Destiny's Revenge (Destiny Series - Book 2) (8 page)

Less angry but still intrigued, Max asked, “Possess her? This thing wasn’t the same thing that attacked her on the mountain, it was something else? So that monster isn’t a threat to her anymore?”

Rewsna’s eyes went wide at the conclusion Max had drawn. “Of course he is still a threat; he just hasn’t found her yet. He will eventually be bold enough to come back when her guard is lowered. He knows to watch for you and for her family, believing one will lead him directly to Lauren.” Rewsna paused for a minute looking all around us, then asked, “Where is Missy?”

Until Rewsna asked, it hadn’t occurred to me that Max’s Labrador Retriever wasn’t on the farm. Max looked down at the ground instead of directly at Rewsna when he answered. “She got real sick while I was gone, and she had to be put down.”

Rewsna reached across the table and patted his hand, “I am sorry for your loss, but you need to get a new dog.”

Max answered that he would, but Rewsna interrupted, “No, you do not understand. The Beast is able to shift his shape to any animal but a dog. Dogs are far too loyal of an animal, and the Beast cannot fool one if he were to come here in human form. A dog is the best protection from the Beast. It cannot conceal its identity from a canine. Dogs are also known for fighting to the death for their owners. Get a dog that will protect you both.”

“So you are suggesting we just wait here for it to eventually find Lauren and a dog will protect us?” He was livid at the absurdity of the suggestion.

Rewsna shook her head, “No, I do not believe you should wait, but what I believe will only enrage you further. I prefer for you to create your own strategy to best handle the situation.”

Max was annoyed with her evasiveness. It made me want to laugh because I was finally used to it. There was no sense getting irate about anything. It didn’t do any good, and she rarely gave me a straight answer to any question.

For the first time I chimed in, “I think I should be watching the Beast, waiting until he is most vulnerable and we should attack him.”

Max scowled at me and Rewsna nodded her agreement with my assessment. Max all but shouted, “You must have lost your mind! That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. This thing almost killed Lauren once. I don’t want it within ten miles of her.”

I shook my head, “No Max, I don’t want to look over my shoulder for the rest of my life, and I don’t want him to be able to do this to anyone else. We need to find him and destroy him. He took more than two years away from us. I don’t want to give him one more second. I don’t ever want him to have another chance. We take the fight to him this time.”

Max’s disapproval was as transparent as a window. He refused even to talk about my idea and went storming off into the barn. Rewsna began talking to me telepathically.

“
Do not be offended by his actions, Lauren. It is not that he does not believe in your talent; it is that he cannot risk losing you again. You will find a way to convince him that this is the correct approach. His devotion to you never waivers, his emotions just get in the way. The Beast can be killed in any form, but when he shifts his shape to a beast, it is more difficult. Do your best to trap him as a human. Do not let him come between you and Max. If divided you can be conquered; together your advantage is absolute
.”

As I walked Rewsna to her car, she suggested I try practicing my skill. She warned me not to look for the Beast, I wasn’t ready to see him yet, but to practice by
looking
for family and friends at different times during the day. I told her I would try and would check back with her soon.

When Max heard Rewsna’s engine turn over, he nearly sprinted out of the barn. I don’t know what he was thinking, but I saw his relief when he saw me standing in the yard. He started in immediately with, “I don’t want you looking for that thing. We’ll figure something out, but don’t look for it, okay?”

“Okay - I’m going to see if I can find Rachael.” I sat at the picnic table with Max right beside me and didn’t have any luck. I concentrated on a conversation she and I had had about her boss and some problems she was having at work. I looked at my watch – it was still working hours for her, so I could peek in on her and see how everything turned out.

I could feel Max watching me, and for whatever reason, I couldn’t concentrate on Rachael. When I asked Max to go back into the barn, his response was instantaneous, “You will not ever be out of my sight until this Beast thing is dead, so just get used to it.”

I was a little taken back that he had decided I needed his protection. But Rewsna had been crystal about that, he wasn’t necessarily protecting me but together we were a dynamic duo. I couldn’t help but throw in, “You remember how I feel about controlling men, right?”

Max walked over to me in three easy strides, holding out his hand in some chivalrous gesture. I stood up; he led me on the sidewalk as if our conversation had ended, and we were going into the house. A tree was on my right hand side as we walked. With no warning at all, Max shoved me up against the tree with both of my hands pinned above my head.

My eyes were wide with shock and fear, my mind unable to process what was happening. Then his lips were on my neck. A few seconds later his hands released mine and his began gliding all over me. Max smiled a little mischievously, and said, “Sometimes, controlling men are sexy.”

As I stepped away from him, I was able to get my breath back, and convinced my heart it didn’t need to pound through my chest. I had to agree with him, “Sometimes, they are sexy.”

I wandered into the living room with Max following me. I spread out on the couch and closed my eyes, replaying the last conversation I had with Rachael a week or so ago. I could recall the conversation perfectly.

She described her boss in an ornate manner, “He is such a prick. If I didn’t need the job so much, I would call his wife. Do you know he made me schedule a ‘date’ for him with a prostitute? Evidently this was part of my job that didn’t make it into the formal job description. He is such a slime ball it makes sense that he would have to pay for it.” Rachael was not at all happy with the collateral duties she’d been assigned and was really just venting.

I tried to be as supportive as possible, “I don’t know that I would call his wife, but you may want to keep a log of any questionable tasks he assigns you. That way if tries to fire you later, you can either keep your job, or get a pretty decent severance out of the deal.”

She got really animated when she said, “He hasn’t had the same assistant longer than eight months, so I know it’s just a matter of time before he finds a reason to fire me.”

“So are you looking for anything else, or are you just waiting for the day when he hands you a pink slip?”

“I’ve been looking.”

I replayed this conversation between Rachael and me several times in my mind, willing myself to find her. I concentrated on her office building and her apartment but didn’t have any luck at all. Rachael and I had been close friends since first grade; if I were genuinely worried about her work situation, you would think it would be a whole lot easier to
see
her. After nearly thirty minutes of trying, I gave up.

How in the world do I practice a skill I have no idea how to work? It can’t be like rocket science, but I did have trouble seeing Max that one time that I tried and Rewsna was with me. Maybe that’s it. Maybe I have to be alone? No, the second time I was with Joe, but was tuning him out. Max was absently flipping pages in a magazine, not really paying attention to what I was doing.

“Hey, Max, can you go in the room next door while I try this again?”

He looked over at me with a frown and shook his head, “I’m staying right here. I won’t bother you, but I’m not leaving.”

I sighed deeply, “Look, I’m trying to figure out how this thing works, and right now it isn’t working at all. I just want to see if I can zero in on Rachael if I’m alone.”

Max didn’t waiver, “Not a chance,” and returned his focus to his magazine.

I tried several more times unsuccessfully and decided to take a breather and try again later.

****

The farm was in really good shape. It is amazing what three people can accomplish; well, technically four if you count Julio the caretaker. I don’t know how long Julio had been Max’s caretaker, but he lived in the guest house out back. After Joe, Max and I arrived that day from the nursing home, Max told Julio to take a vacation, that he deserved it.

Max decided it was time for some recreation when he asked, “You want to go see Marvin and squeeze a few off?”

“That sounds great!”

Marvin was a friend of Max’s who owned an indoor shooting range. We hadn’t been there together since our first date. The day I met Marvin was the first time I’d ever shot a gun. It was a lot of fun. This might be a great stress reliever for both Max and me.

The two of us were in his truck driving down the road five minutes later. We had just turned onto the main road, “Should we have invited Joe to go along? It doesn’t seem right to leave him at the farm alone?”

Max shook his head, “Gramps will be fine, I’m sure he’s taking a nap or something. He won’t even know we’re gone.”

I had a really strange feeling, the hair on my arms stood straight up, and I could feel beads of sweat on my forehead forming. I put my hand over Max’s arm and told him, “No, Max – go back right now.” The urgency in my voice was unquestionable, and Max pulled a U-turn right where we were. He sped back down the road, turned onto the driveway with a cloud of dust six feet in the air behind the truck.

We pulled up to the front door of the house and saw Joe sitting right where we had left him on the front porch. Max rolled down his window, and said, “Gramps, we want you to come along with us.”

Joe shook his head and waved us off with his arm, “No, you two go on, I’ll be fine. Go have a good time.” Max looked at me uncertain what to do.

“He needs to come with us, Max. We can’t leave him here.”

Max leaned back out his window, “We aren’t leaving you, come on, Gramps – I’ll take you to see Ruby. I’m sure she’d like the company.”

The pleasure on Joe’s face was apparent; Max had just hit on the magic word. Joe stood up from his chair and went into the house. Some minutes later he stepped out the door in a clean shirt and with a freshly shaven face. Joe climbed into the front seat, “Max, you don’t have to entertain me. I don’t mind you two going off and doing your own thing.”

Max nodded but didn’t say a word as he pulled out of the driveway. I looked into the woods closest to the house and didn’t see anything, but I could feel … something. There was no figure looking back at me, no glowing eyes, but a feeling of dread emanated from the tree line.

I continued to look but saw nothing. After I finally looked away, I could hear Rewsna’s voice in my head saying, “
Yes, Lauren, I felt it, too
.”

Max and I walked Joe into the Assisted Living recreation room and found Ruby right away. I had called ahead to let her know Joe was going to stop by to spend a few hours with her. She greeted us as soon as we walked through the door. “Wow, you two look great! You look like you’ve gotten some sun.”

I hadn’t thought much about it before, but he and I had been a pasty white while we resided here, only venturing outside when Joe wanted to smoke. Since we had arrived at the farm, we’d been pulling weeds, trimming bushes, hoeing the garden and repairing fences. I responded with, “I can’t speak for Joe, but I’m not ready for this life of luxury again,” sliding my hand through Max’s arm.

Ruby asked us to come sit down, but Max and I excused ourselves, telling Joe we’d be back around six to pick him up. We were almost to the door when I turned back around and reminded Joe, “Remember, you are a guest, not a resident this time – be nice to the staff.”

Joe just waved me off. Warning or not, some things never change.

Max and I made our way to Marvin’s indoor shooting range. I thought we were just going to do some target practice. Max had been pretty quiet after Rewsna’s visit this morning, and I assumed he could blow off some steam.

We got up to the counter and Marvin said, “Hi Max, great to see you again, how was the war? How long have you been back?” Then Marvin’s face contorted a little and he squinted at me, comprehension registered, and in a less jovial voice, “Lauren?. . . I thought…” Marvin looked from me to Max as if he couldn’t believe his eyes.

Max nodded and I smiled responding, “Neither robber nor bear can keep a good girl down.”

Marvin didn’t even smile at my attempt at humor. He still looked stunned, as if he wanted to say something but opted not to.

“Max and I were thinking it might be fun to squeeze off a few rounds. I really liked the small handgun the last time, I think it was a .22. Could I use that one again?”

Marvin looked under the counter when Max interrupted him, “Marvin, she’s going to buy one today. Do you have a Glock she can try on for size?” My expression had to have looked bewildered. I had no idea we were here to purchase. Max looked in my direction and followed with, “In case you run into a bear again.”

Marvin nodded and replied, “I don’t have any used Glocks, so if you want one you won’t be able to test drive it ahead of time. I do have some decent Berettas that are hardly used that she could try out.”

Max nodded, “Make us a deal, we might take both off your hands today.”

Marvin handed me the Beretta, showed me how to load it, handed me the liability statement to sign and some ear muffs. He set me up on the range and went back out to the store front. Max came in with a huge handgun when I was about half way through the box of ammunition. He pushed a button that moved the target all the way to the end of the range. I could see him through the divider and his expression was hard. Without even glancing in my direction, he let loose on the target. I counted the rounds, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, all in close succession, not even a half second delay between fires. The sound, though muffled by my hearing protection, was still deafening. He laid the revolver down on the counter and pulled the target in to take a closer look. A very compact circle of five rounds was where the person’s heart would have been on the silhouette. Max moved the target back to where it had been and used a second weapon, not as thunderous, but still earsplitting. From this new gun he fired what sounded like ten shots. My idea that we were here to blow off steam could not have been further off the mark. Max was not here to have a good time. He was all business as he inspected his latest shots. These shots were in a tight group, all in the silhouette’s head.