Page 79 of The Ghost and the Graveyard (Knight Games 1)
"Yes, he told me. But that wasn't this body. I don't have those memories."
"Oh, I see. Are you a virgin, then? Unwilling or afraid to complete the act itself? Morally against premarital sex?"
"Um, no. I lost my virginity when I was eighteen to a guy in the singles group at my church."
"Then you are with someone? Are you still seeing the church boy, is that it?"
This was getting embarrassing. "No."
"Then what is it, dear? What is keeping you from accepting your responsibility back from me? Is one act of sex with a gorgeous immortal for the sake of maintaining the balance of good and evil so appalling to you?"
Okay, she was getting angry. That was the voice nurses used with uncooperative patients. "It's not just the sex. It's what the sex means. It's a lifetime commitment. I get freaked out when I think that I might be in the same career for the rest of my life. That's why I chose nursing because you can move around and do different things. But this feels permanent."
"And what exactly is wrong with committing to your life's purpose?"
"I..." I couldn't answer that question.
"If you don't take up this responsibility, Grateful, the repercussions will be horrific."
"What? What will happen?"
"Rick will weaken. It's what the vampires wanted when they killed you."
"I thought Reverend Monk killed me."
"Reverend Monk killed the first you, Isabella Lockhart. I'm talking about the last you, Samantha; the one I knew and loved. And I've always speculated that Reverend Monk was a pawn for whomever gave him The Book of Flesh and Bone."
I paced, rubbing my palms together. "In my last life, I was killed by vampires, and my death weakened Rick? I thought he was immortal."
"Immortal he is, but Rick feeds on sex, on blood, and on love. Those were things you provided him when you were alive. Without them, he weakens. Without you, he has to control the population of the unholy himself. More work with less strength. The last twenty-two years have been hard on him."
"So, that's all I am? His food?"
"Stupid girl! Haven't you been listening at all?" She was definitely angry now. "He is yours. He is your caretaker. You strengthen him so that he can protect you. You love him, and he loves you. You are the witch, and he is the caretaker. You balance each other. There are things that you can do that Rick can't. You were very powerful once. You could be again."
"If Rick was supposed to protect me, if I was so powerful, then how did I die?"
"Why don't you see for yourself?" Prudence moved toward an altar at the back of the room. I didn't remember seeing it when I first came in. On top was an enormous book. When I say enormous, I mean Guinness World Record sized. Once when I was a kid, my father and I visited the Library of Congress where I saw the Gutenberg Bible. This book dwarfed that one.
"This is your spell book," Prudence said. "It is called the Book of Light. Everything you need to know about controlling evil is in its pages. You also stored your memories in it. If you want to know how you died, open it and ask."
I stepped up to the leather-bound volume. It took both hands working together to open the thing, and as I did, I said in a loud, clear voice, "How did I die?"
Light poured out of the book, blinding me. The attic melted away. When I could see again, I was standing in the graveyard, only the hedges in front of the fence were missing, so I had a clear view of Rick's cottage across the street. The maple trees were mere saplings. Somehow I knew it was Halloween, and it didn't take long for me to figure out I was reliving my own memory.
Three teenagers paced outside the cemetery gate, two boys and a girl. Great. Hormone fueled idiocy. I couldn't get a break tonight. I slipped behind a granite monolith because I didn't want to give the teens any excuse to hop the fence. With any luck, they'd get bored and move on.
Rick's wings beat in the distance near the chapel on Monk's Hill. He'd gone to break up a group of vampires congregating there. Vamps could look human when they wanted and were highly intelligent. Usually, they were selfish and territorial, but lately, they'd been organizing, designating leaders and, we suspected, planning an escape. Hopefully, Rick would be able to nip the problem in the budding fang, but that meant I needed to handle these kids on my own.
My reflection in the shiny surface of the monolith temporarily distracted me. The blurred image had red hair and was wearing head-to-toe black. I lifted an arm. Leather. Wow, I was a badass in my past life.
"Come on, I'll boost you over," one of the boys said. He was dressed as Michael Jackson complete with sparkly glove.
"I don't know. It looks creepy. Let's go back to my place and hang out," the girl said. Smart girl.
"It'll be cool," the other boy said. The antennas of his alien costume bobbed around his head as he spoke. He kneeled down and cupped his hands.
Maybe I gave the girl too much credit by calling her smart. She placed her foot in his palm and launched herself to the top of the fence. Once she was over, Michael Jackson helped the alien, and then, in a rare display of upper body strength, scaled the fence on his own.
