and sputters out,
“Shay.”

“Shay? What about Shay? Dude,
stand up so I can help you.” I’m totally freaking out
this fucker is going to die in my living room and he won’t let
me help him.

“Wake Shay,” he’s
barely able to gasp the words.

“She isn’t going to know
what to do; let me help you.” I tug at him some more; I wish he
wasn’t so damned big.

Carl points at his neck. I stumble
backward looking at him in total disbelief. I rub at my eyes to clear
the madness, but it’s still there. I can see the depressions on
his skin, there are invisible fingers digging into his neck, pushing
on his Adam’s apple. I shake my head “What the fuck is
that.” I'm astonished, frozen in place.

“Wake.” He rasps.

Shaking my head in confusion I back away
and run to the guest room and burst through the door. Shay is curled
up on the bed asleep but restless. “Shay! Wake up! Get up!”
I pull on her hip to turn her to onto her back. “Shay!”

Her eyes flutter open, “Eli,
what’s wrong?”

“Jesus Christ!” I jump away
from her off the bed. Her hands and arms are bloody. “You’re
bleeding.”

“Eli?” Her eyes are heavy
and she’s confused by being startled awake. All I can do is
look at her hands and back toward the door.

Carl rushes in and goes straight to her.
Her face washes in guilt and she can’t look him in the eye.
“Carl?” She puts two fingers up to his neck where it is
raw and red, “Oh God, I didn’t know.”

“I know you didn’t, but it’s
about time you did.” He takes one of her hands, looking at the
blood. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

Her eyes round out with fear at seeing
the blood on her hands, “Oh God, oh God,” She chants
pulling her knees into her chest and her shoulders to her ears,
making herself as small as possible. Carl wraps his arms around her
to comfort her.

“It’s okay we’re going
to figure this out.” He rocks her and turns to me. “Eli,
I need to make a phone call. Come take care of her.”

I’m still paralyzed, trying to
process what happened. My feet won’t move and I can only shake
my head. “Eli!” Carl barks, standing up from the bed
holding Shay. I jump and take three steps toward them.

He transfers her into my arms; she’s
sobbing uncontrollably. I pull her in tight to try to calm her
shivering. “What the hell was all that?” I ask Carl as he
heads for the door.

He doesn’t look at me as he keeps
walking, “Occupational hazard.”

Shay is a lost puppy shaking in my arms.
Her bottom lip quivers and her fingers are tangled behind my neck
like she doesn’t ever want to let go. I don’t know what
happened but she’s terrified, and honestly so am I.

Holding her tight, I carry her into my
bathroom to clean the blood from her hands. I don’t know if
she’s been cut or whose blood it even is for that matter.
Against her protests I set her on the counter and turn on the faucet.

I gingerly hold her hands under the
water, revealing the fingernail cuts in her palms. She looks from her
hands to me. Her pale blue eyes wide and uncertain, she looks to me
for comfort. I know she’s waiting for me to say something but I
don’t know what. I break a slight smile and rest a kiss on her
forehead to reassure her that I’m here.

The sleeves on her shirt are too tight
and won’t go up. “We need to take this off; I’ll
get you one of mine.” When I try to go get a shirt she catches
my arm. I turn to her and she just shakes her head no, holding on to
me.

“Okay.” I unbutton my shirt
while she pulls hers off over her head. She crosses her arms across
her chest, covering up like I’ve never seen her undressed
before. Maybe I never have seen her this vulnerable, full of
uncertainty and fear. I take in the beauty of her childlike demeanor
and realize that though she’s bloodied on the outside it’s
nothing compared to the wounds alive inside her. I’ve never
seen her so broken before. All I want to do is heal her from the
inside out. The need to hold her overcomes me and I rest my hands
lightly on her shoulders and give her a look asking for permission.

She throws her arms around me and pulls
me tight and begins to sob again. I want to cover her in my love,
hold her forever and keep her safe, but I don’t know how. After
all of this she may need more than what I have to protect her.

My anger for Aiden subsides as the
nagging thought that maybe he was frightened, that maybe she was
going to hurt him. But could all of that be true? If it were me I
would gladly take a knife to the heart before I ever hurt her. I
could never aim a gun at her head and pull the trigger. The anger is
returning in full force and I hold her tighter, telling her it’s
going to be okay. I inhale deeply to take in her scent; she always
smells like spring. But there’s something different: burning
and smoke.

Carl clears his throat, standing in the
doorway. “Hey Carl.” I finish taking my shirt off and
wrap it around her shoulders and roll up the sleeves to look at the
cuts on her arms.

“I spoke with McNab.” Carl
says simply.

Shay perks up at the mention of his
name. I keep cleaning the blood from her arm and don’t
acknowledge Carl.

“We need to talk, Shay.” His
tone kind, he steps into the bathroom and picks up her other arm. “It
looks superficial. I think you'll be fine.”

Shay puts her hand on his, “What
happened?”

Those two little words seem so harmless
but they’re loaded. Carl tries to smile but can’t manage
it, “Let’s go talk.”

Shay slides off the counter unsteadily.
I brace her as we head for the living room. All I want to do is pick
her up and hold her forever. Siphon the pain from inside her and make
this all go away.

Shay

Eli holds me close to him as we sit on
the couch. Carl sits on the edge of the leather chair across from us.
I have no idea what the hell just happened. I’m so confused and
scared I just want to cry, but I have to pull myself together. “Carl,
what the hell was all of that?"

“That was the Specter manifesting
itself in you to remove me from the equation. He’s looking for
a new way to get around not being able to possess you.” He
gauges Eli’s reaction.

“Carl, is it really a good idea to
–” Carl cuts him off before he can finish.

“Eli, I don’t care whether
you have the good sense to believe your own eyes or not. This was
real.” He points to his neck still red and possibly starting to
bruise. “She could have killed me if you hadn’t woke her
up.”

Eli shakes his head in disbelief.

I chime in, “If you’ve got a
better explanation I’d love to hear it.”

“I don’t have an
explanation, but this is all so ridiculous.” Eli combs his
fingers through his hair. “I mean seriously, what is this
Specter
?”

“The Specter is an evil force that
attaches itself to people and it has taken quite an interest you. You
dream about it, right?”

“Yes, and Gabriel.” My
insides ache when I say his name, it’s been so long since I’ve
seen him and I feel an emptiness inside. “But I haven’t
been dreaming, not really.” I think for a moment, “I know
I had a few dreams at the hospital; some of them were pretty bad and
I couldn’t really wake myself up. But they stopped.”

“McNab asked me to stay with you
to serve as a protector in your dreams to keep you safe,” he
says and Eli huffs squirming in his seat. “I’ve been
trying to just keep you from dreaming altogether, but something was
different tonight. It got through.”

“This is all really hard to
swallow.” Eli says standing to pace the floor. “How do
you keep her from dreaming?”

Placing my hand on Eli’s arm to
try to calm him, I explain, “Carl has specialized training and
can do
things
.”
I sound so cool, like I’m in the know, but Eli’s still
not ready to get his ticket punched on the crazy train with us.

“I’m not asking you to
swallow anything” Carl says then looks back to me, “Shay,
you need to tell me what happened in the dream.”

I tell him about the writing on the wall
and the tendrils of smoke. That I felt drunk with power and didn’t
realize what I was doing. “Carl, I thought it was a dream and I
was trapped in the house. The windows were broken and the living room
burned out, I needed to get out of there to get to Gabriel.”

Eli stops pacing and turns to me with
wide eyes. “Your living room was burned out in your dream?”

“Yes, it was like half the house
was gutted and there was blood on the walls.” I describe the
scene and it feels like a memory, not a dream.

He bends down and smells me, “Jesus,
you do smell like smoke.” He turns to Carl, “Smell her!”