Omar also had proprietary knowledge of many herbs and poisons. If he ever got hold of her, Michelle didn’t know if she’d be able to withstand another attack. The last time she’d had the help of Professor Vincent Middleton, an expert in psychic phenomena, from Stanford University in California. Heather and Rod had come later, tracking her to the island of Kauai. They had given her the needed help, moral support, and incentive to do what was necessary, but the four of them had barely survived.
It was ironic. Everyone seemed to think she was a witch. Michelle just wished she knew how to use the powers, if indeed she had any. She was certainly no match for Omar.
The professor of the occult, Vincent Middleton, said her powers would come out in times of great stress or need, an emergency. But all Michelle knew was that sometimes she just knew things; like having a vision of the dress Heather would be wearing tonight.
She had managed only once to use the gift locked away inside of her. She had managed to subdue Omar for a little while. It was enough time for her friends to disable him until the police arrived by helicopter to the island of Kauai, where they were stranded.
Michelle felt a little shiver, thinking of what Omar would do if he was released from jail on bail. He believed Michelle was the one person he needed to complete his legacy. She smiled. All she had to do was produce a psychic child with him, by giving up a tiny part of herself; eggs from the one ovary she had left. He said his witches would be implanted with an egg after it had been fertilized with his own sperm, so she wouldn’t even have to carry the children.
Omar’s plan could only mean disaster on a huge scale. Michelle had seen a preview of one of the children in a kind of psychic hallucination; the child had been beautiful and evil, just as Omar was.
Chapter 2
Heather stood in front of the mirror. Damn, the diamond necklace was spectacular, and it went perfectly with her gown, which was silver satin and form fitting almost to the bottom, where it flared out around her calves and ankles. She was a tiny woman so the diamond went well past her cleavage and lay at the middle of her chest. She smiled and thought everyone would be staring down her cleavage if the chain was shorter...which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it wasn’t a message she wanted to send on her first date with Mike.
Heather was still fussing with her straight blond hair when her cell phone rang. It was the front door and she punched the number to unlock it so Mike could come in. She felt her heart pick up, a nice double thump, in anticipation. It was unusual she would be so excited, she thought, but she really, really liked him. Michelle, perceptive as usual, had noticed immediately; she hadn’t even had to use her unusual abilities to tell this man was special to Heather.
She went to the door and opened it, standing in the doorway, waiting for the elevator. Then Mike was swiftly moving down the hallway toward her. She admired the black shaggy hair, the way his dark eyes lit up. He was wearing a formal tux. It was so unlike him, she thought. When he’d visited her in the hospital he had always dressed casually in jeans and a tee shirt. Tonight, even his thick, jet black hair, seemed slightly tamed.
“You have to move back.” Mike stopped in the hallway, a few feet away. “No, further still. Keep backing up.”
Heather was backing up into her apartment. She didn’t know what was wrong. “Why?”
“You’re so totally dazzling, I’ll go blind if I come within that brightness surrounding you,” Mike said, laughing. He followed her in, slowly walked toward her, and finally took her hands. Shaking his head, like he was surprised, he said, “It seems like everything’s okay. I didn’t get struck down by the brilliance.”
“Too much?” Heather asked, laughing.
“You could wear a garbage bag and still be totally gorgeous. Tonight, you’re absolutely spectacular.”
“Well, the last time I saw you I was wearing one of those tacky hospital gowns. Almost anything would be an improvement. And I must say, you look spiffy in that tux.”
“Let’s go. We’ll knock ‘em dead.”
Heather took his arm and they went to the elevator.
“I liked the hospital gown,” Mike said on the way down to the lobby. He grinned mischievously, “I kept wishing you’d get out of bed and turn around.”
“Aren’t you bad! There I was, struck down by a bolt of lightning, and you wanted a peek at my backside?”
“Well, yeah,” Mike said. “Sorry. I know you were in a lot of pain, with the broken rib and everything.”
He looked a little sheepish when she glanced up at his face, so Heather changed the subject. “We just passed my best friend’s apartment. It was her boyfriend, Rod, who gave me the broken ribs. It happened while he was giving me CPR, after I was struck by lightning. The lightning knocked me out and stopped my heart. Rod probably saved my life. I saw Michelle for the first time in two weeks a few minutes ago. She just got back from a trip to California with Rod.”
“Is she tall, with black hair?”
“How’d you know?” She wondered with alarm if she was going to be surrounded by people with supernatural abilities.
“The first time I came to see you in the hospital, all the patient’s rooms seem to have the doors open. They have viewing windows, too. I didn’t mean to violate anyone’s privacy, but anyway, I thought the Information Desk gave me the wrong room. I’d heard you were in a coma, and there was this cute little blond sitting up in the bed, laughing and talking up a storm, with another woman with black hair. So I thought you couldn’t be the person struck by lightning. I went back to the Information Desk to make sure. Then, when I got back, your friend had left.”
“Michelle loaned me this necklace.”
Heather held the gem up, so he could see it.
“Geology and meteorology’s my thing. You have to know how mountains and rocks are formed, for predicting the weather. It’s beautiful,” Mike said as they exited the condominium and went outside. “May I touch it?”
Heather nodded and Mike took the diamond in his hand, staring at it, turning it over. He frowned and shook his head, then reached into his pocket, pulled out a pair of glasses and put them on. “This is so unusual. I can’t see a single flaw inside the stone. I’d say it was real, if I didn’t know better.”
“It was a gift to Michelle,” Heather said, delighted that wearing the glasses, Mike suddenly seemed to turn into a sexy Clark Kent as he seriously studied the stone. “Even these fabulous fakes are quite valuable,” she added.
She tried not to react to the strange searing pain, like a cold ice pick had jabbed her in her chest, as Mike let go of the gem and it fell back against her dress. It was the same exact place where she’d been hit by lightning.
Mike was holding the car door open, so Heather took a deep breath and got in. The pain throbbed for another moment, and then passed. She hoped it wasn’t the early warning of an oncoming heart attack, but reasoned it was probably just a gas attack instead, from the Mahi-Mahi sandwich she’d had for lunch.
Mike loped around his small red BMW convertible and got in, “We have to go a little ways, but we’ll get there on time. The benefit is being held at the Manoa Grand Ballroom at the Japanese Cultural Center. They hope to get lots of donors for Queens Medical Center.”
It was nearing twilight as Mike drove down Ala Moana. Mike turned to look at Heather, “Do you mind having the top down, it’s a little windy.”
“No, I love it. My hair’s straight as a stick—it doesn’t mess up. I never get tired of the ocean view and feeling the trade winds.”
Mike smiled at her. “Me too.”
“The air in Hawaii is different, softer and heavier; kind of dense, like it has its own structure. The wind always has special heavenly warmth, and the smell is wonderful, like a combination of salty ocean and sweet wet flowers. But you were born here, probably take it all for granted.”
“I guess I did,” Mike said. “Then I went to college at the University of Oklahoma, to study meteorology, and also because they have thes
e huge super-awesome tornadoes.” He smiled, “I had my first weatherman job at a small TV station there, and got my fill of tornadoes when I went out chasing a big dangerous one in a truck with some crazy storm hunters. Decided then and there, if I lived through that experience, I was going home.”
“Your whole family lives here?”
Mike nodded. “I got something for you that’s pure Hawaiian, but then I saw that beautiful necklace from your friend...”
Heather smiled. “Tell me.”
“Look in the back seat.”
Heather turned and looked. The most exquisite lei she had ever seen was displayed in a large square box on the back seat. She recognized baby Orchids, Ginger Flowers, Plumeria and Tuberroses in pastel shades of pink, lavender and white, interspersed with tiny delicate green leaves.
“I left the top down because I knew you’d be able to smell it the moment you got in the car,” Mike said.
Heather unbuckled her seatbelt, got on her knees and leaned over the seat. “It’s just beautiful. I want to wear it. It’s so delicate I’m almost afraid to touch it.”
Mike steered the car to the shoulder of the road and stopped the car. “Go ahead. Try it on.”
Heather looked at him. He seemed delighted she was so happy with the gift, so she gently picked up the lei and placed it over her head, pulling her hair through. “Umm. Smells lovely,” Heather said.
“My Auntie Mai made it,” Mike said. “I described this tiny, delicate woman with blond hair. So she picked baby flower buds and wove the strands together so it would lie flat.”
“Thank you. Your aunt is a gifted artist. Is your whole family Hawaiian?”
Mike started the car and entered the flow. “Interesting story about that. My great, great grandfather was one of the first Protestant bible-thumpers from England who came to Hawaii to convert the heathens. It was a hard, arduous, long sea voyage, and on the trip his wife died. So there he was in Hawaii for several years, lonely, probably horny, with all the beautiful Polynesian women around. He astonished everyone and became a virtual outcast when he married a gorgeous native woman, who was part of the royal family, and kin to King Kamehameha. So my family is half haole and half Hawaiian.”
Heather knew haole meant Caucasian. She smiled at Mike. “Cool—I’m sitting here with Hawaiian royalty. Being pure haole myself, I certainly acquired the guilt. The Europeans who came to Hawaii wiped out about half the native population, which lacked immunity to smallpox, measles and influenza. After that came the enormous commercialization for profit in these beautiful islands.”
“All true,” Mike said. “I don’t share my great, grandfather’s religious beliefs. That’s an understanding way above my pay level. But perhaps there will be retribution. The Hawaiians have all kinds of vengeful Gods.”
Heather grinned. “Tell me.”
“Let’s see, there’s Haikili for thunder, Hina the goddess of the moon, Kaho’ali’i for the underworld, Kei for war, Peli for wind, lightning, and volcanoes, and Kane is the highest. You’ve heard of the ‘Wrath of Kane,’ of course.”
Each time Mike named one of the Hawaiian deities from mythology, Heather felt like an ice pick stabbed her in the chest. It was the exact place where lightning had struck her; the place where the diamond was lying against her chest. The last time she felt the sharp intense pain she couldn’t help letting out a small shrill shriek.
***
“Enough of this sitting around,” Michelle murmured to Lucifer as she got up, left the balcony and went to the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator door and peered inside. Since she had been on vacation it was almost empty. A few stale eggs, a few limp celery stalks. She needed to do some serious grocery shopping.
“I’ll just be a minute, Luce. I’ll get you some nice raw liver.” She went to the closet for her purse. When she walked to the door, her cat sat in front of it and let out some sad, pathetic sounding meows, staring up at her pitifully with his bright blue eyes. Michelle sidestepped around Lucifer, but he made a leap, almost straight up. She had no choice but to catch him.
Who’s manipulating who, Michelle thought, and laughed. “Okay, you can come. But you have to stay in my purse and duck down if a store manager comes around.”
Michelle would never know how much language Lucifer understood. He was bred to be small, intelligent and ferocious from a long line Omar had raised for just those qualities. She suspected Luce had learned many words, like dogs and chimps do, but he also seemed able to gage her moods and respond accordingly.
Michelle opened her purse and Luce climbed inside, turned around a few times to get comfy, and lay down with his head poking outside so he could see. She kept the purse open and went down the hallway to the elevator.
At the ding she stepped inside, then tried to turn and run when she looked up and saw who was there. She moved so quickly she almost tripped.
Omar took her arm courteously, but he pulled her back inside as well, changing her intended course to get away from him. The door closed. She was trapped.
“Nice to see you, Michelle,” Omar said, his voice deep, his dark eyes shining brilliantly.
They were descending and she watched in silence as Omar hit each of the buttons for the floors below with his long spider-like finger. Evidently he wanted a long, slow ride. They were on the 15th floor.
“I thought you were still in jail, awaiting trial,” Michelle said, trying to subdue the panic she felt.
“Good lawyers...greasy palms.”
“Why don’t you go home...to France?”
“Then I wouldn’t get to see you anymore. And strangely, they seemed to have confiscated my passport when I was released on bail.”
“I’m sure you could arrange something,” Michelle said. It was startling to be there with him. Her heart beat so fast she thought she might pass out. He was scary and astonishingly handsome as always, showing off his charm...deadly menacing as a snake, and smiling dazzlingly at her.
“I’m not going anywhere without you, Michelle,” he said caressingly.
There was a veiled threat she felt underneath his words.
She didn’t dare look him in the eyes. She knew they were black as his pupils, and mesmerizing. Omar had the ability to lock eyes with a person. Many couldn’t break that bond and were instantly and involuntarily forced to his will through attraction to his fiery charisma.
Most didn’t even know it had happened and happily became virtual slaves. The so-called witches in his covens all adored him, unconcerned that their lives were suddenly and completely devoid of free will; unconscious concubines blindly following Omar.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Michelle said.
“We were destined to be together forever.”
“By whom?” Michelle asked, getting angry. She was glad. Anger made her strong. He had ruined her life once, when he’d had her raped and she lost the ability to have children. His right hand man, Samson Stoker, had done it. At the time she was so scared she moved to Hawaii to start her life over again, with a horrible conviction that the rapist would come back...and this time he would complete the job and kill her.
“It’s predestined. You will have my child. We’ll start a new generation.”
“Rosemary’s Baby?”
His laugh was booming. “No. Not Satan’s Spawn. A gifted child to meld our unique abilities.”
There was angry hissing. Michelle looked down and saw Lucifer was standing up, almost out of her purse, balanced with one paw on the side of it. The other paw was extended toward Omar. Luce’s little toes were spread, the claws extended. His hiss became louder. His ears were flat, eyes squinted into slits, his mouth open with gums pulled back, showing sharp canine teeth. The hair on his back was raised. He looked deadly and furious.
“Ah, I see Lucifer’s become your ‘familiar’.” Omar said. “How quickly they forget.”
“Luce knows when I’ve been threatened,” Michelle said, delighted by the cat’s menacing posture. “Maybe if you treat
ed him differently he wouldn’t be acting this way.”
“Oh, and what’s your secret?”
“I just love him,” Michelle said.
“That’s your trick?”
“It’s not a trick. It’s the truth.”
She watched the floor buttons, as the elevator went down each floor, opening the doors, shutting them, resuming the long trip to the underground garage where her car was parked. Luce continued to hiss.
“If I was threatening you, would I have given you a diamond worth millions?” Omar asked.
“I threw it in the fire, on the island of Kauai.”
“It will come back to you, if you didn’t take it with you when you left the island. The spirit inside chose you.”
“Oh, please, stop the nonsense. You can have it back, Omar. I did take it and made a necklace. But I’ll bring it back, later tonight.” She looked at the lighted numbers blinking down. Only two more floors and she could get away from him.
“Didn’t you notice, there on the island, when the light spirits were dancing around the fire, I pointed to you? The spirit floated right into my hand.”
Michelle sighed deeply. “You were chanting and waving your arms around. I didn’t notice anything of the sort.”
“I was beckoning the spirits for you. The diamond is only for you. No one else, or there could be consequences.”
Omar looked at her carefully and his smile turned sinister. “Oh, I see. You gave it to someone.”
Finally, the door opened to the garage. Michelle firmly held on to Luce and hurried out of the elevator to her car. She glanced behind her and saw the doors close. Omar didn’t come out and she sighed with relief. She lifted Luce out of her purse and got her cell phone. When she clicked it there was no signal.
Michelle threw her purse inside the car, put Luce in her lap, and gunned the car toward the exit out of the garage, taking the turns at dangerous speeds to get to a place outside where her cell would have a signal.
Once outside she came to a shrieking stop and tried the phone. Thank God, it had a signal. She pressed the speed-dial for Heather.
Witchy Woman - Book 2 - The Necromancer Page 2
