Soul Eater Read online

  “Are you suggesting the Sinister Police?”

  “Your family’s disappearance was swept under the rug. You know that.”

  It was true. The police had made no progress in the case and had never sought help from an outside agency. They had been acting very strange since she’d arrived, almost as if she was a threat.

  Letting her thoughts wander, Jenna paid no attention to where they were going until they came on Mirror Lake.

  “What are we doing here?”

  Brody gave her a seductive smile. “I thought we should come back to where it all started.”

  Helping her out of the truck, he took her hand in his and they walked along the shore. The sunlight sparkled off the surface of the glassy water, providing the illusion that the lake was filled with millions of tiny gems.

  Stopping, Jenna looked up at him. “How could we have stopped all this from happening?”

  “I don’t know if we could have,” he told her, reaching up to caress her cheek with his fingers.

  “If I hadn’t come to the lake that night….”

  “You’d be dead,” he finished for her. “It’s time to stop blaming yourself. Maybe we could have stopped it if we’d had foreknowledge of what was to come, but we didn’t.”

  “Why didn’t I? If I am really psychic, why didn’t I know what was going to happen?” she cried.

  “You were young. You had no idea you had the ability and it was undeveloped.”

  The years of anger and hurt came to the surface, twisting her heart. She could no longer hold back the tears and she let them flow freely.

  “I miss them so much. I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye,” she sobbed.

  Pulling her into his arms, he held her closely. “I know…. I know exactly how you feel.”

  Remembering Brody’s little brother, she felt guilty for her own thoughtless selfishness. “I’m so sorry that this happened to you … to us.”

  Brody cradled her face in his hands, forcing her to look into his eyes. “Baby … the pain will never leave us completely, but it will grow weaker over time. The best that we can do is to keep them alive within our hearts by cherishing their memory. And kicking this thing’s ass,” he added.

  Jenna nodded. “Where do we start?”

  “First thing on the agenda is to go home and get some rest. We’ll gather our forces and tackle this thing tomorrow.”

  Home. The thought sent shivers through her body.

  Brody laughed. “Of course you’ll be staying with me, at least until this is done.”

  She wasn’t about to argue with him. Even the thought of spending the night alone in that house was terrifying. Give her a serial killer, a bank robber, even a psychotic and she could handle it. But ghosts and phantom demons were a whole other story.

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  CHAPTER FIVE

  Jenna watched out the window for Brody’s return. He’d left hours ago, promising to be back before sundown. Brody had made her swear that she wouldn’t leave the house, but she was beginning to worry about him being gone so long.

  He’d gone to fetch a shaman by the name of Raven Heart. Brody was convinced that they would need the old man’s medicine in their battle with the Soul Eater.

  A glance at the clock on the wall told her it was nearing 7:00 pm. The sun would be down soon.

  The victims were all killed after sundown.

  Jenna nearly jumped out of her skin when her cell phone began ringing. Unnerved, she answered the call. “Hello.”

  “Agent Claremont?”

  “Yes, this is Agent Claremont.”

  “This is Detective Jordon of the Riverton Police. I’m afraid I have some bad news for you.”

  At the detective’s words, Jenna felt her throat constrict, cutting off her breath.

  “Agent Claremont … can you hear me?”

  “I’m here.” Jenna forced the words out.

  “We’ve discovered the body of Agent Banks. We found his car near the river. He was inside. I’m sorry,” he said in a sympathetic voice.

  Clearing her throat, she asked. “Is it the same … the same MO?”

  “Looks like it. Do you want to come and take a look?”

  She’d promised Brody that she wouldn’t leave, but she had to. It was her job. “Yes, I’ll be there shortly.”

  Locking Brody’s front door behind her, she cursed him for not having a cell phone like the rest of the civilized world.

  By the time Jenna reached the scene, it was dark. As she approached she could see the blue and red flashing lights of the police cars. The local police milled around the boundaries of the taped off crime scene.

  Parking her car out of the way of the CSI van, Jenna approached Detective Jordan. “Have you found anything additional?” she asked.

  The detective shook his head. “Nothing. It’s pretty much the same as the others.”

  Jenna examined the body, taking care not to touch anything. Banks was slumped over the wheel and even from a distance she could make out the bruising on the neck. There were signs of a struggle. Files were strewn around the front seat.

  Backing away so that she could look at the vehicle, Jenna noted that it appeared the car had hit some trees as it went off the road and came to rest near the bank of the river. He had been attacked while driving.

  Banks was too smart to have picked up a hitchhiker or any other kind of stranger. He wouldn’t have let anyone in the car he didn’t know.

  So how had it gotten to him? For that matter, how had it gotten to her family?

  The only logical answer was that someone they knew, or thought they knew had attacked these people. Otherwise the victims would have tried to get away, and all indications pointed to the fact that most of them never had time to run. The attacker was either invisible, or was known to the victim.

  Jenna pondered the thought. How would that explain Banks, though?

  “Can I barrow a flashlight?” she asked Detective Jordan.

  He handed her the one he was holding. Jenna approached the body once again and shined the light toward his exposed ear. It was there, just a couple drops of blood. She would bet that he had also had an aneurism.

  Backing away, she handed the flashlight back to the detective. “When you send him to Cheyenne, can you put a note to the coroner to check for trace dust on the body? Also, is there a way an officer can go to the old mining site on Eerie Mountain and get a sample for comparison?”

  “Sure, though it might be a chore to find someone willing to go up there. Are you trying to make a connection to the mine?” he asked her, giving her an odd look.

  “If my hunch is correct, there will be a match,” Jenna told him as she was dialing the number to the FBI office in Washington.

  Jenna pulled into the driveway of her childhood home. For some time she sat in the car, peering at the silent house. Her stomach churned at the thought of going through that door and into the darkness.

  What evil waited for her beyond the door?

  When she’d first returned to Sinister, going to the house had been troubling, but now it was downright frightening. Stalling the moment that she would have to enter the house, she picked up her cell phone and once again checked for any missed calls.

  There were none. She knew Brody hadn’t returned yet or he would have tried to contact her by now. Jenna choked back a sob. Something was wrong. There had to be. She trusted that he would have kept his word about being back before dark if he could have.

  It wasn’t satisfied with taking her family. It also had to take the only man she’d ever truly loved.

  Blinking back tears, Jenna now admitted the truth. From the first time she’d seen Brody, she’d sensed his essence, his inner strength and incredible sensuality. He’d been the image of what she’d always imagined her man to be like, but she’d been forced to go away and now he might be lost to her forever.

  She tried to push that fear away, but a hidden voice kept whispering gloomy thoughts in her ea
r. Gathering her courage, Jenna left the car and fumbled with the keys to the front door until she found the right one.

  As soon as she stepped into the dark room she felt the atmosphere change. It was like she’d entered a bubble—a strange, timeless bubble.

  The phone was ringing. Tina was calling from the bathroom for Jenna to answer it. The sound of the evening news drifted in from her father’s study.

  The room began to spin. Jenna brought her hands up to her ears to block out the sounds. “Stop!” she cried out. “Just stop. This isn’t real. You’re all gone.”

  Slowly, she removed her hands from her ears and was greeted by silence. Sighing with relief, Jenna wondered why she kept hearing and seeing scenes from the past when she was in this house. Was it the ghosts of her family tormenting her for living?

  Making her way to her father’s study, she began searching. She wasn’t sure for what—something, anything that was out of the ordinary. It had been late afternoon when her father had announced that he was going to send evidence to the state crime lab. Jenna reasoned that it was unlikely that he’d had a chance to send it before it happened.

  What exactly did happen?

  Mentally and physically exhausted, she sank into her father’s leather desk chair. She was caught off guard by the sound of crinkling paper. Jenna quickly got up and pushed down on the seat cushion with her hand. She could feel nothing. Getting on her hands and knees she looked beneath the chair. Sure enough, there was a large manila envelope taped to the bottom of the chair.

  Carefully she peeled the tape away until the envelope was free. Inside was what appeared to be some type of forensic sample, some pictures along with the negatives. There was also a receipt from Taylor’s One Hour Photo.

  The drifter’s pictures! Hadn’t old man Hessler said the man had been snapping pictures? Jenna scanned over the photographs. At first they were just photos of trees, waterfalls, and such. Then she came across a picture of what she first took to be black smoke but on closer scrutiny she could make out a face. It was Gordon Findley’s face.

  Had Gordon been possessed by that demon? Had all the people in this town been touched by its evil in one-way or another?

  Startled by a sudden crash from the back of the house, Jenna stifled a scream. With one hand resting on the butt of the pistol inside her jacket, she crept to the window and parted the curtains just enough to see into the backyard. Jenna was relieved when she saw that it was only the wind sending the unlatched screen door back and forth.

  A flash of movement caught her eye and she peered deeper into the darkness. Tina stood in the backyard, bathed in a bluish, ethereal light. Her pink pajamas billowed in the wind and her blond hair hung like strings from her head.

  A bluish tint touched her lips and the image brought to mind some of those old movies about zombies. In the time it took Jenna to blink her eyes, the specter had moved ten feet closer.

  Just to Tina’s right was Banks. He stood still, staring at her with soulless eyes. Jenna backed away from the curtains, her breath froze in her throat. Jenna’s screams ripped though the house when the phone on her father’s desk began to ring.

  There was no phone service to the house!

  Her hand trembled as she slowly reached for the phone and snatched it up. She put her ear to the phone but said nothing. On the other end, there was only static, and then a faint voice.

  “Don’t you always make sure your drawers are shut Jenna?” She had to struggle to make out the words beneath the static. “I love you, baby doll!” This time the voice was unmistakably Brody’s.

  “No!” Jenna screamed, dropping the phone from her hand. At that moment her pain was so intense that she felt her heart ripping apart. It wasn’t enough it had taken her family.

  Jenna ran back to the window. They were closer now, only a few feet from the house. Now there were more of them.

  “You’re not fooling me!” she screamed. “Those things are not the people I knew!”

  Leaving the window, Jenna went straight to her room where she’d noticed the open drawer. She pulled it open with such force that the whole thing came out onto the floor. The one thing she noticed was the stopwatch she’d given her dad for his birthday. It was still ticking loud and strong.

  There was only one problem, it was moving backwards.

  “Go back,” an inner voice whispered.

  From outside she heard a loud commotion and shattering glass. Jenna let her mind meld with the watch. The room filled with a piercing white light and she felt as if she was falling.

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  CHAPTER SIX

  Blinking rapidly, Jenna stared around the room. The sun was just coming up, straining to chase away the darkness. She sat at her dressing table, the watch still in her hands. Now the time was moving forward normally.

  Looking down at her feet, she noticed that she was wearing slippers, the same ones she had worn when she was a teen. Down the hall she could hear the shower running and her dad, whistling like he always did while showering. Hadn’t he come home to shower that morning after being call into work in the middle of the night?

  She caught the sound of cupboard doors opening and shutting in the kitchen. Reaching down, she picked up the drawer and put it back on its track. She then placed the watch inside and shoved it closed. Getting to her feet, she stepped slowly to her bedroom door. Looking back at her dressing table, she noticed that she hadn’t closed the drawer completely.

  “Jenna, are you coming to eat?” Sharon Claremont called to her.

  This couldn’t be real. It couldn’t be happening. Her head felt as if it would explode. Stepping into the kitchen, she stared wide-eyed at her mother.

  “Good Lord girl, you look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “Where’s Tina?” Jenna asked.

  “She left early, she….”

  “Had an exam at school,” Jenna finished for her.

  “Are you feeling okay?” Sharon reached over to feel her forehead for fever.

  “What is today?”

  “Well it’s Friday.”

  “No, the date.”

  “June 8th, you know that. Your birthday was just a few days ago.” Her mother’s forehead wrinkled, expressing her confusion.

  Jenna’s thoughts were in a whirlwind. Somehow, someway she’d been sent back to a time before her nightmare began. Or was any of that ever real?

  Her father would come out of the bathroom any moment now, and then the phone would ring. Just like a movie she’d watched a dozen times, the scene unfolded just like she knew it would.

  How long did she have to change it, twelve, maybe fourteen hours? Jenna ran back to her room.

  “Aren’t you going to eat breakfast?” Sharon asked as she was leaving the kitchen.

  “I’m not hungry,” she called over her shoulder.

  Stalling for time until she knew her parents were gone, she got into the shower and dressed. Jenna stayed in her room until she heard her mother’s car pull out of the driveway. She then raced into her sister’s room, hoping against all odds that she would have Brody’s number in there somewhere.

  After going through all of Tina’s drawers, she was just thinking she might have to come up with another plan when she spied her sister’s purse sitting on her nightstand.

  That was right. Tina had come home that day complaining that she’d been in such a hurry she’d forgotten her purse. Inside was Tina’s little address book. Jenna quickly found Brody’s number and wrote it on her hand.

  Making a beeline for the phone in the living room, she stopped short of dialing the number. It dawned on her that in the current time he doesn’t really know her. What could she say to him?

  Shaking, she dialed the number. It rang several times and she was almost surprised when she heard his voice come on the line.

  “Hello,”

  “Is this Brody Silver Wolf?”

  “Yeah, who’s this?”

  “This is Jenna Claremont. I have to tal
k to you about the Soul Eater,” she blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.

  There was a long silence and when he spoke, she could detect the caution in his voice. “How do you know about that?”

  “We need to talk. It’s a matter of life and death. Can you meet me somewhere?”

  He cleared his throat before answering. “Sure, where?”

  “The mine on Eerie Mountain,” she told him, not wanting to waste any time.

  “That’s too dangerous.”

  “Bring your gun. You’re a police officer aren’t you?”

  “How did you know that?”

  “You know how I know. You also know that your little brother will be in grave danger very soon. My family is, as well, so let’s not waste anymore time, please.”

  “I’ll pick you up in front of your house in a half hour,” he told her before hanging up.

  Time passed agonizingly slow and Jenna could do nothing but nervously pace the floor. Finally she heard the sound of a motorbike and he pulled up in front of the house on a motorcycle. She wasted no time jumping on the back of the bike.

  “Do you know what you’re going to do when you get up there?” he asked, twisting his head to look at her.

  “We’ll need some explosives.”

  “I see you’ve done your homework on the local Indian lore.” He laughed. “But where do you suppose we are going to get explosives?”

  “It’s a mine, isn’t it? Don’t they use explosives?”

  Brody looked doubtful, but he said no more. The road was smoother than she remembered it, so it took them little time to reach the mine. As soon as the bike came to a stop Jenna jumped off. Brody wasn’t far behind her.

  “Don’t you think you should tell me what’s going on?” he asked her.

  “We have to seal the entrance, remember?”

  “That’s what legend says, but I’m a police officer and just can’t go around blowing things up.”

  Jenna glared at him. “Well I promise you in a few hours you will have no doubt about this, so please help me. Go see if there’s any dynamite in one of those buildings.”