Chapter Fifteen
"Fucking hell, Edward. Her aura, it's like she's trying to absorb the negativity and darkness around her, taking it inside her. Get her out of here!"
Edward's heart raced as he lifted Bella in his arms, and ran for the car. Jasper's urgent call behind him to take her away from the property sent chills down his spine. Gravel spit from behind the tracks the tires left behind, his eyes returning to Bella's fading form. Her body kept phasing in and out from the chest down, as if fighting to remain flesh and bone at the same time her gifts was trying to completely take over.
"Bella, talk to me, baby," he pleaded, desperate due to what Jasper said and the gnawing need to hold her. Her eyes fluttered in response, a soft moan slipping from her lips. His eyes closed for a second, taking a moment to revel in the relief. "How far do I need to go?"
"A mile or so," she whispered, her hand reaching for his. The hold of her fingers wasn't tight, but tangible and reassuring. Her free hand reached for her cell phone, cursing when she found that the battery drained. "Fuck, not even ten minutes on the property and my fully charged phone died." She fumbled to look at the camera strapped to her chest and exhaled slowly. "My body camera is okay." She finally looked at him, her brow tight. "Pull over, Edward."
Almost absently, he did what she asked and waited for further instructions. He saw her turn the key in the ignition, but couldn't process the reason why. Suddenly, the seat beneath him moved further back. His eyes felt heavy at the feel of her hands holding his face gently, the anchor he had no idea he needed.
Concern was in every feature of her beautiful face inches above his, her gaze melting when he whispered her name. There was a knee on each side of his hips, their bodies were close, but too much space existed between them. His hands gripped her hips, and he couldn't help but pray that he could keep her there with him.
"Are you okay?"
He should be the one to ask that question first. "No, you?"
"Not if you're not," was her answer. Her bottom lip protruded that infinitesimal bit that most wouldn't notice, only those that knew her would see it. The brave front that she erected around her had a crack in the form of him. The feeling was mutual. The tender way he rubbed at the soft pink skin seemed to bring tears to her eyes. "I'm okay," she lied so fluently, in a language she perfected over the years.
For a few precious minutes they said nothing, just watching until their breaths echoed the others.
"Jasper said something back there," he tried, trying to shake away the memory of her falling into his arms.
"I can't always control that when I open myself up to see and feel everything. I walked onto the property with the knowledge that eight people were killed on it, including my best friend. Something I probably could've handled under less complicated circumstances. That preparation wasn't enough for all of them, and it was unexpected. When we go back…"
His fingers dug into her hips, his lips thinning. "We're not going back."
"I have to, Edward." The words were soft, but delivered with an intensity in her eyes that left no room for debate.
Too bad.
"No, give me one damn good reason why."
"Feel," she simply said. He closed his eyes at her words, opening himself once again. His sense of touch was nearly overwhelming, because he was holding her. He pushed those feelings to the back of his mind, determined to find what she asked him to look for. There on the outskirts, at the fringes of his extra senses was four spirits that hadn't been with them before setting foot on that fucking property.
One woman had a sweet, young face with once vibrant red hair. A smile was on her lips, and immediately he recognized her as Vicky, Bella's friend even though they'd never met. The second was a woman in scrubs, the kind often seen in doctor offices, soft pastel colors muted by her death, her murder. The third looked like the second, but dressed in a lab coat and stethoscope around her neck. It was the fourth that made little sense to him.
The woman was dressed in clothing circa 1970.
.
.
.
Edward's shoulders hunched around her against the car, keeping her close to protect her from the wind. They escaped the confined space ten minutes before, after she'd found one of those extra battery phone charger things in her glove department. All the while, she spoke with the detective on the line, her hand spread over his chest like earlier, before the bubble burst.
Jasper had called twice, each time asking if they were alright and if they were coming back. Edward wanted to say no, but he knew having all those spirits haunting Bella could prove disastrous. Two more had joined the first group and he already felt the presence of James, Shelley, and Jane closing in on their position. They always sensed when he was in trouble. Always. He wasn't sure it was a good idea for them to join him.
"They're coming," she mouthed, worry weighing down that bottom curve again. He squeezed her hip to confirm, simply waiting for the right words to come to him. Everything seemed so trivial, there's a point where "don't worry" and "it'll be fine" didn't help and felt more like an insult than motivation to see the light.
It was so damn dark in his world sometimes, and moving forward with her, it could become perpetual, never ending. His hand caught some flyaways from around her face, curling them behind her ears. The small smile on her lips lit up something inside him, and he realized the darkness didn't matter.
They had the potential to be each other's beacon in the night.
James was the first to stumble upon them minutes later, his eyes widening when he saw that they weren't alone. Thankfully his wayward eyes remained inside his head. Jane appeared in a mist of shadow from above, landing on a knee, like an avenging angel ready to fight. Shelley simply came into view, sitting on the hood of Bella's car, knitting needles held up like weapons.
"Who are they?" Jane asked them, keeping her distance from the spirits she didn't recognize.
James dusted off residual, spiritual dust from his shirt and finger-combed his hair, his gaze on Bella's ghostly BFF. Shelley looked at each frightened face belonging to the new visitors, being the oldest age wise, she commanded respect. Each spirit seemed to gravitate told her, something Shelley was capable of doing with people in her life before her death.
Edward cleared his throat to answer. "They're victims of the serial killer that once haunted Bella."
Each spirit looked toward Bella in unison, words slipping from their icy lips.
"She killed him."
"The blood on her hands."
"She sent him to hell."
"Must bring hell to the other."
Edward hissed, bombarded with eerie images and violent words. "Enough, back off or we won't be able to help." He was aware that they couldn't help themselves, they finally had a voice and found someone that could hear them.
Jane, Shelley, James, and Vicky formed a semi-circle around Edward and Bella, their backs to them, working like they trained for years together. The victims clamored back, heads shaking inhumanely and words spilled from their mouths that had fear spilling down their spines.
"You have a day, that's it." The doctor, the victim before Bella's friend spoke for the others. Her dark hair blew around her, but her blue eyes softened as Bella shook in Edward's arms. "We feel our humanity slipping away." They disappeared, lingering long enough for them to see nothing but the glow of their eyes.
.
.
.
Edward paced along the side of the road, for what felt like hours. Bella sat on a collapsible, metal chair she had pulled out from the trunk of her car. Patience was not his strongest suit, not when there was so much on the line. Bella had already said she couldn't return to the property until she had a firm handle on her gifts, something she took hours to achieve. The timeline from the dead doctor loomed overhead, and he knew from the ominous warning, she would return with all of the others if they didn't return to the property. Something that had the ability to put Bella in a coma, according to her friend Vicky.
"Jasper's almost here," Bella said, watching with him wary eyes. He didn't bother to ask how she knew, she just did. Nodding in response, he resumed his agitated walk. "Are you ready to run yet?"
He spun around until he faced her, glaring. "The only reason I'd run is if you're with me. I want to take you away from all of this. It could kill you." Now he understood her fear of prolonged exposure to spirits.
"There's not always a choice. Evil comes in all forms, I walk away from this, it could have consequences. I could become something you can't begin to imagine."
Jasper's words came back to haunt him in that moment. "…she's trying to absorb the negativity and darkness around her."
In two long strides, he was in front her, lifting her up onto the trunk of her car. He cupped her face in his warm hands, wishing he had the power to hold her together. Even now, he could see the seams and stitches unraveling.
"After we talk to this detective friend of yours, we're spending the rest of the day vegging like I promised. Please, Bella, promise me. We need it before we go back out there." Her hands manacled his wrists, instead of feeling caged he felt protected, wanted.
Needed.
She nodded. "I want to say I'm sorry for involving you, but Edward," a lone tear slipped from her eye, "I need you." Foreheads pressed together, they held each other until the sound of approaching vehicles from opposite directions broke the silence.
Jasper was slow to join them, warmth and calmness radiating from him. Detective Biers on the other hand made the mistake to put his hands on Bella, insisting that Edward move away immediately.
Bella sent the detective a glare over Edward's shoulder that instantly had the man stepping back. "Sorry." He shook his head, grimacing. "I forgot about the touching thing." The tone of his voice stated he didn't believe her, considering Edward was still holding her. "And the way you sounded…I feared something bad happened."
"Something has," Bella said, asking Edward to help her down. He gripped her waist and placed her on feet, keeping contact with her skin along the sliver of skin between back hem of her top and her jeans. Leaning back against his chest, she faced Jasper and the detective with an unwavering gaze. "The victims of The Nightingale Killer are haunting the property that once belonged to his grandfather."
"We're aware that the property in question belonged to the alleged killer Caius Lexington, though he never lived there. What does this have to do with possible the cold cases you mentioned on the phone?"
Bella closed her eyes and cleared her throat before meeting the detective's gaze. "Between 1972 and 1981 there was a series of mysterious disappearances of women aged 24-29 years, approximately twenty-six of them."
Detective Biers shook his head. "There's no way, I've studied ninety percent of the unsolved missing person cases for the local area since I moved here six years ago. There was nothing in the files that indicated or even eluded to what you're talking about, not to that scale."
"They were spaced out, never the same circumstances, all in the hope to not arouse suspicion. The local PD didn't see any relation to other missing women, except for two. Jessica and Lauren Newton."
The detective's brow furrowed. "The police went over everything with a fine tooth comb, spoke with all their friends. It was determined that they ran away, not that I blamed them. Their father was a fucking bastard."
"Pull all the files for missing women in the period I gave you that match their description." His eyes widened, but nodded. "Jasper here will tell you where to go on the property."
"What for?" Biers asked as he pulled out his phone. "What are my people going to find there that they couldn't the first time?"
"Graves."
"They looked, there wasn't any." Biers wanted her to understand, what she was saying wasn't possible.
"They looked for recently turned earth, anything to indicate that someone had been buried recently. What they need to look for would be over twenty years old."
.
.
.
The moment Edward and Bella stepped through the Williams' house, she started to strip, determined to fulfill her promise. He followed suit, but slower, too preoccupied by watching her as more of her skin was exposed. The house was cold, but he felt warm all over. Their clothes lay haphazardly in a trail leading toward the media room, leaving on their underwear. Before he reached the room, he ordered food to be delivered soon.
They would need it.
"Pick a movie please," she said, sitting in the middle of a massive couch made for movie watching. Her long, slim legs crossed at her knees as she stretched her arms above her head and let them drop along the back of the couch. A smile was on her lips and it reached her eyes, but barely. She needed this as much as he seemed to, at least he hoped so. "Unless you have something else in mind until lunch arrives."
Placing his phone on the cushion at the opposite end of the couch, he dropped to his knees in front of her. Desire could've drove him to slip his fingers between her thighs, to brush nips and licks on soft skin, or sampling her slick desire. Instead, he drew into his arms, his cheek resting on her chest. Afraid she wouldn't reciprocate the comfort he craved, he waited for her response.
The tips of her fingers brushed through his hair, a small hum on her lips as she wrapped her arms around him with no hesitation. Nothing was said aloud for a while, instead the words seemed to come from their tight grips, the tender swipe of their mouths, and their breaths moving in tandem, his flowing into hers.
Despite what lay ahead and the death that surrounded her, Edward was determined to ride it out with Bella beside him. He needed her closer, wanted to get inside her until he was in so deep she would want to keep him forever.
Funny, he thought to himself, he used to think ghosts were scary. It didn't compare to the fear of realizing he might not be able to be without her.
AN: I did it! I wrote and posted today! I woke up so early this morning, these characters telling me how the rest of the story would go. After running some errands and tending to my family, I finally had the chance to write. Thanks to everyone and all their kind words in your reviews. I shouldn't be surprised that sometimes when times are the most difficult, you can find love and support if you know where to look.
Happy Holidays and surround yourselves with loved ones, give them a hug that comes from the heart.
