"You don't think any of them are alive, do you?" Michael asked.
Mark shook his head, "Not really, not if they've been up in the hills for this long."
"Well, we're in a national park, so it's federal land and if we're the first on the scene, that puts it in our jurisdiction if we want it and takes it out of the locals," Michael said.
"Really?" Mark asked surprised.
"Yeah, we share jurisdiction on the parks. So whoever starts the investigation, they own the whole thing. We don't have to involve the locals if we don't want to."
Mark nodded as they followed the other SUV onto an even older and narrower dirt road than before. He hoped they didn't scratch up the cars, last thing he wanted to do was file a damage report with the insurance company.
When Dave and Denise stopped and turned off their headlights, Mark did the same. He got out of the car as Kyle hopped out of the other one and walked back to where he was standing.
"It's about a quarter mile to the site from here. Do you want to drive up, or walk up?"
"Drive, anyone up there has probably already heard us coming, and if there's something wrong, the cars will give us at least some protection until we either deal with it, or just turn around and drive off. But let me get a few things out first, just in case," Mark added and walked around to the back of the SUV and opening up the rear he took out the larger of the two bags he had brought along. Unzipping it he started to pull out several small guns.
"Are those MAC-10's?" Kyle asked, surprised.
"Yup, full auto, and silenced. The ammo's all been blessed and has crosses carved in it. Here, take one for Denise as well," Mark said and handed him two.
"How many of those do you have?" Kyle said, surprised.
"Five, and I got tax stamps for all of them, all nice and legal. Set me back a pretty penny, but they're machine pistols, so you can carry it concealed with a CCW in Oregon. Pretty neat, huh?" Mark chuckled.
"Why do you even have them?" Kyle asked, looking at the two in his hands.
"Vampire in Portland," Mark said and handed him a couple of extra magazines. "This was how we took out his followers and slowed him down long enough for me to kill him. Just be careful with these, they're pretty light, so they have a tendency to jump when you fire them."
Kyle nodded and Mark took out the other three, passing them up front to Michael, Jess, and Gail, while grabbing his machete and a two-liter soda bottle full of holy water for himself, as well as a large cross he'd had specially blessed back at Manresa years ago that he always kept at home.
"Okay, let's go see what we're dealing with," Mark said and closing the rear door he went back up front and got in the driver's seat.
They drove the last quarter mile with the lights off, even with the trees; they all had good enough night vision as lycans with the moon out that they didn't need them to see where they were going at this slow a speed.
When the road they were taking opened up, Dave pulled over to the side, and Mark pulled around him. There were three cars parked on the right side of the road, the first was an old Subaru forester. Mark drove by them slowly. There was an old four-runner parked behind the forester that had all of its windows smashed and the smell of blood and corruption got rather strong as they passed it.
"Ugh, that's nasty!" Jess said from the back seat.
"Quiet please," Mark said, "And roll your windows down, I don't want to pay for any broken glass if you have to shoot anything."
Both girls nodded, doing as they were told, Michael already had his own window down and the tip of the machine pistol pointing out of it.
About twenty feet past the forester, the road opened up into a large clearing. Mark saw that there was an old tree stump almost dead center; it was easily twelve feet across, probably old growth that got logged off a hundred years ago. Someone had flattened it and smoothed it out, making it into an altar of sorts. It looked like there were candle stubs around it, as well as a bunch of now dead Coleman gas lanterns spread around the perimeter of the clearing with some sort of hoods over them.
But what caught Mark's eye was the dead body on the altar, and the four scattered around it.
"I count five bodies," Michael said softly. "Shouldn't there be seven?"
"I think there was one back in that four-runner," Gail said.
"Still missing one," Mark said. "Keep your guns up; you see anything that isn't human, empty the magazine in it."
"What if it is human?" Jess asked.
"Use your best judgment, but if I say fire, you fire. Understood?"
"Yes, Dad."
Mark started to drive slowly around the edge of the clearing, with Dave following behind.
"Michael, Gail, keep your eyes in the woods. Jess, watch to see if any of them are breathing."
Mark split his attention between what was in front of the car, as well as what was on his left inside the clearing. He couldn't make out the fine details with his normal night vision, he'd have to use a flashlight, but first he wanted to make sure there weren't any immediate threats.
He stopped as he came back to the road, and turned the SUV off.
"Keep your eyes and ears open. Girls keep your eyes on the tree line and keep your muzzles on the trees. Now everybody out, Michael, give Dave your gun and let's grab a couple of flashlights."
They all got out, and Mark got a couple of flashlights out of the back, as his kids spread out to keep an eye on the edge of the clearing.
"Don't touch anything," Mark warned. "Not until I've put some holy water on it and waved the cross at it first. If you're wearing a cross, now would be a good time to pull it out."
Mark knew his kids all were, he made them put them on before they'd left the house this morning. Surprisingly Denise had one too.
Mark turned on his flashlight and started to walk around the clearing a second time, though this time he started playing his flashlight around, looking for the wards. He came across the first one as he came to the eastern part of the clearing. It was about twenty feet from the altar; all of the bodies were closer to the tree stump than that.
"What's that?" Kyle asked.
"Ward," Mark answered, "There should be four of them, one at each of the cardinal compass points. They're to protect and seal the circle, keep out any unwanted influences, that kind of thing." Mark looked at the burned out candle in the silver candleholder in the center of a rough drawn circle in the dirt to mark the ward's location.
"Doesn't look like it helped them none," Denise said, looking at the bodies.
"Well, if you end up summoning or creating something evil, it won't stop that, because that's what you're calling. It just keeps anything else from interfering. Or it's supposed to. Once we finish going over all of this, I'm going to need one of you to grab the camera in my bag and take pictures of everything. I don't recognize the marks on that candle holder, so I'm going to have to send all of this back to Manresa so they can give me an idea of what we're dealing with here."
They nodded quietly and Mark continued around the outside of the circle.
The next three wards all appeared to be the same, though Mark noted each of the candles were a different color and contained a different mix of ingredients, at least according to his nose. He also noticed that there hadn't been any kind of wall or circle drawn to connect the wards. They were definitely using a ritual or rite that he wasn't familiar with.
"Okay, let's go in and take a look," he said and moved over to the first of the three bodies.
"That doesn't look good at all," Michael said.
Mark nodded; the body was that of a woman, though Mark couldn't tell much more than that. The body was desiccated, the skin was black, and a faint odor of foulness was coming from it.
She was dressed in robes; they all were from what he could see. No doubt ceremonial ones for the rituals there were practicing.
"She's wearing moccasins," Denise said, flashing her light over to the woman's feet. "Didn't you say that one of them was from the reser
vation?"
"Just because she's an Indian, it doesn't mean she goes around in moccasins all the time," Kyle scoffed.
"For a ritual like this she might," Denise said and flashed her light to the feet of the other bodies on the ground, then the one on the altar.
"None of the others are wearing moccasins, they're all wearing slippers," she said.
"I think Denise is right," Mark said.
"I just noticed something," Michael said, looking around.
"What?" Mark asked.
"There is the body on the altar, one to the south of it, facing north, then there is one on the north side, one on the east, and another on the south. There isn't one on the west side."
Mark stopped and shined the light around each of the points, starting with the north and working around clockwise, "Earth, Air, Fire," and as he came to the one on the west, "Death."
"Huh?"
"In most magical rites, each of the wards is associated with an element: earth, wind, fire, and death. Depending on the ways and the rituals being followed, they start at one and go around to each in turn. Most start on the east and end on the north."
Mark looked at the three bodies of the 'circle'. Each was about five feet from the stump, and from the look of things, had been facing torwards it, when whatever had killed them, had killed them. Walking over to where the death guardian would have been standing, he shone the light on the ground. There were marks on the ground, whoever had been standing there had turned rather suddenly and run to the west, where the cars all were.
"It was a death ritual," Mark said, shining the flashlight up towards the four-runner.
"Why do you say that?" Denise asked.
"Because death protected its guardian. As it came from inside, the others never had a chance, assuming that they had the power to."
"They came up here to do a death ritual?" Kyle asked, sounding rather shocked.
"If they'd come up here to do that on purpose, whoever was standing for death wouldn't have run," Mark pointed out.
"Let's check the other two guardians," Mark said, heading to the body at the northern point.
Both of those bodies died the same way as the one at the first point to the south. He then went and looked at the one on the altar, it was an old man. His body was not desiccated like the others.
"Single stab wound to the heart," Michael said.
"This one has multiple defensive wounds and several stab wounds as well," Denise said looking at the one by the altar. "I think she bled out."
"That's Kelly Nightwind," Kyle said, shaking his head. "The old guy on the stump, that's Elksong. He used to be a big time Elk hunter around here, used a bow, as I understand it. After he retired from that, he spent all of his spare time helping kids and anyone else who needed it. Everyone in town knew him."
Mark nodded, and shined his light around the rest of the stump, or altar.
"Anyone notice what's missing?"
"No, what?" Michael said, shining his light on the surface as well.
"Our demon flesh. I think I smell traces of it, but that's all. Everyone spread out around the stump here and use your flashlights to look, carefully. See if you can find it.
Michael, Denise, and Kyle started to slowly search the ground, along with Mark.
Ten minutes later Mark sighed, "It's not here."
"Maybe death has it?" Kyle asked and shined his light towards the four-runner.
"I doubt it, but let's go take a look."
As they headed over towards the truck Kyle suddenly spoke up.
"That's Elksong's truck."
"You sure?" Mark asked.
"Yeah, I recognize the mismatched hood."
Mark nodded, "Well, Elksong is on the stump behind us, so I guess this is his girlfriend Sarah."
They stopped next to the driver's side door, the window had been smashed and from here they could see that the inside of the car was splattered with blood. The body of the young woman inside had been torn up pretty badly.
"Whatever killed her, had some very serious claws," Kyle said.
What's that on the floor?" Michael said from the other side, shinning his light into the passenger's side foot well.
Mark looked down, and covered in blood was what looked like an old colt 1911, with the slide locked back, empty.
"Everyone, look around for a blood trail," Mark said shinning his light carefully around the interior. "I don't think that smell is coming from her body, I think it's from the blood of whatever she shot."
"Let me shift," Kyle said, "I'll see what I can pick up around the car, and see if I can find a blood trail."
"Sure, you've got a better nose than any of us," Mark agreed.
"What's that there?" Michael said, shining his light on the door, he'd been looking in, on the passenger's side.
Mark walked around, as Denise continued to look in the broken driver's side window.
Michael was shining his light on the door.
"I thought it was just blood at first, but I see it's the wrong color."
Mark nodded, it wasn't black like the blood of a devil, but it was far too dark to be regular human blood, and was smeared around the door handle. Whatever had killed Sarah had closed the door behind it as it got out of the car, the kind of thing a person would do.
"Kyle, over here. We found a place for you to start," Mark called and a very large wolf came trotting over.
"Damn, dude. You're huge!" Michael said, looking at him.
Kyle made some noises then and Michael shook his head, "I don't speak wolf, sorry man, I'm still learning cougar."
Kyle looked at Mark.
"Nope, never had the time to learn," Mark apologized. "Get the scent, see where it came from, where it headed off to, then come tell us. Don't go more than a hundred yards from the clearing."
Kyle ducked his large wolf head and started to do that as Mark and Michael walked back to the SUV Mark had been driving.
"Think she killed it?" Denise asked.
Mark shook his head. "Wounded it, I'm sure. Killed it? I don't think so. I'm just confused by the method of death. I also want to know where Beth is."
"Why are you confused?" Denise asked.
"Well, Elksong was killed by a dagger to the heart, it was probably instant. Kelly was killed by multiple stab wounds, but none of those were instantly fatal, almost like whoever it was, didn't want to kill her."
"That or they were really angry with her," Michael pointed out.
"Good point," Mark said and then motioned back to the four-runner, "and Sarah there was torn apart by something with claws. Now, I'm willing to guess that the sacrifice of Elksong is what caused Sarah to run. Maybe that's what caused the others to die or maybe they died because of the sacrifice."
"Maybe the person who killed Elksong killed Kelly, while whatever it was that got summoned killed Sarah in the car?" Michael said.
Mark shook his head. "I don't know, but I don't see anything that looks even remotely like a summoner's circle, so I'm not sure anything was summoned."
Mark went to the back of his car and pulled out his digital camera.
"Who wants to take pictures?"
"I'll do it," Denise said holding out her hand, "I've photographed murder scenes before."
Mark nodded and handed the camera to her.
"Start with the bodies. After you do each one Michael can check for ID and see if we can find out who they all were."
"What are you going to do?" Michael asked.
"Well first I'm going to sprinkle holy water on everything and each of the bodies, just in case. Then I'm going to shift and see if I can figure out where Beth was, and where she went. I know what she smells like from her and Tommy's apartment in Portland."
"Ah, okay," Michael said with a nod.
Mark grabbed the two-liter bottle and spent a couple of minutes flicking some water on each of the bodies, then the altar, then back to the four-runner to get Sarah's body as well. Interestingly enough, there was no reaction, wh
ich meant any evil here was now mostly likely gone.
Going back over to SUV Mark stripped down quickly and after shifting he went over to the forester, figuring Beth had come up with her mother.
Sure enough, he picked up her scent at the passenger's door. He tracked her around the clearing several times, obviously she'd been all over it. Coming back to the stump, her scent was all over that as well, as was her mother's of course.
Going back to the edge of the clearing, he circled it, twice, and other than finding where she had been going to the bathroom, he didn't find any signs of her leaving.
"I found the murder weapon!" Michael called from the clearing, over by the stump, so Mark turned and trotted back to where he was, as Kyle came out of the woods and joined them.
Padding up to Michael, Mark looked at him.
"I found this knife under Kelly's body," Michael said. He was using plastic bag over his hand to protect himself from touching it, holding it by the blade. Mark leaned in close and sniffed at the handle.
Beth.
Mark's eyes got wide and he took a couple of steps back and shifted.
"What?" Michael asked, surprised.
"She killed her own mother!" Mark replied, shaking his head. "Beth's scent is all over that knife. She must have killed Elksong, and then killed her mother next."
"What would possess her to do such a thing?" Kyle asked, standing naked next to Mark as he had shifted back as well.
"Why does anyone murder someone else?" He sighed, "Power. It always comes back to power." Mark looked at Kyle. "Did you find anything?"
"I found a trail, leading away from here, by whatever it was that bled on the door. The funny thing is, it smells a bit like the handle of that knife."
"How far did you track it?"
"Not that far, I didn't want to get out of earshot. Whatever it was, it stopped and rested for a while, and when it got it again, it was no longer bleeding."
Mark nodded.
"Okay, Kyle and I will track whatever it is, and see where it goes. The rest of you, head back to town. Michael, call Woods as soon as you're in cell range and tell him what's happened here, and ask him to send help.
Loose Ends (The Hammer Commission Book 3) Page 12