High Priestess

by Wendy Hewlett

  That sounded oddly like Jax’s voice. She tried to open her eyes to see, but they were too heavy. What would Jax be doing in her bedroom anyway?

  “Are you sure the pain meds are working. She looks like she’s hurting.”

  Definitely Jax.

  “We only dole out the good stuff around here. Especially for our VIP patients.”

  Now she knew she was dreaming. Riley and Jax wouldn’t both be in her bedroom having a friendly conversation. And why the hell did everything hurt so damn much?

  “Ooh. She does look like she’s hurting. She’s grimacing.”

  Mick?

  “Well, that’s definitely not a smile.”

  Adara? What the …? She struggled to open her eyes and five sets stared back down at her. Was that LaCroix? Dreaming. “Can you shut off the pain?” If that was her own voice, it sure as hell didn’t sound like it, unless she’d been in the dessert for a month. Without water.

  “I thought you said you gave her the good stuff,” Jax said.

  “We did. It’s not going to take away all of the pain,” Riley shot back.

  That was more like it. Snipping at each other sounded normal.

  “I thought we agreed on getting along,” Adara’s soft voice said. “Rave doesn’t need more stress.”

  Raven struggled to open her eyes again. “You,” she glared at Adara. Her right eye felt weird, but she glared anyway. “You only took me in because mom told you to.”

  Raven, stop. You can’t tell her.

  “You need to shut up.”

  Rave.

  “Must be the drugs,” Mick laughed. “She’s not herself.” She leaned over the bed rail. “You’re in the hospital, Raven. Do you remember?”

  “I remember everything hurts.” Raven attempted to lick her dry lips, but her tongue was just as dry.

  “Yeah. You’re pretty banged up and your head took a good knock. But, other than that, you’re great,” Mick reported.

  “Great?” Was she serious? “Can I have water?”

  “I’m going to sit you up a bit, Rave.”

  She heard Riley’s voice just as the bed began to move, pushing her up into a sitting position. Her stomach roiled. “Oh. Don’t do that.” She started going back down again, then stopped in a semi-sitting position. At least she didn’t feel like she was going to lose her breakfast. She opened her eyes again, with less difficulty this time. The same five faces stared at her. “What? Do I look that bad?” They nodded in unison.

  “Hey,” Riley smiled down at her. “How are you feeling?”

  “I feel like I got hit by a friggin’ truck.” But, it was worth it to see Riley smiling at her like that. “Water?”

  “Oh, yeah.” Riley brought a cup to her lips and gave her a tiny sip. Then another, until she had her fill.

  “When can I go home?”

  “The doc wants you to stay the night because you hit your noggin pretty good. Do you remember coming in?” Riley asked. “You were awake when you got here.”

  “I was?” She had a few flashes – a bright light in her eyes, people scrambling around her.

  “Do you remember what happened?” Mick asked.

  “Yeah.” Raven scanned the faces still gawking at her. With LaCroix there, she was careful what she said. “I needed to go for a walk, clear my head. I wasn’t really paying attention. It was totally my fault.” Totally Ena’s fault. “I stepped out into the intersection without thinking. It wasn’t the driver’s fault.”

  “The driver was Jaxon,” Adara said.

  “Oh, God. I’m sorry, Jax. It was totally my fault.” The look on Jaxon’s face - brows drawn in, his mouth a grimace - made Raven feel sick. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t his fault, he blamed himself anyway. Raven reached for his hand and found bandages wrapped around her own. She gave his hand a little squeeze in reassurance and then lifted her hand again to look at the bandages.

  “Road rash,” Riley explained. “Your face, too.”

  Riley grazed her fingers over the scrapes on her jaw and then over her swollen right eye.

  “I’ll get you an ice pack for that,” Riley said and left the room.

  Raven turned to Mick. “You’ll follow up on the Dating Pool thing?”

  “Don’t worry. I’ve got it covered.”

  “Yeah, I know, Miss Efficient.” She really didn’t have time to lay in bed until morning. That reminded her of something else. “The autopsy results?”

  “Not in yet. But, I’ve got that covered, too. You don’t need to worry about a thing until you get out of here.”

  Riley came back in with another nurse in tow, Lori Metcalfe, a woman in her forties who wore her hair in a short dark bob. Riley handed her an ice pack which Raven placed gently over her right eye. She watched out of her left as Lori shot something into the IV line going into her left arm. Whatever she shot in there, it sent a cold sensation up her arm and then a wonderful warmth spread through her entire body, dulling the pain as it went. Her eyelids became heavy again.

  “That should help with the pain and nausea,” Riley said.

  It was the last thing Raven heard.

  * * *

  Raven was asleep in her nauseatingly pink room when something woke her. She laid in the dark listening. The floorboard in the hall creaked and a sense of dread filled her. She knew what that creak in the middle of the night meant. Another creak sounded and Raven silently got out of bed, terror rushing through her veins. She frantically searched her room for a weapon and found nothing. Her breaths came short and fast, her stomach pitching and rolling.

  Gregor’s hand closed over her mouth, reeking of cigarette smoke and Raven gagged.

  “Not a word. Not a sound. Or I kill your mom. Remember?”

  Raven squeezed her eyes shut, praying for some kind of miracle to stop this insanity. Please, God. Please, Goddess. Please, someone.

  “Remember?”

  The hoarse whisper in her ear brought with it the scent of whisky and scraped the nerve endings from her nape to her tailbone. She nodded. She remembered. She remembered too well.

  Gregor threw her on the bed and climbed on top of her, ripping her PJ bottoms off with one violent pull. Raven tried to scramble off the bed, but he just hauled her back.

  His hand clamped down over her mouth again and despite knowing what he would do to her mom, Raven tried her best to scream. She kicked her legs, punched, tried to wiggle out from underneath him, but his strength was too much for her to overcome. Pain, burning hot, shot through her.

  “Raven? Wake up, now. You’re dreaming. Wake up, Raven.”

  Raven’s eyes flew open at the sound of someone yelling her name. She tried to sit up, but strong arms pushed on her shoulders. She screamed, her dry, cracking voice turning it into a silent cry.

  “Raven, you’re okay. You’re in the hospital and you’re safe.” Lori Metcalfe’s eyes, a deep blue, were kind and smiling down at Raven. “You’re safe.”

  Her erratic breaths began to slow. “Safe,” she whispered. She began to relax her stiff muscles, slowly becoming aware that she was slick with sweat. “Just a dream.” The room was dark, save the light streaming in from the hallway. She relaxed back into her pillow, but her neck and face burned.

  “Sorry.” She hadn’t had a dream like that for years. Damn you, Ena. You see what you’ve done? Her eyes burned, but not a single tear fell.

  “There you go,” Lori said, her voice a soft caress. “I’m going to get you something to help you relax.”

  “No, it’s fine. I’m fine.” She just wanted Lori to go away now so she could wallow in solitude. Lori looked down at her with pursed lips and sad eyes and she hated the way it made her feel. She turned her head to stare at the wall and there was Jax, sitting on the edge of a chair, his face white, his beautiful blue eyes wide. She turned her head in the other direction.

  Lori left the room and she sensed Jax move to the side of the bed. “Tell me who he is and I swear to God I’ll kill the bastard.”

 
; “Who?” What the hell was he talking about?

  “Look at me, Rave.” He grabbed her chin and gently applied pressure until she turned and her eyes met his. “Who raped you? Tell me his name?”

  Jesus. What had she said during that nightmare? His stare was so intense she tried to look away, but he only pulled her chin back again and waited for her gaze to meet his. “Tell me who he is. Who raped you, Raven?”

  “Jax. Just stop, okay? It was a long time ago. A very long time ago.”

  “When you were a kid?” His big, strong hand combed through his hair and rubbed his scalp. “Jesus, Rave. You were just a kid?”

  “Will you shut up? I don’t know what you saw or heard, but you need to forget it, Jax. Just forget the whole thing.” She rolled onto her side and buried her face in the pillow. “Go home,” her pillow muffled voice mumbled. “Get the hell out of my room and go home.”

  “Rave?”

  She could do rejection, too. “Get out.”

  Lori came back in the room and whispered with Jax. Raven couldn’t make out what they were saying. Then one of them went out and she hoped to hell it was Jaxon. She felt a cool sensation in her arm again and flipped over to glare at Lori. “What did you just give me?”

  “Just something to help you sleep peacefully.”

  Peacefully? Did that mean she wouldn’t have another nightmare? She didn’t have time to think about it. She glided off to sleep on a magic carpet of warmth.

  * * *

  Raven lifted the lid covering the plate that was supposed to be breakfast then slammed it back down and pushed the tray away. She attributed the nausea roiling in her belly to the meds she’d been given during the night.

  “Hey,” Riley said as she came through the door with a small black duffel bag over her shoulder. “How’re you feeling?”

  “Lovely,” Raven grunted. “Do you think you could take this tray out of here?” She couldn’t stand the smell of it.

  Riley set the duffel bag on the end of the bed and lifted the lid on Raven’s breakfast. “Not hungry?”

  “No, it’s making me nauseous.”

  Riley raised an eyebrow, but replaced the lid and carried the tray out to the hallway. When she came back in, she rested a hip on the edge of the bed. “So, other than nauseous, how’re you feeling? Headache?”

  Nurse Riley was in the building. “I’m okay. Aches and pains.”

  “You gave us a scare.”

  Riley dropped her eyes and Raven desperately wanted to take her hand and reassure her she was okay. It was all she could do not to reach for her.

  “It’s not like you to walk into traffic, Rave. I … I’m worried about you. You could have died.”

  Raven did reach for her then. Her fingers brushed over the back of Riley’s hand and Riley pulled away. Her retreat was like a knife slicing into Raven’s heart. “Maybe it would have been best if I did,” she murmured, not expecting Riley to hear her.

  “Rave?” Riley gaped at her with wide eyes. “How could you even think that?”

  What she was thinking about was death and Ena and what happens after you pass. “Do you ever wonder what the afterlife is like?”

  “No, not really.” Riley cocked her head, her green eyes studying Raven’s.

  Raven closed her eyes and tilted her head back against the pillow. “I bet it’s like feeling the warmth of the sun on your skin after a long winter; the peacefulness of waves lapping the shore and leaves rustling in the breeze. I bet it feels a lot like I feel right after we make love - sated and content with you in my arms, your scent engulfing me.” She breathed out a long sigh and opened her eyes to find Riley glaring at her.

  “When are you going to get it through that exceptionally thick head of yours that we’re done? Over. The one thing I cannot tolerate or forgive is infidelity. Especially since you refuse to explain it to me.”

  Ouch. That hurt. That thread of hope that Riley would one day forgive her just frayed, unraveled, and snapped. Raven turned her head to stare at the wall and hide the devastation she was sure was written all over her face. “Sorry. Must be the drugs.”

  A few moments of awkward silence passed. Raven couldn’t even sense Riley moving. Then Riley sighed. “Let’s get you dressed and I’ll drive you home.”

  “That’s alright. Mick’s coming to help me.” At least she would be once Raven gave her a call.

  “Oh.”

  There was hurt wrapped up in that small word and Raven wanted to wrap Riley in her arms and soothe it away. Instead, she closed her eyes, willing Riley to leave before the pain of not being able to touch her became unbearable.

  * * *

  By the time Mick arrived to pick her up, Raven was dressed in the jogging suit Riley brought in for her and pacing the halls. As soon as she spotted Mick, she headed for the parking lot with Mick jogging to keep up. When they got to the Charger, Raven extended her hand for the keys.

  “Oh, gee. Don’t you think I should drive? I mean, you just got out of the hospital.”

  “Gee? Really?” Raven stood waiting with her hand extended, eyes narrowed at Mick, until Mick dropped the keys into her palm. “Good choice.”

  She drove out to her cottage, left Mick in the living room, and took a long, hot shower. When she got out, she examined the damage in the mirror. She was bruised from head to toe. The worst of the road rash was on her jaw and down the side of her left hand and wrist, but she also had some on her left hip and down her left leg. The outside of her right thigh was completely black where the truck hit her and her right eye was black and purple. The swelling had gone down a bit though.

  She started to put on a pair of jeans, but they were too tight for comfort with all of the bruising. She ended up in a loose pair of black dress pants and a light blue button down shirt. She added a belt and secured her weapon on her right hip, her handcuffs at the small of her back. It was uncomfortable, but she could bear it. When she came out of her bedroom, the aroma of bacon and eggs filled the air and she found Mick in the kitchen making a full breakfast. The coffee pot was full, so Raven grabbed a mug and sat at the breakfast bar.

  “I hope you’re making that for yourself because I’m not hungry.”

  “Did you eat at the hospital?”

  “No. I’m just not hungry.” The last thing she’d eaten was breakfast at Adara’s the morning before, but she still didn’t want anything to eat.

  Mick fixed herself a plate and sat next to Raven at the breakfast bar. “This is a nice place you’ve got. I love the view.”

  “Yeah. It wasn’t so great when I bought it. I’ve done a lot of work to fix it up.”

  “You do it yourself?” Mick shovelled a fork full of bacon and egg into her mouth.

  “Yeah.” Her next project was to build a huge deck and screen it in so she could sit outside and enjoy watching the sun set over the lake without being eaten alive by mosquitos. “Are you almost finished? I want to get going.”

  “Where?”

  “What do you mean, where? Work.” She gave Mick a playful slap up the side of the head and tried not to wince when the movement sent a flash of pain over her ribs.

  “Um … You know you’re supposed to take a few days off, right?”

  Raven snorted. “As if.”

  With a sigh, Mick got up, cleared her plate off, set it in the dishwasher, and began to fill the sink to wash the pan she’d used to cook the bacon and eggs.

  “Just let it soak.” Raven tapped her fingers on the counter as she waited.

  “What the heck is your hurry?” Mick asked. She dried her hands and then threw her jacket on. Raven was halfway to the car by the time Mick made it to the front door. “Should I lock it?”

  “It’s locked. Just pull it closed.”

  “Alrighty then.” Mick pulled the door closed and jogged to the car, muttering, “I’m going to lose about ten pounds just chasing her around.”

  At the office, Raven went straight for her email and printed out the report from the coroner in Orilli
a. She scanned through it quickly, ignoring the words she couldn’t pronounce or didn’t understand. The bottom line was Ena did not have cancer. Ena’s hair revealed she’d been ingesting arsenic for approximately a month before her death. Was it possible the chalice was laced with arsenic?

  Yes. That’s why it’s missing.

  “Oh, great. You’re back.”

  I’m so sorry about yesterday, Rave.

  Not talking to her. If I don’t respond, maybe she’ll get the hell out of my head and stay out. She placed a call to Headquarters and arranged for a forensics team to scour her mom’s place for the source of the arsenic and any evidence pertaining to her death. In the meantime, she sent a constable over to secure the house as a crime scene.

  “Raven?”

  Raven glanced up to see Mick charging across the room waving a file folder. She plopped herself down in the seat next to Raven’s desk and threw the file folder in front of her, grinning ear to ear.

  “What’s this?”

  “This is the common denominator in our red heads’ Dating Pool profiles.” Mick grinned again and squealed.

  Raven flipped open the file and stared at the picture, then she slammed the folder closed and shot to her feet, the veins in her neck pulsing, her nostrils flaring in and out like a bull ready to charge. “Is this some kind of joke to you?”

  Mick’s smile disappeared, replaced by an open mouth and wide eyes. “No, of course not.”

  Picking up the folder, Raven slapped it against the desk. “This guy was linked to each of the vic’s profiles?”

  “Yes. He’s the only one associated with all three. Why? What’s wrong?”

  It wasn’t that hard to believe when she thought about it. The guy was a sexual predator who lived in the area. Raven knew exactly where he lived. It had been easy to do a property search and find his residence when she became a cop. She just expected him to prey on children. “Gregor Paigo?”

  Mick took the folder from Raven and opened it on her lap. The photo depicted a man who appeared older than his 55 years. He looked like a gypsy with dark curly hair and a thick five o’clock shadow. He’d been a very good looking man in his day, but he looked haggard now. His dark eyes bore sagging circles and his skin was weathered. Mick’s eyes travelled from the picture up to Raven.