The Witches of Canyon Road, Books 1-3

by Christine Pope

He stared at her, wondering if all the stress had finally started to get to her. “You’re hearing voices in your head?”

  “Yes. I mean…one voice.”

  “Whose was it?”

  “I have no idea,” Cat responded. She hugged her arms to herself. In her baggy T-shirt and with her hair pulled into two braids for the night, she looked like the little sister who used to sneak into his room after bedtime so they could plot and plan how to deal with Genoveva’s next onslaught. “I was asleep — I conked out pretty fast, after everything that happened today.”

  Rafe couldn’t blame her for that, because he’d pretty much passed out the moment his head hit the pillow as well. That had been unexpected, since he was sure that his worry for Miranda would have kept him up half the night. Apparently, weariness had won out over anxiety, though. “And?”

  “And then I heard a man’s voice in my head. He said, ‘Look in the place of the marshes.’”

  “That’s pretty specific. Are you sure you weren’t dreaming?”

  “Completely sure, because I’d woken up just a second or two before I heard the voice. I was staring up at the ceiling, watching the shadows of the tree branches move, and then there was this voice in my head, talking to me.”

  Strange, but definitely not the weirdest thing that had happened this week. Rafe sat up a little straighter and ran a hand through his hair. “What did he sound like?”

  “I — I don’t know. Like a man. It was a deep voice.” Cat played with one of her braids, head cocked to one side as she appeared to contemplate Rafe’s question. “He didn’t have an accent or anything.”

  “But the voice wasn’t familiar to you.”

  “No.”

  “Do you think it might have been a ghost?” Considering speaking to spirits was his sister’s talent, Rafe wondered why she hadn’t thought of that possibility right away.

  “Well, that’s what I thought at first, but usually I can see ghosts as well as talk to them. There wasn’t anyone there…just this voice in my head.”

  “Did you talk to it?”

  “Yes. I said, ‘What do you mean?’ and he said, ‘That is all I can tell you. I’m sure you’re clever enough to figure it out.’”

  “So a sarcastic ghost.”

  Cat shot him an annoyed look. “I just told you it wasn’t a ghost. At least, I don’t think it was. This voice felt like it belonged to someone real…corporeal, I mean.”

  Leaning back against the headboard, Rafe said, “Are you suddenly developing psychic powers or something?”

  “No. I mean, I don’t think I am.” She closed her eyes for a moment, then asked, “Can you hear what I’m thinking?”

  “No.”

  “Well, then.” She picked at the hem of her T-shirt, frowning so deeply that her expression was clear even in the semidarkness. “I think I only heard him because he wanted me to. After that exchange, I asked him, ‘Who are you?’ And he said, ‘I don’t think I will tell you that. It’s probably better if you don’t know. This is all the help I can give you.’ Before I could say anything else, he added, ‘I have a quest of my own, you see. Good luck.’ And then he was just…gone.”

  “How could you know he was gone if you couldn’t see him?” Rafe asked reasonably.

  “I don’t know. I just could. Like…there was a presence somewhere near, even if I couldn’t see him. It was just sort of a feeling.”

  That sounded creepy as hell, although Rafe refrained from making a comment on the subject. Clearly, Cat was already shaken enough, and he didn’t need to add to her unease by making her think there might have been an actual stalker somewhere nearby.

  “‘The place of the marshes,’” he repeated. Something was tickling at his brain, but he couldn’t quite figure out what he was overlooking. “I wonder what it means.”

  “I don’t know. I was hoping you’d have some insight.”

  It could mean nothing at all, although Rafe somehow doubted that Cat’s invisible visitor would have taken the time to stop by and offer that handy hint if it weren’t significant in some way. “I guess we could try looking up the phrase online. I’ll try it in Spanish first, just because that makes the most sense for someplace in or around Santa Fe.” He leaned over and retrieved his phone from the nightstand, unlocked it, and then entered “the place of the marshes” in the phone’s built-in search engine. What popped up made his eyes widen.

  “What is it?”

  Rafe angled the phone so she could see the screen. “This is what we get for not studying Spanish.”

  Because in Spanish, “the place of the marshes” was la cienaga. The spelling of the location here in Santa Fe was slightly different, but this had to be what Cat’s visitor had meant.

  “So Miranda is in La Cienega for sure?” Cat asked, eyes wide. “How did he know?”

  Good question. Maybe the visitor had been Miranda’s guardian angel. Things had been crazy enough lately that Rafe wasn’t about to overlook any possibility, no matter how outlandish. “I have no idea. But at least now we know there’s no reason to look anywhere except La Cienega for strange real estate transactions…assuming your invisible friend was telling the truth.”

  “He was,” she said immediately, her tone all conviction. “Or at least, I’m about ninety-five-percent sure he was. Why would he come here and lie to me about something like that?”

  Good question. Unfortunately, since they didn’t know who “he” was, they couldn’t really make too many assumptions about his relative trustworthiness. Then again, while Rafe and Cat and Eduardo had all agreed that it was better for Daniel to focus on La Cienega, they hadn’t specifically told him not to poke around in other places. As soon as the hour was decent the next morning, they’d have to get in contact with him and let him know where to focus all his efforts.

  Assuming, of course, that the person who’d given Cat that little bit of intel wasn’t simply trying to mess with them.

  Still, it wasn’t as if they had any other leads, so they might as well go with it. If nothing else, at least concentrating on La Cienega for the time being would allow them to cross it off the list and move on to other prospects if they didn’t turn up anything useful.

  “I have no idea,” Rafe said. “But we don’t know who ‘he’ is, so it’s hard to guess at his motivations. This is something to go on, though. In the morning, I’ll get in touch with Daniel, and we’ll go from there. But now we’d probably better both go back to sleep.”

  “All right.” Cat pushed herself off the bed and stood, then hesitated for a moment.

  “What is it?”

  Silhouetted by the faint light coming in from the hallway, her shoulders lifted. “It was strange, having his voice in my head like that. But also….”

  “Also what?”

  “I kind of liked talking to him. I hope I can do it again sometime.”

  Despite his resolve to get up early and fire off a text message to Daniel first thing, Rafe slept late, not cracking an eyelid until it was almost eight-thirty. He was irritated by his sloth, while at the same time he had to wonder whether his late night — or early morning, depending on how you looked at it — convo with Cat might have had something to do with his oversleeping.

  Still, there wasn’t much he could do about the hour, except shower hastily, put some clothes on, and get downstairs for some coffee as soon as he could. To his annoyance, Cat was already there, dressed and done, sipping at a mug of French roast.

  “There’s plenty more in the carafe,” she said blithely as he shot her an irritated look.

  Of course, she couldn’t know that concern about there not being any coffee left was not the main reason for his annoyance. Without replying, he went over and filled his mug. As he stirred the tiniest bit of cream and sugar into it, he asked, “Where’s Dad?”

  “John called and asked if he could come over and sit with Malena for a while. I guess he had to take Elisa somewhere. Of course Dad said he would — he left about twenty minutes ago.”

>   “Any change?”

  Cat didn’t have to ask what “change” he was talking about. “I don’t think so. I guess Yesenia texted Dad early this morning to let him know that both Louisa and Malena were stable, but that they also didn’t show any signs of waking up. They were both able to get some water down, though.”

  Which was something, but if this went on for too much longer, they’d have to do something about getting some nutrients into them. He let out a sigh. “I guess it’s better than taking a turn for the worse, but Jesus. I wonder why they both went into comas when you only passed out.”

  Cat gave a small shrug and glanced away, which meant she was probably feeling guilty over the situation, even though there was absolutely nothing she could have done to make things any different. “I don’t know. There isn’t much about any of this that makes sense.”

  No, except that Simon Escobar still had Miranda held captive somewhere. Hopefully somewhere in La Cienega, but they didn’t even know that for sure. All they had to go on was the advice of some disembodied voice who’d decided it was a good idea to visit Cat’s bedroom in the middle of the night to dispense advice.

  Rafe came over and sat down at the kitchen table, then got out his phone and shot off a quick text to Daniel, letting him know they were almost positive Miranda had to be somewhere in La Cienega, even if they couldn’t yet pin down the exact location. Daniel responded almost immediately, thanking Rafe for the tip and telling him he’d be in touch as soon as he had something.

  “What now?” Cat asked.

  “I don’t know. All we can really do is sit and wait.”

  “Which is excruciating.”

  That was a word for it. Rafe drank some more coffee and contemplated their options…not that they had many. La Cienega wasn’t a big place, but they still couldn’t exactly go door to door, inquiring whether the residents had seen anyone who matched Miranda’s description. If nothing else, they’d let Simon know they were closing in on him, and that would only give him a chance to grab Miranda and find another hiding place. The only way they’d be able to get her away from him was to utilize the element of surprise as best they could.

  Which meant sitting tight, even though every minute that passed felt more like fifteen, or twenty.

  Or a hundred.

  “What about Lorena?” he asked. “Do we know if she’s set out for San Antonio yet?”

  “Yes,” Cat replied. “Dad said she left a little after seven, so even allowing for a couple of pit stops, she should get to San Antonio by around three or so. Which means we still have about six hours to kill before we hear anything.

  “Great,” Rafe grumbled. Maybe they should have told Lorena to fly to San Antonio. Was there even an airport in Clovis, though? Flying wouldn’t save them any time if Lorena had to backtrack all the way to Albuquerque.

  “Maybe we should go visit Louisa,” Cat suggested. When Rafe lifted an eyebrow at her, she went on, “You know, to give Oscar a break. I’m sure he’d appreciate it if we stopped by. And it would give us something to do rather than just sitting around here and waiting for Daniel to call. What he’s doing could take hours, or it could take days.”

  God, it had better not. Rafe reassured himself that Daniel tended to work quickly, even though he was also thorough. He’d figure this out today.

  In the meantime, it was probably better to take Cat up on her suggestion. Oscar would no doubt like the chance to step away from his wife’s bedside, run some errands or go down to Rio Rancho and visit his two kids where they were staying with relatives, and a change of scenery might help to keep Rafe’s thoughts from running in the same troubling channels.

  “Okay,” he said. “Why don’t you text Oscar, and I’ll make us some breakfast. You okay with toast and eggs?”

  “Sounds perfect,” she replied, then picked up her phone from where it sat on the kitchen table by her elbow.

  While Rafe wouldn’t call himself a gourmet cook, he was pretty good at scrambled eggs. He got the carton of eggs and some butter from the fridge, and started prepping the pan while Cat sent out a text to Oscar. Just as Rafe began to crack the eggs into a bowl, she looked up from her phone.

  “He says that would be great, and he really appreciates it. I told him we’d probably be over in about forty-five minutes.”

  “Okay.” That would give them enough time to eat their breakfast and then drive out to Las Campanas. Although Rafe wasn’t really looking forward to seeing his sister still trapped in a coma, it would be good to get out of this house. Louisa’s place was much friendlier, with big picture windows that offered gorgeous views of the Sangre de Cristos, and a feeling of light and space.

  Once he was done with breakfast prep, Rafe brought the plates of eggs and toast over to the table. Cat smiled at him as she took hers and set it down.

  “This is nice,” she said, and he shot her an unbelieving look.

  “‘Nice’?” he repeated. “With everything that’s going on?”

  “Well, I wish the circumstances were different, but it’s been a long time since you and I sat at this table and had breakfast together. That’s all I meant. Plus,” she added as she lifted a forkful of eggs to her mouth, “you make some mean scrambled eggs. You’ll have to make some for Miranda after we get her back.”

  “If we get her back,” Rafe said darkly.

  “We will.”

  The way Cat made that statement, she clearly thought the outcome was nonnegotiable.

  He hoped she was right.

  Oscar greeted them enthusiastically, relief at their presence in every plane of his face. “Thanks for coming over — Rosalie and Lewis have been watching the kids, but they really needed to go into Albuquerque today on some business, so it helps that I can go down and spent that time with William and Crystal, if only for a few hours.”

  “We’re glad to help out,” Cat said as Oscar closed the door behind them and led her and Rafe farther into the house. “And if we need to leave for some reason, we’ll make sure someone else can come over and take our place. You need a chance to get out.”

  “I don’t like to say it, but I think you’re right. And I know the kids would like a chance to go to the park. I think I’m going to take them over to the Bosque, see if there are any birds left to watch. We’ll probably have lunch, too, if that’s okay.”

  “Take as much time as you need,” Rafe told his brother-in-law. He figured that the eggs and toast he and Cat had just eaten for breakfast should keep them satisfied for a while. “We’ll hold down the fort.”

  “Great. Our room is just down the hall at the end.”

  Rafe nodded, and Oscar hurried off, phone in one hand as he lifted it to his ear. Probably he was making a quick call to either Rosalie or Lewis, letting them know that he was on his way. If traffic cooperated, he should probably be down there in less than forty-five minutes.

  And he’ll be back in a lot less than that if there’s any change with Louisa, Rafe thought. He and Cat went down the hallway to the master suite, where their sister lay in bed, half propped up against some pillows. She looked better than Rafe had expected; someone had brushed out her long, dark hair, and it lay neatly over her shoulders, which were covered by a long-sleeved T-shirt in a cheerful turquoise hue. Her color was natural, and really, it appeared more as though she was just deeply asleep, rather than in a coma.

  “She looks good,” Cat said in a half-whisper, as though she feared the sound of their voices might wake up their sister.

  “I know.” Maybe too good? His sister’s healthy-looking flush made him think of Snow White, lying asleep after taking a bite from a poisoned apple. No glass coffin here, though. Rafe had a feeling that Oscar had probably kissed his wife as she lay there, and yet she still remained locked in unconsciousness, taken away from them all.

  “You might as well sit down,” Cat told him. “We’re going to be here for a while.”

  True. There were two chairs grouped together with a small side table in front of the gas fir
eplace embedded in one wall; Rafe picked them both up and brought them over closer to the bed. He and Cat sat down, then gave one another a pair of uneasy looks.

  “So….” she began, clearly not sure what the protocol was in a situation like this.

  Not that Rafe knew, either, but he’d always heard it was comforting for people in comas to hear the voices of their loved ones. He certainly wouldn’t say anything he didn’t want Louisa to overhear, of course, but having her there as a silent audience shouldn’t keep him and Cat from talking. “I wish Daniel would get back to us.”

  “He will…when he has a reason to call.” Cat set her backpack-purse on the floor, glanced over at the bed, and added, “It’s just going to slow him down if we keep bugging him every five minutes for an update.”

  “I know that,” Rafe replied, not bothering to hide the irritation in his voice. “But between the radio silence from him, and knowing that Lorena’s on her way to San Antonio but won’t have anything to tell us for hours — ”

  “And having Miranda held captive by Simon Escobar and us not knowing what’s going on,” she cut in. “I get it. Just remind yourself that you’re doing a good deed here.”

  “I know.” Then again, if he were really doing a good deed, he probably wouldn’t feel as grudging about it. Family was supposed to look out for family, especially in a witch clan, and it wasn’t as though they had anything else they could be doing. That was probably the part which bothered him the most. He always got antsy when he couldn’t be actually doing something. Sitting and waiting wasn’t part of his nature. Unfortunately, he couldn’t change his current situation, except to hope that Daniel would come up with something very soon.

  “I wish I knew who he was,” Cat said, her tone musing.

  “Your ‘friend’ from last night?”

  “Yes. I mean, obviously he was trying to help…but if he actually knew where Miranda was, why didn’t he just come out and tell me?”

  “I have no idea. I’m more interested in how he knew in the first place. You’re sure it wasn’t someone from another witch clan?”