Oxford Whispers Part 36

Chapter 60.

m.u.f.fLED NOISES reached her from behind a door that Madison hadn't noticed before. Masculine voices.

A faint light filtered through the slit at the base of the door.

"You called for help," Peter shouted. He dragged his nails down his cheeks, to the point that Pippa bled.

"How could I have? I've not left your side." She looked up at him, desperate to retain eye contact. She had to free her friend. "Take my life now. Then join me. We don't need the girl. It will be the two of us. Forever."

Holding a shaking index finger out at her, he warned, "Silence. You are the same deceiving snake."

Someone pounded at the door and shouted her name. Rupert. Rupert was there, so close. "Hold on," he kept repeating.

She wanted to see him so badly, to be in his arms one more time, one last time. Only she couldn't. If Rupert intervened now, he would defeat any chance for her to isolate Peter's soul and save Pippa.

Madison had no other choice but to beg, "Please, let's finish this ..." Tears started rolling down her cheeks.

"You wh.o.r.e." His hand slashed through the air down to her left temple.

The shock propelled her into the air and her head hit the cobbled floor. She tasted blood.

Madison couldn't afford to slip back into oblivion.

She supported herself on her elbow and shook her head in an attempt to diffuse the dizziness. Sitting up, her muscles quivering in anger, she probed the side of her head that was now swollen. The pain made her wince.

"You were always good at hitting women," she spit out. "You didn't learn that from the Bible."

Peter kicked her in the ribs and she grunted. Her ribcage was on fire. He took two steps back and bent to grab something from the floor. He stood back up with a thin, sharp-edged dagger. A pleased smile broke across his face though he kept his eyes downcast and his posture rigid.

The pounding at the door started again. This time, a more powerful force than human fists attacked the door. The same voices, familiar voices, called for Madison.

All she could see was the slicing edge of the knife.

"This is the end," Peter whispered behind the mask of madness.

She heard her name shouted in the distance. But she was gone.

As if in slow motion, Peter stepped forward and arched his arm. He had killed her once before, stealing her life, stealing her Rose.

Her shaking hands waved ahead of her, a jolt tingling at the tips of her fingers. Madison pointed at the pew. She let the air inside her mouth, her lungs, and built up strength inside of her.

A strand of energy erupted from her fingertips and, with an invisible force, she moved the heavy length of wood into him.

Peter crumpled, head first.

By instinct, she held her arm above her head and curled up on the floor. A crack echoed around the room and a lightning bolt flashed behind her closed eyelids.

The door gave in from the attack of those outside.

The s.p.a.ce was now crowded, and arms folded around her battered body. Hushed, sweet words filled her ears.

She called his name in a sob. "Rupert."

"I'm here, baby." Kisses rained down over her closed eyelids, her forehead, her mouth.

But it wasn't about her. Madison pushed him away and opened her eyes again. Pippa's crumpled shape lay at her feet.

Madison dragged herself to her friend's side.

"Pippa, Pippa," she cried, brus.h.i.+ng the red curls away from her face. A warm liquid stuck to her fingers. She looked down at them. They were covered with blood.

Rupert seized her shoulders, his presence instilling strength back into her. Sarah was by her side as well, eager to help defeating Peter. Madison couldn't see her, but her presence had never felt stronger.

She breathed in, sipping the energy of the holy, consecrated place around her. Her spine straightened and her mind solidified. Madison retrieved the words from her memory, those she had read in the voodoo prayer book.

Hail G.o.d of Abraham!

Hail G.o.d of Isaac!

Hail G.o.d of Jacob!

Direct your power to Pippa Madison hesitated, her memory faltering under the pain burning through her ribcage. The awareness of the short window of opportunity pushed her beyond her own limits. She started again.

Drive Satan, this unclean demon within her, away!

I command you, demon, you Peter Perkins!

Come out, Peter Perkins!

Stay away from Pippa!

She had to lean against Rupert while she almost swooned under the power of the spell. She waved her hands above the body, opening her palms, closing them, the heat of the Louisiana swamps descending to her friend's soul.

Come out, demon!

I bind you with unbreakable chains of adamantine!

I cast you into the abyss of h.e.l.l!

Peter emerged from Pippa's body, his shape and essence flimsy and blurred. He wore the same dark coat as in the painting, as the first time Madison had seen him. He sat up, then stood, and his head turned toward a bright light s.h.i.+ning from the corner of the room.

Madison followed his gaze.

There, Sarah was standing. She stared straight ahead of her, meeting Peter's eyes without blinking, without betraying any fear. She nodded slowly.

When Madison looked back to where Peter had been a few seconds before, he was gone.

"Where is he?" she asked Sarah, while her breath still eluded her.

"Where you sent him, in h.e.l.l. His curse is extinguished. Robert and I are free. We can go now." She added with a soft smile, "Do not forget, Madison, I am you, you are me."

The light became less intense and finally disappeared.

Madison reverted her attention to Pippa and locked her eyes with hers. She thought she saw a flicker of life in them.

But life was now the past for Pippa.

Rupert leaned forward and laid his fingers on the side of her neck, checking for a pulse. He turned toward Madison and shook his head. He gestured toward her in an attempt to take her back in his arms, but she recoiled.

"Don't touch me." Guilt and the shame of defeat covered her with filth. She wasn't worth anyone's pity or kindness.

From behind her came another voice filled with tears. Ollie.

"Her head struck the altar hard. But it can't have killed her."

"It should have worked. I don't understand." Madison struggled to articulate. Her eyes and her cheeks were damp with tears.

Jackson kneeled by her side. "Peter gave her the choice, and she accepted him."

A scream spread across the room, piercing Madison's ears. She was the one crying. Sobbing. Howling, as if all her world were lost.

Chapter 61.

REPULSIVE SMELLS wafted from the tray to her nostrils. The combined odor of food and bleached hospital floors destroyed Madison's budding appet.i.te. Judging by the sight of the green gelatin, bland chicken, and mashed potatoes, she wasn't missing much.

She grabbed the disposable medicine cup from the side table and shook it, making the pills click together. She needed the painkillers. Inspector Crawley had left a few minutes earlier, and his flood of questions had ignited a recurring migraine.

Her violent headache, the doctors said, was a side effect from the heavy dose of drugs Pippa had injected into her system. She had come in and out of consciousness for two long days.

Madison swallowed the medicine with a large gulp of water, and the cool sensation lifted her spirits. She darted her eyes around the empty room to fight loneliness. The weight in her chest became heavier.

Tipping her head back, she closed her watery eyes. She'd better get used to cruising solo. Ghost whisperers weren't exactly the life of the party.

He had been with her when the medics had slid her gurney into the ambulance. He had held her hand during the fast drive to the hospital, of that she was sure. She'd been knocked out, her ribs and her head throbbing like crazy, but she remembered the touch of his fingers entwined with hers. Rupert hadn't been there when she woke up from her drug-induced slumber. The big race was coming Sat.u.r.day afternoon, so he might be training extra hard. In reality, she had no idea.

It didn't matter anymore. Madison's end-of-semester flight back home was scheduled for later that same Sat.u.r.day. While medical common sense suggested delaying the plane journey, a severe case of homesickness superseded any rational advice.

Madison had to learn how to be who she was, who she was always meant to be. For that, she needed Mamie, the humid Louisiana air, and the closeness to her ancestors.

"I see you're surviving hospital food." A velvety voice jolted Madison back to the present place and time.

Aware of her washed-out gown and messy ponytail, she straightened up against the pillow. The movement tore her midsection apart and she expelled a hiss of discomfort at the exertion.

Jackson rushed to her rescue, but Madison pushed him away with false bravado. "I'm fine." Her shoulders bowed over her chest, and she grabbed at the aching area.

"Will you accept flowers?"

She looked at the stems of the s...o...b..rries artfully bound together, and gazed up into his warm, brown eyes. "Thank you." A thickness formed in her throat, signaling the onset of self-pitying tears. "The police left and they weren't the best company."

Jackson laid the bouquet on the table next to the TV set. "I think you should be fine. I talked to Inspector Crawley. So did Ollie."

The mention of her friend's name brought soreness to her lungs.

Jackson must have felt her distress as he continued. "He explained about Pippa's erratic behavior and her violent jealousy toward you. With that and the DNA results from Miss Lindsey's crime scene, you should be fine. They still don't know where Pippa got the drugs from. Her father is a surgeon, and she's, was, a med student. She might have stolen them."

Madison grimaced. "Anyway, they're letting me go back to the States, at least for the holidays. So I guess my reputation is pretty much cleared." She sank back into her thoughts and added, "I'm not sure my conscience is ..."

Jackson edged closer to her, tilted his head and slipped his hands into the pockets of his coat. "Ollie knows you did everything you could to bring her back."

"He's wrong. If I had been better prepared ..."

He stepped forward and squeezed her forearm. His tone was firm when he said, "Pippa's death isn't due to a failure of magic, but to a failure of human nature."

"Ollie hasn't been here to visit me." Not to mention the man she so longed to see and be with.

"He is heartbroken. He also feels guilty for failing to see how distressed Pippa was. Give him time to heal."

Rupert, though, might not ever heal. He had opened up to her, but she had deceived him, then pushed him away when he had come to her rescue. Madison knew enough of him to suspect he might never forgive her. And she couldn't face the banishment from his life.

Sitting up on the hospital bed, she balanced her legs and touched the spotless floor. With an exercise of will, she took a few tentative steps, but the effort was too strenuous. She would have collapsed without Jackson's clumsy attempt to support her. He made her swivel and settle on a well-worn armchair.

The contact lasted long enough for their eyes to lock and blood to flush both their cheeks.

Jackson was the first to recover. He cleared his throat and joked, "I'm not sure you're quite ready for a ten-hour flight."

His attempt to divert her attention failed.

"I'm so sorry." Madison searched his eyes to read his reactions.

He stepped backward to lean against the edge of the bed.

"You have nothing to apologize for. I'll have to deal with my feelings on my own."

"When I'm around you, my powers feel-I feel-so much stronger. I hope you don't think I misled you or took advantage of your trust. Like your ex-girlfriend did. I never confided in anyone the way I have in you."

A glimpse of surprise sparkled in his eyes.