Crone's Moon: A Rowan Gant Investigation (32 page)

“Something like that,” Constance replied.

“Would you like for me to call paramedics?”
the guard asked, glancing past her at Felicity’s motionless form,
still cradled in my arms.

“Rowan?” Constance called over to me.

I shook my head. “No. We just need to get her
home so she can rest.”

“You sure, sir? She doesn’t look so good,”
the officer leaned around Constance and spoke directly to me, a
slight southern drawl to his voice.

I nodded quickly. “She’ll be fine. We’ve been
through this before.”

Neither of us was lying. We just weren’t
telling the whole story. Fortunately, the security officer didn’t
seem to notice.

“If you say so,” he replied. “But I’m gonna
have to get your names and such for my report.”

“Detective Ben Storm, SLPD,” my friend
offered, flashing his badge. “Listen, do you mind if I go pull my
van up so she has a place to lay down.”

The guard looked over the top of his glasses
at the gold shield, then glanced around, inspecting the thruway. He
finally nodded as he pointed to a freshly vacated slot a few cars
away, “Yeah, go ahead. Just pull in over there so you’re not
blockin’ traffic.”

Ben took off at a jog, and the security
officer turned his attention back to us. “A Fed and a city cop,” he
grunted and then looked over at me. “You got a badge too?”

“No sir,” I replied. “We’re both
civilians.”

“Good,” he grunted again. “I was starting to
wonder if y’all were out here about the abduction this morning.
Wait here while I go get my clipboard.”

Constance looked over at me as he turned his
back to us and she asked, “Are you sure she’s okay?”

“She should be. It’s over now,” I replied and
then paused before adding. “For the moment, anyway.”

“So, what happened?” she asked, her voice
just above a whisper. “You started falling, she starting yelling
something about the ground, and the next thing I knew she went
stiff as a board.”

“I slipped over to the other side,” I replied
quietly, not bothering to correct her perception regarding what
Felicity had said. “I’m pretty sure she decided to rescue me, and
since Kimberly Forest is her friend, she had an even stronger
connection than me. So…” I allowed the rest of my speculation to
remain unspoken.

“Damn, Rowan, I don’t think I’ll ever get
used to you two.”

“Don’t worry,” I offered. “I don’t think
we’ll ever get used to us either.”

“You said your name was Mandalay, right?” the
security officer asked as he stepped back over to us, clipboard in
hand. “So, how do you spell that?”

“Here,” Constance said, reaching into her
pocket and withdrawing a business card for him.

He took it from her and slipped it beneath
the holder on the metal clipboard, then began writing, pausing now
and again to glance at the cardboard rectangle.

“Rowan…” Felicity’s faint voice wafted into
my ears.

I looked down and saw her eyes fluttering
open, so I shifted my arm and brushed the hair back from her
face.

“Hey,” I replied simply.

I had settled from my original kneeling
position and was now fully seated on the asphalt. It wasn’t the
most comfortable of places to sit, and on top of that, it was cool
enough to be leaching the warmth from my body right through the
seat of my pants. I imagined Felicity was faring no better, since
she was laid out across my lap with her lower half splayed onto the
hard surface as well. I was glad Ben had gone to get the van.

“He’s hurting her, Rowan,” she whispered.

“I know, honey,” I said, gently rocking. “I
know.”

“No,” she spoke again, her voice still a weak
thread. Her eyelids were falling back down as she continued. “I
remember…”

“You remember?” I asked.

“Yes…” she whispered again, her voice barely
audible as it trailed off, and she drifted back into a hazy
sleep.

“Hey, Kemosabe,” Ben’s voice came at me from
above. “Let me give ya’ a hand.”

I looked up and saw my friend in front of me.
He knelt down and slipped a large hand behind Felicity’s shoulders,
then began gently lifting her up into a sitting position as I
supported her neck. I pushed back and twisted my legs around,
dragging myself up to my knees again and slipping my arms around
her torso. Once Ben had helped me get her up off the ground, and I
lifted her into my arms, he ran ahead to open the side door of the
van.

I carried her the thirty-odd feet to the
vehicle, and my friend was already waiting for us.

“How’s she doin’?” he asked as he helped me
settle her into the seat.

“She woke up for a second,” I told him
hurriedly. “And she said that she remembers.”

“Remembers what?” he asked as he carefully
reclined the seat several inches while I buckled her in.

“Something about what she saw on the other
side, but I’m not sure exactly. She drifted back off before she
said anything else.”

“Shit,” he muttered and then looked at me.
“Okay, let’s get rid of this rent-a-cop and get ‘er somewhere
comfortable so we can talk.”

“I really don’t want to leave her alone right
now,” I said.

He gave me an understanding nod. “Yeah, I
know what ya’ mean. You stay with ‘er, and I’ll handle it.”

My friend took off at a trot, covering the
distance quickly with his long-legged gait. I watched as he
repeated the same action Constance had with the business card and
continued talking to the officer as he wrote.

The wind was picking up, and the chill in the
autumn air was beginning to take on an unpleasant bite. I looked
back to check on Felicity and noticed her body was twisting away
from the open door, most likely out of reflex, reacting to the drop
in temperature. I stepped over and slid it partially shut to
shelter her from the breeze.

When I turned back to see what was going on,
the security officer was gesturing toward me. Ben was saying
something to him, but I couldn’t make it out at this distance. The
officer started waving me over, and Ben began to jog in my
direction.

I took some tentative steps, meeting my
friend a few feet away from the van.

“He says he’s gotta see your ID,” Ben
grumbled, shaking his head. “Jeezus, I hate wannabe cops.”

“He’s just doing his job, Ben,” I replied,
but I wasn’t any more excited about the situation than he.

He jerked his head toward Mandalay and the
officer. “Go ahead. I’ll stay with Firehair.”

“Okay,” I returned, starting toward them
while reaching for my wallet.

I only made it three steps before Felicity
began to scream.

I
t no longer mattered
whether Felicity’s sudden disconnection from the other side of the
veil had been the result of magick, luck, or pure coincidence.
Whichever it was, it had obviously worn off.

Ben was already yanking back the side door of
the van as I was turning in place. For a brief moment, I froze dead
in my tracks, as the image that greeted me brought back a flood of
fear-tainted memories.

Felicity’s back was impossibly arched as she
bucked and strained against the shoulder harness. Her hands were
clawed around the armrests and her forearms planted firm, pressed
along the lengths as if permanently cemented there. She convulsed
and fell back into the partially reclined seat, tossing her head to
the side while twisting against the unseen bonds. Her normally
beautiful face was flushed deep red, and her features were twisted
and carved deeply with lines. The fissures joined in a maddening
tangle to form a horrid mask of pain. The muscles and tendons of
her neck were visibly bulging, tensed to their limits, if not
beyond.

For the second time in my life, I felt my
blood turn instantly to ice as her tear-filled eyes met mine, and
she wailed uncontrollably. The scream was one of pure agony— an
unearthly sound I begged the Lord and Lady to never make me hear
again. But, they weren’t listening. When Felicity regained her
breath, the grating banshee cry came again, this time coupled with
the barely intelligible words, “Please! No!”

I was somewhere around a half-dozen or so
steps away from the van when I turned, but I made it back to the
open door in three.

“Whadda we do?” Ben yelled at me, fighting to
be heard over my wife’s pained cry.

“I have to ground her,” I yelled back,
reaching in and clamping my hand around her thin wrist. It had
worked for her; I could only hope that it would do so for me.
Unfortunately, I was all too aware that she was the one who had the
bond of familiarity with Kimberly Forest, not I; and, such a
connection was something that would be not be easily overcome.

An arc of pain immediately shot up my arm,
causing me to tense as it joined with my other near forgotten
aches, bringing them each back to the forefront. I shuddered but
held tight to my wife’s arm.

Her flesh was cool and clammy to the touch. I
feared the intensity of the torture was taking a heavy toll.
Ethereal or not, as far as her body was concerned, it was the real
thing, and it was sending her into shock.

Her scream had faded to a nasal whine,
punctuated by small cries at irregular intervals. With each cry
came a violent jerk of her body as she fought to retreat from
whatever unseen torture was being inflicted.

I looked over at my friend and saw that he
was trying to maintain a stolid expression, but his eyes betrayed
the fear and concern I knew he was feeling.

“Promise me something,” I said to him.

“What?”

“If this works…” I stopped mid-sentence and
swallowed hard as a sudden lance of pain ran like fire along the
nerves in my arm. I gathered myself and rushed to continue, giving
my head a quick jerk toward my wife. “If we end up swapping places,
don’t let her touch me.”

“But…”

“No buts,” I said, cutting him off with a
hard shake of my head. “Promise me you won’t let her die, Ben.”

He stood looking at me, the fear now far more
obvious in his eyes as my words began to sink in. When he didn’t
respond, I knew he had a full grasp of what I had just said.

“Promise me!” I demanded again.

He swallowed hard and gave me a quick nod. It
was all I needed.

I turned my attention back to Felicity,
struggling to form a solid ground as I shunted everything from her
I could. I gritted my teeth and blinked back the tears that were
welling in my own eyes, not sure if they were solely from the pain,
my concern for her, empathic response, or all of the above.

Harsh shadows shifted in and out of my vision
as ethereal darkness tried to fall, and I did my best to let it.
Bright blooms of light fell in behind the contrasts, blinding me
for sharp instants like the burst of a camera flash. I pressed
myself forward, ignoring the growing intensity of the pain even as
I heard myself begin to groan in the face of it. But, for each step
I took toward the veil, I was shoved back the same, returning in
part to cold reality.

My senses were expanding, as I stood on the
edge of two worlds, unable to take a firm foothold in either. My
frustration was growing, but more than that, my gut fears were
beginning to overwhelm me.

By now, Agent Mandalay and the security
officer were almost immediately at my back. I could feel them
close, and I heard their voices as they argued.

“What’s he doing to her?” the officer was
saying.

“Stay back,” Constance told him. “He knows
what he’s doing.”

“That doesn’t look like an epileptic seizure
to me,” he pressed.

“It’s going to be fine,” she replied, but I
could hear the trepidation in her voice, and I’m sure he could too.
“Just stay back.”

“I’m calling the paramedics,” he returned.
“There’s something wrong here.”

Felicity continued to whimper as she writhed
in the seat. Again, her jade green eyes locked with mine while she
shook through a shallow tremor. Her mouth opened as if she was
trying to say something, but no words escaped, only the
high-pitched gurgle of absolute physical torment.

She tried again, attempting to force a word
through her trembling lips, “B-b-b-bbbbb…”

I wasn’t sure if the person trying to speak
to me was Felicity or the channeled Kimberly. I shook my head and
tried to shush her as I continued struggling to ground.

She kept shaking, her motor reflexes no
longer cooperating as she persisted in her attempt to speak. In the
end, she managed only to make a convoluted noise that sounded
vaguely like ‘hmmm’.

Then, without warning, her head snapped back
as she once again arched against the safety harness, her guttural
howl piercing the crisp afternoon air.

“THIS ISN”T WORKING!” I screamed in bitter
frustration.

I was beginning to lose the battle, and I
knew it. A feeling of panic was spreading rampantly through my
chest, fighting to assume control and reduce me to a blithering
idiot. I loosened my grip on her wrist and twisted my palm toward
her pulse point then quickly clasped it tight once more, seeking a
better connection. I could feel my feet getting hot, and I was
beginning to dance from one foot to the other as the burn
intensified.

I looked around, searching for nothing in
particular but everything in general, all but begging for an answer
to fall from the ether. My own fear was taking hold, and I knew I
couldn’t afford to let that happen. I had to think, but emotion was
building an impenetrable storm front in my brain, and all rational
thought seemed to be trapped behind the squall line.

As I continued shuffling in place, I panned
my anxious gaze around. My feet felt as though they were on fire
now, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could stand it. When I
happened to look down, I saw the thick, rubber soles of my
shoes.