Destiny's Revenge (Destiny Series - Book 2) (15 page)

“No, not even close – as I said it’s very uncomfortable to be near the member of the Cabinet that serves as our opposite; but we are all very familiar with our alters. We do not choose to spend time with them, but when a person is making a key decision in life, and we are trying to guide, the Cabinet member is trying to be just as persuasive. The Cabinet members prey on the same souls that we are trying to assist. We, yin and yang, over the millennia have become very familiar with each other.”

“But you introduced yourself to me as the Beast Master, and you said over the millennia, so you aren’t human?”

“I am the Beast Master, but that’s a special talent I possess. It’s not a role on the Council. It’s simply a skill that I possess that others do not. My role on the Council is Fidelity. As the Beast master it was my destiny to communicate to and for animals, which compliments my role on the Council. The Council members are all human, but the Cabinet members are…not exactly human.”

“Not exactly human? What exactly are they?”

“This isn’t a question I can answer. Too much knowledge of the Cabinet is dangerous. As long as you know the facts, that they exist and that they are similar but full of negative energy, that should help you make the right choices when you need to make them.”

I looked away from Mike briefly and saw that Peanut had let himself in through the screen door. He sat patiently at my feet. He wasn’t the slightest bit nervous about Mike being here, and his calm was something I trusted. I reached down and scratched his ears and Peanut leaned heavily into me.

After a minute or so I turned my attention back to Mike, “So this game plan you asked me about, do you have any ideas? It sounds like I’m never going to get my life back unless I take it back, so I guess my only game plan is to take it back.”

Mike and I spoke for hours. I seemed to do most of the talking while he nodded his encouragement without giving any advice. He reminded me of one of those bobble head dolls after a while. When Mike left, it was just Peanut and me again. It was time to put the first bit of my plan in motion. Peanut and I sat together on the couch, and I could feel fear gripping me. I knew searching for the Beast shouldn’t be dangerous, but what I might see when I found him scared the crap out of me.

I closed my eyes and thought of that night on the mountain when he entered my campsite. I thought back to his face and his faded t-shirt and jeans. Pangs of horror enveloped me when the tunnel appeared. I placed my hand on Peanut’s back, as if this might somehow steady me, and stepped into the tunnel.

I was transported to a familiar place, my parent’s home. The Beast was in human form and he was with my father, this time not dressed in tattered clothes but in a pair of dress slacks and a polo shirt. The two were talking quietly.

“What will something like this cost?” my dad had asked the Beast.

“If I am not successful, you will never receive a bill from me. I can assure you, my rates are far below the going average for someone in my field. Not being paid if I cannot find her is that much more incentive for me to be thorough and bring her home.” He spoke so formally, a British accent I thought, just nasally enough to be annoying.

My dad said nothing, but I could tell he liked the terms of the deal they’d struck.

“For me to get started, I will need a list of all of Lauren’s friends and her relationship with them, how she knew them, her most recent cellular bills, your home phone bill, and access to her computer. Any other information you may have on her whereabouts or where you believe she may have gone will speed things along.”

Dad sighed deeply and responded, “Maybe I wasn’t clear. She hasn’t lived with us for several years now: she a….was in an accident right after she graduated from college. A month ago her boyfriend Max Meyer came back from Afghanistan, and she told us she was moving in with him. Six days ago he phoned us in a panic saying she had taken off with his truck, and he didn’t know where she was. I was pretty sure he had done something to her, then yesterday her bank account was emptied. My wife, Molly, was the joint account holder with Lauren, so they let Lauren empty the account, but she wasn’t able to close it. The bank notified us that Lauren had tried to close the account. I went to the bank to look at the security footage, and it was Lauren all right. I know she’s alive, I know she isn’t with Max, and she hasn’t contacted her mother or me for over a week.”

The Beast pulled out a small note pad and was taking notes as my father spoke. “What about her friends? Has she made any contact, in person or by phone?”

“No, not that I know of. Max called us earlier today. He told us that she had been at his grandfather’s house earlier today. His grandfather had a heart attack during her visit and died right in front of her. Max’s grandfather and Lauren were pretty close; they’d been in the nursing home together. Seeing him die must have scared her or something. Max said she called him and said there was something wrong with his grandfather, but she didn’t stay to help him. This isn’t like Lauren at all. I just don’t know what to make of it.”

The Beast stopped writing and looked a bit shaken, but only momentarily. He continued with, “Have you talked to Max today?”

“No, my wife talked to him. Molly’s been worried sick. I don’t want her to know what you’re up to. I told her you were a friend from the office stopping by to talk about a project at work. If you don’t mind, I’d prefer to keep it that way. If she finds out I’ve hired a private investigator to find Lauren, she’ll go from worried to full blown hysterics. The truth is, Lauren’s always been close to her mother, but since the accident, the two really haven’t reconnected.”

I watched for a few more minutes but knew what I had to do and quick. I willed myself away from their conversation, stepped back through the awaiting tunnel and returned to my body.

I powered up the phone and called Seth right away. He answered immediately, dispensing with the customary, “Hello” in favor of a panicked voice yelling into the phone, “Lauren, where are you? Your parents are terrified. You need to hang up and call them right now.”

In an assertive tone, “Seth I can’t, just listen for a minute, okay? There’s this guy, a private investigator. I’m pretty sure that my dad hired him. Whatever you do, do not give him this phone number. Don’t tell him anything. Say that you haven’t talked to me since the nursing home. Okay?”

“So you’re somewhere in hiding, you won’t tell me or anyone where you are, your dad hired someone to find you, and you want me to purposely not help him. That’s what you’re asking, right?”

“You don’t understand, Seth, this isn’t a real private investigator.” I waffled wondering how much I could tell him. “He’s really bad news. The more he knows how close we are, the worse it can be for you and Amanda. Please just tell him you haven’t had any contact with me.”

“Lauren, I’m not going to lie to the guy. Whatever the problem is, you don’t have to hide out on your own. Go to your parents. They need to see you. They’re both scared stiff that something terrible is going on.”

I took a deep breath to steady my voice, “Seth, something terrible
is
going on. If you give this guy any information, it will just be worse. Just for your own safety, be vague and lie.”

“Anything else?” His voice was dismissive and, as well as I knew Seth, or at least used to know him, he had no intention of doing what I asked.

I knew I needed to try a different approach. I needed to make this sound good. “You have no idea what I’m going through right now. That two years I lost, I’ll never get back. I’m still getting used to you and Amanda. I know we can’t go back to the way we were before the accident, but I have to be able to trust someone. I don’t think you even know me anymore. I need to work some things out in my head - alone. All I’m asking is that you just go on about your life like I’m still in the nursing home. You don’t have to see me or even think about me.” That might have been a little thick, and I sat quietly, wondering if he had seen through all the drama.

A tender voice responded, “Lauren, I care about you. I don’t know what happened with Max. I know he’s lost his mind, and I think you know it, too. Whether something happened in Afghanistan, or the bear attack, I don’t know which, but he isn’t firing on all cylinders anymore. I’m glad you got away, but there’s no need to hide from the rest of us. We can keep him away from you.”

Not firing on all cylinders? Max must have tried to tell Seth the whole truth about me leaving. Perfect, now if I can just keep him going down this path, maybe I can keep Seth and everyone else safe. “I just need some time to think, by myself. Just whatever you do, stay away from Max and please don’t tell my parents what Max is like now. It might be temporary. Maybe one day he’ll snap out of it. This guy my dad hired, I just don’t want him to tell my parents, you understand, right?”

“Yeah, I get it.” Seth paused for a long time then finally added, “I’ll keep quiet - for now. Do you really believe Max is going to get over all this stuff? He’s delusional right now. I’m not a doctor, but delusions are normally neurotic with long term meds. I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you.”

“Seth, sometimes hope is all anyone has. I just need a couple weeks to let things work themselves out. Stay away from this private investigator until then, and don’t say anything to my parents. Once I get everything sorted out, I’ll go home.”

Seth agreed. I hated to lie to him. I could tell he bought it: he believed Max was crazy. Seth didn’t like gossip. Revealing Max as mentally ill to my parents would have been like pulling teeth. This was not something he would have liked sharing with my parents, so getting him to keep quiet, for now, was easy.

Poor Max, I hope he never finds out that I pretended he was mentally ill. I promised to check back with Seth in a couple days to let him know I was okay. I told myself all I really needed was a few more days.

I spent the next several days in and out of my sight tunnels, always focusing on the same one. The Beast’s name that he used most often was Samael, but his identity was as much of a chameleon as he was. He had tracked down nearly every friend I ever had; every time the same series of questions. When was the last time they had talked to me? Did they know of any place that I liked to go that others may not have thought of? If they had to guess where to find me, what is the first place that came to their mind?

None of these interviews produced anything at all. Strangely enough he didn’t go anywhere near Max - which baffled me. If anyone had any idea where I might be, Max would be the logical candidate. I purposely didn’t watch Max for long, only checking on him briefly each day. I knew as soon as I watched for longer than a couple minutes I would feel the need to contact him and doing so would just put both of us at risk. After three full days of watching my new
friend
Samael, I became so attuned to him that I didn’t even need to shut my eyes to watch him: I could produce the viewing tunnel no matter where I was.

The frustrating part was that he never stayed in the same place two nights in a row - the last three nights he had gone to three separate houses. He seemed to have a veritable fleet of cars that he rotated, never driving the same one frequently. He did seem to follow a regular routine: healthy breakfast of granola and yogurt in the morning, a mid-morning snack, salad for lunch, some sort of a snack mid-afternoon, and for dinner every night, a rare steak. I knew his cell phone number from seeing his screen so many times. I knew he favored dressy shoes and Dockers, but one of his houses had a closet full of suits and ties.

Samael was on a mission: his days were consumed with finding me. He had a massive chart on his wall with everyone he had interviewed as well as their answers to his questions. He had circles and arrows, diamonds and strange symbols, as if he were trying to map out my most likely locations. As it turns out, all the friends I had before my accident were of no help at all.

Marvin from the shooting range had been dismissed by Samael as nothing more than a passing acquaintance. His answers to the questions were written down on the massive chart, but from what I could see, Samael had dismissed them as merely speculation. I knew there wasn’t a great deal Marvin knew about me, but he gave by far the most helpful information. I was appreciative that Samael discounted him and didn’t take his interview very seriously.

I was watching when Marvin told him, “She is strong. She may hab dropped outta sight, and I don’t hab any idea where to find her, but I’d bet she’s somewhere away from erry-one. Lauren is calculating, and if she thinks someone is looking for her, she’ll be a needle in a haystack. If she isn’t with Max, it ain’t cause of a fight, she must think that it best for him. Maybe best for her, too.”

It was good my visions always have my voice muted because I was screaming, “Shut up, Marvin!” the whole time he was trying to help Samael.

Samael, on the other hand, didn’t press Marvin much harder after he found out the last time he had seen me was a couple weeks ago, and he had only ever talked to me twice in my life. Marvin obviously has a knack for reading people, but Samael didn’t give his advice or answers much weight.

It was clear that Samael was significantly less perceptive than I had given him credit for. He seemed to be walking around aimlessly. I didn’t leave much of a trail to follow, and I was stalking him. I saw his every conversation and knew all of his interviews would prove fruitless.

Rewsna’s voice called me back to reality, at least my reality at this minute, and I heard, “
Lauren, I need to see you, we have much to talk about.
”

“
Do you know how to find me?”

“
Yes, I will be pulling into your driveway in a matter of minutes.”

I met Rewsna in the yard. She hugged me tightly. “Mike told me of your plan. How can I help?”

After three days of solitude I was pleased to have conversation with another human. We walked back toward the house while I began filling her in on my surveillance of Samael. “He moves too frequently, he eats in different locations every night. If I just knew where he was going to be, I could wait for him, but the last three nights he’s stayed in three different locations. Each restaurant he has eaten at has been in a different area. It’s as if there’s no pattern to follow.”