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“Okay, I’m completely on board with this idea, but how am I  going to go?” Eric asked. “It’s daylight outside.”

Maggie glared at him as though he were being an idiot. “Do you  not feel your wolf? Do you not feel that the sun is not fire to your  skin? I am standing right next to you, and I can see that what little  sunlight that is coming through that door is not hurting your skin.  Fool,” she muttered.

Eric blinked and looked up. It was warm in here, but it didn’t feel anymore warm than it needed to be. Even after death, he’d always been able to transform into his wolf, but now that he thought about it, he could still feel that part of himself beneath his borrowed skin. He looked down at his hands, tried to imagine the transformation taking hold of him.

His fingers blackened and shrunk. Coarse hairs sprouted up through his pores. He grinned and looked up.

Eli looked ready to start crying, his eyes were so bright. “Let’s you and me go running,” he said.

Eric nodded, and then he really let the transformation shift through him, not even bothering to remove what was left of his burned clothing.

He howled with his twin, and he and the rest of the gathered

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alphas, and Isaac once he got onto that ATV of his, took off into the

woods, following the scent of that pickup truck and Opal.

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Chapter Ten

If there was one thing Ivan hated more than being possessed, it was the sensation of being shoved out of his body, of not knowing if he would have the strength to fight his way back inside, of not knowing whether or not he would survive.

Now was one of those times, but the distinct feeling of helplessness accompanied that since Opal had lit his body on fire and escaped from the house before Eric could stop her.

Ivan wasn’t sure where his lover was, or whether or not he would

be able to stop her. One thing was certain for him, though. He was  probably going to die. Hell, he likely was already dead. Was this what  death felt like? If so, why couldn’t he escape from this spot that Opal  had charmed him to? Why couldn’t he go and find Eric?

The idea of death no longer really bothered Ivan. Take away the  unknown fear of the afterlife, and there really wasn’t much to be  scared of.

If Ivan was really dead, then he should be able to go off and spend his death happily with Eric, but he couldn’t. Did that mean he was still, on some strange level, alive?

Opal had drugged him with something, or perhaps it was a spell.  Either way, when he’d come to, realizing what she was doing, she was already in the middle of pulling his spirit out of his body and capturing it into a small glass bottle.

He’d panicked, but there was nothing he could do against her.  Despite being a medium who was able to physically interact with the spirit world, Ivan was helpless against Opal’s attacks.

He might as well have been punching and kicking at a shadow for

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all the good it did him.

Strangely, she’d then leaned over his prone body on the bed,  gently opened Ivan’s mouth, placing her wrist inside, and then forced  his jaw back up until she hissed and blood pooled around her wrist.

Ivan could hardly believe what he’d seen. Was this woman mad?  Surely she did not think that a single bite would transform her into a  vampire?

Then she began piling debris and papers and other small, easily  flammable objects around Ivan’s body.

He’d shouted at her, begged and pleaded with her not to do such a  thing to him.

When Eric appeared inside the room, Ivan thought himself saved,  but then Opal had tossed her match onto the bed, and she’d run out  the door with Ivan in tow while Eric rushed to the bed in an attempt to  save the empty shell.

Now he was here, and he had no idea if Eric even succeeded, or if

he would see him again for that matter.

Especially with the way Opal and that strange individual were  chanting in front of the pond.

It was James DeWitt’s pond. He wasn’t entirely certain if he was  seeing things or not due to the brightness of the sun—honestly, how  did the daylight creatures function in this blinding light?—but it  almost looked as though the water had become brighter since the  chanting started. Was it glowing? Opal had since taken him out of the  bottle and attached his soul to a necklace she wore, so he was able to

see a little better.

Opal was chanting the most passionately between the two, her arms flailing about in fluid motions as she called to every spirit in the world, old and new. She even called to the God, and there were many names in her chanting that Ivan did not recognize.

He sat a little straighter when the word
 
sacrifice
 
was mentioned.

Surely not! They were going to—? For what possible purpose?

As quickly as it had begun, the chanting stopped. A light fog had

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by then developed over the glowing water, which seemed to pulse  with life. It was beautiful, and Ivan could hardly take his eyes away  from it.

“Did it work?” the huge male barked, looking between Opal and  the magical waters.

“I think it did, Deacon,” Opal said, clasping her hands together as  she looked down into the water. She seemed as transfixed by the sight  as Ivan had been.

“How do we do this, then?” Deacon said, carefully sticking a toe  and then a whole foot into the shallow water. “I just wade in?”

“Yes, get at least up to your waist. Be quick about it. The  werewolves can come at any minute.”

“Assuming they followed you,” Deacon said.

Ivan’s heart sank. There was indeed always that assumption. Eric  had no way of telling the others what had happened. If the whole  cottage went up, then they might even still be working on putting out  the fire. They would know Ivan had been murdered once everything  had been cleared away, and it would likely not be until then that  hunting parties would be sent out in search for the female medium  who’d fled the scene.

Opal approached him, and Ivan tensed up.

“Now, now, it’s time for you to do your part. You have been chosen.”

The large man, Deacon, had wanted to see Ivan’s face, and so  Opal had no choice but to release him from the small prison and place him in chains instead.

He almost wished it was a real chain instead of a pink crystal necklace. Even though it was small and light, he was unable to move it, lift it, or cause any other sort of change in it. Opal had used a spell to bind Ivan to the crystal, and then she hung the necklace from a thin branch on one of the trees. He’d been forced to stand there and watch

their strange show ever since.

“Why are you doing this?” Ivan asked as Opal neatly plucked the

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necklace from off the branch and walked toward the pond. Ivan had  no choice but to follow. It was almost as it an invisible leash kept him  tied to the stupid feminine crystal.

“Because the sacrifice of a medium is required, and we aren’t  exactly a common race.”

That hadn’t been what Ivan meant. “But who is all of this for?

What am I dying for?” He also wanted to ask if he would be with Eric in the end as well, but Eric was not in the afterlife. He was trapped on earth.

Something resembling pity entered Opal’s large eyes. She shook her head at him. “It’s not your life that must be sacrificed. You are already dead. We need a soul to complete the process.”

Ivan looked toward the glowing water. Deacon was washing his face in it and splashing the water up his arms before dunking his entire body. He was glowing, too, when he came back up.

“Who do you hope to call?”

“A god. We shall summon a god to the earth. I shall be rewarded with enough knowledge to make me the prime medium in the whole world, and Deacon will become the host, and in return his enemies

will be destroyed, and he shall be given back the land that is rightfully

his.

For the first time, Ivan became more enraged than he could ever remember. “You evil cunt. Those good werewolves took you in as their guest and you dare defile them like this?”

Opal’s face was stony. “I don’t like being called a cunt.”

She threw the necklace into the water, and like he was tied to an

anvil with a chain, Ivan was pulled in.

* * * *

Eric watched in horror as Opal threw some glittery thing into the glowing water of the pond, and Ivan was flung in with it. He charged faster, digging his claws deeper into the earth to propel himself along,

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and he was only able to catch a quick glimpse of the shock on Opal’s  face as he jumped far and dove into the water where he thought he  saw Ivan disappear.

Strangely enough, Deacon was in the water as well, standing in  the shallower end, but he was glowing like a nightlight. He didn’t  understand what the hell Opal had to do with Deacon or why they  were working together, but he did understand where the glow in the  water came from when he was submerged.

Spirits. Hundreds of them. It was like swimming in the river of  Styx. They swirled around in a massive cluster, almost like fish. Some  came closer to Eric to inspect him, but then darted away, down farther  into the deep end of the water where they were all gathered.

Eric swam deeper, the water, usually so crystal clear, becoming  darker and colder the farther he went. He never had a clue that this

pond was ever so deep.

He found what the spirits were all circling around, and he nearly

inhaled the water.

Ivan, there he was. His eyes were closed, and he actually had the look of a dead spirit as he floated in the water. It almost looked as though something was tied to his ankle, weighing him down in the same way he was tied to that chain Opal had thrown into the water.

Several of the spirits were clutching Ivan’s body, many putting their lips on whatever skin they could find. The sight confused him, and then he realized what they were doing.

They were sucking on him. These ghosts were sucking on Ivan’s spirit like he was made of candy, and thing trails of white light left his body and entered into the mouths of the ghosts from where they were attached to him.

They were actually sucking away his life.

Why they were doing this to Ivan’s spirit and not to Eric, who was actually inside of a living body, he didn’t know, nor did he care. It was dark down here, but the necklace still sparkled, and Eric’s eyes instantly focused on it. He swam for it. A billowy cloud of dirt and

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slime puffed up from the bottom of the pond when he set his paws  down on the floor. He dipped his face, and his jaws still managed to  find the frail chain that the crystal keeping hold of Ivan was  connected to.

His eyes went wide, and he exhaled all the air from his lungs as the pain in his mouth burned.

Silver! The fucking chain was made of silver!

Regardless of the pain, Eric wasn’t about to let the chain go. He pushed down on the bottom of the pond floor and shot to the surface of the water. The spirits cried out at his theft and followed. He didn’t look back at them.

Bright light assaulted his eyes when he broke through the water’s surface. He swam with everything he had inside of him for dry land, running as his feet touched down on the shallow area of the pond.

He watched as Deacon lunged for him, but the shot from a gun, the bullet punching in the water between them, stopped Deacon in his tracks, allowing Eric to get back onto dry earth and drop the necklace out of his mouth.

Ivan was still attached to it somehow, and as Eric dragged his body out of the water, Ivan was dragged along with him. He was still unconscious and way too dead-looking for Eric’s comfort. At least those other spirits weren’t sucking the life—if that was the proper description for it—out of him anymore.

Eli was in human form now, and he dropped in front of Eric and took him by the muzzle.

“Your mouth—”

He didn’t even want to get on that subject. He could already see the blood on Eli’s hands from where he touched Eric’s muzzle. At

least he’d kept his tongue safe, so he would still be able to speak.

He shifted back into human form. His lips felt cut up and were in  the beginning stages swelling.

Eli had to force himself to look away from him and down at what  Eric had brought to the surface. “What is that?”

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Eric looked down at Ivan. “Hopefully, Ivan’s soul,” he said, picking up the other man and holding him tightly in his arms.

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