“He’s not going to let us go, is he?” Elizabeth asked.
Her color was much better, her posture erect. I figured she’d probably healed from the wound, but I had no intention of mentioning it. Not here. Not after what I’d seen in the barn. Or thought I’d seen. Had I actually seen Gabriel possess Ramone, or had that been another of the fallen angel’s tricks? To make me believe Ramone carried the taint of evil. My thoughts didn’t matter because Elizabeth would never leave without her brother.
“We don’t need Gabriel’s permission,” Reginald said.
“Lucais and his men answer to Gabriel.” I needed everyone to be clear about the degree of danger we faced.
“Let me stay,” McEachern said with his slight burr. “I can lead the men into the woods. I’m good at surviving.”
“No.” Elizabeth put a hand on the big Scot’s shoulder. “No. We sacrificed too much to leave you behind now. We’re all going, or none of us will leave.”
“They don’t even want you,” Michael said to McEachern. I sat between Michael and Reginald in the front seat. Reginald was behind the wheel. “It’s never been about you, Slater. You were merely the bait to keep Elizabeth here. The murders, the dreams, it’s all been a trap for Elizabeth and Callie.”
“How do you know this?” I asked him.
“It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“Ruth Whelan was murdered to set a trap for Elizabeth and her baby?”
He nodded slowly. “Ruth and little Hildy. And Slater was set up to take the blame. Then Elizabeth dreamed the truth. It was all to keep her here until Gabriel could make his move.”
“And Hildy?” Elizabeth asked.
“I can only believe that Hildy saw something she wasn’t supposed to see. She was always larking around the woods. And she was smart.”
“What are we going to do?” I couldn’t think about Hildy. I had to focus on escape. We would have only one chance, and we had to get out of Mission and down to Victoria.
“Make a run for it.” Reginald revved the car.
Even Callie was silent as Reginald punched the gas and the big car roared forward, rocks clanging from the wheels. Whatever got in our way, Reginald would not stop for it. He would run over anyone and anything that tried to slow us down.
I glanced into the paddock. The horses were gone. They’d finally found the open gate to the back fields and woodland pastures and taken off. They’d be fine until my uncle could send someone to retrieve them. We had Callie safely tucked in the back seat in Elizabeth’s arms. The child was as even-tempered as ever, and she blinked her eyes and yawned. Ramone, too, was coming back to himself. He appeared to have no memory of what had occurred in the barn, but soon he’d have plenty of questions.
Michael’s hand slipped over mine and squeezed. “If you’ve ever prayed, do so now.”
We cleared the yard and were headed far too fast down the driveway. When we came to the road, Reginald turned right, toward Victoria, the car listing and sliding so that I was thrown into Reginald and Michael into me. The people in the backseat fared no better. A few bruises and bumps were nothing compared to what awaited us if we weren’t successful in our run.
The hot and humid September day had not finished, and the slant of the sun threw long shadows of the trees across the road. I expected at any turn to see Gabriel and his harbingers of doom. Michael’s hand gripped my elbow as he tried to steady me through Reginald’s wild driving. I finally shut my eyes and let my body find its own balance in the laboring car.
“Next right,” Michael said softly.
When the tires hit the smoother packed surface of one of the main roads, I finally let my breath out. From here on out, the road was not as winding or treacherous. We’d left the bogs of sand and mud behind. In the few days we’d been in Mission, there had been no rain, and the road heading out of town was better than what we’d faced going in.
We came to the lightning-blasted tree on the outskirts of Mission where the road to town forked north and where I’d first seen the buzzards roosting. The tree was empty, the woods around it unnaturally quiet. Gabriel and the birds were nowhere in evidence. Looking at the blackened trunk and limbs against a sky turning blood red with the sunset, I had a terrible premonition. Gabriel wasn’t going to let us go. This race for freedom—it would never succeed. He and his minions weren’t visible, but that meant nothing.
Swallowing my fears, I remained silent. Things were dicey enough without me making it worse with crazy premonitions.
Twenty minutes later, when we pulled onto the main road to Victoria, I didn’t believe it. Mission was several miles behind us. Open road stretched in front of us. We passed a farm wagon headed home. It was the only sign of life.
“Ramone, where have you been all this time?” Elizabeth finally asked. “I searched and searched for you. It’s been months since anyone remembered seeing you here in Mission. Who was holding you prisoner and where?” She spoke with weariness instead of accusation, but I was eager to hear his answer. The things I’d seen in the barn—it was another of Gabriel’s tricks. He’d manipulated the images in my mind the same way he’d done with the characters from a book I’d read. I couldn’t be certain Callie’s eyes had looked like blank white stones, or that Ramone’s body had snapped and twisted into shapes that would sever a normal spine and leave him paralyzed, if not dead. I couldn’t rely on what my eyes told me.
Ramone spoke clearly. If that horrible, raspy voice had ever come from his throat, it had not damaged his vocal chords. “The folks in Mission weren’t all that welcoming to a traveling Gypsy. I’d swing through the outlying farms with my goods and wares every month, steering clear of town. But the man who owns the general store, Mr. McKay, made it clear I wasn’t welcome to sell cheaper than his prices.”
“Vernon confronted you?” Elizabeth asked.
“A little more than a verbal confrontation. When I was parked on the edge of town, someone set fire to my wagon. I put it out before there was a lot of damage, but I got the message. The next day I left Mission.”
“And went to Victoria?” I asked. Listening to Ramone’s story helped pass the time in the car and even ease the anxiety of watching the side of the road, trying to pick out danger in the car’s headlights as they swept the verge. Each mile we put between us and Mission allowed me to hope a little harder that we might escape.
“I was headed to Victoria for a carpentry job, just until I could resupply my wagon. That’s when I was attacked and taken. For six months or better, I worked cutting timber. I couldn’t get away. I managed to sneak out of the camp one night and made it to a river—I didn’t even know where I was. I figured the river would eventually end up in a town so I let the current take me. I camped where I could and nearly starved to death by the time some trappers took me on their canoe. I’ve been trying to get back to Mission ever since. I’ve got some scores to settle.”
“Do you know who was responsible for abducting you?” I asked.
“I have a pretty good idea. Then I heard Elizabeth was living on the outskirts of town and I found her farm. I’ve never been happier to see a person.”
Reginald was so intent on driving that I couldn’t tell if he was following the conversation. Michael, though, was half turned in the front seat to look at Ramone and Elizabeth. Slater McEachern sat behind Reginald and beside Elizabeth. He watched the roadsides with intensity. Like Reginald, he anticipated an ambush. He was like a spring wound too tight. The slave collar was still around his neck—Michael had managed to break a link in the chain that held him to the wall. Wisely, they’d chosen to ride hard for Elizabeth’s rather than worry about the metal collar around his neck. When we got to Victoria and could find a hardware store, we’d find some way to unlock the collar.
“What’s your plan now?” Slater asked Ramone.
“To get enough money to set up a little shop where I mend things for ladies in the town. That was my goal, to have a little shop in a permanent location. The travel
ing was too difficult alone. Folks always need repairs. Pot handles, knives, those things that are still good but need a little fixing up. I have a knack for repair and that was my plan.”
“Ramone was always handy,” Elizabeth said. She put a hand on her brother’s cheek. “I’m so glad you’re here with us. I’ve been so worried.”
“When you knew I wasn’t in Mission, why didn’t you leave?” Ramone asked.
Reginald took a sharp curve, and Elizabeth held her answer until we were on the straight-away again. Reginald hadn’t slowed a whit, so I knew he felt unsafe. We were out of the woods, but not out of the reach of Gabriel and his watchers.
“I didn’t intend to stay,” Elizabeth said. “The weeks just drifted by, and I didn’t know where else to go. I kept hoping Ramone would show up. Folks said they’d seen him up in the Knoxville area headed back south. Mission was where your trail went cold, and I hoped you’d come back there.”
Elizabeth sent her brother such a look of love that I felt as if I were spying into her private life. I realized suddenly the loneliness and abandonment she’d felt for the months Ramone was missing. After the death of my parents and then Alex, I, too, had drifted through the days and weeks. I’d gotten a job teaching literature in the local high school, and that had saved me, given me a routine that demanded a certain level of discipline and self-care.
Elizabeth and Ramone continued their conversation, filling in the timeline for each other, learning the important events that had passed in their lives. Everyone in the car except Reginald was listening.
“Until I found you, it didn’t matter where I was.” Elizabeth smiled up at her brother. “Mission didn’t welcome me, but I preferred a solitary life. Folks did leave me alone, for the most part. Things began to happen that I didn’t understand. I still don’t understand.” She swallowed. “I met this man. Gabriel. Yet I couldn’t remember when we met or even where he was from. We must have spent time together, but I…don’t know. I lost time. I was confused by the events that were happening around me. Then I found I was pregnant. Moving was out of the question until the baby was born.”
“And then the dreams started,” Ramone said. “That’s what fascinates me. How you began to dream things that actually happened.”
“Raissa has done the same,” Elizabeth said, throwing the focus on me.
“Not really.” I didn’t want the attention.
“But you did. You dreamt the murder of Hildy Morse. I’m certain it happened just the way you saw it in your dream.”
I shook my head. “Tell your brother about what happened to you,” I said.
Elizabeth nodded. “The dreams were comforting, at first. Then they became confusing. Then terrifying. The things I saw turned out to be real, yet I had no way of knowing any facts about the events I dreamt. I began to dread sleeping and dreaming, knowing that terrible things I saw turned out to be true.”
I’d had my share of dreams lately, and I could only hope they were not true.
“Tell them about your dream of Ruth Whelan’s murder.” I wanted to watch Slater’s reaction, and also Ramone’s.
Elizabeth looked down at Callie as she recounted her dream, the horrific time she’d spent in the skin of a brutal murderer. When she finished, she turned to Slater. “That’s why I knew you were innocent.” She picked up his hand where the scar between his thumb and forefinger was welted and clearly visible. “This wasn’t the hand that held the cleaver. You didn’t kill my friend, and I couldn’t let you hang for something you didn’t do.”
“I thank you for your belief in me,” Slater said, “but you’d be better served to let them kill me than pursue you. You’ve put yourselves at great risk.”
“And you’re free now, and we’re on the way to a town with several lawmen.” Elizabeth clung to the hopeful outcome.
“These dreams, you’d never had them before?” Ramone asked.
“I’ve always had vivid dreams, but nothing like these.”
“And this happened after you became pregnant?” Ramone was clearly trying to find a link between the events of Elizabeth’s life that might explain her peculiar gift.
“Yes, the dreams became this thick web of connective tissue.” She reached over and picked up one of Callie’s hands. “Almost like the membrane between her fingers. The dreams connect everything. I just don’t know how.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you,” Ramone said. He put a hand on the back of her neck and squeezed in a gesture of comfort. “You’re my sister, and I wasn’t there when you needed me.”
Elizabeth shrugged. “I made friends with Ruth, and it wasn’t so bad in Mission. Little Hildy—” Her voice broke but she quickly regained control. “Hildy was a godsend to me when she’d come over. She was like a sprite in the woods, popping up where no one expected her. And she loved learning. Science, geography, languages. She was a sponge.”
“I’m so sorry.” Ramone patted her shoulder. “How lonely you must have been.”
“It was okay for a while. Callie was born and I had everything I’d ever wanted. Ruth, Hildy, and I, we had fun walking and talking, learning about nature. Then Ruth was murdered. I couldn’t abandon an innocent man. I couldn’t.”
Ramone lifted Callie from Elizabeth’s arms. The baby, whose eyes were perfectly normal now, cooed and gurgled at Ramone. Callie seemed to like her uncle, but then she liked everyone. “Take a nap, Elizabeth,” Ramone said. “I’ll watch the baby. You look done in.” He grinned at her. “But don’t dream, unless we have a happy, safe ending.”
I craned my neck for as long as I could, watching the two of them interact. Elizabeth quickly faded into an uneasy sleep, and Ramone busied himself playing with Callie. What caught my attention, though, was Michael. He sat watching Ramone and the baby. He wasn’t a gregarious man, but I had the distinct impression he pitied Ramone. I would question him about it when we got to Victoria and found a place of safety.
“Where exactly are we going?” I asked Reginald softly. The longer he drove, the quieter and sterner he seemed to get. “Do you have a plan?”
“A boarding house or inn. Just for tonight. Elizabeth is exhausted, and she needs care. So does Callie. Ramone and Michael can look out for them because we have work to do. You and I are going to find a working phone so we can get in touch with Mr. Airlie and Madam. We need help, Raissa. We may get to Victoria, but we are far from safe and I think you know that.”
There was so much I needed to tell Reginald about what I’d seen in the barn. About what I feared. I glanced into the backseat to find Callie staring at me. Her eyes were deep and beautiful, as I remembered. I feared greatly for the safety of the child—but possibly I feared her powers even more. Nephilim.
Chapter 30
By the time we reached the outskirts of Victoria, I was exhausted. We’d taken several backroads, at Michael’s direction, in an effort to avoid a confrontation with Lucais and his men. They hadn’t given up—we all knew this even though no one spoke it aloud—but we didn’t know from which direction they’d come at us.
We all looked haggard, except Elizabeth, who’d awakened from her brief nap refreshed. Callie, too, was her normal, good-spirited self. The child was never cross. She was almost…preternaturally pleasant.
Ramone returned her to Elizabeth’s arms as Reginald searched for an inn or boarding house in town that could accommodate so many of us. It was only about eight o’clock, but the town slumbered as if a witch had sprinkled a sleeping potion over the entire populace. As far as I could see, Victoria didn’t have a hotel.
Main Street yielded nothing that vaguely resembled an inn, but we found a large, rambling two-story house on Second Street, and Reginald pulled to the curb. A small sign on the corner said it was the Sand Mountain Inn. We had few belongings, except for the things we’d brought for Callie.
“Michael, could you come in with me to check on registration?” Reginald asked.
It was clear he meant me to stay in the car with the others. In t
ruth, I didn’t mind. I was happy not to answer impossible questions from someone who was not going to be happy to be disturbed in the shank of the evening.
Sleeping arrangements didn’t matter. We could double or triple up, as long as we could move the car off the street. Lucais Wilkins would be looking for us, and it only made sense we’d head for the nearest town. Getting the car out of sight was the first priority. Then, if we could only sleep for several hours, we could think more clearly. Tomorrow we needed a plan to attack our enemies instead of hiding from them. But just now, hiding sounded like a smart and reasonable action.
I swung around on the seat so I could face Elizabeth, Slater, and Ramone. “You okay?”
They all nodded. Elizabeth had slumped toward Slater in her sleep, and she remained against his side. It was clear they had feelings for each other, though when they’d developed, I didn’t know. It made me wonder if they’d been completely honest with me. I’d learned one thing about Mission, Alabama—nothing was as it seemed. The line between dreams and reality was broken and interspaced with segments that made no sense in the world I normally inhabited.
I felt Slater’s gaze on me, and I turned away.
“Raissa, may I speak with you?” he asked. “I have family and they haven’t heard from me in nearly a month. I’d like to post a letter to them.”
“Sure, maybe the landlady of the inn will drop it in the mail for you tomorrow.”
“I want to consult on what to tell my family. I don’t want them coming here for any reason, so I want to reassure them that everything is okay. I know I’ve unduly worried them. They take the burden of my decisions on their shoulders.”
I realized then that he wanted to talk to me about something he didn’t want Elizabeth or Ramone to hear. “Sure. Let’s go sit on the steps of the inn.” There was a steep flight that would give me a view of the car while I talked to Slater.
A Visitation of Angels Page 24
