by A. J. Rand
“Are you going to clue me into what’s going on?”
I ignored Chaz in favor of keeping my focus on the bed. The guy hadn’t moved through the whole thing. He had tried to cry out a warning to me. Chaz said it all happened in a single instant. Was he still conscious?
His breathing was ragged. I could hear him laboring through the pain as I leaned in close. With a tentative finger, I reached out and touched his shoulder, making brief contact before pulling back. The incident didn’t repeat, so I put my hand to rest on his arm. It seemed okay––no flashes of winged creatures wearing my face, no gate, and no sunset fading to blue twilight.
My eyes were drawn to the mark on his neck. The whole thing had been set into motion when I touched that spot. I wasn’t about to repeat the same mistake, but I did want a better look. The markings look so familiar––
“Don’t touch it again.”
The voice whispered close to my ear, making me jerk back in surprise. The man’s eyes were open, the deep, golden chocolate brown color radiating his pain.
I bent back close and hissed. “Who are you?”
“You should not have done that.”
“No shit. Now tell me something I haven’t figured out yet. Who are you? How did you do that with my dream?”
“Dream, Yesh? What dream?”
Poor Chaz. I didn’t have answers for him right now, not ones I wanted to give. Heck, I didn’t even have answers for me right now.
“Ke––My name is Ke.”
I could tell that it took a lot out of him to talk. He closed his eyes again. That nice part of me, the part that helps people and on occasion even works to heal them, knew I should drop it and see what I could do about fixing the guy up. But the pissed off and irritated part of me was looking for some answers and I was feeling pretty determined about getting them.
“Okay––Ke––Onto the next question. How did you open my dream up for me? Was it some kind of trick? Who are you?”
I was getting more agitated by the word. He was giving no response.
Chaz peered over my shoulder. “I think he’s out.”
Damn. I wanted to scream. I settled for kicking the bed. Ke didn’t move. It wasn’t enough to get out the full extent of my frustrations, so I turned around and walked over to kick the wall. That didn’t help, either, but it felt good to do something. I stood staring down at the black scuffmark left on the wall by my boot, trying to sort everything out in my head.
“So are we talking about the dream?”
My shoulders slumped. “Yes.”
“Wow, Yesh. How? I mean, this is big. What happened?”
I gave him my most pointed look. “Now that would be what I am trying to find out, wouldn’t it?”
“I’m sorry.” Chaz took a step back. “I didn’t mean–”
“No. I know you didn’t, kid.” I rested my eyes against the palms of my hands, rubbing the frustration and tiredness away. I looked down at my watch and blew out a slow breath. The nice part of me had to step in whether I liked it or not. “Look, I’m going to try and do what I can for the guy. But I have a coven meeting to get to after a bit. Keep an eye on me and make sure I don’t go into overtime, will you?”
Chaz nodded. “How long?”
“An hour, an hour and a half, tops. I don’t have time for much more than that right now.”
“Yesh?”
I released a sigh. I’d be pushing as much as he was, if our positions were reversed. Chaz was right. This was big. I just wasn’t sure what to do with it yet. He was being a lot more patient and polite than I would have been.
“Listen, Chaz. Will you hold off if I promise to fill you in when I’m done here? And I promise, if there’s not enough time before I have to meet up with Pietra, then I’ll sit down with you when I get back.”
Chaz accepted it with a nod––not that he really had any other choice. “Sure, Yesh.”
The look I gave him was grateful––and I was. Grateful, I mean. I needed some time to sort through the jumble of my thoughts. Time wasn’t something I had right now.
I took off my leather coat and tossed it on the other side of the bed. Rolling up my sleeves, I sat down on the edge of the mattress next to Ke. Chaz handed me the wet cloths he retrieved from the floor by the door. A few minutes of wiping the blood away, carefully avoiding the mark on his neck, showed me exactly what I expected. There were no wounds on his back. The bleeding had slowed a bit, for whatever reason. I had no clue as to what was going on. But there was only one way for me to try and get a handle on it.
Holding my hands out steady, a few inches above his back, I connected to the metaphysical energy of the space around me. The warmth started to build at my heart, slowly creating a reservoir of power. When I felt that I had enough stored to start working, I allowed it to travel down my arms and out my hands.
My eyes were closed, but I didn’t need to see to know what Chaz was seeing right now. it would be similar to what I had watched in the nightmarish dreamscape I had just witnessed. I brushed away the image of the woman, Ithane––the one who wore my face, calling the energy to her heart center and then using it to fight against the creature at the Gate. I had only ever called the energy for sensing and healing. It never dawned on me that the energy could be used in the way she had. Or was that in the way that I had?
Either way, it didn’t matter. I had a job to do, and little time to focus on the other. I followed the flows of energy out my hands and got to work.
* * *
A gentle hand touched my shoulder. “Yesh. Come on back, Yesh. You have to get ready to go to Pietra’s.”
Chaz’s voice continued to coax me back into a conscious awareness of my surroundings. I let go of the energy slowly, letting the warmth fade with the subsiding glow. Exhausted, I pulled my hands back and let them drop in my lap while I waited for enough of the tingling to go away that I could feel my fingers again. I leaned back into Chaz’s body and let him help me to my feet and over to the chair at the foot of the bed.
“Are you okay?”
I nodded.
“Well, whatever you did, it worked. The bleeding has stopped.”
My eyes went to the man on the bed. Chaz was right. No more blood was coming from his back.
I shook my head. “It’s only temporary. I need to go back in for a more permanent fix––I just haven’t figured out how yet.”
“What do you mean by temporary?”
“The whole thing with this guy is strange, Chaz. It’s as though he is two completely separate people on the inside, crammed into a single body. That separation is what’s causing the bleeding, and his pain, for that matter.”
“Like a demon possession or something?”
“Something like that––only it doesn’t have that wrong feeling like a demon possession. It’s more like the two separate parts need to come together, but there’s a big gap missing in the middle to make the pieces fit right.”
“So what did you do?”
“I put a bandage on it.”
I had to chuckle at his look of confusion. I didn’t have enough energy to laugh.
“You know––like those butterfly bandages that doctors use to hold the pieces of skin together long enough to heal, or until they can get the stitches in.”
“Oh. I get it.”
“The problem is that I don’t think it will hold for very long. Stitches are what is needed, so to speak, but I haven’t figured out how to go about it yet.”
An image of Ithane flashed through my mind, and of how she wove the energy she had drawn, as though knitting a blanket. “Hey––from the dream––”
“Not now, Yesh. There’s not enough time. You have to hop in the shower and get to Pietra’s.”
A glance out the bedroom window told me that the kid was right. The sky was taking on that late afternoon tint that meant dusk wasn’t far behind.
“You’re right. I have to get moving.” I winked at him while pushing to my feet. “What would I do
without you?”
He grinned at the compliment. “Your own cleaning, for starters.”
I looked around the bedroom, and then peered out into the living room. While I had been working on Mister Mysterious, Chaz had cleaned up the mess we had dragged through the apartment. He had even washed down the walls inside the bedroom door where I had propped Ke up for the time it had taken him to run to the bathroom and back. Even my leather was cleaned and softened, the blood gone.
I was amazed, and turned to let him know how grateful I was. “Chaz––”
He held up a hand to stop me. “Time, Yesh. You don’t have any. Besides, I still have the hallway to take care of, and I couldn’t get the blood completely out of the living room rug.”
A better look at the faint, stained outline on the rug showed the truth of his words.
I shrugged. “Nothing to be done about it. It’s just one more reminder of what our lives have become.”
Chaz grinned and sat down to take up watch duty over Ke, while I got ready to hop in the shower and head out.
Chapter 9
By the time I pulled up to Pietra’s house, dusk was just starting to settle. That was good. It meant a lot less time to deal with small talk. It also meant a lot less time to play a role I wasn’t well suited for––that of a woman who was less than sure of herself.
Maybe it wasn’t such a far stretch, considering what I was dealing with back at my apartment. But I had to be convincing in a more general way and that was a little tough for me to swallow. What I really wanted to do was to go in there, kick the guy’s ass and then go back and deal with the other stuff.
Careful. Morpheus’ warning echoed in my head. I wanted to scream. So be it.
Before I reached the door, I took a few minutes to brush down the crumpled folds of the floral print skirt I was wearing. Did I mention that I hated playing this part? The black leggings I wore underneath had protected my legs from the sting of the wind on the ride over. The skirt came to just above my ankles, and the bottom laced edging of the leggings peeked out from below the hemline.
Slipping off my leather, I pulled a plain cream-colored knit shawl to wrap over my bare shoulders. The black, sleeveless tee that I wore fit tight to my torso from waist to neck. The epitome of soft femininity. Blech. The jacket was jammed into the straps of the small pack I carried and I stepped up to the door. It was show time.
Only a moment passed before the door opened to show a woman who was maybe in her early forties. She was petite, with short black hair, a shy smile and troubled brown eyes. She held the door wide to invite me in, but didn’t offer her hand to touch me. “Hi. You must be Yeshua?”
“That’s me.” I gave her my own shy smile in return, with a little uncertain shrug of my shoulders. I thought it was a nice touch. Her smile warmed, but it still didn’t touch the uneasiness in her eyes.
“Welcome. Come on in, we’re already setting up in the back.” I stepped inside and she closed the door. “I’m Theo,” was all that she added before she led the way to the back of the house. I had expected to be bombarded with questions, but I guess it wasn’t coming from this quarter.
The house was pleasant, very homey. Several nice articles caught my eye in passing. A goddess shrine set in the front entry wafted the sweet smell of Jasmine incense to greet new arrivals. Huh. I wouldn’t have pegged Pietra for aligning herself with the lion-headed Sekmet. She seemed too demure for chaos, and the goddess certainly hadn’t given her the heads up on the dream stalker until it was too late.
Sekmet didn’t really have a lion’s head, but from what I’ve heard, she does tend to focus on chaos––or maybe chaos focused on her? She was one of the immortals I hadn’t met. As I recall, she was last living in Las Vegas somewhere. It was a good hub of chaotic energy for her to draw from.
In contrast, the living room leaned more to a Native American motif. A beautiful, but haunting rendition of the Cherokee Trail of Tears hung over the back of her blanket-covered sofa. Theo led me through to the back door in the kitchen. Fairies decorated a small natural altar just inside the door. Okay, maybe there was a little more chaos to Pietra than I had first suspected.
On cue, the High Priestess came hustling up to us as soon as we stepped into the back yard. She had on a deep purple robe, belted with a knotted cord at the waist. With a huge smile and a genuine look of relief, she embraced me tightly.
“Yeshua––I am so glad you made it!” In a lower voice, she whispered with urgency, “he thinks I have been talking with you for a while now––just in case it’s mentioned.”
My face didn’t register her remark. I pasted on a big smile of my own. “Pietra. Of course I made it. I have been so looking forward to connecting with your group. I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.”
“Wonderful.” Pietra linked her arm in mine and turned to face the people scattered around the fenced-in yard. “Let me introduce you to the rest of the group.”
She took me around and a string of names floated across my subconscious mind. I made vague, generic remarks at the introductions, but my conscious mind filtered it all out and took in the subtle details of my surroundings.
There he was, across the circle sitting with two women of the coven. I could feel his energy reaching out to touch me, even while talking to the women at his side. He sat as though he were some kind of royalty, with two followers holding simpering positions of homage, doting on his every word. Okay. So not all of the women were as affected by his dream antics as the others. Interesting.
An uncontrollable shiver shuddered through my body at the unwelcome touch of his probing energy. It took every ounce of the ability I had to not slam it shut on him, and at the same time, to keep the look of revulsion off my face at the slimy trail his touch left behind. Pietra was looking at me with concern.
“Are you all right?”
“Fine. I’m sorry, I just felt––” I pretended to look around, confused. “Nothing. I’m sure it was nothing.”
I emphasized it with a convincing shake of my head while Pietra turned back to continue her introductions to two of the women, sisters. What had she said their names were? Oh right––Jane and Joan. I hoped that the generic words coming out of my mouth were as sincere as I wanted them to be. My focus was back on the dream stalker.
Amusement was the feeling I got from him––all wrapped up tight in a bundle of unbelievable arrogance. He was a lot stronger than I had anticipated. That wasn’t good. For the first time, I started to take the warning Morpheus had given me to heart. The immortal was right. There was more to this guy than what was on the surface. I was glad I had made the promise not to tackle this guy tonight. After what I had expended on trying to heal the mysterious Ke, I didn’t have the energy left to fight.
More introductions floated through my sub-conscious, the names flowing from one to the next. I tried to lock a description for each one in my mind. Andrea the redhead, Philipa the skinny, Bertie the not-so-skinny––who named their kid Bertha any more? Tammie the shy, Simone the sultry. And this was it. Pietra was leading me over to the creep and his mirrored bookends.
“Yeshua, this is Jamie.”
I nodded my head to the mousy little dishwater blond on the left.
“And Judith.”
Bored, disinterested gray eyes flashed my way from a pretty, blond with a fake-looking, rub-on tan sitting to the right. She put a possessive hand on the arm of the dream stalker and went back to ignoring me. That’s fine by me, lady. You can have him. He, on the other hand was ignoring her, and the darkness of his almost black-colored eyes turned his full focus on me. Oh yeah. This was the guy from the dreaming all right.
“And this is Mack Black Wolf, the only male member of our group.”
I held out my hand to shake his. “How can you deal with so much female energy, Mr. Black Wolf? I don’t think I know any man who would be willing to put himself in such a position.”
A little laugh for emphasis, a quick look in his eyes and then away
. Had I been demure enough? Uncertain with a little charm to cover the nervousness? Was he buying this?
His laugh was deep and throaty as he leaned in to take my hand and kiss the inside of the wrist. “I am at the mercy of them all. And now at yours, as well.” His kiss burned my skin and it was all I could do to hold my hand steady without tearing it away.
“I see why they keep you around.” I gave him my best flirting smile. Judith wasn’t happy. I could feel her annoyance boring into me without even having to look. It didn’t matter to me. I wasn’t here to mollify her. I was here to save her ass.
“So I hear you will be taking initiation rites with us tonight.”
“Pardon me?”
He looked at me with the smile of a patient parent indulging a slow-witted child. “Initiation rites? Pietra had indicated that you were to be joining our coven as a thirteenth member tonight.”
I looked to the High Priestess, who was keeping careful control over her expression. “I thought it would take time to see if I meshed with the rest of the group.”
“Ordinarily, yes––”
Mack interrupted her. “Pietra has been telling the coven of the amount of time she has spent with you. She indicated you would be a perfect fit, and the rest of us agreed.”
“She is way too generous––” I tried to argue and find a way out of this. The last thing I needed was to link my energy to a coven group. I couldn’t afford to spread myself that thin. Besides, I worked alone and I wanted to keep it that way.
“Nonsense.” Pietra gave me a warm hug. “You are a perfect fit. I think the rest of the coven, now that they have had the chance to meet you for themselves, would agree with me. It’s the only reason they all could make it tonight, even those who had others plans.”
In other words Chaz had known about this and hadn’t given me a heads up. I was going to be having a talk with that boy when I got back to the apartment. Father David certainly wouldn’t be pleased that an employee of the church, even an unacknowledged contracted one, was a member of a coven. The church had some pretty strict rules on that stuff. I guess that I’d have to leave that part out of my report. I could break the link when this was all done and he’d never be the wiser for it.