Dead Living (Spirit Caller Book 5) (13 page)

“Do you need me to drive?” Isabella demanded.

“Shut up and watch for moose!” Javier shouted back. He reached down and picked up his phone. He tossed it behind him at Connie. “Check messages.”

Connie shook her head. “No reception.”

Javier swore and slammed his hand on the steering wheel.

Dema leaned forward and said, rather loudly into the silence, “I believe he is angry about something.”

“Dema, shut up,” I whispered.

After more silence, I said, “All right, we need more information here. All you’ve said is that the Whisperers are coming to town and that you have a bunch of your people showing up. I don’t understand what’s going on.”

Isabella and Javier shared a look.

“I mean it. I want to know right now.”

“Territory war,” Mary said, very gently.

“That sounds bad,” I admitted.

Connie turned around and her face was ashen. “The last time there was a territory war, they left a crater where an oil refinery used to be.”

“But…why? I haven’t done anything,” I protested. “I just…I don’t do anything!”

Jeremy patted my hand. “It’ll be okay.”

“No, it’s not okay. This is my home. These people can’t just show up and drive me out of my home!”

“They can and they will,” Isabella said. “They can’t be reasoned with.”

“Everyone can be reasoned with,” I complained.

“No, Rach, not everyone can,” Jeremy said.

“So they sent those spirits after me? After all of this about how they don’t work with the supernatural? Their entire purpose is to stop me and people like me, so they use spirits to do it?”

“Needs must when you think God is on your side,” Isabella said grimly. “They think they are above corruption. They think they’re doing the right thing.”

“Hypocrites,” I said.

“Agreed. In the meantime, we are going to get you to Deer Lake. We’ll lay low until the rest of the crew arrives, and then we’ll head back in force.”

I turned around to speak to Mary, but she anticipated the question.

“Charter plane. Deer Lake’s going to be flooded with them in a few hours.”

“I can’t have them turning my home into a crater! What are we going to do?” I demanded.

“We’re going to…”

A red minivan opened its windows. Our van slowed to a crawl. Why were we slowing down? Weren’t we in a hurry? Pop-pop-pop sounds broke the air, followed by breaking glass and Isabella’s screaming.
Why was this happening? People didn’t just shoot at each other on Newfoundland highways! They hit drunk drivers, patches of ice, wood trucks that toppled their loads, and moose, but they never were shot at.

This was my fault. This was always my fault.

The van went into a tailspin, rubber burning and tires squealing. Dema was shouting directions at Javier, and the van would weave and bounce as he responded to her orders. Manny, Connie, and Mary were all shouting, but I…

If they die, it will be my fault. I deserve to be alone. I should throw myself out of the van. Just end it. Let the tires roll over me…

Jeremy grappled with the seatbelt until he heard the click and he pushed me into the foot well. He crawled on top of me and wrapped his arms around my body. I clenched my fists and my eyes and prayed that we were going to make it out of this.

“Hold on!” Javier shouted.

“Mary! Look after Jeremy and Rachel!” Isabella shouted. “Connie! You’re on Manny.”

“It’s okay,” Jeremy whispered in my ear over the shouts around me. “It’ll be okay, Rach. I love you.”

Something wasn’t right. Why was Jeremy on top of me on the van floor? Why was Mary pulling on him, shouting and cursing as she did? I realized I was crying. Sobbing, in fact. Realizing this just made me cry harder. Jeremy tightened his grip until I struggled to breathe. His entire body cocooned around my torso and head, protecting my vitals in case of…

“I love you, Rachel. Do you hear me? I love you. I love you. I love you. It’s going to be okay.”

“Jeremy!” Mary was shouting. “You’re hurting her!”

My mind began to clear and I realized the van wasn’t riddled in bullet holes. I wasn’t bleeding. Neither was anyone else. We were travelling down the road like normal. Only, I was on the van floor, Manny was sobbing, and Mary was shrieking. Dema was berating everyone for their lack of calm in a crisis.

“What…happened?” Jeremy said, blinking his eyes. He stared at me as if he was seeing me for the first time. “You’re alive?”

“The van isn’t full of bullet holes,” I said by way of reply. Which, I suppose, didn’t really answer his question.

“Get up,” Mary ordered. “Both of you. Manny! It isn’t real.”

“Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. Not again. No more. I’ve worked so hard. It isn’t fair,” Manny said through sobs.

“Connie!” Isabella ordered.

“Izzy, I’m trying!” Connie barked back. “Manny, hush. It’s just the voice, okay? It isn’t real. You aren’t going to hurt anyone.”

I struggled to breathe and my ears were ringing. My eyes stung from the sweat getting in them. Jeremy got into his seat and helped me up into mine. He clicked on his seatbelt, helped me with mine, and then wrapped his arms around me.

We held each other, ignoring the chatter around us. In the distance, I heard Manny come to his own senses, too, and I heard Connie’s relieved sounds.

Sometime later, I found my voice. I smiled up at Jeremy and asked, “Is everyone all right?”

“We’re all fine,” Isabella said. I saw her reach across and squeeze Javier’s arm. He glanced at her. Yeah. There was something there, all right.

“That’s why I said we need to get out of town,” Javier said grimly. “I can’t…we can’t protect you.”

“You should have warned me.” I didn’t mean for the words to come out as a snarl, but they did. “I didn’t even know the Whisperers could do this on the road!” When Javier and Isabella remained silent, I shouted, “Answer me!” Jeremy squeezed me tighter, but I ignored him.

“Listen to me very carefully. You will explain to me what the hell is going on right this minute, or I swear to all of my Ancestors I
will
fling open this door and walk back home.”

“Rachel…” Isabella began.

I cut her off. I had no more patience left in me. “No. You are going to listen to me now. You say you want to protect me. Fine. Start protecting. I need details, information, history, all of it. And you are going to start right now. We are going to drive to Deer Lake, since that was your original plan. We’re going to get this mysterious help that’s supposedly arriving, and then we’re going to turn this goddamn van around if I still think I need to be home instead of on the run. Is that clear?”

Isabella began to protest, but Javier put a hand on her forearm. She looked at him and he just shook his head. Isabella let out a sigh. “Fine. What do you need to know?”

Chapter 12

Gros Morne is Lovely This Time of Year

The next two hours were a blur of information. Javier explained how the spirit swords both he and Isabella wielded helped mitigate some of the toll of Whisperer attacks. With their training and experience, Mary, Isabella, and Javier could quickly identify a mental attack and recover quite quickly. A shiver gripped my spine when Isabella said we’d be dead by now if Jeremy or myself had been driving.

Javier detailed the various tactics they’d employed against us, including mental assaults that preyed on a person’s fears. Those previous assaults had taken away my ability to detect the
other.
The removal of the headaches were good, in that I could ride in the van with Dema, but bad in that I could no longer tell the age of a spirit.

All the while this was going on, Connie’s cell reception kept cutting in and out, so she could give occasional “sit reps” to the group. Connie had said she worked in customer service for an international call centre. She did safety check-ins. I thought she meant truck drivers and people in fire towers in the middle of a forest. I didn’t know she meant a religious organization sworn to protect the magically-cursed. Inclined. Gifted. Whatever.

I shivered as Javier told a story about a time decades ago that the Whisperers had caused an entire village to commit suicide when they were unable to find a suspected spell caster. Someone like Manny. To them, wiping out innocents was a small price to pay to rid the world.

Jeremy demanded specific details about their weapons, training, and tactics. He wanted numbers, dossiers, and previous attacks. There are times I forget Jeremy is actually a Mountie. It was easy to forget amongst all of the doctors’ appointments and light duties that he was a trained police officer. We never really talked about work all that much; most of his work these days had been forms and letters. But it was strange hearing him talk about guns and proven tactics.

The anonymous attack of the Whisperer who’d been driving down the road hoping to cause an accident had worn me down. My head was pounding and I was exhausted. I wanted to sleep, but something about this entire discussion got under my skin. These weren’t some rag-tag wannabe rebels. These were highly trained, highly financed…Oh god.

“They are from your organization, aren’t they?” It wasn’t really a question.

Javier glanced at Isabella before looking in the rear view mirror. “Yes.”

“Shit,” I said. “That’s how come you are calling in everyone else.”

“They are very dangerous,” Isabella said.

“So are the two of you,” I said.

“Sometimes,” Javier said, and the grin I remembered graced his face. “Like when people threaten my friends.”

“As well as the woman you refuse to make a commitment to because you fear intimacy,” Dema said primly.

I turned to stare at Dema. So did Jeremy. So did everyone. She shrugged and said, “I have watched your sage on the talking box. I believe her name is Oprah.”

I snickered. “You’ve watched Oprah?”

“She is very wise,” Dema said firmly. “If you had taken her advice, I would not have endured endless nights of your prayers.”

Jeremy kissed my cheek. “She’s mine now.”

“Miracles abound,” Dema said bitterly. “We must prepare for the next attack.”

“But that wasn’t a real attack, right?” Manny asked. He’d finally stopped sweating, though it left his hair greasy and his deodorant failing. Poor boy.

“It wasn’t,” Isabella said. “I don’t think they realize we are here yet, so they’re looking for Rachel or Jeremy driving a vehicle, not us.”

Connie pulled her cell phone from her ear and said, “Problem. Three vehicles are headed this way and we’re able to overtake them. There’s also more coming up from Port aux Basque, heading to Deer Lake, since it’s assumed that’s where Rachel would go.”

“Damn,” Javier said. “Jeremy, where can I go?”

“I got a friend who owns a bakery in Bonne Bay.”

Javier was scanning the road. “Where’s that?”

“Wiltondale turn off, just up here,” Jeremy said. “If we’re really stuck, we can get someone to take us up to Norris Point or Rocky Harbour on a boat, and get the RCMP to pick us up. We can dodge them that way. No way can they get around like that without contacts, especially not this time of the year.”

“I love this plan,” Javier said, taking the turn-off.

I’d been down here before with Jeremy a few times. Back before he was hurt and before we were a couple. Gros Morne National Park was down this way. There was even a UNESCO World Heritage site here, where the tectonic plates were sticking out of the ground. Well, okay, not the actual tectonic plates, but something science-y happened there and the soil and hills in this one area are completely different from anywhere else because they come from inside the Earth’s crust.

I think. They just look like an alien planet. I’m dead serious. It has this really cool place that looks like an alien planet so they made it a UNESCO World Heritage site. They might
say
they made it that because of its scientific importance, but I
know
it was because it looks so damn cool.

“What about the van?” I asked. “If we do this boat plan, I mean? Won’t the van cause trouble?”

“I can handle myself,” Mary said.

I looked over my shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“Yes, it’ll draw them away.”

“She’s going to take the van to Deer Lake, like we’d planned,” Javier said.

“Um, no she’s not,” I said. “No. They’ll kill her.”

“It’s my job,” Mary said. She gave me a smile and said, “I always drive the decoy.”

“It’s true,” Isabella said. “Mary works best alone. She’ll get the job done.”

“What part of no is everyone struggling with?
No.
We’re not separating and we’re not doing this decoy plan. End of discussion.”

“Honey, we have to…”

“Don’t honey me,” I said sternly. “We’re not breaking up. We probably have a couple of hours before anyone thinks to come down this way. Let’s just go to the restaurant and talk this out. But, let’s get one thing straight. Mary is staying with us.”

“Rachel,” Isabella began, but she shook her head. “Fine. Javier was right about you.”

A little smile formed. “That I’m incredibly smart and you should listen to me? Yes, he was right.”

I didn’t heard Javier’s laugh, but I could see his shoulders shaking.

We pulled up this incredibly steep incline and into the parking lot of the Roy’s Store, the post office, and the Chocolate Moose restaurant, all in the same two-story building. It looked like it had been a house once and converted into a store. And then converted into a café and bakery upstairs. The scent of baking bread filled the air around the building. My stomach growled.

We headed up the steep back steps to the bakery/restaurant. Okay, so if you are ever in Bonne Bay, you totally have to go there. Myrna’s mother makes real homemade bread. It’s so good that even Mrs. Saunders thinks it’s better than her own. Think on that for a moment. One of the stores in town carries it, but I can’t always make it in when the delivery truck arrives, so I miss out too often. Whenever I can get my hands on it, I buy several loaves for the freezer.

Myrna was a natural blond with well-placed curves and a wide, genuine smile. She had annoyingly perfect hair, even though it was braided and slung over one shoulder. She and Jeremy shared a friendly hug. She eyed me, grinned, and gripped me into a bear hug that cut off all circulation to my vital organs.