The 45th Parallel

by Maureen Hands

  Kat’s eyes grew wide as she did the math. Her mother died when Kat was eight, fifteen years ago. Her death was five cycles ago.

  “How long have you thought my mother’s death was somehow tied to all of this?” Kat asked.

  “The first time we used the bowl and you saw your mother being murdered. That, and your pendant.”

  “What else haven’t you told me?” Kat asked sharply.

  “My parents felt that the witches returned to Beaver Island at the end of the three year cycles to rest until the next cycle. They believed the Reaping Moon Witches could only be killed when they are in their true form.”

  Kat looked down at the journal and noticed two words scribbled at the bottom of a page with question marks behind them. “What is this reference to skinwalker and Wendigo?”

  “A skinwalker is a supernatural being from Navajo legends. They are evil, powerful witches that have the ability to turn into any animal they choose. The Wendigo is a creature that was once human, but turns into a Wendigo after engaging in cannibalism. The Wendigo legend comes from the Northern American and Canadian Indian tribes. This creature has an insatiable appetite for human flesh and can shape shift into human form.”

  “The people who have died recently were not cannibalized,” Kat said.

  “Their flesh was not eaten, but their lives were,” John said.

  “So you think these Reaping Moon Witches were some combination of the skinwalker and Wendigo?” Kat asked.

  “Maybe, if the information in the journal is correct.”

  “How do we know if the information in this journal is correct?”

  “I was relying on you to verify that.”

  “If they can shape shift, how do we get them to take their true form, so they can be killed?”

  “I don’t know,” John said

  “You don’t even know how many there are or where to find them.”

  “I need your help with that,” John said.

  “Do my cousins know any of this?”

  “No, not yet, but I will tell them today. There are only two weeks before the Reaping Moon rises.”

  Kat looked into John’s face and said, “I think we need to try the bowl again. I think we should try tonight.”

  John looked a little surprised and said, “Then you will help me?”

  Kat gave him a bitter look. “What choice do I have?”

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Kat worked the lunch shift, went home, and had dinner with Mary. Her cousins called several times but she ignored them. Everyone was supposed to arrive at seven, but Kat could not wait. The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. She wanted revenge on the Reaping Moon Witches. She arrived fifteen minutes early and knocked on John’s front door.

  After a few moments, Kat saw John appear in the hallway with nothing on but a pair of jeans. His hair was wet and tousled. Kat couldn’t help but study his naked, muscular torso.

  “Did I get you out of the shower?” Kat said as he opened the door.

  “No problem, I was drying off when you knocked. Come in.” John held the front door wide.

  “I’m a little early. I was eager to get started.” Kat caught the clean scent of soap as John stepped by her to shut the front door.

  “Well,” John said as he smoothed his hair back with his hands, a gesture that accentuated his physique. “Everyone should be here in ten or fifteen minutes.”

  Kat watched as a drop of water from John’s hair ran down the side of his neck then over his pectoral and down his abdominals.

  “What did they say when you told them?” Kat said as she tore her eyes away from his body to look into his eyes.

  “Your cousins?” John asked.

  “Yes,” Kat said impatiently. “I am assuming you told them about your parents’ journal and the secret room.”

  “Yes I did. Apparently you have not spoken to them today.”

  “No, I was working all day.”

  “Do you still want to go through with this?”

  “I thought about that today and I reached the same conclusion I reached earlier. I really don’t have a choice.”

  A pained expression crossed John’s face and he said, “I will make sure nothing else happens to you.” The soft tone of his voice made Kat want to wrap her arms around his naked torso and pull herself close to him. She wondered, angrily, if he was putting that feeling in her head.

  Kat glared at John then turned toward the sidelights in the door as she heard two cars pull in. “They are here,” she said as she walked past him to the stairs to the basement.

  John watched her walk away then went to his room to put on a shirt. He came back in time to let Patrick, Anna, Helene, and Martine in.

  “Wow, you are not messing around tonight,” Patrick said as he entered the wine cellar and took a seat next to Kat.

  “What are you going to focus on seeing?” Martine asked.

  “I want to see how to kill the Reaping Moon Witches,” Kat said. Kat reached out and took Anna and Patrick’s hands. John’s lips tightened and he reached out for Helene and Anna’s hands. Helene grabbed Patrick’s hand and the circle was complete. Martine stood behind them in silence.

  They all took several deep breaths and focused. Kat used her anger to channel her energy. This time it will be different. This time I will break that blocking spell. Kat imagined a ball of blue energy swirling behind her eyes.

  “Show me how to kill the Reaping Moon Witches,” Kat said in a low angry voice as she closed her eyes. Kat visualized the ball of swirling, blue energy shooting from her head and into the black bowl. A loud cracking and ripping sound in front of Kat caused her to open her eyes. There was a thin line of bright white light stretching vertically from the surface of the water in the bowl to the ceiling of the wine cellar. The light sparked and the cracking sound grew louder as the white line widened and then split into two pieces forming a white oval around a black hole.

  “Kat, close the gateway!” Martine yelled.

  Kat could not pull her eyes from the black hole growing in front of her. She could hear the sound of Indian drums, faint at first, before growing louder. There were two small yellow lights in the center of the blackness. The yellow lights were growing larger.

  “Please Kat, close the gateway before it is too late,” Martine yelled as she grabbed Kat’s shoulders.

  As the glowing yellow lights drew closer, Kat could make out black pupils in the center. The lights were eyes. She could now make out the shape of a figure, half man and half beast moving toward her, moving closer to entering their world. Kat could feel Martine shaking her. She closed her eyes and visualized drawing the ball of energy back into herself. Kat was pushed back into her chair as the energy entered her body with a jolt. There was a loud scraping sound like metal on concrete, then a deafening slam, then silence.

  Kat was afraid to open her eyes. What if she let that thing in? She listened to the sounds in the room and all she could hear was heavy breathing. She slowly opened her eyes to see her cousins and John, eyes wide, staring at the center of the table. Martine moved her hands off Kat’s shoulders and sunk to her knees beside her.

  “What happened, Martine?” Helene whispered.

  “We can’t let anyone know about this. We can’t let anyone know about Kat,” Martine said.

  “Know what about Kat?” Patrick asked.

  “She is a key. She just opened the gate to another world. We can’t let anyone know she can do this. If that information fell into the wrong hands…” Martine trailed off.

  “Could that thing have crossed over into our world?” Kat asked.

  “I don’t know and I hope I will never find out,” Martine said. “You were focusing on your anger. An angry mind creates an angry reality and in your case, it opened the wrong door.”

  “I didn’t try to open anything. I didn’t know I could do that,” Kat said.

  “You must not do that again, and you must not tell anyone you can do it,” Martine said. �
�There are bad…people…who would use your ability for evil purposes.”

  “What do we do now?” Anna asked. “Will this happen every time we try this?”

  Martine leaned against the table and pulled herself into a standing position. “I think, to be safe, Kat should try by herself. The combination of all five of you, may be too much.”

  “The Reaping Moon is two weeks away. I may just have to go to Beaver Island, like my parents did, and hope I can figure out how to kill the witches,” John said.

  Kat pushed her chair back from the table and stood up. She quickly sat back down, however, when the room started to spin.

  “Are you all right, Kat?” Anna asked.

  “I got very dizzy all of a sudden.”

  “You will probably feel physically drained for a few days,” Martine said. “What you did tonight takes a lot of energy. I don’t think you should drive.”

  “Anna, Patrick and I rode together. I can drive you home in your car and Anna can follow us,” Helene said.

  “I think that’s a good idea,” Kat said as she held onto the arms of the chair and hoped the room would stop spinning.

  “Do you need help getting to the car?” John asked.

  “I may need someone to lean on for a minute,” Kat said. John got up from his chair moved over to Kat and helped her up. By the time they got upstairs, Kat was feeling better.

  “I think I’m all right now,” she said as John walked her out onto the front porch.

  Martine and Kat’s cousins were still inside the house. John stopped and turned Kat to face him. “Will you feel safer if you stay here with me tonight?”

  “I feel lots of things around you, John Warren, but safe is not one of them,” Kat said. John’s eyebrows went up, and he pulled away as if he had been slapped.

  “I’ll take her from here,” Helene said as she came out of the house onto the porch, took Kat’s arm, and started walking her down the steps. Kat glanced back at John. He crossed his arms across his chest and watched her walk away.

  Helene held Kat’s arm until they got to her car. Kat handed Helene her car keys, and they began the drive to Aunt Mary’s.

  John walked back into the house and out to the back deck and stood beside Martine who was looking out at the lake.

  “When this is over,” Martine said slowly, “Kat would be safer if you were not in her life.”

  “What do you mean? When this is over, those witches will be dead. She will be safer than she has ever been.”

  “I thought so too, until tonight.”

  “Why would the fact she is a key make it unsafe for her to be in my life?”

  “If she is with you, you will bring her to the attention of the wrong people.”

  “I would never do that,” John said angrily.

  “You wouldn’t do it intentionally, but you would do it.” Martine turned to face John and said, “Please just trust me on this.”

  John turned toward the lake and closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Martine patted his hand, went back into the house, and out the front door to the guesthouse.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Martine walked into the guesthouse and turned on a small lamp that was close to the door. As Martine’s eyes adjusted to the lighting in the room, she was startled to see a dark figure standing in the corner.

  “What are you doing here?” Martine gasped as she recognized her visitor.

  “Now that I know where to find you, I thought I would come and visit,” the dark figure said. He walked slowly over to Martine, his movements smooth and effortless. A wave of panic came over Martine as she realized she was alone with the spirit she had called on to put Crowley back in his grave.

  “Please, I don’t know what you want from me,” Martine whispered.

  “That must have been some spell you cast. One so powerful even I could not find you,” the spirit said in a cool voice. “Why would you have hidden from me for thirty-one years?” He reached over and stroked the side of Martine’s face. She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. “What were you hiding my sweet?”

  “I wasn’t hiding anything. I just wanted to make sure I was safe,” Martine said nervously.

  The spirit smiled and kissed her cheek softly. “We felt a disturbance. Someone opened a gate. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that?”

  “I don’t know anything about a gate being opened,” Martine said quickly.

  Martine stood perfectly still as the spirit leaned in and whispered in her ear, “You know we cannot allow gates to be opened. If a key fell into the wrong hands, it could be disastrous.” The spirit pulled away from Martine, tilted his head, and listened to something Martine’s ears could not detect. “I have work to do, but when I return, you will tell me what I have been missing.” He leaned forward and kissed Martine on the lips. His mouth was cool and moist. She moaned and wrapped her arms around the back of his neck. After a moment he was gone. The touch of his lips evaporated from Martine’s mouth.

  Martine stood in the room by herself hugging thin air. When she realized he was gone, she sank to the bed and put her head in her hands. After a moment, she gathered herself, opened her laptop and started to look for flights to Cleveland.

  Chapter Forty

  Over the next week, Kat read through John’s parent’s journal several times trying to find any clues they could’ve missed. She finally called John and her cousins to ask them to meet her at Don and Jennifer’s coffee shop in Suttons Bay.

  Once they were all there, they got a table outside away from any other customers.

  “Here is what we know,” Kat said once they were all seated. “John’s parents were hunting the Reaping Moon Witches when they were killed. According to the journal the Reaping Moon Witches appear every three years on the spring equinox until the Reaping Moon. They drain people of their life force. They feed when the moon is out and can shape shift into animal and human form. On the night of the Reaping Moon, they must return to their resting place until the next cycle. The journal also says they can only be killed when they are in their true form.”

  “I think if we show up on Beaver Island on the night of the Reaping Moon with no more information than that, we will be the hunted, not the hunters,” Patrick said.

  “I agree, which is why we need to do some more digging,” Kat said as she turned to John. “The words skinwalker and Wendigo are written in your parent’s journal. You said these words refer to Native American legends. Aunt Mary introduced me to a woman named Eleanor Hughes at the Full Moon Celebration. She is a member of a local tribe and says she is an expert on local Native American History and culture. She gave me her card the night we met. I think I should go see her to see if she can tell me anything about these legends.”

  “I will come out there with you, Kat. I don’t think you should go alone,” John said.

  “I don’t think that’s necessary but suit yourself. I’m going to call her this morning to see if she has time to meet with me today,” Kat said.

  “Just give me the time and I will come and pick you up.”

  “Do you think the resting place is on Beaver Island?” Helene asked.

  “I don’t know but maybe Eleanor can give me some insight,” Kat said.

  “We better get going Kat. Anna and I are scheduled to work today,” Helene said.

  “I’ve got to go too. Let us know what you find out,” Patrick said. Patrick, Anna, and Helene left, and John and Kat finished their coffee in silence.

  “I’ll walk you to your car,” John said.

  “All right,” Kat said cautiously. As they got to Kat’s car, John reached in his jacket pocket and pulled out something long and narrow out of his jacket pocket and handed it to Kat.

  “What’s this?” Kat asked.

  “A knife from my parent’s collection, small enough to fit in your bag but hopefully large enough to do the trick,” John said as he reached over and slid the knife into Kat’s purse.

  “I wouldn’t know what t
o do with that if I got the chance,” Kat said.

  “I think you would surprise yourself, Katherine Collins. I know you continually surprise me.” John shut Kat’s door and turned to walk to his car.

  When Kat reached Eleanor Hughes, they scheduled a time to meet for that evening. Eleanor gave Kat directions to her house, and Kat called John to tell him when to pick her up. Fortunately, Mary and Carl had gone out to an art show that night so Kat didn’t have to explain where she was going.

  Kat came out the front door when she saw John pull up. He got out of the car to open the door for her.

  “Thanks,” she said, “but that’s not necessary. We are not on a date.”

  “My upbringing won’t allow me to pull in the driveway and honk the horn, Kat,” John said clearly irritated as he closed her door with a little too much force. Kat couldn’t help but find satisfaction in his annoyance.

  “Mary’s not here, so there is no one here to witness your chivalry,” she said mockingly as he got in the driver’s side.

  “You are,” John said as he pulled away from the curb. Kat looked over at him, and he stared straight ahead at the road, his grip on the steering wheel turned his knuckles white. She gave John the address. He said he knew where it was, and they drove in silence for a few minutes.

  “I want to come in with you when you are talking to Eleanor,” John said.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I was going to tell her I was writing a paper on Native American myths and legends for an online course. I’m not sure how to explain your presence.”

  “You won’t need to explain. She will be fine with my being there.”

  “I don’t think it will be necessary for you to use mind control on her.”

  “I will only intervene if I need to,” John said sharply.

  “I am very capable of handling this,” Kat snapped.

  “I know you are more than capable,” John said, all the anger gone from his voice. “I thought it was a great idea to talk to her. You have wonderful intuition. It’s just that we are running out of time.”

  Kat took a deep breath and looked out the passenger side window. “I know we are.”