NightWind 1st Book: HellWind Trilogy

by Charlotte Boyett-Compo

  Syntian felt her gaze boring into him. There was neither love nor concern nor emotion of any kind in the stare she aimed his way. She was clinging to Ben Hurlbert, her arms around his neck, her hands caressing his back.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The ambulance attendants were cursing and frowning when they left. They had made a trip out to the condo for nothing. The man they had rushed to help had refused a trip to the hospital and had only grudgingly allowed them to swab his cuts and scratches. He wouldn’t even let them take his temperature or blood pressure.

  “I am fine,” he’d growled at them, pushing away the stethoscope. “I just want to go home.”

  “You got to let us examine you!” the driver had argued.

  “No, I don’t,” the patient had snapped. “Don’t you think I’ve been through enough?”

  It hadn’t helped to have the Sheriff from over in Milton side with the stupid man. “Do as he says. He ought to know if he’s all right or not.”

  “There could be internal injuries!” the attendant had warned.

  “I’ll take my chances,” the man had informed them as he pushed away their offer of help. “If I get to feeling bad, I’ll have my wife bring me to the hospital.”

  The driver had wondered at the look the man’s wife had given him, but he’d kept his mouth shut. Throwing up his hand at what he thought was supreme foolishness, he’d ordered his assistant into the ambulance.

  “It’s his hide, Jake. Let’s get the hell out of here!” the ambulance driver said with disgust.

  Ben chuckled meanly as the ambulance drove away from the curb. “They’ll catch hell for not having a transport to Gulf Breeze Hospital. That’s a couple hundred bucks outta the coffers.” He turned to Syntian and shook his head. “You ought to have gone with them, buddy.”

  “I just want to go home,” Syntian repeated.

  “You’re gonna press charges against her, ain’t you?” Ben asked, nodding toward the police car where Angeline Hellstrom was sitting, glaring back at them.

  “Of course he will,” Lauren said. She walked to her husband and put her arm through his. “I’ll bring him to the station tomorrow.”

  Syntian heard the coldness in Lauren’s voice and wondered if Ben did, too. There was an odd look on the Sheriff’s face and he was looking at Lauren as though he couldn’t quite make out what she was saying, then he turned his gaze to Syntian again.

  “I guess I owe you an apology, Cree,” Ben said grudgingly.

  Syntian’s brow lifted. “An apology for what?” He felt Lauren stiffen as he leaned against her.

  Ben ducked his head then looked his rival in the eye. “For thinking you’d run out on Lauren.” He took a deep breath. “Because of the baby.”

  Syntian nodded slowly. “I understand. I guess it looked as though I had, didn’t it?” He slipped his arm around Lauren and pulled her to him, feeling her body go even more rigid than ever. He looked down into her blank face. “I would never leave this woman willingly, Sheriff.”

  Ben felt acutely uncomfortable as he watched Cree and Lauren staring at one another. There might not have been anyone else in the world except the two of them. He cleared his throat, gaining their attention and smiled crookedly. “I guess you folks are gonna need a ride back home, huh?”

  “That would be nice, Ben. Thank you,” Lauren said, moving out of her husband’s arms. She didn’t look back at him as she walked to the Sheriff and took his arm. “I’ll sit up front with you so Syntian can lie down if he wants to.”

  Syntian opened his mouth to speak, but snapped it shut again as the Sheriff’s quick reply made it all too clear he would enjoy having Lauren in the front seat with him.

  “That’s a good idea, darling,” Ben agreed. He cast a superior look at Lauren’s husband, then ushered Lauren into his police cruiser, leaving Syntian to climb into the back seat alone.

  Ben shut Lauren’s door and hurried around to the driver’s side. He pulled out his nightstick and laid it on the seat between them. “I never got a chance to tell you how sorry I was about your Mama, darling,” he said as he placed his uniform hat on top of the nightstick. “I guess it goes without saying that you can call on me anytime you need to talk.”

  A muscle jumped in Syntian’s jaw as he caught the Sheriff looking at him through the rear view mirror, daring him to comment. Deciding for once that discretion was the better part of valor, Syntian just smiled, but he vowed if the man called Lauren ‘darling’ just one more time, he’d turn him into hamburger.

  Lauren turned slightly in the seat, having intercepted her husband’s random thought. Her eyes narrowed, letting him know she had heard his silent threat. When Syntian gazed innocently at her, she faced forward again and ignored his presence behind her.

  Syntian leaned back in his seat, half-listening to the inane conversation being carried on by the bumpkin in the front seat, glowering at the back of Hurlbert’s head through the heavy protective mesh that kept the front seat passengers safe from the prisoners they were transporting. He had been surprised, and unpleasantly so, to learn Lauren had advanced enough with her study of the Book of Shadows to be able to pick up on his thoughts. He made a mental note to be more careful around her from then on.

  “How’d she get you out to her place, Cree?” Hurlbert asked, studying Syntian in the mirror. “She call you or what?”

  “She told me she sent her limo driver, Delbert, to get him,” Lauren answered. “The black man shot him full of something. Didn’t he, Syntian?” She didn’t turn around to look at him, but kept her eyes on the Sheriff’s profile.

  “That right, Cree?” Ben asked, squinting at the look on his rival’s face. At the slow nod from the man in the back seat, Ben shook his head. “Damned messy business.” He reached out to pat Lauren’s hand. “Damned messy,” he repeated.

  Unaware that his hands were balled into fists on his lap, Syntian tore his gaze from his wife’s smiling face and looked out the window at the lowering night. They were passing over the bridge and the tollbooth was just ahead of them. He wondered why the Sheriff had taken the long way back to Milton then slowly turned his attention back to the man. The answer was there in the way the bastard was looking at Lauren: He wanted more time with her.

  “I just don’t understand why a woman would do such a thing,” he heard Hurlbert saying. “Seems to me there are too many fish in the sea to be casting your rod for just one.”

  “I’ve been thinking,” Syntian growled, bringing the Sheriff’s eyes to him once more in the mirror. “The last time I saw you was at McGuire’s Irish Pub, the night before Delbert kidnapped me.” At the other man’s instant frown and quick glance, Syntian drove the spike further in. “That was Raja DeLyle you were with, wasn’t it?”

  Ben’s head snapped around and he stared at Syntian, nearly driving them off the rode with his shock. He wasn’t aware that Lauren had turned once more in her seat and was glaring at her husband with spite.

  “Raja’s an old friend of mine,” Syntian said, fusing his gaze with Lauren’s. “And every other man that has a cock and knows how to use it.”

  “That’s enough!” Lauren hissed at him.

  “I...I didn’t see you there,” Ben stammered.

  “But I saw you,” Syntian said. “Tell me, Sheriff: on a scale from one to ten, how would you rate fucking Raja DeLyle?”

  “I said that’s enough!” Lauren shouted at him. She glanced at Ben and saw that he was gripping the steering wheel hard enough to pull it off the column. “What Benny does is his business, Syntian, not yours.”

  “I was just curious.”

  Ben looked over at Lauren and found her looking back at him with apology. “I knew it was wrong when I did it, Lauren, but life can be real lonely at times.”

  Syntian rolled his eyes to the heavens. He was about to make another scathing remark, but the Sheriff beat him to it.

  “To tell you the truth, Cree: I’ve had better.”

  The smirk slipped off Syntian�
��s face and he found Lauren studying him with a malicious grin. If there was any doubt in his mind that she knew what he had done, and how he had done it, that doubt had dissolved with her snort of spite as she twisted around and stared out the windshield.

  Once they had entered East Milton, Ben pointed to a convenience store up ahead. “You want something cold to drink, Lauren?” he asked.

  Lauren nodded. “I think I would.”

  Ben glanced in the rear view mirror. “How ‘bout you, Cree?”

  “No,” Syntian grumbled.

  Bright light flooded the interior of the car as Ben pulled up before the convenience store. He got out, leaving behind him an awkward silence in the patrol car. Finally it was Syntian who spoke.

  “Are you mad at me?” he asked.

  Lauren watched Ben enter the store’s restroom door and closed her eyes, mumbling softly to herself.

  “Lauren, talk to me,” Syntian pleaded. “If you’re angry because I—”

  “Angeline is the one I am angry at, Syntian,” she answered, opening her eyes.

  “Something’s wrong,” he countered. “I can feel it.” He sat forward, slipping his fingers through the mesh. “Won’t you even look at me while I’m talking to you?”

  Lauren was relieved to see Ben coming out of the restroom. She didn’t want to be alone with Syntian right then. She watched as Ben paid for two sodas then elbowed his way out the exit. She heard his boots crunching on the gravel in the parking lot. “We’ll discuss it when we get home,” she said as Ben got back into the car and handed her a cold Mr. Pibb.

  Ben turned and stared at Syntian. “Sure I can’t get you something, Cree?”

  “No,” Syntian snapped, glaring at the man. “I think you’ve done enough.”

  Hurlbert shrugged then handed his soda to Lauren. “Will you hold this, darlin’?”

  It was a long ride home for Syntian. He wasn’t asked any more questions and he didn’t comment on anything that was said. He spent the seemingly endless drive to his home staring out the window, listening carefully to what Lauren said and how she said it to the bastard in the front seat with her. When they pulled into the serpentine driveway leading up to the house, he felt the car decelerate slower than was necessary down the pine straw-packed lane.

  “You’ll be in first thing tomorrow morning, then?” Hurlbert was asking as he tapped on the brakes, slowing the car even more.

  “First thing,” Lauren agreed.

  “I’m gonna charge her with kidnapping, false imprisonment, assault and battery, mental and physical abuse.” He chuckled. “I’m gonna throw the book at Miss High ‘n Mighty.”

  “Syntian will sign whatever you want him to sign, Benny,” Lauren assured him. “Angeline Hellstrom deserves what she gets.”

  “And I’m gonna see she gets it, darling,” Hurlbert pledged.

  At last the police cruiser pulled up in front of the mansion and Hurlbert bolted out of the car in his rush to open Lauren’s door. Syntian sat where he was and watched the spectacle as the man gallantly helped Lauren from the car, then started walking with her to the front steps. He knew the bastard thought he couldn’t get out of the back seat without having his door opened from outside. He wondered what the asshole would do if he made the door open.

  “Oh, damn!” Ben chortled. “I better let him outta there, huh?” He ran back to the car and jerked open the door. “Sorry about that, Cree.”

  Syntian looked up at him then got out of the car. “No problem, Sheriff,” he grated.

  “Thank you again for driving us home, Benny,” Lauren called as she unlocked the front door. “I really didn’t relish coming back in a cab.”

  “My pleasure,” Hurlbert acknowledged. He nodded as Syntian passed him. “Take good care of her, Cree. She ain’t been feeling all that well since you been gone. I’ve tried to take good care of her for you, though.”

  Syntian stopped, a muscle grinding in his cheek, and he was about to make the bastard standing in front of him sorry he had ever been born, but Lauren’s cool voice made him think twice about starting something.

  “Syntian?” she asked. “Are you coming?”

  Ben Hurlbert smiled, but there was no humor or friendliness in the smile. There was only challenge and gloating. “You wanna say something to me, Cree?”

  Syntian felt Lauren’s anger and he knew he would be making a big mistake if he attacked Hurlbert. Instead, he took a step closer to the Sheriff and stared him in the face. “Lauren is my wife, Hurlbert. I know how to take care of her. If you think you want to make her your concern, I suggest you don’t.”

  “Or else what?”

  “I’ll really give you something to be concerned about,” Syntian warned.

  Ben sniffed, showing his apparent disdain of any threat Syntian Cree offered. “You talk a good fight, mister. I got a feeling that one day me and you are gonna tangle again.”

  “Count on it.”

  Ben Hurlbert chuckled, then sauntered to his patrol car as though he hadn’t a care in the world. “You sleep good, now, you hear, darling!” Ben called out before he ducked into the cruiser.

  Lauren waved as the Sheriff pulled out of the driveway and onto to the winding lane leading to the highway. She flicked a glance over her husband as he stood there glaring after the patrol car then entered the house, closing the door behind her.

  He heard the door shut and turned to look behind him. Lauren’s action, more than any words she could have spoken, warned him things had drastically changed between the two of them. Drawing in a long breath, he held it, then made for the front door, exhaling as he walked in an effort to calm himself. As he entered the house, he became instantly aware of the charged atmosphere that said they were not alone. He stopped looking about him, searching for the intruder whose presence he felt.

  “Lauren?” he called out. There was no answer. “Lauren?”

  He walked out of the hallway and looked in the living room, dining room, and kitchen. He pushed the door to the laundry room open and still did not find his wife. Nor was she in the library or small sitting room to the left of the dining alcove.

  “Lauren?” he shouted. “Where are you?”

  He took the stairs two at a time and looked in first the master bedroom, then the smaller bedroom that had once been a nursery. Lauren was in neither. He went to the bathroom they had shared and didn’t find her there, either.

  “Lauren!” he yelled, feeling the alien presence even stronger.

  Going back into the hall, he turned toward the empty bedroom and threw the door open, not expecting to find her there.

  Lauren gazed calmly back at him as she stood in the center of the room. “Welcome home, my demon,” she greeted him.

  “What are you...?” he began only to stop, his eyes wide with disbelief as his gaze lowered slowly to the pentagram on the floor. His brows drew together in confusion and he lifted his head to stare at her. “What have you done?”

  She smiled at him. “Where did you think Jaleel came from, Syntian?” She swept her hand around the room. “I conjured him, just as my ancestors conjured you.”

  The presence was powerful in the room and he backed away from the threshold, afraid to enter. Although he couldn’t see anyone else in the room, he knew Lauren was not alone. The hair on the back of his neck was standing up and he felt a quiver of warning moving over his spine.

  Lauren held out her hand. “Come, Syntian.”

  He shook his head. “No.” His heart was hammering in his chest as he backed further away.

  She swept her hand over the paraphernalia at her feet. “I have the Book, Syntian. I want you to sign your pack with me as you have with the women of my family before me.”

  Again he shook his head. “There is something in the room with you, Lauren. I won’t be caught again!”

  “He won’t lay a hand on you,” Lauren soothed him in a soft voice. “All I want is for you to bind yourself to me.”

  “I am already bound to you, Lauren!” he
shouted at her. “I am your husband.” He pointed at the Book of Shadows. “There’s no need for me to sign a contract between us.”

  Lauren’s smile was nasty as she stared at him. “Angeline doesn’t dare try to invoke you, or any other spirit, considering where she is right now, but she will eventually send something after you. If you have not indentured yourself to me, I won’t interfere. I’ll let her take you.”

  His face showed his shock. “But why? Why, Lauren? I didn’t leave you to go to her because I wanted to! Don’t you know if I could have, I would have broken free of her?”

  “I am aware of that, Syntian.” She sighed.

  “Then why do you want to bind me through that bloody book? You’ve already bound me through the love I have for you!”

  Syntian still could not see anything in the room with her, but he knew there was something: powerful, much more powerful than himself, in there and it was lurking there to catch him once he stepped foot inside.

  “Do you want to leave the light, Syntian?” Lauren pressed, knowing his answer.

  He hesitated, searched her eyes and knew he could not deny her. She was, after all, the rightful owner of the Book and he was hers to command. His shoulders sagged in defeat. “Bring the Book to me,” he told her. “I’ll sign it here, but I won’t come in that room.”

  For a moment, Lauren just looked at him then she bent down to retrieve the Book. She also picked up the double-edged athamé and walked toward him. “You have nothing to fear from him, Syntian. I wouldn’t allow him to do you harm,” she said, coming out of the room.

  He backed away from her, not trusting the look in her eye. There was no love for him showing in her pretty face and no warmth in her voice as she turned to a fresh parchment page in the book and held it out to him.

  “Already filled in,” she said as though speaking about an application for insurance. “All you need do is sign.”

  Syntian looked down at the muddy red words on the page, knowing full well they had been written in Lauren’s own blood. He flinched as she held the athamé out to him.