by Smith, T. L.
“No, but barracks room, cars?” Lutz leaned further across the table. “It makes no sense. Attacking us here runs the risk of injuries or deaths. That would put the entire military on alert. Everything we’d done for weeks, months, would be scrutinized looking for motives, including our patrols.”
“Maybe it’s not a bomb. Maybe it’s a tracking device.” Casey tossed out the words, the same thought I’d let cross my mind in the parking lot.
“No.” I shot the idea down. “They shove trackers into a wheel-well or under a bumper. Whatever it is, I don’t want to hop in and find out.” I finished my second beer. Drinking wasn’t a good idea with this crap going down, but Lutz and I both needed them.
“Then we should go take a look at Lutz’ room.” Casey slid his chair out, jerking his head at Lutz. “We’ll go over and look for tampering. You stay here, in case someone is watching.”
“I’m better at looking for that stuff than you are.”
“Yeah, but you’re the probable target. So stay here.” He kissed my cheek, but his hands squeezed my shoulders a bit hard, emphasizing he didn’t want to argue with me. Lutz hoisted his duffel over his shoulder, no arguing either.
“Okay. I’ll order another round, so make it fast.”
I shifted over to Casey’s chair, getting my back to the wall and watched them leave the bar. The lighting over this spot was non-existent, creating more shadow. I could look out across the room and be barely noticeable.
When the waitress walked by, I ordered our drinks. At this hour, with this crowd, it would take a while. Temporary quarters wasn’t far, less than a block. They might even be back before the drinks arrived.
They’d check out his door, maybe talk to anyone who was around. Then head back. I wanted them back here. Both of them. Maybe it was better to get Lutz off base for a few days. He wouldn’t object. Without a car, he was stuck on base until his girlfriend moved out here.
He was eager to see her again and set up house. She’d already be here except for the waiting list for housing. As his common-law partner, they qualified under the revised ‘spousal’ regulations.
While I didn’t share a lot about my personal life, Lutz did. I already knew everything about Sabrina. She was a civilian nurse and they’d met during his first tour of duty, before he got shipped off to Afghanistan. They maintained a long-distance relationship until he got back and was stationed at Quantico. She moved in with him there to see if it worked.
It did and now she was uprooting her east-coast life to relocate to a desert, lock, stock, pit bull and kitty. The wedding was scheduled for November, when their relatives could come out and not be roasted alive. That was the plan and Lutz constantly lamented their forced separation.
“He’s so annoying…” OMG, I’m jealous. The thought was a strange one to cross my mind. Was I really jealous? Casey and I were arguing a lot about our relationship. I didn’t want to leave the Marines and he didn’t want to leave Border Patrol. I’d been here for three years, but the Marines weren’t going to leave a linguist sitting stateside. Betting odds put me back in the Middle-East. Our split was inevitable, something he refused to accept.
Yet, since our run in with the freaks in the mountains, all I wanted was Casey. I wanted him here, right now, even though I could take care of myself. I wanted Casey and every nerve in my body wanted me to get up and run down the street to find him. I rubbed my forehead, trying to dislodge the overwhelming urges. That dreaded itch between my shoulders got worse.
The waitress appeared, putting down our drinks, three cans of cold beer, then a half-filled pint of dark beer and a shot of something that looked like Irish Cream. She set both glasses in front of me and started picking up the empties.
“That’s not ours. We just want the beer.”
“Oh, someone sent it over to you.” She smiled at me. “As if you don’t already have enough admirers.”
“Really? Who sent it and what is it?”
“The guy right over…” She looked back towards the bar. “Dang it, he was there a minute ago. Big guy, brown-blonde hair, older. Wasn’t in uniform, so can’t tell you more.” She looked for another couple seconds and shrugged. “I’m sure he’ll show up soon enough.” She pointed to the little shot glass. “Drop this in the beer and drink it down fast. It’s called an Irish Car Bomb.”
“A what?” I reached for my phone, then remembered it was on top the speaker. All three were on the speaker. “I need to see this guy.” I stood up, searching the room.
“I’m sorry.” She looked around the bar again. “Do you want me to take it back?”
She started to reach for the drink. “No. Leave it.”
“Yes, ma’am.” She glanced around the bar again, then slinked back through the tables.
I’d only gotten an up-close look of the Smirker. I’d easily recognize him, but no one else in his group. Her description was too vague to know if it was him or not, but I continued to scan the room, sitting down, trying not to look freaked out. “Where are you, asshole?”
“Dina, what’s wrong?” Yazzie, the oldest of the local girls threw herself into the chair next to me. “Your Spirit is radiating fear.”
I reeled myself back in, not knowing I was letting my alarm show. But no one else was looking at me. Just Yazzie, who the others said was the Cocopah’s next tribal spiritualist.
She leaned in close. “Since you arrived, your Spirit has been disturbed. A darkness has crossed over your light. If a bad Spirit has attached itself to you, you must be careful.” She reached out and grabbed my hand, slipping something small and hard into my palm. “Keep this with you. Your Spirit is stronger than the evil that pursues you.”
“Yazzie, I’m not into all that…”
She waved me silent, closing my hand around the rock. “Keep it with you always so your Spirit touches the Earth. You are not Kwapa, but you are of old blood and your Spirit is stronger. Trust it, Dina, even if you don’t understand it.”
She slipped away without any more warnings. I reached for my can of beer when it struck me. “Wait!” I shouted, standing to catch Yazzie. But she was gone. That fear wasn’t any lighter.
She’d called me Dina.
CHAPTER
6
I sat down and let the rock fall to the table. A clear stone, rough, but polished by hands over a long period of time. A local rock… a quartz? I didn’t know. I couldn’t think. My head spun with the confusion crashing down on me. I pressed my palms to my temples, squeezing my head between them. This is all insane! It can’t be real.
“Beth?” I jumped out of my seat at a hand settled on my shoulder. Casey. His pushed me back down as he sat next to me. “Easy, love.”
I rubbed my eyes, looking at Casey, then at Lutz standing behind him. “They were here, in the bar.”
“Where?” Lutz jerked his head around to glare at the crowd. His hand poised to reach under his shirt.
“Sit down and keep your hand away from your gun or you’ll get us all arrested.” Casey hissed at Lutz, who obeyed quickly. Casey sat down and stroked my arm. “They approached you here?”
“No. They sent that!” I pointed to the drink. “It’s an Irish Car Bomb.”
“Are you kidding?” He pushed the drink away and his jaw clenched. “That’s taking it too far. We’re going to finish our drinks and get out of here. Lutz is coming with us.”
“So his room was… visited?”
“Yeah, someone was there.” Lutz grabbed his beer and gulped part of it down. “Didn’t find or take anything. I think they’re just trying to scare us.”
“And they’re succeeding.” Casey’s voice was low, but strong. “You’re both worn out and stressed. You’re going to sleep it off and we’ll look at everything again in the light of day.”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
Casey swung back and grabbed the phones off the speaker, handing them to me.
I pulled the back of mine off and removed the card, giving Lutz his. He pulled his ca
rd too. “We’ll pick up burners for any real conversations.”
“Sounds like a beer run.” Casey pocketed his phone. He couldn’t disconnect from his office at all, but we were the only ones he needed to talk to.
Lutz grabbed the Car Bomb. He dropped the shot in and drank the beer down, making a face. “Nah, had better. Should we grab the car?”
Casey looked at the beers. “No. Besides drinking, you’re both too distracted to drive. Drink up and we’ll go.”
We finished our drinks, trying to look casual. I got my duffel from the locker room and met them at the gym door. I wanted my own gun in reach, shifting my favorite from inside the duffle to the outer pocket, the grip turned for an easy grab.
Lutz crawled into the back seat of Casey’s big truck and stretched out. I took shotgun, the duffle between my feet, but leaning over the center console to be closer to Casey. Security waved us out the back gate, taking us the long way through a rougher side of town.
At a little bodega, Casey stopped and bought beer. He handed me a bag. In it were chips and three burner phones. I quietly set them up and passed them out. When we got to our apartment, I went out onto the patio while Casey settled Lutz into the guest bedroom.
We were on the third floor of a five story complex, facing the pool. Feeling movement behind me, I couldn’t help but look around a little too fast. Casey stuck his head out the door. “I’ll fix dinner. Want a drink?”
I shook my head and he went back inside. I didn’t need more beer. I needed to make a call. It only rang twice.
“Din’ah!”
“Yes, mama.” Of course she would know it was me, despite the strange number on her caller ID. The tears that had been pushing at the back of my eyeballs started to break free. “Mama, something bad is happening.”
“I know my daughter. I can feel Spirits stirring.”
“Mama, someone called me by my name. One of the Kwapa.”
“A medicine woman.”
“She knew I wasn’t of the River People, and called me Dina.”
“She must be strong among the Earth Spirits. If you are in danger, they told her. What did she say to you?” My mother’s voice was filled with concern, but was also demanding.
“She said the same thing… that a dark Spirit passed over me. She gave me a rock…” I dug into my pocket. “She said to keep it with me always.”
“Then you must do as she says. River People worship the Earth Spirits. The rock is a talisman to keep these Spirits around you, until you can draw them yourself.” There was a pause on her end. “That is not what scares you. What have you seen?”
She always knew if we were hurt or in trouble. “I don’t know.” I looked back into the apartment. Casey was in the kitchen. “I was on patrol up in the mountains and ran into people who didn’t belong there. One of them got close to me and I think I saw something, like a ghost, clinging to him. It wasn’t him, but still part of him. It was… evil.”
There was an audible shuttering sigh through my phone. “We have hunted these dark Spirits for decades, sure they were hiding from us somewhere near.”
“Who are they, who is… us? Is this part of the secret?”
“It is not easy to explain, my child. Your brothers are on their way. Your father is coming to get me, then we will join you too.”
“What? Mom, they’re all over the country. You can’t make them come out here because some strange man scared the shit out of me.”
“It is more than that. I felt it begin for you, the Rising, driven by this enemy. We must be there. We must all be there.” I could hear her tone changing, as if she was about to go into one of her prayer chants.
“MOM!”
“Din’ah.” She wasn’t gone yet.
“I need answers. What’s so important you have to come here?”
“My honored daughter.” She sighed again. “There is much to tell you, but I must be there in person. However, so you can try to understand, do you remember your tribal elements?”
“Of course. Air, Earth, Fire and Water.”
“Yes, they compose this world and represent all the peoples, human and animal, residing upon her, but there are two elements not of this world.”
I hesitated. “Star and Underworld.”
“We are of the Star People. The man you saw is owned by the Maxa’xak, an evil Spirit. Evil Spirits of the Underworld appear often on this world, but none are like this one. Entire tribes have perished at their will, such as the Yahi. We failed the Yahi. We will not fail this time, not if you are Rising.”
“Rising, what the heck is that supposed to be?”
“Your Star Spirit has been awakened outside of ritual, which means she is powerful. Seeing this evil Spirit was only possible if she is rising to the surface?”
“She? Rising? Mom, I don’t get any of this.”
“Are there other conflicts in your life?” Her voice was firmer, demanding.
A rapping on the patio door made me turn around again. Casey held several plates, cans of beer tucked between his arm and body, wanting me to let him out. “Yes, there is, with Casey. With me being a Marine.”
“I thought as much. I have seen his Spirit. It is pure. Star people can only be attached to those of pure Spirit.”
Casey raised his eyebrows at me when I didn’t rush to open the door. “What’s that have to do with anything?” I slipped around the table. “I need to know what to do.” With a jerk I pulled the glass door open.
“We cannot reveal our names to anyone except pure Spirits. He is pure. Tell him.” She sighed as if tired. “Tell him, but do nothing until we arrive.”
Before I could protest, she hung up. I pocketed the phone and grabbed two of the plates from Casey. “Where’s Lutz?”
“Passed out. I left him a plate in case he wakes up.” I got out of his way and he slipped past me to the table. He got everything down without dropping or spilling. “Left over Carne Asada and tortillas.”
“And a salad.”
“Yeah, well I know what you live on out there. Sit down.” I did, my back to the wall where I could see inside and out into the courtyard. He took the chair against the door. “Who were you talking to?”
“My mother.” I said it without looking at him, maybe because our conversation had taken such a strange twist to include him. “Had to let her know… had to… ”
“Hey, darling…” He grabbed my hand. “…I know how you are with your family. I figured you’d call her. Let’s eat and then you need to sleep.”
I could only nod in agreement. Everything my mother said was slamming around in my head, enough it was starting to hurt. Everything she didn’t tell me was making my imagination spin. And she wanted me to tell him the truth about myself.
I wasn’t sure if I could.
CHAPTER
7
Food made a difference, relieving some of the headache, giving me some energy, enough to make it into the bath Casey started for me. Not a skimpy bath, like my old apartment. Our incomes afforded us a luxury apartment, three bedrooms, two baths, with all the amenities we could want, including a spa tub
I climbed into the pile of bubbles the air jets created. The water was hot as I sank deeper into the vibrating pulses. Tight aching muscles instantly started to relax.
Casey gave me a good fifteen minutes before joining me. I leaned back as his arms wrapped around me. “Better?”
“Now.”
“Hmmm…”
There was a tone to his voice, but he wouldn’t say anything until I did. And he expected me to. It worked. “What?”
“That’s pretty much the only word you’ve said since your phone call.”
“No it’s not.” I could feel the rumble in his chest starting, another monosyllable humph. “Okay, I have a lot on my mind.”
“No doubt, but more so after talking to your mother. You know you can trust me.”
“Infinitely.” I closed my eyes and laid my head back against his shoulder. “More than anyone I e
ver met, besides my family. They trust you too. Mom said you have a pure Spirit.”
“Huh, I doubt that’s what she’d say right now.” He squeezed me a bit tighter.
“Not that kind of Spirit. Not your Christian spirit.” I gripped his arms, holding them around me. “You know a bit about the local cultures, but there’s things you don’t know. Especially about… my family, our tribe.”
“I know the tribes have their… secrets, if you want to call them that. I figured I’d find out about them when the time came, if it was important. Is it?”
“Feels that way.” The hot water had relaxed me, but there was still a deep down stirring of anxiety. My mother said he was the one, that I had to tell him everything, but I didn’t know everything. I only knew one thing for sure. “My real name isn’t Elizabeth Castle.”
Casey didn’t say anything, but I felt his body tense just a bit at my odd statement.
“It’s my legal name, but not my real name. In my culture we’re not allowed to reveal our true names, except to a very few. So I don’t hear it often. Almost never. But I heard it tonight, while you were gone.”
“I…don’t… get…” The tension in his body grew, the muscles in his arms tightening, though they remained around me. “I thought you said someone sent a drink over. Did they come to the table too?”
“No, but Yazzie did, right before you got back. She called me by my real name. She said I was in danger from dark Spirits.”
“Yazzie… are you sure you heard her correctly, that it wasn’t some Cocopah term?”
“It’s not. My mother said tribal spiritualists can get the name from their elemental Spirits. They told her and she came to warn me. And it’s not just Yazzie. My mother was waiting for me to call, saying she knew I was in danger too.”
“Okay. I know your mother, so I’ll accept this. She knew things about me I hadn’t told you yet.” His arms eased a bit, as if he was shaking off his doubts. “So, if you’re willing to tell me your name’s not Elizabeth, are you going to tell me what it really is?”