Chills & Thrills Paranormal Boxed Set (35 page)

* * *

*Do not worry, servant. That was merely the defender's
first test.
 
Although the words came
to Zach internally, Richard Cormier laughed. His fading body solidified.

Ignoring
le fantome's
* message, and certain he was up
to the task, Zach turned to get the opal, then stumbled back. Two bulging eyes
glared down on him. Eight spindly legs stabbed the air above a thickly swollen
sac the size of a hot-air balloon. A pair of open fangs the length of carving
knives dripped with venom.

Zach's mind rocked so violently he was certain his sanity
would shatter. In a moment he'd surely collapse on the cavern's stony floor and
begin babbling and snatching at flies. Another test? Oh yes. And this time he
wouldn't pass.

Just as his knees began to buckle as he'd predicted, he felt
a gentle touch. A familiar voice said, "You can beat this, bro."

He'd recognize that carefree tone anywhere. Waves of relief
swept over him as he turned.

Trendily dressed as usual, the man smiled at him with
contagious confidence.

"Jed?" he stammered, dividing his gaze between the
specter of his brother and the dangling, monstrous spider.

"Take this creature away, master!" Richard
bellowed.

"Yeah, man. I'm here. Isn't that what brothers are
for?"

What brothers were for? Yes, but . . . "I let you down,
Jed, and you died because of it."

His brother shook his head. "All events led to this
night."

"Away!" Richard roared again. "Take it away!
Look how it empowers this sniveling cur! Forget Zach, master. He doesn't
deserve your grace. Take me as your host. Take me in his place."

The shout drew Zach's attention, and fearful that Cormier's
plea would be answered, he moved forward, aching to embrace his brother once
again. His arms contacted warmth, a sense of peace, but nothing solid, nothing
he could hang on to.

His brother paled before his eyes as he spoke again.
"You have a weapon in your pocket and another on the ground. Use them,
bro. Use them. Defeat
le fantome noir
for all time." Then he
vanished.

"No! No!" Richard shrieked. "It's always
Zach. It's always been Zach. When will my time come?"

Zach lingered only an instant to inhale the freshness left
in his brother's wake, then once again turned to face Richard, whose form was
fading and twisting and rising to rejoin Ankouer, even as his raging voice
faded into nothingness. The spider twitched, a rumble of satisfaction surging
from its mouth.

Zach hesitated only a second before scooping up the fallen
opal. Then he pivoted to face the waiting spider. He had the opal now, but what
was the weapon in his pocket? He had only one. His pen knife.

He reached into his pocket for the knife, then flicked it
open. What a goddamn flimsy defense. Still, if his brother said it would work,
that was good enough for Zach. So, clutching the opal in one hand and wielding
the tiny pen knife in the other, Zach moved to meet the spider.

He hoped like hell that Jed hadn't been another of Ankouer's
illusions.

* * *

A violent shudder rocked Liz back and forth. Bats shrieked
with pain, and a chilling wail filled her ears. Ankouer had been wounded.
Feeling a surge of hope she struggled to her knees.

"'Power above, Power divine,'" she began anew.
"'I call to . . . thee! Shine your light upon my soul. Wash over me a love
so pure, my heart is cleansed . . . cleansed . . "

"'My heart is cleansed . . '"

Just then a strong bass voice joined hers, providing the
forgotten words. "'My heart is cleansed of hate. Glow, glow, bright opal,
free your fire. Illuminate the shadows. Pave my way.'"

Zach chanted as loud as he could, seeking Liz in the gray
mist, carrying his small and bloody pocket knife before him like a shield, and
cradling the opal in his other hand. Who would think Ankouer could bleed? A
creature made of nothing but formless protoplasm? But this sign of the
phantom's mortality had given him hope. "'Pave my way, pave my way, so
darkness shall not fall upon this earth.'"

He broke off and called Liz's name. She didn't answer and he
resumed his chant, moving uncertainly through an endless fog. Had the phantom
killed her already? Would he find her lifeless body staring up at him with
those telltale blue lips? His fears chilled his already cold blood. He
shivered, clinging to the knife as though it was his only hope. "'By the
fire within the stone I pledge to hold courage fast in this dark place.' "

Submit, Defender. The guardian is lost. I promise you no
fear. Take my gift, and see if I am true to my word.

"No!" he shouted defiantly. He resumed the prayer.
"'By the fire within the stone I pledge to hold courage fast in this dark
place.'"

The stone in his hand remained inert. He'd expected it to
spark and flare as it had done when Liz had approached the ledge. He needed
light. Needed it bad. He could see so little in all the gloom.

"Liz," he called again. "Liz.
Liz-iz-iz-izzzzzz!"

Liz moved skittishly toward Zach's voice. The thick mist
kept her from seeing her own feet, and though she repeated the prayer along
with him, for some reason he couldn't hear her.

"'By the fire within the stone,'" she echoed after
him, "'I pledge to hold courage fast in this dark place.'"

The circling forms above shrieked and scattered. She felt
more than heard the shuddering sob wracking the mist below her feet. She
stumbled through the cloudy haze, guided by the rich cadence of Zach's voice.

" 'Power above, Power divine,' " he said, then
called her name again.

"Zach," she cried in return. The vapor seemed
endless. Finding him was hopeless, a lost cause, not worthy of their efforts.
But as they moved into the stanza regarding sorrow, her heart lifted, cleansed
of sorrow as the words proclaimed.

Then there he was, emerging from the mist like a warrior
hero from a Scottish tale, stance wide, holding his tiny knife in front of him
as he might a sword. Liz broke into a run, arms held wide, finally trusting
that she wouldn't fall.

Zach, oh, Zach, her love, her life. Zach.

And he was running, too, his arms as wide as hers, his face
alight with an adoring smile, and as they met, she started to leap into his
arms.

She stopped short. What if . . . ?

"I'm real, Liz," he said shakily.

With the opal between them, he crushed her against his hard
chest, holding her so tightly she could barely breathe, whispering, "I'm
sorry, Liz. Oh, God, I'm so sorry."

Fiery color exploded. Rainbow hues shot from between their
bodies in every direction. Heat seeped from the opal and eased their chill.

Above them the bats swirled, chittering angrily, letting out
shrieks that bothered them not at all. She was safe now, safe in Zach's arms.
And she had no idea why he was apologizing, but she just allowed herself to
receive his loving kisses, deposited so frantically she couldn't begin to
return them.

Another shudder ran beneath their feet. Liz stumbled, but
Zach righted her. He hadn't realized how small she was, how fragile. He'd seen
her as this pillar of strength since their reunion, often wishing to find the
vulnerable girl he'd loved instead. He saw now that he'd wed each of his
clinging wives in an attempt to replace the girl, dooming their marriage to
fail.

Now it was clear that it had never been Liz's weaknesses
he'd loved. No, he'd loved her strength. He wanted to shore it up with his
support and no longer cared if she loved him back. To give love, that was
important, and no one he'd ever known deserved it more.

She slipped her arms around his neck and gazed up at him.
Her golden eyes carried all the glittering undertones he'd seen in the opal
earlier and were filled with reflections of his own emotions.

Ankouer wailed in rage. A fierce wind arose as his body
writhed in anger. Zach let Liz go and stood beside her, putting the hand with
the opal protectively over her shoulder and holding the knife with the other.
Like fighting an elephant with a needle, he thought, as bats darted down from
the sky, pecking at them as birds might. He slashed at them, one by one, and
like the spider, they bled. With each one he felled, his hatred soared. Beside
him, Liz fended off other creatures, her face an echo of his emotions.

Suddenly she dropped her hands. "'Power above, Power
divine,'" she began, her voice high and sweet. "'I call to thee.'"
Then she turned to Zach. "Stop fighting," she told him. "Ankouer
feeds on hate."

But hate had hold of him now. He let go of Liz, let the opal
fall. His fury at all his fears, at all he'd lost at this monster's hand, raged
and raged, and he expressed it with every slash of his tiny knife.

"'Shine your light upon my soul,'" Liz cried,
falling to her knees to claw at the mist in search of the stone. Zach was in a
frenzy he couldn't control. It was up to her, and she said a smaller prayer
that this time words would not fail her.

"'Wash over me a love so pure, my heart is cleansed of
hate.'"

His slashes lost momentum, getting weaker and less frantic,
but Liz kept searching. Finally her hand brushed a hard object.

With an exultant cry, she held the opal aloft, crying.

"'Glow, glow, bright opal, free your fire. illuminate
the shadows. Pave my way. . . . Pave my way, pave my way, so darkness does not
fall upon this earth.'"

He glanced at her, his blue eyes dark with pain and despair,
and still she chanted. Her body grew weak with the ecstasy of love, and she
sank back on her heels saying the prayer that was their only salvation.
"'By the fire within the stone, I pledge to hold love fast in this dark
place.'"

Zach let his knife arm fall to his side. Then, suddenly, though
bats still worried them and Ankouer still screeched, he was on his knees,
enclosing her in his arms as she held the opal aloft, joining her in the final
stanza of the prayer, the one she'd been told to recite in her darkest hour.

Power above, power divine.*

Heed my call in my hour of need.

Protect me from evil in this black place.

Power above, Power divine.

Heed my call. Heed my call.

Emitting frightened squeals the bats swooped upward and
away. An earthquake rumbled beneath. The gray sky darkened to a murky black,
the bats formed into storm clouds. Streaks of red crawled across the black like
greedy fingers, creating fearsome cracks.

The quaking increased, and Zach steadied Liz as she stared
wide-eyed into the terrifying night, holding the radiant opal high above her
head. A mournful wail slithered through the unnatural storm. And with it, Liz
felt a weight descend. At last she understood. The phantom's fear, his sorrow,
his hate. They had twisted him into darkness personified. She knew then how he yearned
for the soft, the kind, the loving. That he drank the souls of men in search of
it.

Next, Maddie floated in her mind, and she comprehended the
intensity of the woman's obsessive love, and the depths to which she had sunk
in order to obtain it.

It was all so clear now, so frighteningly, so sadly, so
hatefully clear, and the arms holding the opal began to sag. Her elbows bent.
She could no longer support the burden of the stone.

Then Zach began the prayer anew, and as he spoke, tears
sprang to Liz's eyes. She let her elbows fall to his shoulders, let him brace
her with his strength, as the unspeakable sadness of all she perceived took
over.

Her first sob came as a hiccup, but another followed, and
soon she was wracked with them. Zach took her arms and wrapped them around his
neck, cupping her hands so the opal still shone on the dark, red-torn sky.

As he murmured the prayer in her ear, all the pain of her
lifetime spilled from her eyes in salty tears. She wept for her grandmother's
sorrow, her mother's sorrow, for Maddie. So much sorrow, she couldn't contain
it. Finally, almost beyond her understanding, she cried with pity for Ankouer.

The phantom's wails became like cries of an abandoned
infant, and as those sobs shook the stormy terrain, Zach held the trembling Liz
close to his chest. He felt her sadness, felt the world's sadness.

Inside a single flash of red that tore the inky sky, Maddie
and Richard stood before them, faces twisted in rage and terrible curses
streaming from their mouths. But Zach felt Richard's anger not at all. Bathed
in his love for Liz, he felt only the man's worry over his own inadequacies,
his fear he'd never be as good as Zach, his yearning and his need.

And Liz felt only Maddie's love for her father, her genuine
admiration for her mother, and the aching loneliness she'd lived with so long.
Her empty womb, her empty bed, her empty, empty life spent in pursuit of a man
who belonged to another. She wept for Maddie, feeling no shame over the tears
of love and pity streaming down her face.

As Zach saw her tears, his own eyes burned. He blinked,
again and again. Then, with a weepy smile, he lowered one hand and softly
blotted her beautiful, shining face.

The opal exploded with light. Blue-white streaks rose into
the dark panorama and entwined with the red-hot bolts. They licked at one
another like dueling rapiers, blue against red, white against black.

Zach held Liz tight, protecting her from the maelstrom. At
each clash of light, a head emerged in the sky. Richard, still swearing allegiance
to the black lord. Ellie, telling them both that love would prevail. Then the
doctor, declaring their doom, and after him, Harris, rejoicing that Izzy had
been found. Maddie proclaimed it would all be hers. And finally Jed, reminding
Zach again that all events had led to this night.