Riverwatch

by Joseph Nassise

  Katelynn ignored him, knowing that while his intentions were good, they would be of no use to her if she did get into trouble. She knew how powerful the Nightshade actually was. She had done her best to free herself of its loathsome grip in the car that night; in the end, she had failed.

  Now, she was being forced to put herself in danger again, and she wasn’t happy about it. Who knew what kind of power the beast could send back through that link with the stone? And yet, the Sheriff was right. She didn’t have much of a choice. To let the thing roam free and continue its slaughter was unthinkable.

  She would have to use the stone.

  Pure evil seemed to emanate from the it and Katelynn had to force herself to pick it up.

  She lay down on the sofa, the stone clasped between both hands. Loki sat on the floor next to her. Sam took a seat on the table itself, while Damon stood behind it.

  "If I look like I’m struggling, or in pain, do everything you can to wake me up. Taking the stone out of my hands should do it. Shake me, slap me, do whatever it takes," Katelynn told them insistently.

  They agreed.

  With that said, Katelynn went to work.

  Much as Sam had done earlier that night, Katelynn set out to clear her mind of all thought, letting a dark, empty void fill her. Instead of concentrating on the stone, however, she cast her thoughts outward, seeking the beast. She pictured it as she’d seen it in her dreams, its long wings stretched out on either side as it soared through the air. She listened for its heartbeat, that three-chambered rhythm she’d heard before. She imagined the caress of the wind across her flanks, and the flicker of her tongue across her teeth…

  Abruptly, she made contact.

  The Nightshade was crouched atop a high structure, staring out into the night. Through its eyes she could see the University grounds and knew immediately the spot it had chosen for its vantage point.

  Keating Hall.

  A high stone tower projected up from the building’s roof, and it was there that the beast was perched. Instantly Katelynn knew that this was the creature’s new lair. It had chosen high, lonely structures previously, and this was no exception. The clock tower had been unused for years, and the beast would be free to come and go at will, provided it avoided drawing attention to itself.

  Having achieved her objective, Katelynn attempted to abandon the trance.

  Her gaze never strayed from the campus grounds.

  She struggled harder, willing herself to awaken.

  Nothing happened. She remained linked to the beast, trapped within its consciousness.

  A strange lethargy began to seep through her. Darkness loomed, then overwhelmed.

  Just as quickly, her vision began to return, but she was no longer seeing the dark campus grounds. Instead, she found herself looking into Loki’s face, inches from her own.

  The dog growled, deep and low in its throat.

  "It’s okay, Loki," Katelynn tried to say.

  No sound issued forth from her throat.

  Katelynn began to panic.

  *** ***

  The two men watched as Katelynn quickly slipped into her trance. One minute she was with them; the next, lost in whatever realm her consciousness had fled to. Her body visibly relaxed. Her breathing deepened and slowed. Her eyes flickered beneath their closed lids.

  Her hands remained securely locked around the stone.

  They waited.

  Five minutes passed. Ten.

  Katelynn remained locked in her trance.

  Suddenly Loki jumped to his feet and moved closer to Katelynn. He sniffed at her face, then pulled back to watch her.

  Damon and Sam watched as Katelynn’s eyes slowly opened.

  Looking at her, the dog growled long and low.

  "Did you find it?" Sam asked. "Did it work?"

  Katelynn didn’t answer.

  She turned her head, slowly looking at Sam, then at Damon.

  Loki scampered back, growling again.

  "What’s wrong with him?" Sam asked, still not realizing that Katelynn was reacting strangely.

  Damon had noticed, however. He’d noticed Loki’s response to Katelynn as well. He didn’t like either one. Something had gone horribly wrong.

  *** ***

  The fear rose like a spectre in the night and threatened to overwhelm her. The Nightshade had used the power of the link against her, reversing the connection. The beast had taken control, using his mental powers to assume control of her form.

  While the Sheriff and Sam were waiting for her to divulge the beast’s location, the beast was using her to spy on them!

  It only lasted a moment, but that was long enough.

  Just as Damon stepped toward her, just as Sam was reaching out to her, just as Loki was about to attack, the Nightshade released his hold and the connection between them was broken.

  Darkness descended in Katelynn’s mind for a second time that night.

  *** ***

  Katelynn came to in Sam’s arms, a cold cloth pressed against her forehead. Loki was standing next to the sofa, trying desperately to lick her face while being held back by Damon stood with a hand wrapped around the dog’s collar and his gun pointed in her direction.

  "Are you all right?" Sam asked, concern etched on his face.

  Katelynn didn’t trust herself to speak so she nodded instead.

  Damon still looked suspicious, but lowered his gun nonetheless. "What happened?" he asked.

  Katelynn took several deep breaths, doing what she could to get her heart back under control. She was bathed in sweat, her long hair hanging in limp strands about her face. Her hands were shaking when she answered him.

  "I found it," she said. "At the University. It’s using the old clock tower as an aerie."

  "Yes!" Sam cried, exuberantly.

  Damon had not yet taken his eyes off Katelynn. "And?"

  Katelynn continued to meet his gaze. "The link worked both ways this time. There wasn’t anything I could do to stop it. Before I could get free, it took control of my senses and got a good long look at the two of you. We discovered where it is hiding, yes, but it knows now that we’re coming after it. We don’t have much time."

  Grimly, Damon nodded.

  He had suspected as much when the dog had gone crazy, ready to rip Katelynn’s throat out when she opened her eyes the first time.

  "What do we do?" Sam asked, his excitement stifled in lieu of what he’d just learned.

  Damon turned to face him. "Do?" he asked. "Same thing we had planned to do. We find it and kill it."

  "But it knows we’re coming. We won’t stand a chance," Sam said flatly.

  Damon gave him a steely look. "Do we have any choice?"

  Chapter Forty: Preparations

  They moved quickly. While it might prefer to travel at night, that didn’t mean the Nightshade wouldn’t travel by day and simply take to the air, disappearing again, only to find another resting place elsewhere. Who knew if they’d be able to track it down again? The next time they might not be so lucky. They didn’t know the range of Katelynn’s talent. It was also obvious that Katelynn had survived the encounter because she’d already been trying to break contact when the beast had become aware of her presence. What would happen if it threw the full weight of its mental powers at her the very instant she sought contact? Would she then have the power to free herself? They didn’t know and couldn’t take the chance. If they could reach the campus before too much time passed, they might be able to stop the beast from leaving, or at the very least, follow it when and if it did.

  "Okay," Damon said, a look of weary resignation on his face. "We know where it is, but what good does that do us? We still don’t have a clue as to how to stop it."

  When Damon looked up, however, the gleam in Sam’s eyes made it obvious that that might not be the case.

  Sam had a plan. Taking a deep breath, he let them in on it.

  As Damon sat and listened, something totally unexpected and all but forgotten bloomed in his
chest. For the first time since the killings had begun, Damon felt a surge of hope.

  When Sam was finished, Katelynn expected the Sheriff to object. What Sam was proposing was as crazy as Jake’s original plan of facing the Nightshade on his own. They simply were not equipped to handle such a task. They should be calling in the National Guard, not trying to assault the beast’s latest lair on their own. She waited for Damon to verbally echo her thoughts.

  Katelynn was in for a surprise. With a vengeful light in his eye that matched the one in Sam’s, Damon simply said, "Let’s do it." Using his radio, he called one of his deputies and ordered the man to meet them at the Sheriff’s station with the items they needed. Leaving Katelynn’s, the three of them drove to the station, making a brief stop at a gas station along the way.

  A short time later, Katelynn and Sam were pouring old-fashioned soap flakes into mason jars and passing them on to Damon, who filled them the rest of the way with gasoline and screwed on spill-proof lids. While Sam and Katelynn packed them carefully into two black knapsacks, Damon moved over to the gun cabinet behind his desk and selected a rifle. Loading up on ammunition for the weapon, he asked them, "Either of you know how to handle a firearm?"

  "A little," said Sam. Katelynn shook her head.

  Damon sighed, weapon in hand, he turned to face them, a grim expression on his face.

  "Let’s end this," he said.

  The three of them left without a word to the rest of Damon’s staff; they simply had no time to explain.

  Like a flashback to that evening three months before, the three of them climbed into Damon’s Bronco and headed across town as the sun descended and a light rain began to fall.

  When they arrived at the university campus, Damon made a quick stop at the security office to obtain the keys to the campus buildings. About once a month he personally patrolled the grounds, seeing and being seen, so the guard on duty found nothing strange in his request.

  Once Damon returned to the vehicle, he drove them over to Keating Hall.

  The building loomed above them, and the very sight of it sent chills up Katelynn’s spine. She knew what was hiding inside its cold stone walls. It will be a miracle if we make it out alive, she thought.

  Sam, on the other hand, stared at the structure with fierce expectation. He, too, knew what awaited them there, but he welcomed the challenge. That thing had killed his best friend, threatened a woman he cared deeply for, and terrorized the town he called home. It was due for a reckoning and Sam intended to be the one to deliver it.

  It was ironic that the Nightshade had chosen this place for the final showdown. Keating Hall had been built in the late 1800s and was constructed in a Renaissance style. It looked like a medieval castle, the clock tower rising over the roof like a keep rising over a castle’s battlements. He had written it into many a short story, the building’s very nature firing his imagination.

  Now, fiction would become reality.

  Sam was determined to write the ending his way.

  Once out of the car, Katelynn and Sam huddled out of the rain on the steps in front of the entrance while Damon retrieved his rifle from the trunk. Damon knew the weapon wouldn’t stop the beast; the night they rescued Jake had proven that. It would slow it down, however, and that’s what the plan called for. Damon was to use the weapon to render the beast momentarily incapacitated, just long enough for Katelynn and Sam to do the rest.

  It was a military axim that no plan survives contact with the enemy, and Damon prayed that just this once, that would prove false.

  Damon unlocked Keating’s front door, and the others followed him inside. The three of them turned on the flashlights they’d brought with them and set off down the hall.

  Katelynn’s vision had shown the Nightshade to be inside the clock tower that rose above the main building, so they quickly climbed to the top floor.

  Damon held up his hand for quiet, and listened to any sound in the silence as the echoes of their footsteps in the empty building died away.

  He heard nothing besides their own breathing.

  The corridor stretched directly ahead of them. In order to gain entry to the tower, they had to traverse the corridor, exit through the door at the other end, climb the stairs just beyond, cross the roof to the tower itself, go through another door, and climb another set of steps to the chamber at the top. It was here that they expected to find the Nightshade.

  They’d be exposed to attack from the front and behind the entire time.

  Not a very comforting thought, Damon thought to himself.

  A sudden crash of thunder from the storm outside was accompanied seconds later by a flash of lightning. For a moment the corridor before them was fully illuminated. Damon was relieved to see that it was empty.

  "Looks okay," he said to the others. "Let’s go." He started down the hall.

  About time, Sam thought as he set out after Damon, Katelynn between them. He knew Damon was correct in being cautious, but the rage he felt was growing. It was like a living thing inside him, and he fought to control it, for he knew that it could work against him, blinding his perceptions and clouding his judgment.

  When they reached the other end of the hall, Damon slowly pushed open the door, looked around, and then signaled them forward. Passing through the doorway, they emerged onto the roof.

  From where they stood, the tower was directly ahead of them, some fifty feet away. The roof between them was shrouded in darkness, but the tower itself was brilliantly lit by the large spotlights erected along the roof’s edge and shining on the face of the tower itself. The rain dashed down upon the trio and in just a few steps they were soaked right through to the skin.

  Maybe she caught a flash of movement out of the corner of one eye, or heard the sudden sound of an extra set of footfalls striking the wet stone of the rooftop; Katelynn wasn’t ever certain what made her turn and glance back the way they had come. Whatever the reason, she was in time to discover that there was someone on the rooftop with them.

  Whoever it was was running directly toward them.

  Her mind registered all this in the space of a heartbeat.

  She reacted without thought.

  "Behind us!" she cried

  The figure was almost upon them when Katelynn dove to her right.

  She acted not a moment too soon. As she fell, she heard the whistle of something slice through the air less than an inch above her head and knew in that instant that she had come perilously close to dying.

  The sound of metal striking metal reached her ears and Katelynn looked frantically toward the sound. Sam stood nearby, frozen in indecision.

  Damon stood several feet away, facing them but backpedaling furiously as a figure in a hooded robe closed in on him. Damon’s hands were empty, the rifle he’d been holding only moments before now missing.

  Katelynn rose to her feet and tried desperately to figure out what to do in order to help Damon.

  It was obvious the man was playing with Damon. The newcomer was dressed in the tattered remnants of what once had been a rather luxurious robe, the front of which was now discolored with a dark stain. In the man’s hands was a bejeweled sword, something that would have looked more in place in the Smithsonian than on a rain-slick roof in the hands of a madman. The sword came closer with each slash and jab. The Sheriff frantically skipped backward, away from its razor sharp edge.

  As the two maneuvered, Katelynn was able to get a good look at the man’s face. It was twisted into an expression of utter fury, his flesh so gaunt it appeared to have been stretched across the frame of his bones. Within this mask eyes gleamed with fanatical hatred.

  Despite the man’s appearance, Katelynn had no trouble recognizing him.

  Hudson Blake.

  Katelynn watched as Blake swung his weapon and this time Damon proved to be too slow in getting out of the way. A cry of pain filled the air and blood flowed as the sword opened a long, shallow cut on Damon’s ribs as he leapt to the side in an effort to avoid th
e blow.

  Damon’s frantic attempts to avoid the blade by twisting and turning away from it were preventing him from drawing his revolver, leaving him all but defenseless against the attack.

  Katelynn knew she and Sam had to do something quickly to help.

  She glanced around frantically, looking for a weapon, and spotted Damon’s rifle lying against the roof’s parapet.

  She went after it, knowing she had only seconds before Blake tired of the game and skewered Damon.

  Sam watched as Blake suddenly switched tactics and thrust his weapon point first at Damon. A cry of pain quickly followed and Sam watched in horror as Damon collapsed onto the rooftop.

  The blade of Blake’s sword glistened.

  Katelynn swung the rifle in Blake’s direction, her hands unfamiliar on the stock.

  The old man was faster than either she or Sam could have ever expected.

  He was there in front of her in what seemed like the blink of an eye, his own weapon swinging through the air and colliding with the barrel of the gun just as she got it pointed in his direction.

  The force of the blow carried the rifle up and out of Katelynn’s hands. From several feet away Sam watched in dismay as the rifle went over her shoulder, disappearing into the darkness on the other side of the parapet, no doubt headed swiftly for the ground far below.

  A wide smile crossed Blake’s face then and he raised his sword for another strike at Katelynn.

  "No!" Sam screamed, suddenly entering the fray by hurling himself directly into Blake.

  Sam struck Blake just below his upraised arms, knocking him off balance. Somewhere in the back of Sam’s mind he registered the clang as the madman’s sword struck the stone beneath their feet instead of Katelynn’s tender flesh.

  With Blake locked in his embrace, Sam slammed bodily against the rooftop.

  He landed badly, striking his head against the stone. Dazed, he could not summon the strength to prevent Blake from rolling them over, trapping Sam on the bottom.