“You’re definitely a natural beast master,” Devon said. Ellen just grinned. “Anyway, let’s go.”
As they escorted the two vampires to the car, Harris told Winona’s group about the wizard in New Orleans, Ellen’s occasional remote viewing psychic ability and why they were in the state park, which included informing them that Ellen, Devon and Galvin were a part of the Clover Coven.
Once Harris’s explanation had ended, Brad asked, “How many covens are there?”
As they continued to walk towards the car, Harris explained the three wizard lines and the mark of Merlin to Winona’s group.
After reaching the burnt out house several minutes later, Ellen followed behind Winona by a couple of steps as they escorted the vampires into the house. Cory—while fully dressed—was the last one to enter.
When Ellen stepped into the living room, she saw as to how Winona was remorsefully looking over the room.
After a moment of examining Winona’s expression, she turned towards the fire and water damaged furniture and walls.
The couch, the two armchairs and the two end tables were more damaged from the water and the smoke than the fire. They were filthy and severely smelled of smoke.
The lamps were broken on the floor next to the end tables, and everything on the entertainment center—the TV, the DVD player and the stereo system—was severely damaged.
The picture frames—each containing a wrinkled photo—were smashed on the floor near where they had once hung.
There was no coffee table, which made the couch accessibly easy to get to.
As Riley and Brad were guiding the male vampire towards the couch, Riley instructed, “Sit the vampires on the couch.”
As Harris and Devon were guiding the female vampire towards the couch, Ellen asked, “Whose house was this?”
“It had belonged to a co-worker,” Harris said.
“Did anyone get hurt?” Ellen asked.
Winona looked at Ellen while drawing in a deep breath.
“No one was hurt,” Harris said as he and Devon were easing the female vampire into a sitting position alongside the male vampire.
“That’s good,” Winona said barely audible.
“Were you caught in a fire?” Ellen asked Winona.
“Me? No,” Winona replied quickly.
“You’re acting as though you’re uncomfortable here,” Ellen pointed out. “Remorseful.”
Winona took another deep breath before sharing, “About… about seventeen months ago, my grandparents—my dad’s parents were killed in a house fire.”
“I’m sorry,” Ellen said sympathetically.
Winona just nodded with a polite grin.
Harris pulled out his cell phone while saying, “I can’t remember the words to the ‘Memory Talebearer’ spell, so I’ll have Allyson to bring us a copy of it.”
“Okay,” Winona agreed.
“Winona,” Ellen said to grab her attention. When Winona turned to look, Ellen asked, “How did you become a vampire hunter?”
Winona took a deep breath before answering.
Chapter Eight
It was the second Tuesday of June in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The sky was cloudy. It wasn’t currently raining, but the chance for thunderstorms was eighty percent.
At a crowded local swimming pool, Winona—while wearing her one-piece lifeguard swimsuit and no jewelry of any kind or make-up—sat perched on her lifeguard stand as she watched over the safety of the swimmers.
Across the pool, while perched on another lifeguard stand, was her twenty-two-year old partner Eric. Eric stood taller than Winona by a couple of inches, and his skin color was noticeably paler than hers, so he would apply tanning lotion to himself before climbing onto his lifeguard stand—at least for the first month of summer.
Winona and Eric had to reprimand several kids for their dangerous horseplay and roughhousing, but other than that it had been an uneventful late morning to early afternoon.
By late afternoon, the sky had darkened and the first flash of lightning—immediately accompanied by a crash of thunder—was seen.
Simultaneously, Winona and Eric stood up, placed their whistles to their lips and blew hard, followed by demanding, “Everyone! Out of the pool!”
As the swimmers were complying, Winona and Eric panned the pool from edge to edge while making sure that their command wasn’t going ignored.
Winona looked towards the diving boards and saw that the young teenage boy on the high dive had dove headfirst into the pool.
Winona placed her whistle to her lips and waited until the boy had resurfaced before blowing it again.
“Out of the pool!” Winona demanded.
Suddenly Winona felt her hairs standing up on end, and from an invisible-driven force deep inside her, she dove headfirst towards the pool.
Lightning struck Winona’s lifeguard stand as Winona was inches from it, and a portion of that discharge had arced and touched Winona. Screams were heard from the ones who were close to the lightning strike or had witnessed the event, and as Winona was lifelessly hitting the water, Eric dove in after her.
Winona abruptly sat up into a sitting position, and as she looked around, she saw that she was on a beach.
As she went to stand, she demanded to know, “How did I get here?”
From behind Winona and in the Mikasuki language, a man asked, “What do you remember before coming here?”
Winona quickly swung around towards the man, and when she saw the man’s face, she asked in English, “Grandfather?”
The man thought for a second before answering in the Mikasuki language, “I am a grandfather, but I’m not your grandfather—at least not the grandfather that you’re thinking of.”
“Who are you?” Winona quickly asked.
In the Mikasuki language, he pointed out, “Your grandfather had taught you the Mikasuki language, but you don’t speak it. Why?”
Winona took a breath before speaking in the Mikasuki language, “Fine. I’ll talk to you like this. Now who are you?”
“You didn’t answer my question,” the man pointed out.
“What question?” Winona asked.
“What do you remember before coming here?”
Winona thought for a second before uttering, “I was struck by lightning!” Winona quickly looked over the area once more before resting her eyes on the man. “Who are you?!”
“I’m your great-great-great-grandfather…” he was only able to get out.
“That’s impossible,” Winona interrupted. “My great-great-great-grandfather would be…” When Winona stopped talking the man gave her an inquisitive look. “Am I dead?”
“Currently, but the white-men’s medicine man will bring you back to life shortly,” he replied. He then grinned. “Until then, I get to keep you company.”
“Okay,” Winona said in an uncertain tone.
“And you’re wondering why me, and not someone who you know,” the man stated.
Winona took a breath before saying, “That thought has crossed my mind.”
“At the age of fifteen, I too was struck by lightning and died, and then—after tumbling roughly down a hill—returned from the dead,” he began. “No one knew that I had died, but I did. I knew because after that lightning strike, I was standing outside my body, and I wasn’t standing there alone either. The spirit of my father’s dead brother stood with me. We watched as my body tumbled lifelessly down the hill. That rough tumble had to have had thumped me enough to restart my heart because after my body had reached the bottom, I was suddenly jerked back into my body…”
“I get the feeling that you didn’t come to me to tell me that story,” Winona interrupted.
“I came to you to give you a message.”
“Which is,” Winona prompted.
“That magic runs through our veins, and it has as far back as our earliest ancestors had walked these lands. On the day I was struck by lightning, something inside me was awakened that turned me into the most powerful shaman
that the Seminole Nation or even the Creek Nation has ever seen. The same thing has happened to you. But having the power is useless if you don’t know how to use it or what to use it on.”
“So you’re here to teach me how to use the magic, and to show me what to use the magic on?” Winona asked.
“We won’t have enough time together for me to teach you magic,” he told her. “But I will show you where your great-grandfather had hidden my parchments.” He held out his hand before continuing with, “Take my hand.”
Winona slightly hesitated before taking his hand. Within a blink of an eye, Winona and the man were inside the home where Winona’s grandparents were living before the fire had swept through the house and killed them as they slept.
The house—with fire and water damaged walls and furniture—was as Winona had remembered it from a year ago, and after gazing over the room that they had arrived in, she told her great-great-great-grandfather, “If those parchments were here, I doubt that they had survived the fire.”
The man walked up to the fireplace and pointed to the bricks at the inside-bottom wall of the fireplace. “Find something and smash out those bricks and you will find my parchments. They’re inside a fireproof metal box, so they’re protected.”
Winona slightly cringed before saying, “Yeah, well, no one is really allowed on this property until after the tribal court has ruled on who gets the land—my father or my uncle.”
“If your dad and uncle want to fight over a piece of land, then give them each a knife and tell them to go at it. However, it’s important that you begin your training, and you can’t begin without those parchments. So you mustn’t let anyone stop you from getting them.”
Winona sighed before saying, “Alright. I’ll see what I can do about getting them.”
Winona’s great-great-great-grandfather acted as if he was hearing something before saying, “It’s time for you to go back.”
“Wait, what is your name?” Winona quickly asked.
On a dry surface, not far from the pool and while holding the paddles in the ready position, the paramedic uttered, “Clear!”
The second paramedic stopped administering CPR and moved back slightly as the first paramedic stuck the paddles to Winona’s torso. As Winona slightly jumped from being shocked, her heartbeat jumped once before returning to a straight line.
“Again,” the second paramedic said before continuing the CPR.
Once the paddles were again charged, the paramedic again uttered, “Clear!”
Again the second paramedic stopped administering CPR and moved back slightly as the first paramedic stuck the paddles to Winona’s torso. Again Winona slightly jumped from being shocked; however, this time her heartbeat continued after the initial beat.
Eric and the other spectators let out a sigh of relief when the heart monitor showed that Winona was brought back to life.
“I didn’t hear you,” Winona incoherently slurred as she was sluggishly waking up.
“She’s already coming around,” the second paramedic pointed out in astonishment.
“Ma’am, don’t move,” the first paramedic told her as he and his partner worked on getting Winona onto the gurney.
“Ma’am, can you tell us your name?” the second paramedic asked.
“Well… it’s not ma’am,” Winona sluggishly got out.
“Okay, well can you tell me what it is,” he asked as Winona was being placed onto the gurney.
“Wi-Winona,” she answered sluggishly.
“Can you tell us your last name, Winona?” the second paramedic asked.
“Rivers,” she said simply.
“Winona Rivers?” the second paramedic questioned before he and his partner wheeled Winona through the crowd of spectators.
Winona nodded before weakly saying, “Yes.”
“Okay, well, Miss Rivers…” the first paramedic was only able to get out.
“Winona,” she interjected. “Or Winnie.”
“Okay, well, Winnie, you were struck by lightning,” the first paramedic informed. “And we are taking you to the hospital.”
“I remember being hit,” Winona said slightly more lucidly. “I tried to jump, but I was too slow.”
“According to your partner, the lightning had struck your stand from behind one second after you had dove towards the pool,” the second paramedic informed. “You weren’t facing the bolt, but you knew to jump. How?”
“A feeling went through me, and I just knew I had to get off that stand,” Winona said.
“Good thing,” the first paramedic said. “If you would have stayed on that stand and took the full brunt of that lightning strike, you would most likely be dead right now. As it is though, you’re alive, and actually you’re more lucid than what I expect you to be after being nearly killed by electrocution.”
“Lucid?” Winona echoed. “I feel… dazed.”
“No doubt,” the first paramedic agreed as they were reaching the ambulance.
Once the paramedics had placed Winona into the ambulance, the first paramedic sat beside her as the second paramedic took the driver’s seat.
The drive to the hospital was short, and the staff began to run their first test on Winona almost immediately after she had arrived, to make sure that she was as all right as she had seemed.
Winona’s dad Detective Shayne Rivers of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, her mother Dakota and her twenty-five-year old brother Officer Matthew Rivers of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department had showed up at the hospital as the staff was ending their first test. Shayne stood two inches shorter than Dakota and Winona as Matthew stood shorter than Dakota and Winona by half of an inch.
The nurse was leaving the room that the staff had Winona in as Shayne, Dakota and Matthew were entering.
“I see that someone had contacted you guys,” Winona said when she saw who all were entering.
“Eric called us,” Dakota said. “He wanted to come himself, but the pool manager had threatened to fire him if he would leave work.”
“Dale loves to threaten to fire his staff,” Winona replied.
“According to the report, you were dead for slightly more than three minutes,” Matthew began. He then joked, “Were you tempted to go towards the light?”
“Actually, I had a weird dream,” Winona informed.
“What was it about?” Matthew quickly asked.
“In this dream, I met a man who greatly favored Grandpa—Grandpa Seth,” Winona began. Shayne drew in a slightly troubled breath. “He claimed to be my great-great-great-grandpa though. He told me that magic runs in our veins…”
“It was a hallucination,” Shayne bluntly informed. “Brought on by your trauma and your Grandpa Seth’s bedtime stories.”
A confused expression came across Winona’s face just before saying, “Grandpa Seth had never told me bedtime stories.”
“He must’ve,” Shayne insisted. “How else did the thought of magic running through our veins could have reached your subconscious?”
“Well, until today, the thought of magic running through our veins wasn’t even a thought,” Winona began. “So perhaps my dream wasn’t a dream.”
“Magic doesn’t exist, Winnie,” Shayne irritably insisted. “So enough with this nonsense!”
Winona gave Shayne a curious look before saying, “I was struck by lightning less than an hour ago is why I’m not so jolly and cheerful. What in hell is your reason?!”
“Hey! Respect your elders!” Shayne ordered.
“I deserve a little respect too,” Winona retorted. “And there has to be a reason that has your underwear in a bunch.”
Shayne slightly hesitated before nodding and saying, “Before my generation, our ancestors were doctors—AKA medicine men—and priests—AKA shamans—and I can understand the illusion of magic that those two professions may bring. In fact, your Aunt Ruth, your Uncle Clint, and I couldn’t go one day without hearing the stories of how magic ran deep in our veins. You said that you had
a dream of your great-great-great grandfather?” Winona just nodded. “His name was Blue Moon, as he was said to have been born during the second full moon of the month; although, I’m not sure if he was actually born during a blue moon. The timeline doesn’t quite add up for him to be born on a blue moon. Anyway, he was said to have possessed powerful magic. An illusionist was all he was.”
“How come I get the feeling that if Mom would’ve had hired a magician instead of a clown for my tenth birthday party, you would’ve shot him?” Winona questioned.
Shayne grinned before saying, “I wouldn’t have shot him. I would’ve had found something to charge him with and arrest him—and I’m joking by the way. If your mom would’ve had hired a magician instead of a clown, I would’ve grinned and bore it.”
“And then grumbled to me after he had left,” Dakota added.
Shayne slightly grinned before telling Winona, “Anyway, regardless to what had caused your weird dream, don’t put any stock into it.”
Winona thought of her answer before saying, “I’ll treat the dream as it was.” Shayne gave Winona a skeptical look for her vague response. “But how can you be so sure that magic doesn’t exist in the world?”
“Any paranormal or supernatural phenomenon can be explained,” Shayne insisted as his cell phone rang. He took out his cell phone and looked at the number. As he held it up he said, “This is the precinct. I have to take it.”
When Winona gave an understanding nod, Shayne stepped towards the hall while answering his phone.
As Shayne was leaving the room, Dakota shared, “I met your dad one day after your Aunt Ruth’s body was found mutilated by an unknown assailant. She was away at a university in Scotland at the time of her death. In fact, your Aunt Ruth’s death was why your dad and Uncle Clint had decided to become police officers…”
“An interesting fact, Mom,” Winona interrupted, “but what does that have to do with what we were discussing?”
“Your dad had never taken those stories that magic ran through his veins seriously, but your Aunt Ruth did. The University of Edinburgh in Scotland taught parapsychology, and so your aunt wrote the most impressive letter that she could think of and applied for admittance to the University of Edinburgh. Your Aunt Ruth was accepted and during her second year there, she was ripped to shreds. There was a witness to the event, but even with a witness, the assailant was never caught. Your dad was fourteen and your Uncle Clint was seventeen at the time of your Aunt Ruth’s death, and your dad had blamed your Grandpa Seth for filling her head with nonsense that led her to Scotland.”
Phoenix and the Dark Star Page 13