by C. T. Phipps
“Really?” Robyn asked, looking at me. “Did your parents hate you?”
“I wonder sometimes,” I said. “Yet, their last name was Doe, so it was a temptation they could not resist. I also have aunts and a great-grandmother named that.”
“You poor thing,” Robyn said, walking toward me and putting her hand over her heart. “I am Robyn Taylor. I am…weird.”
“Weird,” I said.
“I know things,” Robyn said, shrugging. “I can sense where things are. I can even know whenever someone is lying. Which is always, by the way. I have a lot of luck, both good and bad. However, I can’t do magic and I’m not a vampire or a shapechanger. My best ability is also kind of creepy.”
“Your best ability?” Kim Su asked.
“You are—?” Robyn asked, looking at her.
“Amelia Earhart,” Kim Su said.
Robyn blinked. “Wow, the parents in this town are cruel. Yeah, well, my best ability is something I can never use ethically. Let me show you.”
Kim Su ducked behind the counter.
I was about to tell Robyn she didn’t need to demonstrate anything when everything around her seemed to dim. The air smelled of the woods and I instantly relaxed as Robyn became the single sexiest thing I’d seen in my entire life. It was a full-on Wayne’s World, “Dreamweaver” playing in the background love-at-first-sight moment. I wanted to wrap my arms around her, kiss her, and ask where she’d been all my life.
Then it was over.
I shook my head and blinked rapidly, noticing Emma was now wrapping her arms around Robyn and nuzzling her. Robyn tried to pull herself free, gently at first, before pushing her away.
“Oops, sorry,” Emma said.
“What the hell was that?” I asked, coughing a bit and trying to get the sensation out of my head.
“My Gift,” Robyn said, sighing. “It usually only affects straight guys like that.”
Emma looked away. “Well, it’s a power that works on most men and some women, I’d guess.”
“Ah,” Robyn said, grimacing. “Sorry about that.”
“You have the power of magical roofies?” I asked, appalled.
“Pretty much,” Robyn said, sticking her tongue out in disgust. “I can outright control people when I kiss them or touch them during that state.”
“That sounds both awesome and very evil,” I said, thinking through the implications.
“Yeah,” Robyn said, sighing. “Thankfully it’s voluntary now that I’ve reached adulthood. It was killer on my love life before.”
“You’re like Poison Ivy from Batman!” Emma said, staring. “That is incredible!”
“Did you miss everything I just said?” Robyn asked.
“No,” Emma said, pausing. “I was thinking of us buying a house together, though. I’m going to go get some fresh air.”
“Probably a good idea,” Robyn said.
Emma ran out of the front door and starting breathing the strip mall air in and out.
“Dryadkin,” Kim Su said, popping up from behind the counter with a set of polarized sunglasses and a pair of nose plugs in. “Probably first generation.”
“What now?” Robyn asked.
Kim Su’s voice was slightly altered by her nose plugs to be more nasal. “A specific form of fairy-kin, i.e. the son or daughter of a Dryad. They possess supernatural beauty, charisma, and the ability to talk to plants or help them grow.”
“I do have luck growing a certain kind of plant,” Robyn said, rubbing her chin. “It’s for personal use only, though. I also talk to my plants.”
“Well, lots of people do that,” I said, unsure what to make of her.
“Well, they talk back,” Robyn said, chuckling. “That settles one reason I’m here. I was hoping to find some insight into what I was. I certainly wasn’t getting it with the Church of the Emptied Bank Account.”
“So you’re not one of the Ultralogy cult?” I asked.
“Oh, hell no.” Robyn snorted, putting her right hand one her hip. “I’m an atheist. I don’t go in for any of that religious mumbo jumbo.”
The Merlin Gun growled.
Down, Raguel, I thought, using the Merlin Gun’s actual name. He’d shared it with me during the Wendigo hunt. Please don’t change your opinion of shooting her now that we’ve started to become friends.
Ignorance is not a sin by itself.
What, really? I asked. I thought it would be up there. Like fixing your door on a Saturday.
Ignorance is to be corrected, a sin punished, Raguel replied.
Wow, I wonder what you think of me, I said.
I judge you through your works, not piety. You are…acceptable.
Aww, that was kind of sweet, and also terrifying since I thought the Merlin Gun was inhabited by a crazy fundamentalist nut job.
I hear you, you know, Raguel said.
Open mouth, insert hoof. “So, Robyn, not that I don’t like meeting new people, but how did you find me?”
“Yes, that would be a very good thing to know,” Kim Su said, spraying the air with an antiseptic deodorizer.
“Oh, the FBI guy,” Robyn said, as if it was unimportant. “As soon as Dr. Jones made it clear he was an enemy, I knew I had to talk with him. He directed me to you.”
“He did, did he?” I said, my voice even. “Did you Charm Person him too?”
“Yeah, but it didn’t work,” Robyn said, frowning. “I thought it might be because he was unattracted to women, but the annoyance in his eyes told me it wasn’t that. Some guys just have better self-control than others, or any at all, really.”
I tried not to feel an irrational dislike for her drugging my possible-future boyfriend and failed. Mostly because it was an entirely rational dislike. “Did Dr. Jones or any of his minions follow you?”
“Minions?” Robyn asked, smirking. “Yeah, that’s a good name for them. Some of the church’s higher-ups aren’t so bad. David Jones, the doctor’s son, is a good guy even if I don’t understand how he can follows a religion he knows is a scam. The others are all under their leader’s spell. As for how I managed to escape, I slipped away in the forest during one of the good doctor’s speeches. I asked the trees to hide me and they did, at least until I got here. Who builds a strip mall in the middle of the woods?”
“People who like to shop in privacy,” I said, annoyed.
Kim Su picked a ring out of the jewelry display in the counter before placing it on the top. “Put this ring on. It’ll hide you from him.”
“And if I don’t?” Robyn said, clearly not trusting jewelry from strangers.
“Then Dr. Jones will probably track you down, brainwash you, or kill you then reanimate you as a zombie so he can still have access to whatever information he’s kept you alive for,” Kim Su said.
Robyn looked between us then took the ring and put it on. “So you know him?”
“Alex does,” Kim Su said. “He painted a vivid picture.”
“No offense but why hasn’t he mind controlled you and what does he want?”
Robyn paused. “I need you to promise to help me if I tell you.”
“Okay, I promise.”
Kim Su smacked her face. “Gods and goddesses, Jane!”
“What?” I asked.
Oh right, the whole ‘promises are not made to be broken’ thing.
“I ran away from home about two years ago, trying to find out who I was and what I was. I went to a lot of magicians and fake magicians looking for answers. I even hooked up with a vampire for a bit. Eventually, all roads led to the Ultralogy and Dr. Jones had more answers than most.”
“Really?” I asked.
Robyn frowned, looking angry. “Yeah, I should have known he was just using me, but when you’ve been everywhere from single motherhood to doing things you don’t want to do for money, even cult leaders look benevolent.”
“You’re a single mother?” I asked, surprised by that.
“Not anymore,” Robyn said, staring. “I left Sparrow
with my parents. My adoptive parents. They live in Bright Falls and will do a better job than I ever could.”
I was surprised by the revelation she was from around here. Bright Falls wasn’t exactly Mayberry, but it wasn’t that large of a community either. I would have thought I’d know someone who was part Dryad. Also, she had no right to comment on my parents’ cruelty if she named her kid Sparrow.
“What I didn’t realize Dr. Jones was more interested in what I was rather than who I was,” Robyn said, sounding sick with herself. “He’s looking for something related to my family, something called the Grove.”
I remembered Bright Falls was built on a convergence of dimensions that made it a hot spot for all manner of weird and spooky things. “Is that anything related to the Lodge?”
“Same zip code, different street,” Kim Su said.
I looked at her. “Anything you want to share, Amelia?”
“Nope,” Kim Su said, smiling. “Though she’ll have to buy something if she wants to hang around much longer.”
The revelation Jones wasn’t here just for bottled water and Kim Su didn’t surprise me in the slightest. I remembered how Jeremy, Maria, and the late Victoria O’Henry had gathered together at one of the “sacred” spots in my town. They’d made a pact with the Big Bad Wolf and reaped great magical rewards for it (though I’d never found out what my brother had gotten). I didn’t know what Dr. Jones planned to get from such a place but the thought of him draining such a place dry or making a divine pact terrified me. Even if whatever spirits lived in the Grove weren’t deranged like the Big Bad Wolf, they could alter reality or strengthen a wizard’s powers tremendously if they got something suitably valuable in return.
Like human sacrifices.
Crap.
Suddenly, everything was starting to fall into place.
Perhaps, Raguel said. Either way, Jones must not be allowed to find the Grove.
For once, the Merlin Gun and I were in complete agreement. “Okay, I’m following you so far, but I don’t know what you get out of this.”
“I know what I am now,” Robyn said, looking at Kim Su. “Something for which you have no idea how grateful I am. While I have no idea who my biological parents are, I have some suspicions. Also some clues which I hope will lead me to them.”
“You do?” I asked, getting a bad feeling about this.
“Yeah,” Robyn said, sucking in her breath. “I think those kids in that pit were my siblings.”
No one said a word for almost a minute. Albeit, Kim Su didn’t seem remotely surprised by this revelation and had gone back to watching reality TV.
“Yeah.” I finally broke the silence. “That would fit with a lot of what we know. You realize who your parents are might not be a good thing, right?”
“I had good parents,” Robyn said. “Andy and Wilma found me in the woods and they raised me as their own. Like a gift from Heaven or Superman without his rocket, as they used to say. I’m not looking for a mother and father to love me. I got plenty of that.”
“Then why?” I asked.
“So I can kill their asses,” Robyn said, pointing at me. “Which you promised to help me with. No backsies.”
Kim Su gave me a sideways glance as if to say ‘I told you so.’ I wondered if Alex knew about Robyn’s murderous intentions before directing her my way.
Alex was a flawed wielder of the Merlin Gun and one I often conflicted with.
How’s that? I asked. I would have thought you two would get along like salt on a lick.
He was too compassionate. You do not have that problem.
I didn’t have a response to that.
You could try, “You’re welcome.”
I didn’t respond to him but looked at Robyn, instead thinking about all the dead children her parents had left in the woods. “Yeah, I’ll help you kill them.”
See? You are righteous, Raguel said.
Shut up, I said, hating myself. I do not like this. I just think it’s necessary.
Good. I would be worried otherwise.
Man, I really wished I had an angel more like Roma Downey than Christopher Walken. Hell, I would even have settled for Misha Collins right about now. Actually, I would generally take Misha Collins over just about any other angel. Mmm, Castiel.
The actual shield of God is a woman.
Don’t ruin my fantasies, Raguel.
“Thank you,” Robyn said, releasing a breath I hadn’t even realized she’d been holding. “I also have a way to help find where my parents are.”
“How’s that?” I asked.
Robyn reached into her pocket and pulled out a tiny piece of bone. “This should help.”
“Please tell me that didn’t come from the murder pit.”
“I won’t tell you,” Robyn said, staring at it. “However, combining it with my blood should make a pretty good spell for tracking them down.”
Robyn had a point there. Unfortunately, that was straight-up necromancy. “Kim, err, Amelia, I don’t suppose—”
“No,” Kim Su said simply. “Besides, you’re the weredeer who can read objects.”
Oh, right.
This was going to suck.
Chapter Seven
I looked at the piece of bone and imagined experiencing the newborn’s fear and sadness as it died. Would it even have those emotions? Would it know it was going to die? How long would it take? I couldn’t help but feel terrified at the prospect of experiencing that set of emotions. However, it might be my only clue to knowing who was responsible for their death.
It’s why I felt like a coward when I tried to opt out. “It’s got to be over twenty years old. There’s no way there’s any kind of impression left.”
Kim Su ruined that thought of mine. “You’ve been practicing to master your Gift for over a year now. You’ll be able to look that far in the past if you want.”
I glared at her. “Thanks. Really.”
“Much like the gods, I believe suffering builds character,” Kim Su said, changing the channel on her television to Wheel of Fortune. “Also, I’m a sadistic bastard.”
Kim Su had me there. Taking the piece of bone from Robyn, I sighed. “All right, I’ll do it.”
“Thank you,” Robyn said, her voice almost pleading.
I looked at her sideways. “You really want to get revenge on your biological parents that much?”
Robyn’s expression was a mixture of emotions, all of them bad. “Most adopted kids want to know why they were given up. I know the people involved not only didn’t want me, they wanted to kill me. I now know there’s an entire family of siblings I had who will never get to experience half the things I do. So, yeah, I want to kill them.”
Kim Su muttered something noncommittal.
“I get that,” I said, closing my eyes. “Ala-ca-deer, reveal to me what I fear.”
“Is that really a spell?” Robyn asked.
“It is if I make it one,” I said.
Then the vision hit me. Like a truck. I always had hated the expression “caught like a deer in the headlights” and not just for the obvious reason that I sympathized with the deer rather than the driver. Deer had an instinctual response of going still when threatened. It was so you could be stealthy and avoid getting yourself killed by cougars or other predators but, like skunks spraying their opponents, it was less than useless with cars. I couldn’t help but think of all of those poor deer hoping they wouldn’t be seen and unwittingly having led themselves to their doom—which is how I felt about the next few moments of my life.
The first part of my vision was almost overwhelming by itself. It was the raw, painful experience of being a newborn. The sensory overload of being surrounded by a new and terrifying world where you couldn’t do a damn thing by yourself. This bone fragment belonged to someone who didn’t have a name. A girl who would never get a name. She’d never love, laugh, or experience all of nature’s joys. I was tempted to ask Raguel or Kim Su what happened to babies when they died, but I di
dn’t want to know—I just wanted to believe she’d be all right.
Nina, I thought. You should have been a Nina.
Strangely, the act of naming seemed to ease my pain and I mentally named all of the thirty-six or so children found. That was when I sensed the rest of the world around the newborn child and saw the spiritual reflection of Shadow Pine Park. Except it wasn’t a park yet and I saw it in its raw virgin state. A place of giant owls, wolves, elk, and other spirits who resented the presence of man in their home.
Manitou.
Fairies.
That was when I felt a woman’s arms holding me and I was overwhelmed with a sense of raw bliss. The figure was a being of sunlight and the Earth, as close to the two things humanity most often associated with the divine. She was almost incandescently beautiful and if Robyn was like “Dream Weaver”, then the being I assumed to be her mother was like a religious experience. Certainly her presence calmed the figure I was experiencing life through. I almost cried then, overwhelmed with her beauty, until I reached out to feel her mind. What I felt was apathy.
The spirit was honoring a compact to lay the child at the black altar. Nothing more. The Dryad had no love toward its offspring and barely acknowledged it. It did not think like a human being; it did not even think like an animal, but instead as an intelligent tree. What it did enjoy was the gifts it was given for the children it offered.
Things its fairy slaves could not provide it like mirrors, gold, ribbons, and other trinkets. These were given in exchange for children from the act of sex in a human form. They were taken by the Brotherhood of the Tree and raised to be magicians in its eternal war against….what? I could not say. The Dryad, which had no name, didn’t care about such things. Once it laid down the babe at the base of the cliff face, it gave no further thought to its child. Then it forgot she had ever existed.
My vision ended.
I stared at the piece of bone. “Yeah, Robyn, we’re going to track down and kill this psycho.”
Robyn deflated. “That bad, huh?”
“Yeah,” I said, closing my eyes. “You could make an argument it’s just acting out its nature, but—”
“But?” Robyn asked.
“Its nature sucks,” I said. “As empathic as a storm.”