Magus

by R H Frye

  Matt’s voice was subdued when he answered. “Good morning, John.” John heard Matt sigh through the phone, and a feeling of foreboding swept over the shaman. “Listen buddy, there’s really no easy way to say this, but I’m afraid you’re going to get tired of me calling you to give you bad news. Are you sitting down at least?”

  “Yeah. In fact, I’m lying here with Sarah, so just spill it. What’s up?”

  “I just got off the phone with the tribal police. The woman that runs the bakery beside of Adam’s store noticed that Adam wasn’t opened yet, and she thought it was weird since he’s usually as regular as clockwork, so she knocked on the door to his apartment. Nobody answered, so she looked through the window and saw Adam still in bed. To make a long story short, she called the police and they found Adam dead in his bed.” Matt stopped speaking and waited for a reply from John.

  John was rendered momentarily speechless. Sarah was disturbed by the look on John’s face, so she poked him in the ribs, and the sensation was enough to nudge him from his state of shock. John held up his free hand to forestall Sarah’s questions as he asked, “What the hell happened to him?”

  “They’re not completely sure yet, but the preliminary report suggests that he had a heart attack while he slept.” Matt paused for a moment before continuing. “John, I’m really sorry. I know you two have spent a lot of time together recently, so I know this has to be hard on you.”

  “I just don’t know what to say.” The good feelings that speaking to Donovan had awakened had drained away, and John could feel tears of sadness welling up in his eyes. In a choked voice he asked, “Can I call you back? I don’t really feel like talking right now.”

  Matt’s voice was filled with understanding as he replied, “Sure. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.”

  John flipped his cell phone closed and pulled Sarah into a closer embrace. Sarah felt John’s tears begin to drop on her shoulder and she braced herself for bad news. Instead of asking questions, she held John close until he was ready to speak. Minutes later, when his grief for Adam finally became manageable John began to speak. And then it was John’s turn to be strong for Sarah.

  Danny was dimly aware of muffled voices coming from Sarah’s bedroom, but he found the dream he was having more interesting, so he allowed himself to drift deeper into sleep.

  Danny had finally managed to find Carol again. She was calling to him and he ran through darkness towards a light in the distance. Danny could see Carol standing in the light. He could tell it was Carol by the shape of her silhouette and the way she held herself, but she was facing away from him. As he ran closer, he began to feel uneasy, but he dismissed the feeling as nonsense. Why would he ever be afraid of Carol?

  Danny stopped as he drew near enough to Carol to put his hand on her shoulder. He knew that she must have heard his approach, but for some reason she did not turn to face him. “Carol?” He said her name and pulled gently on her shoulder to turn her towards him, but he drew back a step in surprise as she shrugged her shoulder violently to shake off his hand. “Carol, what’s wrong?”

  Carol suddenly turned on her heel to face Danny. Her cheeks were flushed with emotion as she heatedly replied to his question with one of her own. “What’s wrong? Are you serious? You kill me, let me be tortured and raped and you have the gall to ask me what’s wrong?” As she shouted her questions at Danny, the scars that her sacrifice on the altar had left behind split open and blood began to run freely down her body. The blood splashed and splattered around her feet and a crimson pool began to form there. “I’ll tell you what’s wrong! You are. You’re pathetic. You’re weak. You make me sick.”

  The pool of blood at Carol’s feet began to flow towards Danny, but he was too stunned by her words to notice. The things she was saying were true. He knew it. He had known it ever since he killed her. And apparently, she felt the same way. How could he even go on?

  As he stood locked in place by his emotions, the blood reached Danny’s feet. He was dimly aware of the wet, warm sensation of the blood somehow flowing up his feet for just a moment, and then his awareness was washed away…

  Sarah peeked out the bedroom door and saw that Danny was still sleeping on the couch. There was a light sheen of perspiration on his forehead, and Sarah could see his eyes rolling rapidly back and forth beneath his closed eyelids. She thought briefly of trying to wake the young man but decided against it. The dream would certainly pass, and she thought that under the circumstances a few bad dreams were inevitable. Besides, Danny had been through more than she had, so she figured he could use the rest. Satisfied that Danny was okay, she closed the bedroom door and moved to join John in the shower.

  Sarah knew she should be more attentive since it was the first shower they had shared, but she felt wrung out from the rollercoaster ride of emotions over the past several days. She was momentarily worried that John would be upset over her inattention, but her concern faded as she realized that he was as preoccupied as she was. They both went through the intricate dance involved in sharing a shower with a lover in a kind of absent-minded daze, and it was only a few minutes before they both emerged and began to towel themselves dry. Through it all, they kept silent and thought their own thoughts.

  The silence continued as they both adjourned to the bedroom to dress. Without discussion the two lovers both chose sensible clothes that would be suitable for the outdoors. John finished pulling on his work boots as Sarah was tying the hiking boots that she had pulled from her closet. Both wore jeans and t-shirts. John’s shirt had the logo of the Carolina Panthers on the front and the roster of the 2004 NFC Championship team on the back. Sarah’s shirt was tie-dyed and had a Grateful Dead bear on the back.

  Sarah started towards the bedroom door, but John’s hand on her arm caused her to pause. She turned to face him, and he pulled her into a hug. The embrace lasted for long moments, but they finally separated when they heard a car pull into the drive in front of Sarah’s house. John leaned forward to give Sarah a quick kiss. “I love you.”

  Sarah smiled as she answered. “I love you, too.” She turned away from John and opened the bedroom door just as the doorbell rang. She hurried through the living room to answer the door with John following close behind her, but neither of them noticed that Danny was no longer asleep on the couch.

  Chapter 25

  Mike Donovan was just raising his finger to push the button for the doorbell again when the door opened in front of him. “Hey you guys.” He smiled and reached out to shake Sarah’s hand briefly before moving on to repeat the greeting with John.

  “It’s so good to see you. Come on in.” Sarah said as she and John stepped back to make room for Mike to enter. The officer stepped through the door and turned to face them. He started to make small talk, but his attention was abruptly yanked away from John and Sarah as he saw movement in his peripheral vision. He turned his head towards the entrance to the kitchen just in time to see Danny step out of the entrance with a large rifle in his hands. Words of greeting died on his lips as the rifle suddenly swung towards him, and only his training as a policeman saved his life. He shoved himself to the right and accidentally knocked over the end table that Sarah had sitting beside her front door as he moved. In the same motion, he reached for the pistol that he carried in a holster at the small of his back when off-duty. The rifle in Danny’s hand barked once deafeningly and Mike felt the bullet burn through the flesh of his upper arm before smacking into the solid oak of Sarah’s front door.

  John and Sarah, splattered with Mike’s blood, could only stare in shock at Danny. Danny’s eyes were dead and his face expressionless as he worked the bolt of the rifle to eject the spent shell from the chamber and chamber another round. Mike never gave the young man the chance to fire again. His left arm felt numb for the time-being, but he still managed to drop into the classic Weaver stance and fire his pistol twice in return.

  Mike’s aim was probably thrown off slightly by his wound, and the two bullets that he
fired failed to hit Danny in the center of the chest. Instead, the first bullet caught him high in the right shoulder, and the second slammed through the bone of his upper arm on the same side. Danny’s rifle clattered to the floor, and Danny fell backwards into the kitchen. For a long moment the house was as quiet as a morgue, and then everyone started talking at once.

  “What the fuck…?”

  “Are you alright…?”

  “Danny!” The last voice was Sarah’s, and she shoved past John and Mike to rush to Danny’s side. John and Mike stepped carefully around Sarah and knelt near Danny.

  Danny’s eyes were open, and the blank look had been replaced by a look of shock and confusion. He opened his mouth to speak but coughed instead and a fine mist of blood sprayed from his mouth. Sarah moved to cradle Danny’s head in her lap, but Mike shoved her roughly aside and moved to pull Danny’s t-shirt away from the wound in his chest. When Sarah began to protest the rough treatment, Mike cut her off. “Find a sandwich bag and some medical tape and bring everything to me. Hurry! He’s been shot in the lung and we need to seal it off.” As Sarah stifled her protest and began to rummage through the cabinets in her kitchen, Mike turned his attention to John. “Go call 911 right now. We need to get him to the hospital as soon as possible.” John nodded and moved to the telephone in the living room.

  Mike fished his pocket knife out of his trousers and used it to cut Danny’s t-shirt away from the wound. When the wound was exposed Mike wiped his knife free of blood, closed it, and slipped it back into his pocket. Danny began to struggle weakly as he tried to get enough air to form words, and Mike was momentarily afraid that he would need John’s help to restrain the young man, but Danny solved the problem himself by suddenly fainting. With Danny lying quietly, it only took a moment to slip a hand under the young man’s shoulder and check for an exit wound. Mike was relieved to find that the bullet had apparently lodged in the young man’s shoulder, since it meant he only had one wound to dress.

  Sarah had run from the kitchen while Mike was working on Danny, and in a few moments, she hurried back into the kitchen with the items Mike had requested. Mike grabbed the sandwich bag and asked Sarah, “Will you pass out if I ask you to help me?” Sarah’s face was white and drawn, but she took a deep breath and shook her head in an unspoken reply. “Good. I want you to put your hands on Danny’s chest and push as hard as you can. Make sure you lock your elbows. We’re trying to force the air out of the cavity around his lung so the lung can have room to work, okay?” Sarah nodded and settled her hands on Danny’s chest below the ugly bullet wound.

  Mike said, “Wait just a second.” He grabbed the medical tape that Sarah had provided and quickly tore several strips of tape about a foot long. As he tore each strip, he lightly stuck it to the corner of the entrance to the kitchen. When he had six strips ready, he told Sarah, “Now!”

  Sarah took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and leaned hard on her hands. As she increased the pressure, she could hear the breath hiss out of Danny’s mouth, but the experience was made more horrible by the flatulent hissing of air escaping from the hole in his chest. Her pale face somehow became even whiter, and a tear leaked out of the corner of one eye, but she grimly held her position.

  Mike had split his attention evenly between Danny and Sarah. He was worried that the gruesome task he had given her would be too much, but she proved to be even stronger than he had imagined. When the hiss of air escaping from Danny’s chest stopped, Mike focused all of his attention on the first aid he was performing on Danny.

  Mike slapped the sandwich bag down tightly over the hole in the young man’s chest. With his free hand, he grabbed the first strip of tape from the wall and secured the side of the bag that was nearest to the center of Danny’s chest. Working quickly, he secured the upper and lower edges of the bag, and then doubled the tape on each of the three sides that were secured. He left unsecured the side of the bag that was nearest to Danny’s right arm. “You can let up now, Sarah.”

  Sarah opened her eyes and looked at the makeshift dressing that Mike had applied. “Why did you leave part of it open?”

  “As air leaks out of his punctured lung, it will be able to escape through the open edge of the seal. It’s kind of like a flutter valve. Let me take a look at his arm, okay?” As Mike and Sarah switched their focus to dressing the wound in Danny’s arm, John rushed back into the kitchen. “An ambulance is on the way. They said it would be here in about 10 minutes.”

  “Good,” Mike replied. “I’m going to try to get the bleeding stopped in his arm. Now can somebody tell me what the fuck happened?”

  Mike, John, and Sarah were all surprised when Danny opened his eyes and said, “I can.”

  “Hush. Don’t try to talk,” Sarah said.

  Danny took a shallow breath and said, “You hush. This is important, and I have to tell you now in case I pass out again.” Sarah looked unhappy, but she nodded. “It was Carol,” Danny resumed speaking in a hoarse whisper. “I don’t know how exactly, but it was her not the other one. I could feel her in my head, but I couldn’t stop her.” Danny turned his eyes to Mike. “Thanks for patching me up. I couldn’t breathe at all for a minute there. And I’m sorry I shot at you.”

  “It’s okay. I’m sorry I shot you, too. I didn’t know what else to do.” Mike hung his head in misery.

  “You did what you had to.” With the information that his friends needed delivered, the strain became too much for Danny. His whisper faded away to nothing, and his eyes slipped closed again.

  Sarah looked rapidly from John to Mike and back to John again. Finally, she broke the silence. “So, Carol is working with him now? Is that what he meant?”

  John sighed. “It sure sounds that way. How the hell did that happen?” Neither Mike nor Sarah had an answer for that question, and the sound of the ambulance approaching began to reach them through the silence of the house. John stepped away from the injured man and answered the door.

  Maraydel smiled at Carol as she opened her eyes and stood up from where she had been resting herself on her parent’s bed. “That was nicely done.”

  Carol did not smile in return. “I wanted to get them all, but the cop was too fast.”

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself. We have all the time in the world to deal with them. Together we can’t be defeated.” Maraydel turned and walked idly from the bedroom. Carol glared after the wizard for a long moment before finally following him from the room. It was all well and good for the magus to reassure her, but Carol had no intention of ever giving up the power she had gained, and she knew that her former love of Danny was a weakness. She silently promised herself to work harder than ever to be ready for the battle that she knew was coming.

  Chapter 26

  John and Sarah were sitting on the sofa in Sarah’s living room.

  Mike had handled the policemen that had responded to the report of a shooting. It took a lot of fast talking and glossing over details, but he finally managed to persuade them that the whole incident had been nothing more than a nearly fatal case of bad judgment. The whole large group of first responders, volunteer firemen, and policemen had finally left, and Mike sighed as he swung the front door closed behind him. Finally, he walked dejectedly into the living room and sank into Sarah’s easy chair. “I think my days as a cop are over. I wonder what it’s like to be a private investigator.”

  “What did you tell them exactly?” John asked.

  “I told them that Danny was cleaning the gun when it went off, and I mistakenly thought he was shooting at me intentionally. The hole in my arm helped to convince them of course, but I still think I’m going to be in hot water over shooting that kid. I just didn’t have the heart to see him locked up for something that he had no control over, especially after everything he’s been through.” Mike hung his head in regret over the incident.

  Sarah and John both started to ask questions at once, but Sarah stopped herself and said, “Go ahead.”

  “Thanks. I’ll b
e done in a minute honey.” John leaned forward to speak to Mike. “When are you going to the hospital to get that arm taken care of?”

  “The paramedics looked at it while they were here, and of course they wanted to call another meat wagon to come get me, but I refused. Really, the arm looks worse than it is. The bullet just tore a groove in my triceps. All I’m really going to need is a few stitches, so I promised to head to the hospital soon. Why?”

  John ignored Mike’s question and instead asked another of his own. “Are you any good with a rifle? And what did you do with the one Danny used?”

  “Well sure I’m good with a rifle. I grew up in the country and I still do some deer hunting from time to time. Why?” Mike remembered John’s other question in time to forestall a reply to his own question. “I had to turn in the one that Danny shot me with for evidence. Even though no charges will be filed against him, they still have to keep the weapon for evidence. Now why don’t you tell me what’s on your mind?”

  John leaned back against the sofa and put his arm around Sarah. “Well, it seems to me there’s an evil man that needs killing, and I was hoping you could help us take care of him.”

  Mike settled back into his chair and appeared lost in thought for long moments. At long last he raised his eyes to meet John’s and said, “I’ve been a man of the law for most of my adult life. I’m supposed to capture the bad guys, not kill them.” The policeman sighed and shook his head. “Then again, I’ve never met a guy this bad before, so the arm can wait. And I’ve got a couple of good hunting rifles at home. Why don’t you tell me just what you have in mind?”