When I pulled up in front of Steven’s aunt’s house, there were more cars parked on the street than usual and I had the horrible impression that all of the owners were inside the house I was going into. I don’t advertise what we do; people ask questions, or talk and rumors start to spread. I took a deep breath and grabbed the backpack I brought with me and walked up to the front door. Steven opened it before I could knock and pulled me inside with a hug.
“Hey!” He said brightly and I was overwhelmed with the most fantastic, mouth-watering aromas. I would be forced to stay for lunch when we were done. I composed myself and hitched a glare onto my face. “I know, I know! But don’t worry, they’re all outside and most of them don’t know what we’re doing.”
“Most?” I asked in a strangled whisper.
“Well, my aunt and mom, obviously, and my Abuela.” he listed off easily.
“She’s not gonna throw holy water on me again is she?” The first time I met Steven’s grandmother, it hadn’t gone smoothly.
“No!” He said, waving his hands at me frantically. “She misunderstood, you know, you being white and all.”
“Promise?” I demanded.
“Yes, she was the one who insisted on lunch to thank you.”
“Oh… well, then, I guess that’s ok.” There was no way I was going to say no to homemade Mexican food.
“So, where’s Jodi?” Steven asked.
“She’s not feeling great,” I said as I slowly turned around, trying to get a feel for the entire house. “I got a text from her before I left that said she was gonna try to knock out on cold meds to get better.”
“Ah,” Steven said simply with a nod of his head.
“Ok, go out and get Alexis, make sure your aunt knows to keep everyone out, and I mean it. Until we’re done no one can come in.” I turned to go find Alexis’ room when Steven stopped me.
“We’re done? I’m helping?” He looked genuinely confused.
“Of course?” It came out a question. Why wouldn’t he want to help?
“Oh, ok…”
“What’s up? You don’t want to help?”
“No! I do, I just thought you understood they won’t think I can do this stuff.” He gestured at the room at large.
“If they stay out, they wont see you do anything. Mostly you’re just helping me, you can tell them that. Like handing me stuff or helping set up.”
“That’s not all I’m doing, right?” He seemed offended.
“Of course not! Right now you’re going to go get Alexis.” I grinned at him and walked away. I didn’t need him to tell me where her room was; the heavy angry energy was pulling me towards it. Before I opened the door, which was white with Alexis’ name decorated on it at chest level, I mimicked a pentagram over my body the way a Catholic would cross himself. I took one last breath of fresh air before I opened the door and stepped in.
No wonder the poor baby couldn’t sleep in here! Who could? It was practically rancid, but I knew the parents couldn’t feel it. Children can still see and feel the magical world around us. As we grow up we lose our belief and eventually can’t see it or feel it unless, like Steven, Jodi and I, we work very hard at keeping our eyes open.
I had laid out a large white cloth on the floor, set up a bowl of consecrated water at one corner, a bowl of pure dirt in another and a candle in the middle when Steven came in, a plastic bag in one hand and Alexis on his hip. She was trying to get away from him when he stepped inside, but I knew it was more that she was trying to get out of the room. Then she looked and saw me and smiled a huge, nearly toothless smile at me, reaching her arms out to me excitedly. I laughed and reached for her, transferring her to my hip and bouncing her instinctively.
Steven knelt down and started pulling out the items I told him to get for me, setting the sage in front of the candle and the jar of rainwater at the top edge of the cloth.
“Ok, angel, now what’s going on here?” I looked into Alexis’ eyes as I talked to her. Most people don’t talk to babies like this, but I found I got farther with her if I treated her like an equal. She sniffled quietly, like she was ready to cry, and pointed at the corner that her crib was near. I turned and faced it and she buried her face into the hollow of my shoulder, tangling one hand into my hair, clinging for dear life. I reached out and felt a sticky, hot void taking up the space at the head of her crib in between it and the wall. I pulled back and had the sense of an angry man staring back at me, radiating hate. “Is that the boogie man, angel?” I used a term that most children knew.
“Ba! Ba!” she said angrily pointed at the black mass.
“That means bad,” Steven said, standing beside me, staring at the corner.
“Is he bad, angel?” I asked her and she nodded, tears welling up in her chocolate brown eyes. “Ok, angel, don’t cry, Auntie Shay is going to make him go away.” I hugged her close to me and then gave her back to Steven. “Take her back to her mother and come back.”
While he was gone, I blessed the rainwater he had gathered and settled into the lotus position to center myself. Steven came in and I held the rainwater up over my head for him to take. “Go around the entire inside of the house and flick the water with your fingers at the walls, creating a circle and say our usual banishing.” I didn’t need to give him any more instruction than that. I was very grateful for his help; a two-hour ritual for one person would now take less than an hour with both of us.
In the end I felt electric; static crackled in my hair and I could almost see the tiny white sparks at the ends of my fingertips. I took a deep breath, testing the air in the room. It was clean and fresh as if it had just rained. I looked into the corner and reached out. He was gone, gone for good. As Steven created the circle around the house, I built the shields on the outside after we banished the boogie man. We became linked for the short period of time that we were working and I was able to call to him mentally without touching him to bring Alexis in for the final test. When I brought her back into the room she was tense at first, but as I coaxed her to look around, she relaxed so suddenly that I had to relax my hold on her. She giggled easily like a bubbling spring and bounced in my arms.
Lunch was ridiculously wonderful; there really is nothing like homemade Mexican food. I ate enough carnitas tacos to last me a year and Alexis kept reaching for me over the table so her mother and I passed her back and forth between courses. Everyone seemed lighter, happier than they ever had when in this house. Steven hugged me at one point, seeing the joy on his aunt’s face and he was almost in tears. It was times like these that I loved my work.
About three hours later, as the cold winds were ripping up the neighborhood, Steven walked me out to my car; his earlier joy was fading quickly. He had today’s paper in his hands and he was clutching it tightly in his fist.
“What’s up?” I asked after tossing my gear into the passenger seat.
“Did you see today’s paper?” His usually bright eyes were cold and lifeless.
“No…” He handed me the paper without a word. It was the local edition, catering to just our county. On the front page, in bold letters, along the bottom of the page was the caption: “County Sheriffs are at a Loss”. There was a small picture of three goats lying on their sides, their throats split wide in the black and gray. I scanned the story quickly, my stomach knotting up instantly and threatening to revisit lunch. The story detailed the findings of a ritual they were already labeling as Satanic.
“You have got to be kidding,” I whispered angrily.
“Nope,” Steven said looking past me down the street at nothing. The story claimed that they had found stubs of black candles spaced evenly apart and a chalk outline of what they thought was a circle, but it had been haphazardly wiped away. The goats were inside the ruined circle. It had taken place last night in some remote part of Ojai in a wooded area of a park that was usually off limits to hikers. The article went on to say that the police believe that something or someone interrupted the ritual and that was why it w
asn’t properly cleaned up and all the evidence was left behind. Unfortunately, not one fingerprint, partial or whole, was found on anything.
“Great!” I yelled, letting my temper have sway for a moment and throwing the paper on the sidewalk. “We won’t be able to do anything for who knows how long!” Whenever selfish bastards like these ones got it into their heads to dabble in the black arts, it always loused things up for those of us who took this stuff seriously. If they were serious they wouldn’t have left this stuff behind to be found.
“Good thing we didn’t have anything planned,” Steven said still in that cold voice that didn’t sound like himself.
“Do you realize all the work we’ll have to do to clean up their messes when they’re finally caught?! This is my town, damn it!” I wasn’t yelling anymore, but I did kick the paper insolently, huffing and puffing.
“You’ll need to tell Deb.”
“She’ll know.”
“We should talk to her anyway.”
“I know,” I slumped against my car, covering my eyes with my right hand.
“Hey,” Steven suddenly sounded like himself again. “Don’t forget, we have dinner plans with Jodi tonight.” I thought about my stomach and how I had stretched it beyond all recognition over lunch. Dinner did not sound appetizing at all.
“Yeah, yeah,” I pushed off of my car, gave Steven a hug, and walked over to the driver’s side. “Listen; work on your shields before dinner. Maybe it is amateurs and maybe it’s not. I don’t want to take any chances.” I took off down the street, making my way home, gripping the steering wheel tight enough to make my knuckles white, lined with red blood vessels.
Even if they were amateurs, this close to Halloween, they were dabbling with things no one should even contemplate. I just needed to know if we were dealing with kids or adults? Satanists or Voodoo worshipers?
Chapter 7
I tried not to dwell on the newspaper article. Until I had some real information there wasn’t anything I could do. It was Deb’s day off, so my main source for real information was out of reach. It was difficult though; I couldn’t understand how the discovery had been made so quickly. If the ritual took place last night, then how did it make this morning’s paper? Could they have been tipped off? If it wasn’t important enough to be the big story, then why stop the presses over it? Maybe it was on the border of some star’s property. There were a few hidden movie stars living up there that wouldn’t want that kind of thing going on around them.
I was so angry about it that I was willing to go out –letting my spiritual self leave my body to gather information from the other planes – in the middle of the day without Steven and Jodi to watch out. I knew better than to cast or got out when I was angry. The volatile energy you could tap into was so much more accessible and tempting than the cool controlled energy that took discipline to command. But angry energy was eager to be used and could potentially use you instead.
I drove north, past Ojai and past Santa Barbara and Goleta, taking the San Marcos Pass into the mountains, leaving the freeway far behind me. I turned on to the winding, unpredictable Painted Cave Road and found a turn-off I was sure I wasn’t supposed to drive on but it meant I was able to leave any wandering cars behind me.
After I parked I started climbing. The rock surfaces broke away under my fingers occasionally with the consistency of sand, but I kept going. I had once found a grassy ledge when Steven, Jodi, and I had come out here on a fieldtrip to see the Painted Caves and I had wandered off on my own. The residual magic here permeated everything. No matter what the weather, it always seemed like a mild summer’s day. I was still aware of the wind and the biting cold, but it just didn’t affect me like it did outside of this place.
I felt cool soft grass under my fingers finally and pulled myself up onto the ledge, turning to sit with my legs dangling over the edge and took in the breathtaking view. I was able to center myself without even thinking about it. Smiling to myself, I brushed my hands over the grass, letting the blades tickle my palms. Finally, knowing I was already going to be late for my dinner plans, I brought my legs up and crawled to the middle of the ledge and lay down in the soft cushion of grass.
I relaxed my spine with deep, slow breaths and reached up to fan my hair out away from my head. I kicked my shoes off and worked off my socks with my toes, pushing them away with my feet. I rested my arms just away from my body with my palms down on the grass and my legs straight out and slightly apart. I could feel the warmth of the sun on my bare face trying to break through the overcast sky. I took another breath and closed my eyes.
I had the sensation of falling through the ground, my body an anchor in the earth and my sense of self melting away. My body sank a few inches into the ground; my hair, hands and feet merged with the grass and disappeared into it, becoming part of it. I could taste the dry earth in my mouth; I breathed it into myself, becoming the earth, returning to it. My heartbeat slowed and reality changed in one fluid wave of the ocean.
I was standing in a circle of trees, grown so close together they were almost one hollow tree. I reached out and touched one with the flat of my hand, asking silently for passage. Suddenly the ground trembled beneath my feet and the circle expanded, a break growing between two of the trees, just large enough for me to pass through. I stepped out into the mossy forest floor, aware of the sound of the ocean crashing against the beach in the distance.
Following the sound, answering its call, I found my way out of the forest, stepping out onto a twilit beach. The sand was cool between my toes and the sea salted air wafted gently around me. The sun had just passed beyond the horizon. I turned, searching the beach for the source of the pull still tugging at me. I could see the glow of silver coming towards me at a steady pace; instinctively I started towards it to meet it in the middle.
Sooner than I thought possible the light began to take shape as we neared each other and the painfully beautiful face of my guardian angel was smiling at me, just yards away. His black and silver wings opened around him in a deafening crack of thunder, but I didn’t flinch; somehow I had known it was going to happen. He stopped and reached out for me, the tide rose and was lapping at our ankles, soaking the hem of my jeans. I closed the distance between us and he pulled me in close, enfolding us both with his wings and we were one.
I felt the weak sunlight on my face again and opened my eyes to the white and gray expanse of sky. I came back to myself, blinking rapidly to clear my vision and slowly extracted my fingers and feet from the ground. My hair tangled with the roots of the grass, but, with a little effort, they released me. I shivered as a breeze found its way up the mountain and wrapped around me, pressing the wet cuffs of my jeans to my ankles.
I reached for my socks and shoes to pull them back on. My angel didn’t know who had done the casting last night, but knew that it was damaging the delicate fabric of good energy people like me had been creating over the years. When I couldn’t understand how he couldn’t know who it was, he explained that something was blocking them from sensing their identity. That alone was enough to scare me.
***
As I drove down the mountain back into the real world I could hear my cell phone beeping at me as it went in and out of service. I knew I probably had half a dozen voicemails from both Steven and Jodi wanting to know where I was. I chose to ignore the phone and make my way back into the county before calling them back, knowing that with my service cutting in and out it would just be too frustrating to try and figure out their messages.
I tried not to race down the freeway, but the sun had already set and I knew I was even later than I realized. We were supposed to meet for dinner at Jodi’s favorite Italian restaurant around eight o’clock and, by the looks of things, I was gonna be at least a half hour late. I sped off of the freeway at an exit I knew most people wouldn’t have taken, but it would help me miss street traffic and get me to the restaurant quicker. I parked behind the building and went running in. People were standing outside
waiting for tables in little clusters, almost hugging the building to escape the cold. I knew the inside would be even more packed, having pushed these poor people out. But that’s what the city’s best garlic bread will do to people.
I pulled open the door to a wave of heat and press of bodies. People shuffled out of my way as I maneuvered between them, trying to look over their heads to see if I could see Jodi or Steven at a table. This was a small, family run restaurant with no more than twenty tables and booths set tightly together. The couple that owned it had started out as mom and dad but now, over twenty years later they were more like grandma and grandpa. Grandma saw me and smiled, (we were regulars here) coming around the bar and cash register to hug me.
“Hi,” I said with a smile over the noise of a dozen conversations. “I’m meeting Jodi and Steven, but I don’t see them?”
“I haven’t seen them, honey,” she said a little confused. “But here, I’ll seat you and they can join you when they get here.” She was already walking away from me before I could protest. I knew all those waiting people wouldn’t understand why some teenager got a table so quickly. But I kept quiet; I have learned there’s really no arguing with Grandmothers. “Here you go, sweetie.” She beamed at me and hurried away. She had sat me in a back booth, giving the illusion that I had gone to meet someone instead of cutting ahead of all of those waiting people.
I pulled out my phone and didn’t see any missed calls so I called my voicemail and heard the automated voice tell me that I had two messages, which I knew meant two cancellations. Great.
“Hey, babe,” I heard Jodi say through a cough. “I got sick at that stupid game last night! I don’t,” she coughed again, “damnit! I don’t know why they don’t let the girls wear pants in that stupid uniform!” She had made the mistake of yelling in her frustration and went straight into a hacking and coughing fit. Instinctively I recoiled from the phone as if she could contaminate me through the speaker. “Anyway, sorry, kiss Steven for me. Jay’s coming over and we’re gonna watch movies. Call me tomorrow and make sure I didn’t die.” Message deleted.
Elemental Series Omnibus Edition Books 1-4 Page 9
