Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“I’m still worried,” Natalie said as Liam stood, as usual, in the kitchen filling a travel mug with coffee.
The difference was this wasn’t morning and he wasn’t on his way to the lab to work for the day.
It was late afternoon. The autumn sun was low on the horizon, heading rapidly toward sunset as Liam was about to head to Virginia.
The other difference from the usual was he’d brewed this coffee using water he’d boiled on the gas cooktop to pour over the grinds since no electric meant no electric coffee maker.
Mudville had survived without electricity since seven-thirty the night before. But they expected the power to be restored shortly. They could only get away with having the entire village knocked out from the supposed wind damage for so long.
With more than an eight-hour drive to Dean’s base ahead of him, Liam intended to leave before the power got restored and gave the entity a chance to gather more energy.
“You? Worried? What else is new?” he asked, a teasing lilt in his sarcastic comments. “Babe, if you weren’t worried about something, I’d be worried.”
“I’m serious. It could attack you while you’re alone in the car. Let me come with you.”
“No.” His single word had the sound of finality.
“Stubborn,” she mumbled.
“Ha! Look who’s talking.”
“It’s still too strong to be trusted,” she pointed out.
Yes, there had been basically no batteries and no electricity for it to draw from for twenty-four hours now.
Yes, they’d taken the extra precaution of putting the vessel in a faraday bag, inside a lead-lined box, inside the lab freezer. But Natalie still felt its presence all the way over in her building. Weaker but still there.
“It’ll be fine,” Liam said for what had to be the dozenth time over the past twenty-four hours.
It was a toss-up who was more stubborn. The brain ghost or Liam.
All Natalie knew was this thing wasn’t going to give up. Neither would Liam, which left one option open to her. She’d have to trick him. Trick them both. And she knew just how to do it.
“All right. If you say so. But you have to do something for me first, before you go. You know, in case evil brain ghost kills you and you never come home.”
Liam rolled his eyes. “What do you need?”
“I really need the case of wine on the top shelf of the storeroom, but I felt a little dizzy today when I tried to climb the ladder—”
Liam let out a string of obscenities. “Natalie, you shouldn’t be on a damn ladder at all. You were just in the hospital. And you definitely shouldn’t be putting heavy cases of wine on shelves that require a ladder.”
He continued to grumble as he left the room, heading toward the storeroom in the shop, but Natalie didn’t wait around. She shot out the back door and took off at a sprint toward the lab.
She had only moments to implement a plan that could possibly save Liam’s life.
Opening the heavy metal door of the lab, she felt it immediately, like a weight pressing her down. The brain ghost. It was there and it was angry.
Heart pounding, chest tight, Natalie only managed to keep herself upright by hanging on to the knob of the open door.
She didn’t need to step inside any farther. Its invisible power filled the room, reaching her where she stood in the doorway.
There was no way she was going to let Liam be in a moving vehicle for eight hours with this thing. At least, not in its current state.
Time to see if she could do something about that…
“I know what you are. I know because you showed me. You showed me to hurt me, but it really hurt you. I know now that you’re a killer. And that’s why we’re going to send you someplace where you can never hurt anyone ever again. Eternity, all alone. That should be fun for you…” she taunted.
She felt the entity’s ire increase, pressing harder upon her from all sides like a vise.
But it was the roar from the ghost, deafening, powerful, a mix of battle cry and rage, that brought her to her knees.
She pressed her palms to both ears, convinced the sound would leave her deaf as well as ghost blind.
There was no electricity, but somehow the overhead lights buzzed and flickered on just for a second.
The ghost entering the lights, trying and failing to find a power source perhaps.
Then she was flung onto her back.
As black dots appeared on the edge of her vision and a crushing weight squeezed her chest until the pain was unbearable, it all stopped. There was silence. Peace. Calm.
That was it. She must be dead. But she could still see the lab doorframe above her.
So dead and a ghost then.
That might not be too bad. At least she would be able to see the ghosts again. And if she couldn’t communicate with Liam herself, she’d have Gabe and Millie do it for her… until Liam moved on and eventually got a new girlfriend.
Yeah, she hadn’t thought that part through. That would really suck.
“Natalie!” Liam’s face appeared above her. Close enough she felt his breath on her face.
He pressed a finger to her neck.
Checking for a pulse, she thought to herself, narrating the scene she seemed to be more an observer of than a participant in.
He’d find out now that she was dead. Maybe he could start her heart again and bring her back. He’d done it before. That would be good. She really didn’t want to have to watch him move on without her.
He let out a breath. “You’re alive.”
“I am?” she asked.
He frowned down at her. “What happened? What did you do?”
She thought he could be a little nicer to her since for a brief devastating time she’d assumed she was dead. But now wasn’t the time to scold him for his tone of voice.
“I think I drained it,” she managed to get out.
“You what?” he bit out while, in doctor mode, running his hands over the rest of her.
“It was too powerful still. I could feel it. So I got it mad so it would attack me.”
“Natalie, it could have killed you.”
“But it didn’t. But I do think it used up all its energy trying to kill me. So now it can’t kill you.”
“Jeezus, Natalie.” He ran a hand over his face, looking half mad, half miserable. “What if it had killed you?”
“It wouldn’t have been so horrible. I planned to haunt you.”
He shook his head. “I can’t believe I have to leave now. How am I supposed to leave you after this?”
“Don’t worry about me. You’re the one taking the killer ghost with you.”
“Millie and I will watch her,” Gabe’s voice said. “Besides, she’s right. Brain ghost is going with you. We should be fine here once it’s gone.”
“Why are you here?” Natalie asked, still annoyed she didn’t know where to look when addressing Gabe.
“We felt a ripple of power all the way over at Harper’s house,” Gabe said.
“And heard it. What a horrible sound,” Millie added.
“Do you think I did it? Drained it?” she asked, pushing herself upright. Or at least trying to. She only managed to sit up against the open door because Liam helped her.
“I don’t feel anything anymore,” Gabe said.
“Me either,” Mille agreed.
Natalie turned her gaze to Liam. “You?”
Pressing his lips together unhappily, he finally said, “No.”
“So go. Now. Before it finds something to drain and gets strong again,” Natalie urged. “I’ll be fine. I swear.”
“I’m just as worried about you behaving while I’m gone. Can you please manage to not put yourself in any more danger while I’m not here?” he asked.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure she doesn’t bait any more evil spirits,” Gabe promised. “But she’s right. You need to go. Stone is going to have the power turned back on any minute. You need to be gone when that happens. Before Alice and the rest start charging their trikes and phone batteries.”
Drawing in a breath, Liam finally nodded. “All right. But I’m still mad at you.” He glared at Natalie.
She smiled. “I’d expect nothing less.”