The Graves of Plague Canyon (The Downwinders Book 3)

by Michael Richan

  Warren closed his eyes. She was worried he wasn’t taking it well. When he finally opened them again, he looked right at her. “So tell me again why you were in the cliff dwellings.”

  “A friend of a friend had been poisoned, the kind of poisoning that affects your mind while in the River. It caused her physical body to fall into a coma. We discovered that it could be cured by a substance called callum, and that callum could be harvested off the gypsum inside the caves at the cliff dwellings.”

  “There are caves there?” Warren asked.

  “Massive caves,” Deem replied. “And a room full of buried Native Americans, a necropolis. We collected the callum, and I took it to the sick woman in Fredonia. She recovered.”

  “Callum? What’s that?” Warren asked.

  “There are all these objects and substances in the River,” Deem said. “I’m still learning about a lot of them. My father was gifted, and before he died, he was teaching me about it.”

  “Wait, your father? President Hinton?” Warren asked, shocked.

  “Yes,” Deem said. “I inherited this ability from him.”

  “You’re blowing my mind here, Deem,” Warren said.

  “Sorry about that,” she said. “I realize I’m not like most girls.”

  “You’re definitely not,” Warren said, sticking a fry into ketchup and raising it to his mouth. “So your whole trip into the canyon was to help a friend?”

  “I swear to god,” Deem said.

  “And you weren’t just using me for information about the canyon?”

  She paused. “I said yes the first time figuring I might learn something we could use. But I said yes the second time because I wanted to spend time with you. And I’m here right now for the same reason.”

  Warren cracked a little and a smile emerged. “Anything else you can do? Lasers from the eyes? Fly like Iron Man?”

  “Just the River, as far as I know,” Deem said, aware that there was much more on the subject she could share with Warren, but mindful that he was probably on overload. I’ll tell him more later, if he doesn’t run away screaming, she thought.

  Warren picked up another fry and stuck it in his mouth. “It’s weird,” he said. “If this is a scam, I’ll hate you,” he said, pointing another fry at her.

  “No scam,” she said, beginning to eat her own food, feeling the first hunger pangs she’d felt in almost a day. She began to wolf down her sandwich, polishing it off before Warren could get half way through his.

  “Can you spy on people?” Warren asked. “Go into their houses?”

  “I could, but I don’t,” she replied. “It’s like a code.”

  “Do some of you break the code?” Warren asked.

  “Some,” she replied. “There’s always a bad nut here or there.” She smiled to herself, amused at her choice of words. I’m not going to get into a conversation about councils and assassins tonight, she thought.

  “And Winn,” Warren asked. “He’s gifted, like you?”

  “Which is why we work together,” Deem replied. “Safety in numbers.”

  They ate in silence for a moment. Deem saw him eyeing her, still trying to figure her out. It was making her feel uncomfortable. She decided to change the subject.

  “I found something interesting the day before yesterday,” Deem said. “In a mine on Kaiparowitz plateau.”

  “Yeah? What?” he asked.

  “An 1830 Book of Mormon.”

  Warren dropped his sandwich. “You did not.”

  “I did. It’s in pretty good shape.”

  “Now I know you’re lying to me.”

  “I’m not. I’ll show it to you. It might be worth a hundred thousand.”

  Warren leaned back in his chair again, studying Deem carefully. “You’re so beautiful, but you seem like you’re so full of shit,” he said admiringly.

  “It’s back at Carma’s place in Leeds,” she replied. “Why don’t we go out there when we’re done here, and I’ll show it to you.”

  Warren looked at her like he was playing poker with a card shark. “Alright,” he said. “I’d like to see it.”

  “And if it turns out that I’m not full of shit?” Deem asked.

  “I’ll owe you one,” Warren said, letting a sly smile cross his face. “I’ll take you out to an expensive dinner somewhere.”

  “Oh, you are on,” she said, smiling and pointing one of her French fries at him.

  Chapter Thirteen

  They pulled into Carma’s driveway, Warren following Deem’s truck. Deem had called Carma on the way there, making sure she was OK with the visitor. Carma had been more than OK; she seemed ecstatic at the idea of meeting Warren.

  Carma was waiting outside the front door as they drove up. “Oh, this must be him!” she said as Warren approached, and she stuck out her arms for a hug, a thin cigarette in her right hand. Warren obliged, and Carma hugged him warmly, then pulled him away from her, holding him at arm’s length.

  “Oh, Deem,” she said dramatically, “you didn’t tell me how handsome he was. Surely you’ve noticed these rugged good looks. I don’t feel adequately prepared!”

  Deem looked at Warren and saw that he’d turned a bright red. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone blush that brightly in my entire life,” she said.

  “That just means he has excellent circulation, which is a very handy thing!” Carma said with delight. “Come in, come in!” she said, opening the door and giving a grand flourish with her arm, beckoning them to enter.

  Deem and Warren walked in together and Deem led him down the hallway while Carma remained to close the door.

  “Does she always do that?” Warren whispered to Deem.

  “I always do everything!” Carma said loudly from behind them, rapidly catching up with them and shooing them into the drawing room. Instead of landing in her favorite chair, Deem sat on the couch, leaving a space next to her for Warren to sit.

  “What can I get you to drink, Warren?” Carma said. “It’s after five one time zone to the east, so wine is perfectly appropriate, and I have a bottle of white chilling in the fridge; what do you say?”

  Warren seemed bewildered by the entire exchange, the blood in his face only beginning to fade. “Sure,” he replied.

  “Deem?” Carma asked. “Never mind, don’t answer, you’re having some.” Carma spun on her heels and was gone.

  “Wow,” Warren said. “She’s something else.”

  “You have no idea,” Deem replied. “Wait here, I’ll go grab the book.”

  Deem raced upstairs to her room and located the satchel. She pulled the book from it and hurried back downstairs. Carma was pressing a glass of wine into Warren’s hand, and she handed one to Deem.

  “I’m so glad you brought him around to visit me,” Carma said. “And, of course, to see the book. And to have dinner.”

  “We just had a late lunch,” Deem replied. “I don’t think we’ll be hungry for dinner.”

  “We’ll have a late dinner,” Carma replied. “That’ll make it easy for you to stay! You didn’t have plans, did you, Warren?”

  Warren looked at Carma, still a little knocked off his feet by her exuberance. “Well, no, not really.”

  “There, it’s settled, we’ll have dinner around eight or nine. Perhaps Winn will join us.”

  Deem wanted to tell Carma what Winn was doing with David, but decided not to bring it up in front of Warren. It was a lot to explain. Instead, she handed him the book.

  He took it from her and slowly turned the pages. “I guess I owe you that dinner,” he said, looking up at her. “This is incredibly rare.”

  “Those 1830 Book of Mormons are like holy grails to the LDS, aren’t they,” Carma said. “They all dream of finding one in a chest in the attic one day.”

  “You aren’t LDS?” Warren asked Carma half rhetorically, noticing the cigarette in her hand.

  “Did this give me away?” she said, brandishing the Virginia Superslim. “I was in a former life. Now I’m
not. How about you, handsome Warren, are you LDS?”

  “I suppose,” he said, still turning the pages of the book. “I haven’t been to church in a while.”

  “Returned missionary?” Carma asked.

  “Upstate New York,” he replied. “Land of the restoration.”

  “That book should have extra import to you,” Carma said.

  “Palmyra was my first area,” he answered. “These first editions were published in Palmyra. The Grandin house, where they were printed, is now a museum, run by the church. So, yes, the history of it appeals to me.”

  “The Hill Cumorah, Fayette, all those places were in your mission, I suppose?”

  “They were.”

  “The Sacred Grove? Did you go there, and pray?”

  “The day I arrived,” he replied. “That was the first stop for all new missionaries in the area.”

  “Yet now, you’re garment-free, drinking wine with an old lady who’s smoking a cigarette.”

  “It’s true,” he replied. “I’m not active anymore.”

  “Lost your religion?” she asked.

  “I think it lost me,” he replied.

  Carma turned to Deem. “He’s a keeper,” she said, smiling. She turned back to Warren, who had begun to blush again. “Don’t mind me, Warren. I make everyone blush, it’s what I do, as they say. Bring that and come see the pictures!”

  Carma rose from the couch and walked to the entrance hallway, where she began to point out the old black and white photographs that lined the walls. Many were of the house, showing it in various stages as it was built and added to over the years, and some were of the surrounding areas, like Silver Reef. Warren listened to her descriptions and asked questions, genuinely interested in the history that Carma was providing, and after a while Deem just stood back and watched the two of them, Carma talking and pointing, and Warren politely responding. Warren cut an impressive figure in the hallway, and she thought about how things had gone at the Bear Paw, how he’d been acceptably skeptical, but had come around. A part of her broke off and wanted to walk up to him and give him the most sensuous kiss she’d ever delivered, right there in front of Carma. And as he turned from her, another part of her wanted to walk up to him and grab a handful of his ass through his jeans — but she stopped herself.

  She felt her phone buzzing in her pocket, and she pulled it out, leaving the hallway to walk back into the drawing room. It was Winn. She answered it.

  “Deem?”

  “Yeah, it’s me,” she replied. “What happened?”

  “It was them,” Winn said. “Out in the desert.”

  “What did you do?” she asked.

  “We left them there, for now. I told David I wasn’t sure how we’d explain discovering them and said we’d have to keep them buried until we could figure something out. He’s wrecked.”

  “Where is he now?” she asked.

  “I just dropped him off at his house,” Winn answered. “I’m parked outside. I don’t think I can leave him here, though. He cried all the way into the house, Deem. Do you think Carma would be OK if I brought him there?”

  “I know she would,” Deem said. “You’re right, he can’t be alone. We’d be monsters to leave him in that empty house tonight. Go back in and convince him to come with you out here.”

  “OK,” Winn replied. “See you in a bit.”

  She hung up and walked back to the hallway, where Carma was finishing up with the last picture.

  “Who was that, my dear?” Carma asked.

  “Winn,” she replied. She considered asking Carma if she could talk to her privately, but knew it would put Warren off, being excluded. She’d wind up having to explain to him everything that was going on anyway, especially if David was on his way over. She decided to just say it in front of him.

  “We’ve got a problem,” she said. “I’m hoping you’d be OK if we brought David here, for the night. He and Winn went to Highway 91. The bodies in the desert were his parents.”

  “Oh, no!” Carma replied.

  “He’s got no other family,” Deem said. “It didn’t seem right to leave him in Ivins by himself.”

  “Of course he must come out here!” Carma said. “He must be with people who can care for him. Oh, this is terrible. Just terrible. Is Winn bringing him?”

  “Yes,” she answered. “They’re leaving Ivins now. They’ll be here soon.”

  “He can stay in the third room, upstairs.”

  “I’m going to go,” Warren said, setting down his wine glass.

  “Nonsense, you’re staying for dinner!” Carma said.

  “I get up at four in the morning,” he replied. “I’m usually in bed by nine. My lunch with Deem really was my dinner. And I think you’re both going to have your hands full tonight.”

  “You might be right,” Deem said.

  “You will come back, though, and have a proper, earlier dinner?” Carma asked.

  “I will,” Warren replied. “And I look forward to it.”

  Carma turned to Deem. “Such a gentleman. Good looks and good manners. Well done!”

  Warren began to blush again, and Deem grabbed him by the hand, leading him to the front door. Once they reached Warren’s car, they turned to each other.

  “Bodies in the desert?” Warren asked.

  “Uh, yeah,” Deem said. “Some of what I do isn’t as simple as counting fingers under a table.”

  “Sounds dangerous.”

  “It can be,” she said. “Does it bother you?”

  “I trust you’ll explain the whole thing to me later,” he said. “For now… ”

  He reached out for her and Deem felt his hands grab her waist. Next thing she knew, she was pulled toward him. She was surprised, but not resistant. As her body reached his, she felt heat from his chest, and his face was right next to hers.

  “Be careful,” he said, and pressed his face forward, his lips hitting hers squarely. She felt their softness and pressed back, giving him the kiss she imagined delivering in the hallway. It lasted a long time, and Deem felt her mind, normally racing with thoughts and anticipations, clear and become calm. When it finally ended, Warren pulled away slowly, smiling.

  “Wow,” he said.

  “Wow,” she repeated involuntarily.

  “When will I see you again?” he asked.

  “You owe me a dinner,” she replied. “And not Outback. Something nice and fancy.”

  He laughed. “And I promised to come back for dinner with Carma.”

  “She’ll likely invite others to that, it’ll be a social thing,” Deem replied. “Not really a date.”

  “I don’t care, as long as you’re there,” he said, and moved in for another kiss. Deem met him halfway and their lips met again, this time longer and with even more passion. Deem felt excited in a way she’d never felt when on dates with boys in her youth. Something about Warren was different, and it made the kiss stir something deep within her.

  When they finally separated, Deem pushed him away. “Go,” she said, wanting to kiss him again, but knowing it was time to stop. “Go home and sleep.”

  “Good luck with David,” Warren replied. “And thank Carma for me.”

  “Will do,” she said, and watched as he got into his car, started it up, and slowly drove away from Carma’s house.

  She walked back to the front door. Carma was waiting inside.

  “Did you kiss him?” she asked, nearly hopping with excitement.

  “Yes, I did,” Deem said proudly. She walked down the hallway, Carma following her.

  “And how was it?” Carma asked.

  Deem paused, looking for the right words.

  “Fucking awesome,” she said.

  ▪ ▪ ▪

  When Winn arrived with David, they tried to make small talk, but David just sat in the drawing room, numb, staring at the floor. Carma mercifully recognized that David needed rest, not conversation, and suggested they take him up to bed.

  “I’ll take him,” Winn said
. Winn walked to David, grabbed him by the shoulders, and raised him up. David looked shell-shocked, like he didn’t know what was happening to him. Winn guided him out of the room and to the stairs. Soon Carma and Deem heard them walking up, followed by footsteps above them as Winn settled David into his room.

  “Poor child,” Carma said. “I know horrible things happen all the time in this world, but to lose both parents in such a brutal way… it’s really heartbreaking.”

  “We’ve got to figure out what to do about their bodies,” Deem said. “We can’t leave them out there, can we?”

  “God knows there are lots of bodies buried in the desert,” Carma replied. “It doesn’t seem fair to David to leave them there for any length of time, but you’ve got to have a plan before you move them.”

  “You know, when I first met him, he was trying to retrieve a roller skating plaque from the old skating rink,” Deem said. “They were tearing it down, and he wanted to save it because his father’s name is on the plaque. He was trying to hold onto every bit of them he could, afraid of losing any more of them than he’d already lost.”

  “He’s not very experienced with the gift, is he?” Carma asked.

  “Not at all,” Deem replied. “He might have been stuck in that building while they demolished it the next day. Or been sliced up by the zombighost. He didn’t know what he was doing. He said his parents had only begun to train him.”

  “You will have to do it,” Carma said. “You and Winn.”

  “We’ve also got to figure out what to do about Lizzy,” Deem said.

  “That’s probably a more pressing task,” Carma replied. “She’s likely accepting contracts again. David can grieve now that he knows the truth and isn’t left to wonder where they are. But Lizzy, she’s another matter. She’ll be out there, causing more damage.”

  “I wonder why Dayton wanted them gone,” Deem said. “David’s parents.”

  “There’s no guarantee it was Dayton.”

  “But it’s likely. Samaria said the hits are ordered by the St. George and Page councils. What would Page want with a gifted couple in Ivins? That’s St. George territory.”

  Winn came back downstairs and joined them.