Today, Cheryl was sitting on a stool behind the counter, working on the dough that would top another pie. Flour speckled her apron and her lightweight flannel shirt. The entire diner smelled heavenly. Apples, cinnamon, pumpkin… those were just some of the ambrosia that assaulted me. I grinned and sat down across from her and watched as she used a fork to seal the top layer of crust over an apple pie. A sharp knife was nearby, and as soon as she’d pinched the edges of the crust all the way around she sliced it three times. That was when she looked up.
“My goodness, it isn’t every day my son in law comes in!” she gushed.
I think I turned purple.
“MOM!” Sheriff Cindy Raines objected from the back of the diner, “We are not married, we’re not even—”
“I am just pulling your chain, it’s so funny watching a guy freak out when one woman talks to him about commitment…”
My mouth was glued shut and I heard soft snickers near my left ear, where Rose was hiding, invisible.
“It’s nice to see you, Cheryl,” I said, and looked up to see Cindy take the seat next to me.
“I told you, my treat for helping. Mom, two slices of apple pie, whipped cream and some coffee please.”
“Coming right up,” Cheryl said, and disappeared towards the back.
“Any luck?” Cindy asked.
“Yeah, it wasn’t anything crazy like we thought. It was a drifter,” I told her.
“Drifter? What about the tracks that looked like…” her words trailed off and she looked around.
“I found the drifter up the hill. He’d been crossing fences and moving through the area. He’d snagged himself up on the barbed wire and startled the hell out of your cow.”
“So, the blood was his?”
“Yes.”
“Damn, well, I’m glad he’s ok. How about you?” she asked.
“I’m fine,” I told her.
“I mean, look at your hands.”
I did, and saw the dried and crusted blood on my right knuckles. The rest I’d brushed off with a small patch of snow that hadn’t melted once the sun was up, but the cuts must have opened again and I hadn’t paid attention.
“Huh, I must have brushed up against something,” I said blowing it off. “I don’t think he deliberately came onto your property, but he definitely was the one who jumped the fence and left the tracks. Your big black dufus chased him a bit.”
Cindy grinned and sat back as her mom walked out and pushed two plates in front of us. Two fat slices of apple pie with a big scoop of ice cream each all but covered a dinner sized plate, topped with a healthy dollop of whipped cream. “I’ll be right back with the coffee,” she said, taking the pie she was working on with her.
“Oh man,” I said, taking a bite. “She must be having a good day,” I commented between chews of the best apple pie ever.
“She is. I think it’s because… Well… Mr. Caruthers called her and they talked on the phone for an hour yesterday.”
“Wait, your mom and Mr. Caruthers are…?” I asked her, an eyebrow raised.
“No, but I think it cheered her up a lot. So, you think there won’t be any more problems?”
“No, not at all,” I told her. “Shouldn’t be.”
I dug into the pie while she told me about the accident as we picked away at our food. Not the gory parts, but what had happened. Neither of us ate fast, though it was hard for me not to wolf down my portion. I caught Cheryl peeking over the batwing doors that led back to the kitchen a couple of times, but she always ducked out of sight when she was caught. For fun, I looked into the future where I pulled Cindy close for a kiss as her mom looked on and then wished I hadn’t. I’d catch a flying spatula in the side of the head, and it’d require stitches. Scratch that. She thought we were a couple, but she wasn’t into PDA.
“I have to run into Salt Lake City,” I told her as we were finishing up.
“How come?”
“I have to hit the bank and then arrange for Home Depot to make a delivery.”
“A new project?” she asked. “Your cabin is brand new.”
“There’s an old trapper shack on the property. I’m going to fill in the roof where it collapsed and start some cleanup for a nephew of mine to stay in.” It was only half true, but it would solve issues later if she showed up and found JJ there.
“A nephew?” she asked, “I didn’t know you had family around here?” She was fishing for information.
“I don’t,” I told her, “But he dropped in unexpectedly.”
Her radio crackled at the same moment Rose snickered quietly. Cindy pulled some money off a roll of bills and stood up.
“Got another one, somebody hit a deer. Thank you,” she said and stood awkwardly for a moment.
“Kiss her, stupid,” Rose whispered.
I stood up and pulled her in close for a hug and gave her a kiss on the cheek. I’d turned to leave too when I caught sight of Cheryl grinning over the top of the batwing doors. “The pie was great Cheryl. I’ll have to come back tomorrow and get some more!” I called.
“You do that!” Cheryl replied.
Before I left I saw Cindy looking at me, a confused expression on her face. I walked out, letting the sunlight blind me for a second.
“You should have kissed her for real,” Rose said.
“I don’t want to confuse her any more than I have already,” I told her quietly as the gravel crunched under my feet.
“Humans, the most repressed creatures in all of Gia’s green earth.”
Wasn’t that the truth? I got in my Jeep and left.
After filling most of the Jeep with food from the grocery store, I arranged for enough plywood and shingles to redo the entire roof to be delivered, along with a shed kit and a ton of hand and power tools. I had a lot of stuff in the bunker, but I wasn’t going to be inviting JJ in there until I got to know him better. Rose, on the other hand; I didn’t think I had a choice. I tried to leave her in a flower arrangement at Home Depot but she’d somehow found herself on my shoulder and popped into visibility, even though I KNEW she hadn’t been there a moment before.
“You’re trying to play hide and seek? I like that game too, master.”
“Tom, just call me Tom,” I reminded her, “Not Master.”
“Tom. The dumbest of dumbasses, yet you did beat a werewolf unconscious with your bare hands… Hm… maybe you are worthy to hang around with.”
“I thought you wanted to?” I asked her, pretend hurt in my voice.
“That was before you left me behind in the petunias. Now, what’s the next stop?” she asked.
“The bank.”
“Ohhhhh… that’ll be great.”
It actually was pretty boring and I forgot she was there. She chose to fly near me and went invisible as I walked inside. I deposited eight thousand of the eighty I had won, minus the four thousand I’d spent at Home Depot. I was getting back in when something pricked my brain into activity. It was why I always let my future scanning run in the immediate background for danger. I looked into the futures where I did nothing, but I couldn’t see far enough ahead. Then I looked into the future where I walked back into the bank, and my blood ran cold.
Vivian.
“Tom, get this jalopy going and turn on the heat. You’re chillin me out, brother!” Rose heckled as I shuddered.
I fired up the Jeep and checked to see if I was going to be followed. It looked like I was clear, for as long as I could see. I concentrated on that and pulled out, heading towards the highway.
“…Dumbass!” The shout was loud as hell, and I almost sideswiped somebody as I jerked the Jeep’s wheel.
“What?” I asked, annoyed to hear Rose’s voice in a scream.
“I told you, you’re using magic! Did somebody put a trace on you? I can feel small amounts of it, I know a circle trap could cut off any tracer, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“There’s no tracer on me. The magic is mine, I’m scanning the futures,” I
told her.
“Whoa, you mean you’re a Seer?”
“You couldn’t tell?”
“No, I can just see your aura. It’s all blue swirls. All mages have blue swirls. I’ve never meet a Seer your age, though. I think you might be the only one. You’re what, 90-something like you told the fuzz faces?”
I nodded, waiting for the old jokes to start up.
“How did you manage to survive? I mean, you don’t have to answer, but that’s impressive. You must be one of the most powerful Seers the council has ever encountered, right?”
“I survived by learning how to shut out and lock down my sight. As far as the council goes… that’s why I was concentrating and looking into the future. There was an enforcer there at the bank, the one that tried to nab me yesterday.”
“An enforcer? Nab… wait, I’m cavorting with a criminal mage?” Rose’s voice rose towards the end of the sentence.
“No, I haven’t done anything wrong,” I told her, which was mostly true. “I don’t know why they wanted me. I have been very careful to never break the laws of magic, and I’m definitely not with the counsel.”
“I don’t understand why… Ohhhhh, I bet you it has something to do with finding the mage assassin Vassago.”
“Mage Assassin? Vassago? I doubt it. First, I’ve never heard of him and second, they killed my mom while I was hiding in a closet as a kid. I doubt the enforcers of the Council of Magic are looking for me to help find some murderer.”
“Oh, you’re probably right. I just know that’s the big uproar lately.”
“How do you know?” I asked her pointedly.
“Well, when you can wiggle your nose and poof, you tend to hear things.”
“If you can do all of that, how did JJ catch you?” I asked her.
Her smile faltered and I kept an eye on the road and did a scan of the future for danger really quick. Nothing.
“He used honey, then trapped me in an iron cage.” Her voice was sad, and something in it made my teeth ache, like a sudden drop in barometric pressure does to people with badly mended bones.
“Well, when we get back to my place, there is a lot of iron around, but I won’t use it to bind you—”
“Oh, I know boss, I trust you, even though you act like your sack has been removed and you’re a eunuch in front of the Sheriff—”
“Alrighty then,” I said, interrupting her, and pushed down harder on the gas pedal.
I knew I wasn’t going to get pulled over, because I tuned out Rose’s voice and concentrated on finding speed traps ahead of me. I wanted to get home before I strangled her, if I could get my fingers around a being who was barely five inches tall.
In no time at all, I was back at my redoubt. The front cabin looked as boring as it ever did and I could hear footsteps coming down the mountain. I had to grin when I saw it was JJ. He was running down the mountain in the loping grace his kind were known for.
“Need a hand?” he called.
“Yeah, since most of this is for you,” I said, opening the doors.
His eyes bugged out when he saw all the food.
“Dried goods are for you, plus I got some basic cooking stuff for your cabin. In two days, Home Depot is going to park down the driveway and a rough terrain forklift is going to bring all the tools and supplies to put on a new roof. Think you’re up for that?” I asked him.
“New roof? For real? Dang, I was just gonna put a tarp up and call it good till you booted me.”
“Jeremiah, I don’t plan to, not till I can figure out...”
My words trailed off as an air raid siren went off, a quarter mile down the gravel path.
“Grab everything you can and come with me,” I told him, filling my arms full of perishable goods. I was done in seconds, and he took my place, and scooped up the remaining bags.
I ran. There was only one thing that could have tripped the siren, and that was an uninvited mage passing the runes I’d used to set up a warning system. That meant somebody was coming, and although I’d been quiet about Vivian, I was slowly dying inside. It was time to go into lockdown and have my backup plan ready to execute. I didn’t know what else to do and now I had dragged in two more souls into the folly that was my life.
I ran for the cabin and JJ followed, the door slamming behind him. I got the faux cabin unlocked and left the door hanging open. I ran to the bookshelf and pulled back on a fake boxed set. The cavity had a palm reader, just like the inside. I placed my grocery bag laden hand inside and waited for it to click, then backed up as the bookshelves pulled back automatically and the vault door popped open.
“That’s pretty badass—”
“Lock the door!” I screamed at him, panic in my voice, and then pushed the door open.
Rose flew in ahead of me and I lost sight of her as her dust twinkled in the air, like rainbow colored dandruff coming off her. I heard the deadbolt click behind me and stepped through the vault door. Half a moment later, JJ jumped through the opening while I fumbled with the palm reader on the back side. It flashed green when I placed my palm back on it and I pushed the vault door closed. As soon as it was in place, it clicked shut and I barely heard the bookshelves slide back in place on the other side. I left everything on the ground and took off across the space towards my computer work station.
I slid into my chair and fired up all external surveillance and every computer display, something I rarely did because of how much it taxed my battery bank.
“This place is pretty cool,” JJ said walking up behind me.
“Yeah, I didn’t guess that the front cabin was just for show,” Rose said, her singsong voice echoing in the room.
“Quiet,” I snapped. “JJ, put the groceries up for me, would you?”
“Sure, but why did we run and hide in a Doomsday bunker?” he asked.
“Because it’s Doomsday,” I told him, pointing to two black Suburbans bouncing down my road.
Chapter Six
Vivian and five other mages got out of the two vehicles. She was dressed in a black skirt suit. I remembered what she had looked like in her dress in Vegas, and it was hard to imagine her dressed like a feminine Mr. Smith from the Matrix, yet here she was. She was unmistakable. Behind her, five other mages fanned out, all wearing similar clothing. With the blacked-out Suburbans, suits and dark sunglasses, they looked like they should be FBI agents. Hell, maybe that was the cover they were using.
They spoke quietly and I turned on the microphones outside with a mouse click to pick up any conversation I could. The wind and the distance away from them made it hard to hear anything other than a murmuring of words. Finally, she walked to the door and knocked.
“Somebody’s knocking but you can’t come in,” Rose sang and I busted up into laughter as JJ walked back over, supposedly after putting everything in the fridge that needed it.
“I don’t get it,” JJ said.
Then, in a high pitched squeaky voice, Rose started humming Up In Smoke.
“You explain it to him, I have to hear this,” I said, the seriousness of the situation sobering me.
I plugged in my headphones and cranked up the volume.
“What do you want?” I asked into the PA.
“Mr. Wright? May I come inside and speak with you? I’m afraid our talk in Vegas was cut short.”
“You tried to kidnap me. And what’s this ‘we’ stuff? I count five goons with you. No telling how many more are in the Suburban.”
“That’s for my protection. Granted, my method of introduction was going to be a little sweeter than the needle, but I caught your signal and decided to act before you gated.”
“Well, you failed, sweetheart. How did you find me, and what do you want?”
“You tipped the cashier. I ran your prints through the mundane’s fingerprint database. Imagine my surprise to find you. It was easier than I expected, and you have property listed under this name in a dozen states.” I mentally cursed myself as she continued. “What I want, is to talk to you
about an imbued item we found.”
“Yeah right,” I told her, “Keep lying.”
“Please, Mr. Wright, we don’t intend to wait out here. We’d like to have your willing help, if at all possible.”
“That’s the key word. Willing. You are prepared to get my help, willing or not. I think I’ll stay inside here, thank you very much.”
“You can’t stay in there forever. We can put in a gravity well to stop you from gating and just wait you out,” she said, a grin touching her features as she found the button sized camera I had by the door and focused on it.
“As soon as I feel a gravity well being opened, I’ll blast the lot of you off the mountainside.”
“Tinkerers like you don’t have that kind of power. You aren’t an elemental mage.”
She was right, yet she was very, very wrong. I didn’t have that kind of magical power, and I wasn’t an elemental mage or a tinkerer, otherwise known as a technomage.
“I’ve got half a ton of TNT and C4 strategically placed along the front of the hill where you all are. I might lose the front of the cabin, but everything from my front door and say, a hundred yards beyond, will cease to exist and Coalville will have windows blown out for a mile radius.”
I let the intercom button go and listened as several of her men screamed for another one to stop. Then I saw her turn and start looking around. From the back of her, I could see the color leave the back of her neck and ears. She’d probably flipped her mage sight into place and seen I wasn’t bluffing.
“Vivian, you are sitting in a kill box. I don’t know what the Council of Magic really wants with me, but if you so much as attempt to force your way in, trap me, or even look at me cross-eyed, I will kill you like a mundane human. I put a little too much powder all around, just in case an enforcer bully like you ever showed up. Doesn’t matter how good you are, or how powerful your people together can be. Most people can’t stand under a nuke when it goes off and still breathe.”
First Sight: The Rune Sight Chronicles Page 5
