Touch of Lightning

by Carin Rafferty

  But before he finished the statement, he knew the spirit was gone.

  “Dammit!” he bellowed. “What in hell is a tipi?”

  The spirit, of course, didn’t answer, and he muttered a string of vitriolic curses. By the time he finished, he was out of breath, and he still didn’t know what a tipi was.

  Before he could contemplate the matter further, he heard the sound of a car. He sat forward in his seat, surprised. It seemed as if he’d contacted Zachary just minutes ago, but he now realized it had probably been more like ten or fifteen minutes. He muttered another curse. Help had arrived, and he didn’t know what to do.

  Easing himself out of the car, he turned to face toward the direction they’d come, clutching the open door. Moments later the car stopped, and he heard doors open.

  “Oh, my God!” a male voice Sebastian recognized as Ryan Alden’s suddenly declared in horror.

  Zachary said excitedly, “What the hell is it?”

  “It’s a lightning cocoon, and stay away from it,” Sebastian ordered.

  “You don’t need to worry, Sebastian,” Ryan replied, and Sebastian heard the sound of footsteps running toward him. “I wouldn’t get near it with a ten-foot pole. Zachary said that Lucien’s hurt. Where is he?”

  “In the cocoon,” Sebastian answered.

  “What?” Ryan gasped.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” Zachary said, his tone still excited. “Where did it come from?”

  “It’s a long story, and I only have time to tell it once, so listen closely,” Sebastian said. He hated to waste the time, but if anything happened to him while handling the cocoon, the coven would need the information to deal with the talisman.

  He gave them a capsulized account of everything that had happened since Shana had found the triangle glowing in the repository.

  When he got to the part about Sarah blinding him, Ryan gasped, “My God, Sebastian! Did you go to an emergency room and see a doctor?”

  “I was hit in the eyes by magical lightning, Ryan,” Sebastian stated grimly. “Your doctors couldn’t have done anything for me.”

  “You don’t know that,” Ryan stated impatiently. “If you’d gone right away, they may have been able to help you, and—”

  “Dammit, Ryan! Now is not the time to worry about me,” Sebastian interrupted. “Lucien and Sarah are in the cocoon. The Indian spirit who accompanies her says that Sarah’s safe but Lucien’s time is short. He also said that the cocoon will leave them once they’re on coven land, but according to him I’m the only one who can move them. The trouble is, he said I have to use my tipi, and I don’t know what the hell a tipi is. I’m sure it’s some kind of Indian word. Do either of you have any idea what it means?”

  “Not me,” Zachary said, his voice now subdued. “You know that our knowledge of Native Americans is limited.”

  “Ryan?” Sebastian said hopefully.

  “I’m afraid that we mortals are almost as ignorant of Native Americans as you are,” he answered. “But are you sure he said tipi?”

  “Yes. Why?”

  “Well, when you first said it, I thought you meant tepee.”

  “Tepee? As in the tent?”

  “Yes.”

  Sebastian shook his head in frustration. “That can’t be it.”

  “Are you sure?” Zachary asked. “Maybe he’s telling you that you need to put a tent over the cocoon, and it will magically transport itself.”

  “I don’t think so,” Sebastian said. “He specifically said I needed to use my tipi, and I don’t have a tent. Of course, he is a spirit, and my guess is he’s been one for a long time, so it’s possible he might assume that everyone has a tent.”

  “Or he doesn’t understand our vocabulary and he’s using symbolism to communicate,” Ryan stated thoughtfully.

  “I’m not following you,” Sebastian said, frowning as he turned his head in the direction of Ryan’s voice.

  “Well, he sees something, but he either doesn’t know our word for it, or he isn’t comfortable using it, so he uses a word familiar to him to describe it. So, if he saw something that had the shape of a tepee, it stands to reason that he would call it a tepee. And a tepee is shaped like—”

  “A triangle,” Sebastian finished, raising his hand to the triangle resting against his chest. “Damn! I should have realized that immediately. In order to move the cocoon, I have to use the triangle.”

  “From what you’ve told us about the talisman, that isn’t safe,” Zachary pointed out. “The more you use it, the more power it will have over you.”

  Sebastian jerked his head in Zachary’s direction. “If I don’t use it, Lucien is going to die, and we can’t afford that sacrifice. I’m already tainted by the talisman, which means I can’t be trusted to act in the best interests of the coven, and even if I could, I’m blind. My condition is going to upset the coven members, but if they lose Lucien on top of it, they’ll panic. With a situation like that, the talisman is sure to destroy the coven, and once we fall, the rest of mankind is doomed.”

  “And I thought Moira was the worst thing I’d ever have to face in my life,” Ryan bemoaned, referring to the evil spirit-witch that he and Shana had fought and defeated only a few months before.

  “As you mortals say, Moira was a picnic compared to this,” Sebastian replied gravely. “But now is not the time to stand around comparing evils. We have to get Lucien out of that cocoon.

  “So Ryan, I want you to drive back onto coven land and wait,” he instructed. “Zachary, you’ll have to lead me to the cocoon, but keep your distance from it. If you see lightning, leave it, run like hell, and don’t stop for anything, not even me. Once I’m in position, I want you to join Ryan, and don’t, under any circumstances, interfere, even if you think it’s killing me. If the worst does happen and both Lucien and I are lost, you’re going to have to hold the coven together and fight the talisman. Any questions?”

  “No,” they said in unison.

  Sebastian nodded. “Then let’s get moving.”

  Ryan left without another word, and Zachary moved to Sebastian’s side. Sebastian placed his hand on the warlock’s arm and let him lead him.

  After telling him that they were rounding the back of the car, Zachary declared, “Damn, that cocoon is the most terrifying and yet the most spectacular thing I’ve ever seen, Sebastian. Do you think it’s a product of the Old Ways?”

  “I don’t know, but wherever it came from, it’s pure evil,” Sebastian replied, frowning at the new excitement in Zachary’s voice.

  He considered reminding Zachary of his instructions, but decided against it. Zachary was adventurous, but he was smart enough to realize the seriousness of the situation. Sebastian did decide, however, that if they got out of this mess alive, he’d recommend that Lucien send Zachary out into the mortal world for a few months. It would give Zachary a chance to appease his yearning for adventure, and, with any luck, he might even find a mortal mate. Sebastian suspected that only mating would cure him of his proclivity to go where angels feared to tread.

  “Okay, the cocoon’s about five feet ahead of you,” Zachary said, breaking into Sebastian’s musing. “Do you want me to lead you closer?”

  “No. Just give me an idea of how large it is,” Sebastian replied, dropping his hand from Zachary’s arm when they stopped.

  “Well, it’s as long as Lucien is tall, so about six feet, four or five inches in length, and it’s just about that wide. Much too large for you to lift. So how do you think the talisman will move it? By levitation?”

  “Most likely,” Sebastian replied. “How far are we away from the boundary?”

  “About a quarter of a mile. I’d say we’re right inside the edge of where its spell begins.”

  Sebastian nodded. “Okay. I want you to join Ryan, and when you’re t
here, let me know.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay closer?” Zachary asked. “We won’t be able to clearly see what’s going on, and if you need help”—

  “No, I don’t want you closer,” Sebastian interrupted. “As I said, you aren’t to interfere, and you need to be safe. Now go and let me know when you’ve reached Ryan.”

  Sebastian felt Zachary’s hesitation, but then he said, “I’m on my way.”

  Sebastian heard Zachary run away from him. As he waited for his message, he shuffled forward until he figured he’d moved to within a couple of feet of the cocoon. He knew he risked the wreath also encompassing him, but since the talisman needed him to get Sarah onto coven land, he didn’t think that would happen.

  I’m here, Zachary finally communicated. Sebastian didn’t bother responding, but reached immediately for the triangle, muttering to the talisman, “Okay, you bastard. Do your thing.”

  At first nothing happened, but then the wreath’s whirring sound increased until it was an ear-shattering, high-pitched whine that culminated in a burst of thunder so strong it knocked him off his feet.

  As he fell to the ground, he cursed, and then he screamed as his body was hit from head to toe with what felt like a hundred searing knives. When his body began to convulse from the electrical energy surging through him, he knew it was the lightning tormenting him. He felt as if he would die, but he knew in his heart that he wouldn’t be that lucky.

  It was as if the talisman waited for him to make that acknowledgment, for its voice suddenly said, Look at your future!

  No! Sebastian mentally yelled in anguish as a vision flooded into his mind. He was standing with Sarah in the center of Sanctuary. Her face was so sharpened with evil that it looked cadaverous, and her hands dripped with blood. But more horrifying than her visage was the sight of the coven members’ bodies littering the street. They’d all had their eyes gouged out.

  Suddenly, Sarah smiled maliciously at him and said, “Look at your hands, Sebastian.”

  He shook his head in frantic denial, but his hands rose of their own accord.

  Noooo! he screamed when he saw the blood on them.

  AS SARAH FELT the crushing weight leave her chest, panic flooded through her and her eyes flew open. Her panic changed to confusion as she watched the lightning circle her. What had happened to her? How had she ended up in here? And where was Sebastian?

  She turned her head to look for him. When she saw the man lying next to her, her confusion increased. It wasn’t Sebastian but a stranger. Who was he, and how had he gotten in here with her? She tried to touch his mind for the answers, but she met the void of unconsciousness. Indeed, his mind was so empty that if she hadn’t heard the shallow rasp of his breathing, she would have thought he was dead.

  She shuddered, and panic again erupted inside her. Before it could take root, however, the lightning closed in on her. Suddenly its whirring sounded like a lullaby to her ears, and it began to stroke her with the gentleness of a mother’s touch.

  Or at least it was what she’d always imagined a mother’s touch would feel like, she thought, sudden tears flooding her eyes. She had no memory of her mother. Indeed, she had no memory of her life before the moment Leonard found her on the mountaintop. All she’d known was that her name was Sarah, she was five years old, and Wanága had come to her and told her she was to be the new guardian.

  Why did my mother abandon me? she wondered forlornly, as the sense of aloneness—abandonment—that had tormented her since childhood flared up inside her. Why did she leave me beneath a tree on an isolated mountaintop? Why, when it was the middle of winter, did she leave me wearing nothing more than my underwear? Didn’t she love me? Did she want me to die?

  It doesn’t matter why she did what she did, John Butler’s voice suddenly whispered in her mind. I am here, and you’ll never be alone again.

  At his words, the lightning walls began to shimmer and blur. Sarah knew she was still cradled within the lightning’s embrace, but it was John Butler’s shabby motel room she now saw. He sat in the center of the bed, his legs folded into a lotus position. She was surprised he was still at the motel. Whenever she’d connected with him, he’d seemed to be moving closer to South Dakota.

  “I let you believe I was on my way to South Dakota,” he said, his expression impassive as he watched her. “It was the only way to fool the wicáhmunga. But I’ve always known you’d come to Sanctuary, and I’ve been waiting close by for you to arrive.”

  Sarah knew she should say something, but she could only stare into his ice-blue eyes and marvel at the dichotomy of emotions reflected in their chilling depths. Malevolence and, oddly enough, compassion. She shivered, suddenly feeling as if she were staring into a mirror and seeing the reflection of her own soul.

  “You are seeing your own soul,” he said bitterly. “We are the same, Sarah. No one wants us. No one loves us, but they will use us to get what they want and then try to destroy us. And that’s what the wicáhmunga plans to do to you. He wants our power, and he’ll do whatever it takes to make you trust him enough to surrender it to him. But once you give it to him, he will destroy you—us, and then he will destroy your people.”

  “You’re wrong!” Sarah declared, but she didn’t know if she denied his premise that they were alike or his comment about Sebastian’s plans. “I have seen the future, and I am the destroyer.”

  “That’s a lie. A trick played on you by your other enemy.”

  “My other enemy?”

  “The spirit who calls himself Wanága and claims to be your spirit guide—your mentor. But even as we speak, he collaborates with the wicáhmunga, just as he collaborated with another wicáhmunga nearly a millen­nium ago.

  “Summon Wanága, Sarah,” he urged. “Ask him what he and the other wicáhmunga did to the Thunderbeings so very long ago.”

  Sarah frowned, confused, but before she could question him, he and the room disappeared.

  As she again watched the lightning encircle her, she tried to make sense of what he’d said about Wanága. She knew about the Thun­derbeings, of course. The superior god, Inyan—the Rock—had created the associate god, Wakinyan, who was also known as the Thunderbeing to the Lakota and the Thunderbird to many other tribes. Wakinyan was a great bird who flew through the sky without eyes, mouth or ears, because no one was ever allowed to see him as a whole. He was the earth’s electricity, and he controlled the substance and movement of storms. His voice was thunder and his glance, when he deigned to reveal it, lightning. But what did Wakinyan have to do with Wanága?

  Summon him, Butler whispered in her mind. Tell him it is time for you to know all.

  I don’t want to know all! Sarah mentally cried, suddenly frightened by his parody of Wanága’s maddening riddle. All her life she’d wanted to know its meaning, but she now intuited that it held some hidden horror.

  Then make him tell you what you are and ask him why he’s here.

  She shook her head, but, on its own volition, her mind called out, Wanága! Who am I?

  You are the last of the people known as the Thunderbeings, and because of me, you became the most evil people to walk the earth, Wanága replied.

  As Sarah’s mind reeled with the information, Butler whispered insidiously, Now, ask him why he’s here.

  Again, Sarah shook her head, but it didn’t stop her from asking, Why are you here, Wanága?

  He didn’t answer, and his silence caused fear to swell up inside her. Please, Wanága, you must answer me. Why are you here?

  He sighed heavily and said, To destroy you.

  Chapter 14

  Evil Invades

  TO DESTROY YOU. Wanága’s words raced through Sarah’s mind with the speed of a rabbit fleeing a coyote, and fear erupted inside her. It was quickly followed by confusion and hurt, and, finally—thankfully—anger
.

  She latched onto the anger, mentally clutching it as tightly as a drowning man clinging to a lifeline. Oddly enough, she wasn’t as furious with him for betraying her as she was at his betrayal of Leonard. Leonard had devoted his life to being the guardian, and because of Wanága, he had trusted her to do the same.

  She clenched her hands into fists. How could Wanága have done that to Leonard? Why had he convinced Leonard that she was supposed to be the new guardian when he’d known all along that she was the true curse? All those years Leonard had spent training her to overcome the triangle’s evil had been nothing more than a cruel deceit, because he’d unknowingly taught the person fated to destroy their people.

  But they are not your people. You are a Thunderbeing, her conscience re­minded her.

  Sarah shivered. A Thunderbeing. Only she wasn’t a real Thunder­being. The real Thunderbeing oversaw and assisted the caretakers of the earth. The real Thunderbeing was the force of truth, striking down anyone who lied while holding the Sacred Pipe. The real Thunderbeing was a single deity. He was good. Pure. Holy. A god.

  She might be known by the same name, but she was the last of the most evil people who ever walked the earth.

  She wanted to scream at Wanága for wasting Leonard’s time and her life. Why hadn’t Wanága just killed her when he found her in the woods? Why had he let her live so she could carry out Seamus Morpeth’s curse?

  And she knew she would carry it out, for she had now come into her power and the lightning was hers. She couldn’t walk away from her heinous destiny, because the talisman would never let her go.

  Why, Wanága? she finally beseeched angrily. Why didn’t you destroy me before I came into my powers?

  For the very reason that you ask that question, Sarah, he replied.

  Dammit! Don’t play your riddle games with me. Tell me why!

  He didn’t respond, and the lightning suddenly emitted a high-pitched whine that made the unconscious man beside her groan in pain. Sarah blinked, startled. The sound didn’t cause her distress. It was music to her ears, but she wasn’t commanding the lightning, so who was?