From the Ashes

by Dale Mayer

  “Wait and see,” he said. “If you and Rowan end up together together, that in itself will be a job.”

  “What? Being a wife is a job now?” she asked with a laugh.

  He grinned at her. “Because of your energy, you’ll see things well ahead of what’s happening. So you’ll constantly be reacting. It will be both rewarding and sometimes painful. You’ll see the world around you differently, and you’ll react differently. People will see you differently.”

  “But nobody’ll know, will they?”

  “No,” he said. “And that’s the joy of it. If you want them to know, you could tell a few, and honestly it’s possible that, over time, as you build a reputation, you could do your work in the shadows. Wouldn’t it be lovely to do all this and not have to worry about people knowing? To do it because it’s the right thing to do and because you want to do it and to know that you can put a smile on a crying child’s face or make an old woman feel not quite so lonely just because you’re there? Because you have the way of touching somebody with energy that they don’t understand.”

  “It sounds almost too Nirvana,” she muttered.

  “Each step you take,” and he spoke deliberately now, each word having more emphasis than the last, “will help heal a piece of yourself. … If, through the act of healing others, you heal yourself, that’s just good karma to me. You spent a lifetime in trauma. Why not spend the rest of your life experiencing joy?”

  Rowan walked out of the station and hopped into the truck. He looked at the two of them and said, “The energy in this truck’s heavy. What have you two been talking about?”

  “The fact that you’re doing what you’re meant to do,” Phoenix said blithely. “I don’t appear to have any purpose in life, but Grayse has given me a few suggestions.”

  “I suggested she heal. It’s something she knows she can do because she did it for herself, and she could do it for the people of your town.”

  “Remember how I told you about the energies who helped me back then?” At Rowan’s nod, she continued, “It was Stefan and his friend Dr. Maddy. Grayse even suggested that Dr. Maddy might help me learn to do more specialized energy-healing work. Of course I’d have to talk to her about that. Maybe I’m no good at healing others, … just myself.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Rowan said. “I’d like to visit the chief in the hospital. Maybe you can do something to help him heal, as he’s still in a coma.”

  “I’d like to see him too,” Grayse said. “Didn’t you say he tried to commit suicide?”

  “Yes. He was the first one at the beginning of this year’s suicide season.”

  “It would be nice if we could find out if any other energy is involved in that,” Grayse added.

  Rowan shot him a hard look and then said, “Sure. Let’s stop by. I’ve been gone, so am due to visit him. I’d like to have a follow-up on his condition.”

  The hospital wasn’t far. They were inside within ten minutes.

  Phoenix walked at his side, studying the energy around them.

  Grayse asked, “Can you feel it? The fear? The pain? The studied neutrality the medical professionals use to protect themselves from so much agony? They’re all wrapped up in it to keep functioning. But you don’t have to be like that, Phoenix. You’re not hurting. You can reach out. You can touch some of these people who are hurting.”

  They walked past the emergency waiting room, and she could see a child whose knee was badly scraped up, all bloody skin and tissue, screaming at the top of his lungs. She sucked in her breath as she studied the wound.

  Beside her, Grayse said, “You don’t necessarily have to fix that. But does the child have to suffer so much?” She gave Grayse a look, and he shrugged. “What if you just gave him a little bit of energy or gave his energy level a chance to smooth it out?”

  She reached out and, with a brush of her energy, dried the tears on his face and stroked his heart chakra to take some of the trauma back a bit.

  He was still in shock, and his body was still injured, but he wasn’t screaming at the top of his lungs; instead he took deep, gulping breaths and cuddled into his mother.

  She turned and walked on. Even from behind her, she could hear Grayse’s whisper, “See? Told you so.”

  Rowan looked down at her and raised an eyebrow. She shrugged and nodded. He smiled, squeezed her fingers gently, and they walked down the hallway to a room.

  Rowan pushed open the door already ajar, and they stepped inside. He walked over to the bed against the window where a huge man lay motionless. But his features were unmistakable.

  She sucked in a breath. “My God,” she said. “You didn’t tell me that he was your father!”

  He looked at her, his gaze steady and nodded. “I know. I didn’t. The situation was hard enough without telling you both about the relationship.”

  Grayse walked up to the bedside, reached a hand down and touched Rowan’s father.

  She looked at Grayse and asked, “What’s with the blue?”

  Grayse smiled. “That’s what I mean. You can see it and know it shouldn’t be there. Do you want to lift it off him, please?”

  She grabbed it with her hand, picked it up and flicked it out the window. She could feel something wrench from her own back as she did so. She stretched her hand up and rubbed her shoulders, frowning.

  Grayse nodded. “See? You are connected in ways you don’t realize.”

  She motioned at the chief lying in the bed. “The bullet doesn’t look like it did that much damage. How is that possible?”

  “The bullet went through the soft tissue and right through the hollow where the jaw meets the skull,” Rowan said. “He’s not physically damaged, or at least not enough to warrant the coma he’s currently in. Nobody knows why he won’t wake up.”

  “Oh,” she said, “I get it.” She put a hand over his heart chakra, coming down almost like a slap.

  A sudden moan came from his father. A moan that seemed to rattle all the way up through the inside of his chest before coming out his mouth. And then he shifted a little bit at first and then more as he tried to change his position.

  Rowan stared at her. “What did you just do?”

  “I removed the ice-blue energy on top, though I don’t understand yet what that is. Then I reached out and gave him a smack, like a paddle from a defibrillator to wake him up—on many levels. He’s lying here, locked in guilt and hatred for what he’s done. So he won’t fight back for life because he doesn’t feel he deserves it.”

  “But why did he do it in the first place?” Rowan asked.

  She noticed his hands clenched on the railing of the bed. “He didn’t do it,” she said. “That’s the thing to realize here. It wasn’t his hand that pulled that trigger.”

  Rowan’s mouth dropped open all the way. He lowered his voice and leaned toward her. “Are you saying somebody tried to murder him?”

  Grayse leaned closer too, his head right between the two of them. “No. It was an energy. Just like her father’s energy. That’s what’s hanging around this town, and that’s what’s causing the suicides. It has nothing to do with your father pulling the trigger.”

  She looked down to see the chief staring back at them, shock in his gaze. She smiled at him and said, “Hi, my name is Phoenix. And I’m going to marry your son.”

  *

  Rowan felt the shock of her words initially but then the inner knowledge of the rightness in her statement.

  He looked at her and whispered, “Are you sure?”

  She beamed up at him. “I don’t think I have a choice,” she confessed. “It seems like we’re two halves of the same whole.”

  He glanced over at Grayse to see him grinning like a fool. “Did you put her up to that?”

  Grayse shook his head. “Nope. Not at all. But she’s seen what I’m seeing. And you already saw.”

  Rowan did glance down to see his hand and her hand joined, as they had been so much in the last few days. Their energy also blended in
to something that wasn’t his or hers but something uniquely theirs.

  He squeezed her hand tight and looked down at his father, who was looking up at him.

  “What happened?” his father asked when he could. He winced. “My mouth.”

  Rowan looked to Grayse and said, “Can you tell the nurse he’s awake, please.” He helped his father to sit up and held up a glass of warm water with a bendy straw.

  His father took a small, slow sip and then another and afterward lay back down. “What the devil happened?” he whispered.

  “Up until now we thought you tried to … commit suicide,” Rowan replied carefully.

  His father’s face took on a ruddy color; whether it was rage or shame, he didn’t know.

  But almost immediately the color was gone. He glanced at Phoenix, who was brushing the energy up his father’s body and across his face. Rowan frowned at her. She smiled and looked down at his father and asked, “How are you feeling now?”

  The chief lifted one hand first, then the other, moved his feet and said, “Honestly? I don’t feel too bad.” His gaze went back to Rowan. “Suicide?”

  “You were shot through the mouth,” he said. “The gun was found in your hand. It had been recently fired, and you had GSR all over your hand and the shirt you were found in.”

  His father’s eyes clouded over. “I know I was depressed for a few days there,” he said. “I just kept thinking about your mother and how lonely life was, but I never would have committed suicide. Not when it’s been such a problem for our village.”

  “That’s what I had thought,” Rowan said. “I’m the one who found you, and I didn’t know what else to think.”

  “I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have wanted that for you,” his father whispered. “I don’t remember. I don’t understand the sequence of events that led up to it. Last thing I remember was being at work in my office.”

  “Right,” Rowan said. “That’s where I found you.”

  His father stared at him, which was interrupted by the sound of running footsteps, and the door bursting open with a nurse and a doctor barreling in, practically out of breath. They stared at the chief in surprise. He looked at the new arrivals and smiled. “I guess I’m awake, huh?”

  “And talking,” the doctor said, coming in for a closer look. “How’s the jaw?”

  “Sore,” the chief answered. “A shot of whiskey would help though.”

  “You’re not getting that for a while,” the nurse said, chuckling. She looked at him with a special smile and said, “Very happy to have you back in the land of the living.” She gently stroked his cheek, and the others could see a real affection in her actions.

  He smiled and whispered, “I guess I am too.”

  “You won’t get away scot-free on this,” the doctor announced. “I don’t know what happened, and I’m pretty damn glad you are awake, but, before you are cleared for work, you have to get some help.”

  “I didn’t try to commit suicide,” the chief said bluntly. “I just heard that theory from my son, but it’s not my way. You know that. I’ve been against the suicide season here for a long time.”

  “Makes one wonder if something isn’t in the air,” Phoenix said lightly. “Or the water.”

  The doctor turned and frowned at her.

  She just gave him a bright smile and stayed quiet.

  Rowan knew she was suggesting other things, and he had to wonder. He hadn’t even looked or seen anything different about his father at the time. Now he wished he had. He still had the crime-scene photos from the full investigation, but Rowan had found no sign of anyone else there. At least no one physically. … But Rowan needed to take another look now.

  The doctor said, “You all step out so I can give the chief a full examination.”

  Rowan straightened. “Sure.” He looked down at his father and said, “Don’t you go back into a coma. You got that?”

  “Not going there,” his father said stoutly. Although his voice was weak and his words a little slurred, his speech was becoming stronger. “Besides, we have a wedding to plan.”

  Rowan ushered Phoenix and Grayse out of his father’s hospital room.

  In the hallway, Rowan stood there, almost shaking. He looked down at his trembling hands and said, “Hard to believe the old man’s awake. And not only awake but appears to be completely cognizant.”

  “He probably is,” Grayse said. “I suggest we do a search for energy. Can we go see his office? Do you have any photos? We do have a crime here that needs to be taken care of before that same energy can affect somebody else.”

  “What would make it affect one versus another?” Phoenix asked.

  Rowan nodded. “Good question. Why would it go after my father, and how does it choose its victims?”

  “It went after your father because he was doing something about the suicide season,” Grayse said. “That’s a huge problem for you guys. Or maybe this energy entity decided your father would make a perfect target to prove this guy could do what he wanted.”

  “We’re giving it human qualities now, are we?” Phoenix asked in a half-raised voice, then looked around to see if anybody heard her.

  Rowan gently tugged her closer and said, “I think it’s just one way to refer to this energy.”

  “So it could be a human carrying this suicide-season energy?” Phoenix asked, her voice dropping and her body shaking. “Somebody bent on evil, like my father?”

  “Maybe,” Grayse said. “It’s very common for this energy to attach itself to a much weaker person. Or for the energy to connect to a family member. Someone nobody would expect. It is fully capable of doing things you haven’t thought of and possibly has been for a long time.”

  “What are you talking about?” Rowan asked. He glanced around, but they were still alone, except for the team nearby, checking his father over.

  “Somebody who is always there, somebody who is always friendly, who is always happy-go-lucky, maybe even simple,” Grayse said. “Every village, every town, every city has multiples of them. The last person on Earth who you would think would have anything to do with this.”

  Phoenix gave a half a laugh. “Manru.”

  Rowan stared at her. “What?”

  “She has the sight. She would know.”

  He shook his head. “For a moment there I thought you were blaming her.”

  “She is the kind to know everyone.”

  “Maybe. It’s not like I can pick up the phone and ask her that.”

  “Why not?” Grayse asked. “I would.”

  Rowan pulled his phone out and said, “She’ll think I’m crazy.”

  “She already does,” Phoenix added.

  He snorted at that and dialed his grandmother. When she answered, he said, “I have an odd question for you.”

  “I’m glad you’re home, safe and sound,” she said, her voice a calming effect in his ear. “What’s your question?”

  “Who would be the last person you would think of who would commit murder in this town?”

  Silence came first. “What kind of a question is that?” she asked, puzzled.

  “A serious one. Who is the absolute last person you would think would ever commit such a major crime? And that includes people who are simple-minded. People who are loving and caring and generous. People who are young. People who are old. Who?”

  “Well, of course, I would think that about myself,” she replied. “Because you know I would never do anything like that, but as for anybody else? Hmm. I guess everybody has their downside and their negative side and their dark side.”

  “Who else then?” he asked.

  “Well, you,” she said. “You are too honorable to be anything else.”

  He slowly lowered his phone. His heart was troubled though. “Did you guys hear that?”

  They both nodded. Phoenix swallowed and said, “I can tell you that it’s not you.”

  He hated the inner relief that washed through him. “Can we know that for sure?”

/>   “Yes,” she said. “I can see inside your soul. I can see your energy in the very heart of you, and it’s not you.”

  Chapter 26

  “This situation has taken a very strange turn,” Phoenix said. “Makes me uncomfortable to think it’s some person around us, who we’ve either known or interacted with. In my case, I don’t know anybody here well, but, if it’s somebody who’s lived here or comes and goes on a regular basis, then it’ll be somebody you know,” she said to Rowan. “Does this person need a physical body to come for a victim?” she asked, turning to look at Grayse. “I know that sounds very esoteric, and I’m not sure that I should even be speaking like this,” she said. “But I have to ask.”

  “Good thing you did ask,” he said, “because, no, absolutely not. This person does not need a physical body. Chances are, it’s easier for him if he does, or he’s utilizing the physical body as a vehicle in order to facilitate some of what he’s doing. But he could leave that physical body and potentially move to another. Although generally he’d have a close connection to that person.”

  “But why is he doing it?” Rowan asked, his voice harsh. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would any entity in this physical world or another make somebody like my father commit suicide? And how does it relate to Phoenix’s situation?”

  “It’s not about committing suicide. It’s about power,” she said slowly. “It’s about life and death. As with my father, when he used to light me on fire, when he put a bag over my head and tried to suffocate me.”

  Both men spun their heads around, their mouths dropped open.

  She shrugged. “It was a long time ago. It was all about control. It was all about ‘I have the power to make you live or die, so do what I want … or else.’”

  “How does that apply to this?” Rowan demanded. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Maybe not,” she said. “I suspect that, when we get down to it, there will be a reason. My father believed in the Elders or the Ancients—generations having gone long before him. My father believed in life after death. My father believed in all kinds of things. He believed in giving sacrifices. That’s why the children were killed, as sacrifices to the Elders. He also thought that being a sacrifice would give them a better life.”