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CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

“ H ey, there you are! I got home early and I thought I’d come see you.”

Rath was standing in the doorway and he had removed his “human suit” so his skin was its normal green.

He was wearing his usual jeans and a t-shirt.

The front door was open behind him which was strange, since I had locked it behind me.

But then I remembered that he had a spare key, because my Grandma had left him as the caretaker.

Still, I was worried to see him in the house when the black door was there too.

“Rath, come here,” I said urgently. “I need to talk to you about something.”

I didn’t want to talk about the family curse too close to the house—I guess I had a fear that if I said Milas James’s name out loud and he heard me, he might come after Rath. I wanted to get him away from the house—preferably as far away from it as possible.

“Nah, baby—you come here and give me a hug. I missed you!” He beckoned to me with one big hand. “And I brought you lunch from a famous deli back in the human world. Hope you don’t mind—I let myself in so I could put it in the fridge. Do you like pastrami?”

“That sounds delicious but I really need to talk to you out here.”

As I spoke, I came up the porch steps. But just as I was getting close to Rath, Sebastian suddenly jumped between us, hissing.

“Sebastian?” I looked down at my cat in surprise. He was glaring up at Rath, his back arched and his mouth open in a hissing snarl. “It’s just Rath, Sebastian,” I told him. “What are you so upset about?”

“So you have a cat, do you?” Rath said in a strange voice. “Of course you do—what’s a witch without her familiar? How else can she commune with the Horned One without a beast to help her do so?”

I frowned up at him—he didn’t sound like himself at all.

“The Horned One? What are you talking about?” I demanded.

“I’m talking about you, witch!” One big hand shot out and grabbed me by the wrist.

“Rath?” I barely had time to gasp and then his other hand was wrapped around my throat.

“You’re supposed to be the special one—the Natural Witch!

” he hissed at me and I saw that his golden eyes were now burning red.

“The one to end the curse—the one to kill me and finish what your ancestress started! She thought she had me bound—that I could not escape. Imagine her surprise when I slipped my bonds and killed her Heartmate right before her eyes!”

I said Rath’s name again, but this time it came out in a choked gurgle. I had a sudden horrible memory of what I had read in my Grandma’s Grimoire.

“His Spirit enters into them and drives them MAD until DEATH takes them!”

I hadn’t thought about the implications until right then.

I had assumed that maybe the spirit of Milas James made the men he invaded go crazy with suicidal thoughts—I hadn’t even considered the possibility that he might be able to possess them!

But that was clearly what he had done to Rath, because when I looked in the big Orc’s eyes, it wasn’t Rath looking back at me—it was Milas James.

“Rrrrrth,” I gurgled, trying to say his name again.

I was beginning to lose consciousness—big black flowers were blooming in my field of vision and everything was going gray.

I knew I had to get away from him before he choked the life out of me, but how could I escape when his long fingers were wrapped nearly all the way around my throat?

There was a furry blur and I saw Sebastian climbing Rath’s body like it was a tree. With an angry hiss, my cat swiped at the big Orc’s face, clawing right down his cheek and drawing blood.

“Aaaigh! Filthy beast!” James roared, using Rath’s voice of course. He let go of my neck and my wrist in his attempt to dislodge Sebastian, who had climbed around and was now clinging to his back and biting his neck and shoulder.

I took the chance my cat offered me because I knew there wouldn’t be another. With a gasp, I stumbled off the porch and around the side of the house, trying to put some distance between me and the possessed Orc.

I heard Sebastian hiss again and then the pounding sound of Rath’s footsteps right behind me. A moment later, Sebastian streaked past me, running for his life with Milas James in Rath’s body in pursuit.

I doubled my speed, gasping for breath as I ran.

At least I was getting oxygen again and the world was no longer going gray.

I had to find a place to make a stand—I needed to use my magic but I couldn’t let James get his hands—or rather, Rath’s hands—on me again.

Natural Witch or not, if he locked his fingers around my throat a second time, he would choke me to death before I could do anything to stop him.

The pounding footsteps behind me grew closer, seeming to shake the ground and I felt like I might die of fright. My heart was rabbiting in my chest and the breath was tearing in my bruised throat. I had to get away—but where could I go that would keep him from getting me?

I was at the top of the steep hill that comprised the backyard as I thought this. Then a silver band winking at the bottom of the hill reminded me of another thing I had read in the Grimoire.

Where the stream runs Swift and Pure

There our Sorrow She shall Cure

There the Evil one she’ll Take

And at last the Curse she’ll Break

Though it may invade your Dreams

Evil cannot Cross the stream…

The stream! I thought. If I can just get across the stream!

But just as I thought this, I felt long fingers snatching at my hair.

“Come here, little witch!” James crooned, using Rath’s voice—the voice I loved best—to taunt me. “Come here, I swear your death will be swift!”

The fingers snagged in the back of my cardigan. Without pausing, I shrugged it off, leaving it in his hands. Even running downhill, there was no way I could keep ahead of him! What was I going to do?

At that moment, I saw a furry gray streak coming out of one of the trees. Sebastian had been in a safe place but he wasn’t going to stay there when he saw that I was in trouble.

He dashed behind me and I heard James shout with anger and surprise as he tripped over my cat. There was a thud! that shook the ground and then the possessed Orc was rolling down the hill rather than running down it.

Rath’s big body was stopped by the Weeping Willow tree planted on the banks of the stream. I heard him make a “Whuff!” sound as his midsection collided with its trunk. The whole tree quivered, its branches shaking in silent protest, but it was old and thick and it didn’t break.

I kept running myself. My first instinct was to see if Rath was all right, but I reminded myself that it wasn’t Rath in there—it was Milas James. And my only hope to defeat him was to get across the stream before he could get up and grab for me again.

He was already starting to rise as I splashed my way into the frigid water.

“You filthy Satan spawn!” he croaked, reaching for me with one long arm. “Come here and admit you’ve had congress with the Horned One! I know you ride the Devil’s cock!”

I ignored him and splashed across the stream—which was deeper than it looked.

The current tugged at me, stronger than I would have thought possible.

I don’t know how I didn’t fall over and get washed away—if the stream had been even an inch deeper I’m sure I would have.

By the time I got to the other side I was wet up to my armpits and shivering so hard I could barely walk.

Somehow I made it up on the bank and then turned to face my enemy.

He was standing again and reaching for me, but it was clear he couldn’t get across the stream.

He was stuck on the bank across from me and though he was only about six feet away, it might as well have been the Grand Canyon separating us—thank goodness!

Rath’s handsome face was twisted into a rictus of hate, making it almost unrecognizable and his big hands were balled into fists. He was shaking with rage.

“You little bitch!” he spat at me. “How dare you run from me? I must punish you as I punished all the other wicked women of your filthy Satan spawn line!”

I didn’t waste time answering him—I was already reaching for my magic. I found a thread and turned it into a glowing rope.

“G-grow thicker. M-make a n-noose,” I told it, my teeth chattering as I wound the magic rope with numb fingers. “And wr-rap around his n-neck—now!”

I threw the glowing noose—which looked exactly like a hangman’s noose you’d see in a show about the Old West—and it settled around Rath’s thick throat.

“Tighten!” I told the magic noose. At least doing magic seemed to be warming me up so my teeth had stopped chattering. “Not too much—just enough to keep him from taking a deep breath,” I added.

Rath’s face went suddenly dark green and his long fingers scrabbled at the noose wrapped around his neck.

“Let…go…girl!” he choked out. “How…dare you…do this…to me?”

“I’ll do whatever I have to in order to get rid of you!” I shouted across the stream. “Get out of him, James! You can’t have him!”

“If I can’t have him…you can’t either,” he rasped. “I’ll…kill…him! Kill you…both!”

“Tighter!” I muttered to my magic. “Knock him out!”

I hated to do this to Rath—it was his body that was possessed and I knew it wasn’t his fault.

But I had to make things so uncomfortable for Milas James that he would leave voluntarily.

Or else I had to knock out the body he was in so he couldn’t use it anymore.

Either way, I hoped I wasn’t doing any lasting damage to the big Orc who was my Heartmate.

The glowing noose tightened and Rath’s long fingers clawed at his neck. He dropped to his knees, gasping and choking. Suddenly, his eyes turned from red to gold and he gasped my name.

“Sarah?”

“Rath?” I exclaimed. “Loosen but don’t let go!” I told my magic.

The glowing noose got looser and I was looking at Rath again—looking at my Heartmate.

“Baby, I’m sorry!” he choked. “I didn’t mean…to let him in.”

“You couldn’t help it!” I said. I started to wade back across the stream but Rath put out a hand to stop me.

“No!” he said. “He’s still…still in here. In me—I can feel him! He’ll kill you if he gets a chance!”

“I have to get rid of him, but I don’t know how!” I confessed. “I was hoping if I knocked you out, he’d leave your body alone!”

“You’ll have to do more…more than knock me out.” Rath’s eyes were grim.

“What are you talking about?” I demanded.

He took a deep breath, which he was able to do now that I had loosened the noose.

“Baby, you’re going to have to kill me,” he said bluntly.

“What? No!” I exclaimed.

“Yes!” Rath nodded and winced—clearly his neck was sore. “Look, I can feel him in me and I know what he wants. If you don’t kill me, he’ll use my body to kill you. I don’t want that, baby—I’d rather die!”

“I don’t want to kill you—I can’t!” I protested. I wanted to cry, but I held the tears back by main force of will. “There has to be another way to get him out of you!”

Rath shook his head.

“It’s like a fucking plant—a weed—he’s grown roots inside me. I can feel them in my fucking soul . But if you kill me, you can kill him too, I think. Or at least send him back where he came from.”

“No, that’s not good enough—I’m going to kill him without killing or harming you!” I told him. “Rath , I love you!”

His eyes went soft.

“Aw, baby—I love you too. But you’re going to have to do it. You’re going to have to kill me to?—”

Suddenly he stopped and his eyes went from soft gold to burning red again.

“You can’t do it, can you?” the voice of Milas James taunted me. “You can’t bear to kill your own Heartmate, even if I might use him to kill you. That’s all right then—I’ll kill both of you, you nasty little witch!”

“Tighten up!” I told the noose, which was still wrapped around his neck. “Choke him out—as gently as you can,” I added, still worried about Rath.

I watched as the noose tightened and James used Rath’s long fingers to claw at his throat once more. This time, however, I didn’t tell my magic to stop. I watched, feeling numb, as the big Orc’s body slumped to the ground and went limp.

Finally he was completely unconscious. I told the noose to loosen enough to give him air again, but I knew I didn’t have much time. I had to get Milas James out of Rath while his body was knocked out—but how?

I was at a loss until I remembered what Rath had told me.

“He’s like a fucking weed—he’s put roots down in my soul!”

And that gave me an idea…