Dadgummit

by Maggie Toussaint

  Duncan and Mayes exchanged nods in the minimalist way men greeted each other. “Everything all right?” Mayes asked.

  “We’re fine,” Duncan said.

  “Are you okay?” I asked Charlotte, stepping away from Mayes and taking in her every feature. Not a mark on her, and she seemed like the best friend I knew and loved. I was declaring victory.

  On the opposite side of the cavern, the Little People scurried away, and the wall sealed behind them.

  “We’re fine,” Charlotte said. “We went for a walk in that beautiful park. Then those friendly women asked us to follow them …. Where’d they go?” She craned her neck to look around the cavern in the waning firelight. “Anyway, they directed us here. What a bizarre place this is.”

  “Let’s get out of here,” I said. “The light is fading. That’s never a good sign.”

  “Where are we?” Charlotte asked. “I feel lightheaded.”

  Now that she mentioned it, I felt lightheaded too. And a little nauseous. Not unexpected, after being spun in tight circles. Good thing I hadn’t eaten much today.

  Our gambit had worked. We had our people back. Charlotte was alive. I’d do it again to save her. I tried to draw a full breath, but the effort exhausted me.

  “You’ll be fine. The effect will pass soon,” Mayes said. “Duncan, take the women out that door. I’ll bring up the rear.”

  “I demand answers.” Gail planted her feet, her blue eyes blazing with indignation. “Where were you people? I’ve been searching for you for most of the past hour.”

  “I have the answers you seek, but time is of the essence. We must leave this place,” Mayes said. “Please follow Deputy Duncan.”

  We hurried down the flashlight-illuminated passageway, and with each step my limbs felt heavier, as if gravity were reasserting itself. I hadn’t felt weightless before, but now I could barely lift my tired feet. My head bobbled as the weight of it became more than I could manage. Mayes noticed my difficulty and waved one of his warriors forward to help support me.

  “Sorry,” I managed. “I’ve got nothing left.”

  I plunged into a dark oblivion of dreams, alternately floating and falling and too tired to do anything about it. In the distance, a light appeared. “Mom, is that you?”

  When my mother had pulled me back from the brink before, she’d called my name. I heard no sound, no voices at all in the void. I felt no urge to go toward the light, so I drifted. My body chilled, and the cold felt wonderful after the scorching heat of the fire.

  Past visions floated through my consciousness, each more terrible than the last, until I viewed the cavern scene from outside my body. How had I survived the heat of that fire without my blood boiling? That experience had been real. The heat had been real.

  I must have died. Nothing else made any sense. I’d passed away, and it was my turn in limbo. Larissa! I couldn’t die. I had a daughter to raise. But I couldn’t get back to her. All I could do was drift. Alone.

  Wait. I didn’t have to be alone. I knew a ghost dog. I called his name. And kept calling it. When the jet-black Great Dane appeared, I was so relieved, I threw my arms around his body. Oliver licked my face and hands.

  Haney and White Feather appeared, their fingers joined as Charlotte and Duncan’s had been. They approached as if they saw me, then stopped to kiss each other. I held onto Oliver for dear life.

  “Hello? I’m here,” I said. They didn’t notice me. My thoughts whirled at the implication. Somehow, this was a dreamwalk, and this vision was a prerecorded memory. A dreamwalk. Maybe I wasn’t dead after all. I listened.

  “I’m sorry,” Haney said when they came up for air. “I didn’t mean to drag you into my problems.”

  “You didn’t. I’d do anything for you,” White Feather said, caressing his face.

  “Jonesy, he’s a bad man. I thought he would help me, but each time we met, he hurt me. Now, your Nunne’hi are mad at me, I still don’t have my mom, and I’m certain Jonesy plans to kill me.”

  “I’ll go to him,” White Feather said. “I’ll make him see reason.”

  “No. Stay away from him. Far away. I want you to be safe. Promise me you won’t go to the house on Bear Claw Lane.”

  “You are my heart, my life. You understand me.”

  “We met for all the wrong reasons. He expects me to bring you to him, but I can’t. The only way I can save you is to never see you again.”

  “I’ll find a way to save your mom. All you have to do is show me the passage.”

  “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” Haney said. “Never doubt that. I can’t show you the way. I’d rather die than have you enslaved by Jonesy or enamored by the Nunne’hi.”

  He looked to the horizon, his voice roughening. “Now that I’ve done dirty work for Jonesy and for the Nunne’hi, I’m beginning to believe Mom can’t leave their land. Being there changes a person. Each time I come back, my breathing is all messed up.”

  “I’ve seen where the warriors go for purification. I could find the place.”

  “Don’t. Please. Let there be one good thing I’ve done in this life, and that’s to save you.”

  The vision flickered like a power outage. It returned, grainy and transparent, flickered again. I could see them talking, but I could no longer hear them. Oliver nudged me to my feet. I didn’t want to stand, didn’t want to go anywhere. I liked it right here.

  Light flashed, blinding me. I blinked and covered my eyes. Oliver barked, nosing me from behind. The sensation pained me. Sensation. I was feeling something. I was indeed alive. The light appeared again. This time I reached for it with both hands.

  Chapter Forty

  Voices murmured. Familiar voices. My mom and dad. A deeper voice. Mayes. Pinpoints of light coalesced overhead. Stars. Water lapped against the shore nearby. I smelled the faint thread of campfire. The steady pressure on my palms and soles of my feet. Determined hands caressed my head. For a long moment, I savored the gentle touches. I stretched and hummed like a contented cat.

  Longing thrummed through my blood in a way I’d become unfamiliar with. Need feathered throughout my body, whispering of sultry passion. Yes, I was most definitely alive.

  “I’m here,” I said.

  The pressure on my hands tightened and eased. “Yes, you are.”

  In the faint light, I turned to see my fingers intertwined with a man’s. Mayes. He sat astride me, in the same way I’d dreamwalked Jonas taking White Feather’s last breath. It seemed to me we were united in thought, mind, and deed.

  Then reality hit me in the face like a bucket of ice water. I’d been out cold. Mayes was on top of me, and I was getting intimate messages from every place we intersected. My longing and his longing were tangled up in a Gordian knot. Worse, as I became more aware of the sensual effect, I sensed he was doing this to me.

  I bucked. “Get off me.”

  “Easy, Dreamwalker, or you’ll undo all the good we just did,” Mayes said, disentangling himself and moving to my side. The others who were at my feet and head also withdrew. Below me a tarp rustled. I was on the ground. In the woods. Starlight filled the night sky. A fire crackled nearby.

  Best of all, I was safe and alive.

  I pushed up to a sit, amazed at how quickly my head cleared. Doubly amazed by how peppy I felt. More amazed by how close I felt to Mayes, even though we were no longer touching. It was as if he were caressing my thoughts.

  Was he in my head?

  Outrage flared at the violation of my personal space. I quickly activated all my extrasensory shields as I crabbed away from him. “You were doing it to me. Like in my vision. Exactly as Jonas stole the energy from his marks.”

  He shot me a look of chagrin. “It’s also how you give energy.”

  That thought clunked in my head and thudded to a clattering full stop. “Are you like him?”

  Mayes bowed his head, as though he were ashamed of what he was. Then his energy blazed as bright as his dark eyes. “Everyone
has this ability. It’s innate in the human race. Those who walk between worlds are strong energy conduits. Because of our similarities, the channel between us is easy for me to access.”

  I rubbed my temples, appalled at the personal violation. Were my feelings my own? Were they his? Questions exploded in my head like popcorn in hot oil. Worse, my curiosity reared its ugly head. When the energy transfer went the other way, Jonas’ victims suffered lasting harm. Some died.

  To my eye, Mayes seemed hale and hearty. Sexy, even. “Are you … tired?”

  His eyes sparkled as if they’d caught the intimate drift of my thoughts. Was he listening in my mind even now? Heat stole up my collar, steaming my neck and face. I felt a masculine nudge at the edge of my thoughts. Was it Mayes? I reinforced my virtual shielding. Enough was enough.

  His hopeful expression faded. “Not as much as you might think, since four of my brothers also shared energy with you through me. Your pal used your own energy to suspend you over the fire. She drained you on purpose.”

  My temper spiked, and just as quickly I realized my anger toward him served no purpose. He’d helped me, at a significant cost to himself. I’d survived another encounter with Rose, and as far as I knew, she hadn’t put her claws in me for another hour of my life.

  Mayes was the good guy, though he clearly wanted to be my guy. I’d deal with that later, when we didn’t have an audience.

  I shrugged. “That’s Rose. She exacts a price for each favor she gives.”

  “You were unconscious. She took you too far down.”

  The razor edge to his voice relayed his anger. Why wouldn’t he let it go? “I’m sorry.” Seemed like I’d just apologized to him for something else. “No, I’m not sorry. My friend was in trouble. I got her back.”

  “You got everyone back. You did good.”

  The masculine appreciation in his voice zapped my body in all the wrong places. I couldn’t be attracted to him. No way. I scrambled to my feet, brushed my tingling hands against my jeans. “Thank you. Thank you all for helping me.”

  My parents came over from the fire. “Look at you,” my mom said, “I don’t think you’re even going to need my broth.”

  I hugged my mom close, aware of Mayes and his crew stepping back to give us privacy. “I will always need your broth. Thank you, Mom.”

  My father grabbed me next. “We were worried about you. Mayes assured us you’d be good as new, and he was right. Your energy field is strong. Amazing, considering what you just went through. Can we take him home with us?”

  “He’d like that,” I whispered back, “but Mayes has responsibilities here. Where’s Larissa? Is she okay?”

  “She’s at the campsite with Charlotte and Deputy Duncan,” my father said. “She’s fine, but Deputy Duncan is smitten. Charlotte’s gooey-eyed too.”

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you where they were earlier. I didn’t want you to worry.”

  “I got an earful from Gail when she returned,” Dad said. “I’d never seen that caustic side of her before.”

  “Where are we?” I asked, accepting a cup of broth from my mom.

  “At the lake, close to where the first body was found,” Mom said. “Mayes said the transfer would be easier here, and he was right. Your recovery is amazing. Every dreamwalker needs a holy man on their team.”

  My head bobbed. “He’s not a holy man. He keeps his abilities a secret from his tribe.”

  “He has a right to his privacy.”

  As I sipped my broth, I murmured my agreement, but my thoughts made an odd connection. Stinger, the medium I’d worked with on my last case, could travel with me between the living and the dead. I always felt better afterward. And he never seemed the worse for wear, almost as if he were an energy generator.

  What would happen if Mayes and Stinger met? Would it be exceptional synergy or a case of oil and water?

  Mayes approached, a mug of Mom’s broth in his hand. “You ready to catch a killer?”

  Chapter Forty-One

  “Tonight?” I asked, downing the rest of my broth.

  “Tonight we compare notes,” Mayes said. “I’ve got people working around the clock. Might as well point them at any fresh leads while we sleep.”

  “Uh, okay,” I said softly. “I may have something.”

  Though his face was shadowed, his teeth flashed briefly in a smile. “Thought you might.”

  “I had a dreamwalk during my … outage. Haney and White Feather knew each other. They liked each other.”

  Mayes said nothing. I didn’t know if that was a cop strategy or if I’d floored him. I hurried to fill the awkward silence. “Haney recruited White Feather for Jonas. From what he said, I gathered his job was to find lost souls for the psychic vampire. In return, Jonas was supposed to help Haney get his mom back from the Little People. Anyway, Haney told White Feather to stay away from Jonas. He tried to save her.”

  “Jonas got her anyway.”

  “Yeah, but I think she went to him after Haney died.”

  “After he was murdered,” Mayes corrected.

  I waved away his protest. “I know cops need evidence, so this is clearly speculation. I believe Haney became a liability when he refused Jonas. That’s what got him killed.”

  “And White Feather?” His voice sounded brittle.

  “She didn’t want to live after Haney was gone. A clear case of Romeo and Juliet. She knew about the house on Bear Claw Lane. As troubling as it sounds—and I don’t know this for certain—I believe she asked Jonas to take her life. So she could be with Haney again.”

  Mayes said nothing. His four warriors started keening in a low sound, a universal moan of pain that cut right through my heart. My parents came over and hugged me again, and I needed their support to stand. The grief at the lake blanketed me. It echoed in my veins like a living, melancholy thing.

  I didn’t understand why this was happening at first, and I fought the emotion. Then I realized that, due to the energy transfer, I was connected on a spiritual level with each of these braves. To honor their feelings, I mourned the loss of their tribeswoman. My vision blurred, and tears spilled down my cheeks. My father’s arms tightened around me, and as I basked in the love of my family, I had an idea.

  I fed a bit of that steadying, paternal love through the spiritual connection, softly, gently. Soon the sounds of mourning waned, and the lakeshore became tranquil again. Night animals made shuffling sounds in the nearby woods.

  I gave my father a return hug and waved him toward the fire. “I’m better. Thanks, Dad. We have a little more police business to cover and then I can go home. If y’all want to head on back to the campers, I won’t be long.”

  “We’ll wait for you, Baxley,” Dad said.

  After Mayes and I had a semblance of privacy again, I resumed the conversation. “That’s pretty much it from my dreamwalk. What have the police turned up?”

  Mayes cleared his throat, tried to speak, but took another long moment first. “Five people were buried in the park. Adult, skeletonized remains. No soft tissue present. They’ve been dead awhile. Two were beneath heavy root cover. They could’ve been there a hundred years or more.”

  “Any chance of identifying them?”

  “The GBI is taking the lead on that site, and Gail is on her way to join their effort. I’ve got point on the recent killings, though we are sharing information and coordinating efforts.”

  “We need to find Jonas before he hurts someone else. What about the rehab center?”

  “Public health officials are on the scene. They are very interested in that epicenter of disease. There were no new cases as of nine p.m. It seems the infection has been contained.”

  “Because Jonas isn’t there to drain anyone. But all those people at the center have limited or no mobility. They are easy prey to a predator like Jonas. Public health won’t be able to stop Jonas either.”

  “You can stop him. I’m outraged that this predator set up shop in my town. He hurt my boss and ki
lled my tribe mate. He’s killed twice that we know of, more if we count the seven who died in the hospital after they’d been in his house of horrors.”

  Mayes’ anger at Jonas colored the air. If I wanted to get through this debriefing quickly, I should change the subject. “Any word on Twilla Sue?”

  “Stable but unresponsive.”

  “What about Lizella Tice from the nursing home? Did she survive the flu outbreak?”

  “Last I heard, she was alive.”

  “I wonder why Jonas went there for her. He’s capable of subduing a healthy individual and draining them dry. Why would he target a weakened person he’d already drained?”

  “Hadn’t thought of it that way. Could be personal. Could be she asked him to kill her and he’s got some perverted code of honor. Could be he’s a complete sociopath.”

  “We should talk to her again.”

  “We will. Tomorrow. Our dragnet caught Burl Sayer, the mountain man who brandished a firearm at your family. We’ll talk with him first thing.”

  I remembered the mountain man, though our unpleasant encounter seemed like weeks ago. “A man like him won’t do well in captivity.”

  “He should’ve thought about that before he went around breaking the law.”

  “Now that we know Jonas is the killer, why hold Sayer?”

  “We want to question him on other matters.”

  “What other matters?”

  “Police matters.”

  I recognized that curt tone of dismissal. “Have you got someone keeping watch over the sheriff?”

  He nodded. “For all the good that will do. Jonas can blow right through anyone we put there. Except for you, and I need you for more than sitting guard. You and I will catch this killer tomorrow and put an end to this.”

  “Whatever you say.”

  “Our current thinking is that the recent killings and the mass grave site are unrelated. Our job is to catch Jonas Canyon. To see that he pays for his crimes.”

  A niggling doubt crept through me. Did he expect to incarcerate Jonas? “We agreed to deliver him to Rose. You won’t be able to bring him to human justice.”