Suzie knelt down beside him and started to feel along the lining of the man’s jacket.
“Where did you find the crystals?” Genia asked.
“I bought it off eBay. They said it was from a meteor. It was meant to have special properties. We’d been trying other drugs before to help us with our enlightenment, but this worked beyond our dreams. My people felt powerful, and when I combined it with the morphine for my cancer, Awhen privileged me with his presence.”
Suzie found the vial. It looked more like a small lip gloss.
“It’s all we have left,” Arthur said, as he stared at the tube.
Genia took the pot in her hand and stared at it intensely. Evie wondered if the woman had X-ray vision or something. There was still so much about Midworlders she did not know and would probably never find out.
“It’s from our original Homeworld. When it blew up, a fragment must have been lost in space and landed on Earth. I can’t remove it, but I know someone who can. We need to contact Ridge and Nicole in America. She removed Pergor crystals from Ridge, and it saved his life. I believe she could do the same for you.”
One of Namid’s men was on the phone. It would be good to meet Ridge and Nicole. They had been bonded, and maybe she could learn something from them. The problem was, she thought it was all too late.
Heat suddenly wafted over her, and the room turned black.
Chapter 18
Shared Control
Heath couldn’t stop the shakes from wracking his body, even though he wasn’t cold. He kept massaging his temples, but it did little to displace the voice that kept nagging away at him. He pushed his body back against the rockface and stared out into the empty space where Evie had been. He had followed her down the mountain until he was sure the others had found her. When Suzie had taken her into the sky, he knew she would be safe. Then he found himself returning to the spot where he had attacked her.
She was gone, and after what had happened, so was his dream of ever being with her. He wanted to die for what he had done, only dying wasn’t an option. Even if he could rid himself of this darkness, he could not forget the look on her face when he had attacked her. She had been through so much, and now he had added to her pain, and he could never forgive himself for that.
Stop lying. You have wanted to be in that tight little pussy since you met her.
Pain stabbed into Heath’s temples and then radiated over the top of his skull and down his neck. He had to get control back. If he blacked out, he didn’t know who would be in charge when he came around. He slumped to the ground, his hands pressed against his head, and took deep breaths.
You’re wasting your time. I can feel my strength like tendrils slipping out to encompass you brain. Soon I’ll have your mind and your power. This world is going to be so much more entertaining in the body of a Midworlder.
“I’ll find some way to die before I let you do that,” Heath yelled into the night sky. His wings erupted from his back, and he took flight. He flew over the top of the mountain and out to sea. Folding his wings in, he plunged into the water and let the ocean fill his lungs.
I won’t let you damage this body.
Before he could stop himself, Heath flew out of the water and was on his way back to land.
If you don’t want to fuck something, then at least kill someone. It’s been hundreds of years, and I’d love to feel my hands around someone’s neck for real. To watch them choke and turn blue as I apply pressure to their windpipe. Then the pleasing crack as I break their neck.
Heath flew toward the city, his clothes still dripping wet. He wanted to stop, but his body was no longer obeying him. He landed on the outskirts and pulled in his wings. Walking up street after street, he kept to the shadows where he could hide from prying eyes. He saw a likely candidate ahead when a drunken man made his way into an alley not far from the beach and the nearby clubs. The alley smelt of refuse and alcohol, and the man stopped to urinate beside a waste bin. When he turned around, Heath grabbed him by the neck. The man’s arms flailed, trying to stop the attack.
The man would have no chance unless Heath could get back control of his body. Beyond the man’s shoulder, Heath saw a glow of light as a guardian appeared for a second. She laid her hand on Heath’s arm, and then she was gone. Heath’s mind was released, and his body was his again. The man fell to the floor and took in large gasps of air. Heath sighed in relief. The man was breathing. He could hear voices coming and needed to get away. He didn’t know how long he would have the upper hand here before the darkness took control again.
He strode through the streets until he reached the outskirts of the city. When he was sure no one else was around, he expanded his wings and took flight again. He headed back to the hills, not knowing where else to go. He landed outside the cave where the cars had been parked. The cave was deserted, and he could only imagine they had taken Evie with them. Taken her away from him, somewhere she would be safe. Daylight was coming as he stumbled inside. The pain was coming back, and he was struggling to breathe. He made his way across to the bed Evie had laid upon when Calloue had performed his voodoo.
As Heath lay on the bed, he could still pick up the fragrance of Evie on the pillow. He hugged it to him and inhaled as if it would be the last time he would have any sense of her. Of the woman he loved. He was happy Calloue had succeeded in healing her. The others would look after Evie when she denounced him. Without the darkness upon her, she would be happy and free. They would get her a guardian, and she would be safe.
He fought to stay awake, but the pain was consuming every part of his body. The burning reached out to every extremity, and he guessed the only way it would disappear was when the darkness took over completely. His eyes became heavy as he tried to fight a losing battle.
You mind-fucked her, didn’t you? Let’s see if we can bring the memory back.
Heath gritted his teeth, as the entity reached into his private memories with Evie. He tried to keep him out, but the entity was getting stronger. It found the memory of them at the beach when they had made love. He found his body was no longer under his control, and his hand undid his belt and pants and grabbed his erection. He hated this darkness for what it was making him do to himself and for sullying a beautiful memory. As he came in the reminiscence, he ejaculated now. There was no sense of relief, just self-loathing and despair.
As he rolled off the cot and grabbed a rag to clean himself, another memory flashed through his brain. It was Elizabeth, and she was cutting her wrists. The darkness was screaming at her. Heath had found her dead with her wrists cut, so it wasn’t his memory. How could that be?
This is wonderful. So you knew the little slut back then who stopped me. So long I had to wait for another. When she cut herself, I jumped into the maid who found her. It didn’t work, the Angelic attached to the maid knew something was awry. It was after that I discovered you had to be there just at the point the guardian goes across and you can take over without them knowing. Of course, that was the problem with Midworlders. You never die, so I couldn’t get inside one. Humans are too fragile, and I kept losing them.
Heath gritted his teeth in anger that this entity had been the cause of Elizabeth’s death, and he would not let it succeed in taking Evie’s life now. He would have to find some way to stop it, even if he had to blow his own brains out. For now, he would join their minds together, so he could relive what had happened to Elizabeth and Evie. As he lay back on the bed, he found his mind was going back hundreds of years.
He could sense this entity had once been a Demonic guardian, and when its human had died, it was meant to return to Homeworld. Only it didn’t want to. Its name was Slyth. Heath found he was hovering over the corpse of a young man who had been pulled from the river by his friends. Its Angelic was gone, and Slyth slipped into the body, making the young man cough and come back to life. His friends turned him on his side, as he vomited up the water.
The young man’s personality changed after the incident, and Heath could sense the subtle words of Slyth influencing him. He also knew that next time Slyth wanted a new host, he wouldn’t risk not finding someone near death. When he became bored, he would kill another. The humans he killed had always been rich, and he enjoyed the high life in their bodies. It wasn’t enough, though. He needed to find a Midworlder to get their power, but it had to be done carefully so Homeworld would not find out.
He had nearly achieved his goal when he got close to Elizabeth. He had been living in the body of the housekeeper and seen Heath and knew he was a Midworlder. He had poisoned Elizabeth, and everyone just thought she had been sick. The housekeeper threw herself from the battlements that night.
Each day, Elizabeth got stronger and had fought against his presence. Heath had been on his way there to bond with her, and Slyth had been so close. Finally, he would get access to a Midworlder, but then Elizabeth had slit her wrists. Luckily, a stable hand had been dying from a kick to the head by one of the horses. Slyth attached himself to the man as the Angelic left.