Turning the Stone (The Blood Rites Trilogy Book 2)

by S. L. Perrine

  Silas sat at the table and Gwen stood in front of the stove, spatula in hand. The pancakes she was cooking started to burn, and Silas jumped from the chair to turn off the flame. He wrapped his arms around Gwen, and she dropped the spatula to the floor. Her hand shook and she clung to Silas. Seeming to be remembering Ophelia was there, they both turned to face her.

  She finally understood. “It’s a time loop. She took the baby, and is making us relive it.”

  “No. How could she have? The wards…”

  “She’s a death watcher.” Silas rubbed Gwen’s back. She wouldn’t speak, wouldn’t look at either of them. “She had gifts I’ve never seen before. She dampened mine, kept me immobile with golems. Then put up a shield so I couldn’t reach Gwen. She was able to overpower her sister the minute she had the first contraction.”

  “You don’t know what today is, do you?”

  “No. We’ve been here so long the days kind of melded together.”

  “All Hallows Eve. Our powers are dampened when we give birth. That way the child can be claimed by their own gifts. The significance of the day—” She shook her head. “It’s the moon’s day. Your daughter was claimed by the moon. I don’t know why she did it, but she wanted it to be today. When Gwen didn’t die, do you suppose she figured it out? She didn’t get Gwen’s powers.”

  “You're right.” Gwen moved away from Silas. The color returned to her face. “When the house fire supposedly killed us, the baby and me, Sabina would have gained access to the powers.”

  “How do you know?” Silas asked.

  “Because, without me or our daughter, Sabina was the next Crawford in line to be high priestess and carry on the line. She either figured it out, or she set the fire and knew we didn’t die.”

  “You can’t think that of your own sister.” Silas tried to grab Gwen’s hand, but she pulled away. She moved to the other side of the room.

  “Can’t I? She came here. Did this!” She pointed to the floor where she would end up in a few hours. “Why shouldn’t we think that way?”

  “Because, she left you alive, so the baby would live. She knows the two of you are bound. She needs Elyse to grow, so she can bring back Seraphina.”

  Ophelia looked at Silas as he spoke. The haze in the room began to shift. “Seraphina? She wants to raise her great grandmother from the dead?”

  “No.” Gwen shook her head. “Margaret was Seraphina. She changed her name in the fifties. She basically raised us. When Gran died, Sabina changed. She locked herself in her room. Stayed out all night, started wearing nothing but black, and never spoke to any of her friends. She dropped off the soccer team and started fighting with our parents. To Sabina, Seraphina was Gaia. She was the sun, the moon, and the stars.” Gwen rubbed her stomach. She knew the baby was gone, but could feel her presence inside her as if she still held her. That would be the one thing that got her through. She would get to feel her daughter in between the horror of losing her.

  “This is all very informative, but can we please discuss the problem at hand? How do we stop this loop?” Silas leaned against the counter, his back to the window.

  “I can’t. I don’t have the ability to break it. Not enough to get you out. I might be able to alter it. That’s why I’m here. I need your permission. To bring them back here. I need the full power of the circle.”

  Ophelia knew the answer before Silas and Gwen exchanged glances. She knew they would agree reluctantly before Silas shook his head at her. She moved to him, rest a hand on his arm and then moved to Gwen to embrace her in a hug.

  “I’m sorry. This is going to take some time.”

  “I understand. I just wish it were like after the first time. I didn’t even remember the ordeal. Now after so many times, I’m finding it harder to clear my head of it. It takes me longer to come back to the beginning of the day, and all I can remember…”

  “The pain must be terrible,” Ophelia said when Gwen hesitated.

  “It’s not the pain. It’s the empty feeling I have while I’m lying there. My baby being taken from me is all I feel.” Tears filled her eyes, and one fell. She turned away from Ophelia and went to the living room. “You should go. She’ll be here soon.”

  The vision cleared. Ophelia sat cross-legged in the living room, the flames on the candle went out and Ophelia heard the front door slam shut. She looked up to see Chester running through the house.

  “He said he would protect her.” He fell to his knees in the middle of the room. Tears streaked his eyes. His clothes were torn, and he was out of breath.

  “How?”

  “I have no idea how, but it came to me in a dream. Please tell me someone planted that in my head to get to me…to get me to come here and bring them right to their door step. Tell me she is okay.” He sat on his heels, fists clenched at his sides. Tears still ran down his face mixed with the heat of his anger.

  Ophelia stood, smoothed out the skirt of her sun dress, and looked him in the eye. “She’s not ok, but she’s alive.”

  Chapter XXXV

  The task seemed simple enough. Chester had to get the rest of the coven, all six of them to join him and Ophelia at the cabin. It’d take too long. Too many weeks they had to relive that nightmare. Silas was helpless, having to watch it happen over and over. Chester couldn’t help feeling grateful that he was suffering. He promised he would keep her safe. He told Chester to leave, that he wouldn’t let anything happen to Gwen and her daughter.

  Chester was also suffering, for his part. He left. He took Silas at his word and he left. If only he would have stayed. Chester clenched his fists once again, leaped up from the couch and went outside. He couldn’t stand sitting in there knowing she was there, in that very room suffering. Ophelia refused to bring him into a vision to show him what was happening. She said it wouldn’t help, that he would just spend every waking hour obsessing over the horror of it. She was wrong. He obsessed about it in his waking and non-waking hours. He couldn’t think of anything else.

  Thanksgiving was two days ago. Chester stood on the porch of the cabin waiting for the cars to arrive with Marshal and Elle. They were away at college, and couldn’t get back until break. They couldn’t risk raising suspicion. They couldn’t let Sabina know that they were going to try to ease Gwen and Silas from the fate she gave them.

  That witch was still living in her family’s home. Chester could only assume she was the one responsible for her mother’s death, the fire at Silas and Gwen’s house in Springfield, and then this. She probably had something to do with Evelyn and Mortimore’s claims against Gwen’s position. At that point, he wouldn’t put it past her.

  No, if she caught onto what they were doing, she’d only show up and stop them. What he couldn’t figure out, was where the baby was. If Sabina took her, then the baby had to be somewhere Sabina knew about.

  Chester went back in the house and picked up the phone. He dialed a number and waited for the other end to pick up.

  “Hello.”

  “Hello, this is Chester Crain. I need to speak to you. Preferably in person.”

  “Why, Mr. Crain. Yes, of course. Is this evening too soon?”

  “No. I’m in the area.” He wasn’t, but the person on the other line didn’t need to know that. If Marshal and Elle arrived, the circle would have to wait one more day. He hated to do that to Gwen, but he had no choice. “Two hours?”

  “Sure, Mr. Crain. See you then.”

  He placed the receiver down and yelled through the house. “Ophelia I’ll be back. Something I have to do.”

  The small framed girl ran from the other room. She smirked at him and pushed her hair behind her ear. “Wait, where are you going?”

  “There is something that needs to be done. It’s for Gwen. I wasn’t here to protect her, but this I can do.”

  “Fine. Take Finis with you. Please. For me.”

  “Fine. Ginger, up for a run?”

  “Would everyone sto—…yeah, sure.” He put down the book he had his nose sho
ved into and stood with a huff.

  “We should be back tonight. If I succeed I’ll tell you all about it.”

  She smiled and laid a hand on his arm. “Please be careful.”

  He nodded and turned to leave the house. He could hear tires in the distance as he started the shift. A mountain lion was faster than any car. He would disappear before the car made it to the drive and he could be called back. Finis followed behind him, the red fox keeping pace with Chester as they maneuvered around large rocks and fallen trees. He kept pace all the way back to Springfield. When they entered the property of a large brown brick building, they took on their human forms.

  “Whose place is this?”

  “Thomas Hughes.”

  Chester walked up to the back door of the three-story building. Each of its neighbors was a quarter of a mile away. Far enough not to hear too much, but they could still be seen if they walked up the front stairs. Chester knocked once on the back door and it opened, allowing them to slip in quietly before it closed.

  It was a kitchen entrance, Chester noticed when they stepped into a brightly lit room, complete with white appliances and roosters on the walls. The large table was tucked in a corner with two joined benches and three chairs. Thomas ruffled his hair as he walked over to the refrigerator bare foot, his jeans dragging at his heels.

  “Something to drink?”

  “No, thanks,” Chester said.

  “I was asking your friend. You, I wouldn’t let drink from my dog’s water bowl.”

  “Thomas, you don’t have a dog.”

  “Well, if I did.”

  They both turned to look at Finis who just shook his head and took a seat on one of the benches. He looked bored. Chester wondered if he should ask him to keep an eye outside, but thought better of it. Maybe having a witness to the conversation was a good idea after all.

  “So,” Thomas said bringing a bottle of water with him to the table and took a seat on the other bench. “What brings you by?”

  “Gwen.”

  Thomas slouched back in his seat. He opened the bottle and took a long sip. “She’s dead.” He looked at Chester steely-eyed.

  “No. She’s not.”

  When Thomas looked at Finis and the red-head didn’t flinch he coughed up the water he’d sipped. “What?”

  “I need something from you. For her.”

  Thomas stood. He placed the bottle on the table and stepped forward. “What makes you think I’d help?”

  “Because just like me, you care about her. No matter the marriage to a Sigmis, no matter the fact that she never even knew. You care.”

  “What do you want?”

  “The baby. Sabina took the baby. I need to know where, and I need to get her back.”

  Thomas sat again rubbing his face with his hand. Then moved to ruffle his hair once more. He sat back on the bench resuming his relaxed position. His legs stretched out in front of him.

  “I don’t know what I can do.”

  Chester kicked his foot and got in Thomas’ face. “You know where she is, don’t you?”

  “Yeah. I do. I swear I didn’t know. I thought they both died. I thought all of them died in the fire.”

  “Well, can you help get her back?”

  He stood and went to the counter. He picked up the receiver and dialed a number. “Hey, whatcha doing tonight?” He waited a moment waiting for the person on the other line. “Want to go see a movie?”

  He laughed, but Chester could tell it was forced by the look on his face. He rolled his eyes and turned around so the two men in his kitchen couldn’t watch him.

  “Yeah, no I understand. I guess I’ll just ask Clara.” He waited again and Chester could hear a shrill scream on the other end. “Okay then. I’ll pick you up in an hour.” He laughed again and said goodbye, plopping the receiver on the base once he was done. “I fully intend to offend her before we even pay for tickets. So, get in, get the kid and get out."

  “Who?”

  “Evie.”

  “That little bitch. Does she know whose kid it is?”

  “I told you, man. I don’t know. She told me it was her cousin’s baby. That the girl died in childbirth and her parents agreed to raise it.”

  “They’ve gotta know,” Finis finally spoke.

  Chester waited until Thomas left before he shifted and took off for the Delaney house. It was bigger than Thomas’ by more than half. The large colonial with its baby blue exterior sat on top a hill in the middle of the property. The driveway snaked this way and that all the way up to the front of a large three stall garage. The backyard was more duck pond than yard, and more hill still than that. There was a small patio on the backside of the house, which sat a small table and three chairs, a small grill and a closed umbrella.

  They made their way to the front door. As far as Chester knew, the back was seldom used and therefore always locked. The front door of the house, however, was like a revolving entrance. Somebody was always walking in or out. Just so happened that he and his ginger friend would be doing the walking.

  They made their way into an elaborate foyer. Stairs to the right coated in white paint snaked up to the second floor. Just ahead of them Chester could see two doorways. One that led to the large kitchen in the rear of the house, and the one that went to the rest of the house. From there the house was like a maze, but one he remembered well enough. He moved right, heading into a small room. They called it the observatory because they could stand there and observe who drove up their driveway. The large bay windows gave an unobstructed view of the front lawn and the river of asphalt.

  Through that room, and a step down led into the sitting room. Overly decorated furniture sat around a hearth of white stone on hardwood so light they could see every grain of the floor. The shine underfoot gave the room more light than was needed. Though the colors of the furniture and large Oriental rug were dark enough to mute it to a point.

  Somewhere in the distance, Chester heard a cry. His heart leaped to his throat. She was there, in the house. He turned to Finis and put a finger to his lips for him to keep quiet. They moved still through one of the two doors off the room. It was empty. A study with rows and rows of shelves covered to the top with books. A large mahogany desk and chair sat in the middle of the room with nothing on it but a telephone and a gold lamp.

  They backed out of the room and headed for the last door. The door that would lead them full circle by way of the kitchen. Chester pushed the door slightly. He saw the small square table. On one side was an older woman. Evelyn's maid. Her sandy colored hair bounced on her shoulders in curls as her portly figure bounced with a dark-haired baby on her shoulder. She was patting the infants back, a bottle sat on the table. She moved to lay the baby down in a bassinet on the side of the table and Chester made his move. He gave a low feral growl.

  The woman shrieked and turned around. The baby started to cry, but settled quickly. Chester pushed his senses out to the child and woman, making her relax her stance.

  "Mr. Crain. What are you doing here? Evelyn is not at home."

  "Is Mr. Delaney at home?"

  "No, sir."

  "Then I suppose we can just walk right out of here."

  "Yes, sir."

  "Good, but we'll be taking the baby with us."

  He looked over at Elyse. Her small face was scrunched up. Her hands moved wildly around her as if she were boxing. The pink blanket Sabina had given the child was covering her.

  "If you do that, they'll come after you."

  "Do you know whose child that is? What has become of them?"

  "I do know whose child this is, however, nobody else in this house knows."

  "So, you're the one working with Sabina?"

  "No, sir. I am merely the one taking care of our high priestess. Until she is of age. Then she will be able to free them. Don't you get it? They are safe from Sabina where they are. Sabina thinks her niece is well cared for and is no longer a threat. If you do this...if you take this child from here…
" She shook her head and turned to the baby. "There is no telling what she will do. I don't know where she gets her power from, but that is one Crawford witch I don't want to cross. She is more powerful than her sister.

  “Look at her. She looks just like her. I've told them she is my niece. That my sister died in childbirth and I must care for her. They haven't looked twice at the child. She will be more powerful than two houses. She can beat Sabina. So, for now, why not leave well enough alone?"

  The woman looked to Chester with pleading eyes. He walked over to the baby and picked her up. He held her in his arms and kissed her forehead breathing her in. The baby fell asleep with his touch and he gently laid her down.

  "They hurt this child in any way, and you'll have me to contend with." She gave him a curt nod and he turned around to leave.

  "Wait, that's it? We’re not bringing her back?"

  "No, Finis. She's right. Sabina will just come back and do it all again, and maybe even make things worse. We have to trust this is the right thing to do for now."

  “What if the families sense her as she grows?"

  The woman turned and lifted the blanket. "Sabina's own undoing. The blanket was spelled to hide the child as long as it stays near her. As long as it travels wherever she goes, no one will be able to sense her, until she comes into her powers. By then it'll be too late."

  "Lucky us." Finis just started.

  "It's okay. Let's get back." He let Finis storm out of the house, then turned to the woman. He grabbed a pen and paper from the counter, scribbled something and handed her the paper. "Here, if you need to get in contact with me. Anything happens, you call me."