The Templar's Legacy (Ancient Enemy) (16 page)

I started to get angry. “Look, I admit it. I screwed up. You don’t have to keep beating me over the head with it, okay? I made a mistake!”

She leaned back and her face slowly softened. I just plopped back in my bed, happy to have the silence. I found I could more effectively berate and kick myself when someone else wasn’t busy doing it, too. She was right, how could I be such an idiot? Even now, I couldn’t fully accept that I hadn’t made some sort of connection with Colette and that something else wasn’t going on.

She’s right
,
Finn. You’re completely hopeless around women.

Gee thanks
,
Spring.

I’m just saying...

“I can find her,” said Jen with a soft voice.

That interrupted my self-pity party with Spring. “What?”

“I can find her, you know.”

“What? How?”

“You know how you left some bits of Il Saia in me?”

“Only because your dad hit me in the face before I was completely finished.”

“Well, it was a good thing he did, because I’ve been making sense of some of the knowledge about hoodoo she left behind. How do you think I knew to find you at the hospital?”

“I just assumed that you’d called my parents at home or something.”

“They were both here, and you weren’t answering your phone.”

“Oh. So, how did you know to come here?”

“A lot of things I remember from Il Saia don’t seem to work, or are not useful, but some of it, like tracking and remote seeing, does work. I can track people if I have something of theirs.”

“Really? What do you have of mine?”

“The crystal Il Saia used to reverse the effects of the dreamstone.”

“Oh, that’s cool.” I’d forgotten completely about it while dealing with the aftermath of everything earlier this summer, some of which I’ve mentioned. It’s a long, complicated story, but I can summarize what happened with Jen pretty simply. She was possessed by the mind of an ancient priestess of hoodoo, Il Saia, which had been transferred to a crystal a long time ago when her people had lost a terrible battle against an ancient enemy. That same priestess, while she was possessing Jen’s body, helped me restore Jen’s mind, even though it erased the priestess from existence once again. She left a lot unsaid and unknown. We didn’t know where or when Il Saia came from, only that there was some weird, powerful hoodoo in the world she came from, and the earth was threatened with invasion by the ancient enemy who released the shadows on the world to destroy all life. Il Saia and her people had done something to neutralize the threat of the shadows, but destroyed their own civilization in the process. Over the last few months of baseless conjecture and head pounding, we’d come to believe that she had somehow banished the hoodoo from our world. My friends and I had debated it endlessly, but we just didn’t know enough. The only thing we did know is that there was
some
hoodoo left in the world, and I carried a big chunk of it around my neck in the form of a twisted black piece of driftwood—wood from the Tree of Life before it was destroyed.

“If we can get hold of something of hers, I think I can find her,” said Jen.

“That won’t be a problem,” I said. I threw off the covers and hopped out of bed. “Come on, let’s go.”

“What? You just got stabbed!”

“And I feel fine.” I grabbed my clothes from their little cubby and motioned for Jen to look at the wall. I turned away from her for good measure. I pulled on my pants and turned around while I was putting my shirt on. When my head popped out, I met Jen’s appreciative gaze. She was grinning at me.

“Hey, no fair peeking!”

“Boy, you are looking mighty fine these days, no wonder this Colette wench wanted to waggle her thang for you.”

I blushed and finished pulling my shirt down. “Ha, ha, very funny.”

“Finn, your twelve pack is turning into a six pack.”

“Well, Spring and I have been working out a lot.”

“She’s good for you.”

I smiled ruefully. “That’s what she keeps telling me.”

It’s about time you recognized that.

You know I love you, babe.

Damn straight.

“Are you ready to go?” I asked. “We’ve got to get out of here before my parents get back.”

“What are you going to do about the patrolman standing, I mean sitting, guard out there.”

“Watch and learn young Padawan. The force has power over weak minds.” I said a little prayer that my guard wasn’t strong willed or something, like the guy in the hotel the other night.

Turns out he wasn’t. Through a crack in the door, I could see he was busy nodding off.

Just give him a little nudge and we can walk out of here.

No, Spring, I don’t want anyone else getting grief because of me.

I searched the room for a pen and paper and then wrote a note, folded it up and opened the door. “Hey, officer.”

He jerked up and looked at me. “I’m sorry sir, but you can’t leave your room.”

I nodded and said, “I know.” I put some hoodoo into it. “Can you give this note to Detective Hunter for me?”

“Sure.”

I handed him the note. “Please don’t read it, it’s personal.”

“No problem.”

I motioned for Jen to come out and told the guard, “You are wide awake and no one has left this room since Detective Hunter. Do you understand?”

He nodded, “Yes sir.”

“Okay, this young lady and I are just going to walk down the hall. You’ve never seen us before. We just paused to ask you the time.”

He looked at his watch. “It’s two thirty-seven.”

“Thanks officer!” said Jen, and we walked away. Despite the fatigue that hit me after using my Jedi mind tricks, I felt pretty good. I looked at Jen with a smirk and waggled my eyebrows.

“Show off. I could do that too, if I had the Caduceus.”

“In your dreams.”

She stuck her startlingly pink tongue out at me and we headed out a back entrance.

“What did you write on the note?”

“I said, ‘I used the Caduceus to compel this fine officer to do as I asked, please do not take it out on him. No one else would have done any better.’ “

“She’s going to blow a gasket, Finn.”

“I know.” I really didn’t want contemplate how horrible it would be. My guts gurgled and threatened mutiny. It could have been from my lunch, but I seriously doubted it.

Several hours later, three of us sat in Jen’s car going through Colette’s suitcase, which we had liberated from my father’s car. According to Jen, she needed something that had a good magical connection to Colette. (We agreed not to use the word ‘magic’, but ‘hoodoodical’ sounds silly.) Apparently, at least some hoodoo operated the way people have assumed for generations. The magical “Law of Contagion” states that, once connected in some way, objects maintained that connection even after they were separated. There are others, like the “Law of Similarity,” which states that similar objects are similarly connected. The more they are alike, the stronger the connection. It reflects the way our brains work. I guess it made sense. If we evolved in a magical environment, it would change the way we thought.

Jen was squinting at Colette’s hairbrush. “Either she is the cleanest person in the world, or she never brushes her hair.”

“Can I see?” I asked.

“Sure.” She tossed me the brush, and I examined it. There was not a single hair to be found.

I frowned at the brush and tossed it back to Jen. “Well, if she knows about hoodoo too, maybe she makes sure not to leave any hair lying about.”

Dave’s head rested on the middle of the front seat as he watched the proceedings from the back with interest. “I think your best bet is a pair of her underwear. It holds and protects her most private parts, and that soft silky fabric must feel really good against her warm, supple—”

“I’m not touching her underwear, you perv.” Jen scowled and continued her search.

Dave treated us to a sly half-grin. “Well, why don’t you send it back here, and I’ll see if I can get some sort of connection with it.”

“Ewwww. you’re just being gross.”

“Dave,” I said. “You’re here as muscle, leave the thinking to us. Just lie back and go to sleep.”

“Yes, my master.” He didn’t move.

Jen held up Colette’s toothbrush. “It’s not very good, but I think this is the best we are going to do. Dave, give me your bear.”

“What? No!”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ll give it back to you, you baby. It’ll give our connection here a boost.”

“Nope, no way, not gonna happen.”

I understood how he felt. Like the Caduceus, the animal totems were kind of addictive. It gave me a new sympathy for Gollum.

“Okay Finn, park the shadow on Dave for a bit and let me use the Caduceus.”

Dave did move for that one. He scooted back into the back seat. “Hey, that’s not fair!”

I grinned at Dave. “Don’t worry Dave, without the Caduceus, it can’t force you to eat anyone, and when I pull it off, it’ll only take a little bit of your soul.”

“Okay, okay. Sheesh.” He handed the red pipestone bear whistle to Jen with a scowl. “You guys suck.”

“Oooh, I like this.” Jen grinned and wiggled in an interesting way. “It’s all tingly and stuff.”

“That’s from all the manhood it’s been soaking up from me,” said Dave. “Just think of it as me intimately caressing your warm and supple—”

“Shut up, blondie.”

Apparently satisfied that his honor had been upheld, Dave refrained from further comment.

Jen held the toothbrush in her hand and closed her eyes.

We watched her intently. I enjoyed the excuse to examine her fine, even features and full lips. She had a sexy little pout of concentration going that I found quite engaging. There wasn’t a blemish on her skin.

Dave asked, “How’s it going Jen? Getting anything yet?”

She opened up one eye and glared at Dave with it. “It’d be going better if you’d be quiet.”

Dave scowled, reached over the seat and grabbed the bag. He muttered to himself. “I still think underwear would be better.” He started removing everything from the bag.

I was torn between watching Jen or watching Dave, but Jen won out.

“I got it!” said Dave in triumph. He laughed. Jen, you are going to love this!”

I looked back at him and couldn’t see what he had pinched between his fingers.

“What is it?” I asked.

His face reflected nothing but glee as he brought his hand forward till both Jen and I could finally see that he was holding a short and very curly brown hair—much curlier than the hair on her head.

“Eeeww, gross, Dave,” said Jen. “I’m not touching that.”

He waved it under her nose. “Come on Jen, it’s just a hair.”

Jen backed away. “We don’t even know if it’s hers.”

“Who else’s would it be?” He shoved the hair at my face. “That’s her hair-color below the belt, isn’t it, Finn?”

I backed away from it as well. “Um, well, maybe.”

“Forget it blondie, stuff it up your nose, or eat it if you’re so fond of it, but I’m gonna use the toothbrush.”

Of course, after another ten minutes of trying get some sort of connection from the toothbrush, Jen scowled back at Dave and put out her hand. “Okay, hand it over, you perv.”

Dave’s laughter was seriously contagious, but I did my damnedest not crack a smile.

She glared at me as she took the hair. “You too, penis breath!” I guess my straight face wasn’t very good.

After an hour of driving, following Jen’s directions, and ignoring my cell phone while trying to find the road that went where Jen’s psychic GPS pointed, we ended up north of town sitting at a wide gravel path leading into the woods off of Horns Hill Road.

I drove a little bit farther and pulled off onto the berm.

I looked at my two friends. “Okay boy and girl, this is it.”

“Right, give me back my bear, Brunhilda.”

“But, we haven’t found her yet,” she said.

“If I’m getting out of this car to hunt down a crazy French pastry with a thing for knives and guns, I’m going armed with Bear,” said Dave.

When I backed Dave, Jen handed the totem over. She sat back in her seat and exhaled. “I feel like the sun just went behind a cloud.”

I nodded. “Yep, that’s a good way to put it.”

We crossed over the bit of open field along the side of the road till we hit the woods.

I’d been thinking about the best way to approach our sneakery. “I think we should stay away from the drive and stick to the woods.”

Dave eyed the exuberant tangle of underbrush on the edge of the tree line dubiously. “If you say so, boss.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll clear out when we get in a little way.”

After about a half hour of fighting our way noisily through the woods, we surrendered and walked back to and along the edge of the long drive. I’d taken lead, followed by Dave and then Jen, who was the least bulletproof of the three of us. I’d only taken a shot to the arm once from a small caliber gun, but Dave had been shot on two separate occasions. The last time it had been Detective Hunter, who’d hit him five times with a considerably larger caliber weapon than Erik’s handgun. I’d been there to help heal him both times, but it still made him a little cocky. Me, I was a bit more scared. I figured a shot to the head and that would be all she wrote. Besides, it hurt like hell, and I didn’t want to have to compel a doctor to remove the bullets without alerting the police again. I still felt bad about doing it the one time.

“I think you need to learn how to cast invisibility, Finn,” said Dave. “That would make sneaking a whole lot easier. And think of the fun you could have in the girl’s locker room.”

“You’re such a pig,” muttered Jen.

I could practically feel Dave’s grin radiating mirth at my back.

“Dave, there is no way you could do invisibility, you’d have to—”

“One more step and I’ll blow your head off!”

I squeaked in fright at the unexpected command barked from only three feet away in the trees, and I nearly fell over trying not to take another step. I saw the rifle pointed at my head and raised my hands halfway into the air.

“Don’t move, blondie!” the man behind the gun barked to Dave without taking his eyes off of me. Hearing him use Jen’s nickname for Dave would have been hilarious if it weren’t for the gun.