Shadow & Flame - Part One: The Collective - Season 1, Episode 4

by Elias Raven

  Misty laughed, shaking her head. “We got company at the house tonight, Honey. Remember Mac and Reid are coming over to interview you too,” she reminded me.

  “Fuck, I already forgot that shit.” I let out an exasperated sigh.

  Misty’s eyes focused hard on me. “Abel will be at the rental tonight. Elias and G I’m sure will keep themselves entertained once it’s bedtime. I might have to use a gag on you, Honey, but trust me, we will sleep rock solid,” she said as she reached over and stroked my chin.

  “Fuck yes, Baby. That’s what I am talking about,” I said laughing. “Here, let me call my grandmother!” I told her. I hit the speed dial and waited. Finally, the phone started ringing, and then someone answered.

  “Hello, Rhianna. I was wondering when you were going to call me,” a woman’s voice said.

  I started laughing. My grandmother was fucking psychic. I swear she knew when I was going to call and what the fuck I wanted. I looked over at Misty who smiled while listening in.

  “Grandma, you creep me out when you say that shit,” I said to her.

  Patricia laughed in the phone. “We all have our gifts, and mine is sensing and reading. You have the same gift. It runs in our family,” she replied, sounding like the wise old sage that she was. Truth was I did have some of it, but her gifts were on another level entirely. I used to tease her and ask if it was the Acid or Mescaline.

  “Ok, I’ll play along, Grandma. Why am I calling?” I asked.

  There was silence for a moment. I could feel my hand tingling, and for a second it almost felt like someone was walking around in my head. It always freaked me out when I felt it. When I was younger, nothing got past that woman, and I do mean nothing. I didn’t even bother to lie after awhile. There was a deep sigh before she came back on.

  “You are looking for your uncle,” she said. I felt a shiver run up my spine. I wonder how much she had seen this time.

  “Yes, I left him a message at the house, but he hasn’t returned the call. Do you have another number to call him on?” I asked.

  “No, but I can call the Council of Elders and see if someone can go to his house and check on him. Since he is on the reservation and a respected member of the council, maybe someone there will have an answer, I will call you back as soon as I get word, Rhianna,” she said quietly.

  “Thanks, Grandma. Let me know,” I replied softly and hung up the phone.

  Fuck, she freaked me out when she did that. We had a rule. We never poked too far into each other's minds. She knew I walked in the dream world, and she was not trained for that. Her concern was more maternal than anything, so she would read enough to sense my emotions but nothing more. In this case, I hoped she had followed the rule for her own safety. If The Skinwalker was still in my dreams, she could be in danger.

  I gave Misty the thumbs up, and we mounted our bikes and started them up. I slid my helmet on as I watched her pull hers on. I loved seeing the blue hair sticking out from underneath the edges. My girl was fucking hot. There was no other word for it. She backed out of the parking spot and waited as I did the same.

  Her voice came over the intercom. “You ready to head home?” she asked.

  “Yes, Baby, but I’m still feeling weird. Keep your eyes open,” I told her.

  She gave me the thumbs up, and I watched her foot engage the clutch as she checked her mirrors and working the throttle, headed out of the parking lot. I checked my mirrors and doing the same, followed behind her.

  It was bliss. I loved the feeling of the bike between my legs. I could hardly wait to get Misty there! We turned out of the lot and headed down the road doing about thirty-five. We were gaining speed and heading for the merger onto the Golden Gate Bridge when I saw him standing like a hitchhiker by the side of the road.

  Misty didn’t see him and blew right past him. It was like everything slowed down to a crawl as I came up on him. I saw him look up. There was the fedora, the wife beater shirt, and the tattoos and as soon as I was past him, everything sped up again. I swerved for a second and grabbed the bars hard and held on. My heart was jackrabbiting in my chest.

  “Misty, did you see a guy by the side of the road?” I asked her over the intercom.

  “No, Baby, I didn’t see anybody. I checked my mirrors and saw you had swerved just a little and recovered. I figured you had hit some road debris,” she replied.

  “Baby, you didn’t see anyone at all by the side of the road?” I asked again.

  “Not a thing, I’m just glad you’re ok,” she said.

  Okay, that was fucking freaky. I started to sweat just a little. I kept checking my mirrors and looking around at cars as they passed making sure that I wasn’t seeing shit. I know how that felt, and that felt exactly like The Whistler.

  “Baby, I can swear we passed that creepy guy by the side of the road when we merged?” I told her over the intercom.

  “Are you sure? Maybe we should call Royston and Ava to warn them,” Misty said with mounting concern.

  “We can’t call Ava, Baby, because she left the cafe to go get JJ. Laura is there right now,” I reminded her. Let’s pull off on the other side in a turn-off and you call Laura while I call Royston,” I suggested.

  Misty hit the gas, and we finished driving across the bridge without further incident. We found a turn-off and stopped. I grabbed my phone and pulled off my helmet. I speed dialed Royston.

  It seemed to take forever. Finally, he picked up.

  “Hello, Rhianna?” he questioned.

  “Hey Royston, yeah, it’s Rhi. Hey listen, when we were riding back towards my place, I could swear I saw The Whistler dude standing by the onramp to the bridge like he was a hitchhiker or something.”

  “Are you bloody sure?” he asked.

  “Honestly, I was on a moving bike, but it sure felt like him. You know how it works with me,” I said. “I checked with Misty over the intercom when it happened, but she never saw anyone,” I continued.

  “Ok, Ava has already left to pick up JJ, but I will suggest to Laura that she might want to be escorted by one of the cooks or busboys to her vehicle when she gets off tonight. I’ll pray on her sensibilities and tell her a little bit of what happened earlier in the café. Although she believes him to be a pie-eating, harmless freak, which I believe was the endearing term she used, I have some concern for her safety. I’ll ask if she would just humor me. Wish me luck” Royston said and hung up the phone.

  Misty gave me the thumbs up, and we put our helmets back on and merged back into traffic and headed toward our house.

  “Did you get ahold of Laura?” I asked over the intercom.

  “Yes, she said she would get an escort out to her car. Royston was talking to her at the same time I was texting her. I told her that was your doing,” she replied, laughing a little.

  “Was she mad at us for calling?”

  “Naw, she was the one who brought up The Whistler to Royston. When he told her what happened earlier, that kind of tripped her out” she replied

  “I wonder if we should warn Ava?” I asked

  “About what? We called Laura, she will probably send a text to Ava and tell her what happened and that we called. Ava talked to Royston earlier when Royston went to follow him, so she knows what’s going on,” she replied.

  “Well, now I feel a little relieved. That’s weird that you didn’t see him though,” I said.

  “Rhi, you know I get laser focused when I ride. I don’t want to get hit by some idiot or crash the bike. I was focused on the road and the cars around me.”

  “We will talk more when we get back home.” I gave her the thumbs up which Misty saw in her mirrors, and she gave me the same sign back.

  The rest of the ride home was uneventful. We turned into our driveway as I hit the garage door opener, waiting as the door rolled up before pulling in next to each other. We shut the Harleys down and pulled our helmets off. We were finally home. Even though it was broad daylight, I could see the sky starting to cloud over. Of c
ourse, it was going to get foggy. It was San Francisco after all. Just what we needed today. My house was low enough, meaning we were probably going to get soaked in. I felt my phone buzz. I reached down and pulled it out.

  “Elias and Abel took the girls into town for breakfast. They all figured we would be a minute with the police.” Misty raised an eyebrow and gave me that wicked little smile that only my woman could give me. I knew what her nasty little mind was thinking, and quite honestly, I wanted the same thing.

  “We don’t know when they will be back. Let’s call Mac and Reid and see if they can come by and get that interview over. Then I can relax, Baby,” I told her.

  Misty smiled and walked over and leaned in kissing me hard. I returned the kiss pressing back against her. We held the embrace for a minute then slowly parted. I walked over and hit the close button on the wall of the garage. The mechanism kicked in and the door started to close, then hung up and opened again. That was weird. I hit the button again, and the door started to close and then jerked and stopped again before backup. Misty walked over to the sensors and looked out onto our driveway, but the coast was clear. I could see the fog was rolling in quickly. She wiped the sensor and reflector and stepped clear and told me to hit the button again. I pressed the button again and this time with a shudder the garage door closed all the way. Misty smiled at me and stepped across the garage. We hung up our helmets and started to strip off our riding gear.

  Suddenly, there was a loud bang on the garage door like something struck it. We both jumped.

  “What the fuck was that!” I yelled. Misty held her hand up and grabbed a softball bat. I went inside and grabbed my gun and came back and joined her. We went through the side door for the garage along the side of the house to the gate. I peeked over, but didn’t see anything. I stepped back, and Misty opened the gate and stepped through. We heard someone running across the front yard. It was Tommy Phillips our next-door neighbors’ son.

  “I’m sorry, Rhi and Misty. That one got away from me,” he yelled from the street.

  I started to laugh and relaxed. I set the safety and tucked the gun back into my jacket. Tommy came running over.

  “May I get my ball, Misty!” he asked. Misty started laughing.

  “You scared the crap out of us, Tommy! You know better than hitting it toward our house,” she said.

  “I know. I was working on my left field side, and it got past the safety net,” Tommy admitted sheepishly.

  He was a good kid. How do you stay mad at a freckle-faced, red-haired kid that looks like Opie from Andy Griffith? Misty grabbed his ball and tossed it back to him.

  “Thank you!” he yelled, running back across the yard.

  We both looked at each other and smiled. I grabbed my phone and called Mac. I waited as the phone connected.

  “Officer Mackenzie, can I help you?” he asked.

  “My you sound official!” I said back laughing.

  “Rhianna?” he asked questioningly.

  “That’s me! What time can you come by?” I asked.

  “Crap, I got called back to the precinct. I am really curious about that poem you wrote and some of the other stuff Royston told us over breakfast. Would you mind giving Reid a call? I think your poem has some bearing on a case we are working on and shouldn’t wait.

  “Sure, that’s fine,” I answered.

  Mac gave me Reid’s cell number, and we disconnected. I quickly tapped in Reid’s number and waited for him to answer.

  “Reid,” he said by way of greeting.

  “That’s one way to answer your phone,” I replied laughing. “It’s Rhianna. Mac gave me your number; he said he got called back to the precinct, but thought you could still come by to go over my poem and stuff. Do you have time?” I asked.

  “Yeah, perfect timing actually. I’m right near the entrance to the bridge with detective Logan checking something out!” he told me.

  “Who is Detective Logan?” I asked.

  “He helps Mac and the other detectives when they get handed cases that don’t fit the norm. He is one of the resident nerds that is good at breaking apart puzzles.”

  Royston had said Mac and Reid could be trusted to talk to them about my poem and dreams, although, I didn’t know this Logan guy at all.

  “Mac thought it was important we meet today, but no offense, Reid, I don’t know Detective Logan from a hole in the ground and I’m not fucking ok talking to a stranger,” I said.

  Misty started laughing and running her tongue over her lips and grinding her hips.

  “I love when you get aggressive, Baby. Do tell them to hurry. We have other business to take care of,” she said seductively in a deep throaty whisper.

  Fuck, she made me crazy. I had to clench my thighs at that last comment.

  “Hey, Rhi, Logan’s ok. I swear. Royston knows him, and he can be trusted. Mac and I were both going to interview you. Hopefully, he isn’t taking an ass chewing from the Captain. It always helps to have more than one person doing a witness interview in case one of us misses something important,” he explained. “Royston is coming over for the interview, right?” he followed up with.

  “Yes, he is. He wanted to be here for the interview.”

  “Well, he would chew my ass if I brought someone over that wasn’t ok,” Reid replied gruffly.

  “Ok, I’ll let you slide this time. What time can you come by?” I asked while laughing.

  “Now if you like. We can be there in say… 15 minutes? We are right near the entrance to the bridge,” he told me.

  I wondered if Royston had anything to do with that?

  “No problem. We will see you shortly,” I replied and hung up the phone.

  Misty smiled at me and licked her lips again. I leaned in for a kiss, my lips hungrily devouring hers. After a minute we separated our eyes locking with each other.

  “You are so going to get it later. I hope you realize that, ” I whispered. Misty grinned wickedly and bit gently on my tongue.

  “Yep and you know I love to give as well as I get,” she said smugly.

  Touché. She had me right where she wanted me. Very fucking wet and needy.

  We both looked around, realizing the weather went from beautiful to sucking ass in a matter of minutes. It literally looked like we were staring out at Hades at that moment. I was glad we did have company coming over. My nerves were still frazzled, and testosterone-laden guys did have their uses. Right at that moment, I just wanted to feel safe. My head was buzzing as if an alarm was going off, but I did have my dad’s .38 Special in my pocket. That was something to give me comfort.

  I didn’t want to let on to Misty, but if that was The Whistler I saw at the bridge, that would be some freaky fucking shit. I had never experienced anything like that before. It was like I was watching everything in slow motion. That was something new. That usually only happened when I was dreaming.

  We walked back through the gate, locking it from the inside. Misty didn’t even argue. We were both a little rattled. We went back into the garage and hung up our riding gear, stripping down together. My mind started thinking of other things besides the weirdness of the morning. Misty ran her fingers through her hair and smiled at me as we went into the house. With the fog rolling in, it lent an eerie effect. It was like the house was being transported to another dimension. This was nothing new for where we lived, it was just our nerves were still on edge.

  “Tea, Baby?” I asked. Misty smiled and nodded her head.

  I walked into the kitchen and put the red pot on. Hot tea would hit the spot. Hopefully Reid and Royston would be along shortly. I grabbed my phone and sent a text off to our friends Abel, Elias, and Royston, so they knew what was going on. My phone buzzed. Gia had taken a group shot of all of them mugging at the diner. I started laughing. Abel was not fucking smiling, That made it even funnier. My phone buzzed again. Royston was heading over as well to join Logan and Reid. Now I felt much better. I couldn’t get Freaky Fuck Whistler Asshole out of my mind and t
hat was unusual. I didn’t want to dig too far into Misty’s head at Del Mar’s, but I had seen enough to know that the dude wasn’t right. I couldn’t tell what was exaggeration or real in what she saw, but what she saw was fucked up. I couldn’t find the right word at the moment. Fucked up it was. The doorbell went off just as the pot was whistling. Misty went to answer it.

  “Who is it? she asked.

  “Detective Logan and Reid.” Misty opened the door and welcomed them in. Right when she went to go shut the door, Royston ran up.

  “Just a second, love. I was only a minute behind them!” he exclaimed. Misty laughed and let him in and then looked out the front door for a minute before closing it and setting the lock.

  “Well, you’re right on time Royston. Mac couldn’t make it to our party and sent over Detective Logan instead. Mac said you knew him?” Misty exclaimed giving Royston a hard, yet playful stare.

  Royston snapped his fingers and pointed at the detective. “I remember you. You were on the Slattery Case at The Wharf. That was the one where the bloke fashioned himself a bit of a H.H. Holmes devotee or some such.”

  Detective Logan smiled back at Royston.

  “I thought you were going to say I was the X-Files type of detective or some shit as well, right?” he said laughing.

  “No, you were into Parapsychology or some such rubbish if I recall,” Royston said with a glint in his eyes. I could tell they were fucking with each other now.

  Reid joined into the conversation.

  “That shit is all made up. We don't ever get strange cases like that Royston! We turn those over to the FBI and let Mulder and Scully handle those!” then everyone started laughing.

  I definitely was getting comfortable with Officer Logan, and Reid was relaxed and not his normal uptight self. I saw Reid looking out the dining room window.

  “It’s really socked in,” Reid said. I wanted to tell him “No Shit, Sherlock,” but I didn’t want to offend Detective Logan either, so I kept my mouth shut.