It took years to discover fully what had been happening. Another three members of the Marshall family died horrifically during that time. I was always too late to save them. Along with what Augusta was able to find out, I did some research of my own, visiting as many of the family as I could, often guided by images of family members Mama sent me and, at other times, dreams or intuitions the family members I spoke to were able to give me.
From what I had gathered, the entity from the chapel was trying to be reborn through one of Luna’s descendants. It usually began by trying to possess them. When that failed, it drove them to madness, or despair, or killed them brutally. The first sign I was able to find of this dark thread that had interwoven itself in the bright fabric of the Marshall families’ lives, were the random disappearances of family members who were isolated from the fold or had somehow gone astray. There were also the odd suicides. Looking through the information I had gathered, I realised that the disappearances began during the years Luna had walked out of my life. That was also no coincidence. It had used that period when she had been distracted by her own hatred and anger to begin attacking the family.
Luna had been able to control it. Her descendants were not aware of what it was, or of their latent powers, and so could have no idea where to start or of how to subdue it. And it had grown stronger over the years.
Thrown into a new wilderness, a valley which held untold depths of cloying dread, I remained present for Mallory’s sake and continued to take care of her. Soon she was away at college. I spent every second I could spare researching the supernatural in order to try and find out all I could about exactly what the entity residing at the chapel was, and how I could vanquish it.
It was 1983 and Mallory had turned twenty. She was home from college for Christmas. She had spent the last few Christmases with Bernice, who no longer worked for us, and so it was a pleasure to have her home for Christmas that year. Especially since it would probably be the last Christmas we would spend together. I could deceive the people around me, changing staff regularly and it was easy to acquire false documents and assume different identities as the years passed. But it had been over eleven years since I had come across Mallory outside the mansion, and I had not aged in all those years. It was only a matter of time before her highly intuitive mind began to notice, once again, that I was “different.” I did not want her burdened with the secrets of the undead. So I had to ease her out of my life and be alone once more.
When I awoke that evening, Mallory was waiting for me in the dining room.
“Good evening, Mallory,” I said when I entered, distracted by a letter that had arrived from England.
“Good evening, Uncle Avery. Can I speak to you for a moment?”
My gaze was on the letter before me. I turned around, moving back toward the door. “I’ll be back in a moment.”
I was walking down the corridor before I realised what had just happened. I rushed back to the dining room. She was sitting at the dining table dressed in jeans and a royal blue jumper, looking expectantly up at me. I stared at her in surprise for a few moments before I moved to sit opposite her.
“You can speak?” I said.
She nodded. I had been hearing her mental voice for so long that I hadn’t realised how beautiful her real voice was.
“But why...?”
She sighed heavily, her mind on her hazy recollections of those days spent with her mother’s corpse, the mounting dread that weighed down her heart whenever morning came and her mother had not awoken. The only thing she remembered clearly was the intense feeling of safety she experienced outside the mansion when I picked her up and carried her inside.
“It was silly, really. But I knew you could hear me and it was a way for me to be close to you because no one could hear me but you. But I wanted to talk to you today, I have done for years. I know you can make me forget about this conversation, like you’ve done before, but you don’t have to. I’m not a child anymore, Uncle Avery and I want you to know you can trust me. And I get scared sometimes, that I’ll wake up one morning and you’ll be gone and I won’t even remember you. I don’t want that to happen. You’ve been there for me, so let me be here for you.”
She exhaled deeply after her little speech. I reached for her hand.
“I would have never done that...well, not in that way. But you remaining close to me...it may not be good for you.”
Anxiety flittered across her features, but she nodded, although she appeared to be greatly unhappy.
“Mallory, you mean a great deal to me. I don’t want to push you out of my life. But I need to think about what would be best—for you.”
She stared at me carefully and the anxiety passed away. Perhaps she already knew what I had not decided yet, that I would not make her forget the conversation we’d had, or push her out of my life.
I got to my feet. “We’ll talk more later.”
“There is one thing I’ve always wondered about,” she said. “When I was twelve something happened. Did it have anything to do with the woman who came to see you that time? Luna?”
Even hearing her name after so long brought heart-wrenching pain. I nodded. She said no more, just stared at me.
“We’ll talk more later,” I repeated, kissed her on the forehead, and left the room.
The image of Henriette’s broken body entered my mind as I moved down the corridor, but it was not enough to rid me of the stubborn, selfish joy that had asserted itself. I did not have to push Mallory out of my world. I needed her. I could not be alone when there was so much darkness ahead.
When she returned to college after the Christmas break, I left Louisiana to continue to look for a way to vanquish the chapel entity. I searched for witch after witch, but none of them knew what to do and most were too afraid of whatever this thing was to attempt to exorcise its hold on Luna’s descendants. Auria was the only hope I had of discovering what this being was. But although I searched the world for her and the son she had spoken of to Emory, I never found her.
When I ended the search for Auria in 1994, another five of Luna’s descendants had perished. Unless I could find a way to stop this thing, they would all meet horrific fates at its hands.
An article I had seen in the paper that day seemed trivial in comparison to the problem of the chapel entity, but I decided to pack a bag and go to New York. Another of Luna’s descendants, Ella Marshall-Simmons, had been receiving death threats of late and it had been reported that an attack had been made on her life a few days ago.
Ella was the owner of a global cosmetics company. She was a strong, mercurial businesswoman who had received her fair share of intimidation on her rise to the top. I knew this because I had dealt with some of her more serious opponents. She was not a woman who showed fear of anything. So it was unusual that she had let this story become public knowledge. Mama usually warned me whenever there was a serious threat of any kind to one of her descendants and I had not had any dreams of Mama for the last month.
It was odd, but I got on a plane anyway and made my way to New York. I got there before dusk and remained outside the mansion on Fifth Avenue, searching the thoughts of its residents and keeping a close watch on anyone entering or leaving the premises. Most of the residents of the mansion had gone to bed by midnight. But Ella remained in her study on the ground floor. I materialised in one of the living rooms on the first floor and went to the window, where I could look out on the street below.
I was asking myself whether or not it was a waste of time being here when something changed. The air in the room seemed to quiver. I spun round in time to shimmer to the other side of the room before a large vase of gardenias I had been admiring only moments ago, smashed into the wall a foot away from where my head had been.
I gazed at the smashed vase, at the scattered gardenias, water slowly sinking into the plush red carpet. I sighed and waited.
Good evening, Mr Wentworth.
The voice in my head was strong and clear. It could only be Ella’s.
What is the meaning of this? You have Luna’s journal, so you know who I am and that I mean you no harm.
There was nothing for a few moments, only the sound of the clock ticking, then her reply.
Come on down to my study, Avery.
“Said the spider to the fly,” I muttered before I let the room disappear in a swirl of red and black. I entered her study moments later.
She was sitting on the sofa. She had a rosewood complexion, heart shaped face, high cheekbones and dark straightened hair that hung to her shoulders. A large painting of Luna hung above the fireplace, gazing at me as haughty and formidable on canvas as she had been in life. Ella studied me intently for a moment. Her thoughts were completely shielded from me, her gaze like that of a cat’s, full of mystery and cunning.
“I painted that a few years ago,” she said finally. “I only had my visions of her to go on, so tell me. Is it a good likeness?”
“What was the meaning of that little trick upstairs?”
She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes, which were hard and cold.
“I have been waiting to meet you for a very long time, but you’ve been so elusive I thought a demonstration was in order. A reminder, so to speak, of manners, and what I expect of you whenever you enter my home. There is no need for you to skulk around. Whenever you’re here, I would like at least a hello.”
It wasn’t a request. It was a demand. Not for the first time I cursed that journal and the enquiring young men and women that came looking for me whenever they read it. I should take the opportunity to burn that damned thing now I knew where it was.
She laughed, a soft mirthless sound that was as calculating as her gaze. She stood up and moved to stand by the fireplace. “As if I would let you do that?”
I stared at her, trying not to let my surprise show. “Only Luna’s mother was ever able to read my thoughts.”
“Not as well as you can read people’s minds. But I see enough.”
“And you can shield your mind from me as well as Luna used to.”
Her smile was triumphant. “Thank you. I have spent years preparing for our meeting.”
“What do you want?”
“I want to talk about Emily and the evil that has been haunting us.”
Emily had been murdered by the chapel spirit five years ago. I sat down. It would come to this sooner or later.
“How much do you know?” I said.
“Enough. Why didn’t you try to stop it?”
“I did try. I’ve never been able to stop it from killing them.”
“I meant before that. Why didn’t you kill her when you knew it was trying to be reborn through her?”
“I would never kill one of Luna’s descendants.”
She smiled brightly, a smile that was glorious as well as utterly ruthless.
“But you did once before.”
Silence hung in the room.
“I’m ordering you that from now on, you will kill them the moment you suspect it is trying to possess them.”
I used my telekinetic power to spin her away from the fireplace and slammed her back into the sofa. She glared at me, her anger fierce but tightly reined. This was not a woman who liked to lose control.
“You should be careful, Ella. Your powers may be impressive. But you’re not invincible and you’re definitely no match for me. Remember that.”
She seemed to wither and abruptly seemed smaller and softer. Tears glimmered in her eyes.
“We come from a line of powerful witches, but no, we’re not invincible, as Luna found out to her detriment. We let our emotions stop us from doing what must be done. If Luna had killed Simon back then, we would have been spared from all of this. I won’t make the same mistake.”
Silence wreathed the room again. I got to my feet.
“Good night, Ella.”
I was relieved when I got outside to the frigid night air.
I left the city, my mind as always weighed down by the problem of the evil entity taking away so much from me. Every time it killed one of them, it was as if Luna had died all over again. And what if it finally succeeded in possessing one of them? Was Ella right in ordering me to kill them before it achieved its goal?
There were many questions but no answers, and time would soon run out for me and the family I had come to see as my own.