A Song of Forgiveness

by Lillian I Wolfe

  I looked at the time, realizing I needed to leave in a couple of minutes. “No, you're not alone and I think there are others. I'm trying to find more like us. Let's keep in touch, Elly, and I'll tell you more about these creatures.”

  She agreed and I reluctantly broke the connection. Elated, I hurried downstairs and out the door to my Jeep. I was in such a rush and didn't even think about setting the protection wards on the house as I hurried to the Chinese restaurant.

  Already settled at a table, the guys waited for me, sort of. They'd ordered a basket of pot stickers and were already digging into them like they hadn’t eaten all day. “Hey!” I called out as I strolled up to them.

  Digby glanced up, then jumped to his feet to give me a hug. He studied my face a moment, tutting at the bruises. “You look like you've been in a street fight.”

  I noted a couple of spots on his face as well, and he moved gingerly. “Could be. You look a little fragile yourself.”

  “I'm not bad,” he said with a brief grin. “Could have been worse.”

  “You could have been dead,” I said without any tact.

  “Well, I'm not. Come on and sit.” He returned to his chair next to Steven, and I sat next to Ferris.

  My guy's hand slid on top of mine, squeezing it a little. His eyes held a glow of sorts in the candlelight and they seemed to dance with his feelings for me. A warmth filled me along with the joy of being with him. I couldn't believe that I'd missed out on this relationship with him for so many years.

  We ordered the main dishes and another appetizer. While we waited, we talked about the situation with the band, which was basically in limbo. I felt so guilty about it. It was my fault, my problems that had culminated in that fight, yet it affected all three of us.

  I cleared my throat. “I have a suggestion, guys. You can form a new band, the two of you and maybe a couple of other people. If I'm not with you, then you should be fine.”

  Digby stared at me, a curious look on his face and his brow wrinkled. “No, I don't wanna do that. If I'm not playing with you and Ferry, then I don't want to play. I might sit in with another band now and then like we do now, but not as a group. No.”

  “I already told you that I was in the band for you and Dig,” Ferris said as soon as Digby had finished. “If it's not the three of us, then it's not what I want to do.”

  “But you could—”

  “No,” they repeated in unison. I got the impression they‘d discussed this before I got there.

  “So now what?” I asked. “Just let it go?”

  Digby shrugged. “I don't see a problem with taking some time off. In fact, I'm going to go home for a few weeks.”

  I stared blankly at him as Stephen turned his gaze to the table.

  “Home?” I echoed into the sudden quiet.

  “Yeah, Australia. I haven't been there since I moved to the US. I think it's time I go see everyone there. We've been so busy and all that I haven't taken much time off to go see the family.”

  “Oh,” I said stupidly.

  Home. His family's home. The other side of the world. Judging from the look on Stephen's face, he wasn't too happy with this decision. I gathered that he wouldn't be going with his partner.

  Ferris handed it well. “Great idea, buddy. And it's a good time of year to go. Trade this cold weather for the sunny down-under.”

  “Absolutely. I've already cleared it with my job, so I'm going to leave next week after the stitches are removed.”

  The food arrived, thank goodness, and any awkward comments about Stephen not going were set aside.

  Later, as we all hugged goodbye, we promised to meet once more to bid Digby a safe journey to Australia. We thought it apropos that we meet at the Outback Steakhouse so he’d get used to Aussie food again. Dig shook his head muttering about it being a poor imitation.

  I lingered a little longer with Ferris as exchanged a few more personal remarks than we’d bring up in front of the other two. I blushed a bit at his teasing but sexy comments and he wanted me to come home with him. Although I was tempted, I had a bit of research to do at home, and I had agreed to start my job earlier the next morning since I needed the extra income and Heeni had a full slate of dogs. So, we’d settled for a long, lingering kiss that left me feeling warm and tingly all over.

  Previously, I only had enough time to look up some more information about the various metaphysical planes. As much as I might want to deny any of them existed, my experiences with the transitional cemetery and the yiaiwas were convincing me otherwise. After my grandmother died and my parent’s break-up, I’d lost faith in any benevolent god.

  If the God of the Bible existed, I didn’t see Him in my life and in what I was doing. Yet, I’d always felt a force in the Universe had created it and continued to more or less manage it, but that this force had little interest in the day to day lives of his creations. I wasn’t even sure if this Creator was guiding it since the Universe seemed to atrophy over time. Perhaps it had been an experiment that was running along without intervention and somewhere else there were similar ones with more or fewer modifications. Wouldn’t that be a hoot if everything in our galaxy was a science project?

  Pushing these thoughts aside, I noticed Nygard didn’t greet me at the door when I came in. Nerves twitching, I walked slowly toward the kitchen, turning on lights as I went. I called his name in a soft voice, not wanting to alert anyone who might be in the house that I was there.

  I flipped on the kitchen lights and peered around. No sign of him there. His food dish was mostly empty, but he hadn’t finished. I turned back toward the living room and strode to the music room, opened the door, and turned the light switch. Everything looked normal in there, nothing disturbed and no sign of the cat.

  I started up the stairs with a butterfly feeling in my stomach. Something was amiss. My body vibrated with trepidation, the uneasiness making me more cautious. Halfway up, I heard Nygard’s yowl, followed by a series of hisses and the thumps as the cat raced through the area. Swallowing down my fear, I dashed the rest of the way, taking the steps two at a time. I lunged for the light switch and flipped on the upstairs overhead light.

  I halted sharply as I rounded the stair post. Nygard hunched in the corner near my television console, back arched, fur puffed out and teeth revealed in an angry, frightened grimace punctuated with a howling hiss. Facing him, the biggest yiaiwa I’d seen drifted closer and closer.

  “No! Leave him alone!” I thrust my hand out sending a bolt of light energy into the yiaiwa.

  It spun toward me, menace in its every movement and a flash of yellow light in its eyes. Nygard bolted from his spot to run behind me as the thing started to lunge after him. Desperate, I formed my fingers into a funnel and flung another blast at the creature.

  Roaring in anger, it shot for the roof and zipped over it to get behind me. I spun around and, oblivious to his extended claws, snatched Nygard up to the relative safety of my arms. I wasn’t sure either of us would actually be able to defeat this demon. I thought it was going to attack us, but it continued down the hall to the end where it huddled down, compressing into half its size in the corner.

  Maybe I’d hurt it and it couldn’t fight us yet. I tried to calm Nygard, who’d scratched the arm while I was holding him in the initial grab, but seemed more settled now. Catching my breath and gathering my wits, I dashed back downstairs and yanked the cell phone out of my purse that I’d tossed in the chair.

  I called Gavin, breathlessly telling him what was happening. “I’m coming over,” he said without hesitation.

  He couldn’t get here for at least twenty minutes, I figured, so I needed to hold this monster off until then at least. What Gavin could do, I had no idea since the only time I’d seen him in action he was running from them.

  I carried Nygard into the kitchen, then shut the door, closing us in. I had no idea if it would do any good but it was my best idea for the moment. I set Nygard down and fumbled through the drawers for a butcher’
s knife, yanked it out, and held it in my right hand.

  I started mumbling a protection spell, hoping that I could at least keep us safe in this area. At that point, I realized I’d failed to set the wards on the house when I left giving the yiaiwas access. Why were they after Nygard? Just to provoke me or what?

  I felt the yiaiwa outside the kitchen door. A dark roll of fear and edginess touched me, a creepy sensation that made my stomach lurch. Nygard pointed at the door with his body, ears flicked forward and a toothy growl rumbling from his gut. The demon tested the door, pulling back from the ward. I breathed out, maybe it couldn’t pass. Silence fell as we waited for its next move.

  Then I noticed the heating vent in the kitchen corner. I started to mumble a protection spell toward it, not knowing if the one on the house included the vents and other openings. Just then, a long tendril of black oozed from the vent as the demon worked its way through. That answered that question. I repeated the spell but positioned myself with my make-shift weapon in hand and a light blast ready to cast toward it.

  As it pulled through and began to reform, I pointed the knife and my other hand with the burst ready to go at the yiaiwa. Angrily, I said, “Leave or I will throw everything I have at you. You have no business here.”

  It laughed at me.

  So brave, little mouse. The words entered my head with all the vile inflections it projected into them. Think you can stop me, do you? Your power is nothing, a little sting of pain. I will end your meddling tonight.

  Okay, that scared me.

  I braced myself and waved the knife at it as I sent a directed bolt toward what might be its head. The light blast hit full on in the middle and the eyes seemed to blink out as it fell back a foot or so and the rest of its body formed. I readied another blast and sent it flying toward him as Nygard leaped from the floor to my shoulder, wrapping his body around my neck to gain a grip on me. Gasping as a claw raked my shoulder near the wound, I forced myself to focus and cast. My bolt, in tandem with a second blue-white energy force, shot toward the demon, slicing into him.

  Shocked, I realized the bolt had not only cut into it, but the second tandem shot had come from the knife-wielding hand, slicing through the yiaiwa.

  Deep, almost black blood oozed out of its body from a deep cut into his side that looked like I’d actually slashed him with the blade. Its eyes flared into a bright red and an opening that might be a mouth grimaced. It retreated back to the corner, still glaring.

  Too stunned by this, I didn’t follow up with another blast although Nygard, still perched on my shoulder, leaned his head forward and stared intently at the creature. I heard a noise outside and the front door slammed open. Gavin, I hoped.

  “Gillian?” He yelled as he ran into the house.

  “Kitchen!”

  Wards didn’t stop a human and he burst through the door, seeing me hunched back against the sink with the cat on my shoulder. He shifted his gaze to the opposite side where the yiaiwa huddled. Its eyes darted toward Gavin and, damaged or not, it pulled itself up, ready to attack again and this time, it seemed to be summoning a power of its own. I recalled the chill blast from the yiaiwas and readied my own power.

  To my surprise, Gavin yelled, “Hit it now!” and shoved his hand forward as he mumbled some kind of incantation.

  I repeated my blast, waving the knife at it, and Nygard rose up on my shoulder and yowled. From Gavin, a blue blast of energy to equal mine shot forward and merged with the dual blasts I’d shot.

  The yiaiwa staggered back, stunned and oozing even more.

  “Again,” Gavin said. I took a deep breath and repeated it as did Gavin, the power merging again as it struck the demon.

  With a bone-chilling shriek, the creature seemed to break apart and vanish in an instant.

  Jaw dropping open, I shouted, “We did it! We defeated it.”

  Gavin leaned forward, dropped his hands to his knees, and breathed heavily.

  “You used fucking magic!” I accused.

  He raised his head, shooting me an annoyed look. “Yeah, I did...fucking magic. What do you think you’re using?”

  “My... my power,” I sputtered. “My gift.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Magic.”

  Nygard chose that moment to lick my hair and I almost jumped. As I twisted my neck to glare at him, I noticed the many strands of golden power reaching to me from his stretched out body that totally wrapped my shoulders.

  “But I—I thought it was a gift. Everyone called it a gift.”

  He straightened up, crossing over to me. “And it is. That’s what all our skills and talents are. Gifts. Even magic.”

  He caught my hand, squeezing it in reassurance then reached over to pet Nygard with his other one. “Even your little protector here. He’s not just an ordinary cat, are you, fella?”

  Nygard rubbed his head against Gavin’s hand, then unwrapped his body and jumped onto the sink. He peered down at his bowl, hopped down, and started eating the rest of his food.

  “So you’re saying...”

  “He’s a familiar. A witch’s cat if you believe the superstitious tales. He’s linked to you and I think he boosted your power in that go around.”

  Looking down at the little powerhouse eating, I tried to wrap my mind around all this. “So, am I a witch?” I asked, my mouth feeling dry.

  “Hell, no,” he said as he hugged me. “You’re a conduit with some really amazing power.”

  “A conduit?”

  “Well, I just made that up, but it describes you better than funeral singer, don’t you think?”

  He pointed back to the living room and started walking. “You didn’t set your guards tonight, did you?”

  I followed him partway. “No, I left in a hurry and forgot to do it. Would you like a coffee or a drink?”

  “What are you having?”

  “A coffee with whiskey.” I felt shaky and this was a lot to absorb all at once.

  “I’ll take one of those.” He grinned, his eyes laughing at my confusion. He would find this funny.

  Preparing the coffee gave me time to compose my thoughts and calm down. I knew we were in a war with the yiaiwas, but I hadn’t considered how frightening it might be to go up against them. This was only one of the True Shades and I felt like we, the three of us, had barely defeated it. And Nygard landed in the middle of the fray. How could I protect him?

  When I brought the coffees into the living room, Gavin was just finishing with setting the wards on the house again. He took a sip and leaned back on the couch.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you could use magic?” I asked.

  “Like your talent, it’s taken some practice to make it reliable. It’s only recently that I found that spell I just used and I wasn’t sure it would work. The wards we cast on our houses are spells. Even Madame Astrid uses those kinds of spells. Faith magic, we call it. You believe it works and it does. In a very real way. It’s like tapping into the power of the Universe to command things to work for you, drawing the energy into it. Even Nygard can use it. Cat magic. Always works for them when they apply it.”

  “Even Nygard?” I mused, looking at my fur ball now sprawled out on the end of the couch and cleaning his fur.

  “I probably shouldn’t say ‘even’—he’s likely better at it than either of us. He knew what he was doing tonight even if we weren’t as sure. What was with the butcher knife?”

  “I wanted a weapon. I didn’t think it would actually do anything, but I felt like I needed it in my hand.”

  He frowned a bit as he considered that. “We may have to try some experiments since it was almost as if the power was slashing like the knife you waved.”

  “I saw that. Did you also notice the light had a bluish cast to it? Could it be because of the steel in the knife?” My words resonated in a strange way with me. Could metal be a weakness to the yiaiwas?

  “Maybe,” Gavin agreed, drinking more of his coffee and rubbing the back of his neck.

  “Yo
u’re tired.”

  He nodded. “Aren’t you? This power-slinging stuff takes a lot of energy.”

  “Now that you mention it, I am getting pretty worn out. Do you think we destroyed that yiaiwa?”

  His expression grew more serious. “I don’t know, chica. It seemed pretty damaged, but the vanishing act? I think it retreated.”

  “Damn. I hoped... Gavin, how are we going to defeat them?”

  He gazed at me for several seconds, his eyes intent and a bit worried-looking. “I’m not sure. There’s a key to it somewhere. There has to be. We just have to find it. That’s what Ori is good at; she’s better than me. And she has access to a lot of documents across many cultures.”

  He rose to leave, paused to shoot a grin at me. “See you on Friday. And be sure to set your wards. You don’t want that in here again.”

  “I will, thanks.”

  As he left, I set my own ward on the door and double-checked the kitchen. As I gazed around the room, I considered that I might be able to make the house and the interior safe, but what about the outside? How could I keep the yiaiwa from sitting on the roof or in a lounge chair in my yard? I didn’t feel safe.

  NINETEEN

  A few days after my carefully worded letter to Father Garrity, I finally got another response from him. He didn’t sound nearly as formal in this email and he admitted to encountering a “few of the mysterious blobs” around the village where he lived. He also told me at least three of his congregation had told him they’d seen them although one admitted it might have been the whiskey.

  But, he said he was relieved to know there were others who had seen these “abominations” and wondered what Gavin and I were planning to do with the information we were collecting.

  Good question, Father. What were we going to do with all this intel we were gathering? With Mr. Japan, CaraG, EllyJ, the additional four from England, Gavin, Nygard, and myself, we had a small strike force of nine–ten, if you counted the feline. It wasn’t much against a large group of supernatural forces. I had a pretty strong feeling they had way more fighters than we did. I couldn’t answer him at this time, so I closed the email.