That’s what my family had taught me growing up. You helped the ones you loved in your life. More than you helped yourself. I wasn’t sure that the Donaldsons got that.
It seemed more to me like Martha just wanted to see her family succeed to make her look good. Truthfully, once the woman woke up—if she woke up—I didn’t think I’d be spending all that much time with her. She didn’t strike me as my kind of people.
And yes, it did kind of worry me that she and Archie were so close. Was he more like her than I knew? If so, I was wondering if Mom had made the right choice after all.
She deserved so much better than that.
By the time I walked into the house, the front room smelled of heavenly Italian goodness. I took a deep breath and then walked into the kitchen to find my man all bent over taking pizza and cheesy bread out of the oven.
Goddess, but my man had a fine behind. It was enough to almost take my breath away. Even after all this time together as a couple. I still had trouble believing I’d been so dense not to recognize my soul mate for who he was until so late in life. So much time wasted.
But not one minute more if I had anything to say about it.
The next hour was a pleasant one. I caught Trevor up on everything we knew about Martha, and how my current thinking was leading me toward the HOA and dog park issue. For what it was worth, he seemed to agree with me.
He was a little upset that he couldn’t offer me more help right now. But with the stress and constant being on-call thing that came with the title of acting sheriff, my man was stretched about as thin as he could go.
I respected that. Besides. Team Destiny could surely handle one job without him. Right?
We talked and munched and just enjoyed each other’s company for about an hour. Sixty minutes. That’s as much time as Destiny was willing to give up.
Knowing the Goddess, she’d probably alerted her that I was on a timeframe here, and she didn’t want to miss her turn at me. To give my familiar credit, the Goddess had entrusted me into her care. And Destiny took that very much to heart.
Keeping me grounded and free of magical overload was a job she took very seriously. For good reason, too. I’d almost blown myself up with it a time or two. More than likely, I owed Destiny my life. More than once over.
I kissed Trevor, and he headed into the kitchen to clean up before his evening shift. Yet another thing I didn’t like about the whole acting sheriff thing. The staff was, I thought, taking advantage of Trevor’s good nature and requesting day shifts a lot more often. That left my man to cover a lot of nights.
I sure as heck didn’t remember Orville working this many nights. Getting another sheriff in that office simply couldn’t happen fast enough to suit me. Hopefully, he was still working on Patty. She’d be bloody perfect for the job. And she was more of a night person too. Wolves were kind of nocturnal, right? Win-win.
Following Destiny, we wound up in my office slash library. We’d turned one corner into a meditation center a while back. My soft, fluffy rainbow-colored beanbag chair was there just waiting for me. I could almost feel the relaxation coming on already.
Unfortunately, the chair wasn’t the only thing waiting for me. There were rows and rows of empty crystal figures waiting for me too. I’d been neglecting to fill them for a few days, and the others must have been using the stored power rather heavily.
I looked down at Destiny. “I’m not going to make it to the Ether right now, am I?”
She tilted her head at me and glanced pointedly at the crystals. Yeah, that’s what I’d thought. Duty first.
“There is a reason, you know.”
I settled into my chair, all the better for the magic transfer to begin, before looking at her. “Oh?”
Her little kitty cat noggin nodded. “Of course there is. If you were thinking properly, you’d see it too.” She waited for a minute. Finally, she blew out a breath. “All right, fine. There is a very good chance that you and the team are up against a full-blown entity here. If you remember, the last time that happened, beating them was a very close call.”
I swallowed. Oh, I remembered all right. Team Destiny had been the thin blue magical line between them and the world. It had taken every one of us doing our part to beat them. And, yeah, save the world in the process.
“Please tell me the stakes aren’t as high on this one.”
Destiny’s intent green gaze burned into my soul. “They are for Martha Donaldson.”
Crapsnackles. She had an excellent point there.
I eyed the array of crystals around me. “I can’t afford to give power up right now, can I? We need the stored magic at its peak in case we need it.”
“What do you know? I wasn’t assigned to a stupid witch after all.” Destiny nodded to me. “Go ahead and do your thing. I’ll do mine.”
My eyes closed, and I allowed myself to go into the first stage of trance. Then I opened a teeny tiny crack in my magical field. A pinprick at best. I hoped that was small enough, and that I’d used as much magic as I thought I had last night saving Mom. Otherwise, Destiny could have her hands full.
There was a reason we usually took a short trip to the Ether before doing this part. I hesitated, but I didn’t hear her complain, and more importantly, I didn’t have any kitty claws sticking into me. She had a very real way of invading my trance state when she needed to. Sharp claws worked every single time.
In far too short of a time, I felt a small paw touch my chin. “You can come back now,” Destiny told me.
I opened my eyes. Surely no more than a few minutes had passed. But when I glanced around, every one of the available crystals had been filled.
Taking a deep breath, I took stock of myself. Yup. Still magic to spare. Whatever the rest of the day held, I should be able to handle it. At least from the magical side of things.
Destiny frowned at me. You might think cats couldn’t show emotions like frowns and such. With most cats, you might be right. Not with Destiny. My familiar was a rock star at showing you exactly how she felt.
“I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but you do remember that you can use the stored power too, right? You are wearing your crystal, aren’t you?”
Digging my crystal pendant out from beneath my shirt, I held it up to her.
“Good.” Then she looked at all the crystals, still frowning. “I think maybe you need to set Ruby on getting more crystals.”
“What?” Yeah, I kind of squeaked that word out. We had over a hundred crystals of varying sizes scattered around the room, and she wanted to order more?
Just what the heck did the Goddess think we were facing?
Chapter 11
I never made it to the dog park rally. Mainly because it was canceled. I was about halfway there when I got the text from Stephanie Baker.
Good thing I’d thought to leave my card, huh?
‘Today’s rally was canceled because of a family emergency. Will alert you once we reschedule it.’
Family emergency. That was a loaded statement. Whose family? Stephanie? A supporter? A rival? Let’s face it, if the family emergency was for a community member against the park, I’d definitely be looking into the possibility of it not being a natural emergency.
Unfortunately, I was driving. Unlike some fools out there, I didn’t believe in texting while driving. I’d just have to find out the details later.
Right now, that just meant I changed the direction I was currently headed and got to the Lake View a lot earlier than planned. Good thing, too. I was almost the last one there.
Arc had told me that they were working hard to get out of the office on time. He didn’t mention that they just might make it out of there earlier than that.
When I walked into Martha’s room, Mom, Lily, Arc, and Shaman Crowe were already at her bedside.
The Shaman turned to me and nodded. “Thank you for being here. I hope your special abilities will not be needed. However, safety is always best when dealing with the unknown.”
Mom’s face said it all. I looked into her widened eyes and nodded. Up to now, the Shaman and I had kept the fact that he knew about my not so little light witch problem to ourselves. Guess that would not be the case going forward. Kind of a relief, actually. Now, if we could just figure out a way to get Patty Bluespring safely onboard with it, we’d all have it made.
Kind of, anyway. Then again, the more who knew, the more likely one would slip up, and I’d wind up in that little magic-draining cell at the heart of the Witch’s Counsel.
I really, really didn’t want that to come to pass. Sue me, but I liked my freedom.
Archie and Merlin walked in behind me and took a glance around the room. “Is this everyone?” Archie asked.
Sapphire nodded. “I’m afraid Opal and Ruby couldn’t make it, dear. They have other, rather pressing business of their own right now.”
Her words got my curiosity up. I’d have to remember to ask about that business soon. Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen Ruby for a few days. That wasn’t normal. Normally we at least passed each other with a wave sometime during the day.
Great. Now I had something else to worry about.
Mom patted my hand. “Don’t worry, dear. They’ll let us know if they need help.”
I swallowed but didn’t dispute her words. She knew as well as I did that Opal and Ruby were from the stubborn side of the family. I’d be checking in with them later for sure. I didn’t want them to wait too long to put in that call for help.
It would be just like them to do that. Then I glanced at Arc. He didn’t seem to be too concerned about it. As he lived with Ruby, I allowed that to cool my feathers a bit. Maybe I was just reading too much into this. I did that sometimes when my family was involved.
“Well then, we might as well get this show on the road,” Shaman Crowe said, heading over to a rather large duffel bag at the side of the room.
I glanced around. There was still someone missing, I thought. Someone who should really, really be there. For liability purposes, if nothing else.
“Shouldn’t we bring Karen in for this?”
Mom smiled at me. “She’s on her way, dear. But we have some preparation work to do before we truly need her here.”
Oh. Okay, then. As long as we weren’t leaving the woman out of this, I was all right with it. Of all of us, she was the one with the ultimate responsibility of keeping the woman safe and free from additional harm. A responsibility that she took very seriously.
As would I.
When I saw the Shaman glance over at my container of salt on the table, my heart sank. It took that to really put the meaning behind Mom’s preparation work comment.
“We’re doing a protection circle, aren’t we?” I glanced nervously at the bed. “Do you think she’s possessed?”
The Shaman gave a half shrug. “I do not know at this point if there is a spirit inside her or not. However,” he looked over at Mom, “there is definitely something inside her. And I truly don’t want to set that something free by accident.”
I swallowed. Okay. I was so totally with him on that one.
He laid one hand on my shoulder. “We can always break the circle and make it to Martha if the need arises, and she is in distress. But it’s always a good idea to have a plan in place to contain evil.”
I nodded. Yup. Totally got that now.
We had to pull her bed away from the wall a tad bit to get the circle perfect, but lucky for us, Martha wasn’t all that large of a woman. Besides, the bed had wheels too. That helped.
Once we were all ready and the Shaman stood poised to power up the circle, he gave Mom a nod.
“Now would be the time to call in your new friend.” He gave the briefest of hesitations. “If you are sure she can handle what may happen here.”
Mom looked at me. I nodded. Whether the woman could handle it or not, she needed to be present for this. Karen needed to know exactly what she was up against. It was the best way to keep her and the other workers here safe.
We owed them that.
Mom reached down and lightly touched the intercom button. The door opened almost instantly. Karen must have been outside, just waiting for the signal to enter. She glanced around at all of us and frowned.
“I didn’t realize there would be so many of you.”
“Safety in numbers, dear.” Mom said. “As of yet, we have no clue what we are dealing with here. It is far better to be safe than sorry.” She nodded to Martha. “We certainly don’t want that catching up with us as well.”
Karen gave a shiver, crossing her arms tight against her chest. “You really think that would be possible?”
Mom spread her hands in a gesture but didn’t say anything. After all, she’d already admitted we didn’t have a clue what was going on here. That’s what we were there to find out.
And for me, the more Team Destiny members we had present, the better. There was a heck of a lot of power in that room right now. I just hoped that level of power wasn’t making us cockier than we should be with whatever it was we were about to face.
Perhaps that protection circle was a very, very good thing.
“All right,” Shaman Crowe said, glancing around. “Are we all ready?” He looked at everyone, but when his eyes stopped moving, they were focused on mine.
I swallowed yet again past the lump in my throat and nodded. Even as my head came back up from the nod, I felt my hair start to float and my skin tingled. Yup, my magic was ready, all right.
Locked and loaded, that was me.
Then the Shaman gave me a sad smile and did something I hadn’t expected him to do. He stepped across the circle’s barrier before he activated it.
Crapsnackles on toast!
The man had effectively just positioned himself at the sole mercy of whatever was inside Martha. I had a bad feeling that circle would not last the night. No way was I letting Shaman Crowe down that easily.
Dang it all, he should have taken me with him. I could have handled that much better.
When the circle’s power activated, a thin green haze immediately stretched from floor to ceiling. Now that I thought about it, I hoped it stopped with the floor and ceiling, but knowing how thorough the Shaman was with things, I simply had to put my trust in the fact that it did.
The Shaman nodded out to us, then turned to Martha and stretched his hands out over her. He stood stone-cold still like that for a good five minutes.
I was having trouble reminding myself to breathe. Especially when the Shaman started glowing.
Sparing a quick glance over at Karen to see how she was handling the situation, I found her eyes wide and her mouth open. Yup. Pretty much the mirror image of me, I was guessing.
Closing my mouth, at least, I turned my gaze back to the Shaman, just as he made his move. The chant was low at first but gained power as it went on. For all I knew, the man had been chanting the entire time under his breath. Or perhaps the circle was dampening the sound, and we simply hadn’t heard it?
As the chanting reached a crescendo, his hands raised above his head and then dropped to his sides.
Instantly, the glow around him changed. It went from the beautiful green that was the man’s aura to a pale and sickly black.
I stepped toward the circle. This wasn’t good. But Mom stopped me before I reached it.
“Let him be, child. Goddess help us, but this is part of the Shaman’s plan.”
I hesitated and looked up to meet the Shaman’s gaze. Well, I say it was the Shaman’s gaze, but it wasn’t. Not really. Shaman Crowe’s eyes are green, not black. And they weren’t usually filled with malicious intent, either.
The eyes swept over each and every one of us, then his hand raised and stretched toward the protection circle, stopping when the haze starting sizzling as his fingers drew near.
The thing inside the Shaman didn’t stay long. I took that as a testament to the Shaman’s strength. And the power that stood behind him by the way of his Great Spirit and the Goddess.
It never spoke. Somehow, I think that was even eerier than it would have been had it spouted out death threats and curses at us. It was almost as if, well, as if it had judged us and found us lacking.
Now my breath was in holding as I watched the Shaman very closely. His aura changed back over to mostly green, but it wasn’t the bright and pristine green it had been before.
It was tainted. That taint had me more than a little worried. What if something of whatever it was had remained inside him? How would we ever know for sure?
Then I noticed that the Shaman was back to chanting again. Only now, Mom was joining him. On the inside of the circle, the Shaman was walking clockwise around the circle, sprinkling a finely powdered spell. Mom was doing the same, but she was walking counter-clockwise.
The chant wasn’t in a language I knew. One I didn’t think Mom knew either. She’d have some explaining to do later. I rather thought just maybe she had known the Shaman’s plan all along.
A little forewarning would have been a very good thing.
Chapter 12
Removing the taint took some time and effort on both sides of the circle, but by the time that circle vanished, the Shaman was back to his sparkling and pristine green aura. I could breathe a lot easier after that.
Shaman Crowe immediately started packing up his supplies into the duffel. As of yet, the man had still not uttered a single word. Not in English, anyway. My breathing started going south again.
The Shaman was one of the oldest and wisest witches I knew. Scratch that. He was the oldest and wisest witch I knew. If he was this quiet, to me it only meant one thing. The man was worried. And scared. Most likely, he was taking this moment of silence to gather his thoughts and nerves before addressing us.
I’d give him that. But if he thought he was going to pack up his bag and leave without talking to us, he had another thing coming.
Lucky for all of us, that didn’t appear to be his plan after all. But he did have one more delaying tactic up his sleeve.
Turning to Karen, he asked, “Please, is there anywhere here that I could take a shower? I need a shower right now. More than I’ve ever needed a shower in my life.”
Team Destiny and Archie's Apparition (Team Destiny Paranormal Cozy Mystery Book 2) Page 7
