Shadow Rising (15 page)

Lindsey started to shake her head, but then stopped. “We met in the afternoon on that first Saturday I returned, and everybody seemed fine. We headed out on a field trip to a psychic fair being held in north Seattle. While we were there, we just hung out, got some readings done, bought crystals and incense and other doodads like that. You know, a peaceful, low-key afternoon. Then we broke for dinner and met up again that night for our usual meeting. And everybody…seemed different. Zonked out.”

“So something happened between the fair and the meeting.” Delilah grabbed a second cookie, and then a third. Shade reached over and gently took the third cookie out of her hand and bit into it. She growled at him, but then laughed. “Get your own damned cookie,
sweetheart
.”

He snorted. “Share and share alike,
darling
.”

Camille pulled a steno pad to her and began to jot down notes. “Maybe something didn’t happen
between
the fair and meeting, but
at
the fair.” She glanced over at Lindsey. “Where was this fair held? Who sponsored it? And do you remember anything odd at all about the day?”

Lindsey leaned back in the rocking chair as Bruce carried Maggie in.

“Our girl wants her dinner.” He hefted her on his side—she was nearly a third as big as he was—and headed over to the playpen. But Lindsey stopped him.

“Can I hold her? She’s so cute and such a little love.”

As the woman took the gargoyle in hand, I could see the maternal glaze in her eyes. Mamas were mamas around babies, that was for sure. And it didn’t matter whether the baby was a gargoyle or a kitten or human.

As Bruce deposited Maggie in Lindsey’s arms, Lindsey snuggled her close. “The fair was held in the Westlake Community Hall. I’m trying to remember who sponsored it—usually I have a good memory but the past few months the hormones have played havoc with my thought processes.” She frowned. “Something like…oh yeah, I remember. They called themselves the Aleksais Psychic Network.”

“Are you sure?” Camille jotted down the name.

“Yes, because the name struck me. I’d never heard of the group before and decided we’d go check them out, get a feel for who they were. Most of the covens and psychics around here are networked to some degree. We have pages on Spell-Space, and forums, and whatnot to keep abreast of news in the supernatural community, as well as our own psychic community. We’re not as networked as Portland, but we’re getting there. If the group had been around for a while, I would have heard of them before.”

“Did you meet any of their organizers?” I took Maggie from her as our baby girl began to get a little agitated. “Maggie, be good. I know you’re hungry but you have to wait for Hanna to mix up your cream drink.”

“Cweem—cweem! Want!” Maggie began to wail in earnest as I tried to pacify her by dangling my braids in front of her. Sometimes it worked, but this time Maggie’s cries just grew more frustrated and finally, I set her on the table and scolded her. “
No, Maggie!
Stop crying. Either you behave or you’ll go to bed
right now
.”

She stopped, cocking her head to one side. The ears gave her a lopsided look when she did that and I stifled a laugh. Even though she was cute, Maggie didn’t like being laughed at when she was in one of her moods. She understood enough to know what I’d said, and so I kept my expression stern, and after a moment, the tears subsided to a coughing sob, and she sniffled pathetically.

“Yeah, you know how to work it, don’t you?” I quietly hugged her again. By then, Hanna had prepared her bottle and took her in the living room, where Maggie wouldn’t disturb our talk.

Lindsey shook her head. “I can hardly wait till my little Feddrika hits those years.” She grinned. “But you’re in for it a lot longer than I ever will be.” Sighing, she said, “As far as the organizers go, yeah. I think we did meet one. Strange fellow, now that I think about it. He seemed…almost like he wasn’t quite in this world. I didn’t think about it at the time. I guess I thought it was because of the energy in the building from all the psychics, but now that I think about it, he didn’t feel
real
.”

That could mean a number of things. “Not real, how?”

Lifting her teacup to her lips, she frowned and took a sip. “Not real as in…as if he were in disguise. He looked the part, sounded the part, but something felt discordant between his energy and his actions. Like an actor who hasn’t got a full handle on who their character truly is.”

That made sense. I glanced over at Camille, who nodded. “Do you remember his name?”

Lindsey munched on the cookie. “Hal Danvers? No…Halcon Davis. That’s it. Halcon Davis, and I remember because I thought, gee—his name seems a lot like the word
halcyon
.”

I jotted down his name. “So you went to the psychic fair and after that…”

“Malaise. That’s what I’d call it. All members of my coven who went that day have been pretty much out of steam since then. Our rituals feel forced; we don’t have the rhythm down that we did. At first I thought it was because of my pregnancy and how it had changed my body and energy field, that maybe I was infecting the others with some sort of fatigue. After checking with my naturopath, though…I don’t think so. And, I had a dream.”

“Dream?” Vanzir, who had been fooling around with Morio’s laptop, stopped to look over at her. “What kind of dream?”

She leaned forward and set her teacup on the table. “Last night, I woke up in a cold sweat. I’ve been doing that off and on for the past couple weeks but couldn’t figure out why. Anyway, for the first time in over a month, last night I remembered my dream, and it felt familiar, like I’ve had it before.”

As we waited for her to continue, the energy began to thicken. Lindsey’s eyes were wide, brilliant, and afraid. She slowly let out a long breath. “I dreamed that I was out of my body, attending some sort of ritual. I was standing there and looked down at my silver cord and—”

A pause. Another beat as she seemed to struggle for words, and the next moment, she was heading toward the floor. She hit the floor, her eyes rolling back in her head as her body began to jerk and twist.

“She’s having a seizure. Stand back, give her room!” Iris immediately shooed everyone back and was on her knees as Lindsey writhed, her body racked by spasms. She began to froth at the mouth.

Iris rolled Lindsey on her side and called for a cushion. I raced into the living room and brought back a pillow off the sofa, which she slipped beneath Lindsey’s head. Lindsey sounded like a frantic dog, her sounds chaotic and rough, almost like barking.

“Should I call 911?” Camille grabbed the phone, but Iris shook her head.

“Not yet—give me a second.” Iris placed her hands on Lindsey’s back, taking care to avoid the flailing arms, and closed her eyes, whispering something so low we could not hear her voice. A moment later, Lindsey began to calm, and yet another moment and she was limp, breathing shallowly, her eyes closed.

Trillian hurried into the hall bathroom and returned with two cool cloths, gently pressing one against Lindsey’s forehead and the other behind her neck. After a moment, where Iris kept her hands pressed to Lindsey’s back, our friend’s eyes opened, and she moaned softly.

“What…what…?” Confusion filled her face as she looked up at us.

“Shush, my dear. You had a seizure. Lindsey, do you have epilepsy?” Iris motioned to Trillian, who cautiously lifted Lindsey into a sitting position. Lindsey groaned and reached for her neck.

“No, I don’t. I ache all over. What happened?”

“What’s your name?” Iris took her hands and held them, rubbing them gently in her own small ones.

“I’m…I’m…Lindsey. That’s it. Lindsey…Cartridge.” Lindsey began to look alarmed.

“Very good. What day is it?”

“Today’s…I don’t remember. It’s…um…oh—Tuesday. I don’t know why I forgot. Today was the day that I was supposed to return to work, but I told them I’d be in tomorrow because I’m still tired.” She grimaced as she rubbed her neck. “I hurt like hell. What the heck happened to me?”

“You had a seizure, Lindsey. Do you have blood sugar issues?” Iris felt her forehead, then gripped her wrist, checking her pulse. “You’re clammy, and your pulse is racing.”

Lindsey shook her head. “No, nothing like that. I’ve never had a seizure in my life.” As Trillian helped her to her feet, Smoky brought a chair over and Lindsey weakly sat down. She leaned on the table, trying to shake off the attack.

“Do you remember what we were talking about before you lost consciousness?” I had a sneaking suspicion and wanted to see if it proved out. This was too much of a coincidence.

“You need to eat something. That took a lot of energy out of you. And drink the tea.” Camille brought her another cup of tea, setting it in front of her along with another cookie.

Lindsey closed her eyes, breathing in the steam that rose off the cup. Iris moved behind her and, using a stepstool, began to lightly massage her shoulders. Lindsey leaned back into the back rub, sighing.

“I can’t remember what we were talking about. Last I remember, I was telling you about the psychic fair.” She pursed her lips, squinting, then again shook her head. “That’s it.”

“We were asking you about a dream you mentioned—one that woke you up in a cold sweat?” I didn’t want to trigger another seizure, so decided to walk softly on the subject.

Lindsey cocked her head, looking confused. “I don’t remember saying anything about a dream. I haven’t been sleeping well lately but I’m pretty sure it’s the baby causing it—she wakes up every few hours for a feeding, and I’m up off and on all night.”

I debated whether to push further, but behind Lindsey, Iris gestured
no
so I left it at that. “Okay, we must have been mistaken. You’ve probably been overtiring yourself. I don’t like you driving home by yourself. Let Shade drive you home and he can come back here through the Ionyc Seas. He’s a good driver and will get you there safely.”

Her mouth twisted and she looked like she was going to cry. “I know I came because I’m worried about my group. I can’t remember everything we talked about—that scares me.”

“That’s common in seizures. Short-term memory loss. I’d say go home, rest, and go
to your doctor tomorrow and tell her you had a convulsion. We’ll look around and see if we can find out anything that might be affecting your group. And Lindsey…” Iris paused.

“Yes?”

“It’s not a good idea for you to do magic right now. You just need more time off to rest after giving birth.” The look on Iris’s face told me plainly that she was lying. Whatever might be going on, it plainly wasn’t in Lindsey’s best interest to be playing around with the astral realm, or with anything that might drain her energy any further.

Lindsey nodded, looking lost and bewildered. Shade helped her up and escorted her out. As the door closed behind them, Camille and I stared at each other.

“Am I going to be the one to say it, or are you?” She slumped back in her chair and looked over at Vanzir.

He shifted, darting glances between the two of us. “No way, I didn’t do anything. And from what she described, no dream-chaser demon would act like that. Just too much doesn’t track.”

I snorted. “We aren’t saying you’re at fault, so chill. But it’s obvious something’s gotten into her dreams and also seems to have some control over her in the waking state. You can’t call that convulsion a coincidence, not when she was about to spill the contents of her dream. We’re just wondering if you’ve got any experience with other creatures roaming the Dream-Time.”

Vanzir grumbled but seemed appeased. “I can do some research. Off the top of my head, though, it could be…oh, a number of freaks. Nothing I’m willing to bet on at this moment.”

I glanced at the clock. Fuck. It was time to leave for the VA meeting. “I’ve got to go. Camille, Nerissa, I need you guys with me.” I wanted one of the guys with me but, considering Smoky’s temper, decided to play the better part of wisdom. “Morio, want to join us? Considering the crap we faced last night, the rest of you better stay home.”

Iris returned to washing up. The guys began to grumble about being left home and I finally relented. “All right—one
more of you can come along. Roz, you. Smoky—we need you here in case there’s any more trouble. Trillian, too.” That would leave the two biggest egos at home.

As we gathered our things and headed for the car, I realized I had a splitting headache. Stress. You’d think, being a vampire, I’d be immune to maladies such as that, but stress affected everyone, even the undead, though it hit us in other ways than the living. We wouldn’t die from a heart attack if the stress got bad enough, but we could get a mite testy.

As the others shivered in the mist and rising fog that rolled across the lawn, I pulled Nerissa to one side. “I know you’re cold, but I have to tell you something quick, before we get in the car. I don’t want to tell the others—it might stir up an argument.”

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Nerissa lifted my chin, leaning down to kiss my nose.

“I met Roman on the Dream-Time. Um…he has a request. And it’s just
that
—a request, not a demand.” I hurried to say, not wanting her to think it was an order.

She squinted and pursed her lips. “I think I know what this is going to be. The same thing he suggested a few weeks ago, right?” Roman had been teasing us when both he and Nerissa were at the bar with me a couple of weeks back, flirting with both of us.

I kicked a rock across the drive. “Yeah, it’s what you think. He suggested a threesome. He won’t join in unless we ask.”

“You really trust him to not get so excited that he leaps into bed with us and bites the fuck out of my neck?”

“Don’t. Please don’t.” The memory of my fangs slipping into Roz’s neck was still all too painful. I was going to have to tell her soon, as much as I feared doing so. Would she understand? Would she leave me?

“What do you want?” Nerissa stood back, her neck cocked to the right. “Do you want me to do it for you? To help you cement your position? I will, but quite frankly, I’m not that attracted to Roman.”

I looked up at her, my heart melting. She meant what she said. She’d crawl into bed with Roman and me if it meant a
boost for my position in the vampire community. And that made me love her all the more.