Eternal (22 page)

Nadia tugged on Bertel’s hand. “Come on, Caleb, let’s go back to the party. I’m really sorry, Julia.” Nadia shrugged and turned away. As the pair walked down to the beach, Bertel turned and gave Julia a sly smile. She thought it unlikely that Nadia would survive the night.

Julia half-expected Jack to put her back in his car to complete the illusion that this was an arrest. Instead, he yanked her to her feet and marched her toward a building across the parking lot. On the beach below, Julia saw a bonfire surrounded by some fifty young people. Firelight danced on their faces. She couldn’t make out their features clearly in the shifting red glow, but she could swear she saw Tyler, Rob, Britney, and Kate standing near a guy who was playing “Otherside” on a guitar. A bunch of people sang along. Then, in the darkness beyond the circle of light, someone turned up a recording of Muse’s “Apocalypse Please.” It conflicted with the guitar music, creating a discordance that jangled her already taut nerves.

“What the hell?” some guy barked.

“What’s your problem?” a girl shouted back.

“We’re singing here!”

“Yeah, well don’t quit your day jobs.”

“You jerks think you own the beach?”

“Do you?”

A shoving match started. Julia saw a sudden flash and heard a sound like a mosquito running into a bug zapper. Or someone getting zapped by a defibrillator.

“Kate? Kate!” someone shouted, terrified. “She’s unconscious.”

“She’s not breathing! Somebody call 911!”

“We can’t call 911. They’ll bust us for drugs.”

Jack opened a door and shoved Julia into an office. Then he slammed the door and locked it behind her. She was immersed in darkness.

T
WENTY-
F
IVE

J
ulia struggled to wake. Her head was pounding, and her face and body were drenched in sweat. She whimpered, and the sound roused her. She sat up and hit the back of her head on something metallic, which made it pound more. Her surroundings were dark, but a faint light drifted in from outside. As her eyes adjusted she realized she was in an office, sitting behind a desk. She started to open her mouth, but it was taped shut again. The last thing she remembered was someone playing guitar on the beach. She must be in the lifeguards’ office.

Julia heard voices and keys jingling at the door. She tried to stand, which was hard to do because her hands were still cuffed behind her. She worked at bending and lowering her cuffed hands down to her legs so she could step through them. Someone flicked on a light switch, and the fluorescent tubes overhead hummed to life. She sat up, hands still behind her, squinting and blinking until the faces before her came into focus: Bertel, Jack, and Nadia. Nadia’s body swayed, and her eyes goggled as she tried to focus on her surroundings. She took in the room the way a toddler might take in Disneyland. She was obviously high.

This time, when Nadia’s eyes landed on Julia in the light, she looked shocked, and then terrified. “Oh my God, what did you do to her?” Her tan seemed to fade right before Julia’s eyes.

“We had to keep her from escaping,” Jack said.

“What do you mean? Why didn’t you just take her to jail? I thought you were a cop.”

“I was,” said Jack. “Until yesterday.” His right eye twitched in fluttering bursts, like he was trying to blink some sort of weird Morse code.

“I don’t understand any of this. You can’t treat someone like this!” Julia hated it when Nadia used that whining tone, but at least her so-called friend was finally standing up for her. Nadia’s eyes welled up, and her body shook. Julia hoped she wasn’t going to fall apart now. Sympathy was one thing, but one of them needed to stay strong—and Julia wasn’t exactly in top shape at the moment.

Bertel leaned against a counter, watching Nadia’s breakdown with the curious, detached look of a boy setting ants on fire with a magnifying glass in the sun. “Perfect. I think Nadia’s ready for a change of scene. Don’t you, Tibaut?” He tipped a meaningful glance Jack’s way.

Jack stepped over to the counter, reached behind Bertel, and turned something on. To her horror, Julia heard a series of electronic beeps. It was a defibrillator.
Oh no,
Julia thought.
That’s why Nadia has that look of dazed fascination. Bertel has already given her the PCP cocktail.
Jack slathered conductive gel on the defib pads. Nadia looked from Jack to Bertel, confused.

Julia tried to scream, “No! Nadia, run!” But all that came out was “Nnn, Nnn!”

Bertel pulled Nadia over to the counter, stroked her face, and said, “Don’t be afraid,” in a hypnotic voice. She looked at him warily. He kissed her, hard, as she struggled to break free. Julia gagged as she pictured the demon inside Bertel sticking a black, forked tongue deep inside her friend’s mouth. It took a moment for her to register that this demon was, in fact, unbuttoning Nadia’s blouse. Then, in one swift move, Bertel stepped back, grabbed the charged defib pads from Jack, and pressed them against Nadia’s chest. Julia heard the jolt of electricity, smelled the faint scent of ozone, and saw her childhood friend’s body give one great spasmodic jerk before she fell to the floor—dead.

“Nnnnn!” Julia yelled against the tape. Tears stung her eyes, blurring her vision.

Bertel and Jack crouched over Nadia. Bertel held the defib pads in ready position, and Jack stared at his watch. She pictured them in medieval garb, standing over Pierre after maiming him—detached, unemotional. Julia didn’t know what to do.

Julia bent and wriggled more fiercely now, struggling to get her cuffed hands down to her feet, where she could step over them. For the first time, she felt grateful that Nadia had made her take gymnastics with her when they were kids, plus yoga for the past three years. Once the cuffs were in front, she reached up and ripped the tape from her mouth. Then, in a feat that required every ounce of her resolve, she spoke calmly.

“Dr. Bertel? Dr. Bertel, I know you’re still in there. Father Anselm told me you were still in there. You just have to fight. I’m here for you. Just try. Try to fight Fulbert. Don’t let him do this. I’ll pray with you. Okay? He says prayer can help.” She tried to think of what to say. She hadn’t prayed since she was a little girl. “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name …” The words she hadn’t spoken for years were flowing from her with a power beyond her own.

“Shut up!” Jack snapped.

She pushed herself off the ground and wobbled to her feet. “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven …”

Jack leaped at her and slapped her so hard, she flew backward. Unable to use her arms for balance, she landed against the jagged corner of an open drawer on a metal filing cabinet, which ripped open a gash in her hip. Her slacks were already congealed with blood from the cut in her knee, and now fresh blood dripped down her thigh to join it.

Lying in a heap, she continued to pray, “Give us this day, our daily bread …”

Suddenly Bertel turned to Julia, his face twisted with torment, his color draining from his face. “Julia? What’s going on? Why are you there? Did I do this? I am fighting so hard. Don’t give up on me.” Then he jerked to his feet, dancing there for a moment like an epileptic marionette, and then said in yet another voice, “My darling Heloise, don’t worry. I won’t ever hurt you. I love you.” Julia gasped. Bertel
was
still in there, but he was losing the battle.

Bertel turned back to examine Nadia’s body lying motionless on the floor. “Six minutes. Let’s call on our old friend, shall we?”

He zapped Nadia with the defibrillator again. She gasped and bolted upright, her eyes wide and vacant. A shadow of crimson passed over her eyes, turning to burgundy, and finally to black. Then she slumped back to the floor.

After a moment, Nadia sat up and turned to Julia. “So, Heloise, I see you’re back too. Came for Pierre, I know. You had your chance. And I say three’s a crowd.”

Julia stared at Nadia. “What’s with the British accent?”

“Heloise, don’t you remember Genevieve?” Bertel said. “She was confidante to the English Queen. Your beloved Pierre tutored her during one of his journeys to England. She seduced him with her considerable charms.”

“I’m sure she
tried,”
Julia said.

“Really! You give me so little credit, Heloise. Pierre tutored me in philosophy, and I tutored him in … other ways. I was irresistible before. But with this body?” Nadia, or whoever she was, ran her hands over her curves and spread her lips in a predatory grin. “No man can resist me—especially the new me.”

“Austin will.”

“Austin? Oh, you mean Pierre. What makes you so sure? He didn’t before.”

“So you say,” Julia said. “You and Fulbert think you can fool me, break my faith in the man I love. It won’t work.”

Nadia turned toward Jack, regarding him for the first time. “So now you’re a gendarme and assassin all in one, Tibaut! It is a seductive combination, I’ll admit. But you’re still just a commoner.” She spit on the floor, her face an ugly mask of derision.

Julia watched the change in Nadia with horror. Despite her faults, Nadia had a good and loyal heart. She was beautiful, popular, and brilliant. She was easily led, but she was certainly not evil. The moment Nadia’s pineal gland was electrified, this medieval femme fatale had made her move and taken over a body even more seductive than the one she’d had in the 12
^th
century. But Julia knew that Nadia’s soul was still in there somewhere.

Nadia, hang in there,
she thought.
Fight to come back.
As she looked at this new Nadia, called Genevieve, she was surprised at the animosity she felt—the jealousy, the stabbing pain of an old wound to the heart. As irrational as it was, she felt the urge to put her hands around the other young woman’s throat and strangle her. The thought made her stomach clench with fear, as she looked into Nadia’s eyes and saw the same violent feelings mirrored inside Genevieve. Her murderous eyes looked Julia up and down like a butcher at an animal before the slaughter.

Nadia walked haughtily toward Julia and circled her like a vulture.

“I’m certain you can guess my only question?” Nadia’s harsh voice brought Julia to attention.

“And mine,” Bertel said.

Julia gave them a blank stare. “What question?”

“I thought you were supposed to be smart,” Nadia snarled.

Bertel sighed in exasperation. “Will Pierre come to your rescue when you call him?” He waggled her cell phone in front of her face with demonic glee.

“She doesn’t need to call Austin.” Jack interrupted the scene. He held a cell phone to his ear and held up a single finger, indicating he was listening to a message. “He just left a message for Jack. I know exactly where he is. He called Julia’s father, who told him about her little visit to his lab. Austin’s headed there now.”

“Then go get him … again,” Bertel said. “And take extra men. Remember how he fought you the last time.”

Julia made one final attempt to persuade Bertel to call off the hunt. “Fulbert,” Julia said softly. “I’m not married to him. He’s not my boyfriend. That was all a long time ago. Call off the dogs and I’ll go with you.” She swallowed hard. “I promise.”

Fulbert put a hand to her face and caressed it softly. “If only that concern were for me.” His caress ended in a hard slap to Julia’s face. Bertel nodded at Jack, who winked at Julia and stalked out the door.

Julia hung her head in utter despair. Unless she could figure out a way to escape, Austin was going to be tortured all over again, and her life would once again become a living hell.

T
WENTY-
S
IX

T
he party grew louder, and the orange reflections of the fire glowed brighter against the windows of the beach office. The crowd was getting drunker and higher than before—it wasn’t a hot dog and s’mores kind of bonfire, that was for sure. She looked down at the blood oozing onto her jeans from her torn knee and hip. It was starting to pool on the chair in which she was still sitting, waiting.

Dr. Bertel gazed at the blazing glass with a faraway look. His eyes didn’t have the look of a man who was on the verge of conquering the world. They were the eyes of a man who had lost everything. Empty, hopeless. That was a look that seemed more Bertel then Fulbert. Maybe it was.

“Hey Doc,” Julia said. “Remember the time we roasted weenies on Bunsen burners?”

He smiled. “You said they tasted like formaldehyde.”

“And you said that was impossible, because we didn’t have formaldehyde in the lab.”

“The power of memory: When you’re a high school science student, chemistry lab equals formaldehyde.”

“Anyway, it was fun. Dr. Bertel,” she ventured, “what do you say you free me, and we leave this party and go back and finish our research?”

Someone outside shouted. Bertel turned toward the sound. When he turned back to her, his eyes were hard, cold, certain. Fulbert’s eyes. “Why would I do that, when we can complete our research right here, tonight? We have all the bodies we need right outside. Soulless specimens ready for takeover, like your friend, Nadia.”

Nadia sat in the swivel chair behind the desk and spun it like a child. “A soulless specimen? For a scientist, you’re quite the poet, Fulbert.”

Someone banged on the door, and Julia heard Austin’s voice, shouting, “This is the police! Open up!”

Julia jumped to her feet and raced to the door. But Nadia was faster; she came from behind and held a gun to the other girl’s ear.

“Where did you learn how to handle a gun like that?” Julia asked.

“Instinct,” was the cold reply.

Suddenly, the locked door flew open, and someone pointed both a flashlight and a gun around the room. Nadia squinted into the light. “Is that you, Pierre? You always did like to make an entrance. I suggest dropping your gun, as mine already has a target—one that I think is important to you.”

The flashlight and gun lowered, revealing Austin’s stricken face, which was focused on Julia. Jack walked up behind Austin and pulled the gun from his limp hand while pressing his own gun to his friend’s neck.

Austin looked bewildered. “Jack? What are you doing? What’s going on?”

“Our friends aren’t themselves anymore,” Julia said simply. Austin’s darkening face revealed that her meaning had registered.

Nadia laughed, and the sound held some of her old seductive flirtation.

Jack tossed Austin’s gun into a large black duffle with green piping in the corner. Bertel’s old tool bag.

“Take his Taser too,” Nadia said.

Jack obliged. He pulled a set of handcuffs out of the duffle and proceeded to handcuff Austin’s wrist to an old radiator. Then he took another set of handcuffs from his belt and cuffed Austin’s other wrist to a nearby pole, so that his arms were stretched to their limit. “Make a noise and she’s dead,” Jack intoned.

“Who are you?” Austin asked.

“We weren’t properly introduced in the past, but, as you may recall, I once cut away your sin and helped make way for your life of godly devotion.”

“Tibaut,” Austin said in a barely audible whisper.

Jack took a bow and snarled a smile. “I guess you remember, after all.”

Nadia stepped closer to Austin, gun still trained on Julia’s neck, the light of the bonfire outside casting dark shadows across her face. “You’ll remember me, as well. You were my tutor in England.”

Austin only stared at her, uncomprehending.

“In the royal court?”

He shook his head almost imperceptibly.

“I’m your Genevieve.”

Austin looked even more bewildered.

Nadia looked aghast but regained her composure quickly. “My, that’s not very flattering, is it? You don’t remember your beloved Genevieve, the one you betrayed for this … this provincial little princess who thinks she’s so smart.”

Austin looked into Julia’s eyes, but neither of them said a word. Fate seemed determined to repeat itself. Without a word, they both understood that this might be the last time they would see each other alive. They stared steady and long, not wanting to look away.

Austin was the first to break their gaze. “Just kill me this time,” he said to Jack, “There’s no need to go through all that symbolism again. I haven’t touched her. “

“Not my concern,” Jack said.

“I have money,” Austin said.

“Money?” Jack laughed. “Sure, I’ll kill you for your money, after I castrate you for his.” He thrust a thumb in Bertel’s direction. Then he stepped over to the duffle bag, reached in, and pulled out a pair of industrial shears. He held them up and grinned. “Would you look at what I found.”

Austin looked away. He turned to Bertel, and then to Julia. “Fulbert?”

She nodded.

He turned back to Bertel. “You can do what you want to me, Fulbert. But let your niece go. She’s done nothing. Don’t commit an unpardonable sin and kill your own flesh and blood.”

“There’s no blood between Heloise and myself anymore,” Bertel said, slowly. “Many years have passed. Many lifetimes.”

“Many lifetimes,” Julia echoed. Tears welled in her eyes. “Isn’t it time to forgive and forget? I can, Uncle Fulbert. It’s time to let go.”

Bertel’s face remained motionless, but his eyes softened. Finally, his shoulders sagged in defeat. “You’re right,” he said softly. “I can’t kill my Heloise. My darling girl, I’ve loved you for a thousand years.” He turned to Jack and Nadia. “Tibaut and Genevieve, we have a change of plans. Heloise will remain with me. Genevieve, you finally have the man of your dreams. Do what you want with him. Just make sure you leave no loose ends.”

“No pun intended,” Jack said, twirling the thick shears by the handle.

Genevieve gave Bertel a look of disgust. “You always
were
weak.” Then she turned to Austin. “Too bad you won’t ever get to spoil the petals of Fulbert’s precious little virgin flower.”

Jack chuckled as he opened and closed the scissors. “Ouch!” he said, and pressed a hand to his lips.

“Jack, get ahold of yourself,” Austin pleaded. “This isn’t you.”

Jack’s eye twitched and then went blank for a second or two. He lowered the scissors and stared at them, puzzled. Then he shook his head like a dog shaking off excess water after a jump into a pool and moved toward Austin.

“We’ll need to tie his legs too,” Nadia said. She pulled a length of rope from the duffle bag and swung it back and forth as she moved toward Austin, clearly enjoying every second of her long-awaited revenge.

Julia thought quickly—her scientist’s brain trying to analyze the whole situation and break it down into some sort of empirical data she could quantify. Bertel and Jack had, for a fleeting moment, returned to themselves during their possessions. Yet Nadia had yet to show a sign of faltering: she seemed to be completely Genevieve. Was Nadia more susceptible because she was a woman? Because she was younger? Whatever the case, Bertel and Jack seemed to be fighting Fulbert and Tibaut, but Nadia wasn’t fighting Genevieve. So Julia decided to focus her attention on her old nemesis—in the body of her best friend.

“Let him go, Genevieve!” Julia pleaded.

“Do you now recognize me?” Nadia asked.

“I made a terrible mistake. Pierre was clearly destined to be with you, to love you. I was the distraction. But I’m no longer Heloise. That life is dead to me now. I have no interest in your Pierre anymore. If you want him, take him. I won’t get in your way. There’s no need to kill him. But if you do kill him, you’ll have an entire police department after you. Now that you’re here, doesn’t it feel good to be alive? Wouldn’t you like a chance to experience love with the man you’ve dreamed of for so long? Maybe party with the kids on the beach? I mean, look at you. You’re sexy. You’re smart. Your whole life is ahead of you. Why have the police on your tail?”

“Very clever, but it won’t work,” Nadia said. “I see how you two look at each other. He’s not mine—never was, never will be. But if I can’t have him, why should you?”

Julia narrowed her eyes, dropping the charade. “This isn’t about competition, Genevieve. It’s about the fact that you’re trash. Pierre saw it then, and Austin sees it now.”

Genevieve ran at Julia and hit her across the only part of her face that hadn’t yet been bruised in the night’s festivities. She then saw the blood on Julia’s hip and gave it a vicious kick. Julia moaned in pain. Austin struggled against his restraints. Nadia tossed the rope to Jack. “Tie his feet!” she barked.

Jack picked up Austin’s Taser from the desk and zapped the man who was once his friend. When Austin was immobilized, Jack tied his legs together. Nadia then pulled a hunting knife out of the big black duffel bag.

“You see, Heloise,” Nadia monologued, “I can have my cake and eat it too. I will have Pierre, but he’ll be my servant, not my lover. I can have all the men I want in this body. And I’m not worried about his friends at the police department. Fulbert and I can use
your
technique to turn them into much more cooperative men.”

Jack shrieked with laughter.

With all eyes on Nadia, Julia pushed herself up from the chair and surged toward her nemesis in a desperate move, swinging her handcuffed fists across the bridge of Nadia’s nose with all the strength she could muster. She felt bone shift under her hands and heard a loud crunch. Nadia yelped and clutched her broken nose, dropping the knife. The knife seemed to fly into Julia’s palms, as she gripped it awkwardly with her fingers.

Austin took advantage of the moment. He lifted his bound feet and kicked Jack squarely in the face. Jack fell backward but then bounced back up and lunged at Austin. Julia seized the black duffel bag and, with a sigh of relief, found what she was looking for. She quickly exchanged the knife for her Super Taser. She placed the Taser at the back of Jack’s neck and pulled the trigger. He collapsed onto the floor. Julia ran to her shoulder bag, which had been thrown in the corner of the room, and pulled out an inhaler that she had modified in her father’s lab. She ran to Jack, who was lying on the floor, his mouth working like a beached fish drowning in the air. She sprayed a new PCP cocktail directly into his gaping mouth, then tased him again. Then she grabbed the keys swinging from his belt and released her wrists from their shackles. She threw the keys down next to him.

Julia turned toward Nadia, who was slumped on the floor, clutching her nose, and coughing in great choking burbles. Her usually petite nose was tilted to the left—swollen and bleeding. Before Julia could reach her, Nadia scrambled to the black bag, grabbed a wicked looking semi-automatic, and started to run out the door. Austin had worked one foot out of its restraints and tripped Nadia, sending her sprawling. Nadia dropped the gun, which clattered on the floor next to Bertel. Bertel picked up the gun and stared at it for a second. He pointed it from Genevieve to Julia and back again, as if uncertain whose side he was on.

“Look out, Fulbert!” Nadia said.

Bertel pointed the gun at Julia, who was aiming her Super Taser toward him. She lowered her arm.

Jack began to moan. He put a hand on either side of his head, like someone with a migraine. “Austin?”

Julia’s heart leaped into her throat.
It worked!
she thought, triumphantly.

But her satisfaction was fleeting. Nadia looked at Jack with new contempt, grabbed the keys from the floor, and unlocked Austin’s handcuffs. Austin stood slowly, his eyes on Bertel and the gun, waiting for his chance. But Nadia grabbed the knife from the desk, making Julia regret that she’d traded it for the inhaler. Then Nadia stepped behind Austin, wrapped an arm around his chest, and pressed the blade to his back. “Come with me, or Fulbert will shoot Heloise.”

Austin looked from Bertel to Julia. “You won’t kill her. You love her.”