Scented Dreams ((A Dogon-Hunters Series Novel))

by Turner Banks, Jacqueline

  “Is LeeAna. . . never mind how she looks, she looks different all the time, but I’m pretty sure she’s the same person. Ask her to help you—she’s a healer.”

  “Really? What else is she?”

  “I’m not sure, but I suspect a goddess. But I can’t talk about her.”

  “Why not?”

  “I promised somebody I wouldn’t, and I can’t tell you who I promised, but he or she asked me to never answer any questions about her. I probably shouldn’t have mentioned that she’s a healer, but being a healer she would have told you herself.”

  Ian laughed. “Well now I know where your daughter gets it.”

  Kingsley took another drink. “Yeah, she’s great. She’s my heart.”

  Ian was glad Kingsley took his statement as it was intended. “Yes, she’s a very nice girl. You both should be proud.”

  “We are. Dot’s the kind of woman who should have had a houseful, but it wasn’t meant to be. So that’s it for you, Ian—just the headaches? Most of the Hunters I know or knew who longed for retirement were tired of moving around, tired of working nights, and tired of being alone.”

  “We’re never really alone. I have staff.”

  Kingsley thought that answer was a cop out. “Okay, it’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it with me, but talk to Fox. Believe it or not, he’s one person who has a profound understanding of loneliness.”

  “Fox, lonely? He’s never in one place long enough to feel loneliness. At least that would be my take on it.”

  “Trust me, he longs for family. Have you ever seen him with a baby?”

  Ian laughed. “Fox with a baby? Who would allow Fox to hold their baby?”

  Kingsley joined him in laughter. “I know it’s hard to picture, but I consider the Pale Fox my best friend. He even has a room in our home. You should have seen him when Nesta was a baby. You know how he never seems to sleep?” Kingsley looked at Ian, and Ian nodded. “We couldn’t get to Nesta fast enough when she cried, any time of the night, if Fox was in the house. He never got tired of whatever game she wanted to play. And that whispery voice of his is perfect for kids.”

  “Is it true what they say about his voice?”

  “You mean the story about his real voice killing a man and every member of his family wherever they were in the world?”

  Ian nodded.

  “I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I knew old Hunters who knew him before he began whispering. Something profound happened that stopped him from speaking in a normal tone, and I know he can get extremely angry. We’re friends because I don’t ask those kinds of questions. I accept him as I find him, and he’s always been good to me and mine.”

  “Understood.” He finished his drink. “I guess we should move on. Clearly there are no Sangsue here,” Ian said.

  “Great; let’s go see my girl Kitty.”

  Ian didn’t say anything as Kingsley paid the bill. It surprised him when Kingsley called Kitty’s name, but when he reconsidered it, he realized a man who could call the Pale Fox his best friend was sure to have a storehouse of information and secrets. The thought occurred to him again that he was in Indiana for a reason. Maybe Fox wanted me to meet this Hunter, to see how a true professional handles himself?

  Two women were entering the bar as they were exiting. Kingsley noticed how the women looked at Ian.

  “I used to get that look,” he told Ian after they were seated and belted in. “I thought I would miss it when I started to age, but I don’t. I actually felt like a proud father just then when those ladies gave you the once over.”

  Ian smiled, thinking he was being teased. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No, don’t tell me you didn’t see those women.”

  “I saw them, I see everything, but I didn’t give them a thought. If they were giving anybody the once over, it was probably both of us. You don’t look that much older than me.”

  “I beg your pardon, I was so happy I could have cried when I got my first gray hair. I’d been twenty-something for over four hundred years. I look like I could be your father, and I’m proud of it.”

  Ian nodded. He knew what Kingsley was saying. Hunters who don’t die in service pray for the opportunity to bond with a mate and age naturally. Hunters always appear to be close to whatever age they were when they took their final test, the blood test. Some of them will add artificial gray to their hair if they live in one area for a long time, but they don’t age without a life mate, even if they retire.

  Rituals were never explained in their sect unless one was about to be performed. There was a reason Hunters and Trackers separated themselves from the Ketier, or humans. Ian suspected the mating ritual was a blood right too. It was the only logical answer as to how a mate could cause one to age naturally. And no long term couple aged to look like their mate more than a former Hunter. Speaking of such things to or around non Hunters was punishable by death. With Fox popping up at odd times, most Hunters didn’t speak of them at all.

  Ian was interested in how Nesta’s father came to know his way around Valparaiso so well. When he pulled into the Northtown parking lot without passing it the first time, he had to ask.

  “I used to spend a little time over here before I was married,” he explained. “Whenever there was something big happening at the university,” he added.

  “How long did you wait before you told her?”

  “Months. At first I thought I would have to wash her anyway so it didn’t matter how much I told her, but then things got serious and I didn’t want her to ever forget what we’d shared. It’s funny too, because I used to hear Hunters saying things went too far to wash, and it never made sense before her.”

  “I know what you mean.”

  The deceptive parking lot was full again. As they parked, the car in front of them was emptying of four college age women. “If they’re traveling like that, this place might be full tonight,” Kingsley observed.

  “Lucky us,” Ian said.

  “Hey brother, what’s with the attitude? When I was a young single guy like you, it was a lucky night to find the Ketier babes traveling in packs.”

  “It hasn’t been that kind of night for me in a long time. I was hoping the relocation back to the States would help.”

  “Face it, man, you’re ready. I was just like you before I retired.”

  Ian wondered which came first, the desire to retire or meeting his mate. He wondered too how long Kingsley had been feeling like that before he was able to give it words. More accurately, before he met somebody who could give it a name.

  They walked slowly to the main door, both of them using their special abilities to feel the environment. Kingsley could smell the signature scent of Sangsue. He knew they had to have passed within the hour, and it must have been more than one for the scent to linger.

  Ian smelled it too, but he wasn’t as confident. He would have called it a feeling, not realizing it was a familiar smell in the unfamiliar night air creating the scent, which in turn triggered the feeling.

  “Do you ever use your real name?” Ian asked.

  “My wife uses it at certain special times. What about you?”

  “No, but I was thinking about telling you so I could hear it mixed in with our language.”

  “Don’t tell me. Save it for that special person. You won’t be sorry.”

  “Thanks. I’ve heard others say that, but I needed to hear it again.” Ian felt good talking to a man like himself who appeared older and wiser.

  Since relocating to Sacramento, he’d met a married couple of former Hunters who lived in a home that served as a meeting place and temple for the locals. Tyler and Jahia appeared to be around the same age as Kingsley, and they were just as friendly, but so many others were already depending on them for their wisdom. Ian never felt comfortable adding to their yoke. Talking to Kingsley so openly was truly enlightening.

  “Hey, you can call me anytime when you go back. I know what it’s like to have so many questi
ons and nowhere to turn with them.”

  “Again, thank you.” Ian wondered if Kingsley had read his thoughts or if he was planning to offer his friendship anyway. It didn’t matter, but he was curious.

  They both heard a mental scream soon after entering the crowded bar. Before they could react, Kitty appeared in front of them and jumped into Kingsley’s arms, wrapped her long legs around his waist and planted a wet kiss on both cheeks.

  For a moment, it seemed to Ian as if all movement had stopped in the room and every eye was focused on them. He looked at Kingsley and Kitty, but they were oblivious to anyone other than themselves.

  “Let’s go into the office. I don’t need to have these humans this deep in my business,” she uttered when she came up for air. She pulled Kingsley into a side office. Ian didn’t know if he was invited too, but he followed.

  The room was tiny and junky, obviously serving as a storage room as well as an office. Ian figured it was the type of place that could spark one of his overload headaches and his less frequent claustrophobia. His next thought was embarrassment over his maladies. Hunters were known for not being sickly. He sat on one of the two hard backed chairs in the room and tried to make himself unobtrusive.

  Kitty pushed Kingsley down in the remaining chair and then sat on his lap. She pushed his hair out of his face so she could look at him. “My favorite cliff dweller is back in town,” she said as she hugged him again.

  Kingsley hadn’t stopped laughing since she first wrapped his legs around him. He kept trying to say something, but then he would get tickled again and begin anew his infectious laughter. Ian thought he looked most like Nesta when he was laughing, and that look made Ian smile too.

  Just that past week, Ian had mentioned to the Pale Fox that the biggest difference between the Hunters in North America and South America was their seriousness. South American humans have a profound awareness, if not fear, of evil. El Diablo is real to them.

  His job in Brazil was harder because the Ketier around him were always just a half step away from seeing things as they really were. Even the scientists and other serious types allowed for the possibility of evil. Acknowledging evil, they allowed for the possibility of all the other-worldly types that fight, control, or compliment evil—–even when they claimed to not believe in God. In the U.S., humans could talk all day and never offer vampires as a reason a young woman was dead in an alley.

  “The last time I saw the cliffs was probably around the last time you saw the plateau and brown skin on that beautiful body,” Kingsley finally said, but Ian didn’t think that was what he was struggling to say.

  “I see it every day in my dreams,” she said somewhat wistfully. She sighed and finally looked at Ian.

  “I guess you two know each other,” Ian teased. They both started laughing again. “Am I going to have to separate you two?”

  Kitty stood. “The young Hunter is right. Fox would be ready to punish us by now.”

  “No he wouldn’t,” Kingsley protested. “You always took Ogo too seriously.”

  “No, I was never his favorite like you!” She slapped Ian hard on his back before Kingsley could further defend the Pale Fox. “And you, Hunter. I would smack you for not telling me you knew this one if you weren’t so damn cute!”

  “Considering how my back feels right now, thank you for your restraint. Not what I’d expect for reuniting lost love.”

  Ian noticed the quick look they exchanged before Kingsley responded.

  “Leave him alone, Kitty. We just met tonight. My daughter is his driver.”

  “Atanu,” she shouted as she jumped in place. “I should have known! There was something very familiar about Nesta. Oh, Atanu, she’s your daughter. That beautiful young woman is Keke.”

  Kingsley laughed. “I haven’t heard anybody call her that in years.” he looked at Ian. “Before she started school we called her Cricket or Keke. She asked us to stop.”

  “I don’t think I ever heard this one call her by her real name,” she said, nodding at Ian. She then looked at Kingsley and asked, “Are you still into Marley?”

  “Until the end.”

  They both got quiet and looked at each other. Ian didn’t have to intrude in their thoughts to know what they were thinking. Kingsley appeared to be about twenty years older than Kitty, but everything he’d heard told him the old friends were probably close to the same age. She called him Atanu, which simply meant third born son and would not be used by those not familiar with his family. He was moving toward death; she wasn’t moving at the same speed. Death by old age is a glorious honor, but leaving friends behind is never a happy thought.

  Kingsley nodded. “By the way, I’m using the name Kingsley now.”

  Ian wondered what Kitty had called him. Clearly they shared special memories, and if they ran as deep as Ian suspected, Atanu was just one of many names Kingsley would expect Kitty to utter.

  She was so different in appearance and personality from the woman he married. But then Ian reminded himself that Kitty, being chameleon skinned like every other Hunter and Tracker, would have looked different in Mali and any other place with a dark-skinned majority. Both Dot and Kitty were beautiful women, but they shared very little in appearance. Dot was of average height, while Kitty was tall like all Hunters and Trackers. Dot’s skin was medium brown with buttery undertones. Kitty was white with not a hint of African in her undertone or anywhere else. Dot caressed with a grandmother’s wit and Kitty pinched with a young woman’s sassiness, but Ian could see how a man could and would enjoy both approaches.

  “What are you smiling about, Hunter?” Kitty asked Ian, as she shoved him like a boy on the playground.

  “I’m just enjoying the reunion of old friends.”

  “Sentimental; I like that in a man. . .”

  “What do you not like in a man?” Kingsley teased.

  She went to hit him, and Kingsley caught her fist and kissed it. It was both strange and sexy, and Ian found himself embarrassed by his own presence.

  “I just got a strange feeling,” she said.

  “I did too.”

  Ian didn’t know what they felt, but he stood too and followed them from the room. He always tried to defer to the feelings of his elders. When they entered the bar again, Ian smelled the Sangsue. The scent was strong—he figured more than one or two.

  “In the back, toward the dart board,” Kitty said. She nodded her head in that direction, but neither she nor Kingsley moved.

  “What’s the plan?” Kingsley asked.

  “You’ve forgotten, haven’t you?”

  Ian looked at Kingsley as Kingsley studied her face, smiling.

  “The freeze,” he finally said. “You’re right, I had forgotten. Can you still do it?”“

  “I haven’t in years, but I’m sure I can.”

  “Do what?” Ian asked.

  “Kitty once saved a Norse god’s granddaughter, and he gave her the ability to freeze time.”

  Ian threw up his palm and slapped five with her. “That is so cool. Our gods are so stingy with their gifts. Just about every Hunter or Tracker I know with special gifts got them from another pantheon.”

  “You’d better not let Fox hear you say that, in case he was planning to give you something,” Kitty said under her breath.

  They both waited for Kingsley to either defend his friend or deny his godship, but he said nothing.

  Ian thought about the times, at least three, in the past years when he’d come to the aid of a Greek immortal. Not only did he not get a gift, he just barely got a thank you from the rescued or any of their families.

  “Okay, you guys go over there and check. They could be minding their own business and, if so, we can wait until they leave the bar to confront them. If they’re stalking somebody and you want to take them out here, send me a message.”

  Both Hunters understood that she would have to be able to see her subjects in order to freeze them for the length of time it would take to fight multiple Sangsue
. Ian was excited. He knew all

  Hunters and Trackers could stop time for a few seconds, but that paired with a gift from a god could work out to be three minutes, the maximum allowed by the universe—something he wanted to see in action. The only time he’d ever seen it done for almost as long was when Fox did it for almost two minutes, but Fox wasn’t one of them.

  “Have you ever seen her do it?” Ian asked as they walked to the back.

  Kingsley stopped and looked at him. “Do what?”

  “Stop time for that long. That must be so cool.”

  Kingsley laughed. “Yeah, it is.” Then he stopped again and looked at him as if he couldn’t walk and talk. “But you know what’s really cool? She can pause in mid air like that shit. That’s the bomb-diggety.” He laughed at himself. “Don’t tell my daughter I said bomb-diggety.”