Soul Scent: A Zackie Story (The Zackie Stories Book 2)

by Reyna Favis

  He came around the table and helped me stand, keeping his hand under my elbow to make sure I didn’t fall over. “Come on, let’s get you back to bed.”

  I refused to be an invalid in front of him. “No, I’m not tired. I don’t want to go back to bed.”

  “You sound like a two year old,” Lucas said as he led me away.

  I dug in, but played the role to amuse him. “Please? Just five more minutes?”

  He could tell I wasn’t going to go peacefully and just gave me a tired look, filled with infinite patience. “Okay, how about we just sit on the couch and watch a movie?”

  I was agreeable to that and snuggled close when he put his arm around me. I saw maybe five minutes more of the movie than him before we both fell asleep.

  # # #

  “That is an excellent idea.” Cam lit up, his eyes wide as he nodded vigorously.

  “What are you talking about? That’s a terrible idea.” I wasn’t having it and my face was set in my most devastating scowl. Hannah’s warning repeated in my mind, that I was dangerous to Lucas, and now, here he was, wanting to be there every time we went out to deal with spirits.

  Ignoring my objection, Cam flew into planning the logistics of how this would work. “It would be like having a flanker on a SAR mission. Lucas could –”

  “Lucas could get in the crosshairs of something really bad.” I shook my head and crossed my arms.

  Ron rolled his eyes. “Lucas has experience in ghost hunting. He can take care of himself. Listen to them.”

  “Common sense, little girl. More people, more eyes. It’ll be safer.” Lenora looked impatient, like she was dealing with a child who didn’t know what was good for her.

  “Come on, Fia. This makes sense. You and Cam are vulnerable to environmental influences that can impair your reactions. For whatever reason, I have immunity. I can get you out if things go bad.” Lucas watched me closely, maybe looking for a tell that one of his arguments was hitting the mark.

  “You don’t have immunity if they go poltergeist and things start flying.” I tried to stare him down, but it wasn’t working.

  “Neither do you. And you always seem…” Lucas’s brow furrowed as he searched for the word. “… distracted – yes, that’s the right word – distracted when this sort of phenomenon occurs. You don’t have the sense to get out of the way or seek cover.”

  I compressed my lips, irritated by his choice of words. I was distracted because it took enormous concentration and will to muster and direct the energy to fight back. He made it sound like I was unfocused, my attention claimed by shiny things. I slammed my palm on the table. “Look, I’m not defenseless when this sort of thing happens. You can’t sense it, but I’m working to shut it down.”

  “And while you’re working, you need someone to watch your back.” He cocked an eyebrow at me as he waited for the next volley.

  We sat in the dining room with Ron and Lenora at the far end of the table, nearest the kitchen, and Cam at the other end. Lucas and I flanked Cam on either side. Cam turned his head from one to the other of us as he followed the exchange. “Point, set, match, Lucas.” Cam gave Lucas a high five.

  They were ganging up on me and I wasn’t going to win this one. Lucas sensed that I was angry at their collusion and he reached over the table to touch my hand. “Fia, I don’t want anything to happen to you. You scared the hell out of me with this last one. What would have happened to you if I hadn’t been there?” He stared steadily at me, his eyes worried.

  I looked down at the whorls in the wood of the table, unable to meet his gaze, my head heavy with the desire to lie down. This last one was the worst I’d ever experienced. I had probably been a hair’s breadth from going into a coma and organ failure, and my gut told me I would have died if I had landed in a hospital. Lucas had the good sense to bring me to Cam, so the fact that I recovered was thanks to him. I don’t know if it was the vigilant nursing care from everyone, or something that only Cam and Zackie could do, or all of the above that pulled me through. At least I was still around to wonder about it.

  But that was me getting myself into trouble. I made my own choices with eyes wide open. Lucas couldn’t possibly understand what he was getting into. If Cam and I were dealing with a dark spirit and things degenerated into the fine print of Murphy’s Quantum Law, I’d need all the help I could get if Lucas was caught in the crossfire. And Hannah would do anything and everything to keep Lucas safe. It was a deal with the devil, but actively trying to move Hannah on was now completely out of the question. I trusted her to keep Lucas out of harm’s way, but there were some serious downsides to my plan. Aside from the dubious ethics of not doing everything in my power to help Hannah find peace, it was also extremely uncomfortable to know she was around, probably watching everything I did with Lucas. But I’d suffer the sin and deal with the lack of privacy if it meant keeping Lucas safe.

  “All right. You win.” Lucas looked relieved and squeezed my hand. Cam gave a skeptical tilt of his head, surprised that I appeared to give in so easily, but then followed that up with a speculative look. Maybe he figured out what I had in mind or he thought I was just too weak to put up a good fight.

  Lenora turned to Ron, pleased with the outcome. “She’s stubborn, but not stupid. That’s good. I like stubborn, shows you have backbone. Don’t like stupid.”

  Ron grinned. “Yeah, she is stubborn. Bossy too.”

  “No, bossy’s no good. Don’t like bossy.” Lenora got up and made for the kitchen to start dinner.

  # # #

  A week after my collapse, I was fully charged and fit for duty. The muscle cramps had gone, my strength returned and I was able to focus again without being dragged under by exhaustion. Lucas had negotiated with his job to work remotely and was with me for every step during my recovery, cajoling me into eating one more bite or enforcing rest periods by starting with a kiss and then holding me until I slept. Occasionally, the mask would slip to show a tense and frightened expression and I’d know he was remembering how it was when Hannah died, fearing things would also go sideways with me. If it hadn’t been for that, I would have milked the situation for all it was worth, enjoying every minute of being the center of his attention. As it was, I bulled my way through my convalescence to ease his worry and reassure him that I would recover. To his credit, he did not go running for the hills to get away from painful memories or an uncertain present. He stayed.

  The best part of this time together was that Hannah never made an appearance. I was pretty sure that, like me, she had taken a hit from our last interaction. It takes energy to manifest and however she was able to siphon that energy from either Cam or me, it’s possible that process was broken for the moment. Either that, or whatever energy she was able to draw was being used for repairs. That’s my best guess for her absence.

  The halcyon days did not last and, too soon, Cam asked if I was ready for another meeting with He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief. I had no real excuse to put this off and no desire to prolong his suffering. Tamping down on my fear of having my life force drained again, I told Cam I was ready.

  We returned to the clearing near the stream where we had last seen He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief. The charred remains of the fire was the only evidence of our previous visit. The atmosphere had cleared and no psychic remnants of the centuries old slaughter contaminated the area. We called the spirit to us, but my effort was half-hearted. A small part of me hoped that he wouldn’t show up and I’d be spared another round of energy depletion because of an unquiet spirit. Maybe that was selfish of me, but the experience with Hannah had left me skittish.

  This new attitude did not go unnoticed. “You need to get back on the horse.” Cam gave me a little shove towards the woods where He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief had disappeared into the last time we were here. “Go on, then. Call to him.”

  “Fia, are you sure you want to do this? Are you really ready for it?” Lucas spoke from somewhere behind me and he sounded worried.

  Squari
ng my shoulders, I responded without turning around. “Born ready.” I put on the false bravado for his sake, but I knew Cam was right. I had to pull myself together and do what needed to be done. I called to He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief, withholding nothing this time, but whether he would answer was another story.

  The scent of tobacco smoke, at first faint, wafted around me and then coalesced into the figure of the Lenape man. “Why do you summon me?”

  “Is he here? I thought I felt a chill.” Ron rubbed his arms and looked around without being able to pinpoint the area occupied by He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief.

  Cam indicated the ground near the remains of the fire. “He’s standing there.” Turning to face He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief, he began the interview. “Thank you for coming. We would like to better understand your circumstances, to see if there is anything we can do to help you continue your journey.”

  The Lenape man grinned, white teeth flashing through the red pigment on his face. “I have walked on, but I have not gone far. This is true.” I took on the role of interpreter for the hearing impaired, repeating his words so Ron, Lenora and Lucas could understand. Lucas switched on a digital recorder to capture the conversation, placed it on a rock in the middle of our group and then indicated that we should sit.

  “Why’re you staying?” Lenora sat on the camp chair Ron had brought, while the rest of us took seats on the ground. Her eyes soft with concern for the man she could not see, and she waited to hear his answer.

  “I needed to help the family and the others Tom Quick had murdered. The family had been trapped for so long…” His eyes winced with pain and his shoulders sagged with the weight of centuries. “I had tried to free them for as long. But it was beyond my strength. It required the strength of many and I am grateful for your help.”

  “Are there more victims? Can you show us?” Cam urged him to continue, to let us know where to look.

  “These were the last. Tom Quick had killed many Lenape. Some walked on, but some needed this ancestor spirit to help them rise again and walk.”

  “And that’s why you stayed? To help these people?” Lucas cocked his head, as if he could hear the response.

  “Not at first. I wandered heartsick and confused for some time after the bear took me. When I looked up again, the world had changed. My people were dying from the sickness brought by the whites. The tribes grew smaller and smaller and then it became difficult to find the very few of my people who were left.”

  “But you continued to search. You needed to find your people again.” Ron leaned forward, encouraging the spirit and probably sympathizing with his plight.

  “I searched. I walked many, many miles looking for Lenape. Years passed and I would find a few, scattered here and there on the old tribal lands. And then Tom Quick came, murdering the few of my people who remained. I clutched him to me and would not let go, so I could try to prevent his killings. But I was a weak spirit then.” He held up his hands, palms up with the fingers slightly bent. “I learned to devil him, shaking his bed when he tried to sleep, spilling his water when he drank. I would nudge his rifle when he took aim and rattle the branches where he waited in ambush. Some he chose to kill were saved because of this, but not all. I could not stop all the murders, but I could help those that he killed to walk on. So, I vowed to stay with Tom Quick until he died. And I rejoiced when they put him in the ground.”

  Cam began the process of moving this spirit on. “But why did you not go to your afterlife then? Tom Quick was dead and would kill no more. Why did you stay?”

  “His family lived and his evil could live on through them. I stayed with the family, to watch and to try to stop them from harming my people. My strength had grown by then. But the family did not have his bloodlust.”

  Cam continued to remind the Lenape man that he was free to move on to the afterlife. “If no more Lenapes were being murdered, you could have moved on then and –”

  “No. The people from my tribe were still trapped in the water. I would not leave them. But I could not bear their suffering for long, so I would come and try to free them, failing again and again and then return to watch the children of the children of Tom Quick.”

  A thought niggled at the back of my mind. “And are you still watching the descendants of Tom Quick?”

  “Yes.”

  My eyes widened as the thought coalesced. “Peyton?”

  “Yes.” He waved his hand impatiently. “I am with her a while, but then I wander.”

  This information put a whole new spin on events. He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief had been haunting the family for generations. This was not a case of him recently latching on to Peyton, finding her during the foray into the woods to locate Maggie. Peyton had brought He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief to Maggie.

  With this on my mind, I asked the next question. “So, you came to the search with Peyton and then found Maggie when you wandered. Why did you tell Maggie that she gave up too easily?”

  “Because she was trying to die.” He began to sweat and shifted uneasily. “I could not let her die. She-Who-Ate-Audachienrra died too and it should not have happened.”

  “So, you were trying to get Maggie to stop, to not take her own life? You were trying to encourage her not to give up?” I already knew the answer, but I needed him to know that we understood that he had tried to do something good for Maggie, but he was having none of it.

  “She used the gun after I spoke to her. Because I spoke to her. It was my fault… my fault again.” The Lenape man was becoming increasingly agitated and leaped to his feet, pacing and grimacing as tears streaked down his cheeks.

  “Who was She-Who-Ate-Audachienrra to you?” Because we were finally making progress, Cam fired off the question to keep the spirit off-balance and to keep the information flowing.

  “I loved her. We were to be married.”

  I followed up quickly with the next question, deliberately not giving him time to think. We had to get to the full truth of his condition. “How was it your fault that She-Who-Ate-Audachienrra died?”

  He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief stopped pacing, bowed his head and then shook it slowly. “This was a bad time.” His voice was ragged – he was near a breaking point.

  “Did someone harm her?” I spoke softly this time, trying to change the pace and ease the story out of him.

  The Lenape man looked up and his eyes were fierce, but full of sorrow. “It was me. I harmed her.”

  “Did you poison her?” Cam asked.

  He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief pounded his chest with his closed fist. “It may as well have been me, but I did not give her the Audachienrra.”

  “Did someone else give her the root of the may-apple?” I stood up and faced him, wanting to watch his expression as he answered.

  At first, his face closed and I thought he would not answer me. I stepped closer, staring him in the eye and demanding an answer. He closed his eyes and spoke through clenched teeth.“No one gave it to her. She ate it to get away from me.”

  “Why? What had you done?” Lenora spoke up, her voice full of dismay at this admission.

  “I was young and stupid and full of myself. I counseled the chief and our tribe prospered. I was vain. When other women in the tribe paid me compliments and admired me, I would preen and posture for them. Eventually, I would go to them.”

  “And She-Who-Ate-Audachienrra found out.” Lenora crossed her arms and her lips became a thin line as she waited for his answer.

  “Yes. I turned from her and did not marry her. She ate the Audachienrra to punish me.”

  Cam’s eye lit up with an epiphany and he raised a finger as he asked the next question. “And after she died, you went hunting.”

  “Yes. Brother bear had a good hunt that day.”

  Cam nodded. “So you’ve said…And did you bring your best knife?”

  “No…” The Lenape man’s eyes shifted, as if he were looking for a way out.

  Cam was relentless as he zeroed in on the confession that needed to be s
aid for the spirit to find peace. “I see. And did you arm yourself appropriately for the hunt?”

  “No. It would not have mattered. The bear was too strong.” He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief half turned away and did not make eye contact as Cam continued his questioning.

  “Did you fight back when the bear had you?”

  He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief repeated the same words as before, but he was close to yelling this time. “No. It would not have mattered. The bear was too strong.”

  Cam muttered to me, “Suicide-by-bear, but he’s not admitting to it.” Turning his attention back to He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief, Cam doggedly pursued the truth behind the bear attack. “Did you allow the bear to end your life because you had caused She-Who-Ate-Audachienrra to end hers?”

  The Lenape man buried his face in his hands, breathing hard. Thunder rumbled from somewhere near us as energy from the spirit’s emotions spilled over into the environment. Looking up at last, his eyes were wild, but he had made his decision. “I will speak the truth at last. I gave myself to the bear because of what I did to her. But I still could not make it right.” He swallowed hard and tears dripped from his chin. “In dying, I made another mistake because my tribe needed me and I had abandoned them. I should have hunted and brought them food to keep them strong. I should have tended the sick to help them get better. My tribe weakened and died because of my vanity and stupidity. I do not deserve to live in the house of the Creator.”

  He was trapped in a never-ending cycle of guilt. The guilt from She-Who-Ate-Audachienrra’s suicide had driven him to end his own life, but he believed that in doing this, he was not there when his people needed him. The double suicide, although separated in time, also explained his connection with Maggie. Confronted with another young woman who was about to take her own life, and knowing how suicide could affect those left behind, He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief must have tried everything in his power to prevent her death. But in the end, his efforts backfired. We all sensed the hopelessness he felt.