Possess Me (20 page)

He laughed, shuffling past Ben to grab his cane before patting the younger man on his shoulder. “You’ve seen me before. And you will again. There’s a note for you on the piano. She didn’t run away from you, Benjamin. Not this time. Now hurry. She needs you.” He stopped in the doorway, placing his straw hat firmly on his head. “A Toussaint woman’s soul is made to care for the world, but her heart is made for just one man. If he’s strong enough.”

Ben didn’t know why, but he couldn’t stop the words that came out of his mouth. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. Thank the Marassa twins. Those Loa are partial to Michelle. So is—what is it you call him? Ah, yes, BD. Be nice to that one. He’s got a rough road ahead.”

Ben blinked, and the old man was gone, the echo of music still rippling through the room. The piano. He rushed over and found a note from Michelle. She’d gotten a phone call, and she hadn’t wanted to wake him. It was something she thought she had to do on her own.

“Oh, Mimi. You need a keeper, baby.”

He knew just the man for the job.

 

 

 

“WHY DO YOU STAY HERE? THIS CITY USED TO BE BEAUTIFUL.
Now it’s a seedy, musty memory of its former self. I’ve seen so many wonders around this world. Maybe I’ll show you a few.”

Michelle smiled sardonically. “You’re welcome to go at any time. This is where I belong.”

Nothing like being tied to the bed in your long-lost brother’s hotel room to bring to light what was truly important. She may have come home to escape her nightmares, but she was staying because it was her home. And the home of everyone she loved.

Gabriel turned away from the French doors that led out to the balcony and sneered. “Where you belong? But I don’t, isn’t that what you’re saying? Do you know what memories I have up here?” He banged the side of his head with his hand. “You were the special one. You were the
bon ange
. I was an accident, powerless, something Mambo Toussaint had no trouble sending away, along with the man who loved her.”

Michelle rolled her eyes. “You know I can see you. Why do you persist in pretending you’re my brother?”

Gabriel lowered himself with a playful bounce to the bed beside her, her tied ankles protecting him from getting his head kicked in. She saw the red energy, the menacing face of the
djab
beside him,
in
him, as he answered her. “Because it’s so much fun. He’s so full of anger, this one. Anger at you. At your mother. But more important, he is feeding me with all this delicious pain.”

He pointed his finger at her and shook his head, scolding. “You have no idea what this poor boy has suffered because of you. To think he actually missed you as a child. The priests soon beat
that
out of him. They prayed over him, studied him, starved him—all so his father could make sure he wasn’t possessed by the same demon hiding inside you, his twin sister.”

She clenched her fingers, wishing she could get her hands on him.

The
djab
laughed until tears streamed out of Gabriel’s eyes. “I love human irony. His father’s latest wife is Wiccan! Can you believe it? And she convinced him to admit to his son that he was wrong, that you weren’t possessed, you were just special. Boy, did the news throw ol’ Gabe here over the edge.”

Oh dear God. She’d had no idea. How could she? She was too busy feeling abandoned by him. By their father. Too busy refusing to trust too much in anyone, to love, because they might leave her, just like Gabe had.

“Poor Gabriel. Didn’t his father tell him that he was the one who left? That my mother wanted to keep Gabriel with us? That I wanted him to stay?”

The possessed man whirled toward her, straddling her waist while he gripped her cheeks in rough hands. “He hasn’t changed that much. And don’t feel sorry for your brother, beauty. He had plans for you. He wanted to fight fire with fire. He’d gathered hair from you and your mother on his visit, thinking he could make a
gris-gris
to protect him from you long enough to convince his mother that it was
he
who was the special one,
he
who deserved to be loved.” The
djab
shook his head. “The boy is a little confused. And he truly knows nothing of voodoo. It’s sad really. He is a Toussaint after all.”

He cackled, his eyes bloodshot and wild as he gazed down at Michelle’s prone figure. “You know what I think would drive him completely over the edge? If I fucked you in his body. Surely only a demon could arouse her own brother enough to make him do something so forbidden. The pain would be succulent.”

“No.”

“Why not, Michelle? It isn’t like you have a problem having sex with a spirit present. And please, don’t try to tell me you have limits to what you’re willing to do in the pursuit of pleasure.”

She tried to keep her face blank, her heart rate normal. Bone Daddy said he fed off fear and pain. She wouldn’t satisfy him. She couldn’t let him know that she was terrified, and so heartbroken for her brother, for herself, that she was having a hard time not screaming bloody murder.

“You disgust me. You bore me. And I have no intention of letting you touch me.”

“Strong words from someone who is tied to my bed. I knew you would be fun to play with. Knew it four years ago. And you are. How do you plan to stop me all by yourself?”

“She isn’t all by herself. She never has been.”

“The boyfriend? I’m impressed, Michelle. You must be really good in bed.” The
djab
pulled Gabriel’s body off of her, turning to face Ben.

Now she was truly afraid. Ben knew Bone Daddy, he had to know how strong spirits were when they possessed a body. They used the energy to supercharge their abilities. He would kill Ben. Why had he come?

She met his gaze, panicked, but he just smiled.

“I love you, Mimi. I’ll always come for you.”

The first punch knocked Ben into the wall, and Michelle cried out. “No!”

A powerful tingling, different from the feeling she got when Ben touched her, wrapped around her body.

Michelle,
cher,
you need to let me in. Accept me, and I can help you.

Bone Daddy?

No. She didn’t want to be taken over, didn’t want to give up control of her body. Look at the damage the
djab
was doing, had done.

I would never hurt you or those you love,
cher
. I can help you. I can save Ben. But you have to accept me.

Ben. He loved her. And she loved him. Had always loved him. If she could save him, nothing else mattered. “I accept you.”

It was a little like drowning, falling into the energy as his spirit rose from the bed and into her body. She resisted instinctively for a moment, then she saw Ben crumple to the floor once more, his body still. She opened the door to the Loa, feeling her
ti bon ange
separate from her body, and letting his consciousness take over the reins.

She watched from a distance as her body easily released itself from the ropes that bound it, leaping from the bed to tackle Gabriel and his
djab
rider.

“These people belong to me. Under my protection. You are not welcome here.” Bone Daddy reached into the energy surrounding Gabriel, and Michelle felt the violent, magical tug-of-war that ensued between them. For a moment it seemed that the rest of her soul was going to be forcibly ripped from her body.

The
djab
snarled, struggling in Bone Daddy’s grip. “You can’t control me. You’re not even a true Loa. You’re a nothing.”

Michelle felt her lips form a smile as Bone Daddy, with one impossible push of power, unseated Gabriel’s
djab
and held the neck of the limp spirit in his hands. “I’m the nothing who’s sending you back to where you belong.”

Bone Daddy wasn’t surprised by the knock on the door, or the masked man in the top hat who pushed it open. The strange man looked dressed for Mardi Gras, with feathers lining the shoulders of his old tuxedo. He opened a large pouch and Michelle looked on as Bone Daddy dropped the
djab
inside, closing the drawstrings tight. “Look out for this one, he was stalking a Toussaint.”

The masked figure nodded, turning to leave without uttering a word.

What now?
she wondered. She heard Ben moan and roll onto his side, and knew that whatever happened next would be worth it. Ben was alive.

Cher
, I’m not a monster. You’re giving me a complex. Have a little faith.

She smiled even as the darkness swirled around her, pulling her into unconsciousness. He really was growing on her.

SHE WAS ALMOST AFRAID TO OPEN HER EYES. SHE WAS
dreaming she was in her old twin bed. The air smelled like her favorite bread pudding, the sweet cinnamon-flavored treat her mother always made for her when she was sad. It felt like she was home.

“I know you’re awake, Mimi. Open those pretty green eyes for me, baby. I need to see them.”

Ben. Her eyes popped open and she jackknifed to a sitting position at the sight that met her gaze. She reached out to pull him closer with a gasp, and a wave of dizziness nearly knocked her back down, but Ben’s hands gripped her shoulders gently.

“Are you okay?”

She rolled her eyes. “Am
I
okay? You’re the one who looks like you went to tryouts for the WWE.”

Ben grimaced, wincing as the expression tugged on his split lip and swollen right eye. “Feels a little like it, too. Although I think my vanity hurts more than anything else. So much for charging in on that white horse to save the day.”

“More like a white jackass,” she huffed. “You could have been killed taking that thing on.” She whacked him lightly on his shoulder.

He laughed, making him groan once more. “Don’t go laying on that sympathy too thick, Florence Nightingale. I might start thinking you care.”

Her heart raced as she looked at him. She took his hand, drawing his gaze to hers. He stilled at the expression he saw on her face. “I care, Ben Adair. I—”

“Am I interrupting?”

“Gabriel.”

Her brother wasn’t looking too good. Dark circles deepened the green of his eyes, and his skin was unnaturally pale.

Ben tensed beside her. “Gabe, do you think you should be up right now? Your mother wants you to take it slow.”

He smiled weakly and his attention focused on Michelle. “I know. She’s been hovering over me like a worried mother hen. And she keeps bringing me trays of food.”

Michelle could hear the confusion in his voice. “Of course she does, Gabriel. She loves you. You’re her son.”

He flinched. “About what happened. I heard what he said, what you said. I know—”

“I wrote to you. Did you know that? Every day for three years after you left.” She leaned over on the bed, reaching beneath it until she found an old hatbox. “They all came back unopened. Mom’s, too. I thought you didn’t want to be a part of our family anymore.”

She opened the box and picked up two stacks of envelopes, slightly yellowed with age and wrapped in blue yarn.

Gabriel’s jaw worked, his eyes shining as he stepped closer, holding out his hand. “May I read them now?”

She nodded, handing them over solemnly. A hole inside her that she had never completely acknowledged started to close when she saw him look at the letters. He hadn’t known about them. Her father was a bastard, but her brother had been just as lonely as she had without his twin.

“Gabriel? Gabriel, honey, where you at?”

She and Gabriel shared a laugh. He lifted his voice to reach her down the hallway. “I’m talking to Michelle.”

“You should be lying down! I have bread pudding almost ready and I made you some of my special tea.”

Ben smirked. “When one of The Mamas calls, son, you’d better run.”

“Apparently.” He turned back to Michelle. “Thank you for these.”

“Anytime, Gabriel.”

He turned to go, then stopped to look over his shoulder at Ben and Michelle. “I’m glad she wasn’t alone, Ben. Glad you were here.” He closed the door with a firm click behind him.

Michelle quickly wiped a tear that had escaped down her cheek, knowing Ben had sensed all that had gone on in that hotel room while she was talking to Gabriel.

“I can ruin him if you like.”

Michelle frowned in confusion and Ben elaborated. “Your father. Say the word and I can make sure his family’s business takes a sudden turn for the worse.”

She smiled. “Not that I don’t like this bloodthirsty side of you, Adair, but it isn’t necessary.” She glanced toward the door. “He doesn’t have anything I want anymore.” A sudden thought occurred to her. “How did we get here? Where’s—”

Ben chuckled. “Bone Daddy? According to The Mamas, they opened the door a few hours ago to you, carrying Gabriel and me on each of your shoulders. You laid us down, flirted with your mother, then passed out. You don’t see him?”