Lovestruck
Chapter 2: AMUSING TRAGEDY
The night breeze was cool and crisp, just the way she liked it. Tia Kincaid reveled in the night. It obscured her identity, not that she really needed to hide. She had taken over the identity of Tia months ago. It was only one of many personalities she'd taken on over the centuries.
The mortal whose image she'd projected during the daylight hours was no longer among the living. She felt no sting of loss at her death. Death meant life to the demon inside her. Tia remembered wanting this life, centuries ago when this was more attractive than death. Now she wasn't so sure. Gaining energy was a tedious process. And hiding the bodies had become more of a challenge when she required more and more in order to sustain herself.
Something inside of the castle was draining her. She couldn't figure out what it was. Or maybe she should say who it was.
Tia knew of one mortal who would sustain her essence for many months, if only she could find him. She'd heard whispers of Derek Rayne, the head of the Luna Foundation. The Muses had taken him under their wings and thus hidden his identity from her by putting a very effective veil over his energy signature. It was troubling but not impossible to break through. Eventually, Derek Rayne would be hers.
Tonight she would have to be satisfied with a pale imitation, someone with little energy to transfer.
The man she had chosen was enthralled by her presence. It was another gift she possessed, to strike her victims with the emotion of love. Silly love, such a mortal emotion, but a very effective lure.
"Come little one," Tia cooed. The thrall was more effective than female pheromones. Her victim trailed after her like a giddy puppy wanting to play. "It's time to amuse ourselves. Or at least, amuse myself."
She grabbed the workman's collar and drug him into an awaiting empty room in the south wing of the castle. No one would hear his screams in this unoccupied section of the castle. And if they did, it would only add to its allure of mystery.
Tia pushed the man on the bed and trailed her hands up his abdomen. He was buff and well toned. Not unusual in a workman but something she appreciated. Ecstasy painted his face. Tia smiled. She loved having this power over men. She had barely touched him and he was completely ready for her.
She didn't need the act of sex to complete the transfer of energy. Tia loved this mortal feeling of connection. As she bonded with him physically, she began stealing his essence. It came toward her like a shimmering stream of magenta and white swirling light. She ingested it like a mortal would food. The more she took from him, the older he became.
"Yes!" she screamed. "More!"
Before she was fully satisfied, the man crumbled, mere bones and dust.
"Dammit!" she shouted. "It's never enough." Tia screamed and turned into vapor and disappeared like a comet into the ceiling.
Rachel Corrigan approached Montesse Castle. Her car had been acting up for days, but at least it was able to make the journey across Angel Island. It had been a long time since she'd been here. The cases she worked on for the shadowy secret society called The Legacy kept her not only away from her psychiatric practice but away from the many friends she'd made on the island.
Tia Kincaid meet her at the kitchen door, her face flushed with color. The woman was a tireless workhorse and Rachel knew the preparations for the concert were daunting with so little time to organize.
The woman and her husband, Merrick, had only been on the island for a few months. The authorities on the mainland didn't yet know about the missing workmen, but Rachel had seen many cases like this over the years. She doubted it was the work of a psycho, at least, not a psycho of the living variety. This had ghost or demon written all over it. The only bodies they'd uncovered on the grounds had looked to be over fifty years old, corpses that were only cracked bones and dust.
"I'm so glad you've agreed to help," Tia Kincaid said. "I don't know what else to do and I don't know how much longer I can keep lying to Kai."
"So, you think the bodies you're finding aren't as old as they seem?" Rachel inquired. "May I ask why?"
"They uncovered a new body this morning." Tia brought Rachel to the far side of the castle where the south wall was under construction. A large blue tarp was covering much of the dirt mound next to the wall. Rachel's hand shook as she raised the tarp. She already knew the victim was dead and possible a skeleton, but that didn't mean the fear she felt at the pain of death wasn't close at hand.
The remains looked old, like dust on the wind. How was it possible that this was a new death? Nothing looked too unusual until she spied the shining necklace round his neck. The medallion winked at her as the sun reflected off of it.
"Look at this," Rachel said picking up the shiny piece of metal. It wasn't as tarnished and old as it should be compared to the decomposition of the body.
"That's what I wanted to show you." A tear slipped down Tia's face. She pulled a photograph from her back pocket and handed it to Rachel. "This is my husband, Merrick."
Rachel now knew why Tia had called her to Montesse Castle. The skeleton was wearing the same medallion as Merrick Kincaid in the photograph. On the ring finger of his left hand, Rachel found another relic. A man's ring. A ring inscribed with the letter L.
Her hand shook again as she reached out to touch the ring. Only certain people should have a ring like that and Merrick Kincaid was not one of them. So his wearing the ring was quite a shock.
She didn't have the gift of sight like Derek, but she did know someone who did. Rachel flipped open her cell phone and dialed a familiar number.
The music of the Molly Phillips Band was better than she ever imagined. It transported her back to her college days, back before she became a part of the Legacy and a life filled with death and demons. Feeling the music wash over her reminded her of all she had given up for the Legacy.
Alex Moreau didn't have many chances to attend concerts so this private showing was quite a treat. Even Nick Boyle was smiling and swaying to the music. It was a rare thing to see Nick smile. And that was a shame since his smile could make you forget the darkness. It was like a flash in the pain, there and then gone making you wish you could see it again. Alex wished Nick was happier. She wished he could find someone to share his life with. Taking over the job as precept was trying and having a solid shoulder to support him would be a great asset to Nick. But she feared he, like them all, would shun relationships. Because any relationship they made with another was just one more victim for the powers of darkness to hold against them.
"Admit it," Alex shouted over the music. "You're a closet Molly Phillips fan too."
Nick smirked as he replied. He wasn't about to answer that question truthfully.
"I will admit to no such thing. You're the one who drug me to this. I'm just humoring you." He leaned in closer and spoke directly into Alex's ear. "I have a reputation to maintain, ya know."
The vibration of his cell phone alerted him to company business. He grabbed the phone out of his pocket and indicated to Alex he was taking a call. How did Derek handle being on call twenty-four hours a day?
"Boyle," he said, walking out of the concert hall and into a quieter room. "Rachel? Sorry. Could you say that again?"
"I think we have a problem," Rachel said. "Could you come outside? I'm sorry to interrupt the festivities."
"Sure. Let me tell Alex where I'm going."
"Bring her too. I think you both need to see this." Rachel closed her phone and squeezed Tia's hand. "They'll be out in a few minutes and then we'll see if we can figure out what is going on."
Ryan, the maintenance man, had heard whispers about dead bodies being discovered all over the property of Montesse Castle. Something inside of him wanted to help, but how could he? He had no memory and only a basic working knowledge of a computer.
He stared out the window of his room watching three strangers gather around Tia. A hitch came into his breath as emotion filled him. It made him wonder if he was going crazy. The more he stared at the group, the greater the pressure of the emotion became. Ryan closed his eyes and tried to breathe. What was happening to him? His need to help, held the emotion at bay as he chanced to look again at the group.
He wished Tia would trust him with her troubles. If there was one thing he could do, he could be a shoulder to cry on.
Ryan listened as the band played. It was hard to miss the echoing of the music through the corridors of the castle. It probably permeated the rocks of the foundation. As he exited his room and made his way down to street level, he once again watched the trio of strangers with Tia took some samples from the body. Maybe they were some sort of forensic team.
The three of them said their goodbyes and left which freed him to approach his boss.
Tia wiped tears from her face, trying not to let on that she was deeply affected by this death.
"You found another body?" Ryan asked. Tia nodded. "How long ago?"
"An hour. I don't know." She paused in thought. "I can't keep stalling like this, keeping these deaths from the authorities. I keep thinking I should send Kai to live with her grandparents, but I can't bear to part with her."
"It's understandable," Ryan said. "Who were those people? The ones who just left?"
"They were from the Luna Foundation. Their castle was destroyed a few months back. Right around the time Kai found you wandering the ruins."
Kai and Fi popped outside, rushing toward them giddy with youthful exuberance.
"The guys in the band are getting really hungry," Kai said. "Can I help you make something?"
"It's already made, honey." Tia checked her watch. "Oh, dear. The time has gotten away from me. We'll talk later, Ryan."
"All right," he said. Ryan was dumbfounded that Tia could so easily leave a dead body lying out in the open. He used the toe of his shoe to cover the boney hand sticking out from under the blue tarp.
As she and her daughter hurried off, Kai called out to Fiona.
"I'll be there in a minute," Fi said.
Darkness was settling on the grounds of Montesse Castle, the place Ryan had called home for the past few months.
"Is everything okay," Fi asked. "Mrs. Kincaid looked a little freaked out."
"It's understandable. A lot of unusual things have been happening around here."
"Are those the types of things adults don't want kids to know about?" Fi asked.
"I'm afraid so."
"Bummer."
Kai called out for Fi an this time she relented.
"Gotta go."
Ryan waited until Fi was out of sight before pulling back the tarp. Strangely, he didn't flinch when he saw the skeleton. Instead he studied it with an intenseness that gave him pause.
He reached down and touched the ring on the man's left hand. The ring seemed to be calling out to him. As his finger made contact, a flash clouded his vision and images played in mental snapshots across the landscape of his mind. He could see himself laughing and joking with the three people who had been with Tia earlier. He not only felt like he should know them, but know them well.
In the vision, he saw the gold ring on his own finger. The ring on the dead man's finger was his own!
Ryan stepped away from the body breathing a bit heavily. The vision had accelerated his heart rate. Nothing like that had ever happened to him before, at least, not lately. So, why was it happening now?
He did know one thing and one thing only, he knew he must investigate those people from the Luna Foundation. And the sooner he could, the sooner he might discover exactly who he really was.
Kai's watchful eyes kept track of Ryan as she spied on him from the castle. She merely observed as he borrowed the work truck and drove away taking the road leading to the other side of the island.
"Everything okay," Fi asked Kai.
"Yep, everything is great. Right on schedule," she said.
"Cool."
The living room was a bit drafty but the roaring fire in the fireplace kept it cozy. Photos lined the mantle above and Fi glanced through many of them. One particular photo caught Fi's eye.
"That's Ryan," she whispered to herself. The other three people in the photo had all been here today. Mrs. Kincaid or Kai must have been this photo before. Why didn't they tell Ryan who he really was? Another picture frame held a clipping from the newspaper. Kai and her parents were all in it, along with a distinguished looking Ryan.
"I knew he wasn't the maintenance man type," she whispered. In the photo Ryan, aka Derek Rayne, was wearing a suit and tie.
She glanced around, making sure no one was looking and took digital photos of both items. She wanted proof to bring back to Jack and Clu. Fi knew her mom would never believe her, so that option was out. But there was something she needed from her mother.
She slid into the next room gliding over the hardwood on socked feet, nearly crashing into the seat where Molly sat talking to Kai.
"Mom. What was the name of that guy from the Luna Foundation. You know, the one in charge?" Fi hoped the questions wouldn't bring up her mother's suspicions.
"Nick something. Boyd. Banks. No, I think it was Boyle. Nick Boyle. Why did you want to know that, honey?"
By the time Molly Phillips turned around her daughter had vanished. "Fiona should put herself up on her own website, because sometimes she's just too weird," Molly mumbled.
Fiona knew that the only people she could trust with this secret were Jack and Clu. But both of them were gone. Here she was sitting on amazingly cool clues and they were out watching a baseball game.
As she passed by one of the worker's rooms, she noticed a strange light coming from under the door. The light was a strange concoction of colors mixing with a misty-otherworldly smoke.
"What in the heck is going on in this castle?" she whispered.
The door opened and Fiona hid behind a large pillar in the hallway. The woman who exited was a stranger to her. But as she passed a large mirror and glanced into its depths, the woman's looks and hair color changed. Somehow before her eyes the lady had transformed into Kai's mother!
Fiona gulped and ran off down the hall. Unfortunately, Tia caught Fi's surveillance. She frowned as Fiona disappeared down an adjacent hallway.
Fi ran all the way to the tour bus and hid inside her bedroom compartment. She grabbed her iPhone from the shelf and searched the directory for the Luna Foundation. Nick Boyle didn't have a listed telephone number but he did have an email address. She had to let him know what was going on.
She wrote:
I don't know what's going on at Montesse Castle but it's pretty weird. Kai's mother transformed right in front of my eyes. One moment she was a young blond lady and the next she was Tia.
Then there is this maintenance man working on the grounds. He has amnesia. Funny thing is, there is a photo of him on the mantle of Montesse Castle that says he's Derek Rayne and Kai and her mother are both in the picture too. So, why won't they tell him who he is?
I'm attaching a digital file I took today of the maintenance man they call Ryan.
Also, I'm not sure, but I think Tia's mom might know I saw her transform. What should I do?
Before Fi could hit the enter button, Tia appeared on the tour bus. Fiona gasped and pulled her finger away from the enter button.
"For a young girl, you're very clever. But even clever girls meet untimely fates."
Fiona froze, her eyes wide with fear. Who would save her now?
She heard footsteps and someone else climbed on the bus, she couldn't see who from her vantage point. But that person somehow shined a bright, angelic light into the front section of the tour bus. Tia glanced toward the light long enough to give Fi an opening to send her email to Nick Boyle. She hit the enter key and sent the email into cyber space.
The light seemed to scare Tia who dissolved into mist and blew out the crevices of the bus.
"There is something really weird about this place," Fi said with a relieved sigh. But then a shuffling in the startled Fi who shrank back, hiding among the curtains in the sleeping compartment.
"Fi! Fi, are you in here?" The voice was familiar. It was Ned Bell. If he was coming from the front cabin, then that scary woman must really be gone.
"Yeah, I'm back here," Fi said. "Just wanted to do a few things on my laptop."
"Your mom wants to call it a night. We're going to have a busy day tomorrow," Ned said.
"All right. Let's go." Fi only hoped the man from the Luna Foundation got her message in time. Especially if that woman was killing the men of Montesse Castle.
The pounding headache Nick had had all day was now throbbing directly behind his right eye. He tried not to look at the light while the machine scanned the bone fragments they'd taken from the last victim.
Alex came into the room holding up a manila envelope. "Dental records show that the man is Merrick Kincaid."
"How is that possible? The bones are virtually dust."
"I don't know, but whatever is doing this, it has to be powerful," Alex said. Her eyes scanned the room and the darkening sky beyond the window. Curiously, she felt like she was being watched.
"Something wrong," Nick asked, popping a few aspirin into his mouth.
"No. It's nothing," Alex said. "But you look beat."
"Too much frivolity with the Molly Philips Band, I'll bet," Rachel said.
"Yeah," he said with a smile and a wince. "That must be it." He stood and walked toward the bedrooms. "I'm going to lie down for a bit. Get rid of this migraine.
Rachel glanced at her watch. "Speaking of leaving, I promised Kat that I would pick her up from her friend's house and take her to a movie. I hope you don't mind."
"No, go ahead. I have a little more work to do, but I'm nearly done."
"See you in the morning," Rachel said grabbing her coat on the way out the door.
Alex took a deep breath and tried to shake off the uneasy feeling she'd had all night, but the feeling wouldn't let her go.
Ryan wasn't sure why he had to come here but something had triggered that intense vision. He fingered the ring on his left hand. He hadn't realized he'd taken it from the dead body. Strangely, it felt right on his hand, like it belonged there.
The picture window at the back of the mansion was lit up. Ryan made his way around the rubble of the main house to the guest quarters in back. He stood in the darkness and watched as the young black woman studied the items on the table then referred to the computer next to her. She was indeed one of the people from his vision.
A sudden flash came into his mind. Maybe it was a memory. He was talking to her and they were having a discussion of something personal.
"Were you ever in love?" he asked her.
"Yes," she answered. "Once.'
"Did nothing come of it?"
"He was married."
The vision left him as quickly as it had come. There had been a sadness in her eyes, a disappointment that he'd let her down. He wondered what kind of man he was to put that kind of look into the eyes of a beautiful woman.
He knew deep down he had feelings for her even if he couldn't remember them.
She came out the door nearest him and looked up toward the mansion, crumbling and destroyed. Her eyes were filled with longing.
"I miss you so much," she whispered, her voice barely audible.
Ryan stepped back, trying to stay out of sight. His foot landed on a twig. The noise was as loud as a gunshot on the wind of the deathly quiet night. The black woman immediately tensed up.
"Who's there," she said. "Show yourself."
Ryan stepped into the light. It was too late to hide. And he was tired of hiding.
Alex gasped. "Derek?"
He had no words for her. He didn't know who he was.
Alex came closer. "Derek? Say something."
"Do you know me," he asked, the darkness obscuring most of his face.
"Know you?" Alex choked out the words and threw her arms around Derek. "How is it possible?" She buried her face into Derek's work shirt.
"I don't know what happened to me," Derek admitted. "Kai found me and she and her mother nursed me back to health."
"Kai and Tia have known you were alive all along?" Alex's face tightened with concern, and her entire demeanor changed. "We have to tell Nick you're alive."
Alex started to race up the stairs but Derek stopped her.
"No, wait. I have to know." He held his hand out to her and she clasped it. "I've had such intense feelings every time I've seen you. But that's all they are, feelings. There's no context to it. Were we involved? I mean, before I lost my memory?"
A tear trailed down Alex's cheek. "No," she admitted. "No, we were never involved."
From inside the house, Alex could hear Nick calling for her. His voice was somewhat stressed. Maybe he'd found something."
"That's Nick. Come on."
Alex guided Derek up the stairs but Nick met them halfway down the stone stairway.
"I just got a really odd email from Molly Philips' daughter. You've got to see this picture. I think Derek is alive."
"I know he's alive," Alex said as Derek stepped into the light.
"Oh, my God!," Nick grabbed them both, smothering them with a big bear hug. "How? How is it possible?"
"I can't remember," Derek said. "I had a vision that led me here, but I remember nothing of my old life."
"Kai and Tia knew Derek was alive," Alex said. "All this time, they knew."
"Something is definitely going on at that place. I think we need to start an investigation."
Nick ascended the stairs and walked into the lab.
Confusion masked Derek's face. "Investigation?"
"Come on," Alex said. "You have a lot to catch up on."
Fi hid in the library. For some reason it seemed safer than the rest of the house. It gave her a bit of privacy since Clu and Jack weren't apt to come in and disturb her. She kept thinking about what Kai had told her of her great, great, whatever grandfather bringing stones from the castle's original location. She wondered it all these deaths could be connected to a spirit attached to the castle. Was that even possible?