by Dana Davis
Becka’s image gazed directly at her, brown eyes searching her own, and she shuddered. What the hell? “Visions don’t observe the Catcher.”
“You’re right, young Catcher,” a grainy, masculine voice said.
Zoey’s eyes darted frantically around, searching for him in the black blemish that had grown in the center of the rainbow vortex. But all she could see was Becka.
The other woman laughed again. No, not Becka. The image blurred for a second and in her place stood a man in a black cloak. His pale skin reminded Zoey of death, and dark, hollow eyes burrowed into her own. Tiny faces gave silent howls and erupted like boils around the blue veins on the Anguisher’s pallid skin.
Eew, that’s disgusting. But that thought took a respite as Zoey’s aura seeped from her, leaving her cold and shivering. Her heart jackhammered against her ribs and sweat trickled down her spine as her will clamped down on the assault. She desperately tried to keep from losing herself, and her thoughts quickly turned to terror when she realized what the Anguisher had planned. She hadn’t done the conjoining, yet. This can’t be happening. Daisy! “No!”
“Silence, bitch!” His gravelly voice hurt her ears. “You’re mine.” He shrieked with laughter again, like a villain in a bad movie, but Zoey found nothing humorous about it.
She trembled and her bladder felt loose as she struggled against the invisible vacuum that sucked at her. Her head grew light and darkness began to press in from her sides, giving her tunnel vision. Don’t pass out. Don’t pass out. She reached out for the Native dreamcatcher in desperation but it slipped from her grasp as the room whirled around her. The movement stopped as suddenly as it had begun and Zoey found herself lying on the floor in total darkness. She searched for light, color, anything on which to focus. Nothing. Not even a shadow. The darkness seemed to press down on her, stifling, sucking the breath from her body. Oh, god, I’m blind!
She cried out for help but no one answered. She was alone, vulnerable and sightless. A smooth warmth seemed to pulse against her body, as though the floor were made of living flesh, which took her from fright to terror. This isn’t my home. Where am I?
She struggled to her feet but her sense of balance was terribly off and she almost fell when she tried to walk. He did this, brought me here. But where the hell is here? “Where are you? I can’t see you. I can’t see anything. Please, help me!” Her pleas went unnoticed.
Despair slammed into her gut like a freight train, and she fell to the living floor, curled into a fetal position, and wept.
Chapter 25
Goodbye, Little Girl, Goodbye
Daisy banged on Zoey’s door again. Maria Running Bear had called less than an hour ago with a dream vision she’d had during a nap. The Native woman had become a quiet ally ever since the skinwalker incident. Though she had no active powers, Maria had been a great listener, checking up on Daisy now and again, offering advice. And she wouldn’t have called me if she wasn’t worried.
She banged again and rang the bell. When no one answered, she stepped to the front window and peered inside. The shutters were open. She didn’t see Zoey. Not wanting to waste any more time, she uttered an unlock spell and opened the security screen. Another spell and she pushed the main door open and stepped inside, ready with a trussing.
No alarm. Zoey must have forgotten to set it again. “Zoey, it’s me Daisy! Are you home!” She stepped cautiously around the house, peering into bedrooms, bathrooms, then out into the backyard. No sign of her young cousin. The Jeep was in the garage and the girl’s purse sat on the bar that separated the kitchen and dining area. Maybe she just went out for a run. No. Maria wouldn’t have called if Zoey weren’t in trouble. And she’d seen the girl at home.
The Catcher box made a funny sound, like wind during a monsoon. The silver thing sat on the coffee table with a Native dreamcatcher next to it, similar to the one that hung above Daisy and Noah’s bed. The box lid stood open.
That can’t be good. Daisy stepped to the couch and sat, peering into the box to see…nothing unusual. It wouldn’t have remained open to anyone but Zoey, so the girl had to be here. But where?
She plucked her cell from her purse and pressed “2” on speed dial. “Bridge, it’s me. No, I’m fine but something’s wrong at Zoey’s. Maria called and said she was in trouble. In a dark place. But I can’t find her. I need your help. Yeah I’m here now. Uh-huh. Thanks.” After calling Noah at work and leaving a message on his voicemail, she snapped her cell shut and shoved it back into her shorts’ pocket. She hadn’t even bothered to grab her purse on the way out, just her keys, which jingled from another pocket.
Where are you, Zoey? What’s happening? She did another search of the place but still couldn’t find the girl. She was about to hunt down a ladder and check in the attic when the doorbell rang, causing her heart to flip, so she abandoned her current mission and hurried to open the door.
“I’m so glad you’re here, Bridge? I can’t find her anyplace.”
“Thanks, Jason,” Daisy said lightly into her cell so as not to worry the boy. She snapped her phone shut and turned to Bridgette. “She’s not there.” They’d searched inside and outside of Zoey’s house, including the attic, to find no sign of the girl. Bridgette couldn’t sense her anywhere, either.
“Damnit, Bridge, she has to be around here someplace. Her Jeep is in the garage and the house was locked when I got here. So where the hell is she?” When Bridgette simply stared at her, Daisy grunted. “I know. I’m a worry wart. We’ll find her, right? She probably walked to the store or something. Maybe Maria misread her vision.” She sighed. “I’m parched. Let’s take a break for a few minutes. Then we can try a locator spell.” Though they weren’t always that accurate when it came to finding people. She led Bridgette into the kitchen to get something to drink, sandals slapping on the tile floor. Her cousin had grown eerily quiet. “You okay? You sense something? Bridge?”
“I slept with Jay.”
Daisy’s hand froze on the refrigerator door handle, eyebrows climbing. “You what?”
“We had sex.”
Well, shit. I didn’t see that one coming. Daisy shook her head and took two water bottles from the fridge. I’ll buy Zoey more later. When we find her. She gave one to Bridgette, who looked like a kid waiting outside the principal’s office. “When did this happen?” She took a long drink from the bottle, wishing it were something stronger, but she couldn’t afford to be impaired right now.
“After we got back from Saguaro Lake. It was late and we got home at the same time, so he walked me to my door.” She headed back into the living area and Daisy followed. “Next thing I know, I’m kissing him. Then, well, we ended up in my bed.” Bridgette smirked as she sat on Zoey’s couch.
Daisy sat next to her and took another long drink. “So, where does that leave you two now?”
“Sex partners, I guess.”
“You’re planning to do it again?”
Bridgette shrugged. “Why not? He’s good. Really good.”
“I thought you hated him.”
“Not hate, exactly. He annoys the hell out of me. But that night. God, Daisy! I haven’t felt that good in bed since Simon.”
“Bridge, Simon had you against your will.”
“Yeah, I know. But he was the best lay I ever had. Besides Simon, Jay’s the best lay I’ve ever had. Who’da figured, right?”
“Right.” You crazy ass woman.
Steady green eyes narrowed. “I heard that.”
Daisy winced. “Sorry.”
A dismissive wave. “Don’t be. I am crazy to sleep with Jay. I know it. I just can’t help myself. I need sex, Daisy. Like I need air. And doing it with myself doesn’t count.”
“Spread that around and you’ll have every horny male in the Phoenix-metro area knocking at your door.” The Catcher box made that wind tunnel sound again. “It did that a while ago. Before you got here.” Bridgette put her water bottle on the coffee table and leaned toward the box. “Careful.”
Daisy had no idea if the box would harm either of them, especially with Zoey not around.
The redhead nodded as she tentatively placed a finger on the box. When nothing happened, she cradled it between her hands. After a moment, her eyes narrowed then widened, and she paled, like she’d seen a ghost. No, like she’d seen something worse than a ghost.
“What is it, Bridge? Is the box hurting you? Come on, damnit, on you’re scaring me.”
Several curses flew from Bridgette’s lips and she released the box to turn to Daisy. “She’s in there.”
“What? Inside the—that’s crazy. How the hell can she be in there?”
“I don’t know but she is. Someplace. I can sense her. She’s in the damn Catcher box.” She cradled the box between her hands again. “No, wait. She went through the box. A portal maybe? I’m not sure where she is exactly but she’s scared. Alone. I can’t get thoughts from her, just feelings. But it’s her, Daisy.”
“Ah, shit. The Anguisher. Has to be.” Daisy’s stomach soured as she stared at the pretty silver box. “Bridgette, we never did the conjoining.”
Chapter 26
All Alone
Zoey must have dozed because when she opened her eyes, they felt grainy with sleep. She had wept earlier, though no tears had fallen from her eyes, and she wondered at that. With nothing but blackness surrounding her, she sat up, pulled her knees close, wrapped arms around her legs and rocked back and forth on the pulsating floor, listening to her own breath, for she could detect no other sound. Time seemed to slip from her and she had no sense of it here. Wherever here was. Minutes or hours could have passed and she wouldn’t have known the difference.
She thought she heard a faint voice and jerked her head up to listen. Nothing. Her head fell onto her knees again.
Think, Zoey, think. She forced herself to remember the last moments before darkness had closed in on her. The box. I was looking into the Catcher box. Son of a bitch. I’m inside the damn box. No, not the box. The blemish in the vortex. He must have pulled me through that somehow. To here. Where is here? Someplace devoid of dreams, of hope. The underworld? That revelation seemed to help her push through the despair that pressed in on her from every angle and terror replaced depression. Crap, crap, crap! How the hell am I supposed to get out of the fucking underworld? This can’t be happening.
The warm, pulsating floor beneath her began to take on a whole new meaning, and it was all she could do not to scream. How could she trust any of what happened here? She was surprised she wasn’t wading through fire right now, from what she’d read in various descriptions of the underworld. Or was that just the hell version?
But I’m not evil. At least, she didn’t think she was that bad. So maybe I don’t get fire. Or maybe fire’s just a metaphor for something else. Fear maybe? Zoey had never liked the dark, especially as a child. Even now, she kept a nightlight in the hallway for bathroom or kitchen trips in the middle of the night. The soft green glow kept total darkness away and made her feel safer.
She focused her senses on detecting something, anything, in the blackness that surrounded her. Nothing reached her but the fear within herself. She took in several long, deliberate breaths to quiet her terror. Eventually it worked. Something, a feeling, like a thorny branch, stroked her senses. But where it emanated from, she hadn’t the slightest idea.
Fighting rational thoughts to stay put, she took off one of her sandals and placed it on the ground to mark her spot. She stood, unsteady in the complete and utter darkness that encased her, and forced her legs to move in what she thought was a straight line, taking careful steps.
A popular saying popped into her mind and she held her hand in front of her face. Nope. Can’t see it. Can’t see a goddamn thing. She fought to keep panic from overtaking her senses and walked in a slow and methodical pace until she tripped on something, landing hard on her hands and knees. Ow. Shit. Even the pulsating floor hurt when she fell. As she struggled to right herself, her left hand brushed against an object and she quelled a scream before getting the nerve to touch it again. Her sandal. She sat and pulled it on as her mind raced to absorb what had just happened. I’m walking in circles. Literally. Despair hung heavy in the air around her and she hugged her knees. What the hell am I supposed to do now?
Her resolve vanished and she wept without tears. Crying echoed all around her, breaking through the silence. The sound grew louder. She clamped hands over her ears but it seemed to echo in her mind as well. She wished it would go away. Her heart jumped. How many times had the box warned her to be careful with her own wishes?
I’m the Dream Catcher. Could it be that simple? She laughed and it sounded almost mad to her own ears. Keep it together, Zoey. Shit. If I don’t get out of here soon, I’ll lose it for sure.
She sucked in a breath of confidence and stood. Her arms flew out for balance. “I wish to go home.” She pronounced each word carefully then held her breath and waited. Nothing happened so she tried in a more forceful tone. “I, Dream Catcher Zoey Anne Vega, wish to stand in my greatroom. Now.” Nothing. “I wish I was home.” Again, nothing. In a moment of near insanity, she clicked her heels together three times, accompanied it with the familiar Dorothy phrase, and huffed when she wasn’t transported to her home. If I don’t get out of here, I’ll go nuts for sure. Calm down, Zoey. Nobody’s hurt you. You’re still alive and whole. You’re just lost for the moment. Yeah, that’s it. I’m just lost.
Crying echoed in the blackness around her but at least it wasn’t as loud now, and she wondered if perhaps she were wishing for too much too soon. Her mind focused on something smaller. “I wish for the crying to stop.” The weeping persisted and all composure vanished. She fought the urge to sit and scream like a mad woman.
Instead, she cursed and walked in a near fury one direction with arms extended as a buffer. The echoes of her own grief pressed in on her. Her walking changed to running as panic flooded her senses. She ran in all directions, at least as much as she could tell, with no success of finding anything but darkness. Her bladder ached so she squatted in the darkness, only to find she couldn’t go. Her bodily functions had locked up somehow. The Anguisher’s doing?
Dazed and exhausted, Zoey collapsed in a heap, her waterless sobs blending with the echoes of previous crying.
* * * *
“Damnit, I can’t hear her.” Daisy slapped a hand onto her couch, causing several of her magick books to bounce. The box had allowed her to remove it from Zoey’s house and bring it home. It sat on her coffee table now, next to the Native dreamcatcher she’d also snagged from Zoey’s place. The two might be related somehow, though she had no idea what to do with them. But she had to find a way to reach the girl. They just needed the right spell. They had tried several with no luck, and Daisy’s patience had begun to wear thin sometime around midnight. “She’s still not answering me.” She eyed Bridgette. “Anything?”
The redhead looked up from the book she was reading, weariness in her gaze, dark smudges beneath her eyes, and shook her head. They’d been at it for hours now. Jay, who had brought some of his mom’s spell books over, was sleeping on his side on several floor pillows, with Perky curled up behind his knees. Any other time, Daisy would’ve been amused. Right now, she was seriously pissed off and tired as hell.
Noah made quiet noises in the kitchen as he put on another pot of coffee. The medium, Scarlet Mendoza, sat at the dining table in meditation, trying to find out anything from the other side and occasionally mumbling to herself, or to someone Daisy couldn’t see. She’d been in the same position so long that Daisy thought she’d fallen asleep.
Jason and his parents were at Zoey’s house, in case she returned there somehow. Their powers couldn’t really help with this, anyway. All they could do was wait and Daisy was happy to let them feel useful. Especially when she’d seen how distraught Jason looked at losing his fiancé.
Poor kids. They’ve been through so much already. Especially Zoey. She rubbed her eyes, picked up another book, a
nd perused the spells. Various glamours to hide zits, freckles, wrinkles, or make one’s self look completely different. No. A trussing spell to bind an enemy. Won’t need that until we know where the hell to find the enemy. Riddance spells to push away unwanted person or persons. Those might come in handy later. But she didn’t need a book to cast any of these spells. Daisy had memorized them by her teens.
She thumbed through more like those, mainly for use in daily life situations. As her hand moved across another page, she glanced at the turquoise stone in her ring and frowned. Protection. Fat lot of good you did. I should’ve loaned you to Zoey. The designs on the silver band reminded her of something and she glanced at the Catcher box.
“Coffee’ll be ready in a minute, hon.” Noah studied her.
She gave him a tired smile. “Thanks, babe. Hey, can you run up to the library and get those books you’ve been working on?
“Sure.” He disappeared down the hallway toward their office, and she heard his faint steps as he ascended the spiral stairs to their attic remodel.
“Bingo!” Scarlet cried out. Daisy jumped and eyed the medium as Jay sat and Bridgette grunted. Perky lifted his head and yipped once. Scarlet turned dark eyes on Daisy. “Sorry. But I finally got a hit. A witch.” The medium looked as though she were hiding something but that could have been Daisy’s imagination. Either way, she had to trust Scarlet because she couldn’t see this ghost. “She suggests you try a piggyback. A locator spell mixed with a reveal and—what?” Her eyes grew distant for a moment. “Oh, yeah. Something called a reverse barrier.”
Daisy’s brows climbed. Impressive. We haven’t tried that combination. Whoever the medium had located was a damn strong witch if she’d cast all three together and got them working. I’ll have to cast in tandem with Bridgette on this one.
