Chapter 10
When the images and psychic input abruptly stopped, Bethany felt as if an old time movie reel had broken behind her closed eyes. She gasped, sitting up straight in her chair, struggling to remember where she was. Kal’s soothing hands held her shoulders, squeezing gently to ground her as she left the vision and returned to him in the present.
“How did you do that?” Bethany asked, reaching out to grip the front of his shirt.
Kal gently pried her hands loose and dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Are you okay?”
Bethany shook her head, still confused and disoriented by what she’d seen and felt. “I saw it all. I felt it all. I was there watching. It was like I was tapped in their minds and could read their thoughts if I concentrated. ” She looked up and held Kal’s gaze. “I could even smell the tropical flowers and the smoke.”
He nodded. “Did you see your father?”
Tears stung Bethany’s eyes, and her throat constricted. “He took Melech’s mirror out of the offering basket.”
“Melech,” Kal repeated. “That was the demon’s name your father stole from?”
“Yes…I mean no. It wasn’t my father that stole the mirror. It was the demon inside of him.”
Kal took both of her hands and held them tightly, forcing her to look at him. “We are each responsible for our own actions and decisions. Your father called a demon and offered himself as a host. It was his responsibility to control that demon, not to let it control him.”
“Did he give that mirror to my mother? Is that why they were killed?” Silent tears tracked slowly across Bethany’s face.
Kal shrugged. “I don’t know. I suspect your father was still possessed when he returned to the States. He may have kept the mirror for himself, but somehow Bryan Janzen ended up with it.”
“Bryan? How did he get the mirror?”
“He doesn’t like to talk about that time. He feels guilty for letting it happen. He might have taken possession of the mirror after your parents’ deaths or your mom may have given it to him, but he ended up with it.”
Bethany wiped unshed tears from her eyes. “We need the mirror to destroy the demon, don’t we?”
Kal smoothed back a strand of hair from Bethany’s face. “It’s hard to destroy a demon, but we can send him back to his realm and trap him there now that we have his name.”
“Then let’s do it. Does Bryan have the mirror?”
“He gave it to your grandmother years ago for safekeeping.”
Bethany groaned, dropping her head back against the chair with a thump. “She never mentioned it. Not one word about any of this.”
“Think hard, Beth. Can you remember any place she didn’t want you to play or any spot that was enforced as off-limits?”
“None that would be any more obvious than the normal places you don’t want children to play. Grandma was so powerful in those days. She could have placed a spell on it and been comfortable I would be safe from any effects.”
“Then we have to get her to remember where it is.”
Kal tossed his hair back out of his face, and his wide shoulders flexed with the movement. Bethany reached out and placed her palm over his chest, feeling the strong beat of his heart.
“How did you do that?” she asked, using her free hand to wiggle her fingers in the air. “How did you draw that vision to me and allow me to experience it all?” She shook her head as if to clear her mind. “I could hear their thoughts,” she whispered in wonder.
Kal leaned forward and brought his lips centimeters from hers. “If you’re really good, I might tell you some day.”
Bethany closed the gap between them and placed her lips against his. She lingered at his mouth, kissing him slowly and gently, as if she could drink the essence of him into her soul. At last, she sat back and moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue.
“Why can’t you just conjure up a vision of what Grandma did with the mirror?”
Kal lifted one eyebrow. “You wily little witch, I believe you were trying to seduce me out of my knowledge.”
Bethany kept a straight face. “I’d never do that, Chief Burke.”
He snorted a laugh. “No, never. Well, it doesn’t matter because it doesn’t work that way.” Bethany started to speak, and he held up a finger to stop her. “It also takes an enormous amount of energy, and I’m about tapped out for a while. I’ve got my limits, ma’am.”
Bethany wiggled up to the edge of the chair and leaned playfully close. “Oh, you do? That’s a shame.” She ran her finger down the center of his chest, feeling the hard ridge of muscles as she traveled across his stomach and stopped at the waistband of his jeans. “I was going to invite you inside for …”
“Say no more, my princess.” Kal stood up and scooped Bethany into his arms, striding to the door and barely waiting until she unlocked it while he snuggled her against his chest. “I do believe I’ve got my second wind,” he proclaimed as he kicked the door shut behind him and headed down the hall toward her bedroom, dodging Orca as he dashed in front of them toward his feed bowl.
Chapter 11
Kal sat down opposite Clarissa Caan and took her hand. Her lovely, almost violet blue eyes, stared at him without any recognition at all. He could see that she had once been a beauty and must have looked similar to her granddaughter. She gave him her sunniest smile and turned his hand over in her own so she could study his palm. “Did you want me to read your fortune, dear?”
“No, Grandma,” Beth started to say, but Kal shook his head slightly to stop her. He had an idea.
“I need your help in locating something I lost, Clarissa. Can you do that?”
She nodded, tracing her finger across the lines in Kal’s palm. He felt her begin to tremble slightly. Her beautiful eyes grew distant, as if seeing beyond him. “Your world is gone, warrior. You search for your ancient battles, and the woman of your heart, but those times no longer exist. Still, you cannot give up the fight against evil, can you? Or the hunt for your woman.”
Kal’s heart quickened. She’s having a moment of lucidity. I’ve got to try to redirect her thoughts while we have this chance. “Clarissa, this is important. I lost a mirror. A small silver mirror with jewels embedded in it. Can you see where it is?”
He watched her struggle to fight the confusion clouding her mind. Her trembling increased, and her fingers tightened on his hand with surprising strength. “I…I…” Her effort to speak was obviously causing her pain. Kal took both of her hands in his and squeezed gently.
“Fight it, Clarissa. I know you’re in there. A demon has cast a spell on you. Fight,” Kal urged her, channeling his strength to help the older lady. He felt her power surging and then being pulled back as if it were chained and couldn’t break free. “Fight harder. Please, Clarissa. We need you.”
She looked him in the eyes, and he saw she was frightened. Her mouth worked to form words, but nothing came out except anxious, unintelligible mumbling. Kal shut his eyes, projecting as much support as he could send into her fragile mind. “The tree,” she whispered hoarsely before collapsing face forward into his arms.
He cradled her like a small child, carrying her to the sofa and placing her gently on the plush cushions. Bethany pushed him out of the way, kneeling on the floor beside her grandmother. She placed her fingertips on Clarissa’s forehead, smoothing her brow. Kal heard Beth whispering furiously, chanting words he couldn’t make out. As she invoked the healing spell, Clarissa’s body seemed to lose all tension and sink deeper into the cushions. She had a peaceful expression on her face.
Bethany waited a few minutes before standing up, and then she turned to face Kal. “She’s sleeping now. I think she almost broke free.”
Kal gathered Bethany into his arms and held her there. “I’m sorry. I pushed her too hard.”
He felt Beth shake her head against his chest, and her words were muffled when she spoke. “You almost freed her. She would be willing to take the chance, even if it cost her life.�
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Kal tightened his arms around Bethany and almost said the words that were in his heart. He kept his silence with effort. He wouldn’t tell this woman he loved her until the demon was sent back to hell. She deserved his whole attention when he made his declaration to her.
Bethany stepped back from his embrace and touched her grandmother again, reassuring herself the old lady was resting peacefully. As she stared down at her grandmother, she frowned. “She said tree. The tree.”
Kal put a hand on Bethany’s shoulder. “Yeah, does that mean anything to you?”
“Grandma used to play a game with me where she would hide messages in the trunk of a pine tree on the edge of our lawn. The old pine had a hollowed-out knot that held all sorts of treasures when we were growing up.”
Kal felt the first stirring of excitement. “Let’s go check it out.”
Bethany put a restraining hand on his arm, and he felt his hopes plummet. “Don’t tell me. It’s been cut down.”
“Destroyed by lightning several years ago,” Bethany said. She glanced out the window at the fruit trees in the backyard of her grandmother’s property. “But what if she put the mirror in another tree?”
Kal walked over to the windows and glanced outside. The huge lawn was filled with trees and shrubs. A grin flittered across his face. He didn’t know of any earth witch that didn’t want the forest closing in around them. “It might take a while to check out.”
Beth moved over to stand beside him, her eyes shining as she looked at the landscape. “Not as long as you might think.” She tugged playfully at his hand. “C’mon, follow me.”
Kal watched Bethany make a mental grid of the property they needed to cover. She walked to the farthest tree on the lot and placed her hand lightly on the trunk. He watched a smile bloom on her face as the tree seemed to get fuller and greener right before his eyes.
“Not this one,” she called, moving on to the next tree.
“How do you know?” Kal asked, following her as she moved from pine to cherry to ash.
“I can feel their happiness.”
“Happiness?” Kal asked skeptically.
“Okay, I can feel their health. If they’re healthy, they’re happy.”
“I can buy that.” At the moment he was enjoying the happy image of Bethany’s nicely rounded butt in the snug-fitting jeans she wore. Like the tree, he felt himself growing a bit. Now is not the time, he told himself, fighting to control his urges. It wasn’t easy with her walking ahead of him, providing an excellent view.
He quickly forgot about his urges when he watched her frown and walk around the base of a large cherry tree that protected a Victorian-styled gazebo with its shady leaves. The tree looked healthy to him, but the expression on Bethany’s face disagreed.
He watched her tentatively reach out with her fingertips and stroke the bark carefully, as if she didn’t want to pick up a splinter or keep her skin in contact with the tree for an extended time.
“What’s wrong?” Kal asked. “What do you feel?”
* * * *
Bethany felt disharmony the moment she touched the stately old tree’s gnarled trunk. Something evil dwelt within. Something that kept the tree from reaching its fullest potential. She ran her fingertips up and down the trunk, trying to find the source of the tree’s bad health. “Found it,” she said. “It’s somewhere in this area.” Her hand rested just below a fork in the tree. “Can you see anything up there in the fork? It looks okay here. No place to hide anything.”
Even at his height, Kal couldn’t see the area either. “Move over.” He waited until Bethany was out of his range then he jumped up, grabbing one of the lower limbs and pulling himself up into the tree. When he settled into the fork, he began looking for anyplace something could be hidden.
He was about to admit defeat when he noticed a knot on the tree that looked as if the bark had grown over a natural fissure in the wood. “Think I’ve got something,” he called down to Bethany.
“Can you reach it?” Beth looked up at him, shading her eyes from the sun. She tiptoed up as far as she could but saw nothing. “Do you need a saw?”
“You’d actually cut the limb off to see what’s inside?” Kal sounded surprised.
“I don’t want to, but if that’s what it takes to defeat the demon and get my grandmother back…” Bethany told herself she would do whatever it took to end the demon’s reign of revenge on them, even if it meant wounding the tree.
“I might be able to get it without taking the branch off, but I’ll need a pruning saw.”
Running to the garden shed, she grabbed the first pruning saw she found mounted on the wall and hurried back to Kal, handing it up to him.
She watched with trepidation as he gently cut into the knot, trying to spare the tree as much damage as possible. It seemed as though he was taking hours when she knew it was only a few minutes passing by as he carefully sawed back and forth on the limb.
At last, he tossed the saw to the ground and began digging into the hole with his bare hands. “I see something,” he said. “It looks like leather.”
Bethany felt as if her heart might explode as she waited for him to free the object. Bits of wood and bark tumbled down from the tree as Kal worked his fingers deeper into the natural crevice.
“Got it.” He held up a bundle of rotting cloth and leather. When Bethany held up her hands, he tossed the dirty treasure down to her and leaped out of the tree, landing on his feet beside her.
“I’m almost afraid to open it.” She held her hand out for Kal to see that she was trembling.
He squeezed her shoulder gently. “I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Help me,” she whispered.
Together, they unwrapped the leather and material until a dull metal object was revealed. With uncoordinated fingers, Bethany extracted the object and immediately dropped it onto the ground as if it had burned her.
“I can’t touch it,” she said. Holding up her hand, she looked at the red tips of her singed fingers. “It’s potent.”
Kal nudged the dull object with the toe of his shoe until it flopped upside down in the grass. Bethany gasped as the rubies and sapphires sparkled in the sun, despite their years of neglect. The face of the mirror looked cloudy, but it reflected the sun like a laser beam, and Kal quickly turned it over again.
“This is an object of darkness. It’s power is unstable in the light.” He opened the leather, dropping it down over the mirror, wrapping it carefully before picking it up again.
“What next?” Beth watched him slip the mirror in his pocket, wondering if it would singe the material.
“We need to shake the demon out of hiding,” Kal said. “I think it’s time to let your cousins do their thing.” He grinned. “Grey should be able to stir up enough trouble to make the demon show himself.”
Chapter 12
“Melech won’t present in demon form. He’s going to use another human host,” Kal said. “We just need to find out who he’s using and trap him while he’s in a weakened condition. He’s never at full power when he’s in human form.”
“How are we going to make him show himself?” Sydney asked, looking around the table they were sharing at the Banishing Bistro. Tossing her blond hair back over her shoulder, she tapped a perfectly manicured pink nail on the edge of the table. Her nails matched the new Rebecca Taylor top she was wearing over designer jeans in a darker shade of pink.
“Wait!” Grey held out her hand to stop Sydney’s question. She shot a challenging look at Kal. “How did you find the demon’s name?”
Kal hesitated then glanced at Bethany and took her hand in his, holding it tightly. “Bethany had a vision.”
Grey raised her eyebrows. “That’s it? Bethany had a vision?”
“That’s it.” Kal didn’t elaborate. “Any suggestions on how to find the human host?”
He knew Grey was fuming, and the other women were curious, including Bethany. But he wasn’t ready to e
xplain to them yet how he’d tapped into the collective consciousness of the partiers on the island, allowing Bethany to see the images.
“I think we should use the mirror as bait. If we put out the word you found it, then Melech will try to retrieve it, won’t he?” Halona asked. She smiled at the group and shrugged a little self-consciously. “I could put it in the shop for a special auction.”
Kal nodded. “Great idea, Halona.”
Sydney gave her a high-five. “You can do fliers with a description of the mirror and keep the seller information private, like you do with certain estate pieces.”
“Yeah,” Grey agreed. “That way the demon won’t know who to go after. He will have to wait until the auction to show up. We can take him then.”
Everyone turned to Kal, and he grinned, showing dimples. “Good work, ladies.” He focused on Halona. “Can you have a special auction this weekend?”
“Of course. I’ll print the fliers this afternoon.”
* * * *
Bethany woke to the smell of freshly made coffee and pastries. She yawned, stretched languorously, and scooted out of bed, padding barefoot into the kitchen wearing nothing but one of Kal’s Blansett Police Department T-shirts.
Kal pulled her into his arms, wrapping himself around her and planting a hard kiss on her lips. “Ready to catch a demon and get this over with?”
Beth rested her head against his chest for a moment then took the coffee he handed her. She moved over to the table, carefully setting the coffee down, aware her hands were trembling. “What if the demon doesn’t show?”
“Oh, he’ll show,” Kal assured her, passing a jelly-filled pastry her way. “Even if he doesn’t bid on the item, he will try to steal it from whoever buys it.”
“I’m a little nervous.” Bethany barely nibbled at the raspberry-filled Danish on the plate in front of her. “I can think of a million things to go wrong.”
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