She looked for any signs of familiar landmarks as she picked her way through the overgrown brush surrounding the shack and recognized a few of the green rocks that lay scattered on the ground at her feet. They were a distinctive, deep jade color with holes in them like Swiss cheese, the same rocks that Shadow had picked up the day he had brought her to the burial ground. Suddenly, she recognized where she was. This was the place he had taken her, and that meant that she could get back to her owl’s nest. Following the slightly overgrown pathway into the woods, she emerged in a field adjacent to Feazell Cemetery and miraculously, her bag and crossbow lay in the exact spot she had left them at the foot of the pole.
Her tired fingers wrapped around the crossbow’s grip at the same moment she heard her owl’s distinctive low hissing sound it made when hunting. She thought perhaps her mind was playing tricks on her because it sounded just like Carol. At the same moment, heavy footsteps sounded behind her. Peering over her shoulder, her owl was nowhere in sight, but there was President Bord’s large figure lurking there, then heading straight towards her.
She gasped. With shaking hands, she reached for an arrow, settling it in the cradle of the crossbow. And with surprising speed for someone so weary on her feet, she spun around and took aim. Silence enveloped her. Her aim was steady despite the pounding of her heart. Releasing the arrow, the world around her seemed to disappear. She heard the arrow slicing through the air and held her breath as it hit its intended target.
President Bord stopped abruptly when the arrow landed and he clutched his right shoulder. Then letting out an unearthly bellow, he fell to his knees.
Bethanie had presence of mind enough to know that Shadow would be further implicated if the police found the arrow. She slung her bag onto her back. The edges of her vision blurred as she single-mindedly approached her captor. She could not let Shadow take the blame for this as well. Stepping as close to his crumpled form as she had to, feeling pity for him while at the same time keeping her feet out of his reach, she ripped the arrow from his bleeding shoulder, causing more blood to gush from the open wound. She wasted no time to see if he stayed down. Tucking the arrow in her pack with the crossbow, she took off running. And with the last ounces of her strength and scared for her life, she ran.
Loud knocking sounds broke into Shadow's consciousness and woke him from his deep stupor. Turning over in bed, he was shocked to see Maria in his bed. He lay on top of the quilt she lay beneath. The knocking at the front door persisted and deciding to sort out the details of last night later, he answered the door in boxer shorts and nothing else.
“I've just heard from Bobby Blue,” Chris said, a little out of breath as Shadow opened the door for him to come inside. Taking in his friend's current state of dishevelment, Chris' eyes took on that same look of compassion that Shadow was beginning to resent. “Because of our pictures, the police wanted to question President Bord. But when they couldn’t find him, they went out looking for him. They found him unconscious near the woods that butt up to Feazell Cemetery. He’s confessed to the murders of both the missing girls from his hospital bed. The police are just waiting for the warrant to search his house.” Chris' morose chuckle at the turn of events was without a hint of satisfaction.
Shadow scrubbed a hand down his face. “That's great news, Chris. Really. But it's early. Come back later. I'm not in a celebratory mood right now.”
“I can see that. But that's not the half of it,” Chris said, placing a hand on the door when Shadow would have closed it. “Bethanie's missing. Her advisor hasn't heard back from her in days. He called the police. He's truly worried.”
“Tell him to try West Virginia,” Shadow growled, holding his pounding head in his hands. He needed a cup of coffee, bad.
Chris shook his head. “He's already contacted her family there. They've not seen or heard from her either.”
“Her brother was just here, according to her note.” Warning bells started going off in Shadow's head. Turning quickly to his room to get dressed. “I'm going to need your help, Chris.”
“I'm counting on it. I've got Bobby Blue searching the campus. And the rest of the police department has her description. She doesn't own a car, so she can't have gotten far on foot.”
“Don’t count on it,” Shadow said sardonically then thinking aloud added, “She's been gone for three days.” He pulled on a pair of jeans and boots that had been left beside the couch in the den. “That puts her, walking, into Floyd. At least she'll find hospitable people there.”
“Shadow?” Maria, who had appeared in the doorway of his bedroom, wearing his t-shirt and looking rumpled from sleep, called downstairs.
Chris looked from where she stood on the walkway above them to Shadow and raised an inquisitive brow at him but said nothing of what he was thinking. “Looks like you've got company, Shadow.”
Shadow heaved a deep sigh. He had some things to sort out, like what the hell his ex-girlfriend was doing in his house, but they would have to wait until Bethanie was found.
“According to his advisor, she's been unaccounted for since Wednesday. That’s four days ago,” Chris said, picking up the conversation where it had been diverted when the beautiful, young woman disappeared into the bedroom from which she had come.
“Four days?” The alarm in Shadow's voice rose as he spoke and pulled a clean white t-shirt over his head. “She could've been taken by that animal, Bord, for Christ's sake. He could be playing another one of his sick skinwalker games with her.”
“Take it easy now,” Chris said in a calm voice. “He says he hasn’t seen her either. We don't know anything yet. Let's assume she's still here and start from there. You know her best. Where would she go?”
Shadow did not need any time to think about the answer to that question. “Her owls.”
“You mean that one?” Chris said, grinning and pointing outside to where a white barn owl sat, watching them from a maple tree in the front yard. “She's been sitting right there since I got here.”
“That's one of them alright.” Shadow recognized the owl's black spots on her chest that formed the shape of a heart, matching the shape of her face. “Carol. She must’ve been well enough to leave the animal hospital.”
Chris pulled a face at the name obviously given to the elegant owl then shrugged. “The white girl names the owls like pets.”
“She does a lot more than that. I'll tell you about it in the truck,” Shadow opened the front door.
“Wait. What about your guest?” Chris looked upstairs.
Shadow stopped with his hand on the doorknob and cursed.
Chapter 12
After dropping Maria off at her mother's house, a place Shadow had never envisioned himself seeing again, but finding it no longer held any power over him, he and Chris followed the owl. Since they had left his cabin, it had flown over the hood of Shadow's pick-up truck as the pair drove. Neither of them thought it wise to ignore its directions. Shadow did not doubt for a second the connection that Bethanie and the owl shared. Carol knew where Bethanie was and would take them to her.
They continued following the white owl until it led them to one of the campus barns. “We'll take a look at the pictures from the trail camera inside,” Shadow said as they got out of the truck.
“It couldn't hurt,” Chris agreed.
In the small office inside the barn, Shadow hooked the camera up to the computer. It took a few extra minutes of downloading, but finally the pictures appeared. Since there had been little to no activity since the school closed and Shadow had been put on leave, the only pictures they found were of the same dog-like man, entering the barn naked except for the skins of a coyote on his back and covering his head. And since Shadow had set the camera to take video as well as pictures, the next frame was a soundless video, Bethanie being dragged into the barn by the creature who held a rag over her mouth until her body went slack.
Shadow's blood boiled as he watched the video in horror at what had been happening to Bethani
e the very afternoon he had been arrested. Moments later in the frame, she was dragged outside by her hair, the skinwalker pulling her limp body behind him.
“There’s no more pictures or video.” Shadow scrolled back through the video again to be sure he had not missed something when he came across a very important detail. “It’s Bord’s face,” he said, “I know it, but it’s too pixelated to prove.”
“Wait a second, Shadow. Look, there,” Chris said, pointing to the computer screen. “Right there, you can see it more clearly.” It was definitely a man's face along the periphery of this last frame, so small that they had almost missed it.
Shadow knew exactly whose face he was staring at this time, there was no mistaking father for son this time. That was definitely Henry Bord, the president of Ferra College.
“It’s definitely Bord. He took her from here. But where is she now?” Shadow demanded.
At that moment, Carol shrieked outside in a nearby tree, drawing the attention of both men.
“The owl knows.”
“Let's get these pictures to the police.”
As Shadow and Chris drove the winding, mountain road leading away from campus, Shadow was the first to spot Bethanie on the side of the road as she stumbled along on the road's gravely shoulder, dangerously close to passing traffic. As the truck skidded to a stop, Shadow leaped from the cabin even as he was slamming the transmission into park. His heart thumped in his chest as he reached for her, afraid of what condition he would find her. He would kill Bord if he had hurt her.
Grabbing her by the forearm, he stopped her mid-stride. The look on her face as she turned to him, told him that she did not recognize him. And no wonder, considering the shape she was in. The dark rings around her eyes over hollow cheeks told him that she had just been to hell and survived. Unsteady on her feet, she was babbling incoherently.
“I didn’t aim til I was ready to kill.”
He turned her slowly, taking care not to let her wobbly legs trip her up. He tucked her into the crook of his arm, and she shivered. “Let's get you inside the truck where it's warm, baby,” he said to her softly, leading her to the cab of his truck.
He put her in the seat next to him, between himself and Chris who would drive them to help.
“I've got to go home. I need to ask them to forgive me,” Bethanie mumbled.
“Everything's going to be okay,” Shadow said reassuringly, stroking her hair from her dirt-smudged face as her head lolled from side to side. He nestled her in the crook of his arm and pressed her head down upon his shoulder. Fingering the cracked skin of her delicate wrists where she had obviously been bound, he cursed softly.
“My brother hates me,” she muttered, “I don't know why.”
“Shh, rest your head on me,” he whispered when she tried to straighten while inwardly, he called himself a bastard and a coward for letting this happen to her. Guilt twisted in his gut at the sight of her beautiful face, smeared with dirt. She deserved so much more than he had given her, more than anyone had ever given her. He had used her, taken her to his bed. She needed someone to love her, to cherish her, to look out for her. All the things she had never had.
As the pick-up truck bounced along the road headed south on State Route 602, Shadow's deep, soothing voice slowly broke through the haze of confusion in Bethanie's mind. “I'm here, Bethanie,” he kept repeating, “everything's going to be okay.” And that was the last thing she heard as she drifted into the merciful oblivion of unconsciousness.
Twenty four hours later, Chris Hogan's wife, Lillie, arranged a fresh cup of water and chicken broth on the bedside table. Gently, she stroked Bethanie's face with a wet washcloth. Bethanie had no fever, but had been unconscious since she had been brought to her. Lillie had spent much of that time spooning water and bone broth into Bethanie's mouth, as much as she would swallow at a time.
Through the dim awareness that protected Bethanie from realizing the severity of her condition, she tried to focus on the sound of Shadow's deep voice as she drifted in and out of her awareness, leading her out of the fog. “Did he hurt her?” she once heard him ask.
“No,” Lillie's voice had said, “he didn't...” But Bethanie didn't know of whom or what he spoke, and then without meaning to, she had fallen back to sleep.
“I'll take good care of her, Shadow,” Lillie now said to Shadow, assuring him yet again for the second day in a row as she waited for him to reluctantly let go of Bethanie's hand. “Get back to work. She'll be fine. I'll call you as soon as she wakes up.” She had repeated the same statement since Shadow and her husband had arrived at their home with a badly dehydrated Bethanie.
The dark rings beneath Bethanie's eyes had almost completely disappeared, giving Lillie hope. Now she would just have to wait until Bethanie awoke to find out if she was once again speaking coherently after many times hearing her mumble nonsense. “It's my fault,” she had repeated. “That's why God's punishing me.”
“Shadow,” Bethanie called out to Lillie’s surprise after Shadow had gone.
Bethanie opened her eyes to find herself in a well-appointed bedroom decorated in soft, muted shades of lavender and yellow, and tried to sit up. But a firm yet gentle hand prevented her, pressing against her shoulders until she lay her head back down on the pillow.
“Don't try to move just yet. You're safe now, Bethanie. This is my home. My name is Lillie,” she said. “I'm a friend of Shadow's and a nurse. I've been looking after you,” Lillie looked at the clock on the bedside table. It was late afternoon. “I'm afraid you gave us all quite a scare. You were a good bit dehydrated when they found you, Shadow and Chris.” She smiled down at Bethanie. “Shadow has been faithfully checking on you since he brought you here.”
Bethanie frowned, looking around. “Where is he now?”
“I don't think he'll be able to come back again today, dear.” Lillie smiled. “He's got a lot of work to do right now. Although I’ll phone him as I promised as soon as you woke up.”
Bethanie frowned again. He had been out of a job for more than a week; she could not imagine what he had to do now that was so important. “What work?”
“He's got to be ready when students return to classes on Monday,” Lillie said.
Despite her relief to hear that school was starting again, Bethanie could not bring herself to admit the truth that she was disappointed Shadow was not there. She needed him.
Lillie saw the troubled expression on Bethanie's face. “I've got some good news that might cheer you up.” She sat down on a chair beside the bed, the same chair Shadow had occupied. “Shadow's uncovered the skinwalker’s identity.”
“He did?”
“He did.” Lillie nodded. “The police are still searching his home now and have a full confession from him.”
Bethanie was relieved. She knew if anyone would find the truth, it would be Shadow. And to know that she would not have to be the one to point the finger at President Bord, the man's erratic behavior had scared her so badly she did not ever want to be in the same room with him again.
“Shadow also tells me that if it had not been for you, he would’nt have gotten the proof he needed, between the stained nightgown and the video footage of the skinwalker.”
Bethanie wondered what the video could be before remembering the day she had seen President Bord in the barn. But just the thought of the man behind the bizarre skinwalker dress sent shivers up and down her spine.
“Shadow couldn't say enough good things about you, dear.”
Bethanie tried to smile, but could not. Things between herself and Shadow had gotten so muddled in her mind that she wanted to cry. The only thing she knew for sure was that she missed him right now more than anything in the world.
“There's going to be a special celebration hosted on campus for returning students and faculty. The powwow, they’re calling a Native American Heritage Festival, sounds like P.R. cooked up by the administration, but well-intended. They want to put fears to rest and try to rebuild tru
st between our people, who had nothing to do with the tragedy, for all of the rumors floating around. And I want you to go with me.”
Bethanie guessed that Lillie too had good intentions for her and Shadow. But that was not meant to be. With so much to take in at once, Bethanie focused on the one thing that was most pressing, her interview with the Barn Owl Conservatory. She might still be able to make it. “What day is today?”
“It's Wednesday. Why?”
“I've got an important interview on Friday morning. It's been planned for months. I don’t want to miss it.” She surprised herself with her still present desire to forge her own life, free of the constraints of her past after all she had been through. But something told Bethanie that things had worked out the way they had for a reason. And she would be foolish not to take advantage of an opportunity.
“They'll be plenty of time for that too. But, you've got to get better first.” Lillie smiled.
Bethanie smiled back and for the first time, she realized, since leaving Shadow. Then the tenuous thread of happiness snapped and caused her chin to wobble. She looked down at the blanket covering her as her chin began to tremble.
Lillie saw the emotions that Bethanie was trying to hide. “You love Shadow, I think. And he loves you too.”
“How'd you know?” Bethanie's voice trembled as she looked up and an errant tear ran down her cheek.
“It's obvious. It's written all over you.” Lillie smiled broadly this time. “He loves you too. The way he looks at you is a dead giveaway.”
Another tear trickled down her cheek. “My mother used to say that all you can do to find love is mind your business and let love find you. That's how she met my daddy, she used to say. When she wasn't looking.”
“Bethanie, have you bled in a while?” Lillie surprised her by asking.
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