The panic in her voice made my brain crash into overdrive.
Possession, that was a nasty business that often proved fatal for the victim. A ghost that could do a full possession was powerful. All of those things were true and I knew that I had to move fast, but what really put my hairs up was the total lack of pride in Blair's voice. there hadn't been any of the overbearing authority or self composure that was usually there ether. No, there was just pure, desperate, fear.
One of her pack was in danger and she couldn't stop it herself. I understood what that meant to her in a way that only someone who had see another's soul really could.
I sprinted out the door, not even pausing to put my shoes on.
Blair darted past me and was in her car before I was five feet out door.
I leaped in the passenger seat and she slammed her foot on the gas before I had even closed the car door.
We raced along the road at a reckless speed made only slightly safer by the driver possessing super human reflexes.
I started asking questions in as calm a tone as I could mange. "How long ago did the possession occur?"
Blair took a corner at speed then answered. "An hour ago, that's my best estimate. "I drove to you when we couldn't small her except for faint traces, it was like she was becoming a different person in smell not just in mind."
I controlled my expression but winced internally, that was not good, there was a magical element to a werewolf's sense of smell, I knew that much, if the pack member was starting to smell different then it was because their spirt was being pushed out all together. If I didn't get that ghost out of her fast, she would be nothing but an empty meat sack with a new occupant.
Despite my expression remaining neutral Blair still stiffened. "How long?" She asked.
Damn, she had smelled my sudden spike of fear. "We need to get it out of her before nightfall, or shes dead in all but name. My tone was grim.
I could only see half her face do to her looking at the road, but from what I could see she looked sick. "Did you see the ghost before it possessed her?"
"I didn't, but one of my pack did. They said it was a man who looked like an old fashioned butler." "He said the ghost was screaming about how it wasn't fair, and that he would make us pay for trespassing." I gave a grunt of acknowledgement.
A lot of ghost just wondered around unable to comprehend the world around them. Some went about their day as if the where still alive. A few where fully aware. But more often then not, especially if they had a violent death, they went mad. I was guessing that this Butler was the latter.
"How strong is the pack member that was possessed, Mental I mean."
Blair replied immediately. "Elly can teach mules lessons in stubbornness." "Alright, that's good I'll have a bit more time then."
Just then we reached the two mile stretch of her driveway, she took the turn so fast that she barely managed to avoid spinning out of control.
We shot down the straight stretch of road like a bullet. We reached the gate in a minute flat. Blair slammed the brakes, I was slammed forward, my seatbelt catching me from flying through the front windshield. I could hear the screech of tiers and smell burning rubber. We scudded to a stop and I threw myself from the car. Blair was already standing in front of me, "come on!" Was all she said before turning and tearing off towards a side door.
I sprinted after her as fast as I could.
I can't run like a werewolf, who can out run a horse. And I'm a small guy, I don't have long legs. But I get a lot of cardio everyday. And when it comes down to it, i can really move. I raced down twisting corridors and through an elaborate ballroom. Blair was running fast but she was guiding me so she wasn't going full speed.
After what felt like minutes, this really was a ridiculously large house, we reached a room that had a reinforced metal door. We stopped and Blair turned to the door. She started turning the many locks and then raised a bar that went into the wall on ether side of the door. She flung the door open and I went in.
The first thing I noticed when I entered the room was the wall of hate that smashed into me. It made me want to take a step back! It made want to turn and run, I could feel it even though all of my protections.
I forced myself to focus and take in the rest of the room.
The room, unlike the rest of the house, was modern in fashion and had no windows of any kind, there was a couch, a bed, and a few chairs, and I noticed that all of the heavy furniture was bolted to the floor with nuts bigger than my fist.
Then it hit me, this was a werewolf cell. I was certain that the walls of this room were just as reinforced as the door had been, after all, why have a metal door if a werewolf could just tear through the walls?
And Strapped to one of those chairs by thick ropes was a girl.
She was small, maybe even shorter than me. She had mousey brown hair and stocky build.
She also was currently straining against the ropes while screaming at the top of her longs. She would wrench forward straining her bonds. And I could hear the popping of bone as her body shifted and warped. But before she could shift more than a little she would scream again and twist back to fully human. I then realized why she was bound by ropes, no matter how much she struggled the ropes would just stretch. and she couldn't statin them enough to snap them. she just didn't have the leverage.
Alright Alder first step is simple.
I looked at her aura.
One half of her aura was outlined in green and yellow, the other in gray and blue.
Her aura was like a brick house that was made by the family that lived in it. Every brick infused with character and love. It was also like a brick house in the respect that nothing short of a natural disaster or explosion was going to tear it down.
The other aura that I saw...it was like a room, a perfectly organized, immaculately cleaned, and cosmetically pleasing room. Everything had a place and everything was in its place. Now take that neatly organized and well cared for room; and tear it apart. Cover everything in dirty grime, Turn it into a pit, a wreck, a pigsty. That was the soul that I saw trying to overcome Elly. A soul that was once beautiful and good and right, but had completely fallen apart. It had taken the left hand path somewhere along the way, and it was bitter and hateful about that fact, at the world, and all the people in it who had what it did not.
And as I watched it gained a little against her aura, slowly taking more ground in the battle for her body.
I tried the easy solution first, I raised my hand and shoved my aura out and over the thrashing girl. The auras slowed for a moment and then went right back to their struggle.
It was to strong for my aura alone. It was too bitter, too resentful.
I lowered my hand and Blair stepped up beside me, "why didn't that work? It worked last time?!"
Her voice was full of barley restrained panic, and she was clinching her fists so hard That her knuckles where white.
"He's gotten under her aura, that gives him some protection from me, that and the fact that he's just too strong. This guy isn't some confused innocent, he's insane."
A took a few steps towards the chair, then halted about a foot away. I was not looking forward to this. I took a deep breath and focused my mind. One by one I started to lower my mental defenses, it was like trying to hold back hard plastic, you could do it but the moment you let go it would snap back into place. I had to peel back almost every layer, more than I'd had to in years. Possession was not common here. Once I was finished my mind was almost completely defenseless to psychic intrusion.
I spoke without turning away from Elly, "If I collapse make sure I don't hit my head or anything."
"What are you?" But before Blair finished asking her question I slammed my aura over the ghosts and the girls. With almost all of my barriers down there was nothing to stop my mind from joining the battle.
~<>~
One moment I was in a room with two werewolves and a ghost, the next I was in a strange house that was holy unfamiliar to me. There where trees all around me, it was like there was a forest growing in the house.
There was a thick mist in the air and I could only see about ten feet in front of me. I took a tentative step forward Only to be met with a hideous whaling that tore at my ears, a moment later a heard a deafening clatter. And then the whales got further away.
I did the only thing i really could in this situation, I followed the whales.
The walls blurred around me as I ran and it wasn't just a trick of the light ether.
This was not the physical world the same rules did not apply here, the only reason gravity worked here is because the person who's mind I was in believed it should.
Suddenly a tree materialized in front of me, I had to throw myself to the side to avoid smashing into it, the wall that I should have hit decided that it wasn't as solid as it looked and I sailed through it without even slowing down. Luckily the ground was solid. I hit, rolling twice I used my momentum to throw myself to my feet.
I was in a living room with stone walls. I looked around but I didn't see an exit.
I closed my eyes and tried to block everything out except my hearing. For a moment there was nothing...but then I heard it, a faint whaling. It was coming from....behind me! I turned and bolted. There was a doorway in the wall that hadn't been there before, I sprinted through trying to get closer to the noise. Slowly it started to get louder. I was gaining, only a little more.
Before I reached the ghost I took stock. I could still access my aura, just because your not in your body doesn't mean that something that comes from your very soul isn't available to you. Besides my aura I didn't really have much going for me. Going into this place was dangerous, ridiculously so. If I died here then I was dead for real. My body might survive, but it would just be an empty shell, my soul would have already moved on.
I turned a corner and the mist cleared some I was met with an incredibly bizarre scene.
The room in front of me was big, big enough that the ceiling was out of sight, I could only see swirling mists above me.
The room was clear of furniture. And in the center of it two people fought. Well two things to be accurate.
Their was Elly but her knees bent the wrong way and her hands where elongated with claws like daggers sticking out from her finger tips.
The other was a man with a neatly groomed mustache and was immaculately dressed in a suit and bow tie, he also glowed a pale blue. Oh and there was the noose, it was around his neck, cut, only about a foot of rope hanging off it. But this man had obviously been hung to death.
The hideous whaling was coming from the man. And now that I was in the same room as him I could make out words.
"NOOOOT FAIIR! ITS NOOOT FAIR. I WAS IN MY RIGHTS, THEY WHERE ON THE MASTER PROPERTY!"
Elly grabbed her head and let out a sound somewhere between a scream and a howl.
Then she flickered. One moment she was in a strange courter transformation, the next she was a little girl in a night gown, she was probably around nine or ten. And she was weeping. She had a teddy bear in her hand but it was stained with a crusty brown substance that I suspected was blood. The man took a step forward and the house seamed to shift and undulate as he gained ground. Instead of stone walls with family portraits on them. It was more wood with only a little stone. Instead of family portraits it was nature paintings and wood carvings.
One painting in particular caught my eye. It was of a raven that resembled the northern lights. I recognized that painting. It was on the wall of the main entry in the mansion. And just like that I knew who this ghost was.
His name Nile R. Miller. Or as he had come to be know, Nile the noose maker. He had killed at least ten people, many children, When he found them trespassing on his masters land. Most of them had just been travers looking for somewhere to shelter from the night. He would greet them warmly and tell them that there was a guest house and that he would lead them right to it if they would just follow him. He then would lead them into the woods, right up to a massive oak tree. He would look up at the tree and seem to be surprised. He would ask them if they could see that? And when they looked up at the tree, only to see the hanging corpses of his victims, he would slip one of the many nooses he had already prepared over their head, And then pull on the other end. and up they would go to join the others.
He had been found out only because his master, A kindly old man with a lot of wealth, had stumbled across the hanging tree well walking his lands. He had told the town where the missing people where and a linch mob formed. Neil the noose maker was hanged with a noose prepared by his own hand.
This had happened over seventy years ago! What was his ghost doing still rooming around? Why now of all times?
I didn't have time to pounder those questions because Neil was about to reach Elly. I took of in a sprint. I was still ten feet away when he reached her. He stretched his hands out towards her neck, his intentions clear.
And Just when I thought I was too late she flickered again, instead of a little girl a wolf stood before him. His hands darted back but not fast enough. The wolf's jaws lashed out, clamping shut on his right hand. Neil threw his head back and let out another ear shattering whale.
The wolf let out a high pitched whine and drew back. A moment later I slammed into Him. I wouldn't strike another sentient being, even a dead one. Holding one down however, well I pushed my aura over them as hard as I could? Yeah I would do that. My aura didn't just wash over him, I pushed it through him, into him.
I didn't do it often. When my mental barriers where down touching people with my aura would cause a link to form between our minds, and being linked to mind like Neil the noose makers was not a pleasant experience.
This time however it didn't happen. Instead of our mind linking and some horrific memories flashing through my mind. he warped his hand around my throat and started squeezing. Panic shot through me! He was strong! My air was completely shut off.
I shouldn't need air! We where in someone's mind! There was no need for oxygen, no need for a heartbeat to pump blood.
Heck normally ghosts couldn't touch the material world except in specific cases, or if the ghost was extremely powerful. I was an exception to that however. I could touch ghosts, and they could touch me in return.
But Elly thought that you needed to breath to live so Neil's grip was crushing my wind pipe.
My neck screamed with pain and my longs where starting to cry out for air. I did the only thing I could, I keep poring my aura into him as hard as I could.
It was a stand off of sorts.
Would I break through and make a link, or would he Strangle me to death first? It lasted for what felt like minutes but could only have been a couple of seconds, I started to see black dots in the air. And my thoughts where becoming fuzzy and disoriented. But just before I would have passed out, I broke through.
Memories flashed through my mind like a malfunctioning film reel.
And then I was someone else.
~<>~
I was leading a young woman through the woods.
I had found her trespassing on the masters land! I remained outwardly calm but i wanted to clinch my fists till they bled. I felt a cold rage roaring through me like a blizzard. The Gaul! They dare come here?! Did they have no respect? They where thieves the lot of them! YES! thieves they where after the masters wealth, they wanted to take advantage of his good nature. I wouldn't let that happen, no I would make sure the master was safe.
Anything for the master.
"Look do you see that up there?"
~<>~
My hands moved in patterns that had long sense become second nature to me, I didn't even have look down as i looped the rope over itself.
I had failed to check the quality of the rope last time, it almost snapped before the job was done, that was unacceptable. I couldn't my self to be sloppy, no! That would never do. The master demands excellence from his staff!
I heard a branch snap some where in the woods. I child's voice called out, asking for if anyone was there.
it seams someone has noticed my lantern. That was fine, I hung part of the rope over a thick branch high in the tree, it dangled in such a way that the noose was hidden from slight when walking the path. I began walking towards the voice.
I had work to do.
~<>~
I gasped and whizzed as I ran down the forest path. I could hear shouts and calls behind me.
I didn't understand!? The master had told the town! He had said I was a monster! Didn't he see I was protecting him and his land?! It was my duty! But he had called the crowds, he had said that I must be brought to task! I didn't know what to do! Nothing was making sense, nothing was going the right way! None of this should be happening! I was doing the right thing! I WAS!
I tripped and fell forward. I landed on my knees. In front of me was a massive oak tree, I knew that tree. It was my tree!
I heard foot steps behind me. The mob had caught up. I didn't turn. Not as I heard them speak to me. Not as I felt hands gripping my arms. And not when I felt the noise slip around my throat.
~<>~
My mind separated from Neil the noise makers and I gasped. I wanted to throw up till I sat dry heaving. But there would be time to break down later. Right now I still had to act.
I rouse to my feet. I looked down at the man before me. He lay there sobbing like a confused child. He was a murderer many times over, a real monster. But even he deserved to pass on.
I reached out my hand again and let my aura wash over him. It wasn't forceful this time. It was gentle, comforting. Rest Neil, rest.
slowly he's weeping changed to to quite sobs, and finally stopped all together. Then he faded away.
I didn't know where his soul was going but I doubted it was somewhere pleasant.
I turned around and faced the Elly she looked like she did in the real world. A small mousey haired brunette.
She looked at me with eyes the color of milk chocolate. "Hey" i rasped, "how are things?" She cocked her head to the side in a manner not unlike a curious dog, or wolf in this case.
"Who are you?" She asked.
I gave her i raspy chuckle, "An idiot who doesn't know when to say no."
She blinked at that, I guess she wasn't expecting self deprecation. I wonder how much she'll remember when we wake? She could remember everything, or nothing.
Man it would be nice to be able to forget some things, the memory of a woman's heals kicking fruitlessly in air till they finally fell limp, a woman who I had hung.
Any energy I had left I'm me leached away, I was left drained and hurting.
"Hey can you end this, please?"
Elly cocked her head to the side again. "How?"
"Just will it."
She seamed to concentrate, Then a second later there was sleep.