DISCLAIMERS:See Part 1
"Josiah!" The big man didn't look up immediately. "Josiah, what does the legend say these ghosts do to people who disturb their repose?" That last exhibition had been a revelation to Ezra. He was certain he was on to a solution; he just needed his friend's help. Josiah had been lost in thought staring at his two friends, trying to think of a way to help. Josiah was just a bit unnerved at what had just happened. Ezra's voice brought him back to the fact that he didn't have to solve this problem alone. He thanked God for that.
"I don't think anyone but the brothers are truly at rest. They died trying to save their people and the wife. Nothing in their deaths could have been changed. They died nobly, and although the wife died, they had helped her escape before their deaths, so they really had accomplished what they had started out to do. If the chief and his men had arrived sooner, maybe the younger brother and the wife could have been saved, but at what price?" He looked at Ezra trying to see what piece of the puzzle the gambler had latched on to.
"But what does the actual legend of Sorrow Canyon say happens to anyone who enters here?"
Josiah's brow wrinkled in thought as he tried to remember the legend in its entirety. What had they done that made the spirits rise and try to take one of their own? Then it hit him. "The legend says that anyone who commits a violent act in Sorrow Canyon must prove to the spirits that the violence they committed was justified. If a truly evil man comes to Sorrow Canyon, he awakens the blood thirst of the renegade. If the evil one can possess him, he can leave and take his evil out into the world again." Josiah paused and thought of all that had gone on this day.
"Vin and Chris had to shoot those men to save Emmaline, but she didn't maliciously ride into them with the intent to kill."
"I just wanted to save my horse, but I don't think it was Wildfire who screamed in pain after all, Mr. Josiah."
"I know, Emmaline. I think the spirits were restless because of the men who were here already. They had evil in their hearts to begin with."
"But Mr. Vin and Mr. Chris ain't evil. They're kinda mean when ya cross 'm, but they ain't evil. Mr. Vin's a lot nicer than Mr. Chris, too."
"But with Mr. Tanner's uncanny ability to know things, he is a logical choice for the evil one to try and possess. Would you say that is correct?"
"I'd say that sounds as good as anything else right now, Ezra."
"Then the lady must be helpin' 'em cause y'all are all friends. Maybe she knows y'all are good."
"I wouldn't go as far as to say we were good men, Emmaline, but I do believe she recognizes that Vin and Chris are like brothers."
"I agree, Josiah. I believe that the lady recognizes the affection our friends hold for one another as that of brotherhood. She is responding to that. She couldn't save her husband and his brother when they were alive, maybe she is trying to find peace now by saving Chris and Vin whom she believes to be brothers."
"Makes sense, Ezra. How do we help her?"
"We help her by staying together. The cloud did not go after Vin and Chris until they were apart from us."
"You're right. Maybe our strength is in our being together?" The fire rose high again and the air crackled a bit. It didn't get any hotter, but everyone felt a warmth pass over them. There was a slight smell of wildflowers and a peacefulness that wasn't there before.
Maybe they would all survive this night, but Ezra was not going to place all his money on the woman. Josiah looked at the two men on the floor and prayed that Ezra had found the solution to at least one of their problems.
"Ezra, why don't you and Emmaline try and get some rest. I'll keep watch."
"How late is it, Josiah? My pocket watch has decided to keep this night's time a mystery from me." Ezra was staring at his watch in the firelight. It said eleven P.M., but Ezra had no way of knowing how long the watch had been stopped. It felt as if they had spent half the night waging battle against this mysterious legend. He looked up to see Josiah frowning. "Josiah?"
"What time did your watch stop, Ezra?"
"I assume since it says . . ."
"Eleven?" The gambler nodded as Josiah showed his watch to Ezra.
"I was afraid of that. No way to tell how long we've been here, or how long we have to wait until dawn." Ezra would have answered but Emmaline stopped him.
"Mr. Ezra, Mr. Vin's awfully hot."
Josiah and Ezra both leaned over and felt the tracker's forehead. Then Josiah felt Chris's as well. Ezra raised an eyebrow in question. Josiah confirmed Ezra's suspicions. "Chris is warm, but Vin is burnin' up. We don't need any more trouble right now, Lord." Ezra silently agreed with the preacher. The weaker Vin was the better the chances his weakened state would attract the evil entity. An icy breeze cut though the air. Vin shivered and tried to move. Ezra shook his head. Sometimes he thought too much.
Josiah caught his eye as Emmaline leaned over to bathe Vin's face with the wet cloth Josiah had soaked in the water from one of the canteens. Vin tried to move away from Emmaline's hand as she laid the wet cloth on his forehead. She wasn't going to put up with that.
"Mr. Vin, you stop that now. We ain't lettin that thing get ya. Be still."
Josiah's rueful grin let Ezra know that he had thought the same thing. Josiah had worried that Vin or Chris would have had enough of Emmaline and turned her over one of their knees and spanked her. He thought he or Ezra might have done the same. He thought maybe the young girl would have kept them up all night whining and fussing, but he never thought he'd spend the night waging war with a demon over the soul of his friend, or that the hellcat would be so concerned over someone she was yelling at earlier.
Well, he knew the seven were warriors, maybe the Lord had decided that they were ready to fight evil on a more personal level. If that was the case, this demon was going to have a battle on his hands. No way he was going to let the man who had believed in his innocence without question be taken over by an evil he didn't even know existed. Josiah would fight the evil with his hands, his heart, his very own soul before he'd lose a brother to evil. But why Vin and not Chris?
If anyone's soul was a battleground it was Chris Larabee. And, yet, maybe that was the very reason Chris had not been chosen. Chris had faced his demons and was learning to live despite them. Maybe his battle had made him stronger than the renegade's ghost wanted to fight. Josiah knew Vin wasn't afraid to die, and that he had his own demons, but Josiah thought that maybe Vin had yet to feel like his soul had been stripped from him like Chris had. Vin with his uncanny way of being at the right place at the right time, knowing things, sensing things, and that irreverent sense of humor that would crop up at the oddest of times, maybe that made him an easier victim for the ghost. Well, Josiah felt the same way as the rest of the people in the cave. No way in hell was any damn ghost taking Vin from them.
Vin was moaning, words tumbling out in his delirium that no one understood. They were unintelligible. Once or twice he opened his eyes and the others would be startled at how their color would change back and forth from blue to black and then back again. He didn't seem to recognize anyone or anything, and he seemed determined to get to that smaller opening that Ezra had noticed earlier. Whatever fever possessed him would come and go. One minute he would be on fire, the next, sweating and clammy. Every time the fever would spike, the others would notice the drop in the temperature in the cave. Ezra wished the damned cloud would return. At least then their enemy would have some shape, something they could see even if they couldn't touch it.
Chris was silent and really hadn't moved since he had come to earlier and warned them of the danger to Vin. Josiah sat there watching him. Ezra thought that maybe the preacher was praying that they didn't lose any of their friends tonight. Ezra felt that the entity had chosen Vin because it sensed that Chris would willingly follow if it had the tracker under its control. Chris would fight the devil himself to save any of his friends, but Vin appeared to be the key. There was an understanding between the two that Ezra had seen seldom in his life. Some brothers Ezra had met didn't share the closeness Vin and Chris had formed.
Rather than be envious of it, Ezra had subconsciously decided at some point that he could benefit from the ties that bound the two men together that in turn reached out to envelop the other five. They had all become his brothers, his friends, and he knew that his roughneck friend was as unique and special in his own way as any of the other men, and yet together they formed an almost unbeatable group. Where one was weak, another would step in and pick up the slack. None of the seven were perfect, and there were days when one would say or do something that could really set off one or more of the others. But when it came right down to it, each man was the ace up the sleeve for the others.
The deck was definitely stacked against anyone who was foolish enough to take on the seven, and no damned ghost was going to rob Ezra Standish of the best hand he'd ever been dealt. He didn't care if he had to play the cards the devil himself dealt; Ezra played to win. Besides, Ezra had a wager going with Buck and JD on who was going to break down and surrender first, Emmaline or Chris and Vin. His money was on his two friends. After all, they'd handled the Terrell twins and survived just fine. Ezra would rather live in the same house as his mother than tell the Terrell twins he and the others had lost Vin. No, they must wrest Mr. Tanner from the clutches of this evil apparition.
"Ezra." It was a low and raspy voice. Chris was awake and lucid at last. Josiah held the canteen to his lips when Chris coughed. Ezra leaned over to help steady the canteen while Josiah supported Chris as he sat up enough to drink the water. He drank more than Ezra thought he would, but they had plenty of water, enough to last until early in the afternoon. Ezra only hoped that Nathan made the others start out early enough to get to them by late morning. He'd feel better once the healer was there to tend to the fever raging through Vin's body.
"Vin?"
"He's still out of it. Got a fever and keeps mumblin' in some language we don't know. We figure the lady is helpin' him fight."
Chris nodded. "She wants the evil stopped, destroyed before it can get more powerful and leave this place on its own."
Ezra shot a concerned look at Josiah. "We ascertained it was desirous of possessing Vin in order to depart this lovely example of western wilderness." Josiah translated before Emmaline could ask what Ezra had said.
"We thought it wanted Vin. Isn't that what you said?"
Chris almost relaxed at the normalcy in the attitudes of both men. They were facing this as they had everything else, united. Friendship was as powerful a weapon as it was a protector.
"All I know is what I felt. It needs someone to take it from this cave, but it feeds on violence. The more violence it can feed on the more powerful it becomes. The men we killed were a feast for the ghost of the renegade. The lady had been able to hold him in check until now." Chris paused to look over at Vin. "The spirits of her husband and his brother have been helping her contain the evil for years, but there was so much blood, and Vin and I were too weak to fight it on our own. It can't win." Chris was tiring again, but he had to tell the others what they were facing.
The icy wind returned and Vin's eyes shot open. They were black. He tried to scoot away from the group toward the smaller opening. He was mumbling again and pushing Ezra and Emmaline away from him as he tried to get to the smaller cave again. Chris grabbed the ankle of the boot on Vin's injured leg and held on to his friend.
"Vin! Vin! Stop him, Josiah. Don't let him get near that opening!" Josiah and Ezra shot a puzzled look at one another and then each grabbed Vin and pulled him back near Emmaline and Chris. Vin struggled, kicking out his feet and fists fighting them. One foot caught Ezra squarely in the chest, and the whoosh from the air forced out promised a bruise would be forming in the spot where the boot had connected with the gambler. The words Vin spoke had no meaning, but the tone carried a menace that made the hair on the back of their necks stand on end.
"Why can't he get near that?" Ezra asked the question as Josiah enveloped Vin in a bear hug pinning Vin's flailing arms to his sides. Just as quickly as the icy wind had enveloped them it was replaced by the warm, fragrant air. Vin collapsed against Ezra, having expended most of his strength in the tussle.
As Chris reached over and put a hand on Vin's shoulder, he looked at the three people who hadn't once thought of leaving them behind in order to save themselves. Chris knew somehow that that was one reason why he and Vin were still here with them. The others had refused to abandon them. If they could hang on till Buck, JD, and Nathan got here, they all just might leave here, the seven complete once more.
"That's the original entrance to this cave. Time was that small opening there opened into a larger cave. Its entrance was further over to the left. Time and nature have shifted to cover the original entrance and open this part. That small opening there was where the renegade was killed instantly when the cave in occurred. The woman was in this part badly wounded. She bled to death before her father or his men even discovered where to find her. This was her tomb. Her spirit couldn't join her husband's or his brother's until time and another rockslide opened the cave on this side. Their spirits have combined to stop the renegade from leaving and spreading the evil. They are doomed to haunt this place until they can stop him once and for all."
"That's why our brother is so intent on getting to that spot. The evil one is calling him there. It is its place of power."
"But why did we see it over by the entrance?" Emmaline was trying very hard to concentrate on what was being said and keep Vin's fever from climbing higher as she bathed his forehead with the cloth.
"May I hazard that the ghost of the miscreant created the original fire at the entrance to separate us from our two wounded brethren in order for it to seek the one it wanted to possess?"
"That makes sense, Ezra. Chris?"
"He's right. Our strength lies in our friendship with one another."
"So if that assumption is correct, then it stands to reason that if it can separate Vin from us, it can possess him and leave this place. That bullet wound in his leg is a mere inconvenience for an entity with that much power." Ezra helped prop Chris up even more against the saddles they had placed there earlier in the evening.
The gunslinger nodded his head, tired from all that he had been through and from the thought of what was to come. He knew from the determination on the faces of all present that Vin Tanner was staying with them. If he had been thinking clearly, Chris wouldn't have felt as confident knowing he was waiting on the missing three to return and help them join forces with three good spirits to save one of their friends from an evil ghost. If this had happened even a day ago, Chris Larabee would have been looking for the bottle this nightmare had come from. But it wasn't a nightmare. It was very, very real.
The respite lasted for little more than an hour. Josiah had decided Vin was safer where he was, so with Ezra's help, they had stacked two of the saddles one on top of the other behind Josiah. There he continued to lean with Vin propped up against him. That way he could easily restrain the tracker by pinning his arms to his sides as he had earlier. Emmaline had chosen to lean against Chris's uninjured side. Too tired to continue bathing Vin's face, Emmaline had succumbed to fatigue and was sleeping quietly. Ezra sat on Josiah's other side watching as they kept Vin centered between them. The dozing Josiah felt the voice in Vin before he even spoke. Instinctively, the big man took Vin's wrists in his own hands and secured them just as the rumblings turned to sound. Even Ezra jumped a bit at the sound coming from Vin's mouth, and he had watched what was getting ready to unfold before him. Emmaline moaned a little but stayed asleep. Chris didn't. He awoke to the sounds of pure hatred.
"I'll win." The voice was low, throaty, and reeking with malevolence. "Why bother with a man running from a noose?"
Chris's eyes narrowed as he looked at his best friend. This wasn't Vin talking. The ghost was using any weakness of Vin's as a means of separating the tracker from his friends. "Ain't no one gonna hang him, not while we're all here and alive. Not while I'm alive!"
The little shiver of apprehension and dismay that Ezra had felt when he saw the black colored eyes gleaming with hatred open as the words poured forth dissipated when Chris Larabee spoke. Josiah, although he couldn't see the eyes, could feel the tenseness of the body he was holding on to. Josiah knew that the voice dripping with hatred was making yet another assault in order to take their friend from them. He didn't need to see the blue eyes overcome by the blackness to realize they were fighting for Vin's soul, and who better to lead them than Chris Larabee? They'd heard Chris speak like that before. It meant that the gunslinger had drawn the line, and the only way anyone could get past him was by walking over his dead body. That Chris was mad enough to issue threats to an evil entity made both Ezra and Josiah feel like they, too, could defeat anyone or anything that threatened the friendships they had achieved through so much adversity. They waited, prepared to do anything they could to help Chris wrest Vin from the evil that so desperately wanted to leave this place.
"Why should he believe in you? None of you care anything for him. He's just a drifter, a nobody who can't read or write. He's nothing to any of you but a source of amusement!" It was Vin's mouth moving, but the words spouting from it were not Vin Tanner. Ezra and Josiah both knew that.
"You are grossly mistaken if you think that we will allow you to manipulate our friend into believing such abominable mendacity." Josiah winked at the now wide-awake Emmaline. No one could battle with words quite as well as Ezra, but Josiah figured any man could use some help every now and again.
"You can do and say anything you want, but you cannot have our friend. He knows that what you're saying, all of it, they're all lies. You know that, don't you, Vin?" Josiah wanted Vin to know they were all here fighting for him. The body he was holding onto started struggling against him. They all realized that Vin was still with them and fighting the evil with them. Even Emmaline figured it out on her own.
"We ain't gonna let you have Mr. Vin. Anyone with a brain can see he ain't no murderer. If he was, he wouldn't a helped my pa like he did after me an' Arty hurt him an' Mr. Chris. You best just git, and leave Mr. Vin with us. It's you nobody likes. All these men are friends. Heck, I thought Mr. Chris and Mr. Vin were brothers til I found out different. You're the one who has to leave him alone." And like the typical angry and scared teenager she was, Emmaline got the last word. She folded her arms across her chest and frowned at the entity in front of her. "Ya hear me? No one wants you 'round so git!"
Chris was staring dumbfounded at the tirade. He had no idea that Emmaline even liked Vin, much less had the grit to face a demon. He didn't know whether to laugh or slap some sense into her until he heard Josiah.
"Well, I think you told him, Emmaline. Did it work?" Vin had relaxed limply against him, like a rag doll that had been discarded. "He's not fighting me any more."
"It also appears that our friendly spirits have helped once again. Notice the warmth now?" Ezra looked over at the others. "May I suggest we try to reach our Mr. Tanner and assure him he is among friends who most definitely care about his continued presence amongst us?"
"I think you have a plan there, friend." Josiah let go of one of Vin's wrists and took the wet cloth Ezra handed him. He wiped Vin's face as Chris leaned over and took his friend by the shoulder. Chris gently shook Vin as Josiah tapped him on the face several times. They took turns calling his name. Finally, they were greeted by a very tired and disgruntled voice. Vin pushed Josiah's hand away from him.
"Lemme alone. Stop it." They looked at one another, and Chris frowned.
"Open your eyes, Vin. Look at us." The tone he used made Josiah grab Vin's wrists again. Even Ezra and Emmaline put their hands on his shoulders as Chris took Vin's chin in his hand. "I said open your eyes and look at me!"
Vin's eyes opened. They were still black. "I told you I would win." The purely evil laughter that followed made Emmaline jerk her hand from Vin and lean way from him. "What's the matter little girl, cat got your tongue?" The evil entity started laughing then burst into a frenzy of movement. Ezra held onto Vin's legs as Josiah and Chris used every ounce of their strength to hold Vin down. It was trying to get Vin to move to the small opening in the back, the evil ghost's center of power. Somehow the others sensed that Emmaline's rejection had strengthened the ghost's hold. The storm outside raged on, and the cave was blasted by the battle between warmth and cold, good and evil.
"Emmaline, he wants you to reject Vin. He's usin' your fear to keep his hold on Vin. He's trying to scare you into doing something stupid." Chris saw he was getting through to the frightened girl. He lowered his voice, using the softened tone he used to reserve for Adam. "You have to come back to us and show it that you aren't afraid of Vin. Emmaline, you have to show Vin that you trust him like we do."
"Oh yes, Emmaline, come back over here. We want to show you how much we like you. I like to hear them beg." Chris looked at the evil eyes and reacted to it. He wanted to hurt the ghost like it was hurting his friend, but he unclenched his fists and fought for his own control. Striking out at the entity would only hurt Vin.
"You're not Vin!"
It laughed at him. "No, I own Vin, now. You really want to hit me, don't you?" It laughed at him again. "Go ahead, do it. Vin won't mind. He expects that from you."
Emmaline was scared, but she wanted to do what Chris had told her. She had no reason not to trust Vin, but she could feel the evil and the icy cold emanating from the man she knew as Vin Tanner and it frightened her more than anything had frightened her in her short life. She couldn't do it. She couldn't touch that vile thing that had possessed the body of Vin Tanner. Cold, hungry, exhausted, Emmaline was sorry she had ever come on this ride. She should have listened to her mother. Then she would be safe with them. Why was it that no matter what she did, it always turned out that her mother was right? Emmaline felt a soft warm breeze around her face. It enveloped her, and with it came a peace that made whatever the evil one had said to her seem petty and cruel, not frightening. It gave her courage, and it made her mad. When Emmaline got mad, she got mean.
"He ain't gonna hit his friend. Yer nothin' but a coward. Ya hide behind other folks, get them to do yer dirty work. Well, neither Mr. Chris nor Mr. Vin would hurt the other, so you just might as well let him go. I aint' scared of you cause Mr. Vin won't let you hurt me any more than he'd let those other men hurt me." She leaned over and put both hands on Vin Tanner. "I trust you, Mr. Vin."
Ezra let go the breath he wasn't aware he had been holding when Emmaline began talking. He looked over to see Chris nod in appreciation of the girl's courage. Feisty little thing was growing on him, too.
"We all trust him. Now why don't you do as the young lady suggests and release Mr. Tanner. He won't allow you to hurt anyone, you know, least of all his friends. Mr. Tanner's loyalty is without question among his friends."
"I can attest to that, brothers and sister." Josiah grinned at Emmaline, and looked to Chris. They were with him, and now it was up to him to reach their friend. It was up to Chris Larabee to reach Vin Tanner.
He was trapped. It didn't matter where he turned, what he tried, he couldn't seem to get out of this circle of black, icy fire. He heard his friends calling him, saw them, heard someone saying things he didn't believe, knew they were lies, but he couldn't seem to tell anyone. He was cold; Dear God he was freezing; he was ice. It was an ice that penetrated his flesh, his bones, his muscles; and it gripped his heart in a fist that threatened to squeeze it until it exploded. Something had him in its grip and wouldn't let him go. And, he was tired. So very tired he could hardly fight any more. And everything looked black and gray, no colors, just black and gray.
He screamed for someone to save him, his mother, his friends, Chris. Where was Chris? Where were the others? He needed them. He needed them to set him free and warm his heart before this thing took him over completely. People were arguing. The lady and her husband, Vin could tell they were married, and another man who looked like the husband were arguing with a man so evil you could tell just by looking at him. They were all tugging on the arms of a man. He knew that man. They were fighting over him. It was him. They were trying to tear Vin Tanner apart. Where were his friends to watch his back? How could they let him go through this alone? He'd never felt this scared or helpless or alone in all his life. He didn't want to go with any of them. Then he heard other voices. The tugging by the evil one began to ease up. He was moving over toward the three people. The voices were becoming louder in his ears. His ears! Things were beginning to take on shapes and colors in front of him. The ice around his heart began to thaw, just a little, but it was enough. It was enough to give him the energy to fight. He could hear Chris, and Ezra, and Josiah, and even that little cat Emmaline. They wanted Vin Tanner to stay with them. They wanted him to wake up, to come back to them. What was it they needed from him?
Chris took a deep breath and looked at all of his friends. His shoulder throbbed, but he didn't have time to give in to the pain. The man whose friendship had nudged him from the self-destructive path he had been on depended on him now. Not just him though, it also rested on his friends. They could do this together. They just had to hang on to Vin until the others got there to help them.
"Vin, we need you to wake up! Not it, you, we need Vin Tanner and we need him now!"
"Why ya talkin' like I'm not here?" The voice was barely a whisper, but this time the hope was cautious. It was Vin's voice, but they had thought that before. Vin shifted trying to get comfortable against the boulder they had him leaning against. They could have gotten a more comfortable place to put him, but it was warm when you thought about it. "Open your eyes, Vin. We need you to look at us."
Weary blue eyes opened. He looked at Ezra and Chris and even Emmaline grinning at him in relief. Why were they so relieved? They weren't the ones encased in ice. Josiah was missing, where was he? "Josiah?"
The boulder behind him spoke. It startled him enough to jerk his leg. It shot a white hot, fiery pain up his leg. He grimaced, and he felt Josiah steady him.
"I'm here, Vin. Just rest. You warm enough?" The deep voice soothed him, and he struggled against the fatigue that threatened to claim him yet again.
"Not as cold as I was. Warmer now. Just tired." He yawned, and then he remembered the dark cloud that had enveloped them. "Chris?" They heard the fear in his voice. "That cloud, it got us!"
"It's all right, Vin. We got away from it. Drink this." Chris held the canteen against his mouth and watched as Vin drank greedily from the canteen. His eyes were still their normal shade of blue. He looked at Chris and remembered more.
"We're in Sorrow Canyon, aren't we?"
"You remember the legend?" Ezra looked up from checking the bandage on Vin's leg. When the tracker nodded yes, Ezra asked another question. "Do you remember anything different about tonight?"
"I was trapped in this ice, the place was all black and gray ice, and I couldn't get out." Vin was getting agitated as he remembered the icy fear that held him captive. He felt that same icy fear trying to reclaim him.
"Vin, look at me!" Chris lowered his voice as blue eyes bore into his. "Pay attention to me. You have to fight it. You can't let it take you. We won't let it have you. Do you understand?"
"It's the cloud, ain't it? It's evil Chris, gotta get outa here and destroy it."
"We will, but we have to wait until morning. The lady said so. Remember the lady?"
Vin tried to move away from the others. The opening in the back, someone was beckoning to him. She looked like his ma. He had to get to her before that evil man did. He had to protect her. God, it was getting cold again. Why wouldn't Chris let him go and help his ma? He must have said it out loud because Chris was trying to tell him something about his ma. He had to listen to Chris. He would help him. "Got to help her."
"She's not your ma, Vin. Look at it. It's the ghost of the renegade. It wants you over there where it is stronger. It wants you. You have to fight it."
"No, she's my ma."
"Mr. Tanner, Vin! Listen to Mr. Larabee. It is not your mother. You have to fight it. Stay with us. We need you."
"Ezra's right, Vin. Chris is right. That thing ain't your ma. It's evil and it wants you. We ain't gonna let it have you. Understand?" Josiah had Vin's wrists held tightly in his own, but all Vin could hear was his friends telling him to stay, that she was not his ma. He looked again and the shape he'd thought was so familiar became the evil man. The cold receded bit by bit. Then a face appeared in front of his. It was that Simmons hellcat.
"Mr. Vin, you listen to your friends, ya hear? I aim to get home so's you can tell my ma and pa how mean I been. Can't if ya let that thing have ya. It don't like me none at all. You ain't gonna let it get me, are ya?"
Vin looked at the girl in front of him and grinned. "Can't imagine why it don't like ya. Yer so nice an' quiet an' all."
Josiah relaxed his hold slightly, helping Vin get more comfortable. He grinned in relief at the others in front of him. Vin was back for the moment.
"You are absolutely correct, Mr. Tanner. Miss Emmaline, rest assured that Mr. Tanner will not allow that apparition to harm you in any way. He has a dreadful partiality for mean people like Mr. Larabee and yourself."
Emmaline figured she'd finally lost her mind. She was beginning to understand that fancy gambler. Even Chris had relaxed a little, but they all still were on guard waiting for the next attack. This was far from over.
Chris agreed with Josiah's suggestion that they try to remain awake and keep Vin talking to them. They didn't want him to drift off to sleep. That's what seemed to give the ghost its hold on the tracker. It was while Vin was asleep and shut off from the other that the entity worked its evil on Vin's dreams, telling him lies and making him believe he was utterly alone. They talked of the others, listened to stories that gave a new understanding of each other, and even Emmaline participated. Their sole purpose was to make certain that Vin knew he was with friends and had to stay with them. They were all exhausted, but they knew that morning would bring the others. The lady had told Chris this. Josiah was inclined to believe that Chris had indeed learned much from the woman's spirit.
"How do we destroy it?"
Vin's question caught them off guard. They were worried about containing it, keeping Vin safe until the others came and combined their strength with the good spirits to contain the evil one. No one had thought beyond that, but here was Vin wanting to take the entity on and destroy it.
"We just need to hang on til the others get here, Vin. Once they do, we'll be stronger than the evil. Then we can get the hell outa here."
"We got to stop it, Chris. Make sure it don't do this to no one else."
He saw that the others knew he was right. Leave it to Vin to worry about someone else coming across this apparition.
"We have to stop once and for all, Chris. Ya don't know how it makes you feel. Ya feel like there's this fist of ice round your heart an' no one or nothin' can help ya. Can't let no one else feel like that, Chris. It ain't right."
Chris looked at him and then into the fire that blazed in front of him. The rain and thunder still played outside, but the cave had been downright cozy for the last hour or so since Vin had managed to break free from the evil entity. Chris had no desire to risk his friend again. Vin was a brother to him even if they weren't blood. He had no desire to put the tracker in harm's way again, but he feared that this would happen if they tried to destroy the evil instead of contain it.
"Mr. Tanner is correct. We cannot allow anyone else to become subjugated to this mendacious and malignant presence."
"He's right. Next person might not be able to fight it off."
"He might not have friends like I got, Chris."
Chris knew they were right, but for the first time he hadn't planned anything other than getting them through the night. He had no desire to see Vin tackle that ghost. They were lucky they had him back right now, and Chris knew the entity would try one more time before dawn. It had to, or it risked losing to the other spirits. He didn't want to risk anyone for that, but he also knew that he couldn't let the evil out of this place. There was too much evil in the world now without setting this malevolent creature free to roam around at will. He looked up from gazing into the fire and saw four pairs of yes on him. One very tired pair of blue eyes held his longer than any of the others. In them he saw acknowledgment of the trust that bound them together. What ever he decided, Vin would follow him. They all would. That was a responsibility that Chris didn't want. Why was it always him they looked to for answers? Why not Josiah the spiritual leader of the group or Nathan the healer? Why did it always end up on his shoulders? Didn't they know that if he made the wrong decision, he would never be able to live with the guilt? He felt Vin's gaze on him, knew the man was staring at him willing him to look at him. Chris looked up. First Ezra and then Josiah nodded at him. Emmaline gave him a scared but fragile smile. Then he looked at the one person who always seemed to know what he was thinking.
Vin nodded at him, also; but within his gaze was an understanding mixed with complete support. Bullet hole in his leg, exhausted beyond thought from an evil presence that wanted to possess him, Vin Tanner was going to watch Chris's back and trust Chris to watch his. For the very first time in a long time Chris Larabee paused to pray. He hadn't realized all those years when he railed against God and fate that even in his worst agony when he'd felt all alone, that he wasn't alone. There were old friends like Buck who would always be loyal and worry and try to help, and that he would find new friends who cared what happened to him just as Sarah and Adam had.
There really was a point where the grief left you, released its hold on you, and you could start living again. God must have a keen sense of humor because this was the strangest group of sinners and vagabonds that Chris Larabee had ever had the good fortune to meet and befriend. They were as unique as they were alike, a healer who wielded a knife in a fight as well as he used a scalpel and a preacher who believed in Old Testament justice. Then there was a womanizer with a heart the size of the Mississippi, a kid with an unshakable exuberance and love of life that was contagious, and a Robin Hood who hid behind fancy words and a deck of cards. Finally, there was his best friend, another Robin Hood who'd help anyone in need irregardless the cost to himself with a sense of humor that could try the patience of a saint or an angry gunslinger. How the hell had he been so lucky to have had a woman and a son like Sarah and Adam and then be rewarded with friends like these men? It made him believe in a higher power more than any ghost ever could, and that's what made his decision for him. They would take this demon and send it straight back to hell where it belonged. Together, the seven could do it.
Continued by Part Four
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