A Wishing Moon (2 page)

A sense of urgency washed over her. How could she just go about the tasks of the day after last night’s experience? How could she think of anything else but him?

* * * *

Jade Landale was a prisoner in his own body. Just a few weeks ago, he had been vibrant, alive and free. Now, he might as well be dead—in fact, he fantasized about escaping this nightmare. Paralyzed from his neck down, he couldn’t even swallow on his own. Communication proved to be impossible. Reese had tried, he had continued to ask him questions and instructed him to blink if he understood, but the doctors were not the least bit encouraging. They kept using the term catastrophic injury. Apparently, this time he had really screwed up. Kate had been after him to give up the extreme sports he loved so well, she said his career needed to come first. But he loved the feeling of scaling a sheer rock wall or free diving in the depths of the sea. She told him he would end up killing himself, and, apparently, she’d been right.

Since the diagnosis, Kate had only been in to see him twice and the last time she made an appearance, Jade could tell she’d given up on him. She couldn’t even bring herself to touch his hand. His girlfriend had always been overly squeamish. Apparently, she didn’t have the stomach for a fiancé who might never be more than a vegetable. Despite what Reese told her about the blinking, Kate didn’t believe he could hear her or understand her. Frankly, he wished he had the opportunity to tell her how hard conveying a message to someone who wouldn’t look you in the eye could be. Dr. Reynolds did not want to give up on him; he had said more tests needed to be done before they could be positive of Jade’s prognosis. One of the other doctors assisting on his case said he wasn’t sure Jade was cognizant of his surroundings at all. But he was, much to his dismay—he was, achingly, aware of everything.

The realization of his situation terrified Jade. He screamed endlessly in his head. Over and over, he relived the moment when the bolt failed and he had fallen from one of the sheer faces of E-Rock. He’d known from the moment he landed so brutally and awkwardly at the base of the cliff that his situation was bad. Blessedly, he had only remained conscious for a few moments before passing out. From the moment he regained consciousness, he had known something was horribly wrong, because he felt nothing—absolutely nothing.

The only relief Jade found were his dreams. When he closed his eyes and slept, he could walk and talk and hope and believe that somehow this nightmare would soon be over. Reese and other members of his staff still refused to believe fate could be so cruel. After all, they had pinned their hopes on him being the next governor of the great state of Texas. Now unless a miracle came along, all of his dreams had come to an end.

While a nurse turned him from side to side, giving him a sponge bath, he escaped to a better place deep within his own mind. Last night, he had experienced a particularly intense and strange dream. He had been back on Enchanted Rock—not climbing this time, but with a woman—an amazingly beautiful woman. His dream body had reacted instantly to her, and without the expectations of reality, he had enjoyed her in ways he knew he would probably never enjoy a woman again. She had been so lovely and so very responsive.

Dreams were his only solace, now. He much preferred an alternate reality to this one. The land where he escaped to when he closed his eyes reminded him of something his great grandmother used to tell him. The only daughter of a Cherokee medicine man, she carried with her the old ways and the old beliefs. She used to tell him that even though her body had grown stiff and uncooperative with age, at night—in her dreams—she went to places she could no longer go and did things she was no longer capable of doing. She had called the odd phenomenon ‘walking on the wind’. Maybe, that’s what he had been doing. One thing he knew, his dreams sure beat the hell out of where he was now. He shut his eyes and left the room.

* * * *

A plan began to formulate in Arabella’s mind, things her mother and grandmother had taught her. Quickly she grabbed a pad and pen and made a list of items she could use to insure she returned to the dream state where she had left her dream lover. Hastily, she wrote.

Mugwort

Lavender

Amethyst gemstone

Purple mojo bag

Purple candle

Everything in her longed to get started
now
, but going back to bed immediately after rising wouldn’t accomplish the rest of the day’s work. With reluctance, she laid aside the note for later in the day and reached for her datebook. Arabella kept an extensive journal where she wrote everything down. She flipped open the book, which served as part almanac, part Book of Shadows and a place to record her daily to-do lists. Turning to the correct page, she checked what was on the agenda for the day. A lot.

Arabella was proud of all she had accomplished, but keeping up with everything was a challenge. Since graduating from the University of Texas in Austin with a degree in computer science, she had built a successful home business from the bottom up. Combining her green thumb, her magical acumen, and considerable computer skill, she had founded Wildflower Way. Her brainchild is a company that sells dried herbs, oils, tinctures and herbal formulas, which she created for a number of health issues. In her own way, she helped people with their rheumatism, allergies, low energy and headaches. Sketching and drawing were also passions of hers and she designed a catalogue, labels and seed packets to complement the products Wildflower Way
offered to the consumer.

Her home in the Texas Hill Country was an oasis of lush gardens, greenhouses and enchanted paths, which connected small rustic buildings where she dried herbs and flowers and concocted the potions she packaged and shipped to satisfied customers across the country. Arabella took pride in her gardens and appreciated people stopping by just to look in amazement at the varied plantings she maintained. Some would ask for the secret to her green thumb, but she had no answer for them. She could hardly tell them her mother’s explanation—Elizabeth said the garden of a good witch always flourishes. Glancing at the date—it hit her—today was a special holiday. December 21
^st
, the winter solstice was a sacred time when candles were lit and future plans were made. Tonight, her grandmother, Nanette Beaureguarde would scry the future—something she did on this, one of the most magical nights on the wheel of the year. All of the family knew they would hear from her if she saw anything of interest. But in the meantime, Arabella had Yule preparations to make. The whole Beaureguarde clan planned to come to her house for the holidays, so there was plenty of baking, shopping and decorating to be done.

Wildflower Way
was a special place during each of the seasons, and winter, especially so. Arabella spent days stringing thousands of little white lights through the trees and putting out dozens of peanut butter pinecones to attract the birds. By the time she was through, her home was a wonderland. She enjoyed this time of year so much. Elation filled her heart; she had so much to look forward to. And today was Sunday, so she could do exactly what she pleased. Any orders to be filled could easily wait for the next day.

Once again, her hand moved to her neck to linger on the light abrasions, which were still present. The small bumps were the only real link she possessed to the incredibly intriguing man who haunted her every thought.
Stop
! she chided herself,
all of this dreaming will just have to wait until later
.

She stepped over to her recipe file to pull a few holiday favorites. A trip to the organic food market in neighboring Austin was next on her agenda. The abrupt ringing of the telephone interrupted her musings. She leaned over, picked up the phone and heard sobs on the other end.

“
Hello, this is Arabella Landry, may I help you?” Arabella knew this would not be a customer, as the call came through on the house phone instead of the business line.

“
Arabella, something terrible has happened.” At first, she did not recognize the voice, but then the face of a neighbor came to her mind—Rachel Townsend.

“
What’s wrong, Rachel?”

“
Kathy and Lea are gone—they’re just gone.”

Rachel Townsend, her daughter Kathy, and granddaughter Lea lived about a half mile down the road, south toward Wimberley. Although Arabella had known Rachel for years, they were not close.

“
Tell me everything,” she urged the distraught woman.

“
May I come over, please?”

“
Certainly, I will be waiting for you.”
What is going on
? In times like this, she wished she possessed her mother’s gift of second sight. Elizabeth could pull information from out of the ether—especially things pertaining to her daughter. Her mother’s ability had plagued Arabella during her teenage years, for hiding anything from her parent was nearly impossible. The older she got, the more she realized being connected to someone else in that manner wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Rachel Townsend knew firsthand Arabella had gifts of her own. At one time, Arabella and Kathy had been friends, until Rachel forced Kathy to abandon their friendship because she felt Arabella’s beliefs were evil and dangerous. So based on their history, Arabella knew Rachel Townsend considered her situation to be desperate—or she would never have resorted to contacting the likes of Arabella Landry.

Before her guest arrived, Arabella straightened a few things and set out another mug and some Morning Glory muffins she had made the day before. Southern hospitality had been ingrained in her very soul. Rachel didn’t have far to come, so she arrived a few moments later.

Arabella met her at the front door and escorted the shaking woman to a comfortable seat in the living room. Rachel was a tall, lanky woman with perfectly coiffed brown hair. She grasped Arabella’s hands and looked her straight in the eye. “Something has happened to my child and my granddaughter, I just know it.”

“
When did you last see them?” Arabella searched Rachel’s face for an ulterior motive, but saw only grief. She hated to be suspicious of Rachel, but the woman had dealt her a great deal of misery in years past.

“
I saw them before I went to work yesterday morning.” Rachel Townsend worked as a real estate agent in Wimberley. Although the nation’s housing market was suffering, the area around Austin seemed somewhat immune, college towns usually were. Nevertheless, Rachel had always been a very successful businesswoman.

“
Did you talk to her during the day?” Arabella knew Kathy had made the hard decision to live with her mother after a rather messy divorce and had been staying at home with her five-year-old daughter.

“
She phoned me about ten o’ clock yesterday morning to tell me she and Lea were going out to look for Pumpkin, Lea’s little white poodle. I let the dog out for a bathroom run yesterday morning, and before I left I called and called…but the dog didn’t show up. You haven‘t seen him, have you?”

“
No, I haven’t seen the dog, but I’ll keep an eye out for him. Have you notified the police yet?” Arabella thought she knew the answer to this question, but she asked anyway. She poured the pale woman a cup of coffee and motioned toward the sugar and cream.

“
I called them, but not enough time has passed. Officer Myers said I would have to wait at least twenty-four hours before filing a missing persons report. Also, since Kathy is an adult, they have to consider she might’ve just picked up Lea and left. Arabella, I know something is wrong. I can feel it.”

Sympathy welled up in her and the former reticence she felt melted away. She put her arm around the woman and hugged her, as Rachel Townsend broke down and cried.

Not wanting to assume anything, especially considering their volatile history, Arabella carefully asked. “How can I help, Rachel?”

Rachel straightened herself and wiped her eyes with a crisp cotton handkerchief she drew from her Dooney and Bourke bag. “I want you to do what you do—I want you to find Kathy and Lea.”

“
Did you bring anything with you Lea and Kathy might have recently touched or something you would consider special to them?” Rachel reached into her purse and began taking out items. Arabella realized Rachel remembered what she had seen a much younger Arabella do at the birthday sleepover nearly ten years ago. As a form of entertainment, Arabella had taken turns reading items the other girls had given her and told them things she couldn’t possibly have known by normal means. This had thrilled and mystified the girls, but Rachel Townsend had been horrified and sent a humiliated and embarrassed Arabella home right in the middle of the party.