Wicked Tempest: A Kate Waters Mystery (Kate Waters Mysteries Book 2) (20 page)

Brooke Jennings’ case continued to grow more interesting by the day. One thing he did know for sure was that he didn’t plan on closing the case anytime soon.

Wells put the documents back in the files and zipped them up in his briefcase before he headed out the door. He locked it behind him and determined the first place to proceed was with Goldstein. Loose ends were unraveling.

***

On her drive to work, Kate had been daydreaming of hiking up Mt. Hood. At such high altitude, the horizon stretched on like the ocean, with rolling blue waves of mountains below and the crest of snow at her feet. She woke with a jerk when a car blasted its horn at her. Her car had crossed over into the other lane and another car headed straight toward her. Instinctively, Kate tried to jerk the wheel to the other side, but her hands wouldn’t move.

Oh God
, she thought. She was having another narcoleptic hallucination, where her body froze, became disconnected from her mind. An out-of-body experience…while driving. The car’s horn blared. The driver slammed on his brakes. Kate tried to crank the wheel to the side, but couldn’t figure out which foot to move, which pedal to press. Her hands wouldn’t turn the wheel.

Light in her eye, blood on her hands
.

She heard the voice in her mind…the voice of Jev.

Jev?

The car’s horn blared again, and if Kate didn’t react immediately, she would collide into it. With a forceful breath, she gripped the steering wheel tight and shoved herself to the side. The jeep careened into the other lane, barely missing the other car. A sickening clarity washed into her as she realized how close she had come to hitting the other car. The other driver flipped her off, a gesture well deserved, she thought, having almost killed them both.

Kate slowed her breathing, taking long, deep breaths. She mulled over what Jev had said. What could it mean?
Light in her eye, blood on her hands
. She had assumed “her” was Rán or Thea, but now wondered if it weren’t actually herself. The ache in her back sank down into her gut. It wasn’t so much a matter of what was wrong with her, whether it was narcolepsy or an undiagnosed brain injury from the attack, but more a question of how to get things right again. Kate hoped work would do just that, help bring some order to her thoughts and structure to her life.

In the PNGS parking lot, Kate flipped her sun visor mirror down, and applied another layer of foundation to her face, attempting to cover the bruises over her left eye. The glossy pupil peered back at her, ugly and mean…iris silver-blue. She recollected what her dad had said regarding the change of color, how something serious awaited. Her eyes had definitely switched from the chocolate brown they had always been, but that didn’t necessarily mean it was a supernatural sign, she told herself. It seemed more likely a side effect of her injury and lack of sleep.

She rubbed more makeup around where broken vessels had bled to a deep purple-green. While it didn’t conceal the bruising completely, it would have to do. The last place she should be was at work, so she made every attempt to look normal, composed, which unfortunately, she realized with a heavy sigh, didn’t include a thick mask of makeup.

Stewart stood from his desk when she walked in the door, clearly surprised at her presence. “I can’t believe you’re working today. You look like hell, Kate.”

“Thanks, Stewart. I knew I could count on you to cheer me up.” She headed for the back room. Bruce gawked at her as she passed by him.

“It looks worse than it feels,” she said. A small lie. The ache in her shoulder throbbed heavily.

Aaron came out of the conference room with the same expression on his face as her other coworkers and stopped her in the hallway. “Whoever did this to you, they’re gonna get what’s comin’.”

His outspoken sympathy for her was a new thing since Jev’s death. Kate imagined he felt more like a part of their group. He followed her into the back room.

Kate set her bag down at her desk. “I don’t know who it was, probably just some punk kid looking for another iPad to steal.”

Bruce and Stewart came into the back room, all of them studying the parts of her face that makeup didn’t hide.

“Yeah, but I don’t think a punk kid would do something like that,” Aaron said. “Looks like you had another fight with a shark.”

“That’s my Kate. Tough as nails,” Stewart said. “One of the things you do have going for you.”

“Well, that’s promising,” Kate replied.

“You also have nice, white teeth,” he added.

“You admire my nice, white teeth? That’s all you can come up with?”

Stewart leaned to the left as if to get a better view of her backside.

“You know what…forget I asked,” she said shooing him away with her hand.

“Okay, all bullshit aside,” Stewart said, his voice turning softer and serious. “Whatever you need, just let me know. Days off, a paid spa treatment, whatever, it’s yours. You’re a hell of scientist, and I can’t afford to lose you.”

“Thanks, Stewart. I appreciate that. Right now, I just want to work, take my mind off things.”

“That’s obviously an option too,” he said. “Bruce, what’s the word?”

Bruce sort of shook himself awake, switching gears from Kate’s troubles to those of the earthquakes. “It looks like the quakes are settling down a bit.”

“That could be good or bad,” Aaron said.

“Did you get the test results back on the magnetic analysis?” Stewart asked Aaron.

“What magnetic analysis?” Kate asked.

Aaron smiled at her. “In the rock samples we collected where the landslide occurred, the magnetic properties are almost the same as those found in newer rocks today.”

“Isn’t that normal? How old are the rocks?” Kate asked.

“About 43,000 years old.” He pointed to a graph report in his hand. “This was taken from basalt rocks at Mt. St. Helens one year ago.”

Kate studied the report and found the numbers lined up at opposite ends. “They’re different. A geomagnetic reversal?”

“A strong one,” Stewart said.

“The last one to switch like this occurred about 500,000 years ago,” Aaron said.

“What exactly does this mean?” Kate asked Stewart.

“It might explain all the storms we’ve been having.”

“Yeah, maybe that seafood buffet we saw on the boat was actually a matter of the electromagnetic disturbance rather than the earthquakes,” Bruce added.

“That would explain the strange animal behaviors at the zoo,” Aaron said. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there have been reports of animals acting out, performing strange repetitive patterns, and some escaping.”

It made sense when Kate thought about it, with the dogs’ and cats’ behaviors when she and Thea were walking to Brooke’s. Maybe even the shark attack. It struck her as good news. Logic and reason hadn’t disappeared from her world, and she would much rather accept a magnetic reversal over curses and the wrath of a vengeful goddess.

Bruce reached for his electronic notebook. “I just read this article on Jupiter’s pole reversal, how the ‘eye’ had increased in size during the period that Jupiter emitted less radio emissions. Our planet is also emitting fewer emissions, and that may be because of the pole reversal. When this happens, exceedingly large amounts of solar energy cross through our atmosphere and can generate violent storms.

“Would you send me a copy of that article?” Stewart asked Bruce.

Bruce tapped on the screen. “Done.”

The phone on Kate’s desk rang.

“Calls already?” Aaron said.

“Never a day’s rest,” Kate replied.

She looked at the number on the display and saw Thea’s number. “I need to take this one in private,” she said, excusing herself. She went into the conference room, shut the door, and picked up the phone.

“Hello.”

“Why are you at work?” Thea asked with a heavy tone of urgency in her voice.

Kate whispered as she spoke. “Because that’s what I do. I have a job too.”

“You know what I mean,” Thea replied.

“I don’t want to be home right now. I’m actually feeling better.”

“You need to do a protection spell, Kate.” Thea’s comment came over the line like a cold gust.

“I already did one.”

“You did one for the statue, but not for yourself.”

Kate recollected back to the last self-protection spell she did with Thea, at Hoyt Arboretum in the Circle of Trees. She had often wondered whether her luck was coincidence or real magic that her sister’s killer hadn’t killed her since she had performed the protection spell, but being back at work now, with logic and reason and pole reversals explaining everything again, she discarded Thea’s concerns. The curse seemed ridiculous again.

“I’m not in any more danger. Whoever attacked me has the statue now. It’s over.”

“You don’t understand, Kate.” Thea’s voice broke like cracking ice. “Rán will try to possess you. She’ll make you do things you would never do, dangerous things.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like hurting yourself. Have you done anything to endanger yourself?”

The feeling of cold fingers climbed up Kate’s neck. She glanced down at her wrist, at the beady, red scab that had formed since she had accidentally taken the serrated knife to her arm. Then, she remembered the close call on the road when she had crossed over into the other lane not more than an hour ago, how she couldn’t control her hands…almost like being possessed. If the other driver hadn’t been paying attention and honked his horn, she would be dead now.

“No,” Kate said. Those were both careless acts from her not paying attention and needing much more sleep. “Why, are you?”

“My car drifted across the road last night…into the other lane.”

The cold fingers tightened around Kate’s throat.

Thea continued. “It was like I was confused,” she said. “I couldn’t figure out how to work my hands, to steer the wheel straight. It was as if they weren’t my own. I know it was Rán. I could smell her, like the soured brine of the ocean.”

Kate knew that smell, had smelled it too. Dizziness forced her into a chair.

“We are still in danger,” Thea said. “We need to do a protection rite.”

The reality of what had happened to Brooke, seeing her on the floor in her own house with those cold, lifeless eyes—just like Jev’s—stirred old fears again. What would be the harm in one more spell, she thought. Even if the curse and Rán weren’t real, a protection spell wouldn’t make things worse. “All right. When?”

“Tonight, at dusk.”

“Tonight?” Kate said. “Thea, my head is pounding. I shouldn’t even be at work.”

“You won’t feel any pounding when you’re lying next to Brooke.”

“You really think Rán is trying to possess us?”

“I don’t think, I know.”

Kate looked down at the cut on her wrist again. It stung. It was real, and the mark on the back of her neck was real too. Everything Thea had warned her of had so far occurred.

“Where is it, and what do I need to bring?”

“Meet me at the river, across from the island, at the end of the graveled road by the PGE parking lot. Bring Jev’s athame. We’ll need to draw blood for the spell.”

“Okay. I’ll be there.”

“Oh, and a waterproof flashlight if you have one.”

“I do, but what for?”

Thea hung up the phone. Kate supposed it didn’t matter. The less she knew about the rite, the better. She thought of the incident in the bathroom, how Rán had charged at her, seemingly to have disappeared right in front of her. Maybe that wasn’t what had happened. Maybe Rán had disappeared inside her.

"To the sky shot up the Deep's Gledes, 
With fearful might the sea surged: 
Methinks our stems the clouds cut, 
Rán's Road to the moon soared upward."

—
               
the skald
Njáll Þorgeirsson
quoted by
Snorri Sturluson

The river swelled with rain and snowmelt, and moved through the valley like aqueous mud. Kate followed the narrow, rutted road from the PGE parking lot, winding down around cottonwoods and tangled oak. It dead-ended into a small, circular graveled clearing. Thea’s black Escape was parked under a large fir. Kate cut the engine, stepped out of her jeep, and grabbed a bag that contained Jev’s athame and a bottle of Hennigan’s whiskey—an important sealant to Thea’s spells.

As she walked up to Thea’s vehicle, she noticed shadows moving in the back seat. Thea hadn’t come alone. Kate stopped, mortified that other witches from Thea’s coven had come to perform the spell with her. She had thought she and Thea would being doing the spell alone, like last time in the Circle of Trees, not with people she didn’t even know. Dread inundated her thoughts and pushed a skipped beat into her heart. It was too late to turn back, but even if she did, what would she be returning to? An empty house and the fear that Rán would possess her and kill her…through actions of her own?

Kate felt trapped, like a feeble, little mouse pinned beneath the snap of fate’s merciless jaws. She wanted to run and hide, but there was nowhere to go and no one to turn to.

Thea stepped out of the car, looking a bit like the little mouse herself. Not so much feeble, but still, seemingly afraid of something.  

“You already know Donna,” Thea said, gesturing over to the woman who climbed from the passenger seat. Donna was as Kate remembered her, gothic punk, a little like Suzanne, but beneath all her black lace, tattoos, and blue hair—a change from the purple streaks she’d had before—she was as nice as any good friend. Kate was relieved to see her.

“Hello, Donna.”

“Hi, Kate.”

On the opposite side of the car, another woman with short, spiky blonde hair climbed out. She wore an Incredible Hulk t-shirt with a jean skirt, brown boots, and silver bracelets that ringed halfway up her arms.

“And that is Erika,” Thea said.

Both girls stared at the bruises around Kate’s eye. Erika walked around the back of the car and came up to her. Kate sensed strong, negative vibes from her. Erika didn’t smile, introduce herself, or make an attempt to shake hands with her.

“I just want you to know that I’m only here because I owe Thea.”

Kate looked over to Thea, who smiled as though she were burning that comment into memory for future purposes. “Erika doesn’t approve of involving any more people in the curse, especially now that physical possession may be a risk factor.”

Kate breathed in deep and straightened her posture. She was only here because of Thea too. “Well, I suppose that makes two of us,” Kate said to Erika.

Erika smiled briefly at her, then headed toward the river without saying a word to anyone. Apparently, there was more between the coven sisters than Kate realized. Trouble that she didn’t want to be pulled into, but gathered it was too late for.

Kate went over to Thea and handed her the waterproof flashlight. “Should I know what we’ll be using this for?”

Thea smiled. “We won’t be using it, so no.”

Kate studied Thea for a moment, until Donna came up beside her. “How are you doing, Kate? Your eye looks awful. I have a salve that might help with the bruising. If you want, you can stop by my place later on tonight.”

“Thank you, Donna. I’m okay. What about you? How are you doing?” Donna was still recovering from her own injuries. The man who’d killed Kate’s sister had pushed Donna down a stairwell after setting fire to her apartment. She’d suffered from smoke asphyxiation and several broken bones.

“I’m doing well. Physical therapy is a godsend and, fortunately, covered by insurance.”

“I’m glad to hear,” Kate said. She caught a glimpse of Erika disappearing through the trees in front of them. Thea opened the trunk and searched though a red-beaded knapsack.

Kate turned back to Donna. “Are you sure you want to be here with me, after everything that has happened?”

“Absolutely. You obviously need protection, and even though you aren’t a coven sister yet, Thea and I feel like you already are.”

“Yet?” Kate said with a grin.

“Yes,” Donna said, more forcefully. “I see it in the cards.”

Kate shook her head. Thea glanced up at them, and signaled to Donna in a way that said she was right.

“Yeah, well, don’t hold your breath,” Kate replied. “Where’s Suzanne? Shouldn’t she be here too?”

Thea looked at Donna and back at Kate. “Yes, she should be here, but I was unable to reach her.”

“You think she’s okay?” Kate asked.

“I don’t know,” Thea said. “There’s only so much I can do. I can’t force people to heed my warnings. Suzanne’s a strong witch. She can take care of herself.” She slung the red bag over her shoulder. “Ready?”

“I guess,” Kate said.

Donna grabbed Kate by the elbow. “C’mon. This’ll be fun.”

“It’s not supposed to be fun,” Thea replied.

Donna glanced at Kate with a smirk.

They meandered through brush and tumbled river rock, and across a rickety bridge that spit them onto a sandy bank along the upper end of the Willamette River. A flock of birds cried and flapped from the trees to taller ones farther in on the bank. Kate sensed a growing unease from watchful eyes somewhere, something other than the birds—an audience filled with dark-willed thoughts and promises.

From their viewpoint on the shoreline, it looked as if they were in the middle of forested land. There was no sign of civilization, no roads, telephone wires or buildings in the immediate area. Smeared purple clouds bled through the open sky like a promise that rain and lightning threatened to ruin their gathering.

Nothing new, Kate thought. Bruce’s "Jupiter theory" still wanted to root itself in her mind, because dealing with geomagnetic pole reversal was far less threatening than a vengeful storm goddess. Yet, that was the very reason she was standing among three witches in the middle of nowhere one hour before nightfall.

“We don’t have much time,” Thea said. “Let’s get set up.”

Near the edge of the river they found a large, flat rock that provided an adequate space for an altar setting—or the perfect place to die by electrocution in the thunderous hands of Rán. Kate watched Thea immerse herself in the preparation for the rite. She handled her tools with the serious grace of a surgeon. Erika kept her eye on the woods around them and the clouded reflection in the river’s sheen.

Donna pulled a small spade from her bag and handed it to Thea. Thea jammed the tool into the sand and set her bag down next to the rock. She poured a handful of herbs over the top and rubbed them across the rock.

“Cleansing?” Kate asked Donna.

“Yes, that gets rid of any negative energy, one of the most important and forgotten steps of a ritual,” she explained.

Kate nodded.

Erika came over to them. “So, Kate, what’s your power?”

“My power?”

“Well, you are a witch, aren’t you?”

“Kate hasn’t accepted her power yet,” Thea said, looking at Erika. Her eyes narrowed, as if challenging her. “But once she does, she will have knowledge to teach us all.”             

Donna turned to Kate, her eyes as wide as a child’s standing before a decrepit, dark house, and though Kate hadn’t thought it possible, Erika’s expression had hardened even more.

“Great, just what we need is another seer,” Erika said.

Donna frowned at Erika. “Don’t be like that. We can’t afford to taint the spell with your negative energy.”

“What’s your power?” Kate asked Erika.

“Air, which is why Thea wants me here.” Erika pointed to the sky. “Because of the storms. If I listen carefully enough, the wind speaks to me.”

Thea dropped a black cloth to the ground and looked over to Erika. She stood and pointed down the river, gesturing for her to follow her  “Donna, would you mind setting up the altar?”

“I would love to.”

Erika and Thea stepped out of earshot to talk in private.

“Brooke and Erika were close,” Donna said to Kate. “She’s upset and scared that this rite will bring more danger to the rest of us.”

“I understand,” Kate said.

Donna proceeded to set up the rest of the altar. She dusted the herbs off the rock and laid a black, sheer cloth over it. She set out two dishes, one filled with salt and the other with water, and placed a large white candle on each side.

“Do you have a power, Donna?” Kate asked her.

“I have a strong connection to fire.”

That surprised Kate. “I don’t mean to sound callous, Donna, but you almost died in a fire.”

“Almost,” she said, her eyes still focused on the tools she’d laid out. “Thea believes any other person would have, but since my element is fire, I didn’t.”

Kate glanced over at Thea and Erika. They were walking back to them. Whatever Thea had said to Erika, it must have cleared the air between them, because Erika’s demeanor had changed. She stepped over to Kate with eyes much softer.

“I’m sorry for the way I’ve treated you. There is a lot at stake, and I don’t want to see another sister in our coven cross over.”

Kate extended her hand. “Being Jev’s sister, I think I know that better than anyone.”

Erika shook her hand. “I suppose you do.”

Thea turned to Kate. “You brought the knife?”

“Yes.” Kate took it from her bag, along with the bottle of whiskey. “And Hennigan’s.”

Erika nodded in approval.

Donna finished setting up the altar, now equipped with a burning smudge stick between the two bowls of water and salt, and four athames that surrounded a small black pot in the center. The four of them waved the smudge stick around themselves to purify self and space—so Kate had learned from reading one of Jev’s witchcraft books. Then they circled the rock by clasping their hands together. Overhead, a rumble rolled across the sky and lit up the clouds like a light flashing behind a sheer curtain. The wind whipped around them, as if spiraling their circle. The white candles in the center of the altar flickered, almost snuffing out. Donna and Thea turned to Erika. The wind drew out her hair into spikes. She had closed her eyes and appeared to be in a deep meditative state. The candles continued to dance and wave. Then it stopped abruptly. They all released each other’s hands. Erika opened her eyes and stared at Thea.

“There’s your sign,” Thea said to her.

Kate sensed she had seen or heard something then, a whisper steeped with warning. Kate wished Erika would tell them what she’d heard, wished she had said anything at all because the silent fear in her eyes was worse than anything she could have said.

Kate turned away from the altar, the spell only just beginning, and walked towards the river. A force pulled her there. One with a message. A shadow moved beneath the surface of the water, a dark form gliding between the submerged rocks.

Light in her eye, blood on her hands
.

The voice wasn’t a recollection of the one she had heard at McKell’s. Kate had heard it as though it was whispered behind her. Had Erika heard the same thing? Kate’s heart jumped at the thought of turning around, at the notion that something was behind her. Something, not someone.

Light in her eye, blood on her hands
.

The whisper grew louder. Her pulse quickened and shortened her breath. Kate could feel it, feel the something there, reaching out for her. She swung around and faced the direction it had come from. There, Thea stood gazing at Kate, as though entranced and staring straight through her.

***

In any other building, Nick’s quick pace and tightened face would have piqued the interest of those around him, but at the police station, these characteristics were common, even expected, and so Nick blended in, allowing him to charge into Keith’s office unannounced. Keith was sitting at his desk, but only for a split second longer after Nick entered. He bolted up with his hands outstretched in an attempt to stop him, but Nick was already lunging at him and shoving him toward the wall behind him.

In his mind, Nick knew well this was all a bad idea, knew it would probably lead to him getting cuffed or having to tend a swollen eye for the next few days, but he was past the point of caring. His outrage controlled his actions and had finally broken free from rattling around in his skull since he had left the hospital with Kate. All he could think about was what she had gone through. It festered inside him, a wrenching gut feeling regarding who was to blame. Keith had suspected Kate knew something about the statue. Then suddenly, she’s robbed. Who else, if not Keith? It had to have been him, Nick swore, aiming to sock him right between the eyes.

But Keith was no ordinary cop. He was trained in Judo, was a routine weight lifter and marathon runner with an unhealthy liking for power and control, regardless of who was at the other end of his fist. Nick was no match for him, even in the throes of fury.

Keith hooked his arm around Nick’s, jerked him down, and spun him to the floor. He cranked his arm high behind his back. Nick’s chest hit the floor hard and knocked the air from his lungs. Defeat crushed his spirit, and at that moment, Nick had never hated Keith more.