by Liliana Hart
“Not at first.” Alex appeared uncomfortable. “We thought he was spooky or nuts. We contemplated using one of those words for his call sign.”
“You guys are really strange. You’d give someone ‘nuts’ as a moniker.”
“It’s tradition. Do something embarrassing and you’re tagged for life with a name to remember it by.”
“You sound like you believe him now.”
Alex looked at her. “We didn’t doubt Begay for long. He saved our asses twice when we would have been ambushed in Afghanistan. After avoiding a few more deadly situations, it got so that we checked in with him before heading out on assignment, in case he saw something.”
“So what about his call sign?” she inquired.
Alex laughed. “We dubbed him ‘Shaman,’ which pissed him off just as much because the Diné call their spiritual healers medicine men. He claimed he was neither of those, but since he didn’t want the name, it stuck anyway.”
Samantha shifted, then asked the next question carefully. “Is Begay one of the SEALs who died in the lab explosion?”
Alex’s face darkened. “He was with me the night the night it happened. I don’t know if he died or not.”
“If he was psychic, why didn’t he see it coming?” she asked, trying to be tactful.
“I don’t know. Maybe he did. Begay tried to refuse the injections, but orders are orders.” Alex stared at the floor of the cave. “He told me that last night that he couldn’t always see things that involved him. Other times, someone might do something to change the outcome he’d foreseen.”
“You still haven’t told me what he has to do with us being in this cave.”
“About a year ago, Begay insisted I needed to visit him here.”
“He’s Navajo. I thought the Diné didn’t come here.”
“We stayed a ways from here, but, using binoculars, he familiarized me with this canyon, in general, and this mesa and cave in particular. He told me about the chindi, and the evil ones who walk the land.”
“Evil ones?”
“Skinwalkers or shifters. Evil witches that do harm whenever they can. Some people claim to have seen them here. But, he said I needed to know this cave’s location. Actually, his exact words were, “When the ground turns white and blood is spilled, you will know to come here, and it will save your life.”
“That’s too spooky. Let’s leave.” Samantha shivered as another chill swept through her—a mix of confusion and anger that didn’t feel like they came from her. Were these the feelings of the dead? “I don’t want to stay here. I swear we’re being watched.”
“I think it’s the safest thing to do for now. Besides, I’m a far worse monster than a bunch of evil spirits no one can see.”
Anger rushed through her, and it definitely wasn’t her own. She put her hand to his lips. “Be careful what you say. I sense malevolence all around us. We’re not wanted here.”
He archly announced to the cave spirits. “If you don’t like us being here, go find Begay, on whatever plane he’s hanging out on, and ask him to tell us to leave. He brought me here for a reason. If he’s still alive, he’ll find me.”
The voices in her head grew louder. Angrier, as if they understood Alex’s challenge.
She still didn’t see anyone, but she felt like she could reach out and touch them. She stalked back to their store of supplies “Okay, I’m officially losing it. I’m just going to sit here and relax somehow before I implode.”
Samantha reached for the water bottle and her hand passed right through it.
The cave echoed with her scream.
Chapter Eight
Alex ran to her, his weapon at the ready.
“What’s the matter?” he demanded. The stark terror in her eyes unnerved him.
“Look.” She reached toward the water bottle again and knocked it over. “Oh, my God.”
“Help me out here, Gennaro. You don’t like the water bottle? You saw a scorpion near it? Or a snake?”
“No. Shut up and let me try something.” She held out her still trembling hand and concentrated. The next instant, everything below her wrist disappeared, followed by her forearm.
“Oh, hell.” He didn’t know whether to touch her or give her space. What if he bumped her out of place and her hand got stuck wherever it was now? “When did that start?”
“When I screamed,” she replied. Her forearm reappeared, then the rest down to her fingertips.
He grabbed her hand and pulled her against his chest. “Dammit. Don’t do anything weird from a minute.”
“I think I found my new power.” Teeth chattering, she held onto him tightly. “Can’t say I like it much.”
She shivered again.
He held tighter to him. “Your skin is freezing.”
“I know. I was cold before, when we were traveling. Ever since I entered this cave, I’ve had wracking chills that I can’t stop. It’s like I’m naked and the wind is going right through me.”
“I like the image, if not the effect.”
Alex released her, then dug out a heavy sweater from his rucksack.
She slipped it on over the sweatshirt, then wrapped the blanket around her again and sat.
Alex gathered a small pile of sticks, papers and debris before her and was about to zap it into open flame when she stopped him. “You need the warmth.
“Open camp fires aren’t allowed in places with petroglyphs and…something about making a fire out of what’s here troubles me. Like it’s bad luck or something.”
“Okay. Fortunately you travel with your own personal lighter.”
He materialized two fireballs and suspended them in the air.
He sat before her. “You want to try your vanishing trick again with me here?”
She nodded, then reached for the water bottle again. Her hand passed through it once more. Her breathing quickened.
“Don’t panic.” Stupid thing to say. He remembered how freaked he was when fire and lightning shot out of his hands the first time. “You just have to learn to control it. At least, yours isn’t triggered by anger, like mine. I go through a lot of clothes.”
“That reassures me a lot.” She huddled closer. “What if I disappear completely? Will I come back?”
“Your hand did, and your arm. What were you thinking about when it first happened to you?”
Her eyes opened wide. “Oh, my God. I was thinking that I wanted to disappear. Or, at least, make this whole situation disappear.”
“Was there a time in your life where it was important for you to be invisible?”
Samantha blinked. “Yes. Many times. My mother became very sick when I was a kid. Noise bothered her. She needed a lot of sleep. I tried to stay silent and invisible so she could rest, and my father could try to find a cure. Like I told you, by the time he found the first version, she was too far gone. The serum delayed the inevitable, but not for long.”
“How old were you when your mother passed away?” He’d been seven, too young to protect his mother from his father’s fists. Not too young, however, to call the police. They’d been too late, too.
“I was ten, almost eleven,” Samantha continued. “She died the night before my birthday. My father tried to make it festive each year, but after that, I wasn’t much into celebrating it anymore.”
“My birthday was never a joyful time in my house either. I got more bruises than presents, but my father always managed to get his fifth of scotch.” At least, they didn’t serve alcohol where his father resided now.
“I’m sorry, Samantha said.”
“Me, too.” He wasn’t up for discussing the details of his father’s drunken rages.
Alex could see Samantha finally relax. Even her teeth chattered less now that the cave had warmed up a bit. “So how did you get into the FBI?
Instead of the question cheering her up, she looked sad. “After my mother passed away, I helped my father in the lab. It seemed like a no brainer to go into biology minoring in genetics si
nce it had been part of my life so long.” She paused. “While I was in college, the FBI visited the campus to recruit. What they described seemed so exciting compared to the life I’d known. I figured it would be a good trade. I wanted adventure and the FBI wanted my science background.”
“So you worked for them in a lab?”
She laughed. “No. Once in the FBI, I discovered a talent for undercover work. I’m very skilled at disappearing into the new character or skulking around without being seen. There’s that disappearing attribute again.”
“How could you ever go unnoticed?” he asked. “You’re gorgeous.”
She reddened. “As you know, it’s a trick. A matter of perception. I’m sure you have to blend in overseas when you’re doing secret ops.”
He nodded, really enjoying their conversation. He’d been so busy looking at their differences, he’d ignored what life experiences they shared. Plus, he’d been talking to himself for three months. “Disguises help me a lot, as well as knowing other languages.”
She smiled. “Same for me. I’m good at regional dialects. I pick them up fast. To be unnoticed, I just project what I want people to see. If I want to go unnoticed, I just shrink into myself and pretend I’m invisible.”
In the process, she totally disappeared, clothes, blankets, and everything touching her.
Before her, angry men dressed like Navajo warriors from centuries ago, protected the women and children huddled behind them. Somehow, Samantha could see right through them to the swirling designs and the petroglyphs on the cave walls.
Chindi! She raised her hand defensively and realized she, too, was transparent. Panic hit. She stood in the mouth of the second cave, but didn’t enter.
The men waved their weapons at her and yelled at her, trying to scare her away.
She froze, not wanting to make any threatening moves. She became she understood none of their words, and she realized these were the people whose voices she’d heard. The ones who didn’t want her or Alex there.
The warriors spread out in front of her, but didn’t attack. They seemed as shocked by her presence among them as she was to be there. The silvery blanket baffled them and one man reached out to touch it.
“No!”
Samantha heard the shout in English, but it appeared everyone else heard it in another language.
A hazy image of a modern Native American in desert camo stood in the entrance of the cave. He argued with the men, though never looking at their faces, until the warriors fell back. Although the men were still suspicious of her, their stances no longer indicated an imminent threat.
“You must not touch each other,” the soldier told her. “You could be trapped here on their plane of existence, or they could be pulled to yours.”
“How did I get here?”
“The serums. When you vanish, you walk between planes. Since you were attuned to the warrior’s voices, you, as a female warrior and kindred spirit, came to them.”
The group of Diné grew restless and speculative at the man’s words. Obviously, he was able to be heard in both languages. The men seemed taken aback that she was deemed a warrior.
She could just make out the faint sound of Alex frantically calling her. “How do I go back? Someone is waiting for me.”
The man laughed. “Yeah, I hear Winters bellowing. Ice Man never was the most patient person with things he didn’t understand.”
“You know Alex?” she asked in disbelief.
“I’m the one who told him to come to this cave.”
The Diné warriors seemed upset by this.
The man raised his hand for silence. “I did not know about you, however,” he said to Samantha. “Ice Man has altered the vision I had.”
“How?”
“He let you live.”
Chapter Nine
Alex tore the room apart, looking for Samantha. She’d vanished, right in front of him. “Gennaro, get your butt back here! That’s an order.”
He’d lost any finesse to his panic a while ago. Now, he was pissed. He was lucky his yelling hadn’t brought the whole Navajo Nation down on top of them.
From the corner of his eye, he saw a faint shadow forming. It appeared sort of human.
Slowly, the shadow became a female shape wrapped in a silvery blanket, though still transparent.
“Samantha.” Alex rushed to her side and grabbed her, able to feel the slightest solidity. He pulled away a bit, not sure how the whole see-through body thing worked and not wanting to inadvertently hurt her. “Come back, Samantha. Come on. Control it. Control whatever is making you disappear.”
“I’m trying” Even her voice sounded like the faintest whisper.
She started to fade again and he reached out. He couldn’t feel her anymore. Couldn’t see her.
“Don’t get scared,” he commanded, fighting his own fear. “Concentrate on me. On what you want to have happen.”
He willed her to appear before him.
She remained gone.
Flames appeared on his hands and he fought the anger. If she vanished when afraid or nervous, seeing him lit up as Pyro-Man wouldn’t help the situation.
What the hell had he done to her? Could she do more than heal and disappear? Obviously, the mix of various serums triggered startlingly different reactions in people.
“Samantha, listen to me.” He struggled to remain calm. “When I get mad, fire and lightning appear around me, especially my hands, usually without warning. I need to calm my emotions to stop it or control it. Why don’t you try that?”
He scanned the cave. Did he have to get her calm or mad to get her back here?
His patience snapped. “Gennaro, you’re a damn Feebie. Come on. Big tough FBI agents aren’t supposed to let things like this scare them. Buck up and get your sexy butt back here.”
To his amazement, she began to rematerialize.
A few minutes later, she stood before him as solid as before. “You are such a jerk. I don’t know whether to punch you or kiss you.”
“I do.” Alex grabbed and planted a demanding kiss on her lips, letting her feel his fear, his anger and his utter relief that she’d come back. He pressed her close, savoring every second, even as she laughed against his lips. “What?” he demanded.
She smiled up at him. “You really think my butt is sexy?”
“Oh, yeah, and not just your butt.” He took the kiss deeper, hotter, running his hands over the sweatshirt, then under it.
She didn’t fight him. In fact, she nearly climbed up his body trying to get closer.
“You’re so warm,” she whispered between kisses. “I was so cold there. I need this. The connection. The heat. All of it. I was scared I’d never get back.”
“Let’s see what I can do to calm you down.” Grinning, he lit two more flame balls and suspended them in the air to warm the cave. Then he unrolled his sleeping bag, zipped it on three sides with a second bag, then lay the double-sized bedding on the floor. “Get in. I’ll warm you up.”
She hesitated, glancing from him to the floating fires. “Are they just going to hang out there?”
“Don’t be nervous. They’ll go out in a minute if you want them to,” he said. “As far as me making you warmer and taking it further, as I obviously want to do? No, means no. It won’t make me angry, and we would never do anything you didn’t ask me for.”
Samantha contemplated his answer for a moment. Finally, shivering, she climbed beneath the layers. “Okay. No, means no. Thank you for saying that. I feel better.”
“Great. I feel like cutting out my tongue.” He smiled.
She laughed, as he’d hoped she would, but her eyes still looked haunted. Alex could see the severe chills wracking her body. What the hell had happened to her when she’d disappeared? Where had she gone?
He’d wait until she wanted to talk about it. He sucked at dealing with women’s emotions anyway. He wasn’t any better at dealing with his own.
Anger management classes were becoming a via
ble option for his future.
He followed her into the sleeping bag, his shirt, socks and boots now discarded, but he wore his pants. Not the most comfortable, but he’d experienced a lot worse.
He shifted closer and, to his astonishment, she once again started to disappear.
“Hey, Gennaro, come back to me!” He could see her rapidly fading.
“Don’t be scared,” he insisted. “I told you. No sex. I just want to hold you and share our body heat. It’s cold here.”
Alex wasn’t about to say he probably wouldn’t feel the cold at twenty below zero. She’d freaked out enough for one day.
Gradually, a faint blur appeared, slowly transforming back into Samantha’s form. Renewed fear filled her eyes. She panted from the strain. “Sorry…I didn’t expect that to happen.”
He smiled, hoping to calm her down. “Jeez, Gennaro. I’ve had women run out on me on a date, but that’s the first time I’ve had one vanish to escape me. But don’t worry. I can take a hint. I’ll stay on my side and radiate heat your way” He said it as a joke, but she didn’t laugh.
She didn’t even smile.
“There’s something I didn’t tell you,” she began. “Those voices? They’re real and they’re Navajo. For whatever reason, I can sense them even on a different plane. When I disappeared, I went to them. I saw them.”
Shocked, he waited for her to say more.
“I saw some of the warriors and their families who hid in this cave. They died here, but something in them didn’t move on. They’re very aware of us, especially me, and we trouble them by being here.”
“Okay.” Ale wasn’t sure what to make of her information, but abnormal seemed to be the new normal lately.
She hesitated. “I also saw your friend who told you to come here to the cave.”
“You saw Shaman? Here on the reservation?”
She nodded. “I’m not sure where he really is, but I saw a hazy image of him outside the cave. We spoke telepathically, like you and I do, but better. By the way, he still hates the call sign you gave him.”
Alex tried to laugh, but worry filled him. “Did Gabriel seem all right? You were seeing ghosts. Is he—”
