The Abandoned (7 page)

He reached over and took her hand. He seemed to understand that she needed to talk about what she’d read in those files, as if sharing the horror would somehow diminish it.

“Her family abandoned her, leaving Milton Farrante free to conduct his gruesome experiments. She was subjected to electroconvulsive shock therapy more than ten years before the procedure was formally introduced. He may have performed one of the first lobotomies on her.”

“Unbelievable that he could do all that without anyone knowing,” Hayden said.

“The asylums were full of the forgotten back then, including Ilsa’s baby. Violet was born perfectly healthy, but she spent her whole life inside that hospital, a human experiment from birth to death for three generations of Farrantes. Poor Ilsa died when Violet was just seven years old.”

“But I don’t think she moved on,” Hayden said. “I believe her ghost remained in the asylum with Violet. Think about it. All those years, helpless to stop the experiments as she watched her daughter grow into a lonely old woman. But the moment Violet died, Ilsa was set free. And there you were, at Violet’s bedside, a way for Ilsa to finally leave the hospital.”

“I’m sorry, Hayden, but I just can’t believe something that—”

“Irrational? Illogical? Crazy? How else can you explain the dream?”

“I can’t. But there has to be another reason. Maybe something I read or heard a long time ago stuck in my subconscious and Miss Violet’s death triggered it.”

“What about the cold spots, the frosted windows, the frigid breath at your neck? That’s not your subconscious or imagination. She’s there, Ree. You can’t see her, but she’s there. And she’s not going away until you give her what she wants.”

“And what is that?”

His hand tightened around hers. “Put yourself in her place. After everything that was done to her and her daughter, what would you want?”

“Revenge,” Ree said and shuddered.

“Exactly. And she needs a conduit, a way to channel her rage.”

Ree drew her hand away. “That’s crazy. Even ghosts, even
Ilsa
, can’t make me do something against my will. She can’t use me unless I let her.”

Hayden’s dark eyes burned into hers. “I wish that were so, but we really have no idea what we’re up against.”

The Charleston Institute for ParapsychologyElsewhere, it’s called the Institute for Parapsychology Studies, not Paranormal Studies.

Studies was located on the fringes of the historic district, in a glorious old antebellum with long, gleaming columns and three levels of piazzas to catch the Lowcountry breezes. Hayden let himself in the side entrance and made his way down the hall. He’d called ahead to make sure Dr. Shaw would see him at so late an hour and the older man had agreed. Now he looked up curiously as Hayden entered the office, and motioned for him to take a seat. Tall and dignified, with vivid blue eyes and a shock of white hair, he’d always struck Hayden as the epitome of the slightly absentminded professor.

He steepled his fingers beneath his chin as he waited for Hayden to settle in. “You’re out and about late. Are you just returning from the cemetery?”

“I didn’t go out there tonight,” Hayden said. “Something came up. Which is why I’m here. I’m hoping you can give me some advice. I think my friend is being haunted by the ghost of a woman who was committed to a psychiatric hospital over eighty years ago.”

One brow rose ever so slightly. “I’ve always found that mental patients make for some of the most fascinating cases. Please go on.”

Quickly, Hayden told him everything Ree had experienced, starting with the Oak Grove episode and ending with her attack earlier that night. When he was finished, Dr. Shaw sat pensively for a moment.

“Where is your friend now?” he asked.

“At my place. She’ll be physically safe there, but I want to know how I can protect her from the ghost.” It was ironic, Hayden supposed, that he’d dedicated nearly ten years of his life to searching for spirits and now that he’d found one, he hadn’t a clue what to do.

“You could try a cleansing.” Hayden gave him a look and Dr. Shaw nodded. “Yes, my feeling precisely,” he muttered.

“Ree still isn’t convinced, even after everything that’s happened. She wants to believe it’s her imagination.”

“Have you seen any evidence of possession? Personality changes, addictions, depression? Not that these signs would necessarily indicate ghost or demon possession. They could also be symptomatic of mental illness.”

“I’m aware of that,” Hayden said quietly.

“Yes, of course, you would be.”

Dr. Shaw was one of the few people who knew about Jacob’s suicide, and how it had led Hayden to ghost hunting.

“As to a personality change…I haven’t known her long. I might not even notice. But my guess is, the sleepwalking episode was the first manifestation,” he said.

“A trial run, so to speak. Perhaps testing Ree’s limitations as well as her own. From what you’ve told me of Ilsa’s history, I’m afraid the likelihood of cohabitation is strong. Ghosts that invade—not just attach—are usually those spirits that were addicted to earthly pleasures.”

“So how do I protect Ree?” Hayden asked impatiently. “She’s not going to protect herself.”

“Make contact. Assuming the ghost is looking for a vehicle and not a host, you have to find a way to communicate with her so that you can determine her ultimate goal. Then you either appease her or thwart her. And if you can, locate the obstacle that’s keeping her earthbound and remove it.”

“That sounds dangerous.”

“It can be, but doing nothing would be far riskier. As long as the ghost hovers in your friend’s orbit, her strength will grow as Ree’s diminishes.”

Until she becomes nothing but a shell, Hayden thought. He remembered those last days with Jacob. The sunken eyes, the hollow cheeks, the pallor of a walking corpse. And he knew he would do anything to keep that from happening to Ree.

“It may even be helpful that your friend is a nonbeliever,” Dr. Shaw said. “A negative ghost can feed off fear and make itself stronger. That’s where you come in. If Ree is the ghost’s conduit, then you must be her buffer.”

“How?”

“By drawing the entity’s attention onto you, thereby dividing her strength.”

“How?”

“Ghosts are attracted to human warmth and energy. The stronger the energy, the more irresistible the lure. In other words…” Dr. Shaw’s eyes gleamed as he leaned forward. “Generate enough heat and the ghost will come to you.”

When Hayden got home that night, Ree was so happy to see him, she threw her arms around him without thinking. “Thank God. I was worried something might have happened to you.”

“Was I gone that long?” He hugged her, too, but he looked a little taken aback by her enthusiastic greeting.

“It probably just seemed like forever.” She stepped back from him. “I took a shower. I hope you don’t mind. I wanted to get out of those bloody scrubs. This was all I could find to put on.”

His gaze dropped, taking in the cotton shirt she’d dragged out of his closet. The hem hit her below midthigh, longer than some of her skirts, but for some reason, Ree felt exposed in it.

“I don’t mind.” Now he was staring into her eyes. He had the strangest expression on his face. Bewilderment? Astonishment? She couldn’t quite read him.

“What is it?” she asked in alarm.

“I was just thinking about that night in Oak Grove Cemetery.”

“What about it?” The way he kept looking at her—as if
he
didn’t quite know how to read her—was a little unnerving.

“Do you believe in fate?” he asked.

“Fate?” She hadn’t expected that question.

“Do you believe that out of the entire population of the world, there are two people who are meant to be together?”

“I don’t know. I guess I never thought much about it before.”

“Think about it now. What were the chances that we would both end up in an abandoned cemetery at exactly the same time?”

“When you put it that way…”

His arms were lightly around her. Ree could have stepped from his embrace at any time, but his eyes—as dark as a midnight sea—held her enthralled. He seemed so…different.

“I think I was meant to find you that night, in that cemetery. I think the past ten years of my life led up to that exact moment.”

“You’re scaring me a little,” Ree said. “You seem…I don’t know.”

He bent and put his lips to her ear. “Don’t be afraid. This is meant to be, too.”

As his warm breath feathered over her, Ree went very still. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t move. Could barely even think.

Hayden turned her and pulled her against him, one arm wrapping around her breasts as the other hand lifted her hair. She felt his lips against her neck and everything inside her stilled. She recognized the moment. It was time to move forward or take a step back.

Her head fell against his shoulder. “Are we crazy? We barely know each other.”

“Time is a relative concept,” he murmured.

Ree turned, wound her arms around his neck and they kissed for the longest time. When they finally broke apart, she saw that he was looking—not at her—but at something beyond her shoulder. With a shiver she glanced back. They were standing in front of a window and she could see the barest hint of frost creeping over the glass.

She could feel something in the air, too, but Hayden was lifting her so that her legs were around him and they were pressed so intimately together, she could hardly breathe. He carried her into the bedroom and sat down on the edge of the bed. Her legs were still locked around him as she fastened her mouth to his. On and on they kissed, Ree’s fingers threading through his hair, his hands sliding up the shirt to grasp her hips. She began to feel anxious and feverish and she thought she might shatter into a million pieces if he didn’t stop kissing and touching her. And if he did stop, she would die.

“No,” she whispered in protest when he lifted her off him.

He went to open the window and a breeze blew in, cool and moist and feather-soft. She lay back on her elbows, letting it skim over her as Hayden began to shed his clothes.

He came to her and she sat up, resting her cheek against his hipbone. It was so marvelously sensual, being so close but not touching him, not yet. His hands curled in her hair and they stayed that way for the longest moment. Then very lightly Ree traced a fingertip along the length of him. He shuddered, said her name. And shuddered again as she encircled him.

They fell back against the bed and she saw the gleam of silver around his neck as he rose over her. She reached for it, but he dropped his head to kiss her, tugging on her bottom lip with his teeth. Then nuzzling her head to the side, he tasted the side of her neck, first with his tongue, then with his teeth. The sharp sensation shocked Ree at first, evoking something foreign yet familiar, something a little unsettling. But already the sting had subsided, and she could feel him between her legs, pushing into her and she turned dreamily toward the window. Above the open sash, the glass had frosted and for one eerie moment, Ree could have sworn she saw a pattern start to form.

But Hayden was moving inside her and with very little effort, Ree found his rhythm. It went on for a very long time. Impossibly long, it seemed to Ree. So many times she found herself on the verge, only to have him pull back, making it last and last as she dug her nails into his flesh.

The room grew cold but their bodies were molten. Mist crept in through the window. Ree felt a prickle of fear, but Hayden gathered her up in his arms and held onto her tightly as his movements became more urgent. The mist seemed almost alive now, coiling and writhing and pulsating with energy. Something told her to stop, push him away, but she couldn’t. The pleasure fed on her fear. She opened herself to him and he pressed more deeply into her, against her. With a gasp, she closed her eyes and clung to him as the mist began to envelop them.

And then it was over. An explosion of white light, and Ree was spiraling back to earth as Hayden collapsed against her with a shudder.

When she opened her eyes, they were swathed in nothing but moonlight.

Ree awakened to sunshine. She bolted upright and glanced around. It took her a moment to remember where she was. Then she saw Hayden. The bathroom door was open and he stood at the sink. He wore jeans but no shirt and his hair was still damp from the shower. She thought for a moment that he was shaving. She swung her legs over the bed and walked over to the door to watch him.

He wasn’t shaving. He stood with his hands propped against the sink, staring into the mirror. Just…staring…

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

“Wrong?” He was still studying his reflection. “I feel a little strange.”

“Strange how?”

“Like I just woke up from a dream.”

Was that good or bad? she wondered.

And then she saw the silver medallion dangling from his neck. Not the one she’d grabbed from her attacker last night because that medallion was in the pocket of her scrubs.

She gasped. “Oh, my God. You’re one of them.”

His gaze met hers in the mirror and for a moment, he seemed to snap out of his lethargy. “I can explain.”

Ree took a step back from the door. “What’s to explain? Are you or are you not a member of that despicable group?”

“It’s a legacy thing.” He turned to face her.

There was something so different about him. Something so odd about the way he’d been staring into that mirror…

If Ree didn’t know better, she’d swear he was a different man than the one she’d met in Oak Grove Cemetery.

Her scalp tingled in apprehension. “What does that mean? A legacy thing? You were automatically recruited because of your family’s history?”

“Yes, but it doesn’t have anything to do with us. You and me.”

As he moved toward her, sunlight sparked off the medallion. Ree averted her gaze and took another step back from him. “It doesn’t have anything to do with us? After what I told you about Ilsa? And you didn’t say anything?”

“It was so long ago, Ree.”

“What about your family? What about other initiation rituals?”

His voice turned cold. “You’re making a lot of assumptions that I don’t much care for.”