Geist (31 page)

Cold fingers pressed against his lips and he nearly cried out again as someone crawled up against him. It was Bethany—but her face was hidden in shadows. He could smell blood and reached up to touch her face. Her hand moved quick—faster than he'd ever seen—and grabbed his wrist. Jason watched in horror as she licked the blood from his fingers. He tried to pull his hand away from her but his strength deserted him. She moved on top of his chest.

Bethany pinned his hand to the wood.

"Do...you want...to live?" It was her voice—and then it wasn't. It sounded like her, but there something else there. Something...
wrong
.

"Bethany..." he said, his own voice soft. He pulled in air to talk. "Please...can you get help?"

"No..." and then he heard the gurgling noise. He let go of his leg and reached out to her chest. He touched bare flesh in the shadow, slick, drowned in blood.
Oh God...that bastard stabbed her.

"Jason..." the gurgling noise in her throat and chest was painful to hear. How was she still speaking? Or moving? "She will die...but if you accept me..."

—as a part of you, she will live inside of you.

Those last words he heard in his head. And the voice was masculine.

What...what the hell is going on?
He tried to move away, but she was on top of him, and he was growing weaker. Growing tired. He almost closed his eyes.

Jason! Please—

The voice in his head startled him. "What...who are you? Where is Bethany?"

You and I have so little time, Jason. Please choose. I will not force this upon you. But if you say yes, then you both can survive with me. And you can have your revenge.

"Bethany...." he gasped for air.

Do you accept me? Invite me in, Jason. Invite me in and we will all be saved!

Insistent. Honest. But he was tired. So very...tired.

"Yes..." he heard himself say.

Bethany was a bone-white corpse nearly devoid of blood in his fading vision. Her face twisted, her mouth opened. Jason tried to scream, but Bethany—or whatever it was possessing her—slapped a bloodied hand over his mouth. He tasted blood. Metallic. Coppery. 

She slipped her hand from his mouth and grabbed his other wrist. She pulled both of them up over his head and bent in close to him.

Her face was...different. Dark. Long, sharp, teeth. She moved her free wrist to those teeth and bit down.

Drink from me, Jason Lawrence. The blood will allow me to enter into you. I must have this link between the bodies.

Drink from her? Jason opened his mouth to scream and she slammed her bleeding wrist against his lips and teeth. The blood filled his mouth and he choked and swallowed, gagged at the taste.

Invite me in, Jason. Please...

She released his wrists. He spat and choked, his head light from his own loss of blood.
Oh God...what is happening to me?
His stomach wrenched as he pulled himself into a fetal position.

Please...quickly Jason. If you don't invite me in you will become a Ghoul with no Maker, and you and Nick will fall into a nightmarish existence!

Invite it in? Invite what? Invite this voice? Bethany?
He opened is eyes—but Bethany was gone. The pain in his stomach had become unbearable.

I can ease the pain!

"Yes!" he choked out, still tasting the blood in his mouth. "Please...oh God please...I...invite you
in
..."

Abruptly the pain vanished. He was cold, and whole, and surrounded by light. Jason had no idea how long he floated in that light. Eventually he heard another voice outside of him, outside of the light. The voice of Bethany's brother, Nick Shay. "Are you there, Mephistopheles?"

Jason spoke—his voice, and the other voice.
Together
. "Yes. Please...Nick...the fever is coming."

Fever? What...what just happened?

And then the voice was even louder in his mind, as if someone were speaking inside of him. 
Thank you, Jason Lawrence. My thanks, and those chosen before you. You will feel pain soon, as our two beings merge. It will be short and I will do what I can to ease the misery. Nick will take care of us.

Us?

There was a touch on his forehead. Someone moved his dark hair to the side. "Relax Mr. Lawrence. Trust the Maker. He will make you whole again, and I will help you find your revenge."

The...
Maker
?

I am a Revenant. I am your salvation. And you are mine.

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