“Do you remember the day Velma and Bill sold me their old Honda Civic?”
“What I recall is the day I begged you not to buy the damn thing because the engine kept misfiring and it needed a new transmission. But someone refused to listen. Who picked you up on the side of the I-5 when it literally stopped running?”
She beamed and picked up her bottle of Steelhead, sipped. “It was freezing that day with rain to boot. You took me to the dealership, helped me pick out the Subaru. At least that day, I listened.”
“It’s a miracle,” Travis said in jest. “So many times you didn’t. Like when you insisted on looking for Whitfield. I won’t lie to you, Skye. That was hard for me. Letting you go out at night was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to sit by and watch you do.”
“And explains you going behind my back to stay connected to Harry.”
“Harry was my only link to what you encountered on a nightly basis. And I wanted to stay in the loop. I knew you wouldn’t share the details with Velma, or Lena, certainly not me so I tried to do the end-around and hope you didn’t catch on.”
The genuine concern she saw in his eyes was what tipped the scales. Fatherly concern, even then was something Skye thought she understood.
Later as she sat in his living room sipping on another beer, she stared up at one of the large oil paintings done by a local Native American artist named Ty Moon and realized that one of the man’s landscapes hung in the lobby of Josh’s building. For some reason it reminded her not just of Josh, but the loft—and home. It was the first time she’d thought of his space in that way. When had she started thinking like that?
When she heard Travis clear his throat from across the room, she wanted him to know, “I need your help getting Kiya back on track. There has to be a way for her spirit to be as strong in me as it used to be and is now present in Josh, short of becoming part wolf.”
“But you’re still getting visions, otherwise you’d never have been able to find York’s house and save Kelly Donahue. Even though, you did a foolish thing going in there alone when you sent Josh out of town.”
Skye twisted up her mouth and harrumphed out, “I knew you’d take his side. And I did not send Josh out of town. NAGA did. They wanted him for keynote speaker and I thought it best he go.”
“I call that chop logic, Skye. Besides, I thought that’s what The Artemis Foundation was set up for. I thought when a kid went missing you’d call in the troops and we’d rally at ground central. By doing what you did, you didn’t just shut Josh out. You shut the rest of us out as well. People who had agreed to help you find the missing.”
She puffed out a loud sigh. “Okay. I’ve been chastised. I’ve already told Josh it won’t happen again.”
“Good. Now back to this problem with Kiya. You are still having visions, weak as they might be, correct?”
“Yes, but I have to work twice as hard. I used a paper trail to locate York’s address. Even though, I saw the house, gray with red trim and thought I might be able to find the street.”
“Because you saw Kelly was in trouble.”
“I did. And I had to get to her. But after that, I had no clue about anything else. Josh is the one who gets vivid images now.” When she saw Travis frown, she added, “I don’t begrudge him that, Travis. He’s earned it. But what I’m not happy about is losing Kiya...entirely. Why can’t Josh and I share a spirit guide?”
“Need I remind you, Josh is not Native. Despite the transformation, Kiya doesn’t belong to Josh.”
“So he’s part wolf and they share very strong traits. Whatever you want to call it, they share a connection deeper than the one she had with me.”
“Good point. What baffles me is how weak Kiya is with you? How your visions have all but dried up, that shouldn’t be happening.”
“Really? Even if she has human elements that come from Josh? Because she’s very strong within him, stronger than she was with me.”
“Even then Kiya should still be connected to you in some way. I’m not sure I understand why your wolf spirit has detached as much as she has.”
“Tell me about it.”
Travis thought for a minute. “While you’re here, let’s try a bonding ritual. Just you and Kiya, without Josh here, Kiya may come back to you. Since you and Kiya were a team long before he happened on the scene.” Travis rubbed at his chin. “You know, that might work. It might be the answer.”
“Bonding? You mean like a wedding ceremony?”
Travis smiled. “Not quite but it should function as the same in unity and spirit and hopefully give us similar results.”
“Then what are we waiting for.”
During Skye’s trip to Everett, Frank had staked out the loft. He’d been there once before waiting for his chance to get inside to look around. When the Cree woman and the gaming geek had headed out in separate cars, Frank knew the timing couldn’t be more perfect.
On his first visit to the historic building, he’d already pilfered someone else’s card key when he’d pretended to be from maintenance. He’d discovered long ago that people with money didn’t usually spend too much time looking at the lower rung in society. If one wore a uniform and a name tag, they were pretty much invisible to the upper class.
From there, Frank had taken his bounty, the card key, and copied the data. He’d used the electronic codes to make a duplicate. He’d donned a hideous, royal-blue-colored shirt and pants with the name “Al” embroidered in white and blue over the left pocket, slid his substitute card through the reader, and waltzed past residents getting off the elevator right into the building.
As luck would have it, the elevator hadn’t stopped to pick up any more passengers as he made his way up to Ander’s penthouse.
Once inside the upper floor, he did what he always did. Frank set his timer and started with one room, completely going through it before moving on and tackling the next. His fact-finding expedition had him treating the apartment like a grid.
The precision paid off. He got a lot done. After installing several cameras and listening devices in obscure locations in the main room and the bedroom, he moved on to the kitchen. When his watch went off after two hours, indicating how long he’d spent on his little venture, he decided any longer than that and he would likely tempt fate.
As Frank exited the building, he patted himself figuratively on the back for a job well done. How often did one get to stick it to the enemy right in their own backyard and then sit back and watch the film at eleven?
While in Everett, Skye and Travis fasted in preparation for the ceremony.
It was the first time in the months since she’d been with Josh that they’d spent the night away from each other. As much as she missed the man she loved, Travis kept her busy.
Together they readied the in-ground medicine lodge for the ritual they hoped would bring the tradition of Kiya back to Skye once and for all. They worked to cut and stack wood for the fire, prepped the altar and the stones, and gathered the herbs from Travis’s garden they required for purification.
At sundown father and daughter made their way down a steep set of steps and into the depths of the earth, twelve feet down. The smooth mellow tone of flutes played and soared while smoke poured out of the smudge pot. Travis dipped a finger into the burned sweet grass, used his thumb to first smear the ash onto his own forehead before moving to Skye’s, where he did the same. The gesture, meant to cleanse the mind and prepare the body for acceptance by the Great Spirit, had Skye bowing, for the first time, in respect of her father.
As the music added soft drums and lilting chimes to the sound of the woodwinds, the two dropped down cross-legged on opposite sides of twelve large stones set in a circle. Glistening with the glowing embers, the fire smoldered with fragrant cedar and pine. As the wood sizzled and popped, the smoke trailed upward in soft wisps, making their two shadows seem to float and merge together as one on the dirt walls.
Travis used lavender to heal all past wounds, juniper to pr
otect and ward off evil spirits for the future. To attract the Mother Spirit and her wisdom, he crushed sage and spread it over the low flame.
As the smells grew thicker and stronger, Travis loaded the sacred Chanunpa pipe with fragrant tobacco, a plea and gift to Mother Earth to open the door to the Great Spirit.
Travis inhaled deeply taking in one puff, then two, before handing it off to Skye, who did the same. He began to chant. “We call now to Grandfather Sky and Grandmother Earth, our ancestors, our forefathers. We wish for our prayers and questions to be carried to the Great Spirit that we may receive the answers we seek. May they allow my daughter to rekindle the bond between her spirit guide, the wolf, that walks among men.”
His hands waved through the air to get the smoke moving. He began to sing. “Ee ah hay, ee ah hay, ee ah, ee ah hay. Oh Great Spirit, we sit before you tonight to help my daughter reconnect to her wolf. Ee ah hay, ee ah hay, ee ah, ee ah hay. Guide Kiya back to her human so that my daughter may continue to walk along the path which is her destiny. Continue to guide her along her path and keep her safe from the evil she must hunt. Ee ah hay, ee ah hay, ee ah, ee ah hay. Renew the connection to Kiya’s spirit and return them both as one so my daughter may walk the path of the future. Lead the wolf to the Land of the Spirits so that she may continue to guide and be strong for her human. Ee ah hay, ee ah hay, ee ah, ee ah hay.”
While she and Travis alternately smoked the pipe, Skye took up the chant, too.
And suddenly she found herself missing her mate.
By the time the ritual ended, and Travis helped Skye back up the steps to the top, Skye felt drained. The air rushed past her and she fanned her face.
“You okay?” Travis asked as he thrust a bottle of water into her fist, tilted the plastic up to her lips to make her take a sip. “Better?”
She nodded, tried to get her breath back. “Why does that take so much out of a person when it’s such a brief ceremony? What was that? Twenty minutes maybe?”
“It’s because the heat in there can sometimes raise the skin temperature a good ten degrees. That’s why the custom doesn’t equate to spending a lengthy amount of time in such a confined environment. It doesn’t lend itself to a long, drawn-out event. It’s meant to clear the mind and usually does.”
As they started walking back to the house, Skye blurted out, “I miss Josh.”
Travis smiled. “I’d be surprised if you didn’t. You’re in love with him.”
“He asked me to marry him.”
“You don’t sound too happy about it.”
“I didn’t give him an answer. In fact, he got upset about it.”
“Ouch. I bet.” Travis rocked back on his heels. “Why not? Why didn’t you answer him?”
“It’s a long story.”
“It seems it’s a night for such things. And as much as I’d like to hear it, at the moment, you look wiped out. Your experience in the lodge should put you in a meditative state of mind, able to accept whatever you’re meant to do. You should take advantage of it and sleep. Why don’t we put this conversation on hold until morning?”
“I think you’re right. I’m suddenly exhausted.”
Travis showed her to the same room she’d slept in with Josh, which didn’t help her pensive state any. After a cool shower, she dug out her cell phone and called Josh.
“Are you surviving without me?” she asked the minute she heard his voice.
“Barely. How’d it go in the sweat lodge?”
“I’m drained.”
“Then why aren’t you asleep?”
“I wanted to hear your voice before I dozed off.”
“Excellent. Are you coming home tomorrow?” he asked.
Home. She was glad he’d used that word. “Yes, I’ll be back in the morning.”
“Good. When will you know if it worked?”
“Soon, I think. What if it means you won’t have access to Kiya.”
“I’m confident it doesn’t work that way. But if it does, I’m prepared to go it alone without my wolf.”
“You are?”
“I am. But you sound exhausted. Having been through one of these things, I know how much you need sleep right about now. And Skye?”
“What?”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too. Josh? I miss you.”
“That’s my girl. Same here, baby. Drive safely coming back to me.”
She’d barely disconnected and plugged her phone into its charging station, before she drifted off into a deep slumber.
The video in her head played like a vacation reel from a travel agency.
Skye found herself in a thicket of woods among giant oaks and redwoods. There was a narrow trail to follow that took her to a trickling creek, barely enough water to wet the surrounding rocks. But when she lifted her head, she realized that up ahead, the stream picked up momentum and became a deeper, babbling brook. It raced faster winding its way through sandy shore toward rock formations that began to build in height and beauty.
Skye hiked the terrain, trudging up craggy peaks and down valleys. At one point she crossed over the stream just before it widened. Here, she left the forest behind entirely. She trudged along until the landscape evened out and the trail ended in a canyon hidden by lush deep green foliage. The roaring of a waterfall as it thundered over the top of huge boulders had her looking up to watch the force crash into a crystal clear pool of blue at the bottom.
That’s when she spotted Kiya. Drinking from the pool, the wolf glanced up. Their eyes met, blue to blue. Here, everything seemed bluer, greener, clear and clean.
Instincts guided Skye to drink from the pool alongside her wolf. She knelt down to cup the liquid, to sip from the cool water. But when she tried to hold it in her hands long enough to drink, it kept spilling through her fingers.
The wolf dipped its head. That’s when Skye did the same. Together she and the wolf quenched their thirst and drank their fill until Skye heard Kiya’s voice like an old familiar friend. After so long apart, Kiya came alive again inside her head.
Your path is as it once was. From this moment forward, we will be as one again. Nothing will change that.
“What about Josh?”
Josh will always be a part of me and me a part of him. But he is your mate. Stop denying what your heart feels for him and you will be much happier.
Three sharp cracks in rapid succession, like a rifle going off, broke the peaceful silence and had Skye glancing to her right. The tropical scene started to dissipate. The waterfall changed from brilliant blue to blood red. The scene ended slowly, morphing from rich deep blues to bright violet before turning much darker purple, and then fading to black.
For several long minutes Skye stood before the opening of a room or maybe it was a cave.
Whatever it was, the contrast of white came out of nowhere.
Skulls. Three of them. Skeletal remains. Bones.
Be patient. The bones will tell.
Skye knew then that Kiya had taken her down a road until they hit a dead end—a wall of sheer darkness.
The video ended like a long, exhausting journey, leaving Skye out of breath. Coming awake, she wanted to reach for the phone to call Josh, to tell him about the vision, to talk about babbling brooks and tropical waterfalls—to warn him about the bones—the bones that waited in the darkness for someone to find them.
Chapter Twenty-One
Skye got back to Seattle a little past eleven in the morning. When she pulled her Subaru into the space next to Josh’s car in the loft’s underground lot, she was surprised to find him home this time of day.
Her senses went on alert.
She’d talked to him less than an hour out and he hadn’t hinted at working from home or that anything was amiss. Had he been holding something back while she’d been in Everett?
She considered their conversations while she’d been gone. Josh had stuck to the simple topics at hand, keeping his comments brief. He’d talked about her coming to terms
with Travis. She’d responded in kind by admitting she’d done quite a bit of soul-searching while spending time at The Painted Crow. She hadn’t gone into detail yet about her vision. She’d planned on doing that face-to-face.
It wasn’t just the dream she had yet to share with him. Getting Kiya back had given her a different perspective about a lot of things. That included his marriage proposal, such as it had been. She loved Josh. It was time she thought about their future together.
Making her way to the elevator, she rode the car up to the penthouse. When the doors opened and she saw Josh waiting for her, she dropped her bags where she stood and leaped into his arms.
He covered her mouth.
She started to unbutton his dress shirt. When he stilled her hand, she pointed out, “Okay, the day you don’t want to make love, something’s wrong. What is it? I get this sense you’ve been keeping something from me this entire time?” She put her hands on her hips to challenge him to deny it.
Instead of that though, he kissed her again before stating flatly, “We had a visitor while you were gone.”
Skye raised one brow. “Oh really. Anyone we might know?”
Josh strode across the room to his desk, turned his laptop screen around to where Skye could get her first look at their intruder. “Recognize the build? And he isn’t wearing his creepy mask this time. What you see is the get-up that matches what the maintenance team in the building wears. Because there was no reason for any of them to be in our home, I asked the building superintendent to take a look at this video. The man isn’t one of his.”
“Where did you get that? That’s not surveillance from the security system here, is it?”
“No. Although he did tamper with the building’s security tapes. Luckily I had my own cameras set up around the loft. Something he didn’t count on.”
Skye Cree 02: The Bones Will Tell Page 19
