Page 70 of The Ghost and the Graveyard (Knight Games 1)
"Please, sit down." He waved his hand toward a chair at the table.
"I'm listening," I said, taking a seat. I was fully dressed. He was naked from the waist down.
Rick reached for his glass, draining the thick red liquid in two swallows. "Remember when I told you about Reverend Monk and the people of Red Grove? About how they were starving to death?"
"I remember." What did this have to do with the fact that he just mind-fucked me?
"Things were miserable. Children were dying. The congregation had prayed and prayed. No help came. Reverend Monk decided the drought was the work of a witch, and it so happened that there was a witch in Red Grove."
I rested my chin in my palm. "You mean a person who practices Wicca, right? There are a few nurses on my floor who are Wiccan."
"No. I mean a queen of the damned. A natural sorceress so strong that no practice could define her."
"Oh, come on." I rolled my eyes.
"I'm telling you the truth."
"You're saying there was a real, spell-casting witch in Red Grove? Don't insult my intelligence."
I tried to stand, but he stretched across the table and pressed me back into my seat. "Calling her a witch is an understatement. Her name was Isabella Lockhart, and she was more powerful than any to walk this earth. She was a sorceress of the dead and, although Monk didn't know it, she had been protecting the town of Red Grove for years from the supernatural beings passing through these woods."
I pursed my lips. "So, did Monk burn her at the stake or what?"
Rick grimaced. "Monk had a secret. One night he took a long walk in the forest behind the chapel, on the land that is now Monk's Hill cemetery. He was praying for a way to keep his parishioners alive, some source of food to help them through the winter. Reverend Monk would later tell his people that he met an angel in those woods. But the creature Monk met was no angel. Monk came face to face with a demon in disguise. The demon gave Monk a book, The Book of Flesh and Bone. Inside the book, dark spells were written, spells to bind death to life, spells to raise the dead.
"He brought the book back to his church believing it was a book of prayers. As Monk read the book, an idea came to him, a way to end his people's suffering. On October thirty-first, sixteen ninety-two, the townspeople, at the direction of Monk, marched with their torches to the home of Isabella Lockhart, chanting prayers from The Book of Flesh and Bone-prayers that were actually spells. They bound her to her human form, preventing her escape, making her vulnerable to the angry crowd."
Rick folded his hands across the table, eyes red around the edges. I knew he loved history, but the passion he infused into the legend seemed a little cray-cray. I squirmed in my seat under the intensity he was putting off and wished he'd just get to the point.
"They burned her alive, Grateful, at the center of what is now the cemetery, right in front of the church."
My hand went to my throat. I heard my breath rush into my lungs on a gasp. I didn't know why I was getting so wrapped up in the obviously made-up story, but the thought of someone being burned alive yards from where I was sitting left me riveted.
"A sorceress as strong as Isabella could not be killed by natural means. But with the book's words repeated on the lips of the parishioners, the assault was supernatural. She was burned in demon fire."
"So the witch was killed. Let me guess, it didn't fix the drought."
A dark chuckle crossed his lips. "No. But it was not the drought that killed them all."
"Huh?"
"The Book of Flesh and Bone demands a high price. All who chanted the spell died-and by their blood leaching into the ground and the death of the witch, the magic opened a gateway to hell. The earth shook and cracked open. All of the supernatural creatures Isabella had protected the townsfolk from for so many years emerged from the cracked ground and returned to the dark forest."
"Supernatural? What, like vampires?" I laughed. I wasn't sure where Rick was going with this. I suspected he was messing with me, trying to distract me from what was happening between us.
"Vampires, zombies, ghouls-all types of unholy beasts. Monk never told his people about the true source of the book and never warned them of the consequences. His people never asked. They didn't want to know. Innocent blood was spilled with an evil spell that robbed the town of the one person who could control the supernatural element here, cursing this land forever."
"Cursed? Is this the big secret? I'm living on cursed land?"
"Before she died, Isabella cast one last spell. Long before the day she burned, she had planted the seed, the foundation to execute the magic. There was a man, a lover. She was betrothed to be married." Rick stood and started unbuttoning his shirt. He turned his back to me. "He knew she was different but didn't suspect how different."
He tossed his shirt aside. The beautiful muscles of his back peaked and grooved under perfect tanned skin, a work of art. I was suddenly very aware that he was naked.
I shook my head. He still hadn't explained what had happened tonight. "What does this story have to do with me?"
Rick began again, but his voice sounded heavy, and he spoke toward the kitchen as if he didn't want to meet my eyes. "The night they burned her, the lover tried to stop them, but he was outnumbered. They made him watch while she burned. He would have gladly taken her place." He swallowed hard.
I stiffened. The way he told it sounded like he was there. It was creepy.
