Lucky Stars (Ghosts and Reincarnation #5)(157)

Jack felt his lips twitch right before Cassandra cried, “So mote it be!” and her arms arced down.

She pointed the twig at Miles and Jack froze solid when a heavy, glittering stream of sparks shot right out of its tip and blasted Miles in the chest. The instant it hit, Mile’s body arched unnaturally from the bed, his back at such an angle Jack feared his spine would snap. His wrists and ankles were straining fiercely against their bounds. His neck was bowed back so far his head was well beyond his shoulders. And a painful, guttural, appalling, loud noise streamed constantly from his throat.

He did not look or sound in pain.

He looked and sounded like he was in agony.

“Stop!” Jack clipped as Cassandra kept the beam of sparks aimed at Miles’s chest, her eyes riveted to him, her mouth moving now without sound but constantly. “Stop!” he shouted and began to move but Lachlan clapped a hand strong and firm on Jack’s shoulder and didn’t let go.

“Hold steady, lad,” Angus encouraged from his place at the foot of the bed, his eyes on Miles, he, like Lorna and Lachlan, all held a whip in their hands.

Jack looked back to Miles and Cassandra, the latter of which seemed to be trembling. She definitely was sweating even though she wasn’t moving. And her concentration and the stream of magic hadn’t wavered.

Miles was still making that hideous noise.

“God damn it! Stop!” Jack thundered, shirking off Lachlan’s hand but Lachlan was moving, positioning one foot behind the other, raising the whip in his hand and Jack’s eyes shot back to the bed just as the see-through human shape of a man tore violently free of Miles’s body.

The noise died in Miles’s throat and his body collapsed limply to the bed at the exact instant the three McPhersons moved, rounding their whips over their heads with swift, practiced movements and striking out. The tips of all three lashed out and whirled, catching the ethereal shape about the waist and holding him captive and floating above the bed. Every inch where the whips wound around the phantom, gold sparks crackled.

“Fucking hell,” Jack whispered, staring at the man whose burning, incensed, frenzied eyes locked on Jack.

Then his mouth moved but the words that came out sounded hollow and sinister throughout the entire room.

“You will not win this time, Bennett.”

“I didn’t win last time, you bastard. You killed my f**king wife,” Jack bit out.

“You got my wife with child…” Caldwell returned then screeched a demented, “twice!”

“She was bloody well Joshua’s wife and you know it,” Jack fired back.

“She was mine!” he roared.

“She was never yours,” Jack retorted and tired of the conversation he was having with a f**king ghost so he moved it firmly on. “Now tell us about the children. How do we send them home?”

“I will not stop until I best you,” Caldwell declared.

“Wrong, mate, you bought yourself a one way ticket straight to hell by being a jealous, abusive, murderous arsehole,” Lorna cut in and Caldwell’s ghostly head turned her way. “Your ride on this plane is done. Your eternal ride isn’t going to be too pleasant and you’ve got one chance to help yourself out. And you can do that by telling us how we send those children to the next plane.”

“I will best him,” Caldwell reiterated, exposing his one-track mind.

“Laddie, you aren’t getting this but you’re stuck. You got these last minutes to do right before your judgement,” Angus broke in. “Do right. Tell us what you know about sending those children where they can be at peace.”

Jack watched Caldwell’s burning gaze glare at Angus then he looked about the room.

“Fucking hell, that thing was in me?” Miles asked at this point, his voice barely above a whisper but it sounded healthy, strong and sane.

Jack relaxed (slightly) and pinned Caldwell with his eyes.

“Tell us about the children,” he demanded and Caldwell held his stare silently. “Tell us about the children!” he repeated, his voice louder.

“The children do not matter,” Caldwell whispered disturbingly.

“If you know something, tell us,” Jack ordered.

Again with the disturbing whisper, “I will best you.”

“You won’t, I always win,” Jack returned. “Now tell us… about… the children.”

And right then Jack felt ice fill his veins because Caldwell smiled an eerie, malicious smile.

“I already have,” he kept whispering. “I’ve won. You don’t know. You have no idea. But you’ll never have her. My Brenna.” His grin became more evil and he leaned toward Jack. “My Belle. If I can’t have her, you never will. I’ve seen to that, James. It’s already begun.”

“He doesn’t know anything, Cass, send him down,” Angus ordered.

“What have you done?” Jack asked, not tearing his eyes from the spirit.

“Something I’ll never tell. Something you can’t stop,” Caldwell answered. “Her body will again be broken by rock and sea.”

Jack reached out, grasped Lachlan’s whip and yanked hard, jerking Caldwell’s ghostly frame his way as he roared, “What have you done?”

“Send him down, Cass! Now!” Angus boomed.