Books by Linda Conrad

by Conrad, Linda

  The corners of Dr. Wauneka’s mouth twitched as if he might believe she was the nerdiest person who ever lived, but he was too polite to laugh in her face. “True traditionalists seldom have computers,” he told her solemnly. “Or doorbells, for that matter.”

  Reagan wished everything about the Navajos could be clear to her. This was one time when the numbers weren’t any help. “Well, I can see how just stopping by might be rude sometimes, but…”

  Ben Wauneka’s eyes were almost black, much darker than Kody’s deep brown or Lucas Tso’s warm chestnut ones. And right now he was using them to glare at her. But she hadn’t felt the least bit afraid or nervous by anything Ben had done so far, including this. She’d noticed he had on the identical silver-and-turquoise bracelet that Kody, Lucas and Kody’s brother, Hunter, wore.

  “Shush, woman,” Ben said, as he let a smile soften his features. “Give it a rest. Sometimes you must accept that doing things the way they’ve always been done is for the best. Being rude is one of the worst offenses in Dinetah.”

  Reagan clamped her mouth shut, but wasn’t at all convinced. She shot a look at Kody. He’d been quietly sitting across the room, his face a total blank.

  Ben began to put away his equipment. He hadn’t needed to touch her during his examination, except to take her pulse and her temperature. The rest of the time he’d just gazed through a series of crystal cylinders and spheres as he shone a light into her eyes.

  “Am I going to live?” she quipped.

  Ben raised an eyebrow. “Were you in doubt?”

  “No, of course not. It was a bad joke. What’s wrong with me?”

  Ben slanted a quick glance in Kody’s direction. But his cousin sat stoically and remained silent.

  “Let me consider it,” Ben told her. “I’d like to confer with Kody later, before I give you my diagnosis. In the meantime, I promised I’d tell you the Navajo witch legend. Are you ready to hear it now?”

  “Witches?” Reagan hadn’t thought Kody had meant anything like that when he’d said he wanted her to hear a legend. “That’s just superstition, isn’t it? I mean, certainly no one can believe in those kinds of things in the modern world. Not really. I imagined the legend would be a story more along the lines of—”

  At that moment, the still air was disturbed by a cell phone ringing. Reagan knew it wasn’t hers. The darn thing had run down while she and Kody had been up on the cliff.

  Kody pulled his cell from his belt and answered. Though he spoke too softly for either her or Ben to catch any of the words, they both waited in silence for him to finish.

  When he did, Kody seemed irritated, or perhaps annoyed. “We’re not going to be able to stay and listen to the legend, cousin. Reagan and I must leave now.”

  Ben stood as Kody joined him in the middle of the room. “Have you received bad news?”

  Kody nodded. “Afraid so. That was the FBI field office in Farmington. They just got a tip that a known terrorist has been seen stalking the Dine College campus near here in Tsaile. I must go do some interviews there. See if I can get a few leads on the guy.”

  Turning back to Reagan, Kody said, “I didn’t jump to a wrong conclusion, did I? You do want to come along with me? We may get some information on your father.”

  Ben interrupted before she could answer. “My cousin, you must not leave this woman behind. It cannot be her decision to stay or go. Not if it means leaving her alone. And none of the Brotherhood is capable of securing her protection. Not anymore. No one but you can help her now.”

  Reagan caught the confusion in Kody’s eyes as he questioned Ben. But then she saw a look of silent understanding pass between the two men.

  “What Sing is called for?” Kody asked.

  “A Blessing Way or perhaps a Ghost Way Sing would be the preferable cure under normal circumstances,” Ben answered. “But first, you must find the Skinwalker who is attempting to control her actions and thoughts. Stop the silent attack. Then we can try to heal the patient.”

  “Skinwalker?” Reagan asked. Had she heard him right? “What on earth…?”

  Kody turned to her, but didn’t answer. His face was unreadable. “You want to grab a coat? We may be gone until dark. You’ve got two minutes to get ready. We have to go.”

  “Wait a second,” she said as he took her elbow and swung her around, dragging her toward the guest bedroom where her things were stashed. “What did Ben mean? What was that word he used—Skinwalker?”

  “It was nice meeting you, Reagan Wilson,” Ben called from near the front door. “I have to be going. Kody can fill you in on anything you need to know.”

  She could hear Ben gathering up his things. “You will be well soon enough,” he added. “In the meantime, try to fight the attack off. Concentrate. Don’t let them take control.”

  Them? Reagan felt a chill ride up her spine.

  What in heaven’s name had she fallen into? And just who or what was a Skinwalker?

  10

  S omething was following them. Kody could feel the skin on the back of his neck crawl while he steered the truck down the nearly deserted highway through the mountains.

  Ever since they’d rounded the curve on Route 64 and passed the Mummy Cave entrance to the canyon, he’d had the distinct impression of unseen eyes keeping track of their every move. But then, maybe he was just obsessing. In the first place it was broad daylight. And in the second, he hadn’t heard any telltale vibrations.

  He slanted a quick glance to the passenger seat, where Reagan was chewing on her thumbnail again, an auburn curl brushing her cheek. Kody knew what was bothering her, but he wasn’t quite sure how to fix it.

  “Why won’t you tell me what a Skinwalker is—or what it means?” she asked after a few minutes.

  He bit back a sigh. “Try not to say that word too loudly, will you? The Navajo have a long history of believing in witches—a history normally told in stories, by the way. But at the rate we’re going, you may never get to hear any of them.

  “Skinwalkers are evildoers,” he added with a wistful shake of his head, sorry that he was having to tell her in this manner. “They’re Navajo witches who have learned to use some really terrible powers…in order to take control of the People and Dinetah.”

  And maybe the country and the world, too, he thought grimly. But he didn’t want to elaborate. Kody could see she wasn’t buying even this much of the story.

  “That’s…You can’t mean you believe that stuff?”

  Kody pulled the truck off the road and onto the dusty red-dirt shoulder so he could turn to face her.

  “Look. I would’ve rather explained this to you one step at a time so you would have a chance to accept it the same way that the Dine who were raised here have accepted it.” He checked her expression and still found that silly smirk. “But it looks like you are going to be forced into recognizing the threat whether you want to or not.”

  He put a hand on her shoulder. “They do exist, Reagan. I’ve seen them. Their legendary powers include being able to change out of human form and become animals…only these animals have superior strength and can do despicable things because they keep their human intelligence.”

  “Oh, pullezz,” she said, and rolled her eyes. “I’m an Internet gamer. I spend tons of time online playing, and I know lots of interesting plots about the same sort of thing. I kinda recognize this exact one, in fact. But they’re game plots. Not reality.”

  He took a deep breath, put both hands back on the steering wheel but kept his foot firmly on the brake. “This is the very reason the Navajo refuse to discuss witchcraft publically. Whether you believe it or not, please don’t mention anything—especially not the name Skinwalker—to anyone except me. It might be more dangerous for you.”

  “More dangerous? What danger am I in now?”

  “Some of the Skinwalker stories and legends tell about the evil ones using other kinds of witchcraft to cause havoc and grab power.

  “They’re dangerous and have a w
hole bag of terrible tricks,” Kody continued. “One nasty one they use is a white powder that causes disease and immobilization. Another is their ability to put objects into their enemies’ bodies from a distance. That can bring pain, illness and even death. And worse yet, they’re capable of mind control—making victims behave in ways that they decide.”

  “Oh.” The corners of her mouth stopped turning up in a smirk and turned down in a frown instead. “Mind control. You think that’s what happened when the numbers went away in the cliff ruin last night?”

  “Reagan. Listen, please. Ben said—”

  “So that’s why you haven’t mentioned what we did together last night.” She crossed her arms under her breasts. “You think someone else was putting ideas into my head and made me jump you, right? And maybe that same someone’s thoughts made me all hot and compliant, too?” Her voice rose with barely concealed anger.

  The change of direction in her conversation left him temporarily at a loss. After a few moments, he realized he’d stayed too quiet for far too long not to be rude.

  “You do.” She turned her face away and looked out the side window. “It’s written on your face.”

  “Come on, Reagan. That’s not fair. I’m worried about you. Evil people are secretly attempting to bend you to their will, and I don’t know why.”

  He never would’ve imagined her thoughts would go in this new direction. “I haven’t had a chance to decide what to think about the things that happened between us,” he finally admitted. “My life is complicated. And I haven’t exactly had a lot of luck figuring out women in the past.”

  Silence.

  Hell. Would he ever like to know what was going on in that genius brain of hers right now. But he didn’t want to push her too far. Not about this, anyway.

  Kody took his foot off the brake and eased back onto the highway. He stared out the windshield at familiar spires of copper-colored sandstone and wished he could find a way to make her understand.

  His homeland had been forcefully shoved out of harmony, with ancient Dine beliefs turned inside out. And worse, the whole world might also be in danger from the evil ones.

  It was his job to eliminate the threat. He couldn’t just stop everything and work on his own problems. Or on hers, for that matter. Her physical protection had to be his only priority for the time being.

  He sneaked one last glance in her direction. What a shame he couldn’t stop now and show her what he felt about her. Words didn’t seem to be getting the job done. And there wasn’t enough time to find a balance between protection and pleasure.

  But his body was betraying him, despite the lack of timing. His palms had grown damp and his skin sizzled with sensation. In his mind, he could only dream about drawing her close and letting his tongue and fingers do all the talking.

  Reagan ignored the scenery as the truck flew down the road past different flora and fauna. She hardly noticed as gnarled gray cedars and purple sage gave way to the deep greens of spruce and ponderosa pine, or when red monkey-face wildflowers grew up in tangles right beside the asphalt.

  Her brain was a jumble. Statistical analysis. Biological imperative. Maximum dispersible ratios. Kody’s long eyelashes, lying softly on his high cheekbones whenever he glanced down at the speedometer. Random geometric patterns. Wanting so badly for him to touch her that her breasts ached from just thinking about it.

  Hmm. Her thoughts were becoming problematic. She should be thinking about how to make Kody get past this whole Skinwalker business and go back to searching for her father. Instead, all she could concentrate on was how his brown eyes darkened to mahogany when she’d touched his arm. Or flamed with golden highlights as he took her hand.

  The uncomfortable silence between them had dragged on for twenty minutes. All the while she stared out the window, only half seeing what was right in front of her. She knew they had driven past several highway marker signs and also past several tribal highway signs, announcing the location of roads or special monuments along the way.

  But until this moment, she hadn’t really paid much attention to any of it.

  “Wait,” she cried, breaking the silence forcefully. “Stop. We have to go back there. Did you see that sign?”

  Kody slowed, just as a helmeted man on a motorcycle passed them going the other way. “Which sign? We’re still fifteen miles from where we turn off to Dine College.”

  “That sign back there. The turnoff to Sheepdip Creek. That’s the place my father’s neighbor mentioned when I talked to him. He said Dad had told him where he was headed, and that’s the place. The artifact cave is supposedly located there. I’ve been racking my brain, trying to remember that name.”

  Kody pulled off to the side of the road and stopped the truck again. “You didn’t tell me the neighbor knew of a real place in Navajoland where we should look. Are you sure it was the Sheepdip Creek area? That’s one of the places where outsiders are never allowed to go.”

  “Now that I’ve heard it again, it’s not a name I could easily confuse with something else. Why aren’t people allowed to go there?”

  “The creek runs down into one of the spurs off of Canyon del Muerto. There’s a couple of caverns hidden in the cliffs above the creek where well-preserved human remains have been found—sort of like those in Mummy Cave, but of extreme religious importance to the Dine.”

  “Human remains? Are we talking old or new?”

  “Old. Very old. The ancestors of our ancestors.”

  “We won’t go in those caverns,” she said as she crossed her heart. “But we’ve got to get close. Please. What if my father is in one of those caves right now? I can feel it in my heart. We’re going to run into him at any moment.”

  “Reagan…”

  “Please, Kody. It shouldn’t take us too long. I just know Dad must be right around the next bend.”

  Kody picked up his cell phone from the dashboard, flipped it open and checked the time display. “All right. I’ll call the college and tell them we’ve been delayed an hour. But we can’t go more than a few miles down the gravel road before we’ll have to turn back. We can’t get too close to those caves.”

  “That’s great,” she said without really thinking about what she was doing. “Dad will be there. I’m sure of it.”

  But twenty minutes later Reagan wasn’t sure of her name, let alone her father’s location. They’d been bouncing along on the potholed gravel, and with each bump electricity had been sending spears of sexual tension inside each layer of her clothes and skin right down to her bones, until she was totally consumed with the heat and the longing.

  But she wasn’t about to give in to this crazy sex thing again. Not when Kody had been so ambivalent about their last encounter.

  She shrugged out of her coat and tried to concentrate her thoughts on what she was seeing out the window. They had traveled past a few houses, all of them set well off the road in the cottonwood trees. Farm animals dotted the meadows and stood under picture-perfect willows, drinking from the creek.

  Reagan could use a drink herself. Her throat was as dry as the high desert, and her underarms were as damp as a swamp. It was typical of her geeky, so not cool style. Oh, how she wished to be like everyone else.

  Sheepdip Creek meandered to the left after a mile or so, and Kody followed the road as it struck off from the creek and headed straight up a small hill through a patch of junipers and Russian olive trees. When they came to the other side of the grove, where the road was in clear view again, he expected to find the creek running back beside them.

  Instead, he had to throw on the brakes and jerk to a gravel-skidded halt to avoid hitting an SUV stalled in the middle of the road. The driver’s door was propped open but the seats were empty.

  Uneasy, Kody backed up his pickup while still keeping an eye on the SUV.

  “What’s that guy doing stopped there? He’s blocking the road.” Reagan was muttering as she stretched to see from the passenger seat.

  Kody narrowed his ey
es and cast a quick glance over the scene. “I don’t see anyone around.” And that odd feeling of being watched was back again.

  “How are we going to get past it?”

  “I don’t think we are. I’m going to turn around….”

  “Look.” She pointed her finger at an indistinguishable form lying in the dirt road right in front of the SUV. “Maybe it’s someone who’s injured.” Reagan jumped out of the truck before Kody could put the transmission in neutral.

  “Wait! You could be in danger.” Cursing under his breath, he pulled on the emergency brake and headed out after her.

  Protecting her was turning out to be tougher than he’d ever imagined. And all of a sudden the vibrations were beginning to reach his ears again. Of course. Dammit.

  He was about ten paces behind her, but he’d never catch up in time. This whole picture was all wrong.

  “Don’t go any closer,” he shouted. “It’s a trap.”

  “Stop it!” she screamed, and pressed her fingers to her temples. But she did slow her steps, and at last stopped moving toward the danger.

  By the time Kody reached her a second later, she was crying and holding her head in her hands. “The numbers,” she sobbed. “They took the numbers away again. Make them stop. I can’t stand it.”

  Kody wrapped his arms around her, torn between dragging her away and comforting her where she stood.

  At that moment, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a movement from the form lying in the road on the far side of the SUV. A weak bleating noise let him know the downed figure was a goat.

  He threw one quick look at it to see if there was anything he could do for the injured animal. But in an instant Kody realized the poor thing had its throat slit and was tied and tethered to the underside of the SUV—Tethered with a piece of monofilament line that was almost invisible to the human eye.

  “Hell,” he muttered as he grabbed Reagan and took off running as fast as he could in the opposite direction.