The chimes suddenly made her think of Eli. Wess had helped her load him into his car. She had driven him to her house and kept him for the night. Wess had followed them in her car, and she had no idea how he had gotten back. This morning though he had seemed quite chirpy.
She pulled out a bottle of water from the fridge and walked towards the back room she used as a workshop. All her herbs, ingredients, equipment and packaging material was kept here. It was a large sunny room with one side completely open giving onto the back porch and the yard.
Wess was entering from the porch as Rowena came in from the house. He had come back with her from town, because the Norrises, Gabe’s tenants had requested some repairs. Gabe had had no time for that, and so he had sent Wess to do it.
“So, enjoyed yourself?” she said as he huffed and threw himself on the couch she kept in her workshop for lazy moments.
“The kitchen pipe was blocked, so was the toilet and the exterior plumbing.”
“Is there a major blockage somewhere? How come all pipes are blocked?”
“Cat hair.” he hissed like a lunatic his eyes darting left and right in perfect imitation of Hitchcock’s Psycho. Rowena laughed and offered him a coke.
“Will this calm you down?” she said. He snatched it up, tore the crimp and drank like a man lost for days in a desert. He let out a long audible sigh as he lowered the can.
“There are nachos in the cupboard over there.” Rowena pointed, trying on her apron and getting ready for work.
“I don’t think I will be able to eat anything. I just had Mrs. Norris’ tea cake,” he said scrunching up his face.
“Which flavor vanilla or chocolate?” she asked tying her hair up into a bun and getting busy with her work
“Cat,” he said, obviously stating the flavor as he took yet another long drink from his coke.
“Poor Millicent. She isn’t going to ever block any pipes with her hair now. Somebody cut her up for some twisted purpose.”
“Yeah, sad business with that cat. Brad says the culprit is ascending in his kill.”
“What does he mean?” Rowena asked as she sat on a tall stool at the long work table in the middle of the room She was more interested in the conversation than what she was letting on.
Wess shrugged joining her at the table, taking the tall stool on the other side of her. He put the can of coke on the table and traced slow circles around its top.
“I asked the same thing when I heard that from Brad. What he said was that the kill, that’s the victim, is growing bigger in size. First, it was birds, then a cat, next he will kill something bigger.”
“He found traces of our product on Millicent,” Rowena said grinding some herbs in the mortar.
“Oh, that was nothing. It was just that sedative we give for headaches and stuff. Half the town would have a bottle of that in their closets.”
“Wess, remember Gabe was upset with you for not getting the darkbane. You never explained to me what it’s supposed to do.”
“The darkbane is mostly used in the darkest forms of magic. Among its other qualities, it sucks out magic.”
“Why would Gabe need the darkbane?”
“I don’t know Rowena. But he sure is up to something.
“Wess, I am worried for Gabe,” she said suddenly stopping her work and looking up. Her green eyes reminded Wess of the dark woods outside.
“So am I. The other day he had a nightmare. Same as the ones he used to have right after your mama’s death. Thrashed around for a long time before I went up there to wake him up.” He reported in a grave tone.
“He never said anything,” Rowena said indignantly now her full attention on Wess.
“He was so angry I went and woke him up. Made me promised on my dead father’s name I would never tell you. But since my daddy is already dead and all, I don’t see why that should have bound me. Don’t tell him I told you by the way. He might hex me or something.”
Rowena nodded absently as Wess upturned his coke and slurped noisily.
She had to meet Han on Saturday. She had to find a way of going there with Eli. If he didn’t agree to take her, she would drive down by herself. But she had to meet Han. Gabe was in trouble.
Chapter Sixteen
As soon as she had finished some work for the day, Rowena set out to meet Eli. She had asked him twice before in that week about going down to Raleigh with him. But he had flatly refused.
After his encounter with Gabe the other day he had been very sulky. Rowena had spent a night with him at his place. And he had made sweet love to her all night. But in the morning, he had seemed impatient for her to leave and Rowena, not wanting to suffocate him had obliged. It had been two days since.
A strange worry was gnawing at the back of her mind. Was he trying to maintain distance so as not to complicate things or had he suddenly become very sick?
She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she did not see it until she was nearly upon it. And when she did she started to scream. She lost her balance and fell, but she could not bear being so near to it, so she clawed at the ground and retreated on all four heading for the hedges. Halfway there she doubled over and threw up repeatedly until there was nothing left inside her. Still, she retched and gagged, her intestines twisting into knots, threatening to rise into her throat. The pain in her sides due to the vomiting was so sharp she thought she would pass out and her breaths came in gasps. Her head hurt, and she held it tightly hoping that if she somehow steadied her head the woods that were now spinning around her would stop.
Eli had been in a foul mood since morning. He knew why. He had not seen Rowena for two days, and his heart ached for her. He even allowed himself a moment of self-pity wondering how sad it would be if he happened to die without seeing her for one last time. When Brad came to see him with the crime scene pictures he had requested he ran into the yard to meet him just to shake himself out of lethargy and give himself some activity.
Brad was walking towards him with his quick, sure police strides. He was a good cop, a tad green compared to Eli’s seasoned New York cop standards. But he was thorough. Besides Han trusted him. That was enough for Eli.
Eli was about to meet him in midway through his yard when the blood-curdling scream tore through the air. The two lawmen looked to the direction of the woods, Brad’s hand going to the weapon at his hip and Eli’s mirroring that action but coming across nothing. He had not been carrying a weapon for weeks now as his condition deteriorated and he was often sedated during the day.
The two men looked at each other, the unsaid words clear on their faces. It was Rowena. Then they ran.
When they found her, Rowena was writhing in her own vomit, in the middle of a clearing, shaking and spluttering, and quite obviously out of her mind.
A few feet away, near the border of the clearing, the body of a man hung from the protruding branch of an old oak. He hung by his neck, which was broken at a twisted angle, evidently before he was hung up. His eyes bulged out and were still open, looking ghastly and surreal. He had been cut up vertically starting from the base of his ribs, all the way down to the end of his abdomen. The blood and gore from his innards had fallen to the ground, and his stomach lay open like a torn-up sack of flour. It was Dom Norris.
Brad called the scene in, then he too fell to the ground and went sick. Eli bent down first to attend Rowena. She But she had mercifully passed out. So, he left her where she was and went to inspect the scene.
When the crime scene squad arrived, they found him, busily prowling the periphery of the clearing, bent at the hips, his face gathered into concentration, his hands pushed inside the pockets of his track pants.
Most of Brad’s team consisted of young boys. One look at the scene and there was a fit of gagging and heaving around.
Among them was a photographer by the name of Eric. He had worked for the FBI for years, in Huston, before he caught his wife in bed with his partner. He had then accepted the small-town position of a crime scene ph
otographer and had relocated to Azmin creek. The pay was lousy, but it afforded him the seclusion and concealment he was seeking.
Eric approached the hanging carcass, cool as a cucumber, and started clicking pictures. The wad of gum in his mouth rolled faster from side to side as he got more and more engrossed in his work. If he was at all affected by the horror of the scene he did not show it.
Eli smiled and approached him. This was his man.
Chapter Seventeen
Rowena felt a strange heaviness under her eyes lids. She was wavering on the edge of consciousness. She wanted to open her eyes, but something was stopping her. The magic triggered unconsciously, and she took inventory of her insides. It was flowing in her blood, the drug. They had given her something to sedate her.
She drew the drug slowly out of her veins and settled it in her stomach. As her blood was purged, she suddenly became more alert.
Slowly she tried to sit up in bed looking around. She was in Eli’s bedroom, at Han’s cottage. The door was tightly shut, and so were the two windows. She turned in bed looking around. And then she remembered. She stifled a cry by stuffing her fist into her mouth, but the images of Dom Norris’ slain body kept coming to mind.
She was starting to fill groggy again as the drug that she had drawn into her stomach had started to seep back into her veins. She decided to take care of that little detail first.
She went to the bathroom and willed herself to throw up the medicine. Throwing up brought back more memories. She had thrown up all over that clearing. At first, she had been alone and scared and cold and then Eli had come. He had held her close and reassured her.
Her eyes turned to the long white t-shirt she was wearing. It was Eli’s. He had cleaned her up, changed her. She did not smell of the mess she had made on that forest floor.
She was feeling steady enough, and so she decided to check out what was happening. Slowly she turned the knob of the door and opened it, she slipped out through the crack then went barefooted down the staircase.
When she stepped into the dining room, she could hear muffled voices coming from the front room, so she started towards the curtained doorway. She was about to enter when she realized she was wearing next to nothing and so she stalled just behind the curtain. That was when she heard him.
“We have to do this carefully. Take him down quickly. He is a wizard, of the highest caliber. If this goes south, all of us put together won't be a match against him.” Her eyes widened in shock. It was Brad. The little rat had been scheming against them after all.
She remembered how he had fallen at her feet the night she and Gabe had helped bring his son into this world and saved his wife from a fatal childbirth. And that Brad was scheming against Gabe? The deceit was too much to bear.
“What about Wess. He will never let anyone near his master.” Said another voice.
She knew that one too. She could have recognized anywhere that lazy Texas drawl. Eric Mackena, former Texas Ranger then FBI agent. Now a jilted husband hiding in a hole. She thought with disgust. He had asked Rowena out a couple of times. Gabe had not liked him at all. One day he had visited Eric down at the precinct on a Sunday afternoon and had a long chat with him. She never got to know the details of that conversation, but Eric had never bothered her again.
Now he was scheming against Gabe, the lowly scum. But where was Eli? Had they hurt him too? And in his present state, he would be as weak as a baby. Oh, God…No. No…no…no. Please please keep Eli safe. She prayed unconsciously to the God she had never believed.
“We have taken care of that one.” Said another voice. It was Brad’s deputy Shawn Michaels. The boy was at least ten years her junior and had always been shy around her. She had always thought he had had a bit of a crush on her and had always found that cute.
“We made him angry enough talking foul about his beloved master. Then when he hit one of us, we arrested him for assaulting an officer. He is locked up for the night.”
Rowen was shocked. It was not an act of passion like she had thought of it earlier. It was a carefully laid plan. She had to get out of here and find Eli, then she had to alert Gabe and talk to Han.
“Once we are done with him we need to take care of the witch. She is equally dangerous.” Shawn was saying.
“Nobody touches her. She is mine.” Commanded another voice. The tone itself wielded such power, nobody would dare disobey. Rowena felt something shatter inside her and she was sure it was her heart breaking. She would know that voice anywhere. It washed over her like warm honey, and she shuddered. She would have done anything that voice asked of her. She could see in her mind, the icy blue eyes and the cold gaze that belonged to that voice. She would have done anything for him. She loved him. Eli…why did it have to be you?
“Well don’t do anything brash. Han won’t like it. This is his operation after all. And if anything goes wrong…” Brad was saying.
Rowena could take it no more. Han…?
“That is exactly why you have me. The dying man. To take the fall. Besides Han is my partner. I know exactly what he wants.”
Clutching at her heart that ached of the most agonizing deception, Rowena quietly withdrew. She went up the steps quietly, biting on her fist to keep the cry from escaping. Once she was inside the room, she closed the door quietly and fell on the bed racking with sobs.
Chapter Eighteen
She willed herself to recover quickly. She had to find Gabe and warn him. They were all scheming against him. And afterward, they were coming for her.
She knew the drawer where Eli kept his tracks. She opened it quietly and pull out a pair of his three fourth track pants. She pulled them on quickly. On Eli, they would just cover his knee. On her, they hung much below her calf. She tried not to make a single noise. Eli was down there, and he was sharp. She arranged some pillows on the bed, throwing her blanket on top of them, making an effigy of herself, praying always that it should be someone other than Eli who should come up to check on her. They would be easily fooled by her trick.
But not Eli. He would see through it at once. And then he might want to touch her, kiss her, just an instinctive contact he was so good at. And then he would know.
All her work done, Rowena opened the corner closet. This was where Han kept his Nunchaku and his throwing knives. She dropped down to her knees and her hands trembling she gave a slight tug on the bottom drawer. It was open. She pulled it all the way out and found that the knives were still in there. But the Nunchaku, made of solid metal bars, that had once belonged to Han’s grandfather and which had been passed down to Han in heritage was gone.
She took a knife and one of Han’s karate belts. She tied it tightly around her waist and secured the knife inside. Then she opened the window to climb out. The minute the shutter opened she saw a huge crimson orb hung in the sky just beyond the tall spruces in the front yard. It was the blood moon. How could she have forgotten?
As quietly as possible Rowena climbed out of the window. Once outside on the roof, she was in her element. She had escaped this way a thousand times. All throughout their childhood, they had played Escape from Dark Castle. Climbing out of Han’s bedroom window and making an escape while being chased by the others. Brad would use his fighter tricks, Han and Gabe would use magic. Rowena would use all that and some con. When they would get caught the mothers would always go lenient on Brad. Once he was sent home, the culprit would be asked about the others who had helped him in mischief. Between the three of them, Rowena, Gabe, and Han would never tell on another one.
They would take the punishment gladly but would not tell. Years later Rowena realized that the threats of harder punishments were just a ruse of their mothers, while they were all the time training the three children to be loyal to each other.
What would they say if they saw them now if they saw how Han had turned on his best friends?
The memories brought tears to her eyes and Rowen ran faster. She had decided not to take Eli’s car. They would hear the noi
se and come after her. So, she decided to run to her house and take her car.
Usually, it took Rowena around twenty minutes to reach the pharmacy from her house. Today she turned into the pharmacy yard her tires screeching in fifteen. She had driven like a maniac. Hell, what would life be worth if she could not be loyal to a friend?
She had expected the place to be in total darkness. But then she saw a light flickering behind the pharmacy window. Of course, Wess had been arrested, and Gabe must know about it. He was worried and trying to think up of something.
Rowena went to the front door of the pharmacy and tried to bang it with her hands.
“Gabe….” She called out. But the door was open, so she pushed through it and went in.
He was standing there in dark jeans and a faded red checkered cotton shirt, his back turned to the door, looking into the fire. Then he turned.
“Oh, my God…Gabe…What have you done?” she said taken aback. The fire in the fireplace matched the color of the blood moon outside. A smoke of a strange type was swirling out of it. On the floor, to one side of the fireplace, lying on the ground, was Han. His hands and feet were tightly knotted with a rope, and a rag of some King was thrust into his mouth. When he saw Ro, his eyes bulged, and he started writhing frantically, trying to say something to her.
“Welcome Rowena…we have been waiting just for you…let’s begin.”
Chapter Nineteen
Rowena felt sick to her stomach when she saw the carcasses of two ravens, lying on the floor just near Han.
“Gabe…you?” was all she could say. He smiled an evil smile then put his hand in front of him as if he was throwing an invisible ball. But Rowena was ready she ducked in her karate style, crouching to the ground, one leg folded near her tummy the other stretched out away from her, holding on to the ground with both her hands for leverage.
The Campus Jock: A College Bad Boy Romance Page 30