by TM Simmons
"Speak," Gagewin said. "We have to destroy Nenegean."
"You've told me everything that's happened since this thing came to … well, for wont of a better word, came to life." Grant stared around the table. "The first time it attacked, the snowmobiler, it was probably still confused about what was going on. Why it was back. I imagine it heard the noise and saw an intruder and just acted."
He focused on Keoman as he finished his theory. "The second time, when it killed this Alan, you called it to you to try to destroy it. It was attacking in defense of itself. Warning you, showing you what it could do. It learned something itself that time, that you did have a couple things that worked against it. The arrows and the shield."
"So," Gagewin said, "you're saying Nenegean is acting in self defense when she attacks?"
"Not only that," Grant replied. "I'm trying to help reason out this entity. What about how you consecrated or blessed the arrows and shield? Is it something you can use elsewhere, on other things that will keep Nenegean away?"
Channing pushed her cold coffee away and rose to get some of the hot chocolate still on the stove. It was well past midnight, and she was feeling the strain of exhaustion. More caffeine would make it worse and keep her awake, if she ever did get to bed tonight. She listened to Nodinens as she put some marshmallows from the bag on the counter in her cup and reheated the hot chocolate in the microwave.
"It is a complicated ceremony that takes hours," Nodinens told Grant. "And it has to be concentrated on just one or two items at a time. There are far too many families with children for us to be able to quickly protect all of them. The stones I placed in Channing's pouch were some I had already consecrated, using the same ceremony that was used on the arrows and shield."
"And they'll keep Nenegean at a distance?" Channing asked as she sat back down at the table.
"Yes," Nodinens assured her. "You will be safe."
Channing lowered her gaze to her hot chocolate and scooped up some melted marshmallows on her spoon as the talk flowed around the table again.
What if I don't want to keep her away? she thought. I don't think they're facing the fact that Nenegean is trying to communicate with me. Tell me something. Something to do with babies and motherhood.
But her exhaustion was too deep for her mind to reason its way to any conclusions. Only why's flowed through her thoughts. No answers. In addition to trying to keep the entity from taking another person or child, those around her were also only thinking of Channing's safety. She was deeply grateful. She had no desire to face the entity alone. Her fear when she arrived at the cabin where Nenegean waited inside nearly debilitated her. She'd wanted to flee as fast and far as she could. Only concern for the child inside overcame her terror.
She yawned widely, then stood.
"I'm sorry," she said. "There are two or three patients on the clinic schedule tomorrow. I need some sleep, so I'll have my wits about me to give them the care they deserve."
"We can move to my office," Nodinens said.
"No, no," Channing told her. "You won't bother me out here. I'll shut the door."
"She's right," Grant said with a small chuckle. "Once Channing goes to sleep, it takes a lot to wake her up."
Channing started to smile at him, but her gaze hung on the glare that Keoman quickly masked. Jealousy, Channing realized.
But she and Keoman hadn't gotten far enough along in their relationship to justify that. Or had they? She studied him for a second or two, but he avoided everyone's eyes as he drank from his coffee cup.
She shrugged. This would also be something they could work out when she was rested. Or when Nenegean was eradicated.
"If anyone needs a drink to relax," she told them, "there are bottles of Crown Royale and Jack Daniels in the cupboard. Some sodas in the refrigerator."
"I'll take you up on the Jack," Grant said. "Thanks for having my drink of choice."
Channing smiled at him without any answer except to say, "Good night, all. I hope you figure out some way to keep the children safe."
~~~~
As tired as she was, Channing still tossed and turned. At one point, the strap on her nightgown twisted around her neck. She propped herself up on her elbow, loosened the gown and turned her pillow over before she settled back down.
Sleep still remained elusive. The questions hammered her mind ceaselessly.
Why had Nenegean targeted her?
Why was she taking the children, then returning them?
Why had she taken Annalise?
Why was the entity able to get through the strong safeguards Nodinens and Keoman placed around her cabin?
Other questions joined her troubled musings.
Given the failure of the first protection pouch, would the stones Nodinens added work? The consecration chants used on them were the same as those on the arrows and shield, which did work against Nenegean.
But ….
Channing gave up and stared at the ceiling.
Nenegean ignored the defenses against her when she wanted to communicate with Channing. That had to be the key. There was something the entity wanted to make Channing understand. However, the language barrier prevented them from communicating other than in sign language.
She didn't have time to learn the Ojibway language. Not with children's' lives at stake, as well as whichever adult Nenegean targeted for reasons of her own.
Or were they reasons of the entity's own? What if she was trying to tell them something? Something that did have to do with the lives of the people living here now?
Damn it, Channing had never been good at charades.
She was finally drifting off when she heard the others leave. They seemed to be in a hurry, but before that reflection brought her fully awake, she slipped into slumber.
The smell of fresh coffee woke Channing the next morning. It was barely light out, and the clock indicated a minute before her alarm went off. Before she showered, she peered out her bedroom door to see who was in her kitchen. Nodinens turned from the coffeepot.
"Did you get any sleep?" Channing asked.
"On your couch. I am fine. I have found I do not need as much sleep as I get older. Maybe my body and spirit want to take advantage of all the time left. Go ahead and dress, then we will eat."
Channing frowned as she noticed the sadness on Nodinens' face. "Did something else happen?"
Nodinens sighed. "They found Annalise in the cave. She was dead."
Chapter 30
Sickened, Keoman turned from the images flashing across Yancy Peterson's computer monitor. The expressions on Hjak's face, as well as that on his detective, Jed, reflected Keoman's nausea. Those two had to analyze what they found. Keoman didn't.
"I can't stomach this," Keoman said. "I'm going to see Gagewin."
"Keoman." Hjak's warning tone halted Keoman. "This is an ongoing investigation, so I have to ask you to keep what we found here to yourself. I shouldn't even have let you come in with us after we got Judge Green to sign the search warrant."
"Annalise was a member of our tribe," Keoman reminded him. "We have an interest in her death."
"Maybe Gagewin does," Hjak replied. "And I have no problem with you telling him. However, until we sort this out, I don't want the rumor mill embellishing things."
Keoman blew out a breath. "I understand."
"You've worked with us before, so I know you do," Hjak reminded him.
"Yeah, and when this is all over, we need to finish that up. I'm tired of carrying around a load of bullshit when there's a hidden explanation."
"You have my word we'll do that," Hjak promised. "Soon. Now's just not the time to get sidetracked."
Keoman strode out of Yancy's home office. On the sidewalk outside the house, he paused. It would be a beautiful day. Clouds scuttled gently through the sunrise, a scarlet, gold and violet brush of color sweeping across the eastern horizon. The Northern Lights that put on a show last night were perhaps still dancing, not noticeable in the dawn. Still, their
presence bled over into the colorful daybreak show.
He thought about Hjak's assurance that they would soon clear his name. He'd put on a good enough act for everyone, except those in the know, to believe he had abandoned his Midé lifestyle and turned to drugs. The pretense allowed him to infiltrate a faction of the tribe that spread the deadly drugs through their territory. Then the windigo appeared on the road that day. He didn't remember anything after that until he woke up from a coma weeks later in Duluth. By then, the rumor mill had already had a field with the news of the fifty thousand dollars found in his wrecked Jeep. He'd been tarred and feathered as a dealer himself, although the grapevine said they didn't have enough evidence to arrest him.
Hjak and Jed had talked with the task force in Duluth, and they asked him to carry the burden of the lies a while longer. They were close to arresting the main dealer, based in Canada, where they were cooperating with the Mounties. The asshole dealer had left the country for a while, but he was back in business now. The lure of greed was too strong not to return to such a profitable territory.
Keoman hoped Channing didn't hear the rumors. She had noticed Doc Silver's and his staff's attitude toward him. She also knew he was working with Hjak, so perhaps she could reason things out. Pay heed to hints in her mind that maybe things weren't all they seemed, especially as they got to know one another.
His cell phone rang, and as usual, he cursed that piece of modern technology. The display indicated Nodinens' number. Given what was happening, he answered the call rather than deal with his voice mail.
"Hello."
"Keoman," Channing said. "I borrowed Nodinens' cell phone while mine charged, because I really wanted to talk to you. She told me about Annalise. Was it …?"
Her voice trailed off, but Keoman finished her comment in his own mind. He nodded before he realized she couldn't see him. "Nenegean killed her. There's no doubt."
"Why?" Channing asked.
"I don't know. None of us do."
"Listen," Channing said. "I've been doing a lot of thinking. I'm not as experienced as Grant or those in your tribe who deal with this sort of stuff. But Nenegean wouldn't kill someone indiscriminately."
He barely bit back his laugh before it left his throat. "You can't make that judgment call, Channing."
"You can't say it's not true, either. At this point in her existence, Nenegean has developed."
"She's only been in existence for a few days," Keoman broke in.
"You can't be sure of that, either," Channing argued. "You're basing that deduction on how long you've had to deal with her. She could have been around a while before she made her presence known."
"Channing is right, Keoman," Nodinens said, and Keoman realized the phone was on speaker.
"Are you still there with her, Grandmother?" he asked.
"I am," Nodinens assured him. "And I will be with her when she goes in to take care of her patients. We agreed last night that she should not be alone."
"You understand that, don't you, Channing?" he said.
She sighed. "I do. And I'll handle having a babysitter as long as I can. However, the rest of you need to realize that could be a two-way thing. With the way Nenegean has been with me —"
"Don't, Channing," Keoman interrupted. "Don't romanticize this creature."
"Romanticize? Keoman, you obviously don't know me very well yet. The last thing I'd do would be idealize a dangerous entity like this. I've heard too many things over the years from Grant and his team. I know how treacherous thinking like that can be."
"I'm sorry," he apologized. "I'm not thinking real straight myself right now."
Her voice softened. "Was it bad with Annalise?"
"Yeah." He wouldn't enlighten either Channing or Nodinens about how Annalise had suffered. The blood. The gore. That sight when he and Gagewin entered the cavern, then that shit on Yancy's computer, combined to twist his emotions to the point he was on the edge of losing it.
"Keoman?" Channing asked, and he realized he had been silent for several long moments.
"I'm here. Look, I need to meet with Gagewin. Stay with Nodinens, and both of you keep an eye on each other. I agree this entity is up to something. We need to figure out how to handle her."
"And eradicate her," Nodinens put in.
"Yes."
Keoman disconnected the call and continued down the walkway to his pickup. He'd contact Gagewin from inside it to see where the tribal chairman was.
Even before he got the key in the switch, he felt it coming on. There was barely two seconds warning before the crushing pain descended. He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the headrest. He needed to get his pills out of the glove box, but right now he couldn't move. This migraine was proving to be the most intense since he first came out of the coma.
Something stung his eyes, increasing the throb in his head. He slit his eyelids far enough to see a ray from the rising sun reflecting on the chrome of a windshield wiper. It struck a sliver of light straight into his brain. He moaned and shifted sideways, closer to the glove box. He fumbled in it for his pills and opened the bottle by feel. He didn't bother with two, his norm lately. He dry-gulped three, then closed his eyes and tried to manage the agony … which grew worse as the minutes passed.
He bit back a groan, but it escaped and echoed in the truck cab. The only thing that kept him from beating his head against the dashboard was a slip of rationality warning of even worse pain.
He kept a ball cap in the glove box, and without opening his eyes, he groped for it. He laid it over his face, deepening the darkness. It didn't help the pain much at this point, but maybe it would when the pills finally started to work.
Surprising Keoman, ten minutes later the pain eased enough for him to sit up. Now able to think more rationally, he chastised himself for gulping so many pills. If he kept that up, he'd be checking in a rehab facility somewhere. Somehow he had to get a handle on this debilitating attacks.
He waited quietly for another five minutes, feeling the migraine drain into only a really bad headache. When he heard the door of the B&B open, he was able to turn his head and see Hjak walking down the sidewalk, Jed following with the computer in his arms.
Hjak motioned Jed on to the patrol car. He opened Keoman's pickup door and asked, "You still here? What's wrong? You look like crap."
"One of my headaches," Keoman said in a quiet voice, still afraid the pain would descend with a vengeance again rather than continue to diminish.
"Sorry," Hjak said. "Do I need to get you over to Channing's clinic?"
"I think the pills are working."
"Jesus, man," Hjak said. "We have our differences, but I wish you could figure out what's causing those things."
"You and me both." Keoman slid behind the steering wheel. "I need to find Gagewin. You have my number if you need me. Was there anything else on that computer that I need to tell Gagewin about?"
"Just more of the same. I'd never have imagined Yancy into stuff like that. Child porn. Damn, I'm trying not to jump to any conclusions. Not to speculate. That can make us twist the facts to fit our speculations, rather than letting the facts lead us to the right conclusion. But one thing seems to be staring us in the face."
"What?"
Hjak hesitated, then said, "In confidence, right?"
"Right."
"When we took Annalise's statement, she said a couple things meant to make us think Yancy might have committed suicide. Now, like you mentioned earlier, what we found here …." Hjak appeared too sick at heart to finish.
"You're thinking Yancy might be the one who molested those children."
Hjak stared into Keoman's face. "Yeah. But it just doesn't fit with the man I knew. Yancy was one of the most gentle men in town. Evidence doesn't lie, though."
"Still, your suspicions are running toward it looking like the guilt overcame Yancy and he ended his life so he wouldn't do anything like that again."
"Or maybe he was afraid we'd find out about him, a
fter that little girl you discovered right here in town."
"Maybe," Keoman agreed, realizing his headache had slacked off enough to where he felt comfortable driving. "I'll explain this to Gagewin."
"No one else," Hjak cautioned.
"Nodinens?" Keoman asked.
Grudgingly, Hjak replied, "Yeah. I can't imagine not keeping her informed. She's like having another detective on staff."
Keoman picked up his cell phone to call Gagewin. Then, as Hjak began to close the truck door, he said. "You mentioned us having our differences. I want you to know up front that I was with Channing last night. I took her across the border for dinner."
Hjak chuckled wryly. "It's been obvious ever since I saw you two together at the casino that there was some sort of spark there. I'm old enough to understand you can't force anything to happen between a man and woman. If you try, it'll crumble beneath you at some point."
"I have no idea where this is going between us. She's not committed to staying here."
"If it's to be, it will happen," Hjak assured him. "Same with me. When I lost my wife to that damn cancer ten years ago, I thought I'd never want anything more than a friends-with-benefit relationship with a woman ever again. It hurts too much to lose someone you love like I loved her. Life throws you curves now and then, though. Bad ones, good ones."
"Hope you find a good one soon," Keoman said as he picked his phone back up.
"You, too." Hjak closed the door.
Chapter 31
The black pickup nearly sideswiped Keoman when it barreled out of the parking lot. He slammed on his brakes and jerked the wheel to avoid a head-on collision. The other truck sped away as Keoman's vehicle hit a patch of ice and skidded.
Time slowed and instincts took over. He turned the steering wheel, regaining control before he ended up in the roadside ditch. With an effort, he loosened his white-knuckled grip and breathed a sigh of relief.
"You'd think something like this would cause a migraine," he muttered as he flexed his shoulders to ease the strain.