Grave Omen (Raina Kirkland Book 3)

by Diana Graves

  I was ready to zip out of there and leave the doors swinging in my wake, when Olathia, ever the drama queen, spoke up.

  “Mind your health, Raina. Stress isn’t good for the baby.”

  And immediately I froze where I stood. Only Mato, Damon and Melvern knew about the pregnancy. I had planned on keeping it that way, at least until after Mom’s wedding. But apparently Olathia was told. I looked at Melvern, but he said, “Not me,” in my mind, which meant it was Mato who spilled the beans. I didn’t look at him, though. I’d spent all night tactfully avoiding looking at him.

  “You’re pregnant?” I heard Mom ask.

  Slowly I turned back around. I must have looked a fright because I felt as though I’d just got caught red handed doing something very naughty. Weird. I gave the room a shallow nod, but I didn’t look up at anyone. I kept my eyes on the floor.

  “You’re pregnant!” screamed Aunt Fauna happily. That made me smile. I looked at her cheerful face and I felt a little better.

  “Mom, wow!” shouted Thomas.

  “Damon, you old dog,” said Uncle Seth with a sly smile.

  I pointed back toward the doors, “Restroom,” I said quietly and I slowly moved through the double doors and let them close in front of me. I was standing on the other side of them, staring at them for a while before I realized that I was in a room full of strangers eating their dinners. I didn’t seriously think all of them were actually staring at me, but I felt as if they were. I made a b-line for the front of the café, where I hoped I’d find the restrooms or someone who could help me locate them.

  TAKING SHAPE

  KATIE WALKED INTO the restroom shortly after me, finding me with my head between my legs as I tried to regain my composure. She looked lovely with her blond hair all pinned up and curled. Her pink dress looked pale against her tanned skin and its simple design showcased her lovely long legs, smooth and slender. What little makeup she wore was tastefully applied, and brought out the deep color of her rich brown eyes, which were looking down on me with concern.

  “You’re pregnant?” she asked, and I nodded my head while biting my lower lip. She opened her mouth to say more but seemed to think better of it.

  “What is it?” I asked. I stood up straight and stretched high when I realized I’d been hunched over for far too long. When I looked in the large mirror over the counter, I could see the small bump. Stretched out with my arms over my head and my back bent, I could see it, like a melon hiding inside me.

  “Wow,” she said with her eyes on my stomach. She blinked a few times to get her thoughts back on track as I readjusted the fabric of my dress so that it fell loosely around my waist instead of bunching at my hips. “I haven’t had time to talk to you since last night. This probably isn’t the best time to bring up the case,” she began. “—I’m just going to jump right in. Kent and I spent about an hour on the internet together last night looking for similar murders in the news, throughout history, anything. We found literally nothing. Kent gave up and went to bed when everyone else did, but something was bugging me. A lot of what we know about the killings seemed unnecessary. The people who were murdered were gathered up from all over the place through some enchanted email or website. It would have been easier for whoever is doing this to just walk into a secluded place of business or something and round everybody up. Also, the animals that were sacrificed were stolen from a kennel or vet near the site, when it would have probably been easier to just pick up a bunch of animals from a pet store all at once in advance. It just seems these people are making the murders harder than they have to be. It feels, I don’t know, almost as if they’re going out of their way to do things a certain way, you know?”

  I gave her a shallow nod. It hadn’t occurred to me before, but through Bailey’s memories I knew what took place was an intricate series of events orchestrated by a relatively small group of men that involved some form of mind control. But how did Katie know about the web page I saw in Bailey’s mind or the mind control? I didn’t have time to ask her that before she started talking again.

  “I started researching obscure cults, dead religions and alternative cultures,” she said. “And then I noticed this just this morning.” She pulled out a folded piece of paper from her small black clutch purse and handed it to me. I unfolded it and set it flat on the counter. On it were the names of the towns in which each cage was found listed in the order the murders occurred; Port Angeles, Belfair, South Bend, La Grande, Fall City and the most recent, Clinton.

  I looked up at her, “How do you know about the cage found in Clinton and what I saw in Bailey’s mind?”

  “Mato told me.”

  “Tonight, at dinner?”

  “No, last night, when he dropped off your car,” she said with her eye brows high. I looked away and thought about it. I did see my car in the driveway this morning and again this afternoon, but it never occurred to me to question how it got there. I mean, I never thought about it. I was missing things, important things. That did not bode well, not at all. What’d happened was getting to me more than I knew.

  “What else did he tell you?” I asked.

  “A bit. He knocked on the door a few hours after you left. I was the only one still awake. He handed me your keys. I asked him where you were and he said that you’d been shot and that he took you to Bastion Fatal. I freaked out of course, but he calmed me down. He told me that you were fine and with Damon. I didn’t even see Damon leave.” She shook her head.

  “It sounds like you two had a long conversation—in the doorway?” I asked.

  “No, I invited him in for a cup of blood,” she said.

  “That blood is for Michael or Seth, not Mato,” I said with an edge of anger. Of course, I wasn’t really angry about the blood.

  “Raina,” was all she said, and I knew I was being stupid. I was an overly emotional wreck, but I didn’t know how to be any other way. Gods, demons and cold blooded murder aside, I was not in the right frame of mind.

  I crossed my arms with a bit of a pout on my face. “I’m entitled to nonsensical girly bull shit. I’m with child.” I all but stuck my tongue out at her.

  “Whatever, you know he’s not my type,” but she blushed. “I think he was just feeling talkative last night; like he needed a friend or something. It was kind of awkward actually. He told me about the cage they found in Clinton. And he told me how Melvern linked your mind with the survivor’s. He said that you saw a web page that made the victims compliant or something. I didn’t really understand what he was talking about at that point. I think he lost me at they found another cage and your sister was shot. But I’m pretty sure he didn’t tell me you were pregnant. I think I’d have heard that.”

  “I’m sorry I worried you,” I said.

  “No, don’t be. You’re fine so, that’s all that matters—. Anyway, about what I found,” she walked up to the counter and pulled her lipstick out of her purse. “Say that this big square mirror is Western Washington. That would put Port Angeles here, upper left.” She tapped the mirror with her lipstick, leaving a small pink dot behind. “Belfair down here, in the middle. South Bend over here, the lower left. If you draw a line between them you get a semicircle. Add La Grande over here on the lower right and Fall City, farther over and up near Seattle—and then Clinton on Whidbey Island, upper right.” She drew a line from South Bend to Port Angeles, hitting the other three towns in between like a huge connect-the-dots and a crescent moon appeared.

  “Katie…” I almost whispered. “It’s a moon.”

  She turned and looked at me with her eyebrows up and a question on her face. “I guess, but when I saw this, my mind was full of cult symbols and art and the first thing I saw was a bow being drawn back by an archer, the ancient symbol for The Hunt.” She was smiling with pride but my eyes were wide with wonderment. Had I underestimated my little sister? Had she figured everything out on her own? “Don’t you see? The reason I couldn’t find information on the murders was because they hadn’t happened i
n recorded history. The Hunt is an old ritual, ancient really, older than ancient. I wasn’t going to find anything useful on the internet, nothing reliable. So I went to the library. I wanted to take you with me, but Damon said you needed your sleep.”

  I was still staring up at the crescent shape on the mirror. “Yeah, shot, pregnant, very tired,” I mumbled.

  “I told the librarian that I needed the oldest material she had on religious rituals and she handed me a book from the library’s private collection titled Igigi. Igigi is Sumerian for, Those Who See and Observe. It’s an ancient guild to understanding the gods.”

  “You know Sumerian?”

  “No, the book was originally in Sumerian, but had been translated to French. La chasse est un ancien rite,” she said in beautiful French with ease. I had no idea she spoke another language and my mouth dropped open on its own accord. Surprise, surprise, my little sister was a genius. “The Hunt is an ancient rite,” she said in English. “I took French every year of high school. I love it,” she said with a shy tilt of her head and somehow her movements seemed more graceful, classier. “I couldn’t check the book out and the librarian was watching me like a hawk. I read as much as I could and skipped around some before she took the book back.”

  “What did you find?” I asked, again my voice was very quiet.

  “According to the Igigi, all gods have the ability to decree The Hunt, which is basically a god demanding that their people kill another person or group of people. It was a real ‘Release the Kraken’ moment for the gods, and it was usually started over petty things, like unrequited love or lust or greed or a quarrel between the gods. The Hunt caused a lot of suffering. It’s caused century long wars between cultures. Some of those wars are still going on to this very day. But over time The Hunt became taboo.”

  “So, you think this is The Hunt?” I asked tentatively.

  She shrugged her delicate shoulders. “I didn’t have a chance to read much. I’m going to go back to the library tomorrow and have another go at it before the wedding, but it’s our best lead. What I did find out about The Hunt was that it was usually preceded by mass human sacrifices, full of symbols and everything had to be given freely including the sacrificed, humans and animals. The sacrifices couldn’t be kept like prisoners for days on end, which would explain the animals being taken right then and there. But that would mean that the owners or workers at these animal shelters, shops and vets were lying to the police.”

  “They didn’t lie. I saw them through Bailey’s eyes. They were under some kind of trance or hypnosis, like the victims,” I said, but I wasn’t sure I should have said anything. I wasn’t sure if I should encourage her and tell her everything about Trivia and Orestes, but I definitely couldn’t discourage her. I was too proud of her. I never knew she was so clever. She was always a bigot and for some reason I associated bigotry with stupidity. I suppose people can be smart in one aspect of their lives and dumb in others.

  “I’ll come with you to the library tomorrow,” I said. That earned me a smile from her, but I wasn’t sure what the hell I was doing. I felt stupid for keeping secrets from Katie, especially secrets she may figure out on her own, but if I could fix this without anyone else knowing, I preferred that. I didn’t think I could handle the shame of it if everyone knew that their lives were on the line because of me. Take it easy, Gabriel said; avoid stress. Yeah, sure, you got it Doc.

  DRAKE’S BANE

  MICHAEL, MY DOE-EYED half-brother was sashaying his way to me through the packed club with a drink in either hand. Between his off colored skin and grey shirt, the brown in his hair and eyes looked like small patches of life surrounded by so much color muted death. Michael was technically a year older than me, but like Nick, his humanity didn’t survive the vampire attack two years back. He would forever be twenty-two. A very good year to be stuck at if you had to be stuck, I’d say. As for me, I looked more like the older sister, even more so since I was still wearing my tasteful black dress and some shiny flats from Mom’s rehearsal dinner.

  It wasn’t easy finishing dinner after the pregnancy bombshell, but Damon and Melvern answered most of everyone’s questions before Katie and I came back from the restroom. All that was left for me was the usual congratulations, well wishes and a whole hell of a lot of friendly unsolicited parenting advice. But eventually it ended when dinner ended and then most of the men, including Damon, went out for a night on the town and I settled the kids in at home with tons of junk food and plenty of movies for them to choose from.

  Everything worked out perfectly. I even got to Drake’s early, but that was well over an hour ago. Nick was a no call, no show and I was worried. Thankfully, Michael was working, so I wasn’t left waiting alone. Not that he thought I was waiting for anyone. I trusted Michael, but I didn’t know everyone in his life or what influences they might hold on him. Michael was legion after all. He did as he was told. If he knew Nick was in the country, as loyal as Michael was, Nick would be in danger. No, as far as Michael knew, I was here to see him.

  Michael handed me the cranberry juice I ordered before he slid into the booth with a grace he never possessed as a human. A lot of things about Michael had changed. As a human, Michael was a Brady Bunch, grown man-child; shy and awkward. He was all sweater vests and well ironed jeans. As a vampire, Michael was Mick, a punk-ass smart mouth little twerp that I just loved to pieces. When Michael turned into a vampire he lost everything: his mom, our dad, all of his former friends. But with that loss he gained freedom. All those people had high expectations of him and just like that all those expectations vanished overnight. Michael was dead to them and Mick was born. And who was Mick? Mick was a loud, rambunctious, fun-loving man. He worked as a bouncer at Drake’s and was in a romantic relationship with the owner of the night club and the master of the vampire collective, Drake’s Bane, Drake himself.

  But as with Nick, I couldn’t call Michael by the name he gave himself. It was common for a person infected with vampirism to take on a new name for their new life, but Nil would always be Nicholas and Mick would always be Michael to me. No matter how vampy they got, they’d always be my dorky older brothers. Michael smiled at me from over his steaming mug of blood and it was his same ol’ dorky, devil-may-fart grin that made me think he probably still slept on Star War’s bedding.

  “I love playing catch up with you, sis. Your life makes mine seem dull by comparison,” he said with his eyes on his blood. His lips were smiling but the rest of his face didn’t seem up to the task.

  “What’s wrong?” I said, though I was fighting the impulse to shout everything. The music was way loud but he was a vampire and I trusted that he could hear as well as or better than me.

  The music wasn’t rock, rap or country music, but instead something in between all of that, with some pop and techno mixed in. It had a quick beat and clever lyrics, very catchy. It was the sort of music that made you want to get up and move, but I had no desire to embarrass myself or get jostled by the massive crowd. Drake would have to expand his tiny club soon if he wanted to fit all his patrons in it. It was a new small club for a new small collective. Both were gaining in popularity by leaps and bounds. Even my friend Charley, who declared he’d never join a vampire collective, joined Drake’s Bane as one of their many champions. I’d never met Drake personally, but from what Charley and Michael have told me, he’s a pretty great man; a younger vampire that was born as a master instead of growing in power over centuries, like most other master vampires.

  “I can’t stay and chat much longer,” he said.

  “Why? The last time I was here you said you could watch the club easily while sitting with me.”

  He finally let his lips frown with the rest of his face. “I’m not a bouncer anymore, Ray. Drake made me a stripper.”

  I couldn’t hide my surprise. “He wants his boyfriend up on stage, naked?”

  “I guess,” he frowned. Then his face suddenly lit up. “He’s not a prude like you,” he laughed.


  It was my turn to frown. “I’m not a prude.” Okay, maybe I was a bit of a prude, but I really hated the idea of my older brother up on stage, shaking his manly bits for money. He shook his head again before taking a huge gulp of blood and I took that moment to take a long sip of my drink as well.

  “It’s not that bad. It’s only one night a week, ladies’ night. I did hate it at first, but truthfully, I like dancing and I like being looked at.” I looked around the club. There were a lot more women than usual and some men were putting up a makeshift stage in the corner. “Other people are being asked to dance tonight too, not just me.”

  “Then why do you look so put out?”

  He almost laughed then, but it sounded forced, “I’m fine. I’m fine. I want to ask you to stay. I want to talk more, but I don’t want you to watch me strip.”

  “That’s okay…” I said with a crooked brow. “I don’t want to watch you strip either, no offense.” I let out a breath and looked at the door, or at least, in the door’s general direction. It didn’t look as if Nick was going to show up. I looked back at Michael, “When do you go on stage?”

  “In ten minutes or so.” Michael looked past me. “Here comes Charley.”

  I turned in my seat and looked into the crowd until I spotted a familiar face.

  “Charley!” I stood to embrace him as he approached the table. He was a tall, heavily tattooed black vampire that I’d met while taking Damon’s ‘life as a vampire in America’ classes. They were classes meant to teach new and aspiring vampires how to live in America: the laws of the land and an appropriate career path. According to the career test Damon had me take, I was supposed to be a seeker like Ruy, which is basically vampire police. That’s not too dissimilar from a bounty hunter.

  He sized me up and licked his plump lips. “Classy dress, bueno me gusta.”

  “Charley’s my replacement as bouncer tonight,” Michael said. I frowned at Michael. I couldn’t help it. The more I thought about Michael getting naked for money the more I hated it. Michael began to frown too, but he forced a smile and held his head high.