46. Cary

46

Cary

I hadn’t exaggerated with Evan. Sometimes just infusing good energy into a place filled with negativity helped fix things. I wasn’t na?ve by any means. I knew it was unlikely it would fix everything, but I did thought Al was right in bringing us all together.

We all knew not to have more than one glass of wine, since we needed our wits about us, but that was enough to make things flow, and laughter filled the air. There were thirty-three members of our coven. All of them were here, as were Drew and Lance, Lance’s brother Crea, and Crea’s husband Ely. It was so cool to see the Chemeketa folks had come to support us. Not that we hadn’t done so when they’d called, but still.

Most of the group had agreed to spend the night in the hotel, which was just as encouraging, considering what we were up against.

Amelia, the nurse who’d treated Evan after the first attack, came over and hugged him. “I’m so glad you’re doing better, and damn that… well, we’re not supposed to talk about that, but know we’re all impressed you’ve prospered in spite of it all,” she said.

Al didn’t want us talking about the entity, at least not yet. Instead, she wanted us to fill the place with positivity first, then we’d begin figuring out where to go from there.

Evan smiled and chatted with Amelia about what we’d been doing to fix up the manor. Our coven tried to meet once a month, at least in a social way, and Amelia had asked me about Evan each time. Unfortunately, the estate had kept us all busy, whether chasing spirits or getting the manor’s business back up and running, so Evan hadn’t spent much time in town getting to know everyone.

I shook my head, thinking I’d failed there. I was a natural introvert, and I liked my solitude. Al wasn’t much better, and Christie was ambitious and focused on the restaurant. Between the three of us, we’d done a poor job integrating Evan into the community.

Al had been right when she’d recommended we bring Evan into the coven. Now, as people approached him to introduce themselves, his face lit up with excitement as he spoke to our friends and community. Clearly, we should’ve brought him into the fold much sooner.

Evan didn’t possess any spectacular powers other than his beautiful heart. Not to minimize that, he was a beautiful man inside and out. That kind of gift accented us all and brought its own radiant positivity. Even in the face of ugly people and past pain like murder and suicide, the human spirit could bring light to those places.

We drank, then our musical members began to sing and play music, as was common with us, most of them out of tune. To my delight, Evan joined in, and his angelic voice echoed around the dining room. Happiness and joy filled the air.

It wasn’t until after nine that things began to wind down because a lot of our members had to work tomorrow. Al pulled us all together, encircling the manor like we had the night the problems worsened, and we chanted.

Evan, Christie, and a few other spouses who weren’t active members of our coven sat on the short wall that lined the formal gardens. The chant was about to conclude when lightning streaked across the sky.

We all felt the electrical pulse flow into us, almost like the lightning had struck, although I knew it hadn’t.

When Al fell to the ground next to me, I had to yell for the coven to remain in place. “Don’t break the circle, not yet,” I called.

Christie had already crossed the ground and was kneeling next to Al. I reached out, magically pulling Christie’s energy into the circle in place of Al’s. “Is she okay?” I asked once the circle was restored.

Christie nodded. “She’s knocked out, but I can’t sense any injuries. Finish the spell,” she demanded.

We resumed chanting, and once again, electricity sparked through us. This time, the energy began to concentrate within me. Damn, damn, damn , I thought. What do I do?

I saw him then, the evil entity, standing in the doorway of the manor. He wasn’t in spirit form, although his face was fading in and out. Andy, Evan’s asshole ex, was the vehicle he used. The entity, in the form of a possessed Andy, slowly lifted a gun aimed right at my heart. Just then, Evan broke the circle.

“Evan, no!” I yelled, but he ignored me. He walked through the circle toward the man.

“You’ve wanted to destroy me since this started. You’ve come for me and never even knew me. I’m your fucking descendant, your flesh and blood, just like your son Andre, and you destroyed him. Now you want to destroy me? Why?!” Evan yelled.

I wanted to go to him, but breaking the circle could bring about damaging consequences, including making the entity stronger and Evan weaker. It was bad enough that Al had been struck even as we were in the circle. It was worse that Evan had broken through it, and that his ex had been inside it while we worked. Fuck, this was bad.

“Evan,” I tried to call to him again, tears running down my cheeks. I was about to lose him and there was nothing I could do! If I chanted, even to try to end the circle, I would end up like Al or worse. Then what help would I be to Evan? I was trapped holding the circle together until the energy subsided enough for me to close it.

“ You aren’t my descendant. You are scum, just like the woman that spawned you. My son was a queer, a little girly man, ruining our family name .” The entity spewed his hatred, but Evan stood his ground. “ My son killed himself, ended it, just like he should, and I will end you too. I will make sure this abomination… you… never survives. ”

Andy lifted the gun and fired. I dropped the circle, determined to get to Evan, but I was frozen in place. Evan had been struck but only grazed. He grabbed his arm where he’d begun to bleed, and I was close enough that I could see his eyes gloss over. He ran a finger through the blood and then held it out, letting it drip to the ground in front of him.

“ With my blood, I cleanse this place ,” he whispered. Then he did it again, running his hand through the blood and showing it to the entity. “ With my blood, I cleanse this place! ”

Just then, Inez appeared next to him. She reached over and took his blood-stained hand in hers. “ With the blood of our people …” she began, then looked to Evan, who nodded and chanted with her. “ With our blood, we cleanse this place .”

Andy, possessed by the evil entity, lifted the gun again and pointed it at Evan.

“ With our blood we— ”

The chanting stopped as gunfire filled the air. I wailed as I saw Evan fall. Then to my surprise, he came up behind me. “It’s not me,” he whispered into my year. “I-I… it’s not me.”

I cried out, unsure if it was Evan’s ghost I was hearing, but remained frozen in place, unable to move. Then the spirit that was Evan rose, and in his place stood Andre. The evil entity wavered, leaving Andy’s body. Andy immediately fell to the ground, passed out.

“ You no longer have any power here, Father ,” Andre said. “ You’ve used all your energy to destroy us, but you’ve failed. With our blood …” he said, looking at Inez, “… we have cleansed this place .”

The old man looked on stubbornly. “ You are trash, a disgrace to the Cordelia name. You killed your mother, then this bitch…” He then turned toward Inez. “I’d have married you. But you loved my queer, useless son more than me. ”

Inez stepped forward. “ You have no concept of love. Your wife gave hers for him, to give him life, and you resented the very thing she’d sacrificed to create. Then you raped me… and only because I refused to be with a man who would so coldly turn against his own son. ” She looked over at Andre and smiled fondly. “ A man who is so beautiful, so amazing inside and out, and who I loved like a son. ”

Her face contorted when she returned her gaze upon the old man. “ Your hatred has been your foundation. Even now, you are nothing without it . In spite of you, despite all of the ugliness you thrust upon us, we created a family in life, ” she said, looking to Evan, “and in death.”

Light began to surround Evan, just as it did Andre and Inez. Evan’s eyes glazed over, and he chanted with the others, “ With our blood ,” they said in unison, “… the blood of family made and created, we cleanse this place! ”

The light that’d encircled them rushed forward and into the old man’s ghost. He shouted as a boom of thunder shook the ground underneath us.

The energy that kept me in place loosened, and I was able to close the circle. Then I turned and pulled Evan into my arms. Next to us, Al was beginning to wake up. “What happened?” I asked her, still holding Evan in my arms.

She sat up with Christie’s help and looked over to where the spirits of Andre and Inez were still facing us. “They used me… us,” Al said. “They tapped into our collective strength to pose as Evan. I could see it, but only in my spiritual form.”

Al wavered a bit, and Christie pulled her into her arms. “Don’t speak. Get your strength back. I’ve got you, baby,” she said. “I’ve got you.”

I pushed my face into Evan’s neck and let the tears flow.

While we held one another, I felt as much as saw Andre and Inez closing their own form of magical circle; the old man was gone. Goddess willing, he wouldn’t be a threat to Evan any longer.

Inez and Andre soon approached us. Al, still weak but slowly gathering her strength, stood to meet them. “ I’m sorry we had to borrow your energy, but we saw what Leon was planning. We had to stop it. Please, forgive us .”

Al nodded. “You did the right thing and saved Evan. I-I can feel he’s gone, is that true?”

Inez nodded sadly. “ We’ve pushed him across the veil, at least for now .”

“For now? Not forever?” Evan asked.

Inez shook her head. “ No one can force a spirit to cross, only force them through the veil. A place that will hold him at least until he is strong enough to push back through. But ,” she said, looking at Evan, “ I doubt that’s your destiny to deal with. ”

“Will you go now too?” Evan asked.

She shook her head. “ No ,” she said and looked at Andre. “ Our punishment for forcing a fellow spirit through the veil is that it is now closed to us. We’re trapped here, at least for now. ”

Evan looked a mixture of tortured and hopeful, and I could only imagine what he was feeling. “ Evan, we are your family, both Andre and me ,” Inez said, and Andre nodded. “ I… I feel there is more to be done here, and that will happen with time, but it was because we are family that we were able to stand up to help you. ”

“ But …” Andre added, and looked at Al and me, “… it’s the love and family you created here that’s made us strong enough to defeat my father . He was my blood, but never my family. Inez is and has been that since the day I met her as a boy, and the bond between us as strong as mother and son. ”

“ Protect your found family, Evan ,” Inez said, and he nodded, wiping his tears.

They slowly began to fade in front of us as they looked over at Al. “ Thank you for your energy, for what we have done, what we couldn’t have done otherwise. Thank you all ,” she said, looking at the coven members gathering around us.

Both spirits disappeared then, and we were alone. “What do you want us to do about him?” Bo, one of our older members, asked, pointing toward Andy sprawled on the ground.

“We’re going to take him to the department for questioning,” said Loren, a sheriff’s deputy, and who I’d forgotten had joined us tonight.

“You sure you want to open that can of worms?” I asked, and she nodded.

“He was here. The entity might’ve been controlling him, but I’m going to guess that gun belonged to him,” she said, pointing at the firearm that lay safely out of reach.

Evan looked up at me, still overcome with emotions, but I saw his resolve intensify as he looked over at Christie. “He might’ve been possessed, but, Christie, didn’t you tell me people can’t be forced to do something? They have to want to?”

She nodded and looked to Loren. “He’s guilty. Evan’s right. He had to be willing to kill Evan. Otherwise, the entity wouldn’t have been able to get him to pull the trigger.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Loren said, and with the help of Bo and a couple of other coven members, she rolled Andy’s unconscious body over, cuffed him, and loaded him into the back of her patrol vehicle.

She bagged the gun and left to put the jackass behind bars.

The rest of the coven helped Christie put the place back to rights, as we’d agreed to beforehand. Some had to leave, and everyone knew not to discuss what happened outside of those present tonight.

Lance, the mayor of Chemeketa, approached us and leant a supportive shoulder. “We’ll go down to the sheriff’s office and give our testimony,” he said. “I’m sure the word of a local mayor will go a long way in superseding anything the jackass has to say.”

I nodded, suddenly very happy that the Chemeketa folks had shown up. I hadn’t even considered the political influence of having them here. The last thing we needed was Andy letting the cat out of the bag about what he’d seen here at the manor, not that anyone outside the magical community would believe him.

Regardless, for now, I needed to get Evan home. We’d deal with the rest later.