Paranormal Erotic Romance Box Set (23 page)

“Me? No,” I said and looked down at the pillow James slept
on. “Just one.”

“Only one?” Céline said and wrinkled her nose. “But James
said you were a model. I would think you travelled and saw many things.”

“It wasn’t like that for me,” I said.

“What was it like for you?”

“I thought it was a waste of time. I never saw it as a
career, but something I hoped would make my parents proud. When I think about
it now, I realize I did not appreciate the opportunities. I didn’t make the
most of the experiences.”

“You are very lovely, Sophia,” Céline said and slipped her
shoes off, revealing her perfect, manicured toes painted in glossy scarlet. “In
what way did you not make the most of things?”

“I just wanted everything to hurry up and be done,” I
said.

“You did?” Céline said. “Why?”

“Because I needed to find a husband,” I said. “I thought
that would fix me.”

“Were you broken?”

“Oh man, was I ever,” I said and laughed. “Shattered,
really.”

“And the husband was the glue,” Céline said and took my
empty coffee cup and set it on the bedside table.

“Exactly. I thought that if I only had a husband, I would
be fixed. I wanted the modeling to hurry up and be done because the faster I
was stationary to find said husband, the sooner I felt I would be fixed. Silly,
huh?”

“Yes,” Céline said and frowned, “and sad.”

I stared at Céline as she rested against the quilted
headboard and closed her eyes. Everything about her, her makeup, her hair, her
body, was perfection. She looked as if she was drawn; created by a master
artist in a castle workshop in Milan.

“I bet you never felt the need for a man’s approval,” I
said as I leaned back.

“Me?” She said and opened her eyes and turned her head
toward me. “I learned when I was a little child, never to confuse sex with
sentiment. It may have hardened my heart in life, but it also protected me from
one or two tragedies.”

“I’ve never been that courageous.”

“And now?” Céline said and stretched her body down the
bed.

“Now, I’m learning to be brave.”

“Good, you will be fine,” Céline said and smiled.

“How did you come to be here?”

“Ah, the big question,” Céline said and giggled. “I came
to be here on December 12, 1954. I was, I am, twenty-eight-years-old and I flew
to Boston from Paris to meet a man, Adrian Costa. He was the closest thing to
mortal love I ever knew.”

“And he did this to you?”

“Oh no, love, I did this to myself,” Céline said and
turned her palms up and exposed her wrists.

“You--”

“Slit my wrists?” Céline said and grinned. “Yes. I didn’t
follow my own rule and confused sex with sentiment. I came to Boston because I
loved Adrian Costa and I thought that he loved me too. Do you know why I felt
this?”

“Because he told you he did,” I said and stared at
Céline’s wrists.

“Exactly...because he told me he did. But, he did not. At
least that’s what his wife told me when I showed up to surprise him at his
Beacon Hill brownstone as she held their child.”

“What a rat.”

“Yes, a great, big rat! So, I ran down the sidewalk and
jumped into a cab, the scene would have been made more tragic if it was pouring
rain. I was a sobbing mess. I told the cab driver to take me to Cape Cod
because of its relationship to Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio.”

“Wait, back up,” I said. “What in the world does Cape Cod
have to do with Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio?”

“Oh, it’s so embarrassing,” Céline said and covered her
face with her hands. “Well, at the time I was obsessed with the relationship
between Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio. It was during this time I was involved
with Adrian Costa. Marilyn Monroe was the quintessential sex object, no? And
DiMaggio, well, he was a brute, but strong and commanding. I saw myself and
Adrian as similar figures to Marilyn and Joe.

“I read in Life magazine that after a particularly nasty
argument, Joe DiMaggio chased Marilyn to Cape Cod. The silly girl in me felt
that if I was on the same hallowed ground, Adrian would chase me as Joe did
Marilyn. I wanted him to chase me, you see?”

“As crazy as it sounds, that makes perfect sense to me,” I
said and smiled.

“We are cut from the same romantic cloth, I suppose,”
Céline said and rested her head on my shoulder. “Of course, it would be better
had I known that Marilyn divorced Joe not nine months after they married, but
alas, I clung to the ideal of them in my starry-eyed way. So, I told the cab
driver to take me to Cape Cod and he told me the Battleroy was the only place
on the Cape open in December.”

“And, had they not had a room, you would still be--”

“Now, I don’t know about that, Sophia,” Céline said and
smiled. “Maybe I would still be alive and maybe I wouldn’t. I only know one
thing for sure. On that night, I did not wish to die.”

“Then why did you slit your wrists?”

“Because, I just wanted to get Adrian Costa’s attention,”
Céline said. “When I took the razor blade out of the shaver in the bathroom, I
thought that I would just make little scratches, deep enough to get me
hospitalized, but certainly not deep enough to make me dead. I dressed in a
beautiful robe and did my hair and make-up perfectly so I would look beautiful
when they found me. What I did not count on was losing all of my blood so
quickly, the cuts I made were just too deep.”

“It was all a mistake?”

“Yes, it was all a mistake. When I awoke and rose after
the life left my body, I was so scared. I did not understand why I could see my
body, as if watching a movie. I thought it all must have been a terrible
nightmare but, when I pinched my arm, I felt it.”

“I know how that feels,” I said and sighed.

“Of course you do. But then Patrick came for me and soon I
understood what happened. And that’s my story. And now, you must tell me yours.
Your husband did this to you?”

“His lover struck the blow, but he was right there next to
her,” I said and twisted the sheets around my wrist.

“I’m sorry, do you not want to talk about this?”

“It’s okay. I just get embarrassed when I think about it.
Like, how could I be so stupid, you know? I forced myself to fit into Brandt
and I forced Brandt to fit into me.”

“Yes, when we do that when we are desperate.”

“I was. I hadn’t just aligned myself with the idea of
making Brandt my husband, I was reliant on him as if he were my host or a
Siamese twin. I was so desperate, I didn’t see the biggest lie of all.”

“What was the biggest lie of all?”

“That it was all a trick,” I said and smiled as Céline’s
eyes got wide. “He never had any intention of fixing me. He only wanted to
break me more.”

“Look, Sophia,” Céline said and slid off the bed, “no one
knows men more than me. No one knows different types of men more than me. A man
like that would never have been able to fix you even if that bastard wanted
to.”

“I suppose, but I still should have seen it.”

“And would you have believed it if you had or would you
have made excuses, once again trying to fit something that was too big into a
hole too small?”

“Probably,” I said and closed my eyes. “Yes, you are
right.”

“Of course I am. Now, it’s time for your special bath,”
Céline said and walked to the table by the window. “We have rose water and
lavender oil and vanilla and honey and champagne.”

“Sounds like a cake,” I said.

“It’s a special concoction that everyone bathes in the
night of their Ceremony. It is very magical.”

Céline drew warm water into the large claw-foot tub in the
master bath. She poured the contents of each vial slowly into the water while
she whispered a prayer or incantation I could not understand and held my hand
as I stepped into the bath. She massaged my scalp until it tingled and washed
my long hair with a mixture of vetiver infused olive oil soap and ylang-ylang.

“Just relax and breathe,” Céline said as she massaged my
shoulders with lavender oil.

“Céline, will I ever be at peace?”

“Is that what you want...peace?”

“Yes,” I said and tried to calm my breathing, “peace and
revenge.”

“Then it shall be,” Céline said and kissed the back of my
head. “Sophia will find peace and will be imbued with the courage to get her
revenge. So mote it be.”

“I hope so,” I said and took Céline’s hand as she helped
me out of the tub.

“What are you thinking so seriously of now?” Céline said
as she dried my body with a large bath towel.

“I was just thinking of your story, Céline,” I said as I
looked into the bathroom mirror. “It’s really a tragedy.”

“All of the stories are tragedies,” Céline said as she
dried my hair with a black chenille towel. “The Universe is full of tragedy and
irony.”

“Like the irony of a chef dying of food poison?”

“Exactly like poor, grumpy Heinrich,” Céline said and
frowned. “But it is nothing new. Greeks, Romans, the English all entertained
one another with tragedy. Look at the tragedy of you being killed by someone
you tried to force into loving you and finding the love here you should have
demanded for yourself in life.”

“Yes, true,” I said and smiled. “What about Patrick, do
you love him?”

Céline smiled and wrapped her arms around herself.

“Oh, boy, I love Patrick more than I ever thought
possible. Yet another one of the Universe’s ironies.”

Céline dressed me in a beautiful blood-red silk robe and
placed a wreath of poppies on my head.

“Lovely, Sophia,” Céline said and kissed me once on each
cheek. “Nyx is here and it is time.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“You will have many sisters and brothers soon. You are no
longer alone, Sophia.”

“I feel very nervous,” I said.

“Don’t be,” Céline said as she picked up a large, glass curio
box from the side table by the front door of the suite. “Everyone is there for
you. Come.”

Céline and I ran down the hall and slipped behind the side
door as we walked down spiral flights of stone steps from the top of the tower
to the basement of the hotel. We stopped at a door that led out to the rose
garden and she hugged me.

“Don’t be scared, little one. Hades is your Father now,”
Céline said.

“One moment your life is a stone in you, and the next,
a star.”

Rainer Maria Rilke

Céline opened the side door from the basement and the cool
night air washed over my body as she led me toward the garden. James met us at
the wrought iron gate and opened it for us. Céline walked ahead and placed the
curio box on top of the stone altar. She kissed the top of the box and stood
with the others.

“You look beautiful, Sophia,” James said and kissed me on
the cheek.

“You’re here,” I said and threw my arms around his neck.

“Of course I’m here, silly,” James said and wrapped his
arms around my waist. “I’m not some teenager who is going to stand you up for
prom. Come now, I will present you to Adelaide.”

I scanned the crowd and looked at the others. They wore
all different styles of dress and looked like cast members starring in a
production about the history of fashion. They all looked back at me with kind
eyes and love.

A handsome man dressed in a very old-fashioned suit walked
up to me.

“Hello, Sophia, I am Jonas Dashiell. Welcome.”

Jonas took my hand into his and bowed. He pressed his warm
lips to the back of my cold hand and I shivered. When he stood, he pulled a
long knife from the inside of his suit coat and walked over to the table and
placed the knife on top of the curio box.

Adelaide stood before us looking milkier and more
beautiful than she ever had. Deep fissures cracked their way along her stone as
she smiled and blinked.

“Good evening, everyone,” Adelaide said.

“Good evening,” they said in unison.

“We gather here tonight to commit our sister Sophia’s soul
to our sacred land. Who presents Sophia Pearson-Therrault to us?” Adelaide
said.

“I do,” James said and led me toward Adelaide.

“Sophia,” Adelaide said, “are you ready to accept us as
your brothers and sisters?”

“I am,” I said.

I smiled as all the others clapped.

“Sophia,” Adelaide said, “are you willing to accept Hades
as your father and Thanatos as your new God?”

“Yes.”

“The book, Jonas,” Adelaide said.

Jonas Dashiell grabbed the knife off the top of the curio
box and held it up over his head as the others extended their arms to the sky.
He brought the knife in front of his face and kissed the blade. Then he opened
the curio box and pulled a thick, leather-bound book from the box and walked
back me. He opened the book to a specific page, its place held by a thick strap
of black leather and pointed to a passage with the tip of the knife. The words
looked as if they were carved into the heavy, dingy parchment with a chisel.

James released my hand and walked a few steps away from
me. I turned to face him and he smiled.

“It’s okay,” James said. “I’m right here, but you must do
this alone.”

I turned back and looked at Adelaide. She smiled at me,
encouraging me to read the passage as Jonas tapped the book with the blade of
the knife.

“Sophia,” Adelaide said, “read the words and proclaim your
commitments to us, your Father and your God.

“Okay,” I said and cleared my throat. “Sorry, I’m a little
nervous.”

The others murmured words of encouragement as I studied
the words before me.

“Go ahead,” Jonas said and smiled. “He is waiting.”

I looked into Jonas’ eyes and then around the garden. I
looked over my shoulder at James and he winked at me.

“Hades, Father of the Underworld,” I said as I read the
passage, “it is you who watch over the spirits of the deceased. It is you who
are the liberator of justice, you who have kept the peace. We spirits are at
your mercy and your word is Law.”