Chapter Nineteen
The instant Edward stepped out of his truck, voices from nearby spirits filled his head. He groaned, after days of no contact they sounded like a roar. It almost knocked him on his ass. He held onto his truck, trying to get his head to stop spinning
Familiar voices chanted in his head, though his friends and James had yet to show up. He called for them, but they only continued to call out in despair. He ran toward the front entrance, expecting to kick the doors open. Instead they swung in before he reached them, as if something was expecting him inside.
It wasn't a good sign.
His voice echoed throughout the foyer as he called out for Bella. The house was unnaturally quiet and even the usual sound of insects outside had disappeared. A light in the kitchen drew his eye, flickering several times. He walked closer and noticed the door to the basement was slightly ajar. He swallowed his fear and ran down the stairs, calling out Bella's name again.
The basement had recently been updated, but the couple had yet to put in anything. Bella's strange, collapsible chair stood in the center of the sparse room. One of her hands was secured to an arm of the chair in a pair of handcuffs, another set lay at his feet. Her free hand lay limply on her lap. Her hair was damp and her breathing was irregular.
Something small, round, and light on the dark wood flooring stood out. A prescription bottle sat near the chair. He walked closer, cautious because he knew Bella wouldn't secure herself for nothing. His heart tripped in his chest, fear clawing at his insides as he lifted a pill from the floor.
No, no, no.
"Bella." He bent to pick up the bottle, confirming his worst fear. The prescription for Vicodin was less than a week old, he could only account for four pills. Bella's head rolled to one side and then the other, finally lifting for him to see. Her eyes were black, so black that even the skin around them appeared gray. Much like Jane and Irina when they'd been consumed with hate and vengeance.
A slow, sinister grin slid into place. Her head cocked to one side, and then the other, so fast the move appeared like a blur to his human eyes. "You shouldn't be in here," she said in a raspy voice, so unlike her own. "Not safe for anyone."
He was horrified to find her fingertips black, as if they were suffering from frostbite. How he wished he listened to his uncle whenever he told him stories about his medical practice. "I'm taking you to the hospital, Bella."
"No!" The chair with her still on it slid across the floor, hitting the wall farthest from him.
"Bella!" He ran toward her, her mouth agape, blood trickling from one corner. She shook her head and he watched as the chair started to move up the wall. Her midnight eyes remained on his, her chest rising and falling so hard, he feared she'd pass out. The moment he reached out to touch her, she screamed, her lips opening unnaturally wide.
Demonic possession was his first thought, but he quickly tossed the possibility away. She once said she used spells to prevent demons from entering her home and wherever she stayed.
"It's not safe!" Dark tears laced with blood fell from her eyes, creating sooty rivers along her cheeks. "I'm not safe." Her eyes rolled back and her body started to convulse.
"Fuck!" He grabbed her, but he was instantly thrown ten feet back, his ass hitting the floor. Pain radiated throughout his body, but he ignored it and crawled back to her. "Bella, please."
The chair already halfway up the wall, fell from beneath her, the handcuff clanking on the wood floor. She was free. Bella remained on the wall, her body seemingly pinned to it. Whatever was holding her up, caused her body to shake so hard under the strain. Was she fighting to keep herself against the wall? To keep him safe? Or was some outside force doing it?
For that single space of a second when he touched her, he'd seen something truly horrifying. Jasper was right, Bella pulled negative energy into herself and he was witnessing a manifestation of it as it released from her. The few times he swore he had heard her leave their bed at night, but she always distracted him from asking why. Each time she was locking herself away to release the dark energy before it consumed her.
He slowly rose to his feet, walking the short distance toward her. For every step, she countered it with another inch up the wall. There wasn't much room left once her head reached the top, or so he thought. She crawled up onto the ceiling, but not falling, even her hair remained in place. He was way in over his head. Nearly every instinct had him wanting to reach for her, but any time he tried, she'd move away. She shifted until she sat on her backside, holding her wrist in one hand. On the fucking ceiling! It was hard for Edward to get over what he was seeing.
Blood dripped from gouges caused by the handcuffs she broke free from, the wound seemed to hold her attention. Maybe if he kept her talking, she would stop from hurting herself further. "Why didn't you use your gifts?"
It would've been easy for her to phase her hand and free herself from the handcuffs.
"Little control, when like this." Her voice was not her own, and if it wasn't for what he'd seen when he touched her, he would believe she was possessed.
"The pills, baby," he whispered, holding up the bottle. He was on the verge of freaking out. If she had taken the pills during the fifteen minutes or so that he was gone, they would've knocked her out by now.
"Numbs me, doesn't hurt me." She looked down, up at him, with black eyes. The gray tinge to her skin around them had diminished some. "Leave, taking all control not to hurt you." Her hand reached for him, her the tips of her fingers looked like black claws.
Edward managed to move way, and she barely missed him. His mind was playing tricks on him, it had to be. He had fallen asleep in his truck, there was no way this was real.
She groaned, her hands clutching her stomach. "Leave!"
"No." He was scared, there was no sense in denying it. There was no way he could leave when she was in pain. "I can't leave you alone."
She hit the floor a few feet away from him with a hard thud. He scrambled for her, but it burned to touch her. "No, don't touch me. You make it come back inside me. I need to let it go."
Things started to click into place. The last time Edward touched her in the kitchen when she had black eyes, when she tested his effect on her, the dark receded back inside her. It was a mechanism to protect him. If he touched her again, everything she was trying to release would be sucked back inside her.
Against everything he truly wanted to do, he backed away from her. Fresh tears started to flow from her eyes as her body started to shudder, twist, arch and roll away from him, only to slam against the ceiling.
He watched from the sidelines, tears in his eyes as she continued to scream. How had he not heard her? The ache to hold her, to put a stop to it all kept his eyes open. Bile rose from his gut and he lost whatever food he had in stomach near the stairs.
An eternity passed before she fell to her knees, limp and exhausted, sweat coating her body. She started to phase each body part from the chest down to start the healing process. She held her arms out on each side of her, palms up, as her head fell back to scream one last time. A tar-like substance swirled and escaped her mouth, drips of it defied gravity, lifting from her arms and the tips of her fingers to the ceiling. The substance pooled right above her, moving in an unnatural way. It started to shrink in size, trembling as if it was aware of its demise until there was nothing left.
Bella fell to the floor in a heap, barely breathing. He cautiously approached until she called out his name. He lifted her onto his lap, rocking her in his arms as they cried, overwhelmed.
.
.
.
"How long?" he asked hours later in bed. After he helped her shower, Bella insisted on getting some rest. Edward was too exhausted to complain.
"To a degree, probably since I was a child. But it started to get really bad when I was eighteen or so," she whispered. Her hand lay within in his own on his chest, both of them bare in more ways than one. "Whenever I feel it get too much control over me, I wander somewhere private with the chair and handcuffs. It's like an urge to purge. It usually hits me around three in the morning, but only on days when there are a lot of spirits nearby. Well, really bad ones.
"I don't remember what happens to me most of the time. I've tried filming it, but the video always ends up recording nothing but static. I've tried digital recorders, and I've recorded sounds of things breaking but never my voice, my screams."
"Why is this happening to you?" He pulled her closer, lost in the memory of what he witnessed. Even hours later, it still caused a shiver of fear to crawl down his spine.
"I think it's a punishment." Her body was tense within his arms. Nothing he did seemed to help her relax enough since they slipped into bed. "One of the witches I met in my travels said something once, 'sins of the father' but my grandmother dismissed it. I'm starting to wonder."
"You need to find the benefactor, Bella. He or she may have the answers we need."
She pulled back to look at him. "We?"
His hand cradled one side of her face, his thumb brushing away a lone tear. "We." Tentative and gently, he kissed her, keeping it chaste and soft. She opened beneath his gentle lips and finally relaxed in his arms. "Do you believe in me now?"
Her hands clutched at his shoulders as she nodded. "You're not going anywhere." She rested her forehead on his shoulder. "You deserve so much more. I'm such a burden."
"I won't lie to you," he murmured, hating how she flinched at his words. "It was horrible to watch. You'd feel the same way if our situation was reversed. It tore me apart to see it, but I can't walk away." The images returned and made his empty stomach churn. He felt her roll him onto his back, climbing on top of him. Her words were soft and soothing, her hair giving the illusion of privacy around their faces. "I'll be right there waiting for you every time you have to let it go." His voice was hoarse and fear seemed to close up his throat.
"I know, I know," she cried and held him until they started to drift off. They were in such a state of vulnerability, they had no idea there was an audience.
"Let's give them a little time," Shelley said, popping out of the room.
"I'm certainly not in the mood to see his naked ass," James grumbled and faded from view. "Bella's on the other hand."
"Dude, I think I'm into girls. Her ass is awesome." Jane dispersed into shadow, slipping under the bedroom door.
Edward groaned suddenly aware of the presence of three annoying, but lovable ghosts in the house. "We better get dressed and find out what the fuck has been going on."
Bella nodded and kissed his nose. She stared at him. "You're making it so easy to fall in love with you, Edward." She studied his face for a few moments. "Did that freak you out?"
Despite all the shit of the last week, Edward had to smile. "Over two dozen ghosts, a family of serial killers, a tidal wave of dead bodies, and you think a declaration like that would scare me?"
She hopped off him and bed to start getting dressed. "Love can be frightening in our line of work."
"Yeah, but it can be the one thing that holds us up and keeps us grounded." He reached for her and pulled her in for a kiss, realizing not for the first time, despite everything he'd been through since he met her, she was worth it.
