Rachel held her head in her hands, and then wiped her hair back from her face and licked her lips. She blew out a long, shaky breath and pressed her palms to the table. Katie covered her hand with hers and whispered, “It’s going to be okay, darling.”
“This is ridiculous,” Rachel hissed under her breath. “No one knows what happened to Mark Surley. We have no clue if Patrick was involved in his disappearance.” Katie patted her hand and smiled wanly.
“If that were all that we had, we would not be here today. I assure you,” Eva Magruder said.
Katie sat up straighter. Eva’s voice was steady, but her eyes were weary. Rachel wondered where Eva stood, really. Nan had told her Eva had no choice but to vote for the investigation, that the board had no choice because of policy. While Katie was old enough to be Eva’s mother, the two women had grown close and stayed in touch after Eva graduated from Clarke University. There was some-thing more to their friendship that Rachel had yet to figure out. Nan had a way of turning the conversation whenever Rachel broached the subject.
Augustus shuffled some papers and extracted a stapled pile. “We contacted the Lewiston Police Department and they provided us with information regarding their investigation into the disappearance of Mark Surley.”
Rachel squeezed her Nan’s hand. Katie squeezed back without taking her eyes off Eva.
“They have witness testimony that corroborates with Ms. Miller’s statements.” The contingent of national representatives didn’t so much murmur as they shuffled. “And,” Augustus took off his reading glasses and rubbed his eyes, “they informed us that they have discovered some disturbing security camera footage that may implicate Patrick Lynch in Mark Surley’s disappearance.” The shifting of pant suits on polyester cushions and shoes on hardwood escalated.
Rachel couldn’t breathe. She pressed a hand to her chest and gripped Katie’s fingers harder. When she could look at her grandmother, Rachel’s heart stuck in her throat at the shiny wetness on Nan’s cheeks. She glanced back at Theresa, expecting the woman to be gloating.
Theresa had her head in her hands so Rachel couldn’t see her face, but she didn’t need to. Her shoulders shook and her hands trembled. For the first time since this nightmare had begun, Rachel felt a pang of empathy for the idiot—just a small one. A hand gripped her shoulder, and she looked back at David. Hard lines framed his eyes and his jaw was ridged.
“We are waiting for the detectives to make us a copy of the security camera footage. A courier will bring it to us as soon as possible.”
“Mr. Chairman.” A delegate stood with a finger raised.
“The Chair recognizes the delegate from New Jersey.”
“Mr. Chairman, why can’t the footage be emailed or sent digitally?”
“I will refer that question to Board Member Sheirling.” He gestured to the salt and pepper haired board member.
Augustus sipped from his glass and pressed his lips together. “Because this is evidence, and it is only through a special agreement between this organization and the local and state government are we able to obtain it for our investigation. The evidence would be compromised if it were to be transmitted electronically.” He took another sip and wiped his beading forehead with a crumpled handkerchief. “In order to protect the evidence, it has been sealed magically to ensure it cannot be tampered with while in transit.”
There was a thunk and the screech of chair legs against hardwood from somewhere behind Rachel and everyone turned at once as Theresa Miller fell in a heap on the floor.
Chapter Seventeen
Loti woke to an insistent buzzing. She floundered in the dark for the source: her cell phone. She put it on silent mode when she connected it to the charger before passing out that morning. With bleary eyes, she squinted at the bright display. Her eyes and brain couldn’t register the name or number, only the picture of Rachel smashing her face against glass, as if she were trapped inside the cell phone. Ha ha. Rachel, you’re so funny.
“Hello,” she groaned into the phone.
“Loti? Oh, thank the Goddess. I’ve been sending you texts all morning.” Rachel’s shaky tone woke Loti right up.
“What’s wrong?” She sat up rubbing her eyes.
“It’s Nan, and Theresa.” Rachel sounded like she was on the verge of tears. “The AWA started another investigation and it’s because of Theresa and Nan isn’t well, I don’t think-”
“Rachel, slow down.” Loti fumbled with the charging cable and dropped the phone.
“Loti?” Rachel’s tiny voice garbled from the covers. Loti dug for the phone and unplugged the cable. She slipped out from under the covers and pulled her robe on.
“I’m here, Rachel,” she whispered. “Start from the beginning.”
Loti tiptoed out of the bedroom, wincing when the door clicked shut behind her, but Wolf didn’t wake up. She paced around the sitting room while Rachel filled her in on the events of the past few days. The pacing picked up speed until Loti felt the need for more floor. She left the suite and shielded her eyes from the bright sunlight pouring through the two sets of double glass doors in the breakfast room.
“Can I help you, Miss Loti?” Bill walked down the long corridor in easy strides.
Loti tugged the robe sash tighter as she turned with the cell phone pressed to her ear. “No, I’m good, Bill.” She looked down at herself to make sure she was covered and then around and back at him. “Actually, is there someplace I can have a private conversation?”
He tilted his head and glanced at the double doors to her suite. “Yes, Miss. This way.” His genuine smile eased the nervous flutter in Loti’s chest and she was grateful he didn’t ask questions.
He led her down the corridor, away from the breakfast room and opened a door into a large sitting room. “This is the meeting room for the Society of Cincinnatus’s officers when they have their big gathering.” He glanced around the room as Loti entered. “Shame it only gets used twice in a year.” He made a quick circuit around the room, adjusting a heavy blue drape. “But we keep it clean and tidy all year ‘round.”
Loti approached the huge fireplace that dominated the room. It was so large she could walk into it if she ducked. Bending down to examine the elaborate lion-head fire irons, she was astonished to find not a speck of dust on them. Rachel was still babbling in her ear.
“And Nan hasn’t been sleeping, but will she tell me? No, and I’m trying to keep it all together, and then Theresa passed out at the meeting today.”
“Okay, Rache, you have to slow down.” Loti smiled a silent apology at Bill, but he waved and nodded his understanding as he exited and shut the door.
“What happened to Theresa?” Loti ran a finger along the curve of the mantel and suddenly she was dizzy, the room warbling around her. She clutched at the mantel but her fingers passed right through it. Her head spinning, she started to fall, expecting to hit the floor, but it never happened.
“And then they carried her out.” Rachel’s voice stretched out thin and faint like it was receding fast and far. The well-appointed room disappeared with a tinkling laugh.
The world swirled into a pearlescent, luminescent tunnel. Loti held her throbbing head and wondered what happened to her cell-phone. She struggled to sit upright, but had to lean against the tunnel wall to stay there. It thrummed with life and she felt the presence of other souls. What had brought her into one of the tunnels this time?
She had been practicing entering the one at the ashram, but she could usually sense their presence and hadn’t sensed an intersection in the room. She was getting pretty good at that, too. She understood now that she could gain access where there was an intersection of the cosmic tunnels. Closing her eyes, she reached out with a different awareness and felt both strange and familiar energy.
Her eyes popped open as she realized there was something wrong. She couldn’t make sense of it. It was like before she had woken up to her true nature, as a Light Walker. It was an amorphous feeling she had to roll around like a ball of c
lay, soften it so it could take on a shape. But this didn’t want to soften. It resisted. She pushed. It pushed back.
She fumbled to her feet, slumping on the wall for support. Why was she so weak? What was going on? She adjusted her awareness, closing her eyes to try to get a glimpse of the room she had been in, but the sitting room wasn’t there. That’s odd.
Under normal circumstances, all she had to do to return to her world was close her eyes and focus on her body. She usually left her body behind, only her energetic body could enter the tunnels. Or so she thought. She couldn’t see anything. There was…nothing. Her eyes flew open and her breath came rapid and shallow as she realized she could barely sense Wolf’s presence.
Wolf!
Where are you? His panicked thought flashed in her mind and she breathed a sigh of relief.
In one of the tunnels. I can’t figure out how I got here or where I am exactly. I entered in the Society’s meeting room.
Loti, we’ve been looking for you for a day and a half. Your body is not at the Anderson House.
What? She froze in place, trying to figure out what he meant. That’s impossible. As far as I can tell, I just got here.
Nothing’s impossible.
His mind was blank—something she still was impressed he could do—but through their bond she could feel him moving towards her. He must have been beside himself when he woke and couldn’t feel her.
You have no idea.
His energy pulsed fast and she knew he was flying. Flying? What the hell? How far away are you?
She closed her eyes and softened her mind—at least that’s how she thought of it. She let go of expectations and relaxed into the moment. Still dark, just dark. Where was she?
“You’re right where you need to be, my dear.”
Loti jumped and opened her eyes to a familiar face. “Dayalananda,” she gasped.
The former guru of the ashram smiled his blissed out smile and enveloped her in his arms, patting her back.
“Dayal, I feel something off. Something’s wrong here. Why?” Loti stepped back and he held her at arm’s length.
He glanced around with a puzzled frown. “I do not feel it, child.” He smiled big under his beard and patted her face. “But maybe it’s just for you, eh? Now, you called me here. What do you need, brilliant one?”
“I called you?” Loti returned the puzzled look.
His full beard split with an enthusiastic grin; his head bobbing up and down. “Yes, yes. You did. I heard you.” He tilted his head and pursed his lips. “Well, I felt you. I felt you needed me.”
A wave of dizziness came over Loti and she gripped his elbow to keep from falling. “I don’t know where I am or how I got here.”
Dayal’s smile exploded into brilliance. “Ah, yes, I can help you with that.”
He rooted around inside his voluminous peach robes. He looked confused for a moment and the next second like a kid with a new toy. He pulled out a glowing orb the size of a golf ball. “Here. This will help.” It was pure light: blinding and warm.
Loti shielded her eyes with her forearm as she reached for it. Not surprisingly, it felt alive and pliable, just like the tunnel walls. And although it looked like a piece of the sun, and she thought it should burn like it, the orb didn’t hurt her. “What is this?”
“A key,” he patted her cheek, “and a lock. It’s what you need.” And he was gone. Just gone. She twirled around on unsteady legs, but there was nothing and nobody.
Loti, I am almost to you. Can you feel me?
Yes. Wolf wasn’t far, she could tell. She cupped the tiny orb in both hands and studied it. It pulsed and twinkled like a pocket-size star. Okay, if this is a key, then maybe it will get me out of here. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the orb’s warmth and her hands vibrated.
The orb grew until it engulfed her hands, then her arms, too. As she connected with it in her mind, let her awareness be the orb, it completely surrounded her. As soon as she was inside, it winked out of existence, Loti with it.
* * *
Wolf flew faster than he had ever flown before, his ears popping with the rush. His heart slammed against his ribcage. It had been terrifying to wake up to almost nothing inside his chest where Loti usually was. She felt so far away, like there were two worlds between them—and a brick wall. She wasn’t gone, but he hadn’t been able to follow wherever she went.
Whatever direction he had turned, there was no pull. There was no ease for him, either. He was wound so tight for the last thirty-six hours that he couldn’t be around Roger, who made him want to tear off his head just for breathing. It was as if he was trying to see how far he could push Wolf, but he did organize a search, contacting his clairvoyant staff and the Ring’s coven.
They had scryed for her, but kept coming up against a static block. At least that’s what Roger said. Wolf had suspected the Ring immediately, but Roger’s panic gave him pause. Maybe Modore had struck. How, though? It made no sense. The Anderson House was the most secure facility in the Northern Hemisphere, maybe in the whole world. It was much more likely the Ring was behind it and Wolf had led his soul mate into a trap. He would never forgive himself if that was the case.
When the tug of her existence startled him just a few moments ago, he was filled with giddy relief. He surrendered to the pull of her with a bone-deep gratitude and as he got closer, the ache in his chest eased and he felt more at peace, more settled, more okay. Picking up speed, he grew warmer the closer he got to her.
Almost there, he thought and growled in frustration at not being able to fly fast enough. How had she moved this far away? He was racing over the Appalachian Mountain range, trees blurring below him in the midnight stillness. And then she was gone. He roared a long, “No!” into the night sky. Panting through a suffocating dread, he hung suspended in the air. What the fuck?
Loti! His thought was a bellow.
No answer.
Flying first one way, then another and then another, he realized with horror that the pull was gone. He screamed a war cry in utter panic. The silent stars winked at him.
* * *
Rachel paced the foyer outside the AWA meeting room. She hadn’t heard from Wolf last night. Where was Loti? She searched her brain for any clues to her best friend’s disappearance. She had been babbling non-stop and Loti had said to…What had she said? Rachel squeezed her head between the heels of her hands. Think. Think, Rachel.
Had she heard anything over the phone? She had been talking. She heard the cell phone clatter on the floor and then there was a whooshing sound. Her head snapped up. Laughter, she had heard laughter. Like wind chimes, she thought at the time, but it was tiny and faint and could have been a member of the staff in another room. Maybe?
“It’s time to go back in.” Daniel cupped her elbow and she almost flung it back at him in her fright.
“Oh, damn, Daniel, don’t do that again.” Rachel covered her face with her hands and moaned. “I can’t do this. I can’t do this.” She dropped her hands and searched the foyer for her Nan. Inside her chest, her heart palpitated in tiny, thready pulses, making it tremble like it couldn’t quite beat right and there was a gurgling sensation deep in her stomach.
“Richard escorted her in already.” Daniel took Rachel’s hand. “She’s not looking so good.” He steered Rachel towards the double doors. “Neither are you. She’s feeling off. Do you sense it?”
Rachel paused to pad around for the mark that connected her to the coven. It wasn’t an actual physical mark, but it was a special meridian where they all connected and it was the best word anyone had come up with. Because it did mark them, each of them, and was the place they met up with each other metaphysically. It was a place they shared, as if each of them overlapped like circles and the mark was where all the circles touched. She suddenly realized what Daniel meant—it was that thing in her stomach.
Nan was in physical pain. Oh, Goddess. Oh, Nan. The two days of investigation had taken their toll, it seemed. Kati
e had been questioned and cross-examined as if she were on trial, because—heaven help them—she was. Theresa had been carried out that first day and so far, hadn’t come back.
She was sequestered somewhere undisclosed and the report was she wasn’t doing very well, either. But the coven didn’t need to be told. They could feel her suffering. She was in moral and spiritual agony. She had done what she thought needed to be done, but she hadn’t thought through the consequences.
Because what the coven knew through their bond had brought the woman to her knees, quite literally, was the sudden realization where this investigation could lead. There were unique consequences for witches accused before the council. Why, Theresa? Why didn’t you think it through? Rachel shivered as she sat down next to her Nan. The older woman took Rachel’s hand and clung to it. Rachel wished she could cut herself off, if just temporarily, from the coven.
They could shield, somewhat, and it dulled the sharp edge of despair, but it didn’t take the ache away. And when the incessant questioning began, again, she wanted to scream away the aching. The videotape showed Patrick talking to Mark Surley, then suddenly they were both gone, as if the security tape had been edited. It appeared as if the part that showed the two men walking away had been cut out, but this was the AWA.
They were all witches and warlocks and they recognized the tell-tale, though subtle gesture Patrick made and the blip of teleportation. He had spirited Mark off. To where, no one would ever know, but everyone knew whose bidding he had been doing.
Katie Brown faced the questions with less and less steel. She wilted to the point that Eva moved for a recess twice and the morning wasn’t over. Rachel draped a supportive arm on the back of the chair and clenched her teeth as the one-hundredth question was asked about what she thought Patrick might have been doing and with whom, and why and what had she done, and why hadn’t she contacted the AWA if she was suspicious.
“Because a coven takes care of its members. We do not turn them over to the Association to be stripped naked for the member-ship to gawk at.” Augustus Sheirling blinked at Katie’s response, sipped his water and ran his hand through his hair.
Shattered Page 17
